when
the adjective is post-posed to the noun head, the plural morpheme,
if any, would invariably occur with the noun, as in : |
ide
c qó |
`tall
dogs’ |
akiwi
asboqó |
`good
trees’ etc. |
|
The
sub-types of the NPs discussed above can be schematically
represented as : |
| |
{
N ± adj. P ± P1 }1 |
NP—> |
{
± adj. P + Nnh ± P1 } |
|
Even though, as illustrated above, it is permissible for the
adjectives to pre-modify the noun-head, the most preferred
word order is for the adjectives to post-modify the noun head
i.e. post-positing the adjectives to the noun head. Hence
the later type is of very high frequency. |
It may, however, be mentioned that it is not always necessary
to have a noun as the head of a NP. A pronoun or a numeral
can also take the place of a noun head in a NP. And as far
as the pronouns are concerned, it was already seen that different
sub-types of pronouns can substitute a noun. These are personal
pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, definite pronouns, indefinite
pronouns and interrogative pronouns, for instance, |
| iepu
celi qó akìlo anì
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
|
`my
brother and sisters are in
the house (lit. I brother sister
1 2 3
plural house in is)
4 5 6 7 |
panó ù
akìló/hile anì |
`they
are in the house/here’ |
ipúnoqóye
úwya |
`my
sons have gone’ |
panóù
ye úwya |
`they
have gone’ |
|
`all
of them also went’ |
hipaqóye
ac kini |
`these
are two dogs’ etc. |
|
It may be mentioned here that  i
`also’ is not part of a NP3 as the plural morpheme
qó which occurs at the phrase level cannot be post posited
to the particle Fi `also’. |
As
far as the nouns occurring as the head of a NP are concerned,
apart from the selection of the appropriate case marker/post
position, it has the same shape and structure whether it occurs |
1. adj P stands for adjective phrase and NnH for nouns non-human
being class. |
as the subject or object of a sentence. However, when a pronoun
takes the place of a noun in the NP in the predicate, the
first and the second personal pronouns in the singular has
the oblique form and is prefixed to the verb. |
The
different constituents of a NP were discussed above. All of
them are put together in a schematic form |
| |
{
(i) ± Adj + N ± adj |
| |
{(ii)
N ± N + P1 + N ± P1
+ N |
| NP
—> |
{ (iii) N ± Adj ± Dem ± P1 + P2
+ indef. pro. |
| |
{
(iv) N + numeral + adj + P4 |
| |
{
(v) Pronominal phrase |
|
| e.g.
(i) akuhu kì tipaw kini
1 2 3 4 |
`those
two red houses’
3 4 1 2 |
(ii)
(a) ekili eno hatoli mu ú
1 2 3 4 5
mo nanì
6 7 |
`neither
Ekili nor Hatoli will go’
(lit. Ekili and Hatoli neither go no will)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |
(ii)
(b) Ekili hatoli eno ipeu
eno ino ú naní |
`Ekili
Hatoli, my brother and I will go’ |
(iii)
apuno kiwí tipawhu kms |
`all
those (specified) good boys. |
(iv)
totimì kini akukizeno
ikhònhey kew |
`two
fat and short women’ |
(v)
panóùye, |
`they’ |
(vi)
hipaqóye, |
`these’ |
|
Each
of the nouns in item two given above has the theoretical possibility
of being expanded to form a NP. Hence a sequence of this type
need not be put in the overall frame work of the NP. The remaining
types of NP’s can be reduced to two overall frames of
NP’s as in : |
| {
adj. q } |
| (i) |
±
adj ± N ± adj ± dem ± {
numeral} + P2 + indefinite pronoun |
(ii) |
N + numeral + adj + P4 |
|
The
limitations in the use of the above scheme is that : |
| (1) |
A
NP would have either a demonstrative adjective or
a quantitative adjective but not both, and |
| (2) |
A
NP having an indefinite pronoun as a constituent would
have neither the quantitative adjective or the plural
marker |
|
