Violation of Bijection Principle: More Evidence from Reflexive and Reciprocal Constructions of Selected Languages

This study investigates rejlcxivization and reciprocal constructions in the Basa, Ilausa, Egbura/Igbira and Kono languages which appear to be universally attested in languages. The assumption of rejlcxivization and reciprocal is that many languages do not usually repeal the subject in the object position; rather, a rejlexive/reciprocal pronoun is expressed in grammatical constructions which is co-rcjerential with the subject in the object position. Basa belongs to Western Kainji language family. It is spoken in North Central Nigeria, that is, all the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) councils, Kogi, Niger, Nasarawa and Benue states. Ilausa genetically is a Chadic sub stock of Afro-Asiatic language family spoken, predominantly in northern Nigeria by not less than twenty four million people in Africa: nineteen million people in Nigeria, five million in Niger and one million in Cameroon, Togo and Benin. Egbura/Igbira is a Nupoid group of the Volta Niger of the Niger Congo language family spoken in Kogi, Nasarawa and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Kdno (Kwono or Konu) are situated in Saminaka. The language belongs to Kainji Eastern of Benue Congo language family. The aim and objective of this study is to show the limitation and weakness of the Bijection Principle and suggest a more universal method or approach which can account for other languages with contrastive parameters. In these languages, every pronominal subject-DP in a basic sentence displays an obligatory resumptive pronoun which functions assubject agreement [Subject Concord]. This study focuses on the syntactic position and function of Basa, Ilausa, Egbura/Igbira and Kono reflexive/ reciprocal constructions to answer the question "To what extent does the Bijection Principle valid universally?” the study discovered that the Bijection Principle is not valid universally, not even in the language where it is based The Leipzig Glossing rule nw used to interpret the data obtained. The finding from this study shows that reflexive constructions in the languages under survey violate the Bijection Principle in grammatical constructions which is supposed to be universal by examining the theoretical implications of the co-occurrence of resumptive pronoun/object agreement marker with reflexive binding. The study aligns itself with Sell (rg8g.g) which suggests that a syntactic theory should provide a descriptive space within which the range of variations found among other languages arc precisely captured; that is, a theory should be flexible enough to allow all variations Found