Browsing by Author "Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Acquisition of Pronouns by Yoruba Children
    (University of Cape Coast, 2012) Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth; Babatunde, Sola Timothy
    The purpose of this paper is to examine the emergence of pronominal forms in Yoruba. We also examine the order of acquisition and the frequency of use of pronouns as arguments by Yoruba children. Pronouns are words that do not select a referent from the universe of discourse. A pronoun may get its meaning from another word in the sentence. The transition from nominal person reference to pronominal reference is an important milestone in the language acquisition ability of any child.
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    Acquisition of Yoruba Bare Nouns
    (Faculty of Languages & Linguistics, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 2016) Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth; Amaechi, Mary
    This study is concerned with the acquisition of bare nouns by children acquiring Yoruba as their first language. The Minimalist Programme serves as the framework for our syntactic analysis of development of bare nouns by the Yoruba child. The database consists of longitudinal studies of a Yoruba child, Damilare, between the ages of fifteen (15) and thirty six (36) months. He was audio recorded daily by his mother within the period. Some of the data were also written directly. The results show that from a very early stage, the Yoruba child begins to acquire bare nouns as compared to other types of nouns and these nouns occur in different positions. It can be concluded that they use bare nouns where other types of nouns should be used but, with time, other nominal expressions are developed and are used appropriately.
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    Complex Predicatesin the Early Speech of Yoruba Children
    (Akungba Journal of Linguistics and Literatures, 7 10-27, Department of Linguistics and Languages, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, 2016) Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth; Adekeye, Bolanle Foluke
    This paper examines early complex predicates of Yoruba-speaking children. The paper addresses the question of whether complex predicates are available to children in the early stages of grammatical development and also the types of complex predicates available. Serial verb constructions and splitting verbs are examined. The paper studies the early complex predicates of children acquiring Yoruba in terms of the Uniformity of Theta Assignment Hypothesis couched in the Minimalist Programme. The database consists of longitudinal studies of three children, Damilare, Temiloluwa and Tola who are between the ages of eighteen (18) and thirty-six (36) months. These children were recorded daily by their parents. The paper finds that Yoruba-speaking children begin to use complex predicates from age two and by age three, they have acquired almost adult-like competence in the use of these predicates. The paper accounted for the co-occurrence of serial verb constructions and splitting verbs in the early speech of Yoruba-speaking children. The paper concludes that before the children can begin to use complex predicates, they must have acquired a good knowledge of the semantic classes of verbs and of thematic roles.
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    Effects of Home Literacy Environment on Student's Performance in Selected Secondary Schools in Ilorin
    (The Nasara Journal of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, 2016) Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth
    English language is the official language in Nigeria therefore it is given prominent roles in the educational policy in Nigeria. It is observed that Nigerian students are not performing well in the English language as a school subject. Many factors have been considered to be the cause of the poor performance of students. Home environment is one of such factors that influence the academic performance of students. This study investigates the effect of home literacy environment and its variables on the performance of SSS3 students in English in selected Secondary Schools in Ilorin. Data were collected through the One Hundred and ten (110) Students’ Home Environment Questionnaire (SHEQ) and written tests which were administered in six Selected Secondary schools. Lev Vygotsky’s (1978) socio-cultural theory was adopted. This study found that home literacy environment with its variables (like parental involvement, home literacy facilities, societal influences) has great effect on students’ performance in English. It recommended that the parents and society should be sensitized to identify their influence on the performance of students’ in English and how they can influence the students positively to improve on the performance of the students in language learning.
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    A Lexicostatistics Comparison of Yoruba, Igbo and Olukumi Dialects
    (Inquiry in African Languages and Literatures, Department of Linguistics and Languages, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, 2016) Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth
    This is a preliminary report on an ongoing research work on Olùkùmi, a Yoruboid language enclaved by the Igbo communities in Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta state of Nigeria. The paper examines Olùkùmi as it is spoken today; an amorphous language on the verge of extinction. We examine the Ugbodu and Ukwunzu varieties of Olùkùmi along with Yorùbá and Igbo languages. With their location, the effect of Igbo language and culture on the Olùkùmi language and people cannot be over-emphasized. Olùkùmi is a language struggling for survival. The paper carries out a comparative and lexico-statistical analysis of two varieties of Olùkùmi; Ugbodu and Ukwunzu with Yorùbá and Igbo, drawing data from the Ibadan Four Hundred (400) Word List of Basic Items. The data were collected from native speakers of the languages. The essence of the comparative work is to discover the similarities and differences that exist among the languages. It also made it possible to examine the level of mutual intelligibility that exists among them. We found that the two varieties examined are very different from each other. The Ugbodu variety of Olùkùmi is closer to Yorùbá while the Ukwunzu variety is closer to Igbo. The lexicostatistic analysis show higher percentage (77.61%) of cognates between Ugbodu and Yorùbá and between Ukwunzu variety and Igbo (82.1%) thereby betraying closer affinity between the two sets. The effort of the Ugbodu community in reviving the language is also examined. The language as it is spoken now is a hybrid of Yorùbá, Igbo, Igala and Esan languages.