Scholarly Works
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://repository.ui.edu.ng/handle/123456789/347
Browse
73 results
Search Results
Item Rule-Based Machine Translation: An Interface between Formal and Natural Language Syntax A Violation of Case Filter Principle(West African Linguistics Society, 2016) Odoje, C.O.The principles which govern ways words can be combined together to form phrases and sentences in natural language is known as syntax while formal syntax is not a matter of experience (unlike natural language), but stipulations in order to provide a specified set of strings in a computer programming language. The focus of this paper therefore, is to explore linguistics as the dual planes of theory and practice, by interrogating how PROLOG was used to capture English/Yoruba natural language syntax in a rule-based machine translation. The study reveals that the machine was able to generate sentences, break sentences into phrases and words in a bid to translate them in both languagesItem The Peculiar Challenges of SMT to African Languages(The Linguistic Association of Nigeria, 2013) Odoje, C.O.The challenges of Machine translation (MT) have been identified and classified but the classification did not consider the peculiarities of African languages. This paper therefore explores the challenges of MT and reclassifies them in relation with the uniqueness of African languages. The study uses the Yoruba language as a template for other African languages and identifies some of the peculiarities of African languages which include Tie fact that they are resource-scarce languages; dycritization, demarcation of discipline, and funding, amongst others. The paper recommends measures to overcome some of these challenges.Item Language: A Catalyst for National Development(Universal Akada Books, 2013) Odoje, C.O.The author looks at strategies in the teaching and learning of Nigerian languages as second languages to foster peace and development in Nigeria. He observes that the Nigerian government has put some measures in place, just that some of these measures are poorly implemented and their aims defeated. The author makes some recommendations that would help to achieve a meaningful, peaceful co-existence, which is a catalyst for development.Item Yoruba-English/English-Yoruba dictionary & phrasebook(Hippocrenc Books, Inc, 2019) Odoje, C.; Mawadza, A.Item Negation in Nupe(University of Benin, 2019) Nweya, G. O.; Adedigba, J. O.Negation as a syntactic process has attracted tremendous attention cross linguistically. However. existing studies on the morpho-syntax of Nupe has concentrated on the study of the tense, aspect and the internal s t ru c tu re of th e verb phrase with little attention paid to negation. This study is, therefore, investigates negative constructions in Nupe with a view to identifying the negative markers and their distribution. as well as the scope of negation and its interaction with tense and aspect. Primary 'data were elicited using Ibadan Syntactic Paradigm, Focus Group Discussion and In-Depth-Interview while secondary data w e re collected from existing literature. The data were subjected to interlinear glossing and syntactic analysis. Two negative markers were identified: the negative particle a, and the negative circumfix ga-mɔ .. The negative particle a has the widest distribution and it is used in deriving various sentence types while ‘ga-m5’ is used only in negative imperatives. The negative marker a occurs sentence final in all instances of its occurrence. Using the syntactic and semantic processes of cleft focus and paraphrasing, the study distinguished between constituent and sentential negation. With regard to the interaction of tense/aspect and negation. It was observed that tense and aspect morphemes do not co-occur but either of them co-occurs with negative morphemes in the same construction. While the tense or aspect marker occurs pre-verbal, the negative morpheme occurs clause final.Item A feature based analysis of Igbo complementisers(Linguistic Association of Nigeria, 2019) Nweya, G. O."It has been argued that Igbo complementisers are associated with more than one clause type and therefore, cannot be classified based on the type of clause they introduce. This assertion has not been further examined in Igbo as the paucity of studies on Igbo complementisers show. Hence, there is need to characterise Igbo complementisers based on features for the purpose of classification. This study, therefore, re-examines the syntax of Igbo complementisers with a view to determining their distribution and c-selection properties as well as distinguish them based on their features. Data for the study were gathered from primary and secondary sources. The study identified three main complementisers in Igbo. They are nà ‘that’, mà ‘if/whether’ and kà ‘that’. ‘na’ c-selects mostly embedded declarative clauses. ‘mà introduces mostly interrogative clauses where both the matrix and embedded clauses bear overt question morpheme, while ‘kà’ is the only complementiser that introduces subjunctive clauses. Based on their behaviours, the study posits that ‘na’ ‘‘mà and ‘kà’ have strong declarative, interrogative and subjunctive features respectively. Using distinctive feature matrix, the study characterised and distinguished Igbo complementiser. It was also observed that there is no agreement between complementiser and inflection as obtainable in English since Igbo complementisers are not specified for any tense that matches with that of the c-selected IP. The study concludes that Igbo complementisers can be classified using distinctive features.Item Simple Double Object Constructions in Igbo: A Minimalist Approach(Department of Linguistics at Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), 2018) Nweya, G. O.Double object constructions provide interesting evidence about the valency of verbs, agreement relations and word order variation across languages. However, existing studies have not paid adequate attention to investigating how the case feature of the objects are valued in Igbo double object constructions and how they are derived in phases based on the split projection hypothesis. This study, therefore, analyses double object constructions in Igbo with a view to determining how the case feature of the internal arguments are valued as well as the derivational procedure based on the phase model of the Minimalist Program. The study observed that the shells for simple DOCs were uP-AppIP- VP. The light u values the case feature of the indirect object; the applicative head introduces the IO and also values the case feature of the direct object while the lexical verb assigns (l-role to the indirect object. In the derivation of the simple double object constructions uP and ApplP are phases.Item A pragma-semiotic analysis of the Catholic bishops’ communiqué on the Ebola epidemic: Impact on the University of Ibadan Catholic faithful(Lulu Press Inc., 2017) Solomon-Etefia, P. O.; Nweya, G. O.This paper examines the extracts of the communiqué made by the Ibadan Catholic Bishops to the congregation on the Ebola epidemic. The paper identifies the practs, gives a semiotic interpretation of the signs visible, and discusses the impact of the communiqué on the Catholic faithful in the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. The data were collected from the Catholic Sunday Bulletin and the interviews conducted with, and the field notes collected from, the Catholic faithful informants (N=30) in the University of Ibadan. It utilised Mey’s pragmatic acts theory (PAT) and Saussure’s model of semiotic signs as the theoretical framework. The study shows that the communiqué is information motivated discourse on Ebola which comprises of direct acts that make use of the contextual features of shared situational knowledge, inferences, relevance, shared cultural knowledge, and references thereby exhibiting the pragmemes of cautioning, commanding, counselling and threatening; the semiotic sign ‘Holy Communion’ signifies the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ present in Bread and Wine, the semiotic sign ‘self-signing of oneself with holy water’ signifies spiritual cleansing, and the ‘sign of peace’ signifies love and unity among the people of God in the Church. Both the pragmemes and the semiotic signs have an impact on the Catholic Faithful in University of Ibadan.Item Plural strategies and devices in Igbo(University of Kansas, 2016) Nweya, G. O.This study examines strategies and devices adopted in Igbo to mark plurality on lexical items at both word and phrasal levels. The study provides additional evidence, adequate description, and explanation, as well as a theoretical background to the phenomenon which hitherto was not provided by earlier studies. Data were collected through observation, oral interview, and from existing literature. Data were analysed based on the principles and operations of the Minimalist Program. The study finds that five basic strategies could be employed to mark plurality in Igbo. These include merging of singular nouns with plural words or morphemes, via reduplication, use of conjunctions, use plural sensitive verbs, and context of speech. Plural devices include nouns with an inherent PL feature such as ndi ‘persons’ and umu ‘offspring’; the third person plural pronoun, ha; quantifiers such as niile/dum ‘all’; numerals abuo ‘two’ and above; mass nouns, igwe/igwurube ‘group’; clitics ga and nu ; reduplicated nouns; conjunctions na ‘and’; and plural-sensitive verbs such as chita ‘bring’, and ju, ‘be’. The study concludes that Igbo belongs to the set of languages that syntactically mark plural by using independent morphemes/words; i.e. plural words.Item Sentential Negation in the Imilike Dialect of Igbo(University of Ibadan, 2015) Nweya, G. O.; Solomon-Etefia, P. O.In spite of the fact that negation is a universal principle of human language, the process of negation and negative markers tends to be distinct across languages and dialects. This descriptive study therefore examines the process of achieving sentential negation in the Imilike dialect of the Igbo language. Its specific objectives are to identifying negative markers and negative polarity items; and show how negators interact with other functors in the dialect. Data for the study were collected from native speakers through oral interview and observation. Analysis is based on the verb forms identified in the dialect in relation to their affirmative counterparts. The results show that negative markers in the dialect are - ga/-g~ and -le/-If! which are suffixes. The former is used in the indicative, progressive and future tense/aspectual forms, while the latter is employed in imperative constructions. Tense/aspect markers such as the past, the perfective, the progressive and the future have negative forms which cooccur with the main negator in negative constructions. The study shows the rich inflectional and phonological properties of the dialect such as affix sequencing and vowel harmony. The study concludes that the process of negation and negative markers in Imilike Igbo is noticeably distinct from those of standard lgbo.