ABSTRACT
This
research work is a linguistic endeavour aimed at exploring the grammatical
components and structures of cleft sentences of the standard Igbo language in
general on the one hand. On the other hand and forming the specific objective,
is relating cleft formations and cleft structures of the Nsukka dialect with
those of the standard Igbo. Consequently, the work unprecedented formulated,
analyzed, compared and contrasted the cleft structures of the language and
dialect under study. The study was guide by the theory of transformational
grammar.
The
findings from the study show that cleft formation in standard Igbo language and
in Nsukka dialect is a focussing mechanism on a particular constituent of a
sentence. The focussing emphasises the constituent element through the
operation of the S
NP INFL VP rule, a concept of
transformational grammar. In both the language and dialect under study, cleft
structures have special elements that introduce the focussed constituents. The
focussing indicator may be nominal, adjectival, adverbial or prepositional; and
clefting is possible in all the kinds of sentences. However, the clefting heads
are not present in some cases in the Nsukka dialect. In other cases where the
clefting heads occur they occur next to the constituent of focuses and not
before the constituents like in the standard Igbo. Conclusively, the clefts in
syntax and meanings of sentences of the Nsukka dialect compares tremendously
with that of the standard Igbo.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
Table of contents
Abstract
CHAPTER ONE:
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Background to the Study
1.1. Statement of the Problem
1.2 Purpose of the Study
1.3 Research Question
1.4 Scope of the Study
1.5 Significance of the Study
1.6 Limitation of the Study
CHAPTER TWO:
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Sentences
2.1.1 Syntax
2.2 Theoretical Studies
2.2.1 Movement Transformation
2.2.2 Adjunction
Transformation
2.2.3 Substitution
Transformation
2.3 Cleft in Syntax
2.3.1 Relative Clause in Cleft Sentence
2.3.1.1 Question – Element as
Prepositional Complement
within Noun Phrase (in formal English)
2.3.1.2 Question-Element as Nominal Object
2.3.2 Types of Cleft Sentence
2.3.2.1 Pseudo- Cleft Sentence
2.3.2.2 Focus/ Post –Focus Cleft Sentence
2.3.2.3 All Focus Cleft Sentence
2.3.2.4 Broad Focus Cleft Sentence
2.3.3 Cleft in Other Languages: French, Italian Japanese, Chinese etc
2.4 Structural Differences in Clause-Cleft Relatives
2.5 Empirical Studies
2.6 Summary of Review
CHAPTER THREE:
DATA ANALYSIS
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Cleft Formation in Standard Igbo
3.1.1 Pseudo Cleft in Standard Igbo
3.1.2 All Focus Cleft in Standard Igbo
3.1.3 Post Focus Cleft in Standard Igbo
3.1.4 Broad Focus Cleft in Standard Igbo
3.2 Cleft Formation in Nsukka Dialect
3.2.1 Pseudo-Cleft in Nukka Dialect
3.2.2 Post Focus Cleft in Nsukka Dialect
3.2.3 All Focus Cleft in Nsukka Dailect
3.2.4 Broad Focus Cleft in Nsukka Dialect
CHAPTER FOUR:
SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION
4.0 Introduction
4.1. Conclusions
4.2 Recommendations for
Further Research
References
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Background
to the Study
Man’s anthropological description
as a homo faber and a homo loquens contradistinguish human from other animals
and under which they are biologically classified. Homo faber describes man’s
capability to make and use tools and other objects while his cultural
linguistic attribute defines him as a homo loquens.
This latter attribute of man’s means that he is a user of
human language: a system of sound symbol used to intelligibly communicate his
thoughts, ideas, feelings and desires through speech or writing. To Strickland
(1957), language is a body of sounds and meaning held in common by the members
of a linguistic group. The expressions of a language involve a relationship
between a sequence of sounds and a meaning where sound covers phonology,
morphology and syntax, (Lamb publication). In other words, the evolution,
propagation and use of a language consist in putting meaningful elements or
letters of the alphabet together to form words; putting words together to form
phrases; phrases together to form clauses,; clauses together to form sentences
and putting sentences together to form texts; Robert (1997) . It is an
instrument for interactive communication among people.
Each language--has word groups which classify its
grammatical constituents. These groups are incomprehensively and popularly
called the eight parts of speech, or, in technical term, grammatical or lexical
categories. They are seven in number excluding the articles and some particles
which were not categorized, and the interjection which belongs to mood.
Noun
names an entity or abstracts; pronoun substitutes for nouns; verb says what the
subjects does in a sentence; adverb modifies the verb, adverb and adjectives;
adjectives qualifies the noun and pronoun; preposition relates the noun /
pronoun with another noun
/ pronoun
in terms of position or location; and conjunction which joins words, phrases,
clauses or sentences.
With
relatively similar rules across global languages, these lexical categories
together with the articles are meaningfully combined.
The variations in the rules of combination among language
and dialectal groups but conveying similar meaning raised the question between
overt structure and under-lying meaning and interpretation, for example,
(1) (a) J’ ai ferme (French)
I have hungry (lit trans)
(b) Aguu
na-agu m (Igbo)
(Hunger is hunger me)
Both 1 a and b have
the surface and expressed structure as literally translated but have the
underlying or covert interpretation:
(2) I am hungry.
This, on the other hand, has the
different grammatical and semantic implications:
(3) (a) Je
suis ferme (French)
(b) Abu m aguu (Igbo)
(c) I am hunger (English literal
translation)
Linguistics is the branch of knowledge or discipline that
semantically studies the above and other questions on language.
Describing linguistic phenomena is one of the central goals
of linguistics as well as being the primary goal of many linguists. The
description may pertain to individual languages or to universal similarity or
dissimilarity among languages and is carried out under specific linguistic
concepts which include narrative discourse structure, phonology and, topical
for this research, syntax.
Matthews (1982) defines syntax
as a branch of grammar dealing with the ways in which words are arranged to
show connections of meaning within the sentence.
Radford (1988) says that syntax refers to the rules for
sequencing or ordering words within a phrase or sentence. Without syntax and
its rules, there would be no key with which to discern consistent meanings from
a bunch of words lumped together. As a part of the internalized linguistic
knowledge of a language, it enables the native speaker, and to an extent, a
non-native speaker, to produce as well as recognize acceptable stretches of
utterance in that language......
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