THE VERB PHRASE OF USẸN DIALECT OF YORUBA

Abstract

The Verb Phrase (VP) is the domain where events are expressed in the sentence and arguments related to the verb. Extant works on Usẹn, a dialect of Yoruba spoken in Edo State, have focused on its classification, phonetics and phonology, with little attention paid to the syntax, especially the VP, which is germane to the understanding of the Usẹn clause. This study was, therefore, designed to investigate the Usẹn VP, with a view to describing the features of the verb, the internal constituents of the VP, and its structural derivation. Noam Chomsky’s Minimalist Program was adopted as the framework, while the ethnographic design was used. Ibadan 400 Wordlist, the Dakubu West Africa Language Data Sheet and Ibadan Syntactic Paradigm were used. Data were elicited from 15 native speakers aged above 40 years (nine males and six females), purposively selected for their proficiency and permanent residence in Usẹn for over 30 years. Data were subjected to inter-linear glossing and syntactic analysis. Five features of the Usẹn verb were identified: monosyllabicity (hè) “cook”; initial consonant (pa) “kill”; derivation through compounding (dá+ikú dákú “faint”); occurrence with object pronoun(ghan; ghan ó jòkó “they sat down”) and negation (negative declarative sentences modified by éè: (Adé éè gháré “Ade did not run”/imperative sentences modified by máá: máá yú “do not go”). Six internal constituents of the VP were identified, the verb; koró “stand”; the verb + noun, kọ + orin =kọrin “sing”; verb + prepositional phrase, lọ ghí ulí ìwé “go to school”; verb + adverb, fọ̀ pẹ̀lẹ́pẹ̀lẹ́ “speak gently”; verb + complementiser phrase, Àghan ó mọ̀ fọ̀ kè ódiró “They knew that he lied”; and verb + noun phrase + prepositional phrase, iye ó gbé eghó ghí apò “mother put money in the bag”. The Usẹn VP is derived by selecting a verb in the lexicon, and merging it with the relevant complement or adjunct. Where features are valued, theta roles are assigned and the lexical verb is raised to the head of the light verb for lexicalization after which the transfer takes place. Two verbal projections are involved in the derivation of the Usẹn VP: the inner core and the outer shell. The inner core, headed by the lexical verb, functions as the complement of the outer shell, while the outer shell, headed by the light verb, introduces the external argument to satisfy the Extended Projection Principle requirement. The inner core is transferred to the Phonetic Form and Logical Form interface for interpretation. The articulated structure of the Usẹn Verb Phrase domain is vP>AdvP>VP>DP>AdvP>PP. The verb phrase of Usẹn dialect of Yorùbá comprises a monosyllabic modifiable verb with initial consonant, projected as a head, which primarily functions as the predicate of the clause.