THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF ẸDO PERSONAL NAMES: A MINIMALIST APPROACH

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to examine the internal structures of Ẹdo personal names. The study discusses the different internal mechanisms and processes that necessitates the reduction in the names. The study employs data from native speakers of Ẹdo language as well as published and unpublished works in the Language .The oral data were collected through recording of conversations from native speakers .The data were grouped into different categories based on the linguistic process that were operational. This study is based on the minimalist program (Chomsky 1995).The study finds amongst others that the processes involved in the reduction of Ẹdo personal names are clipping and compounding and that the tones of the deleted segments are deleted contrary to the claim in Goldsmith (1976).