Valency in the Urhobo Language

Imu Oghoghophia Famous

doi:10.34256/ijll2125

Authors

Imu Oghoghophia Famous Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, National Institute for Nigerian Languages, P.M.B 7078 Ogbor Hill, Aba, Abia State, Nigeria Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34256/ijll2125

Keywords:

Canonical usage, Di-valent verb, Mono-valent verb, Tri-valent verb Urhobo language, Valency

Abstract

This paper examines verb valency in Urhobo, using minimalism as a theoretical framework. Verb valency deals with the question of how many participants a specific verb logically presupposes in order for the event denoted by the verb to be realizable. The method of data collection is categorized into two main sources: primary and secondary data. The preliminary data refers to the information obtained using intuitive knowledge, the secondary source refers to documented information obtained from the library, internet, and other published materials. The study reveals that where we have one argument structure, we have one theta function. There are two place predicates we have two theta roles or functions, and also, three arguments predicates possess three theta roles. This goes a long way to say that Urhobo verbs can take different arguments, and their syntactic and semantic well-formedness will still be intact. It also reveals that it takes only one individual to carry out one event, such as òvwèrẹ̀ (sleeping event) in the Urhobo language. Finally, the paper identifies three valency classes in the Urhobo language (Mono-valent verb- takes or involves one entity, Di-valent verb- takes or involves two entities, and Tri-valent verb- takes or involves three entities).

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