CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.0 Introduction
This chapter introduces the language of study, the people speaking the language and their geographical location. It also introduces us to the background of the speakers of the language which includes their culture and beliefs. Again in the chapter, a brief explanation of the scope of the study, method of Data collection, Genetic classification and the theoretical framework used in carrying out the research on the language are discussed.
1.1 General Background.
This study focuses on the Unèmè Verb Phrase. Unèmè is a language spoken in three (3) local government areas of Edo State. The three local government areas are: Etsako, Akokò-Edo and Agbasilo respectively (Hakeem 2003). The Unèmè people are about 6,000 in population (Crotzier and Blench, 1992).
1.2 Historical Background.
According to Hakeem (2003), the history of Unèmè people can be traced to the core area of the Nok cultural zone located in the North-East of the Níger-Benue confluence. This area According to oral tradition represents the ancestral homeland of not only Unèmè people but also of related sub-ethníc groups which have come to be described as the Edoid.
The Unèmè people is said to have arrived in Benin area in the Era of King Ogiso Ere. Their first place of settlement was on the outskirts of Benin City. In the tenth century, the Unèmè people were encouraged to move to Benin City because of their utilitarian metal crafts but were later forced to move out of Benin City because they were taken as slaves. This led to their relocation from Benin City to their present place of settlement (Hakeem 2003).
The map of Unèmè communities is shown below.
Unèmè Language Area
1.3 Sociolinguistic Profile.
The following could be observed among the Unèmès:
The language (Unèmè) is seen as a means of communication in the market, relaxation centres and among the elders. It is rare to see the adult and the children speak the language proficiently. The children who are old enough to start going to school do not speak Unèmè as proficiently as their parents do, which shows that the language is gradually fading out.
The Unèmè people like many other tribes have their own unique ways of life that are discussed below.
1.3.1. Marriage System.
According to an oral tradition, the Unèmè people have a unique marriage system which is a process carried out by the parents of a boy. They would pay agreed money on the girl they have chosen for their son to marry. This is done during their childhood state. When the children are grown up, an appropriate date for the marriage ceremony will be set but now civilization has changed everything.
1.3.2. Festivals.
Unèmè people are blessed with festivals. Some of the festivals are connected with their religious beliefs while others are connected with their socio-economic belief. Among such festivals connected with religious beliefs is Ogun festival. This festival is associated with the veneration and propitiation of the god of Iron (Ogun) and it is usually organized by allocating spots in the community to the propitiation of Ogun by the iron smelting societies. The Unèmè festival connected with socio-economic activities is the Old and New yam Festivals.
The Old yam festival is organized between May and June of every year. Unlike the Old yam festival, the New yam festival is being organized to mark the beginning of the harvest of New Yam in every Unèmè community.
1.3.3 Religion
In Unèmè, like any other place in Nigeria, the three (3) major religions are practiced, that is, Christianity, Islam and Traditional religions. In these communities, Christians attend churches, Muslims attend mosques and the traditionalists worship in shrines. The traditionalists have their belief in Osanobula or Oghene which is the Supreme Being (Hakeem 2003).
1.3.4 Occupation.
The major occupation of the Unèmè people is iron smelting. According to my informant, the blacksmiths smelt the iron-ore mostly at night because of the high temperature generated in the process of smelting. Some of their products are: chains, hoes, cutlasses, iron weapons, etc.
Another aspect of Unèmè occupation is farming. The people engage mostly in the commercial system of farming. Some of their farm produce are: yam, cocoa, rice, cassava, etc. The farming and blacksmithing occupations have brought a great development to Unèmè people and their communities.
1.4 Genetic Classification of Unèmè.
Ruhlen (1987:1) states that “the idea that groups of languages that share certain systematic resemblances have inherited these similarities from a common origin is the bases for genetic classifications”.
Genetic classification could be inform of a tree diagram showing he origin of a language and how it is genetically related to other languages. Unèmè language belongs to the group of Edoid under the Benue-Congo group of Niger-Congo language family. This is represented below:
(Adapted from Newmann, 1978)
NIGER-CONGO
West Atlantic
Mande
Gur
Kwa
Adamawa Eastern
Benue-congo
kaan
Defoid
Yoruboid
Edoid
Nupoid
idomoid
Igboid
Delta-Edoid
Edoid
North-Central Edoid
North-Edoid
Edoid
Ghutuo
Kpeshi
Sasaruenwanigwe
UNÈMÈ
Etsako
AFRO ASIATIC
NILO SAHARAN
KHOISAN
AFRICAN LANGUAGE FAMILIES
1.5 Scope and Organization of the Study.
This long essay describes the Unèmè Verb Phrase. It examines the structure of verb phrase in Unèmè language and the transformational processes involving the structure of verb phrase. This processes and exemplifications are presented and analyzed using the model known as the Government and Binding theory. This research is divided into five chapters.
Chapter one presents the general background of the people, their historical background and where they can be found. Also, in chapter one, the socio-cultural profile of the people and the genetic classification of the language are examined. The chapter also gives a brief discussion of the theoretical framework adopted in the work and explains the mode of data collection and analysis.
Chapter two discusses in brief the sounds, tone and syllable inventory of the Unèmè language. In this chapter, the basic syntactic concepts that are germane to this area of study are also discussed.
In chapter three, attention is focused on the Unèmè verb phrase which is the target of this research. Chapter four addresses the transformational processes involving verb phrases in Unèmè language.
Chapter five summarizes the work, gives some recommendations and concludes the study.
1.6. Theoretical Framework.
Many theories have been propounded for analyzing language data in order to present a systematic account of the linguistic knowledge or competence a native speaker of a language has. Such theories are used as theoretical framework for analyzing language data. They include: Traditional or classical grammar, structural or taxonomic grammar, systemic grammar, transformational generative grammar, government and binding theory and minimalist programme. The framework adopted for analyzing Unèmè language data is government and binding theory.
The “Government and Binding” framework has been chosen because it shows the similarities among the different phrases. It tries to capture these similarities by assigning to them the same structure rather than the case of transformational generative grammar. The government and binding theory model is examined in detail in section 1.9.
1.7 Data Collection.
The data for the research work was collected through the help of a language helper (informant method) with the use of the “Ibadan list of 400 basic items” (400 word list). It also used the frame technique. Frame technique is a template that shows different structural positions which a word can occur in. This goes beyond looking at words in isolation. It was used to get the relevant information that can not be obtained by means of lexical items only.
The informant that kindly participated in the development of this research is “Miss Asekhame Blessing”. Miss Blessing, a fashion designer, is a native of Uzanu in Edo state of Nigeria but resides at ‘Niger River Basin’, Ilorin, Kwara state of Nigeria.
1.8. Data Analysis.
Data analysis is based on the forms produced by the native speaker and it is implemented in order to discover what obtains in the language under study.
Therefore, the data in this work will be analyzed using the “Government and Binding” model, i.e. the different types of verb phrases and their transformations would be exemplified using different sub-theories of GB.
1.9. Brief Review of the Government and Binding Theory.
This theory explains the universal grammar as introduced by Chomsky (1981). According to Cook (1988:30), government and binding theory elaborates syntactic levels through the concept of movement.
Radford (1988:401) describes government and binding theory as a modular deductive theory of grammar that posits multiple levels of representation related by a transformation rule called “move alpha (α)”. The modules of grammar, otherwise known as sub-theories, operate in a modular form, i.e. they are interconnected. The sub-theories of government and binding framework are: X-bar theory, Theta theory, Case theory, Government theory, Binding theory, Bounding theory and Control theory.
The diagram below shows interrelationship among the sub-theories of Government and Binding theory:
DEEP STRUCTURE
X-BAR THEORY
MOVEMENT (Bounding)
SURFACE STRUCTURE
PHONETIC FORM
LOGICAL FORM
PROJECTION PRINCIPLE
LEXICON
θ – Theory
(θ - Criterion)
Case theory
(Case filter)
Adapted from Sells (1985) and Cook (1988)
1.9.1 The X-Bar Theory (X-theory)
The X-bar theory is designed to formalize the traditional notion called ‘head’ of a construction and to constrain the range of possible phrase structure rules. The heart of the system is the recognition that the lexical categories Noun, Verb, Adjective, Preposition are the heads and project to their phrasal nodes NP, VP, AP and PP respectively.
XII
XI
X
X0
Spec
Adjunct
Complement
As proposed in Chomsky (1986) x-bar convention states that every maximal projection has a specifier of XP positions with the intermediate bar projection serving as the XP’s core. The core consists of the head (X0) and the complement, which can be maximal projection in itself.
In transformational generative grammar (TG), the phrase structure rule is:
S → NP AUX VP.
But under Government and Binding theory, the phrase structure rule goes thus:
X → theory
CP → spec
CI → CI IP
IP → spec Ii
II → I VP
I → Tns Agr
VP → spec VI
VI → V (NP) (PP).
In the above schemata, XII which is equal to XP is the maximal projection representing noun, verb, adjective or preposition each of which functions as the head of its own phrase. The lexical head can project to the intermediate category (XI) through the addition of a complement. The X (x-single bar) together with the specifier projects further to XII (x-double bar) as in:
NP
NI
N
PI
Spec
PP
P
NP
owner
Spec
NI
N
house
the
Det
The
of
“The owner of the house”.
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