A MORPHOSYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF THE Ẹ̀ DÓ PRONOUN

Abstract

Pronouns, words which refer anaphorically to noun phrases whose referents are named or understood from context, are one of the universal linguistic categories that play a central role in the grammar of languages, including Ẹ̀ dó, a Nigerian language. Extant studies on the Ẹ̀ dó pronoun system have focused mainly on their identification and classification with scant attention paid to their internal structure and interaction with other categories. This study was, therefore, designed to examine the morphology of Ẹ̀ dó pronouns with a view to determining their forms, syntactic distribution and the effects of interface interactions. Morris Halle and Alec Marantz's Distributed Morphology was adopted as the framework. The descriptive design was used. Three local government areas (Egor, Ovia North-East and Oredo) were purposively selected because they are communities with large population of native speakers. The Ibadan Syntactic Paradigm was used to conduct key informant interviews with 21 native speakers aged between 30 and 80 years, seven from each selected area. Interviews were complemented with textual corpus (bulletins and grammar textbooks) and audio-visual materials (music, movies and documentaries). The data were subjected to interlinear morphemic glossing and syntactic analysis. There are three forms of pronouns in Ẹ̀ dó: independent,affixal and clitic pronouns. The independent ones contain smaller morphemic units. Their internal structure shows the language derives them through five processes: affixation, clipping, compounding, conversion and reduplication. Affixal pronouns are the class maintaining reflexive prefix tòbọ́ - and dè - the class-changing interrogative prefix. Clitics are personal pronouns which attach to other words; they are inaccessible to modification. The syntactic distribution shows that pronouns function as arguments: possessor, subject and object. The only exceptions are interrogative pronouns. Unlike other pronouns, interrogatives are nonarguments restricted to the periphery of a clause. This difference in distribution results from their feature composition, and it reflects in syntactic projection. Interrogative pronouns have the clause typing feature ([Qu]) and therefore project the interrogative phrase within a split complementiser phrase. Other pronouns have the determiner phrase as their maximal projection. Interface interaction effects confirm that morpho-phonology underlies allomorphy in clitic and independent forms. These pronouns assimilate features (nasality and tongue height) from adjacent words. The consequence is the proliferation of personal pronouns. The morphosyntactic interface proves that constructions and temporal distinction restrict the distribution of personal pronouns. For example, if tense and aspect in a declarative sentence are past and perfective, one could use ọ̀ as third person singular subject. Under negation, the choice remains the same. However, if the event is not yet completed, one would use ẹ̀ as the subject pronoun. The syntax-semantics interface shows adjacent words affect pronoun distribution; an example is Òghọ́ghọ́ rrìé íghó mẹ̀ and Òghọ́ghọ́ rrìé íghó gùmwẹ̀ ; both sentences mean “Oghọghọ gives me money”. The effect is that sentences with the same meanings have different first person pronouns, depending on the proximity of the referent to the subject. Ẹ̀ dó pronouns are better described using inferences from their internal structure, function, and interface relations. These factors elucidate their derivation and differences in distribution.