A Morphosyntactic analysis of agreement in Ekegusii in the minimalist program

Abstract

The chief focus of this study was to analyse Agreement in Ekegusii. It relates agreement in between the elements in a sentence to the concord in the Ekegusii determiner phrase. Full interpretation and feature checking in the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1993, 1995) motivate movement of elements both in the Ekegusii sentence and determiner phrase. Chapter one introduces the background to the study, various aspects of the Minimalist Program, framework among other things. which is the theoretical Chapter two examines the nominal structure of Ekegusii, highlighting the noun class system and concord between the noun and its modifiers . Chapter three draws a parallel between the agreement system in the Ekegusii DP and sentence. Chapter four particularly analyses the Ekegusii determiner phrase. The morphosyntactic aspects of the Ekegusii DP internal concord are handled, showing the various modifying elements of the noun in the language. Chapter five concludes up the study that indeed the MP is adequate enough to analyse such a morphosyntactic aspect as agreement in the Ekegusii DP and sentence. The principles at work in the MP: feature checking and Full Interpretation are reliable in studying Ekegusii morphosyntax.