Published Article

ABSTRACT

The phenomenon of verbal extensions has not been adequately examined in Gokana. This paper identifies verbal extensions in Gokana and provides an objective and principled description of their morphology, syntax, and semantics within the framework of Principles and Parameters Theory. The paper shows that simple and seriated extensions are attested in Gokana. The paper identifies nine simple extensions and three seriated extensions in Gokana verbal morphology. Interestingly, the paper notes that the logophoric extension has the features of an anaphor but functions as a pronominal since it violates the clause-mate condition on anaphors. The paper claims that the nine simple extensions that occur in the language are productive synchronically. The paper, however, finds that the seriated extensions are not as synchronically productive as the simple extensions, and those described in this study may likely be traces of the fossilized extensions that indicate that seriated extensions perhaps were once productive in the language. The paper therefore recommends a diachronic study of the seriated extensions.