A DESCRIPTIVE SYNTAX OF PRONOUN: INSIGHT FROM IZHI DIALECT

Abstract

Abstract

 This work explores the pronouns of Izhi, a dialect of Igbo language. It is found that, though, Izhi pronouns display similarities with those of Standard Igbo, and they equally show many unique features in terms of phonological, morphological, syntactic and even pragmatic characteristics. The range of grammatical structures they can enter are almost the same with the Standard Igbo but their structure-sensitiveness in distribution is a characteristics quite rare, hence marks them out from other dialects of Igbo. Again, the strict observation of pronoun-antecedent agreement in number and person, as in the Standard Igbo, are violated in some exceptional cases in Izhi. Izhi pronouns are also able to accept extensional affixes and enclitics for different, semantic and pragmatic nuances, and this has disproved the hitherto unanimous stand that pronouns in Igbo language do not lend themselves to inflection.