Published Article

ABSTRACT

Personal pronouns perform critical functions in sentence grammar and discourse structure. This paper described the syntax and semantics of personal pronouns in Gokana within a formal linguistic framework. The paper found that two forms of personal pronouns, dependent and independent pronouns, are attested in the language. The dependent pronouns are clitic elements. We claimed that the distinction in the syntax and semantics of these pronouns lies in their grammatical functions and not in their morphological realizations. The paper found that the Gokana personal pronouns have impoverished case and gender systems. The paper reported an interplay of semantic selection in the derivation of the syntactic process of pronominalization. The paper identified the modification functions of Gokana personal pronouns and claimed that the dependent pronouns in their possessive case structures are inalienable modifiers while the independent pronouns are alienable modifiers. The paper noted that there is a remnant of the null subject pronoun in the syntax of Gokana. The paper recommended that this vestige occurrence of the pro-drop phenomenon in the language be fully investigated.

KEYWORDS: Personal Pronouns, Gokana, Syntax, Semantics, Case, Gender, Pronominalization