Skip to main content

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON HAUSA COPULA CONSTRUCTIONS


Abstract
A copula construction is defined as the most basic construction or constructions which a language uses to encode the meanings of: (a) identity of two participants normally encoded as noun phrases in that language (for example, ‘that man is my father’, ‘that woman is Mary’); and (b)group membership or classification using noun phrases (for example, ‘that woman is a doctor’, ‘that man is a teacher’) (Curnow 1999).The copula grammatically is applicable in Hausa with the extension of marking gender. The Hausa copula nee/ceeis a grammatical element devoid of independent meaning, which differentiates between masculine singular and feminine singular respectively (Batagarawa 2014). The Hausa predicate is divided into Predicate 1 (verbal predicate) e.g. Àlí yáá sàyí moótaà and Predicate 2 (nonverbal predicate) which consist of Predicate 2A e.g. Àlí Maálàmií neè and Predicate 2B e.g. Zaáfií àkwái à Sákkwátoó. Predicate 2A is the copula constructions in Hausa which always comprises more than one NP and copula nee/cee. While the nee is indicating masculine gender, cee is indicating feminine gender. This paper is going to discuss some observations where some sentences in Hausa can take both nee and ceè copulas with the same semantical expression. e.g. Háusá bà dábo bá ceè and Háusá bà dábo bá neè or Wánnàn wàsán kwáikwáyoó neè and Wánnàn wàsár kwáikwáyoó ceè. The paper is going to analyze and explain this important grammatical issue in Hausa and its implication in pedagogy. 
full paper

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SUNAYE NA BADINI MASU MOTSA RAI NA HAUSA

Abstract Noun class in Hausa is a vast category of the lexicon that have many groups in it, for instance, there is a group of proper nouns, collective nouns, common nouns, countable and uncountable nouns, etc. This research titled ‘Abstract Nouns of Psychological Feelings in Hausa’ (SUNAYE NA BADINI MASU MOTSA RAI NA HAUSA) is a review and analysis of this group of nouns with particular reference on their types and the degree or level of their feelings. The research also, reviewed on the features of this particular group of nouns in phonological process, morphological situation and syntactical analysis as individual words, their features in phrases, as well as their features in sentences. The work is divided into two major parts. The first part covering the third chapter of the work is titled ‘Noun Class’ it presented the word classes, the noun class and the various sub-groups of the noun class, including ‘Abstract Nouns’ and it represented the meaning of abstract nouns and their type...
Post a Comment
Read more

AN INVESTIGATION OF HAUSA GENDER ABUSE IN SELECTED HAUSA PROGRAMMES OF FOREIGN AND LOCAL MEDIA

Abstract                                                                                                                                        The objective of this paper is to study gender abuse by the national and international media broadcasters using Hausa language. The abuse by this category of users mixed up feminine and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

ARABIC TO HAUSA TRANSLATION: HAUSA TRADITIONAL SCHOLARS (MALAMAN ZAURE) AND DIGITAL TRANSLATION CHALLENGES

Abstract Malaman zaure are the Hausa traditional Islamic scholars, who usually stay at the entrance hall ( zaure ) of their houses where they receive and teach students of different ages based on an inherited traditional curriculum. One of their methods of teaching is translation from Islamic books written in Arabic to Hausa language for easy understanding, assimilation and digestion. In translating Arabic to Hausa, they choose classical Hausa words during their teachings. Their attempt to preserve the original meaning of an idea or concept from the Arabic books or to reject some taboo words resulted in direct borrowing of some new words into Hausa. It is noteworthy however, to know that the borrowed words are slightly modified in the process. It is also important to realize that Hausa often have equivalents of the borrowed word as seen in the example below: ARABIC             MODIFIED BORROWING        EQUIVALENT WORDS  ...
Post a Comment
Read more