| Abstract: |
Question is a universal phenomenon. However, the structures of questions and the derivational strategies for realizing them are not uniform across languages. Two main types of questions Wh-questions and 'Yes/No questions have been identified in languages. One of the central issues in wh-question has been the question parametric setting – that a language is restricted to either in-situ or movement of the wh-element. On the part of polar questions, the question of movement and insertion of question particle has been topical. This paper examines question formation in Nkalagu dialect of Igbo with the aim of locating it in the universal assumptions of question. Data representing the question forms present in the dialect, as it relates to wh- and polar questions, were drawn and analysed using the descriptive method. Findings of the study show that both ex-situ and in-situ parameters are attested in the grammar of the dialect, challenging the assumption of binarity in the parametric setting of wh-syntax in languages. Furthermore, the dialect is found to employ a question particle – a phonosyntactic iterated vowel of the final word of the sentence – to mark Yes/No questions. The last vowel of the last word in the sentence, irrespective of the word category, is iterated to indicate polar question. This is significant because it counter-exemplifies the attested Standard Igbo strategy of lowering the tone on the ponominal subject or a resumptive pronoun, resulting from leftdislocation of a referential subject. |
EBONYI JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE
