Relative Clause Formation in Akan Proverbs and Sentences: Similarities and Differences

Abstract

This paper discusses relative clause formation in Akan proverbs and normal sentences with particular attention to their similarities and differences. It explores the comparison of the relative clauses in Akan sentences and other specialized genres such as the proverbs. The paper further analyzes the relative clause occurring in both sentence and proverb structures in order to establish sameness and dichotomy in the syntactic uniqueness in both structures. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select the proverbs for this study. In all, twenty-three (23) proverbs were selected for the study. The study adopted the functional grammar approach in the analysis. The study revealed that the relative clause formation in some Akan proverbs and Akan normal sentences has both overt and covert antecedent noun phrases (ANPs). The headless antecedent noun phrase which is seen as a pronominal also undergoes binary mutation in order to account for the antecedent noun phrase and the relativizer which introduces the relative clause. There are also differences in the syntactic positions of the relative clause more especially the sentence structure type. Finally, there is a difference in the syntactic position of the resumptive pronouns in both structures.