A Morphosyntactic Analysis of Clitics in Hausa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60787/jolan.vol6no1.472Keywords:
Morphosyntax, Clitics, Hausa, Distributed MorphologyAbstract
While extensive research has been conducted on clitics, there is a notable gap in studies specifically focusing on the Hausa language. Additionally, little to no work has been done exploring the interface between morphology and syntax of Hausa clitics. This study aims to investigate Hausa clitics by analyzing their morphological and syntactic features. It employs the Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG) developed by Joan Bresnan and Ronald Kaplan in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The theory examines the morphological and syntactic properties, focusing on their functional structure and interaction with other elements, such as clitic + stem + clitic, as observed in proclitics and enclitics. Consequently, an endoclitic appears in the middle of a word or within a sentence segment (morpheme+clitic+morpheme) to extend the meaning of a given word. The findings of this research show how clitics function in the Hausa language. It also indicates that clitics can be found in certain segments of Hausa sentences. However, clitics cannot stand on their own unless they are defended by another word (host), which appears before or after their position in the sentence. There is need for further research to explore the positions of clitics in Hausa for students and learners of Hausa, through documentation of relevant research works on Hausa Morphosyntax.
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