A Syntactic and Sematic Study of Verbs in West African Poetry

Abstract

A SYNATACTIC AND SEMATIC STUDY OF VERBS IN WEST AFRICAN POETRY The west African Arabic poetry is recently gaining recognition as a distinctive field worthy of enquiry. Available studies on west African poetry seemed to have tilted towards the literary aspects of this poetry, focusing mainly on the subject matter and thematic areas, as well as rhetoric features among others. Attempts to study the grammar issues relating to this poets have been quite scanty. This underscores the relevance of this study, which seeks to investigate how West African poetry construct their verbal sentences. A preliminary study of samples of Arabic poems from the West African sub-region shows that the poets extensively make use of verbal sentence in varying forms. This study will delve further into this phenomenon, in a bid to find answers to two key questions: what are the major forms of verbal sentences featured in West African Arabic poetry? To what extent does the choice of verbs contribute to the thoughts expressed in the poems? The study will be conducted by means of descriptive linguistic analysis approaches which entail compilation of verbs from various poetic collections, grouping, and analysing them accordingly. As noted earlier the study will contribute towards broadening the horizon of research on West African Arabic poetry. Some of the findings of the study are as follows: 1- It was found that the poets of the region used the verb in all its forms very well, and that helped them to convey meanings for religious advocacy and social purposes. 2- The research has discovered that the primary goal of their poetry is to inculcate good morals. 3- It was discovered that West African scholars have contributed through poetry to the development of the Arabic language and its advancement to a high level. 4- The scientific pearls were raised in the poetry of West African scholars, as the researcher discovered that the poems represent a literary abundance for the region. 5 - The prominent role that the verb plays is evident in the Arabic language in general, and in Arabic poetry in particular