Articles

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Open Access
THE ABNORMALITY OF TRANSLATING THE TIV PRONOUN AND FUTURE TENSE AS ONE LEXICAL ITEM
(Department of Language and Linguistics, Nasarawa State University Keffi, 2016-12-12) Ianna, Bem P.
A reading through the Tiv Bible will reveal so many abnormalities in the way Tiv language is written. These can be seen mainly in the areas of spelling and translation of grammatical categories. For example, the third person pronoun and the future tense are often times treated as one lexical item. This article- argues that this is grammatically wrong. It therefore, aims at showing that the future tense and pronouns in Tiv are separate lexical ..items. To do this, examples of such abnormalities are drawn from the translation of the pronoun and the future tense in the Tiv Bible for analysis. The analysis of the corpus reveals that these* two can and should be lexicalised separately.
Open Access
AN ANALYSIS OF AMPHIBOLOGY AND SYNTACTIC AMBIGUITY IN TIV
(Department of Language and Linguistics, Nasarawa State University Keffi, 2021-06-06) Akase, Tiav Thomas; Ishima, Jighjigh Leo Justus; Kwarpo, Matthew Sylvanus
There are a number of grammatical or syntactic structures in sentences that are ambiguous in Tiv that make the interpretation of such sentences difficult to the listeners or readers. These grammatical or syntactic structures are a model of language discovery distribution of words that are both semantically and syntactically coherent; but the distributions sometimes create more problems semantically for they give room for dual interpretations. The result of this is that it affects effective communication since the meaning is not clearly brought out at a glance, thereby resulting into semantic complexity. This study therefore, examines syntactic ambiguity in particular and amphibology in Tiv and how they impede communication in the language. The causes of such semantic complexities and the strategies to be adopted to overcome those problems are also examined. Data for this study were gathered from Tiv speaking area of Benue state through conversation with the native speakers of the language and through participant observations. The findings of the study reveal that syntactic ambiguity and amphibology can be eliminated if there is a clear structural relationship between the various syntactic units in the grammatical structure of a phrase, or sentence and the phrases selected in our conversations are used denotatively rather than connotative in the sentence structures to avoid confusion to readers and listeners.
Open Access
Analysis of Illocutionary Acts in Asabe Kabir Usman’s Destinies of Life
(Department of Languages and Linguistics, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, 2018-03-13) David, Stephen O.; Abraham, David A.
This paper anchors the Analysis of Illocutionary Acts in Asabe Kabir Usman’s Destinies of Life. The study aims to bring out the illocutionary acts as contained in the novel being analysed. The data collection was primarily from the text; Destinies of Life. The theoretical framework is the Speech act theory as propounded by Searle (1969). The different types of illocutionary acts used in the text were identified and analysed. Simple percentage was also used thereafter to analyse the data. The five types of illocutionary acts itemised by Searle were found in the text. All together, the text contained a total of 570 occurrences of illocutionary acts with 239 being directives, 201 representatives, 49 expressives, 49 declaratives and 32 commissives, From the analysis, it was glaring that directives as one of the illocutionary acts which has to do with characters expressing their desires/wishes to get something done was more prominent in the text.
Open Access
An Appraisal of Tiv Phonology
(Department of Language and Linguistics, Nasarawa State University Keffi, 2020-01-04) Ianna, Bem P.
Over the years, there have been a lot of controversies about the phonology of Tiv mainly because most of the early works on Tiv phonology were undertaken by non-linguists, and people who were not native speakers of the language. The major areas of controversies include the phonemic components of the language (tone, intonation, and stress), the phonological processes that exist in Tiv, and the number of diphthongs in the language, etc. This work aims at ascertaining the true position of the above-mentioned phonological concepts in Tiv. To do this, using the native speaker intuition, some communications were carried out with some selected native speakers of the language to verify if the positions of the earlier studies about Tiv phonology are true or not. It was discovered, at the end of the study, that some of the earlier positions were not correct. For example, the study found out that as against Abraham's (1968) claim that there is no "shortening" or "lengthening" in Tiv, as in English, these phenomena exist in Tiv too. It was also found that as against his assertion that there are no diphthongs in Tiv, diphthongs exist in the language. The study also discovered that as against the position of Dunstan (1969) that there only are seven diphthongs in the language, there are ten.
Open Access
Aspects of Gbagyi Tonology
(Department of Language and Linguistics, Nasarawa State Univerasity Keffi, 2021-03-11) Dalhatu, Abigail Musa
Tone has overtime proven to be one of the complex but interesting suprasegmental feature in African (tone) languages, and motivated by this fact, this paper is determined to account for the tone system of Gbagyi. The study devises the acoustic instrumental technique to analyse the data which were primarily obtained from some selected native speakers of Gbagyi Nge variety of Gbagyi language spoken in Abuja Municipal Area Council FCT, Abuja in North Central Nigeria. Findings from this research show that contrary to the position in the existing literature on Gbagyi tone which argues for three register tones and two combinatory tones forming contours, there are actually four register and two contour tones in this language. Furthermore, this paper shows that tone may play roles far beyond the phonological domains in Gbagyi since certain tonal patterns which are impermissible in the language are observed to occur only to play some grammatical roles.
Open Access
Basa Personal Names: An Ethno-Pragmatic Survey
(Department of Language and Linguistics, Nasarawa State University Keffi, 2020-12-05) Philip, Imoh Manda; Dansabo, Nyizo Friday
Basa language belongs to Western Kainji of Kainji language family. It is spoken in North Central Nigeria, that is, all the Federal councils; Kogi, Nasarawa Niger, and Benue states. The work studies Basa personal names from the ethno-pragmatic perspective. Naming practice, though universal or cross-cultural among human societies, it is remarkably idiosyncratic in style, custom etc. The paper argues that naming practices are not arbitrary labels, but sociocultural tags that show socio-cultural functions, roles and meanings. The paper categorizes the typology of Basa personal names into different types, such as circumstantial, death prevention or reincarnation, idioms tic, riddles and proverbial names. Data for the study were obtained through interviews, personal observation and analyzed using the Leipzig Glossing Rules. Findings from the research show that Basa names undergo different derivational processes and there is a strong interface between a people’s language and their cultural practices, ie. it mirrors how a language is used as a cultural practice and how it serves as a window to understanding the worldview and philosophy of a given people.
Open Access
BASA SENTENTIAL NAMES: A BRIEF DESCRIPTIVE STUDY
(Department of Language and Linguistics, Nasarawa State University Keffi, 2020-12-12) Philip, Imoh Manda; Dansabo, Nyizo Friday
Open Access
Chukwuemeka Ike’s Toads For Supper: A new Historicist Analysis
(Department of English, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, 2008-06-15) Daniel, Philip Moles
The article examines Chukwuemeka Ike s Toads for supper within the theoretical context of New Historicism. Such issues as the diversity of dissonant voices which expresses the forces of an era, the embedded nature of a literary material within the framework of history, aspects of class and ethnicity prevalent in a culture, the use of techniques and symbolisms as a historicist “transaction ”, and the interchanges of diverse elements and forces (all as embodiments of the theory) are analyzed, using the internal relations of words, images, proverbs and symbols.
Open Access
COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE FOR GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
(Department of Lanaguages and Linguisitcs, Nasarawa State University Keffi, 2012-12-12) Akase, Tiav Thomas
n every human society, man has evolved a system by which interaction is ensured. This system of interaction enables man to share his thought and ideas as well as exert control over the wide range of phenomenon and human actions which results into development. This system is known as communication which is attained through the medium of language. Language is so vital in human existence that there is hardly any situation or human function where language is not required. It thus follows that for any idea to be transformed into any global development; it must be sufficiently couched in human communication.' This means that the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for sustaining development for the benefits of man must be communicated to him through the medium of language. This paper therefore, aims at discussing communication and language as a vehicle for global sustainable development. To achieve this, effort is made to define the key terms use in the paper and to examine the role(s) communication and language can play in sustaining development.
Open Access
A Comparative Semantic Study of Stress and Intonation Phenomena on Vocabularies Level in Hausa and Arabic Languages
(Department of Nigerian Languages, Nasarawa State University Keffi, 2013-01-05) Salisu, Abdulkadir; Muhammad, Bashir Yusuf
This paper conducts a comparative semantic study of stress and intonation phenomena, in Hausa and Arabic Languages. It also, aims to shade lights on the concept of these phenomena, their type, influence and places of their existence in both languages. The paper again mentioned efforts made by ancient and modem Linguistics scholars in classifying languages into stressnal and non-stressnal, and intonation and non-intonatun; finally the paper explained the relationship between stress and intonation.
Open Access
Compounding in Igala: Defining Criteria, Forms and Functions
(Department of Languages and Linguistics, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, 2020-01-01) Abraham, David A.; Omachonu, Gideon Sunday
In spite of the fact that compounding is really pervasive in the world's languages and despite the huge volume of literatures on compounding in languages including African languages, a critical assessment of the extant literature on compounding in African linguistics reveals that providing satisfactory criteria for defining compound hood still requires both language specific and cross-linguistic investigations for dependable linguistic generalizations. In Igala, in particular, not much attention has been devoted to describing compounding. The present study therefore investigates compounding in Igala, a West Benue-Congo language spoken in north central Nigeria. Defining compound hood and distinguishing compound words in Igala, the study shows and favours semantic criteria above phonological and syntactic considerations. Compounding generally has been found to be a highly productive word formation process in Iglala in terms of forms and functions.http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/uiah.vl3i2.10
Open Access
CONTEXTUALIZING THE LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISING IN THE PRINT MEDIA
(Department of Languages and Linguistics, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, 2013-08-25) Abraham, David A.; Adewole, Alagbe A.
The language of advertising is seen to be functionally distinct such that it functions as a means to an end and not an end in itself. The advertiser in a bid to get consumers favorably disposed to products and services on offer, does not follow the laid down rules of grammar but prefers catchy structures and makes use of puffery in his language which makes critics view it as deceptive. This paper concerned itself with the structures used in print media advertising using advertisements collected from The Punch from June 2007- June 2008. It discussed the structures and language claims peculiar to advertisers.
Open Access
DEVELOPMENT OF REMNANT NIGERIAN LANGUAGES: THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITIES
(Department of Lanaguages and Linguisitcs, Nasarawa State University Keffi, 2019-04-04) Philip, Imoh Manda; Samuel, Nuhu Baba; Dalhatu, Abigail M.
This paper examines the issue of developing remnant Nigerian languages and the role of the government as well as the speech community in orthography development. The motivation for this paper stems from the fact that many endangered Nigerian languages are unwritten and efforts have been made over time to develop writing system for these languages but yield little or no result. Beyond these concerted efforts, many indigenous languages are gradually going into extinction due to dearth of writing system, proper planning and poor implementation of policy on small size languages. However, this paper sets out to explicate strategies that could be adopted by the government and the community to forestall the endangerment of remnant Nigerian languages. This study, among other things, shows that unless the government, its Agencies (Ministry of Education, Committees and Societies) and the community put concerted efforts in establishing rapport with specialized institutes, such as NINLAN, SIL, SOAS, Living Tongues Institute, and departments of linguistics all over the country to develop writing system and devising metalanguages for these languages, majority of these languages will be endangered or lost in the near future. The study concludes by reiterating the pivotal role of the government in policy making and implementation, thus advised that the government should provide guidelines, funds and promote the use of indigenous orthography in all levels of education and the media. Also, the study suggests relevant actions on the part of the community and government in order to minimize worst cases of language endangerment. Finally, this paper recommends that Readers Project be set up in every state of the federation as a way to develop, document and revitalize remnant Nigerian languages.
Open Access
Development of Remnant Nigerian Languages: The Role of Government And Communities
(Department of Language and Linguistics, Nasarawa State Univerasity Keffi, 2019-04-09) Imoh, Philip Manda; Samuel, Nuhu Baba; Dalhatu, Abigail Musa
This paper examines the issue of developing remnant Nigerian languages and the role of the government as well as the speech community in orthography development. The motivation for this paper stems from the fact that many endangered Nigerian languages are unwritten and efforts have been made over time to develop writing system for these languages but yield little or no result. Beyond these concerted efforts, many indigenous languages are gradually going into extinction due to dearth of writing system, proper planning and poor implementation of policy on small size languages. However, this paper sets out to explicate strategies that could be adopted by the government and the community to forestall the endangerment of remnant Nigerian languages. This study, among other things, shows that unless the government, its Agencies (Ministry of Education, Committees and Societies) and the community put concerted efforts in establishing rapport with specialized institutes, such as NINLAN; SIL, SOAS, Living Tongues Institute, and departments of linguistics all over the country to develop writing system and devising metalanguages for these languages, majority of these languages will be endangered or lost in the near future. The study concludes by reiterating the pivotal role of the government in policy making and implementation, thus advised that the government should provide guidelines, funds and promote the use of indigenous orthography in all levels of education and the media. Also, the study suggests relevant actions on the part of the community and government in order to minimize worst cases of language endangerment. Finally, this paper recommends that Readers Project be set up in every state of the federation as a way to develop, document and revitalize remnant Nigerian languages.
Open Access
Eggon Compounding
(DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS FACULTY OF ARTS NASARAWA STATE UNIVERSITY KEFFI, 2020-03-16) Garba, Patience Ashesla
Compounding is a common word derivation process in languages of the world, and it is said to be a productive way of forming words. However, the meaning and formation processes of compounds are more or less language specific, although there might be similarities. This study investigates and describes compounding in Eggon, its structures, defining criteria and productivity. The study tries to answer the questions: What are the defining criteria of Eggon compounds? What is the structure of the compound and how productive is compounding as a word formation process in the language? Eggon is one of the so called ‘minority group’ languages spoken in Nasarawa State, North Central Nigeria. The language belongs to the Benue-Congo Plateau: Eggonic group of African languages. The study reveals that compounds are written as either a single word or two words; are head first (left headed) and their definition is based on semantics rather than phonology and syntax. Compounding in Eggon consists of various structures: N+N =N, N+V =N, V+N = V, V + V = V, Phrase = V, and Phrase = N components. The most productive are N+N = N, N+V = N, V+N = V while the least productive is V+V= V. Purposeful sampling, participant observation and interview, the writer’s intuitive knowledge of the language and training as a language student, alongside other documented sources constitute the major sources of data for the study. This paper adds to linguistic study in general and Eggon in particular, as not much has been done on compounding; it serves as a source of data and a reference material for other researchers.
Open Access
Eggon Language Counting System and Derivational Processes
(DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS FACULTY OF ARTS NASARAWA STATE UNIVERSITY KEFFI, 2017-08-04) Garba, Patience Ashesla
The paper presents Eggon numerals in their order of occurrence, explaining the computation and derivation processes involved using descriptive method. The writer's intuitive knowledge of the language and a review of previous works on Eggon numerals constitute a major source of data for this paper. The study reveals four type* of numerals- cardinals, ordinals, distributives and adverbials (times). The cardinal numerals are classified into basic and derived. The basic numerals which are akyen ‘ 1 aha *2', a'tra ‘.V, c)iyi ‘4’, of no ‘5\efi ‘6’. d folia *7\ af'ofe18’, dtronye ‘9', ck'po' I O’, end’gd ‘100’, and ezbi ‘ 1000’ are used to derive the secondary numerals using the arithmetic principles of addition and multiplication, on the one hand, and the linguistic phonological, morphological, and syntactic processes of vowel elision, tone change, compounding, sentential expressions on the other. The ordinals are derived using the prefix ha before the respective cardinal number except on ‘first’ which has a distinct word. Similarly, the adverbials are also derived using the prefix engyi, while the distributive are produced by partial reduplication in a triplicate form. It can be said that Eggon is a decimal language that is it counts in multiples often.
Open Access
EUPHONIC AND SYLLABLE STRUCTURE PROCESSES IN GBAGYI
(Department of Languages and Linguistics, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, 2016-12-09) Abraham, David A.; Ashikeni, Thomas Ogah; Dalhatu, Abigail
This paper, entitled “ Euphonic and syllable structure processes in Gbagyi” is an investigation of the effect of adjacent sounds on each other, their peculiar patterns and the syllable structure processes in Gbagyi language. A descriptive analytical method was used to elicit data using the Blench word list as instrument for collection of data. This research revealed that in Gbagyi language, a consonant is palatalized before a front high vowel, a consonant is labialized before a rounded vowel, the vowels of Gbagyi are constrained by a partial harmony system, a vowel is lengthened when it occurs before a consonant or before another vowel of the same kind, the final vowel of a verb stem is deleted before a noun or nominal which begins with a vowel. These findings no doubt contribute to the description of the sound systems of Gbagyi and the discipline of Phonology in general.
Open Access
Euphonic and Syllable Structure Processes in Gbagyi
(Department of Languages and Linguistics, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, 2015-12-10) Abraham, David A.; Dalhatu, Abigail Musa; Ashikeni, Thomas Ogah
This is an investigation of the effect of adjacent sounds on each other, their peculiar patterns and the syllable structure processes in Gbagyi A descriptive analytical method was used to elicit data using the Blench word list of 1017 lexical items as instrument for data collection. This research revealed that in Gbagyi, a nasal consonant assimilates the features of the consonant contiguous to it, a consonant is palatalized before a high front vowel, a vowel is nasalized after a nasal consonant and a final vowel of a verb stem is deleted before a noun or nominal which begins with a vowel. These findings no doubt contribute to the description of the sound systems of Gbagyi and the discipline of Phonology in general.
Open Access
Folklore in the Writings of Chinua Achebe: An Overview
(Department of English, Nasarawa State University Keffi., 2018-08-25) Daniel, Philip Moles; Ikyer, Godwin Aondofa; Magaji, Maryam Yusuf
The field of folklore is much older than 1846 when William J. Thoms coined the word to replace “popular antiquities. ” It dates back to actual human existence and experiences and the formation of material culture and customary behaviour. The traditional beliefs, myths, legends, folktales, riddles proverbs, jokes, dance and drama, festivals, traditional medicine, traditional food and methods of preservation, costumes, folk art and material culture are some of the categories of folklore that are unifying thread to capturing the total composition of a group and attesting to the humble oral background of humanity in administering its body of knowledge to later generations for transitional harmonies in contexts of life and living. The paper explores Achebe’s deployment of folklore of the Igbo to express the contemporary challenges of colonial and post colonial subjugation and existence. The paper states the contributions of Igbo folklore to the oral and written cultures and to situational dynamics. The paper finally situates the contributions of Achebe to his alusi complex and to the rich Igbo cultural repertoire. The paper recommends that the Igbo folklore, which is gradually fading away, be used to reposition real Igbo thought, ideologies, feelings and values.
Open Access
The functions of the morphosyntactic tone in Bidiya
(Department of Lanaguages and Linguisitcs, Nasarawa State University Keffi, 2005-01-01) Anyanwu, Rose-Juliet; Alio, Khalil