Distribution and Interpretation of Overt Noun Phrases in Gokana Clause Structure: A Government-Binding Analysis

Abstract

Noun phrases perform both thematic and grammatical functions. A principled analysis of their role within clause structure and discourse context is necessary for a proper understanding of language structure. This paper analyzed the distribution and interpretation of overt noun phrases in Gokana clause-structure within the framework of Government-Binding Theory. The paper found that Gokana overt Noun phrases are classifiable into anaphors, pronouns, and referential expressions. The paper showed that Gokana anaphors are of two types: reflexives and reciprocals. The reflexive noun phrase must have an antecedent in order to be interpretable which must agree with the reflexive in the nominal grammatical features of person and number. The paper found that the antecedent/reflexive pair is immune to gender agreement as the reflexive does not morphologize gender contrasts in the language. The paper claimed that a reflexive must be bound in its governing category, and cannot precede but must always follow its binder. Thus, an antecedent must constituent command (C-command) the reflexive NP and not the reverse. The paper argued that Gokana reciprocals are subject to the same distribution and interpretive constraints as reflexives except that the reciprocal noun phrase is inherently plural and requires only a plural antecedent for its interpretation. The paper claimed that Gokana pronouns do not show gender contrasts and are not locally bound in their distribution but they inherently specify certain properties of the referent and may not require an antecedent in its minimal clause but may need contextual information for a complete determination of the referent .We noted that there is no form of binding on NPs that are referential expressions and they do not have any form of pronominal or anaphoric grammatical relation in their distribution and interpretation within Gokana clause – structure.