ASPECTS OF PIDGIN MORPHOSYNTAX

                                                CHAPTER ONE

       GENERAL BACKGROUND

1.0      Introduction

Language is either natural or created by humans: deliberately or unintentionally. Africans are very fast in creating languages. A good example is a quick easy revision made by Africans to the Queen’s English in order to make it better tuned to their society and more convenient for their use. Of course this forms the term called “Pidgin”

In the formal times, Pidgins and Creoles were often denoted with pejorative expressions like ‘TokPisin' in Papua  New  Guinea, ‘broken’ in Nigeria, ‘bastard Portuguese’ in Portugal, ‘Nigger/Negro’ in France, ‘cookhouse lingo’, ‘kitchen language’, ‘coolie language’ aside others.

However, for the purpose of this essay, the Nigerian Pidgin has been isolated for close study and analysis...most especially the Warri variant. This long essay is a researched work which presents some aspects of Pidgin morphosyntax. Of course we are not of the opinion of whether the Nigerian Pidgin is a language or not, or if it is a language that can be accepted in some social setting and not in another. Our central concern is to examine the morphosyntactic features embedded in this English variant: Pidgin.

The project carries five chapters in all. In this chapter, we present the general introduction to the case study: Nigerian Pidgin, featuring the general background, the historical background, the genetic classification, which includes their common way of life (culture) and their belief. It also gives a brief explanation of the scope of the study, methods of data collection, and subsequently a brief review of the chosen framework.

1.1 Background of the study

The concept of pidgin cannot be divorced from a multilingual society. Decamp (1987:175) describes pidgin as an “incidental communicative language within a multilingual setting...” Its vocabulary according to him, is “donated by the socio-politically dominant language  in  the  original  contact  situation,  most  especially,  with  the  European  imperialists.”

Balogun 2012:91 describes the Nigerian Pidgin English (henceforth NPE) as a term used denoting “…English based pidgin; a marginal language used among Nigerians to facilitate communication needs in certain interaction contexts. Like any other pidgin language in other cultural climes where the language is not native to its users. NPE is contact language that emerged from the fusion of indigenous languages and the foreign language (English).” That is a coalition occurs between the superstrate English and the substrate indigenous Nigerian languages such as Warri, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, etc. The grammatical structural rules and vocabularies are reduced to ease its speakers of the ‘stress of English communication standards’.

            NPE is a blend of English and ethnic Nigerian languages spoken and operating as a kind of lingua franca across Nigeria. It is estimated that pidgin is the native language of approximately 3-5 million people mainly concentrated in the Niger delta region and is a second language for at least another 75 million Nigerian people. {top10ng.com>Home>Culture}

NPE, not an official language but rather a marginal language used to communicate most especially among speakers who cannot speak each other’s language. Each of the 500 or more, ethnic groups in Nigeria can converse in this language, though they usually have their own additional words. For example, the Yoruba's add the words 'Şé' and 'À̀̀̀̀bí' to the language. These are often used at the start or end of an intonated sentence or question. For example, "You are coming, right?" becomes "Şé you dey come?" or "You dey come àbí?" Another example the Igbo added the word, "Ńnà" also used at the beginning of some sentences to add effect to the meaning of their sentence. For example, "that test was hard" becomes "Nna men, dat test had no be small".

The chat below shows a brief illustration:

Lexical source	NP lexical item		Meanings
Nigerian English	go slow machine watchnight houseboy upstair		hold up motorcycle/new car night watch man male servant storey building
Igbo	ókóró ínyángá ògógóró ogbánjé bíkó Una {from the word ”unu”}		an Igbo man show off locally brewed gin reincarnated birth please you people
Hausa	ádámú wáláhí námá ábóki káyá		a foolish person believe me/I swear meat friend luggage
Yoruba	tókúmbò ibéji ábí kílódé bùbá ásháwó		a fairly used item twins Isn’t it what’s the matter loose blouse prostitute
Warri slang		tómáshánkó yáwá càsàlè mùmú kòló kpómkpì		locally brewed gin problem trouble a foolish person mentally deranged calm down

1.2       Varieties of Nigerian Pidgin

Obiechina (1984), Elugbe (1995) and Egbokhare (2001) are unanimous in their opinion that the NPE came into Nigeria through the coast. Different pidgin variants have been noticed on Nigeria – Obiechina’s version shall be considered because the writer considers the meticulousness of the writer in compartmentalization of Nigerian pidgin into variants as exhaustive and critical. Below is a diagram which summarizes Obiechina’s classification of the NPE; the variants identified are five, namely: Bendel, Calabar, Lagos, Kano/Maiduguri and Port Harcourt variants.

(i)                             Bendel Variant

          (ii)    Kano/Maiduguri Variant                                   (iii)Calabar variant

(iv)Lagos Variant                                                                 

                                  

(v)   Port Harcourt Variant 

   

            A variant is characterized by a preponderant influence of its substrate language on the form and usage of that variant. A variant popularizes vocabularies from a substrate language including their pronunciation, spelling, usage and meaning beyond the territory of the original speakers.

Recently, NPE development has been particularly evident in the Big cities and more conspicuous in the southern part of Nigeria particularly what people would call “raw Pidgin”. Although the Nigerian Pidgin varies from place to place and people to people, the Pidgin variety found among the Warri people will be our point of emphasis.

1.3       Overview of Warri History

Warri history is rather interesting since Warri is among the very few Nigeria cities with a multicultural landscape. The present population of Warri consists of numerous west and central African people, including ethnic groups like the Urhobos and Itsekiris. Warri is located in Nigeria and is known for its religious tolerance. The city is among the biggest oil-producing sites in the African continent. It has developed into a prominent Nigerian metropolis.

Being a strategically located port along the Niger River, Warri rose to prominence during the 15th century. This is when the Portuguese occupied the city and started using it as a trading port. At the time, Warri was under the rule of Benin kings. With its economic progress, the city evolved as a trading port for slave traders.

Warri was once a provincial capital to British rule. The Lagos and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria was formally united as Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria on 28 February 1906 and Walter Egerton was appointed as the Governor of new Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, holding office until 1912. In the new Southern Nigeria, the old Lagos Colony became the Western Province, and the former Southern Nigerian Protectorate was split into a Central Province with capital at Warri and an Eastern Province with capital at Calabar.

Warri was then established as a provincial headquarters by the British in the early 20th century. There have been a tremendous growth in the population; it has grown from being a rural area to an urban area. The Warri Kingdom is a traditional state with the Olu (king) of Warri as the paramount ruler of the Kingdom. The current Olu of Warri is His Majesty, OgiameIkenwoli and he was crowned on 12th December, 2015 at Ode-Itsekiri (Big Warri), the ancestral home of Itsekiri nation.

The Portuguese control over Warri weakened, and it eventually became a part of Britain’s colonial territories in Africa. The colonial history of Warri led to the development of a unique dialect that is still prevalent in the city. It can be best described as a blend of English and African dialects, sprinkled with some Portuguese phrases.

Location

Warri is the city in Delta of the River Niger in south part of Nigeria. Well known as “oil” city it has many sights and places to keep traveler visit the place. People usually come here for business since all the oil companies are located here. Warri sights are located all around the city so tourists can just grab a map and start exploring. The local tourist offices are located in few places in the city so tourists can get all the necessary information.

Warri is one of Nigeria's oldest riverine towns. It is situated on the banks of the Lower Niger delta which is presently a part of Delta State. The town is is located roughly halfway between Lagos and Port Harcourt. It is an important sea port and a very busy town.

The town is very popular amongst Nigerians as an oil-producing town. Most of the foreign and indigenous oil companies operating in Nigeria have offices in Warri. Shell, Chevron and Agip take active part in the Crude Oil exploitation activities going on in this southern town.

1.3       Sociocultural Information about the Pidgin Speakers

The major ethnic groups in the town are the Urhobos, Itsekiris, Ijaws, Isokos and Ibuzos (Igbo-speaking ethnic group in Delta State). Indigenes of Warri are popularly referred to as Wafarians. There are more women than men in this town. They have an annual fishing festival that includes masquerades, fishing, swimming contests and dancing. There is also an annual, two-day Ohworhu festival in the southern part of the Urhobo area at which the Ohworhu water spirit and the EravweOgangaare displayed. The king in an Urhobo clan or kingdom is called the Ovie. His wife the queen is called Ovieya and his children OmoOvie (child of the king also known as prince and princess). Often nowadays, these names are also given to children without royal heritage by their parents. A number of Urhobo sub-groups have other titles other than Ovie, for example, the Okpe called their traditional ruler Orogie and Olomu called theirs Ohworode and Okere-Urhobo theirs Orosuen.

Predominant Occupation

            The major occupations here are fishing, canoeing and some sheep farming. This is because most of their histories, mythologies, and philosophies are water-related.

Major/common diet

As with most tribes or cities in Nigeria, a certain food is considered to belong to or originate from a particular tribe. For example pounded yam and egusi soup is from the Igbos, Eba; and Ogbono soup (made from Irvingiagabonensis and sometimes referred to as Ogbolo soup by people of Esan or Etsakor descent). For the Urhobos there are two foods considered Urhobo in nature. They are: Ukhodo (a yam and unripe plantain dish sometimes cooked with lemon grass and potash) and ‘starch’ (the actual name of this staple is not often used) Oghwevwri (emulsified pam oil soup). The starch is made from cassava plant. It is heated and stirred into a thick mound with palm oil added to give the starch its unique orange-yellow colour. Oghwevwriis  composed of smoked or dried fish, bush meat, unique spices, potash and oil palm juice. Other palm nut oil soups include amiediand banga soup, often eaten with usi (food) and or garri. Banga is made from palm kernel. Other culinary delicacies include: Iriboto, Iriberhare, and Okpariku.

Religious practice

Before the introduction of Christianity in the 16^th century, like many other African groups, the Wafarians were largely after the traditional religion. Itsekiri for instance followed a form known as Ebura-tsitse (based on ancestral worship) which has become embedded in modern day traditional Itsekiri culture. Once the dominant form of Western Christianity in Itsekiri land for centuries, only a minority of Itsekiri are Roman Catholics today whilst the majority are protestants notably Baptist and Anglican.

Marriage

Marriage ceremony in Warri, most especially in Urhobo and Itsekiri are marriages that goes beyond the couples directly, but embracing the extended families of the spouses. This is so because the families play very central roles in ensuring the success of the marital relationships from the time of courtship through the marriage negotiations to the contracting of the marriage.

Divorce is rare; Urhobo traditional marriage in an instance endures beyond the life of the husband. In fact, it is the wife’s life span. This is due to the fact that on the death of the husband, the wife is passed on to a member of the husband’s family for continued marriage. This custom provides emotional and financial stability, and continuity of the marriage

Mode of dressing

The Wafarians are usually dress by tying a Georgian wrapper and wearing a lace shirt with a cowboy hat and a walking stick and beads are worn on the heads and neck. The women also tie two wrappers with lace blouse,

Political/traditional admin

The system of government that is commonly practiced in Warri are plutocracy and gerontocracy. While plutocracy stands for the government by the rich and the wealthy, gerontocracy is a system of government by the elders, based on age grade system in the community.

Urhobo politics and government structure for instance occur at two levels (a) kingdom level (b) town level. Men and women in Urhobo are organized either by elders based on the age-grade system (gerontocracy) and based on rich and wealthy (plutocracies). An outline of Urhobo indigenous government and politics has the titles: Ovie (king) which is the highest political figure in the kingdom. He is the symbol of hus kingdom, culture and of his royal predecessors. His councellors are Otota (Speaker), Ohoveworen or Okakoro,  addressed collectively as Ilorogun(singular: Olorogun). Other title holders are the executioners (Ikoikpokpo) and warriors called Ogbu. There are other political titles peculiar to the different kingdoms. The judicial aspect of government among the Urhobo places a clear distinction between civil and criminal offences which ensure justice to the parties concerned.

Naming

Every Urhobo name given to a child has a meaning attached to it. The Urhobos believe that a child lives up to the meaning of the name he/she bears.Urhobo parents are therefore very careful of the names they give to their children. Urhobo names have deep meanings, many Urhobo names have spiritual or religiNous significance.

Examples of some Urhobo names are; Oghenefejiro (God is praiseworthy), Erhiaganoma (Guardian spirit overpowers the body.

1.4                   The Scope and organization of the study

This research work concerns itself with the descriptive analysis of the morpho-syntax structure of the NPE. It addresses aspects such as morphemic structure of the language, the basic word order; the morphological and syntactic processes and their modes of operation, as well as the linguistics interaction between NPE’s morphology and syntax as explained by some morpho-syntactic processes.

There are five chapters in allwhereby chapter one aims at the background of the study which is the introductory aspect of the research work. This invariably includes the general Introduction to the study, the historical background of NPE. Relevant socio-cultural profiles of the speakers of NPE are provided, the genetic classification, the scope and organization, the research analysis, data collection and theoretical framework, data collection, data analysis, and brief review of chosen framework.

Chapter two is basically the general review of literature on various concepts of basic morphology and syntactic concepts within the framework of this research, revising concepts such as, types of morphemes, phrase structure rules, lexical categories, basic word order, sentence types, since it is considered as the relevant and appropriate theory upon which the research work can be based. With this perspective, the principles of this theoretical model are examined as they relates to the Morpho-syntactic phenomena in the Nigerian Pidgin English.

Chapter three presents the morphological and syntactic conceptsof the Nigerian Pidgin English.

Chapter four of this work critically and systematically addresses the core segment of the study, that is, the aspect of morpho-syntax of the Nigerian Pidgin English. Elicited data are presented, analyzed and the findings are summarized.

            Finally, the concluding chapter, that is, chapter five summarizes the whole research work and provides relevant recommendations that will benefit potential linguistics researchers and other curious minds about the structure of human languages.

1.5       Data Collection and methodology

Unlike some other levels of linguistic analysis which are phonology and morphology, data collection in syntax or syntax related interphases such asphonosyntax and morphosyntax do not involve the use of isolated word-list. It is rather a list that consists of meaningful, grammatical, and acceptable utterances or sentences. And they are presented in the forms of phrases and/or clauses.

Therefore, frame technique was rather used instead for wordlist in collecting relevant syntactic data on the Nigerian Pidgin English. The importance of this frame technique lies in the fact that it is easier for the researcher to determine how constituents are strung together to form meaningful sentences within a particular context. However, this isn’t possible in the sense where such a word or constituent occurs in isolation or out of context, in this case, the wordlist and frame technique are both used.

Linguistic data for this study is the compilation of video clips of (the Warri centered) Nigerian comedians such as JephtaBowoto (aka Akpororo), Ayo Makun (A.Y), and AboviUgboma (BOVI). Enough corpus and significant data relevant to the research is provided revealing both translational and non-translational elicitation where necessary.These comedians were raised in Warri which therefore helped their proficiency in the Warri variety of Nigerian Pidgin. Data collection from the performance of the aforementioned comedians was chosen because of their free unconscious expressions which is capable of revealing raw Pidgin utterances.

1.6 Theoretical framework

The morphosyntactic features of the Nigerian Pidgin will be surveyed and viewed from the perspective of Government and Binding theory (GB). This theory was initially developed by Chomsky in his book: Lectures on Government and Binding, 1981. This theory is in a sense, the descendant of transformational generative grammar (TG); in fact, one feature of government and binding theory that distinguishes it from other theories is that, it makes use of transformational operation of the ideas of government and binding theory either after or in some cases turn around completely their apparent counterparts in earlier theories like transformation generative grammar. (Sell 1985:19)

Government and binding theory, which is otherwise known as principles and parameters theory is a modular deductive theory of grammar, which posits multiple levels of representation related by the transformational rule called move alpha (move-α) (Chomsky 1987). The application of move alpha is constrained by the interactions of various principles and parameters or modules, these modules are otherwise known as sub-theories of GB syntax.

Government and binding theory is an interlocking arrangement of sub-theories that interact in many different ways in the analysis of human languages. Proponents of GB theory (Government and Binding) often maintain that there is no such thing as rules of language but only the principles and parameters, whose values may vary from one language to the other, do exist with specified limits. This theory has been chosen because it makes universal claims about natural languages, i.e. it explains the systems, practices, conditions and rules that are elements or properties of all human languages. Government and binding theory captures the similarities in natural languages by assigning to them the same structure rather than the case of transformational generative grammar.

            In essence, aspects of Pidgin morphosyntax will be analyzed under the government and binding theoretical framework.

1.7 Brief review of the chosen framework

GB theory carries over certain aspect of the deep structure into the surface structure through the process of transformations or movement technically termed as move-alpha (move -α).

            According to Andrew Radford (1988:419) “This theory was developed to correct the lapses of transformational generative grammar”. He also stated that, “transformation is the rule that deals with the act of changing the structure of one sentence to another. Transformations are supplementary rules to the phrase structure rules. The output of the phrase structure rules is the input of transformational rules”.

            GB theory captures the similarities which exist between different categories of lexical phrases by assigning the same structure to them rather than having different phrase structure rules for VPs, AdjPs and NPs as postulated by transformational generative grammar. Unlike in TG, GB theory is a modular deductive theory of grammar. The modules of grammar otherwise known as sub-theories, operate in a modular form, i.e. they are inter connected.

            Below is the modular theory of grammar that confirms the interlocking nature of the GB theory.

X-BAR THEORY

D-STRUCTURE

PROJECTION PRINCIPLE

LEXICON

θ – THEORY      (θ – CRITERION)

Move – α              (Bounding)

S-STRUCTURE

CASE-THEORY (CASE FILTER)

PHONETIC FORM

LOGICAL FORM

Adapted from Sells (1985) and Cook (1988)

Modular theory of grammar

The above diagram shows that, no part of the GB theory can be considered in isolation from the rest.

THE SUB-THEORIES OF G.B.

            Chomsky postulates a set of interacting sub-theories each of which deals with some control area of grammatical enquiry.  Each of these theories comprises a principle or set of principles, and each of these may be subject to parametric variation.  That is to say, it is assumed that the grammar of languages vary in, only finitely, many ways with respect to the domain covered by a given sub-theory.

            All these sub-theories of G.B. theory operate in a modular form.This theory itself is referred to as a modular deductive theory of grammar.  The sub-theories are the following:

i.                    X-BAR Theory

ii.                  Theta (θ) theory

iii.                Case theory

iv.                Binding theory

v.                  Bounding theory

vi.                Government theory

vii.              Control theory

X-bar Theory

            X – Bar syntax replaces large numbers of idiosyncratic rules with general principles. It captures properties of all phrases and its bases on lexicon.  The principle is that a phrase always contains a head of the same type.

            It defines the possible phrase structure configuration of language in general.  The control notion is that each of the major lexical categories (Noun, Verb, Prepositions and Adjectives) is the head of a structure and it is dominated by a phrase, (verb (VP), Noun phrase (NP), preposition (PP) and Adjective (AP)) it comes after other possible constituents in the example below.

                                                            NP

                                                Spec                N¹

                                                                        N⁰

                                                Det

                                                That                 house

Projection Principle

            Chomsky (1981:29) states that (representation at each syntactic level is projected from the lexicon) in that they observe the sub categorization properties of lexical items; projection principles requires lexical properties to be projected to all levels of syntactic representation i.e. a lexical item projects from its zero bar level to one (single) bar level, which is optional, then to double bar level.  The zero bar level is referred to as the core projection level, the single bar level is referred to as the intermediate projection level and the double bar level is referred to as the maximal projection level.The illustration is shown below:

                                    X^II        Maximal projection level        

                                    X^I        Intermediate projection level

                                    X⁰        Core projection level

            Horrocks (1987:99) states that X-bar theory tells us that a lexical head (X) and its complements form a constituent (X^I) and that any specifier of this forms a high level of constituent (X^II).

Thus:

                                                X^II

                        Spec                                        X^I

           

                                                X⁰                                      Comp

            The lexical entry projects onto the structure of the sentence, and its influence ceases at the double bar level.  Another feature that makes generalization rule possible in X-bar theory is the concept of head.  The notion of head of a phrase is called the principle of head parameter.

The Principle of Head Parameter

            The principle of head parameter specifies the order of elements in a language.  The basic assumption of head parameter is that sentences may be broken into constituent phrase and structural grouping of words.  Stock well (1981:70) says that the parametric variation between language according to whether the position of the head is first or last with respect to its complement is called head parameter.  In other words, all phrases have heads of a related and possible complement along with some others like its specifiers.

            Lamidi (2000:105) says that the head is the keyword in a phrase and the word can be pre or post modified.  In essence, the head of a phrase is very important in X-bar theory and the head of the phrase to the right or left of the hand is known as head parameter. 

That is, head first:

                        X         X⁰  Complement

                                    X^I

                        X⁰                    Comp

Or head last:

            X^IComplement X

                                    X^I

                        Comp              X⁰                                                       

            To accommodate specifiers, it requires second level of structure putting the levels of specifier and complements together, the order of the head and specifier could be set separately from the order of the head and complement.  Thus

            X^II                    spec x

X^I                    X⁰  comp

                        X^II

Spec                X^I

                                                X⁰                    Comp

            All we have been discussing on X-bar (phrase structure) are lexical phrases   and the type of head in lexical phrases is related to word classes.  Lexical phrases invariably have heads that are lexical categories linked to lexical entries.

            Another type of phrase is the functional phrase.  Functional phrases are the phrases that are built around functional heads – functional phrases invariably have heads that are linked to functional elements.  The functional phrases include inflection phrases (IP).

            The top levels of the sentence have been unified with the rest of X-bar theory. The maximal level of a sentence is called inflection phrase (IP) in X-bar theory.  IP consists of specifier and I^I, I^I in turn consists of I and a complement thus:

IP                    spec     I^I

I                       I comp

                                       IP

Spec                I^I

                                    I                       Comp

Other functional phrases includes complementizer phrase (CP)

CP                   spec    C^I

C^I                     C    IP

                       

                                      CP

Spec                C^I

                                    C                       IP

Determinant phrase (DP)

DP                   spec       D

D^I                    D            NP

                              DP

Spec                D^I

                                    D                     NP

Theta (θ) Theory

Theta theory is concerned with the assignment of what Chomsky calls ‘Thematic roles’ to sentential constituents. It is similar to semantic roles such as agent, patient (or theme), beneficiary etc.  It is assumed that theta-roles are assigned to the complements of lexical items as a lexical property.  The NP complement (direct object) is assigned to the role of patient; the PP complement is assigned the role of locative while the subject NP or the sentence is assigned the agent role. Kristen (1991:493) states that θ theory deals with the functional relationship between a predicate and its arguments: a predicate is said to assign theta-role to each of its arguments. 

The main principle of θ theory is the ‘θ-CRITERION’ which requires each thematic role to be uniquely assigned i.e. each constituent denoting an argument is assigned just one θ role and each θ role is assigned to just one argument denoting constituent.  For example:

Ahmed went to the market by car.

                                    IP

Spec                I^I

NP       I                       VP

                       N¹  TNS AGR

                            (Past)             spec             V^I

                        AGENT N⁰                    V      NP              PP

                                                                        N¹                    P^I         NP

                                                                         Location N⁰    P⁰           N^I

                                                                                                             N⁰

Ahmed                                    go        market           by          car      

In the illustration above, verb phrase assigns agent role to the subject NP.

Verb assigns patient role to the object of the verb and preposition assigns locative role to its NP.

Case Theory

            Kristen (1991:496) states that ‘case theory regulates the distribution of phonetically realized NPs by assigning abstract case to them.  It deals with the principle of case assignment to constituents. Chomsky assures that all NPs with lexical contents are assigned (abstract) case.  Case is assigned by a set of case assigners to the governed.  Horrocks (1987) says the basic idea is that case is assigned under government i.e. the choice of case is determined by the governor in any sentence.  For instance, a lexical head X may be said to govern its sisters in X-bar and certain lexical heads also have the power to case mark certain  of  their  complements.   Thus:

NP subject is assigned normative by INFL; verb assigns accusative case to object of the verb while preposition assigns oblique case to its object. Let’s use this English sentence as an example.

Kunle gave biscuit to Tayo

                                    IP

Spec    I^I

NP       I                       VP

                         N^I   TN   AGR          

                              (past)               spec     V^I

                        N⁰                                V           PP

                                                    V⁰        NP     Spec    P^I

                                                                 N^I            P⁰        NP

                                                                                             N^I

                                                                   N⁰                            N⁰     

                        Kunle              give       biscuit               to        Tayo

            One of the most important principles of case theory is CASE FILTER, which states that any s-structure that contains an NP with lexical context but no case is ungrammatical.

Binding Theory

            The binding theory is one of the most important constructs in the system. It is primarily concerned with the conditions under which NPs are interpreted as co-referential with other NPs in the same sentence. According to Cook (1988:46; 49), binding theory deals with whether expression in the sentence may refer to the same entities as other expression. Binding theory is basically concerned with the same issue of how pronouns and other types of nouns relate to each other but extends the antecedent-pronoun relationship to other categories. The theory also describes when different expressions may be co-indexed i.e. when ‘her’ or ‘herself’ may refer to the same person e.g. ‘Tolu killed herself.’ ‘Herself’ is bowed to ‘Tolu’ and has the same index. For the purpose of binding theory, NPs that are arguments are assumed to fall into one of the three categories listed below:

i.                    Anaphors

ii.                  Prenominals

iii.                Referential expressions

The Anaphors are NPs whose reference is necessarily determined sentence-initially and which cannot have independent reference. In English, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns fall into this class e.g. “herself” must be taken as referring back the individual demoting (female) in a sentence e.g. The girl projected herself well.

Prenominals: are NPs that specifies lexical contents and have only the features person, number, gender and case; unlike anaphors, they may either refer to individuals independently or co-refer to individual already named in a given sentence e.g. the prenominal “He” may refer to an individual mentioned in a sentence or some other individuals not mentioned at all. Example (i) and (ii) illustrate this:

(i)         Noam Chomsky says he is a genius

            (‘He’ refers to individual denoted in the sentence)

(ii)        Noam Chomsky believes him to be genius

            (‘Him’ referring to individual not denoted in the sentence)

Referential Expressions: (R. expression) as the name implies are noun phrases with lexical hands which potentially refer to something. Co-reference is excluded here.

            E.g. Tunde says Tunde must be promoted. Even the same name is used twice; the most natural interpretation is one where two different people are involved as above. However, co-referentiality is also possible in a limited case. The locations of antecedents that count for Binding theory are defined in three binding principles:

A: Anaphors must be bound in their local domains

B: Prenominals must be free in their domain

C: Referential expression must also be free

            The term, bound in principle A is based on the principle and co-indexing. Thus α binds β: if and only if

(1)        α c-commands β

(2)        α and β are co-referential

            In principle B, the term free simply means not bound. Principle C refers to elements such as names and other referential noun phrase, Horrocks (1987:111, 112, 113).                  

Bounding Theory

            This theory aimed at limiting the displacement of constituents by transformational rule of move a.

            According to Horrocks (1987) it is a way of constraining the movement rule move-a. Horrocks (1987:128), states that, bounding theory is concerned with the limitations to be placed on the displacement of constituents by the transformational rule schema move-α and its chief principle is subjacency. Subjacency may best be thought of as a criteria property of move α. Movement rule within the GB theory is assumed to following:

-                      An extraction site i.e. where an element is being removed

-                      A landing site i.e. where the element moved to

-                      An intervening gap i.e. the space between the extraction site and the landing site of an element.

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Landing Site

Intervening gap

Extraction site

 

           

Here, move-α is defined as move any constituent from anywhere to land somewhere. In other words, bounding theory does not only monitor the extraction and the landing site for an element, but it also places a constraint and limit on the element that can be moved, where it can be moved to and how far the element can be moved. The original position of alpha movement is called an in-situ position.

X

Y

α

WHP

XP

In-situ position

 

The diagram says move any element, which is represented with (α), from its in-situ position regardless of variable X and Y to the left, right, beginning or end of a phrase or sentence.

            The basic idea advanced by bounding theory is that no movement can move an element too far.

Control Theory

            Horrocks (1987: 31), in his description of control theory, says that, it is one in which verbs take infinitival complements that have null subject. They are understood as being co-referential with an NP in the main clauses which is not overtly stated but is represented by ‘PRO’. Similarly, it is concerned with the way in which subjectless infinite structures are construed. It focuses on PRO, sometime called “big PRO” to contrast it with PRO. PRO is restricted to the subject position in non-finite clauses. The obvious property of PRO can be explained by saying it must only occur when it’s not governed.

            Chomsky (1986: 183) describes this notion of PRO as ungoverned. Consequently, PRO can never have case (since it has no governor). Let us consider the following examples to explain the above theory.

1a.       Tade promised his father he would buy the bag

1b.       Tade promised his father [PRO to buy the bag]

PRO in the above example is controlled by ‘TADE’ which is the subject of the main clause. PRO can only appear in the subject position of non-finite clauses; it is banned from all object position and from the subject position of finite clause as there is no governor for its position.

Government Theory

            Yusuf (1998: 140) says government theory is a principle theory in that, it is a long known fact of grammar that a verb governs its object (where the object could be NP, PP, or CP) while the pre/postposition governs its object also.

            The implication of this is that, a verb will govern the NP object that directly followed it, while a preposition governs its own NP object. According to Chris (2000: 140) the theory is concerned with the relationship between a head and its complements. It also defines the relationship in other sub-theories. It established a set of items that may govern other items and the second is to delimit the sphere of influence of those items. Following Chomsky (1986b) and Sells (1985), we define government theory as thus:

“α governs β if α m-commands (= maximally commands) β (i.e. if α and β share the same maximal projection) and there is no γ, a barrier for β, such that γ excludes α. α is a governor if α is an X^o in the x-bar system (e.g. N, V, A, P, INFL)”

            The X^o governors (i.e. Noun, verb, adjective, preposition) are lexical items which can function as the head of a construction. The INFL, though not a lexical item is a governor because it assigns nominative case to the subject NP.

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