ABSTRACT

Slangy expressions and catchy phrases are deliberately used in hip-hop songs in order to reduce the degree of vulgarity in the content of the song so as not to disrupt society moral norms, and to increase the rate of acceptability of such song amidst listeners, to avoid direct stating of the name of the referent (s) in a satirical song for instance, and also for singers to create a landmark worth discussing even while the song is no longer in vogue.

Aside all these, slang forms and catchy phrases give linguistic aesthetics to song and most importantly, they enable singers to pass across a whole lot of messages, even while they utter just few of these messages. This implies that there are hidden messages in slang forms and catchy phrases used in hip-hop songs, and for these hidden messages to be known to listeners, a particular level of language analysis has to be put in place. This level is found to be pragmatics.  It is therefore to this end that this study sets out to undertake a pragmatic analysis of slang and catchy phrases used in some selected Nigerian hip-hop songs.

The objective of this study is to identify the real meanings of slang forms and catchy phrases that are used in Nigerian hip-hop songs, with reference to the overall meanings of these songs themselves. This identification will in turn help us to state the reasons why they (these slang forms and catchy phrases) are used in the songs and their contributions to the singers’ intended meanings of these songs. Haven achieved this objective, we conclude that, for real meanings of hip-hop songs to be known to all and sundry, a pragmatic analysis is necessary.

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER ONE

General Introduction

Purpose of the Research

Justification of the Study

1.4.                   Research question

1.5.                   Research Hypothesis

1.6.                   Scope of the Study

1.7.                   Methodology of Research

2.0           CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1.              Pragmatic

2.1.1.0             Goals of Pragmatics and its Theories

2.1.1.1              Goals of Pragmatics Theories

2.1.2.0             Theories of Pragmatics

2.1.2.1A.J.L.  Austin’s Theory

2.1.2.2John .R Searle’s Theory

2.1.2.3Kent Bach and Robert Harnish’s Theory

2.1.3.0Elements of Pragmatic

2.1.3.1Intention

2.1.3.2Presupposition

2.1.3.3Inference

2.1.3.4Reference

2.1.3.5Implicature

2.1.3.6Speech Act

2.1.3.7Context

2.2                   Aspects of meaning in pragmatics

2.2.1            Meaning

2.2.2     Denotation and connotation

2.2.3            Encoding and decoding

2.3            Slang

2.3.1            Kinds of slang

2.3.2               Usages of slang

2.4            Hip-hop

2.4.1            Definition and evolution of hip-hop

2.4.2            Old school hip-hop

2.4.3            Golden era of hip-hop

2.4.4            Hip-hop in Nigeria

3.0 CHAPTER THREE:  DATA ANALYSIS

3.1Song A: – ‘Maryjane’ by vector da viper

3.1.1Short   summary

3.1.2Identified slangy forms

2.1.3Analysis of identified slangy forms

3.2Song B:-‘Petepete’   (mud) by 9ice

3.2.1Short summary

3.2.2Identified catchy phrases

3.2.3Analysis of identified catchy phrases

3.3Song C:-‘Otiyanyan’  by Slimjoe

3.3.1Short summary

3.3.2Identified slangy forms/Catchy phrases

3.3.3Analysis of identified slangy forms/catchy phrases

3.4.Song D:-‘Enter d place’ by 2face Idibia

3.4.1Short summary

3.4.2Identified slangy forms

3.4.3Analysis of identified slangy forms

4.0                CHAPTER FOUR:  SUMMARY, FINDINGS &CONCLUSION

4.1Introduction

4.2Summary

4.3Findings

4.4Conclusions

Bibliography

Appendix .

1.0 CHAPTER ONE

1.1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Language is a major and an indispensable tool in human existence. No wonder Microsoft Encarta (2009) defines it as “the principal means used by human beings to communicate with one another”. Language is primarily spoken, although it can be transferred to other media such as written, non-verbal and so on. It is therefore, the bedrock of communication which holds a society together.

Communication occurs in various ways: in the forms of, interaction through conversation (discourse), speech delivery, the media (such as radio and television), sign language, music (irrespective of the genre) and many others. It is a point worth nothing here that, in each of these forms, pieces of information are essentially being invested with different senses(meanings), and passed across to different kinds of individuals who in turn deduce various meanings from the information passed, based on their individual views and prejudices about such information. Therefore, Mr. Ade’s interpretation of “i love you” may be different from that of Miss Kemi’s, even if the person singing/saying the utterance is the same. The whole of this process is called “encoding and decoding”.

Hip-hop is one of the genres of music, it is denotatively referred to as a type of modern dance music with spoken words and a steady beat played on electronic instruments. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2000, p.566). Nigerian hip-hop, the major concern of this research work consists of hip-hop songs, written, composed, arranged, sung, promoted, and marketed in Nigeria for Nigerians.The composition of Nigerian hip-hop songs involves the careful use of lexis (the total of words or vocabulary in a language) which appropriately expresses minds of hip-hop singers.Another important aspect in the lexis of Nigerian hip-hop is the “use of slang”. Elbe, (1996,p.3) defines slang as an ever changing and fashionable set of vocabulary of sociability used to express or reinforce identity cohesiveness within a group with a trend or fashion in a society at large.

It is to be  noted that, certain lexical items are used in Nigerian hip-hop songs, especially those sung in Nigerian native languages (Yoruba,  Igbo and Hausa), which do not perfectly fit into the space of a slang but are at the same time, not to be categorized as conventional day to day lexis. These lexical items for the purpose of this work, are tagged, “Catchy phrases”. An example is Atilaawi (Yoruba) (meaning “the one, whom we are talking about’’) which is deliberately chosen by a Yoruba hip-hop singer to satirize (criticize) a particular leader.

At this juncture, we can easily assert, that slangy forms and catchy phrases take an important quota in hip-hop songs in Nigeria.However, if the real meanings of these slangy forms and catchy phrases within the contexts of these songs will be known, a particular level of language analysis has to be put in place. This level of language analysis is found to be pragmatics.

Adegbija (1999, p.18) defines pragmatics as “the study of language use in particular communicative contexts”. Pragmatics is an important aspect in the use of slangy expressions because it is necessary to decode the messages embedded in slang. Olukoya (2010, p.2), this is to enable listeners to deduce the overall meanings of the utterance within which these slangy forms are used.

As a result of this, in this research work, we intend to identify the real meanings of slangy expressions and catchy phrases that are used in Nigerian hip-hop songs with reference to the overall meanings of these songs themselves. This will enable us to point out the reason why they were used in the songs and their contributions to the singers’ intended meanings. The purpose of all these is to make this form of music more accessible to all and sundry by enhancing their comprehension through a pragmatic analysis

1.2                 PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH.

The purpose of this essay is to justify the deliberate insertion of slangy expressions and catchy phrases in the composition and rendition of Nigerian hip-hop songs. The study aims at asserting the fact that the singers’ intended meanings of these songs would not have been realizable without these slangy expressions and catchy phrases used in them. It therefore pragmatically analyses these slangy forms and catchy phrases with reference to the overall meanings of the songs.

JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY

In the course of gathering materials for this research work, we came across several other researches but only two of them are related to the topic in question. They are “A pragmatic Analysis of Slang Forms Used for Females Students in the university of Ilorin” Olukoya, B. (2010) and “A pragmatic Analysis of the Titles of English Church lyrics” Indarno (2000). None of these two deal with the specific focus of this research work. This essay is therefore embarked upon to add to existing knowledge and to enable readers to know that there is a lot more information beyond the surface meanings of the hip-hop songs they listen to.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

What are the factors that instigate a hip-hop singer’s choice of lexical   items in the composition of his songs?

What things does the singer generally take for granted about thehearers of the song?

What makes the inflection of slangy expressions and catchy phrases compulsory, can’t they be avoided?

1.5     RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

1) No hip-hop singer ever uses lexical items in his/her compositionwithout a reason

2) Listeners of hip-hop songs usually, generally share certain salient facts and information about the context of the songs with the singers.

Certain slangy forms and catchy phrases are necessary.

1.6   SCOPE OF THE STUDY.

This research work uses; a maximum of four (4) Nigerian hip-hop songs as data within which slangy forms and catchy phrases will be extracted. Also only the illocutionary speech act and five (5) other elements of pragmatics, which are context, presupposition, reference, intention, and inference, will be used in the analysis. This restriction is due to the fact that there are a lot of elements in pragmatics, some of which are specifically gotten from pragmatic and some others, gotten from theories of meaning and semantics. Therefore, in order to be explicit and to stay within the allocated paper space for this research work, this restriction is necessary.

1.7     METHODOLOGY

In carrying out this research work, four (4) Nigerian hip-hop songs will be selected as data within which slangy forms and unusual lexical items will be extracted. They are, “Maryjane” by vector Da Viper, “Petepete`” by 9ice, “Otiyanyan” by Slimjoe, and ‘‘Enter the place” by 2face. (Artists’ names are written in the forms they are referred to, by Nigerians and tracks are produced in Nigeria for Nigerians). The albums within which these tracks will be extracted respectively are State of Surprise (2010), Tradition (2010), Otiyanyan Reloaded (2010) and Unstoppable (2010).

The criteria for selecting these tracks revolve around language, whose usage is the primary concern of this work. “Maryjane” combines pure English, pidgin version of it, and a German variety of English (Patois), “Petepete” (mud) is sung using a purely native Nigerian language(Yoruba), ‘‘Otiyanyan’’ is sung, using a combination of a native Nigerian language (Yoruba) and the pidgin variety of English language, while ‘‘Enter the place’’ is sung using the pidgin variety of English alone. These tracks will be carefully and repeatedly listened to in order to gather their lyrics. Also, consultations will be made into library reference materials, textbooks, and the internet in order to get materials relating to pragmatics, music (hip-hop), and slang and also meaning in general.

The intended technique of analysis will involve a short general description of the songs, one after the other, and identification of slangy forms and catchy phrases found in them. Finally, a detailed pragmatic analysis of these slangy forms and catchy phrases will be done using illocutionary act, context, presupposition, reference, intention and inference. It is to be noted, that the direct, full version of the lyrics of the songs will be attached as appendix in this research work.

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CHAPTER ONE

1.0              INTRODUCTION   

This study focuses on the verb phrase of kofyar. Kofyar is a dialect of “sura” that can be found in the northern part of plateau state in a local government called Qua’an pan. The kofyar are a population in the middle belt of Nigeria numbering around 50,000.

They are majorly known as ‘KOFYARA’ among the speakers but in the local government they are known as “PAN”. It is also spoken in a part of Nassarawa State.

1.1              GENERAL BACKGROUND  

COLONIAL BACK GROUND 

Kofyar population comprises of three different tribes as designated by british colonial officers and the tribes are the Doemark, Merniang and kwalla. The three groups have a common language, economic pattern and origin myth and had formed into a union called the kofyar federation in 1940’s. They have therefore been referred to as a single group by the anthropologist.

When they were first met by early British colonial authorities, they lived in the rugged hills in the south eastern corner of the Jos plateau and in settlements around plateau state. They remained at peace with Britain officers until 1930, when a young assistant district officer named Barlow was killed in the hill village of Latok by a rock thrown on his head. After this the resident were forced out of the hills making them spread themselves in different places in plateau state.

1.2              HISTORICAL BACKGROUND  

Kofyar means the home state of the ancestor has grown. There are two kofyar in Qua’an pan local government area, they are kofyar payar and kofyar doemak, the only difference between these two kofyar is the distance. The name of the originator is Dafyar which means a child has grown. He descended from the eastern part of Nigeria.

When he left for the eastern part of the country he moved with tribes like the Angas, Mahvul, Ankwe, Gwai and the Bokous. When were moving they came straight to Daika in Mangul Local Government, Plateau State. At that point, they had a disagreement, the Bokous and the panchi left and headed towards another direction. The kofyar headed towards Garam, at Garam they had another disagreement on the issue of chieftaincy.

Mean while, Dafyar had a brother named Daram, they both moved from Garam to chip, in chip, Dafyar left Daram, Dafyar left and settled in kofyar payer. He gave birth to so many children among which were a set of twin called Dajan and Dajin, Dajan went to namu and Dajin stayed in Doemak meaning my movement ends here. The offspring of Dafyar comprised his sons and grandsons or even great grand sons and so on. Oral tradition has for long mentioned the fourteen who have been popular due to the settlements that grew in the wake of their earlier locations. These offspring’s whose location have created urban and semi urban settlements are as presented below.

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4. FCMB:
—-*389*214#

5. First Bank
—-*894#

6. GTB:
—-*737#

7. Heritage Bank:
—-*322*030#

8. Keystone Bank:
—-*322*082#

9. Sky Bank:
—-*389*076*1#

10. Stanbic IBTC:
—-*909#

11. Sterling Bank:
—-*822#

12. UBA:
—-*389*033*1#

13. Unity Bank:
—-*322*215#

14. Zenith Bank:
—-*966#

15. Diamond Bank
—-*710*555#

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—-*565*0#.

E.g for First bank…   *894 *Amount *Acct. No. #

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CHAPTER ONE

1.0       GENERAL BACKGROUND/INTRODUCTION

In this project, I shall be examining one of the levels of linguistics that deals with the arrangement of words to form sentence, that is SYNTAX, and my focus shall be on ‘Verb Phrase’ an aspect, which can be referred to as the apex of syntax, with examples from Mernyang language to buttress and establish my facts.

By definition, Yusuf O. (1997:1) says:

Syntax is the aspect of grammar, which deals with how words are put together to form sentences and how such sentences are interpreted in natural languages.

In the same vein, Horrocks (1987) defines syntax as the study of how sentences are formed and understood.

From the above definitions, it can be gathered and submitted that syntax as a level of linguistics is concerned with the study of how words are strung together in an agreeable way to form acceptable and grammatical sentence in a language.

Like I have earlier said, I shall be looking at the Verb Phrase with examples, from Mernyang language as a language of study in this research.

1.1              HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Oral history have it that the Mernyang people are descendant of Kofyar people who lived on top of the hills in Qua’anpan Local Government Area of Plateau States.

Mernyang people were said to leave the top the hill and come down to the ground because of their desire to cultivate and toil the land, which is certainly not possible on the hill. As a result of the height of the hill from the ground and the hardship faced by the people when climbing the hills, some decided to stayed back and make an abode for themselves on the plane ground, while those that have the strength to climb the hills still took the top of the hill as their residence. Despite this, the Kofyar and the Mernyang people still see themselves as one and their bond of unity wax stronger everyday.

Presently, of all the villages and communities under Qua’anpan Local Government Area, Mernyang standout to be the dominant group, and they are known as ‘Kwa chiefdom’ by the neighbouring villages, while they officially call themselves Pan people.

2005 National census states that the community has 10,000 people living within it, and they have about 95,000 speakers of the language scattered round the nooks and crannies of Plateau (Jos) State.

1.2              SOCIO-CULTURAL PROFILE OF MERNYANG

This has to do with the relationship between the society and culture. It is also concern with the people’s ways of life like; Marriage, Occupation, Religion, Belief, Kingship, Festivals, Dressings.

1.2.1        Occupation

The major and predominant occupation of the Mernyang people (speakers) is agriculture. That is farming and animal rearing while the women only lend hand during harvesting period. They plant crops like; millet, guinea corn, maize, tubers etc and rear animals such as; cow, sheep and fowls.

The people also engaged in hunting and trading especially during the dry season aside farming and animal rearing which are well and properly practiced during the raining season.

1.2.2        Belief

Just like the Yorubas, the Kwa people (Mernyang speakers) also belief in the reincarnation. They belief the ghost of their ancestor did not depart from them after death, but still very much around them.

In honouring and acknowledging this fact, a dance festival called SualBeets is usually organized at the middle of each year to celebrate the presence of their dead ancestor with them. This dance (SualBeet) is usually in the company of masquerades who are not regarded as human beings, but spirit of their living dead.

1.2.3        Religion

Before the coming of the white missionaries, the Mernyang people are Idol worshippers and they have different shrines where they worship their numerous deities. However, the arrival of the catholic missionaries in the first decade of the 20th century altered a paid visit to the people with the aim of Christianizing them. Also, the people’s encounter with the Hausas and Tivs during hunting expedition and trading licensed Islamic religion in the community.

Today Kwa chiefdom and its people are known to be a community of both Muslims and Christians, with the Muslims taking the lead.

1.2.4        Kingship and Leadership

The process of ruling in Kwa Chiefdom could be described as Monarchial in that new king is appointed after the death of another one, and democratic in that the enthronement of a new king after the death of another is not based on mere appointment but on election and voting by the members of the community.

After the death of one king, interested and rightful people from the next royal family (i.e. family which is the next to produce the successor to the throne) are made to come out publicly and declare their interest to the entire community, while the people of the community will thereafter vote for the one they think is responsible and capable for the task.

After this, the kingmaker will interview and assess the person presented to them by the members of the community in order to be sure and ascertain of his competence to deal, control and lead the community. If in the course of their (i.e. the kingmaker) assessment, they discovered any shortcomings in the person presented to them, they returned him back to the people and ask them (member of the community) to vote and present another person for the post (i.e. throne). However, if no shortcoming is found in him, the kingmaker will consult their oracle, carryout all the necessary rites on him and thereafter announce him as the king of the community.

The village head is called ‘LON GWA’ which means the king of lawa chiefdom

1.2.5        Marriage:

Marriage in Kwa community is very simple and straightforward. As usual the man and the woman met, the man proposed and when they had both reach an agreement, they went for the marriage ceremonies and celebration.

Before the woman is given to the man, the following steps are taken:

Firstly, the man who wants to marry will go in the company of his friends to his in-laws house to present his interest in their daughter and also to seek their approval. When going, the man will take along with him a jar of their local gin ‘brukutu’ (properly called ‘i’skolo’ among the people in the community). In response to the man’s proposal, parent of the bride will ask their daughter if she would take the man as her husband. If the girl admits, they ask her to collect the jar of ‘brukutu’ brought by the man as a confirmation of her interest to marry him, and if she doesn’t, the jar of the brukutu will be rejected and the man will be sent away.

After this, the next step will be, asking the man to bring his parent so that the two families will both dialogue and choose the day for their traditional wedding.

On the day of the traditional wedding, items such as: A keg of palm oil, a bag of salt, 3 cartons of magi cube, 5 goats and 2 rams, 10 fowls and a basket of Benny seed (their local seed meal) will be brought by the groom’s family for the bride price

After the payment of the bride price and every other requirement, the groom’s family will take their wife home. They may thereafter go for religious wedding if they so wish and if they don’t, they may not go. What is important is that, traditional wedding has given them the right to be husband and wife.

The above listed items are the common items demanded by the bride’s parent for the bride price in the community. However, some families may want more or less of those items.

1.2.6        Food:

As I have earlier said, the Mernyang speakers (Kwa people) are predominantly farmers and they grow plant such as millet, maize, Benny seed, tuber etc, which are all used in making their meals.

Some of their favourite meals include:

CHUGUM: It is made form millet or guinea corn, grounded with groundnuts, melon, fish and mixed with palm oil and meat cut into pieces. It is made into a thick paste, folded in corn leaves and cooked. The meal to them is nourishing, lasting and easy to convey on a very long journey.

Other menu (food) items of the people are: Bala, ishang, gung-gugut, muos, maar, hwan, jituon, chagar etc.

1.2.7        Festivals

Among many festivals that the community observed, the most important and most celebrated are the ‘Shikaam’ and the ‘Sual-beet’

Shikaam Mernyang as it is called by the people is a festival that is staged by both the Muslims and the Christians in the community in thanksgiving to God for his mercies and blessing over them. The festival brings the sons and daughters of the community from all walks of life together and thus, provide an avenue for them to rob mind together on what could be done to ensure peace, unity, growth and development in their community. The festival holds on every December of each year.

Sual-beet on the other hand is staged and embraced by the traditional worshippers. The festival is used to celebrate and pay homage to their dead father (heroes) who according to them do not leave them but still looking after them and prospering their ways after death. The festival holds in the middle of the year (June/July) at the market square of the community. The festival is done in the company of masquerades who are regarded as the living dead.

1.2.8        Dressing

The peculiar mode of dressing of Kwa people (Mernyang speakers) is similar to that of the Hausas. The men dressed in ‘babarija’ or ‘dansiki’ with a cap, while the woman dressed in ‘iro’ and ‘buba’, tying the ‘iro’ around their waist in such a manner that it will leave the calf of their leg uncovered.

1.3              GENETIC CLASSIFICATION

According to Greenberg (1996:129), African languages are classified into four (4): Afro-Asiatic, Niger-Kordofanian, Nilo Sahara and Khoisan, while each has sub-families. Niger Kordofanian is the largest with two sub-families namely Niger Congo and Niger Kordofanian

The diagram below shows the sub-family where Mernyang language belongs.

AFRO-ASIATIC

 

Ancient Egytian          Semitic            Chadic Berber             Cushitic

 

North Chadic              West Chadic               East Chadic                 South Chadic

 

A2                                            A3 (Angas-Gerka)

Angas proper

1                                                          2

 

Cakfem-mushere         Jorto                Kofyar             Miship             Mwagharul      Ngas

 

Bwal         Doemak           Goram        Jepal                Kofyar       Kwalla       MERNYANG

Figure 1: Genetic classification of Mernyang

(Adapted from www.ethnolgue.com/show=language.asp? Code-kwl

1.4              GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION OF THE LANGUAGE/PEOPLE

Mernyang is located at Kwa district of Qua’anpan local government area of Plateau state. They line in the southern part of plateau state, north of Nazarawa State and southeast of Kaduna State.

Mernyang is along Lafia/Jos road. From Jos, it is 200km and 120km from Lafia (Nazarawa State).

1.5              SCOPE AND ORGANIZATION OF STUDY

This project work aimed at examining the Verb Phrase of Mernyang language.

Other aspects that are probed into in this work includes; the phonological concept of the language. For easy, proper and convenient assessment, the work is divided into five chapters with each chapter having its own peculiarity.

Chapter one introduced the language of study with respect to its historical background, socio-cultural profile and genetic classification. It also covers the research methodology as well as the review of literatures.

Chapter two deals with the phonological concept of the language and the basic syntactic concept peculiar to the language.

Chapter three introduced and analysed the research work, which is the Verb Phrase of the language.

Chapter four examines the major transformational process that has to do Verb Phrase, which is predicate cleft.

The summary of all the chapters, conclusion, recommendation and list of references make-up chapter five.

1.6              DATA COLLECTION

The method employed in collecting important linguistics information about the language of study is the use of the Ibadan 400 word-list of basic items and frame techniques method (i.e. construction of simple phrases and sentences in English language)

The word list helps to obtain both phonetic and phonemic consonants and vowel system of the language, while the frame technique helps to get the basic syntactic concepts, which the word list cannot provide in the language. All these are made possible through the help of bilingual informant who are also native speaker of Mernyang language.

Below are the profiles of my language helpers.

INFORMANT 1

NAME:                       Mr. Amos Datugun

AGE:                           40 years

SEX:                           Male

OCCUPATION:         Nurse

LANGUAGE:                        Mernyang

HOME-TOWN:          Kwa

NUMBER OF YEARS SPENT IN HIS HOME TOWN: 35 years

INFORMANT 2

NAME:                       Mr. Michael Loetan

AGE:                           50 years

SEX:                           Male

OCCUPATION:         Civil servant

LANGUAGE:                        Mernyang

HOME-TOWN:          Kwa

NUMBER OF YEARS SPENT IN HIS HOME-TOWN: 40 years

1.7              DATA ANALYSIS

In order to achieve the goal set before this project work, X-bar theory, which is a module/sub-category of government and binding theory is employed in the analysis of the data collected through frame technique method from my informant.

The reason for using frame techniques is because this research work is based on syntax.

At this juncture, it is important to point out that all the information on the historical background and socio-cultural profile of the language and its speakers as contained in this project are provided (narrated) by one of the village elders in the community in person of Alh. Mahama Dapele.

1.8              BRIEF REVIEW OF THE CHOSEN FRAME WORK

Like I have earlier mentioned, the theoretical framework adopted in the analysis of data in this research work is Government and Binding theory.

This theory which operates through the modules of grammar, x-bar, case, control, binding, bounding, government and movement theories was propounded by Chomsky in (1981).

Haegeman (1994:3) defined Government and Binding theory as a theory of universal grammar, which is the system of all principles that are common to all human languages. GB theory is a radical revision of Chomsky’s earlier theory in (1981) and was later revised in the minimalist programme of (1993).

Government and binding theory is a theory of syntax in the tradition of transformational grammar, and it is a more advanced theory of universal grammar. GB theory greatly eliminates proliferation of transformational rules like, affix hopping, passivization, question formation, equi-NP deletion, verb number, insertion, agreement etc.

In the current Government and Binding framework, distinction is made between the two types of categories we have;

i.                    Lexical category

ii.                  Functional category

Lexical category in any human language includes, noun, verb, adjective and preposition, while functional categories includes elements like; complementizer, tense, inflectional, determiner focus, agreement etc.

Syntactically, while the lexical categories projects up to a single bar level and terminate there, thus making endless reason possible with the aid of elements like complements and modifiers, the functional categories project up to the specifier of XP level thus sealing off the projection. A specifier is an element that closes off a category projection.

Lexical categories are represented with the aid of tree diagrams below:

NP       =          N” (XP)           VP   =   V”                 AP       =          A”

Spec                N             Spec        V’                        Spec            A’

Det                  N0                                    V0                                  Det           A0

The                  boy                              dance                           very          well

PP  =    P”

Spec P’

P0

In

Functional categories are also represented with the aid of diagram below:

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11. Sterling Bank:
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12. UBA:
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14. Zenith Bank:
—-*966#

15. Diamond Bank
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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 General Background of the Study

This research work is based on the language called Uneme language spoken in Edo State.  This work will focus on the aspects of Uneme Noun Phrase. The term Noun Phrase forms an important aspect of syntax.

Syntax is a branch of linguistics, derived from ancient Greek ‘SYN’ and ‘TAX’. SYN mean ‘Together’ while TAX means ‘Arrangement’.  Syntax is the study of the arrangement of words to form sentences.  Different linguist has defined syntax in different ways:

Talleman (2005) Defines syntax as the study of syntactic property of language.  He sees syntax as sentence construction, that is, how words are put together to make phrases or sentences.

Akmajian (2004) sees syntax as a sub-field of linguistics that studies the internal structure of sentences and the relationship among the internal parts.

Ladeforged (1997) says that syntax is concerned with the way words are combined to form sentences.

Syntax can be hierarchically structured from the larger to the smallest (Sentence——Clause—–Phrase —–Word). Sanusi (1996) says, in the systemic analysis, a sentence is ranked the highest, consisting of one or more clauses.

The focus of this research will be on the aspects of   Noun Phrase of Uneme language. A phrase is a sequence of words that can function as a constituent in the structure of sentences.  There are different types of phrasal categories, these are; Noun Phrase, Verb Phrase, Prepositional Phrase, Adjective Phrase and Adverbial Phrase. A Noun Phrase is headed by a noun and so applicable to others which are named after the lexical categories.

This project work will serve as a priority and a means of developing Uneme language and to save guard it from going into extinction.  It will suit the desires of those that want the language as a means of communication even in schools and in the community.

1.1 Historical Background

According to oral tradition, the Uneme language speakers are found in the northern part of Edo State.  An informant claimed that speakers of the language can be found in two areas in Edo State, these areas are Akoko-Edo and Etsako North.  Edo state is found in the south eastern part of Nigeria.

Hakeem (2003:4) says that the history of Uneme people can be traced to the core area of the Nok cultural zone located in the North eastern part of Niger-Benue confluence.  The area represents the ancestral home land of not only Uneme people but also of related sub-ethnic groups which have come to be described as the Edoid.

Uneme people are migrants from Benin.  They arrived Benin area during king Ogiso Ere’s era and their first settlement was on the outskirt of Benin City.  The Uneme people moved to Benin in the tenth century and later left because of a problem that arises as a result of Oba shift between two brothers in the royal house or palace of Benin kingdom.  The crises were so tense that everybody from Uneme community had to leave.  Their mode of migration from Benin in 1370 AD was in two phases; The first major phase of the migrant moved northwards from Benin, settling in different territories between 1370 and late 1370.  Some of the notable places they headed to are Obadan in the present Edo state and Agbede in the Etsako west area of the present northern Edo state, others are Ogbomeze (Imiava) in the Etsako central area of the present northern Edo state and Okene in Ebira community of the present Kogi State.

The migration of Uneme people experience a split which makes them to move in two different direction, one to Akoko-Edo (the present northern Edo-state) and other to Oghomeze in Etsako.  At the time of their staying in Akoko-Edo, they established three other Uneme communities in different location within Akoko-Edo namely Uneme Aki-Osu in the early 1400s, Uneme Erhurm and Uneme Ekped.

According to the language informant, he claims that, people who speak Uneme are Uzanu, Anegbete, Udochi and Ologua who are the latter of Uneme community in the 1830s.

From history, we are aware that the listed Uneme community are named after children of the same father and mother which latter developed to different community.  Each of them developed to a large community that now lives as a town on their own.  There was a conflict that broke out between Uzanu and Anegbete which led to a war and brought about parting between Uzanu and Anegbete whereby we have Uzanu in Etsako East and Anegbete in Etsako central.  During this war, Uzanu was having upper hand, and this makes the Anegbete to seek the assistance of Nupe people in Bida.  The Nupe people (warriors) came but asking the Oriola who is the prime minister of Anegbete to divide the kingdom of Anegbete into two and give them.  Oriole made them to understand that they are only here for war and not to share kingdom so, they should mind their business and face the Uzanu’s.  The Uzanu’s were captured by the Nupe warriors and later came to invade the Anegbete and the whole of Etsako.

Further more, Hakeem (2003:7) pointed out that the second major phase of the Uneme’s migration from Benin in 1370 AD witnessed the movement of the affected people eastwards in Niger-river, unlike the first group that moved northwards.  Members of the second group were few in number, and they passed through fewer territories where they settle down briefly before they finally established their permanent home in the Awka area of Igboland in the present Anambra State in 1380’s and 1370’s.

The total population of the Uneme language speakers is estimated to be 19800 (year 2000 estimation of internet) and the alternative names with which the language is called are Ileme, Ineme and Uleme but the standard version is Uneme as been called by the speakers.

1.2   Socio Cultural Profile

The Uneme people are distinguished from others in their own way of life. Their culture is very rich and they believe so much in it.  The language serves as a means of communication in the society, in the market and even in the religious system and it is aimed at being a medium of expression and instruction in schools.

1.2.1           Sociolinguistic Background

The Uneme language is used in trading with the neighboring communities.  For example, the Uzanu’s share the same boundary with Edo and Igbirra, so, the language serves as a means of trading between them.

1.2.2  Culture

The Uneme’s dressing is some how different.  They use Tusks, Beads (for women, the tusks for the legs and for bangles on hands).  In those days, they believed that a girl must be a virgin before she got married, as a result, when a lady is ready to get married she will not wear any cloth but will use a lot of beads to cover her private parts and almost naked round the town.  They also use “Ashid” gotten from the bush to decorate the girl and a lot of beads on the hand, just as the Benin dresses.

Also the Olofu who is the Prime minister has a drum called “Ukpaagba”.  This Ukpaagba is beaten when there is an emergency or a conflict in the king’s family so as to draw the attention of the people.  The drum is being beaten four times representing the four pillars of Uneme that is, it represents Uzanu, Anegbete, Udochi and Ologua.

1.2.3  Festival

Some of the festivals of Uneme community are connected with their religious believes while others are linked to their socio-economic activities.

There is a festival named “Ukpe” which means end of the year celebration.  It is celebrated between August and September of every year.  The people of Uneme are virtually known to be farmers; so therefore, this celebration precedes the coming of new yam.  The festival serves as a major communication channel to bid good bye to the outgoing year and to welcome the coming year whereby every family have to participate in one way or the other.

Another festival in the Uneme community is named Ogun festival.  Ogun festival is associated with, and devoted to the propitiation and veneration of god of iron.  This festival is usually organized only by iron melting societies.  The festival is organized by allocation certain spots in the community to the propitiation of Ogun. They make use of certain animal named ‘dog’ and the whole of the community takes part in singing, dancing and drumming to appease Ogun ‘the god of iron’.

Another festival of Uneme people is known as ‘Second Burial Ceremony’ which can only be done for a dead father.  It is still valid to be done after several years of the father’s demise.  Any one that has not done the second burial is not entitled to the title “Orinitome” in the Uneme community.

1.2.4  Religion

As we have it in the Nigeria system, the Uneme people are also recognized with three (3) main religions these are Christianity, Islam and Traditional Religion.

1.2.4.1        Christianity

Christianity was not the indigenous religion in Nigeria but was introduced to Nigeria by the Missionaries.  This begin to spread in Nigeria to different community.  Hakeem asserted that Christianity was introduced to the Uneme communities in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s respectively by Christian missionaries like Ogidan of the Anglican Community.  The introduction of Christianity religion was done by some Yoruba missionaries who visited Akoko-Edo frequently and it gradually extend to the Etsako local government Area.  The first church of the missionaries in Uneme Akpama was named St’ Luke Anglican church and it was built in 1922.

Chief Ezekiel Adeleye Igenuma Uduak Peghemehe from the Enivbosu area of Uneme Erhurun was the one that build the first church in Uneme Erhurun in 1923.  This is also an Anglican church.

Another missionary behind the spread of Christianity in Uneme community was Rev. Oyebode, a Yoruba Christian priest who was based in Auchi.  He was the first Anglican Missionary to influence the spread of the religion in Uneme Aki-Osu in Akoko-Edo Area in the 1920s.  He found the St. Johns Church which was the first of its kind in that environment.

1.2.4.2.       Islam

The Islamic religion was introduced during the time when the Nupes were involved in the Uneme activities.  This was in the time of military and colonizing activities in Akoko-Edo in the 19th century.  The Islamic religion has been in existence before the Christian religion was introduced.  It was only few of Uneme people that are been converted because they sees the Nupes as invaders and people were not encouraged to accept their offer.

1.2.4.3    Traditional Religion

Ever before the introduction of Islam and Christianity, the people of Uneme so much belief in the Traditional Religion.The people of Uneme believes in Osanobula, Ogbene and Osi which are Supreme Beings.  Osanobula is believed to have had heavenly aids who were appointed by him.  Among such aids were the local divinities or deities, Ilisa which is referred to as the gods and goddesses, and the spirits (especially Esi).  The people of Uneme young and old usually call on him through his various aides for protection and extrication from the hands of perpetrators of evil.

According to Pastor Patrick who is the language informant, he says the religion is still very prominent in the Uneme community due to their cultural and festival activities.

1.2.5  Marriage

Pastor Patrick who is the language informant says that the people of Uneme believe so much in traditional marriage.  Uneme people do not buy the habit of marrying just only one wife but believes solely in a polygamous marriage.  It is like a compulsory fact that if someone has not married two wives, is like the person is a lazy man.

1.2.6  Occupation

The major occupation of the Uneme people is smelting of iron (blacksmith).  The blacksmiths smelt the iron-ore mostly at night because of the high temperature generated in the process of smelting.

Another occupation of the Uneme people is farming.  They practice commercial farming in the Uneme community.  Some of their farm products are; coca, rice, yam, maize, cassava and banana e.t.c. The people of Uneme also practice trading.  They trade with their smelt product such as Anklets, bracelets, local necklace, cutlasses, iron weapons, knives, plates, hoes and pot.  They trade with the neigbouring community and all their products are involved in their trading.

1.3              Genetic Classification of Uneme Language

This is a systematic way of grouping languages that share something in common into the same family.  According to Ruhlen (1991:-5), a genetic classification is a sub-grouping of all relevant language into genetic nodes.  However, a genetic node is a group of languages each of which is more closely related to others in that group than to any language outside the group.

African languages like other languages of the world have been classified by taxonomical linguistics.  The Uneme language is grouped with the languages in the Benue congo where we later end up having Edo and Ghotuo.  The Genetic classification tree below will summarize the sub-grouping of Uneme language.

1.4     Scope and Organization of the Study

It has been discovered that the minority languages in Nigeria are not being paid much attention to.  Therefore, this long essay will describe and present the structure of Noun Phrase in Uneme language and the transformational processes involving such noun phrases.  The processes and the examples are presented and analyzed using Government and Binding theory.

This research work is organized in such away that it will comprise five (5) chapters.

The first chapter presents the introductory part of the long essay, dealing mainly with the historical background and the socio cultural profile of the speakers of Uneme language.  Also, the genetic classification of the language, scope and organization of the study, method of data collection and analysis, and a brief review of the chosen frame work are presented in this chapter.

Chapter two presents a brief review of the sounds, tone and syllable patterns of Uneme language.  It will introduce and explicitly explain with examples in Uneme language the basic syntactic concepts such as, Phrase Structure Rule, Lexical Categories, Basic Word Order and Sentence Types found in the language under study.

Chapter three (3) focuses on the Uneme Noun Phrase which is actually the main focus of this research work.  We will have the structure of Noun Phrase and transformational processes involved in this chapter.

Chapter four will focus on the levels of linguistic analysis in the language. It will examine the transformational processes in Uneme language.

Lastly, chapter five will contain the summary,  recommendation and conclusion of this research work.

1.5     Theoretical Framework

Many theories have been propounded for analyzing language data in order to present a systematic description of the linguistic knowledge or competence a native speaker possesses (Sanusi 1996).  Such theories are used as theoretical framework or methodological tools for analyzing language data.  They include; Traditional or Classical Grammar, structural or Taxonomic Grammar, Systematic Grammar, Transformational Generative Grammar, Government and Binding theory and Minimalist programme.  The theoretical framework adopted for this research work is Government and Binding (GB) theory which is also known as principles and parameters theory (PPT).  This is a theory that captures the similarities which exist between different categories of lexical phrases by assigning the same structure to them rather than having different phrase structure rules for NPs, VPs e.t.c.

Government and Binding theory is propounded by Noam Chomsky.  The theory is named after Chomsky’s book; lectures on Government and Binding (1981). Sanusi (1996:21) describes Government and Binding (GB) as a modular deductive theory of universal Grammar (UG) which posits multiple levels of representation related by the transformational rule (move-alpha).  The application of move-alpha is constrained by the interaction of various Principles which act as conditions on possible representation. Government and Binding theory is a modular deductive theory of grammar.  Proponents of GB often maintained that there is no such thing as roles of language.  But only the principles and parameters whose values can vary from one language to the other do exist with specified units.

According to cook (1988:86), the theory of Government and Binding is described as an interlocking arrangement of principles and sub-theories which interact in many ways in the analysis of human language. Also, Radford (1988:419) defines transformation as the rule that deals with the act of changing the structure of one sentence to another structure through the concept of movement known as move-alpha (move α).  This theory (Government and Binding) was developed to correct the lapses in transformational generative grammar (T.G.).

Nevertheless, Government and Binding is misleading because it gives prominence to the two elements of Government and binding whose status was not fundamentally superior to the other sub-theories like       X-bar, theta, case and bounding theory.

Government and Binding proposes seven sub-theories of grammar.  The structures generated at various levels are constrained by a set of theories, which define the kind of relationship possible within a grammar.  The following are the sub-theories of Government and Binding;

(i)                X-Bar Theory (XI theory)

(ii)             Theta theory (θ theory)

(iii)           Case theory

(iv)           Bounding Theory

(v)             Binding Theory

(vi)           Control theory

(vii)        Government theory.

The above listed sub-theories of Government and Binding theory are closely related in their operation as a theoretical framework.  Each of these transformations operates on the D-Structure and maps the D -Structure into the S-structure.  This can be illustrated by the diagram below:

Syntactic Components

The base: *Phrase structure rules                         Transformation

* Lexicon                                                       Rules

Deep structure

Surface structure

Semantic –                                                         Phonetic –

Interpretation                                                         Interpretation

Fig 1.2   (Adapted from Horrocks 1987:27)

The transformational rules operate in-between the Deep Structure and the surface structure.  It should be noted that within the movement theory, we have three major concept involved;

(i)                Extraction site

(ii)             Landing site

(iii)           Intervening gap.

Horrocks (1987:29) says that “the core grammar of a given language is derived automatically from the interaction of the sub-theories of universal grammar?  Each of the sub-theories accounts for grammaticality or ungrammaticality of any sentence. All these sub-theories of G.B theory operates in a modular form, and this theory itself is referred to as to as a modular form, and this theory itself is referred to as a modular deductive theory of grammar.   Each of these sub-theories will be analyzed one after the other.

1.5.1  X-Bar Theory (XI   Theory)

X-bar theory is the theory used in this research work.  The X-bar theory “provides principles for the projection of phrasal categories from lexical categories and imposes conditions on the hierarchical organization of categories in the form of general schemata” (Horrocks 987:101).  X-bar theory is designed to formalize the traditional notion called ‘head’ of a construction and to constrain the system in the recognition that the lexical categories; Noun, verb, adjectives, preposition are the heads and project to their phrasal nodes NP, VP, AP, PP, respectively.  For example, Noun phrase is headed by a Noun.  It comes after possible constituents in the example below.

The Man

NP

Spec                   N1

Det                     N

The                     man

Crucially, X-bar theory makes explicit the notion ‘head of a phrase’.  It may be that grammars vary according to the extent to which they utilize the resources made available by X-bar theory.

Chomsky Noam himself has entertained the idea that there are languages in which sentences is simply of a string of words without any higher level organization.  Culicover (1997:134) states that,

“Phrase structure concerns the hierarchical and left-right relationship between syntactic categories.

In describing the X-bar theory, Chomsky (1986) says, X-bar convention states that “every maximal projection has a specifier of XP position with the intermediate bar projection serving as XP’s core.”  In other words, the X-bar theory brings out what is common in the structure of phrases and projects the characteristics of lexical entries into the syntax which links the D-structure to S-structure and logical form component to the lexicon by specifying the possible context in which a particular item can occur.  The projection from the head to the maximal level is shown below:

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Note: our case study can be change to suit your desire location . we are here for your success.

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Foreign Transaction For Dollars Payment :
Bank Name: GTBank
Branch Location: Enugu State,Nigeria.
Account Name: Chi E-Concept Int’l
 Account Number:  0117780667. 
Swift Code: GTBINGLA 
Dollar conversion rate for Naira is 175 per dollar. 

ATM CARD:  YOU CAN ALSO MAKE PAYMENT USING YOUR ATM CARD OR ONLINE TRANSFER. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR BANKER SECURITY GUIDE ON HOW TO TRANSFER MONEY TO OTHER BANKS USING YOUR ATM CARD. ATM CARD OR ONLINE BANK TRANSFER IS FASTER FOR QUICK DELIVERY TO YOUR EMAIL . OUR MARKETER WILL RESPOND TO YOU ANY TIME OF THE DAY. WE SUPPORT CBN CASHLESS SOCIETY. 

OR
PAY ONLINE USING YOUR ATM CARD. IT IS SECURED AND RELIABLE.

form>DELIVERY PERIOD FOR BANK PAYMENT IS  LESS THAN 2 HOURS

How to transfer from your bank account to All  Nigeriabanks

1. Access Bank:
—-*901#

2. EcoBank:
—-*326#

3. Fidelity Bank:
—-*770#

4. FCMB:
—-*389*214#

5. First Bank
—-*894#

6. GTB:
—-*737#

7. Heritage Bank:
—-*322*030#

8. Keystone Bank:
—-*322*082#

9. Sky Bank:
—-*389*076*1#

10. Stanbic IBTC:
—-*909#

11. Sterling Bank:
—-*822#

12. UBA:
—-*389*033*1#

13. Unity Bank:
—-*322*215#

14. Zenith Bank:
—-*966#

15. Diamond Bank
—-*710*555#

To know your BVN, dial
—-*565*0#.

E.g for First bank…   *894 *Amount *Acct. No. #

Please dail d code from d number u used to register d account from the bank

CALL OKEKE CHIDI C ON :  08074466939,08063386834.

AFTER PAYMENT SEND YOUR PAYMENT DETAILS TO

08074466939 or 08063386834, YOUR PROJECT TITLE  YOU WANT US TO SEND TO YOU, AMOUNT PAID, DEPOSITOR NAME, UR EMAIL ADDRESS,PAYMENT DATE. YOU WILL RECEIVE YOUR MATERIAL IN LESS THAN 2 HOURS ONCE WILL CONFIRM YOUR PAYMENT.

WE HAVE SECURITY IN OUR BUSINESS.   

MONEY BACK GUARANTEE

CHAPTER ONE

1.0       INTRODUCTION

It is a general fact that no one can dispute that language is central to all communities of human beings. It is also important for the regulation of every community

The main focus of this research is to shed more light on how noun phrase is found in yiwom language. Therefore, the first chapter of this research focuses on the historical of yiwom language, genetic classification, the scope and organization of the study analysis, the theoretical framework, data collection, data analysis, and also the review of the chosen framework which is government and binding theory.

This branch of linguistics is concerned with how words are combined to form phrases and sentences in a rule governed manner.

1.1       HISTORICAL  BACKGROUND

The yiwom speaking people are also known as Garkawa, Gerkachi and Gerka and Gurka. Heil yiwom is what they call their town but the fulanis call them Gerkawa. it is a unit in the  South East corner of the present milkang Local Government Area and is bounded in the North and East by the Langtang section of yergam, South East by the way of Dampar South by Inshar and West by the Lalin section of montol.

The yiwom people have been in their present home for upwards of two hundred years. The pitop came to the area first and provide itself a stockaded town at a place called Hakbap. The Rohta followed second and settled in kiel-hiel at Rohta-Hills, North of Hielyoum. Other families arrived in large detachments one after the other and took refuge at Kiel-Hiel. Rohta rock was fortified and was capable of withstanding siege,

As at the middle of nineteenth century, the families came from their hills to live in their present homes. The former at Rohta , the later at pitop.

According to legends preserved by both sections, their ancestors sprang from the ground. The Rotha maintain that they are from river Guinan in the hills, while the paptop said that theirs emerged from the earth.

The word “Youm” in the Youm dialect means “leaves”. The analogy being: as trees grows out of the ground, so their ancestors came into being. The name “Gerkawa” was given to them by the Fulani/Hausa traders owing to their military prowess and stubbornness. The name was derived from “Gagararru” which in the course of time become “Gerka” and “Bergarka” and finally Gerkawa.

Legend points to the fact that all the families mentioned and who call themselves yiwom or Gerkawa were of Jukun stock that migrated after the breakup of kwararrafa empire (West of Bunkudi) and wandered until the settle down in Gerkawa town.

1.2       GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

The home of the yioum speaker is situated in the south east of the present milkang local government area formerly at Shendam and Langtang.

It is found in co-ordinates 90000 North and 9035 East and 90 North and 9.5830 East. It covers an area of approximately 139 Km2 with 285.3 square meter

Its time zone is WAT (UTCH). In the year 2000, an estimated 14,100 people spoke the language primarily in Plateau state.

1.3       SOCIO CULTURE PROFILE

The yiwom people have homogenous cultural values especially in respect of Occupation, Religion, Marriage, Mode of dressing, Mode of leadership, festival and of course circumcision.

Before talking on their socio cultural profile, one thing that I must say is that Yiwom is a Chadic language of the Afro-Asiatic family spoken by Gerkawa people of Plateau state, Nigeria. The yiwom people have several clans such as Rohta, Killah, Balbro, Pitop, Talim, Lahlil, Pensong, Gwar-Gimgim, Bal’Nlah, Longkrom and wai clan. Each clan has its own priest (Bankumkrom).

1.3.1      RELIGION

They practice all kinds of religion including Christianity, Islamic and Animism. Children are first taught how to use their mother tongue to pray and later will now teach them Goemai and Jukun.

Anything that contradict their belief in the religion will be dealt with severally for example, crime, stealing, and adultery are punishable offence in their religions. Also, in formers days, a person abused of witch craft is burnt alive. So as a result of hot believe in what their religion teaches them this make people within their locality to fear them to the extent that any battle they embark in through their beliefs in their religion was conquered.

1.3.2      OCCUPATION

The major occupation of the yiwom people are animal husbandry and trading. Their farm product include: yam, cassava , maize and guinea corn. Farm is rooted in their cultural ethnics as the farmers purify themselves and abstain from immoral behaviour before planting or else what they have planted will not germinate

1.3.3      MARRIAGE

In Gerkawa custom, there are 3 modes of conducting their marriage ceremony. They are:

a.         Marriage by System of Exchange: In this case, the wife and offsprings virtually becomes the properly of the husband but with the passage of time, such things have been erased from their culture.

b.         By Payment of Small Customary Bride Price: Under the small bride price system, It was easy for a woman to change her husband before the sixth month of their marriage.

c.         Cousin Marriage: This is referred to as the best form of marriage in the sense that they keep wealth within the family. The second and the most important reason is that divorce is not permissible and therefore any marriage done will be permanent. The person that co-ordinate the marriage programme is called “Nwo” which  means “the person sent by God”. And what they called God  in their language is Na’an”.

1.3.4      BURIAL

In yiwom community, if someone dies, women will gather in the house of the deceased while men will go on arranging and preparing how to buy the casket they will use to bury that person.

Notably, the burial grounds are always in a spherical shaped form like a well. It is only on the mortal that the dead is being washed believing that the mortal is blessed because if is used in the process of their food. As men are carrying the corpse to the grave, the women will be preparing food. A goat will be slaughtered in a standing position and the skin will be used to cover the dead. If the deceased is a female, some of her jewelries will be buried with her. The food cooked during their burial ceremonies are called gyana-Nfirika.

1.3.5      MODE OF LEADERSHIP

Governance among the yiwom people is anchored on a council of elders including a head of chiefs and a youth in the community, making communication easy. The council of elders does the same in the community.

1.4       GENETIC CLASSIFICATION

According to Greenberg (1966:8) says African language belongs to various families and there are four main groups namely : Niger Kodofanian, Nilo Sahara, Afro-Asiatic and Khiosan.

The yiwom language is a chadic language of the Afro-asiatic language family.

Languages are classified like what I have explained above and they are also genetically related just like humans beings.

Yiwom language is spoken among the Gerkawa people of plateau state of Nigeria and the speakers were estimated in the year 2000 to be 14,100 in number.

Daigram

1.5       SCOPE AND ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY.

The general overview of this research work discuses noun phrase in yiwom language. This research is divided into five chapter.

The first chapter is the introduction which include the historical background, socio-cultural profile, the scope of organization of the study as well theoretical frame work, the data collection, data Analysis and finally brief review of the chosen framework.

The second chapter shall focus on literature review, the basic phonological and syntactic concept such as phrase structure rules: lexical categories, basic word order and the sentence type.

The third chapter will focus on the main aspect of the study, which is Noun phrase, that is, the nature of noun phrase and the processes that are attested in the language.

The fourth chapter will examine the transformational process such as focus construction, relativization and passivization while we will see the last chapter which is chapter 5 presenting a brief summary of the whole research findings and conclusion and recommendation based on such findings.

1.6       DATA COLLECTION

This research is made possible through the multilingual helper. However, the Ibadan 400 word list of basic items and some sentences construction are use to extract necessary information from language speakers. The method of collection was through direct translation of English to Yiwom language

However, multilingual approach was used because the informants, who are native speaker of Yiwom speaks more than two languages which includes: English, Foron  and Yiwom language.

Mr. Michael Trumbek and his wife, Mrs. Grace Trumbek are my language helpers they are both teachers in Khilafilor Nursery and Primary School. I also went to CAPRO research office and I was given a book titled CAPRO indeed. An ethnic survey in Yiwom language in Plateau State. I was also given a linguistic seminar and the institute of linguistics University of Ibadan, Jos computer written by Shimizu, Kiyoshi (1975)

1.7       DATA ANALYSIS

In order to have accurate analysis for this research, Ibadan 400 word list with an equivalent  meaning in Yiwom language was used.

Also, the frame techniques used in this research is forming of sentences in English and translating the sentences to Yiwom language with the assistance of an informant. This enables me to determine the actual underlying form of a word constituent and possible syntactic classes to which each word belongs to in Yiwom language

1.8       REVIEW OF THE CHOSEN FRAMEWORK

For this research to achieve the set of goals, the theory to be adopted is government and binding theory in the analysis of the noun phrase in Yiwom language.

Now, government are binding theory (GB) will be used in the analysis of noun phrase in Yiwom language. This theory is a modular posits multiple levels of Representation related by the transformational rule (move alpha)

However, it is more advanced theory of universal drama (Sanusi, 1991;19-21)

Sanusi (1996), explains again that GB theory greatly eliminate proliferation of transformational rules, like passive , affix hopping, verb number agreement, question formation, equip-NP-Deletion, raising permutation, insertion e.t.c. Government are binding theory operates through the modules of grammar like government , case, theta and X-Bar.

1.8.1      SUB-THEORIES OF GOVERNMENT AND BINDING         THEORY

Horrocks (1987, 100) states that, the core grammar   of a given language is derived from the interaction of Sub-theories of universal grammar. These sub-theories are inter-related that each of them can account for grammaticality and ungrammaticality of any sentences. These sub-theories are:

1)        X-bar theory

2)        Case theory

3)        Government theory

4)        Theta theory

There are still others like:

1)        Bounding theory

2)        Control theory

But I will be talking on the first four theories. The above listed sub-theories are ungrammatically represented below to show the interrelationship among them.

1.8.1.1

 

X-BAR THEORY

Based on appropriate analysis for the research work, X Bar is the theory to be adopted for comprehensive analysis.

Cook (1988:94) explains that, X-bar Syntax reveals large number of idiosyncratic ‘rule’ with general principles, it captures properties of all phrases not just those of a certain types and it bases the syntax on lexical categories that links with entries in the lexicon

Webelbum (1995:18) explains that, X-bar theory is the central module of the principle and parameter approach in syntax

The X-bar theory brings out what is common in the structure of phrase. A phrase in X-bar syntax always contain at least a head as well  as others constituents (cook 1988:94).

The head of projection is zero projection (X). heads are terminal modes, they dominate words X-bar theory distinguished two level of projection compliment combines with X to form X” (X-X,);YP adjust combine with X projection (X-X, YP). The specified combines with the topmost X’ to form the maximum projection (XP Spec; X’)

 

Due to the fact that X-bar brings out, what is common in the structure, X-bar theory will be the applicable to be used in the analysis of Yiwom noun phrase

1.8.1.2             THETA (θ)THEORY

This centers on assigning ‘thematic’ roles to sentential constituents. The Greek  letter ‘theta’ is a form of shortening for thematic

According to Chomsky, thematic roles means “to what have been referred to as semantic roles in the proceeding sections, roles such as agent, patient (or theme), beneficiary e.t.c. These are assumed to be assigned to the complements of lexical items as a lexical property.

Horrock, G (1993;102) uses the entry for put as an example and explains that the NP complement is assigned to the complement is assigned the role of location. It is also assumed that the majority of verbs ‘θ mark’ the subject position of sentences containing theme.

Thus, the subject NP of a sentence containing put is assigned the agent role. A predicate argument is denoted by any constituent assigned a θ-role by definition.

The main principle of θ-theory is the θ-criterion which its requirements in the unique assignment of each thematic role, this indicates that each constituent denoting an argument is assigned just θ-role and each θ-role is assigned for just one argument denoting constituent.

1.8.1.3             CASE-THEORY

This deals with the principles of case assignment to constituents. Kirsten (1991; 496) explains that case theory regulates the distribution of phonetically realized NPs by assigning abstract case to them.

According to Horrocks, G (1993103), the basic idea is that case is assigned under government; the choice of case is determined by the governor in any given example. Government is a traditional notion which involves the delimitation of the sphere of influence of a particular category with respect to adjacent categories.

A lexical head X may be said to govern its sisters in X-bar, and certain lexical heads also have the power to case-mark certain of their complements.

Thus, inflection assigns nomative case to subject NP, verb assign accusative case to object NP, while preposition assigns oblique case to its object.

One of most important principles of case theory is that case filter, which states that any s-structure that contains in NP with lexical content but no case is ungrammatical.

Kirsten (1991; 407) formally represented case filter as

1.8.1.4             GOVERNMENT THEORY

This deals with the syntactic relationship between the governor i.e. the head, and the governed i.e. its complement

Government theory also defines the relationship in other sub-theories of government and binding theory.

With respects to government theory, α governs β    if and only if:

1.    α  and β   naturally c-command each other

2.     α is a governor (e.g. noun, verb, preposition, adjective)

3.    α   governs β    , then governs the specified of β

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