ABSTRACT
Previous studies on SVCs in the Nigerian Pidgin have been able to show that Nigerian Pidgin exhibits Serial Verb Constructions like most West African Languages. The functional types and structural possibilities of SVCs in the Nigerian Pidgin have also been studied and it has been established that they exist in the Nigerian Pidgin.
Little attention has been paid to the characteristics and properties of SVCs in the Nigerian Pidgin; as such this work aims to establish that the following properties of SVCs according to Sebba (1987:87) exist in the Nigerian Pidgin;
- If they contain two or more verbs without overt markers of coordination or subordination.
- If the actions expressed by the verbs are either simultaneous or consecutives and all verbs are interpreted as having the same tense.
- If negation, whether marked once or more than once applies to the whole strings.
- If, either the semantic subject of V1 is the subject of V1+1, or the object of V1 is the semantic object of V1+1.
The methodology of this work was separated into two parts. The primary method involved the collection of data from a competent native speaker of the “Warri Pidgin” who is 32years old. This also involved a field research carried out personally through oral interviews and documentation.
The secondary method involved research from published and unpublished work.
The findings of this work are (a) The serial verb construction is a phenomenon that exists in Nigerian pidgin, (b) Serial Verb Constructions in Nigerian pidgin are a surface syntactic phenomenon not a deep structure phenomenon which is reached at achieving economy in the language and (c) Most importantly, that the properties of SVCs according to Sebba (1987:87) exists in the Nigerian pidgin.
In conclusion, this work established with copious examples (data from the Warri Pidgin) that the properties of SVCs according to Sebba (1987) exists in the Nigerian Pidgin along with some other SVC characteristics
