Abstract:
The article is on syntactic descriptions of conjunctions in
Kémunasukuma dialect of Kisukuma under Relevance
Theory which is geared toward relevance communication as
the interaction between cognition and context. The lack of
any study on the topic under discussion motivated the
current descriptions preferably with cognitive semantics
theory. The study used an interpretivism paradigm veiled in
a qualitative approach, based on the fact that the data comes
from natural settings. The study used a descriptive study
design to describe the syntactic and semantics of
conjunctions from Sukuma population in Kisesa ward of
Nyamagana district in Mwana region. Three methods of
data collection were used, namely, focus group discussion,
intuition knowledge, and critical documentary analysis. Ten
Sukuma native speakers were selected purposively for the
discussion, the selection based on the fact that were
bilingual native speakers of the language. The study
revealed two forms of conjunction: coordinating
conjunctions as in na, ni, nu, nulu, ila, lelo or leluu, aliyo,
lakini, and subordinating conjunctions as in, hanuma nu,
hanumana, kunguno, kulwanguno, hamo and giki. Basing
on the findings, it was concluded that such syntactic word
category contributes to and strengthens the development of
syntactic theories. The study urges other studies be carried
out on other functors (determiners, pronouns) which with
no doubt would contribute to the grammar of the language
to both this generation and generations yet to come.
