A Syntactic Analysis of the Early Verbs of Yoruba Child Language
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Date
2011
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Ilorin Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Culture,Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, University of Ilorin, Ilorin.
Abstract
This paper reports on the development and make-up of the early verb lexicon of the Yoruba child. It also examines the syntactic structure of the verb and its argument structure. We examine how the Yoruba child moves from a stage of no verb at all to a perfect command of the grammar of Yoruba. Verbs that opaquely theta-mark their objects, verbs that anti-causativise without new objects and adjectivisable verbs are examined. Three children, Damilare, Temiloluwa and Tola, are involved in the naturalistic longitudinal study. They were recorded daily from eighteen to thirty six months by their parents. The Minimalist Programme serves as the framework for our syntactic analysis. We find that the argument structure of some verbs was acquired early while some were acquired much later. The children in our study easily acquired the argument structure of verbs that opaquely theta-mark their objects and they also began to use unaccusative verbs shortly after their second birthday. The subjects began to use adjectivisable verbs at an early stage, however, evidence shows that adjectivisable verbs do not form one of the first set of verbs acquired by Yoruba children.
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Keywords
Syntax, Language Acquisition, Yoruba, Early verbs