Olùkùmi polar question derivation: A complex linguistic inquiry

Abstract

This study investigates polar questions in Olùkùmi, an island dialect of Yorùbá. Clauses have unique peculiarities that distinguish one clause type from another in every language. This informs why a question construction can be differentiated from any other construction type. Question construction is of various types one of which is the polar question that is the focus of this paper. A polar question is the question type that expects affirmation or rejection. Studies on Olùkùmi have paid little attention to question types. Hence, this study aims to fill this gap in language documentation by illustrating the derivation, projection, and possible responses to polar questions in Olùkùmi. This study adopts a qualitative method, and the frame technique is used for data collection to get relevant structural samples from competent native speakers in the Ugbódù community, Delta state, Nigeria. Chomsky’s Minimalist Program is adopted as the theoretical framework. Findings show that Olùkùmi uses a high-low tone morph under the special intonation pattern which takes the last vocalic anchor of an affirmative construction as a polar particle. The particle surfaces sentence finally changes the status of a declarative construction to a polar construction. Also, It was discovered that polar question derivation in Olùkùmi has a limited overt particle/marker and its response could either be hẹ́hẹ̀hẹ́/báà ni ‘’Yes/It is so’’ or hẹ́hẹ̀/ é è ghò báà ‘‘No/ It is not so’’. This study has shown that the form and derivation pattern of the Olùkùmi polar question is different from standard Yorùbá.