Kingdom of Mankon: Aspects of History, Language, Culture, Flora and Fauna

Chapter Seven: Mankon proverbial syntax

 259 Chapter Seven Mankon proverbial syntax After examining the phonological composition and meaning of the individual words that make up the proverb, it is worth the salt looking at the way these words are structured and organized in higher grammatical order - the sentence. Moreover, since the proverb is in sentence form, the same structural analysis that we do with the sentence will do for the proverb. 7.1. Traditional grammar subject-verb-object (SVO) order Talking about the Mankon Language, Jacqueline LEROY says: Nous verrons qu’à côté de l’ordre SVO, Il existe aussi les ordres OVS, SVO et OSV. Néanmoins, nous considérons que SVO est l’ordre de base. (LEROY, 1977: 23) Yes, there are other arrangements, but the prominent one is the SVO, where (S) is the subject, (V) is the verb and (O) is the object, as seen in the following examples: Kingdom of Mankon  260 Fig.11: Ká s ƾ- ntsu a mbvu yi ƾk NP Pred. P. N N P.Pr. NP Neg. S V Obj.Pr Pred. N Od Proverb n° 3 S = subject N = Noun V = Verb Neg. = Negation Od .= Direct Object Obj. Pr.= Object Pronoun NP = Noun Phrase Pred. P = Predicative Phrase N = Noun P. Pr. = Person Pronoun Pred. = Predicate; which may be an Od or Oind. (Indirect Object); Complement (C); Adj.; Adverb (Adv.); Prepositional Phrase (Prep. P); gerund, etc. Mankon proverbial syntax  261 Fig.12: Complex NP Pred. P ƽgyiƾԥ a a z sa a vwo atam n atu HN N(modifier) Pr. Adj. P.Pr. N Abl.C N V Od. Oind. S Proverb n° 14 HN = Head Noun; Pr. = Pronoun; Abl. C. = Ablative Case. The complex NP gyì a á z sa ... is composed of a head noun (HN), gyì , meaning “comer”, which is post-modified by . ... à á z sa. Another noun à à á (- ) that means “distance” post-modifies gyì to mean “comer from a distance” (literally). À á (- ) is also postmodified by z z sa... (...which is long ...). Therefore, the whole structure literally means “comer from a distance which is long” (sic), which in current English means “a stranger”. Kingdom of Mankon  262 ........... Following the above hypothesis, the above unit can be represented thus: Fig.13: = direction of post-modification and the dependence of one upon the other in that structure. 7.2. Immediate constituent (IC) analysis The Mankon proverb in its attempt to achieve word economy brings together a combination of units and structures that are concise, but intelligently woven together. It is the interest of this study to unravel the units and see their internal constituents. An examination of a compound word, a phrase and a sentence of some proverbs will show this. gyì  a á  z sa Mankon proverbial syntax  263 7.2.1. Word: àma an kʫ ( ) (from proverb n° 23) Fig.14: NP = compound word N marker VP V N The above structure shows that à àma an kʫ ( ) (NP), has as its “immediate constituents” (ICs) - -má an n kʫ ( ) (VP), plus a a- (N marker prefixed) and that - -má an kʫ ( ) also has as immediate constituents - -n kʫ ( ) (N), plus - -má a- (V) prefixed. All à-, - -má a- and -n n kʫ ( ) are “ultimate constituents”. On the other hand, if we start with - -n kʫ ( ) and prefix - m á a- to it, we obtain the intermediate constituent (Inter. C) - -má an kʫ ( ). We now prefix a a- to the latter structure to have the final intermediate constituent structure àma an kʫ ( ) . 1 We can adequately conclude from the above analysis that words in Mankon à- -ma a n kʫ ( ) Kingdom of Mankon  264 when affixed, change their word class. This is so because má a (V; to throw) when prefixed by à à- (nominal marker) gives à àmá a {(verbal) N; thrower}. When the latter structure is added to n n kʫ ( ) (N), we obtain a compound word à àma an kʫ ( ) (N). ( (-má an kʫ ( ) is another verbal noun.) 7.2.2. Noun phrase: gyì a á z sa (from proverb n° 14) Fig.15: NP1 HN NP2 N Adj. P. Pr. C HN = Head Noun. Adj. P. = Adjectival Phrase. C = Complement (adjective). Pr. = Pronoun. gyì a á z sa Mankon proverbial syntax  265 7.2.3. Sentence: K Ká b ndzʫ ʫ yi a fʫ ndzİ mbo a ye (from proverb n° 12) F Fig.16: S. Cl.1 Cl.2 Ká b ndzʫ yi a f ndz mbo a ye Pred...