Analysis of the syntactic structure of proverbial personal names in Dagbani
Keywords:
Syntactic structure, Dagbani, proverbial personal names, Culture, Compound sentences.Abstract
This study focused on the syntactic analysis of proverbial personal names in Dagbani. Among the Dagbamba, names and for that matter proverbial personal names are not only significant in expressing their tradition and culture but they also contain grammatical properties. The study discussed the syntactic structure of proverbial personal names in Dagbani. The primary data was obtained from native speakers while the secondary data was taken from a selected group of Dagbani literature books and the school registers of a selected school. In all two hundred and eighty (280) proverbial personal names were collected and one hundred and twenty (120) names analysed. Syntactically, the study showed that Dagbani proverbial personal names can be analysed into phrases and sentences. They can be analysed into simple and compound sentences which function as imperatives, declaratives, interrogatives and conditional sentences.
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