The Kensiu Noun Phrase

Austroasiatic languages in Malaysia are considered as moribund languages because these languages are experiencing extinction. With regard to this issue, this writing focusses on one of the moribund languages in Peninsular Malaysia, namely the Kensiu Language, which currently is in an alarming state of disuse. The fact that the language is heading towards extinction led to this study as an effort to prevent this unique language from dying off. This language is spoken by the Kensiu people of Baling, Kedah. For the purpose of this paper, the researchers placed emphasis on the discussion of the noun phrase (NP) of the Kensiu Language. The analysis of the noun phrase of the Kensiu Language in this working paper comprises two aspects, namely, the descriptive and syntactic aspects. For the former aspect, the analysis describes the noun phrase of the Kensiu Language and all sequences that form a noun phrase. Based on the descriptive analysis, the researchers outline arguments on the X’ syntactic structure of Kensiu’s noun phrase using the X-bar theory. The analysis reveal that in the NP of the Kensiu Language, the complements and adjuncts are always on the right-hand side of the NP.