STRUCTURE OF IGBO VERB PHRASE

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the internal structure of Igbo verb phrase. The Igbo language is one of the eight major languages in Benue Congo Group of African. Igbo is the principal native language of the Igbo people, an ethnic group of south eastern Nigeria. The language has approximately 24 million speakers, who love mostly in Nigeria and primarily of Igbo descent. This study adopts the construction morphology theory and Generative Grammar, specifically the X-bar theory which plays a significant role in the GB grammar. It employs the descriptive survey design. The data were elicited from daily utterance of speakers of the language as well as the intuitive knowledge of the researchers and unstructured elicitation oral interview technique. The method of data analysis that is adopted in this study is purely descriptive method of morpheme-to-morpheme interpreting. It is observed that the V is an obligatory constituent of the VP in Igbo. This suggests that V is the head of the VP. That is, the V is the most important grammatical element or category in a VP in the language. It is also observed that some verbs in the language can occupy a VP slot with or without any complement. The study examined the three morphological forms of verbs namely: simple, compound and complex. The study establishes that Igbo verbs are largely monosyllabic in structures: CV, CIV, but the most common is the CV structure. This paper also ascertains that V can merge or combine with a single NP, double NP, an NPI with a PP, NP with a CP and CP alone to maximally expand or project into a VP.