Distinguishing Compounds from Phrases in Kusaal

Abstract

This study examines how compounds can be distinguished from phrases in Kusaal, a Mabia language spoken in the Upper East region of Ghana as well as two neighbouring countries: Burkina Faso and Togo. Both compounds and phrases involve the combination of lexemes. It is, therefore, important to establish clear-cut criteria for distinguishing between them. However, due to individual language uniqueness, there are no universally acceptable criteria that work for all languages, necessitating the identification of language-specific features. An outstanding matter which complicates the issue of the demarcation between compounds and phrases in Kusaal emanates from the orthography where a modifying adjective is written together with its head noun as a single word, much like noun+adjective compounds which are also written together as single units. Using primary data collected through semi-structured interviews and secondary data gathered from Kusaal dictionaries, the study finds displacement, coordination, and inflection as criteria for distinguishing phrases from compounds. In contrast, orthography, stress and compositionality are less reliable for distinguishing compounds from phrases in the language. This descriptive study contributes to our understanding of word formation, one of the grey areas in the study of the grammar of Kusaal.