Realisation of Existential Processes in Ekegusii Declarative Clauses

This study examines the intricate relationship between transitivity and existential thought within the context of Ekegusii, an indigenous language spoken by the Abagusii people of Western Kenya. The research sought to uncover how Ekegusii speakers conceptualize and express the existence and occurrence of entities using the language. Grounding itself on the experiential metafunction of Halliday and Mathiessen's (2014) Functional Grammar theory, the study specifically sought to find out how existential processes are realized in the various forms of Ekegusii declarative clauses, looking at the forms of the clauses in terms of polarity and voice. Methodologically, the study used qualitative analysis. The data, Ekegusii declarative clauses with verbs carrying existential processes, was drawn from Ekegusii Bible, Ekegusii storybooks, and the researcher’s intuition as a native speaker of Ekegusii. The analysis involved an examination of the patterns of the transitivity structure in the selected clauses by looking at the various components of the clauses: the verbs realizing the existential Process, the Participants involved and the Circumstances, thereby allowing for a focused exploration of how existential thought is linguistically represented in Ekegusii. Besides implications for language teaching, translation, and cultural preservation efforts, the findings from this research will contribute to a deeper understanding of how indigenous languages and Ekegusii in particular, can serve to provide unique insights into human thought and perception.