Tense Projection (TP) in Kana

Abstract

This article is based on tense projection (TP) in Kana, a language spoken in the Khana, Gokana and Tai Local Government Area of River State in the South-South region of Nigeria. The article examines tense projection in Kana using the Government-Binding theory as its frame work. The data for the study were drawn from two sources: the primary source and the secondary source. In the primary source, some of the date were obtained from mature speakers of the language, while some were taken form my own intuition as a competent native speaker of the language. The secondary source of data is based on information collected from the library. Works of other scholars were consulted and used for this research. The study reveals that in Kana, tense behaves differently from those of other languages. Three tenses: the factitive, past and the definite future tense are distinguished in Kana. The factitive tense is either stative, locative and non-locative. There is no present tense marker in Kana. Present tense in Kana is expressed by the factative tense, mostly in its locative form. In Kana, tense projects to the T1 and maximally projects to the TP(Tense Projection). This work is useful for teachers and students of English and linguistics who are interested in the study of syntax, using a modern syntactic approach.