Sample of determiners

Some examples

Comments
 

In many ways, the determiners in Akan function like the articles in English, i.e. the and a(n). Nevertheless, there are important differences some of which will be shown in later chapters.

Leaving aside the demonstrative yä'this' for the time being, the Akan determiner paradigm recognises a three-way distinction:

kwaàduá/kaáaà	The absence of a determiner denotes the class of bananas/cars in general. It tells the hearer: "Do not look for any specific banana or car." Examples (1/8)
kwaàduá noá/kaáaà noá	The definite determiner (or definite article) denotes one or more known specimens of the class of bananas/cars. It tells the hearer: "I am talking about a banana/several bananas/car(s) which we had talked about earlier, or which you have seen or which you have known of already or know of all the time even without me telling you." Examples (2/9)
kwaàduá bä/kaáaà bä	The indefinite determiner (or definite article) denotes one or more unknown specimens of the class of bananas/cars. It tells the hearer: "I am talking about some specific banana(s) /car(s) which we had not talked about yet and which you have not known oft already and do not know of anyway all the time." Examples (3/10)

Notes on the uses of the determiners

1. In Akan, the definite and indefinite 'articles' are not mutually exclusive as they are in English. See examples (7) and (11) above!

The Akan indefinite determiner bä may refer to one or more specific entities assumed to be unknown to the hearer, e.g.a car/some cars, or to a previously unidentified subset of a set of already known entities, e.g.some of the cars: kaáaà noá bä .

2. In Akan, the 'articles' and the possessive pronouns are not mutually exclusive as they are in English. See examples (13-15) above!

For instance, in referring to my child as meà baá (without article), I am assuming that the listener does not know which child I am talking about. In referring to my child as meà baá noá, I give to understand that I assume that the child I am talking about is known to the hearer or is the one that has already been mentioned before.

3. In Akan, the 'articles' cannot only be used as modifiers of the nominal head but can also replace it if it can be assumed that the hearer already knows the class of objects which are being talked about. In other words, determiners may function as a sort of pronouns.

See examples (3, 4,6) above. If the noun to be replaced denotes an inanimate object, noá 'it, them' which would normally be expected to take its place is deleted (ex. 5) unless an complement of place or time or some other non-sentential complement follows within the same sentence (ex. 6).

During a conversation about a chief and his car (õàheáneá kaáaà) one could say:

1. Maàhuánuá noá.	"I have seen him/*I have seen it."
2. Maàhuánuá noá wõà kuároámá.	"I have seen him (the chief) in the village." Or: "I have seen it (the car) in the village."

At the end of a sentence, the determiner noá would be dropped if it referred to a inanimate entity such as a car. Therefore it can only refer to the chief in (16), the chief being animate and therefore not subject to the dropping rule. In (17), however, where a locative complement follows, noá may refer to any object, whether animate or inanimate. Therefore, in this case, it can be understood to refer to the chief or to the car.

á4. In Akan, the 'articles' do not only associate with nominal expressions but also with full sentences.

-> Sentential determination
 
 

Riddle

Text "the ant and the dove"

Answer the following questions:

1. Why do all nominal expressions in (1) have bä follow them, but not nàsuáoá in (2)?

2. Why does nsuáoá in (3) have the article noá follow it?

3. Why does noá occur at the end of the first clause of (3)? -> sentential determiners

4. Explain the use of determiners in (4).

Listen!

1.	Daá	koároá	bä	nàkraáneá	bä	kõàõà	aàsuàbõànteáneá	bä	hüé	sñâ
	day	one	some	sg-soldier_ant	some	go-COMPL	river	some	on	that
	One day, a soldier ant went to a river

2.	õàreàkõànoámá	nàsuáoá,	naà	õàkõàtõáõà	muá
	3s-PROG-go-drink	water	and	3s-go-fall-COMPL	inside
	in order to drink water and fell in it.

3.	ÏÀtõáõà	nàsuáoá	noá	muá	noá*	õàteàaáteàaáaà	muá	sñâ:
	3s-fall-COMPL	water	DEF	inside	DEF	3s-shout-shout-COMPL	inside	that
	When it had fallen in the water it cried:

4.	Saàaá	beárñá	yä**	naà	aàboàrõàmæé	bä	násoá	sì	duàaá	bä	soá
	So-DEF	time	this	and	dove	some	also	stand	tree	some	top
	At this time, there was also a dove sitting on a tree.

Links

-> sentential determiners, subordination
-> pronoun chart
-> link tone chat