GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT

Every natural language provides a systematic structure for the expression of the truth value of the speakers’ assertion within discourse structure. This paper described the syntax and semantics of mood within a formal linguistic framework. The study found that two types of mood: the imperative and the indicative are attested in Gokana. The imperative mood is expressed in the form of commands and requests, while the indicative occur as an unmarked mood in the language. The paper showed that the imperative mood in Gokana can be overtly or covertly marked in surface syntax depending on the number features of the subject. The study reported that request structures are distinguished from commands in the language by the insertion of the politeness markers sóosóo or zẹẹ in sentence-initial position of the construction. And noted that for a greater degree of politeness, these markers can co-occur as sóosóo zẹẹ but the linear sequence of the markers cannot be inverted. The study re-analyzed what Wolff (1964) identified as the aorist tense in Gokana as the simple form of the indicative mood as time contrasts are not grammaticalized in the simple indicative mood.

KEYWORDS: Gokana, Mood, Syntax, Imperative, Indicative, Modality, Grammatical Structure