ABSTRACT
The
aim of this study is to contribute to the research on Fulfulde through a
scientific approach; hence the decision is to carry out a comparative
study on Fulfulde and French syntagmatic movements. This is to
facilitate the study of French language for Fulfulde natives. This work
also analyses the Fulfulde phrase structure in comparison to that of
French. Fulfulde is a language spoken in almost all the countries of
Africa I.e. In countries like Senegal, Cameroon, Congo, Mauritania etc.
Furthermore, this language comprises of several dialect. Arnot was able
to identify six principal dialects, but we decided to limit our research
on the "Hirnangereye" dialect of Adamawa State of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria. This decision is based on the inadequate accessibility of
research materials on the other above mentioned dialects. In the course
of this study, it was observed that Fulfulde and French language
converge and differ in some aspects of grammar. The generative theory of
Naomi Chomsky was very significant in the course of this study because
it helped in representing sentences in (schematic representations
arborescence) (schema) and also depict the syntagmatic movements where
the verb moves to the "INFL" constituent or vice versa for the verb to
obtain its gender and number marks. This movement doesn‟t transform the
sentence structure, but rather the verb alone. Both languages also share
similarities in the "QSN" movement. In this case, the interrogative
work (Mot d‟interrogation) is moved from the end of the sentence to the
beginning under the major constituent "SN" (Nominal Segment). This
movement is done to obtain an interrogative structure in both languages
therein.

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The "SN" movement was also seen in both languages. The "SN" nominal
segment is moved from the end of the sentence to the head where there is
a space that caudexes with the moved segment. The "r�‘Â�gle" to obtain a
correct and acceptable structure. The "Sprep" movement differs in both
languages. In french, the "Sprep" movement is moved from the end of the
sentence to the beginning where there is a space that caudexes with the
moved segment under the "Sprep" constituent. The "r�‘Â�gle" of
pronominalisation is applied to attain the surface structure of the
sentence. Thus, this movement does exist in fulfulde. It is also
important to note that both languages in the "r�‘Â�gle" of inversion of
subject and auxiliary, and the insertion of "T support" is only
applicable in French structural sentences.