Syntactic analysis of focus construction in Olukumi and Ìlorin dialects of Yoruba

Abstract

This research paper discusses a syntactic analysis of focus construction in Yoruba Olùkùmi spoken in Aniocha, Delta State, and Yoruba Ìlo̩rin spoken in Ìlo̩rin, Kwara State. The aim of this study is to compare and contrast focusing in the two dialects while the specific objectives are to: identify the focus marker, analyze varied constituents that can be focused on in the two dialects, and compare the relatedness of the two dialects. Data for this research were drawn from five purposively selected native speakers, each in Olùkùmi spoken in Ugbodu, Delta State, and Ìlo̩rin, Kwara State, via observation and interview. Government and Binding Theory is employed for this study since it is a syntactic theory that adopts the d-structure and s-structure as levels of representation. The Move-Alpha, a sub-theory of Government and Binding Theory, was used for analysis in this paper because it maps d-structure into focus construction, s-structure. The study finds that the two dialects use ‘ni’ to mark focusing. Also, it is revealed in these dialects that constituent focusing involves the movement of the target constituent to the sentence-final position, while sentence focusing signals attachment of particle ‘ni’ to the sentence final. Furthermore, it is discovered in these dialects that whenever a subject NP is moved for focusing, the extraction site is plenished with resumptive pronoun ‘̣ó’, while the extraction site of the genitival NP is plenished with resumptive pronoun ‘rẹ̀’. This study revealed that there is no difference between Yorùbá Olùkùmi and Yorùba Ìlo̩rin in the aspect of focus construction and therefore concludes that focusing is one of the syntactic evidence that establishes Olùkùmi as a dialect of Yorùbá spoken outside Yorùbá communities within Nigeria.