Relativization in Ikwuano Dialect of Igbo

Abstract

This paper examines relativization in Ikwuano Igbo. The problem of word order and the selectional rule for grammaticality in the realization of semantic affinity that exist in sentence construction cannot be ignored. This study investigates the embedding features that make sentential structures to be embedded in other sentences. The relative pronouns found in Ikwuano Igbo include; “ónyé- who,whom”, “nkè- which”, “nà- that”, “mà- whether”, “kà- that”. The relative pronoun occurs as the subject of a relative clause making it to be grammatical. The theoretical framework adopted by this study is the embedding principle of “Principles and Parameters”. This theory is a brain child of Noam Chomsky. This study takes a descriptive approach of language analysis. The data for this paper is elicited utterances by adult native speakers and intuition from the researcher. The aim of this paper is to examine relativization in Ikwuano Igbo with a view to establishing the Ikwuano strategy. This paper explains the motivation for the relative pronoun strategy and its behavior in the language. This study reveals that relativization in Ikwuano Igbo remains the most productive strategy in Igbo and many other languages for grammaticality. The study shows that relativization performs an emphatic function in the grammatical structure of Ikwuano Igbo.

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English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies
ISSN 2640-9836 (Print) ISSN 2640-9844 (Online)
Vol. 6, No. 1, 2024
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Original Paper
Relativization in Ikwuano Dialect of Igbo
Blessing Ugochi Uwasomba Ph.D1
1 Department of English and Communication Studies, Federal University Otuoke, Yenagoa, Nigeria
* Blessing Ugochi Uwasomba Ph.D, E-mail: bleugochi@yahoo.com
Abstract
This paper examines relativization in Ikwuano Igbo. The problem of word order and the selectional
rule for grammaticality in the realization of semantic affinity that exist in sentence construction cannot
be ignored. This study investigates the embedding features that make sentential structures to be
embedded in other sentences. The relative pronouns found in Ikwuano Igbo include; “ónyé-
who,whom”, “nkè- which”, “nà- that”, “mà- whether”, “kà- that”. The relative pronoun occurs as the
subject of a relative clause making it to be grammatical. The theoretical framework adopted by this
study is the embedding principle of “Principles and Parameters”. This theory is a brain child of Noam
Chomsky. This study takes a descriptive approach of language analysis. The data for this paper is
elicited utterances by adult native speakers and intuition from the researcher. The aim of this paper is
to examine relativization in Ikwuano Igbo with a view to establishing the Ikwuano strategy. This paper
explains the motivation for the relative pronoun strategy and its behavior in the language. This study
reveals that relativization in Ikwuano Igbo remains the most productive strategy in Igbo and many
other languages for grammaticality. The study shows that relativization performs an emphatic function
in the grammatical structure of Ikwuano Igbo.
Keywords
relativization, embedding, head-initial, grammaticality and semantic affinity
1. Introduction
Ikwuano is a dialect spoken in Ikwuano Umuahia area of Abia State in Nigeria. Ikwuano is located at
the triangular axis of Umuahia, Aba and Ikot Ekpene in Akwa Ibom State. This study seeks to provide a
descriptive analysis of relativization in Ikwuano Igbo. Ndimele (2003, p. 199) posits that relativization
is a syntactic process of turning an otherwise full-fledged sentence into a subordinate (embedded)
clause, so that it becomes a modifier of a noun phrase in the matrix clause. Matthews (2007, p. 342
asserts that relativization is the formation of relative clauses specifically, the process by which one
element is represented by a relative pronoun or its equivalent.
1.1 Aims and Objectives of the Study
This study has the objective of discovering whether relativization exist in Ikwuano dialect or not. This

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study seeks to have a descriptive competence of relativization. To examine how word order are formed
in relation to selectional rule of the language. To examine relativization in Ikwuano Igbo and also to
investigate how sentential structures are embedded into another sentence.
1.2 Novelty of the Study
Man is genetically endowed with innate capacity to produce and comprehend languages he is exposed
to (Uwasomba, 2020, p. 208). This is the crux of generativivism as opposed to traditional grammar that
describes features of languages in specified individual languages in a taxonomic system. One of the
most weaknesses of traditional grammar, being that hardly could generalization be made of structures
and processes of natural language faculty, Radford (2004) calls it the internalized grammar (i-grammar),
which subsequently manifests as a physical reality. Proponents of principles and parameters (P&P)
describe the I-grammar as a mental package containing the rules of languages system. These rules cut
across all human language. However, the nuances noticeable in the manifestation of the internal rules
are referred to as parameters. Chomsky (1981) says that theory of universal grammar consists of
interacting sub-system which can be studied from two deference perspectives. These are the rules
system s of grammar and the sub systems subsystem of principles. The sub-components of rule system
are: lexicon, syntax (categorical and transformational components). PF-components and
Lf –components are the interpretive components. The lexicon specifies the peculiar features of a word.
Guided by the base rules, words are inserted into nodes in the D-structure and these mapped to the
S-structure by the move alpha rule. At the S-structure there may be traces of movement as well as
co-indexing of anaphors with their antecedents. This rule is called the transformational components.
The rule can also appear at PF and LF. The PF (Phonetic form) is a level where the physical structures
are represented phonetically. The LF (logical form) on the other hand is the level where meaning is
represented. Emenanjo (2015) asserts that there are restrictions on the choice of lexical items. The
restrictions are associated with the headedness of phrases in Igbo and other languages. The lexical
categories such as Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs and prepositions are assigned heads in their
phrases, (Uwasomba, 2019a, p. 136).
The head of a phrase bears the name of the phrase. Words are taken as projections from the lexicon
(Chomsky, 1995, p. 189), its precursor being the matching and substitution formats. The projection
principle in Chomsky (1981) are merged into structures one –by one. To build phrases and sentences,
words project phrases of the category. Thus, nouns project NPs, Verbs VPs, Adjectives ADJs,
Prepositions PPS and Adverbs ADVPs. Relativization is applied to Ikwuano Igbo as a natural language
that serves the communicative functions to the speakers. The universal formular in language acquisition
is applied to Ikwuano igbo and to every other natural language.
2. Method
The researcher collected data from fluent speakers of Ikwuano Igbo with pen and paper. The researcher
also relied on her intuition as a native speaker of the language but where any given set of data

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contradicts her intuition, direct oral interview was used to elicit comparative data from other native
speakers of the language. This study takes a descriptive approach of language analysis.
2.1 Review of Related Literature
2.1.1 The Concept of Relativization
Emenanjo (2015, pp. 406-407) posits that relativization is the process of forming a relative clause
construction. Relativization is a syntactic process which involves the derivation and use of a relative
clause to modify the head of a noun phrase. In Igbo, the relative clause is the outermost part of the noun
phrase to which it belongs as an optional, post-modifying structure. The Igbo relative is thus
post-nominal and follows the head noun unlike in Japanese, Tibetan, Turkish and Korean where it is
pre-nominal. Igbo, like English, has some WH-words. Many Igbo scholars have worked on
relativization in Igbo. Some of the Igbo scholars are Green and Igwe (1963), Abraham (1967), Welmers
(1973:426), Anagbogu (1978), Emenanjo (1978, pp. 197-200), Ndimele (2003, pp. 125-127), Obichili
(2010), Anyanwu (2007, pp. 111-112), Mbah (2016, pp. 116-125), among others, have written about
relative clauses or relativization in different lects of the Igbo language. In English, the relative clause
can be marked by an overt WH- word, a complementizer or a zero morpheme. Quirk and Greenbaun
(1973, pp. 376-384) hold that English has four types of relative clauses: restrictive (or non-defining),
headless, and sentential.
Watters (2000, p. 225) describes relativization as a syntactic process that generates a type of structure
in which a noun phrase includes a clause that modifies the head of the phrase, just as adjectives in a
noun phrase modify the head of the phrase. He claimed that relativization is used more frequently in
African languages for adjectival functions where European languages would use adjectives, for
example “the tall man” as opposed to “the man who is tall”. Brown and Miller (1988, p. 137) claim that
relativization is a term that describes the formation of relative clauses which are embedded clauses that
are generated out of main clauses in order to describe a particular nominal head. They make a clear
structural distinction between clause complementation and relativization.
Emenanjo (1978, p. 199) points out that in the absence of many descriptive adjectives, Igbo often uses
relativization to express Igbo – adjective notions. Baridisi, (2020, pp. 55-76) posits that in Gokana in
River State, a relative clause follows the head noun it modifies. It is introduced by a relative clause
marker which is realized as e. The relative clause marker bears an inherent mid tone. The relative
clause can co-occur with any head noun regardless of the syntactic position of such a head noun in the
sentence. Thus, the relative clause can occur with a head noun in the subject position or object position
of the matrix clause. The relative clause also occurs with a head noun that is the complement of a
preposition.
Tallerman (2011, pp. 251-259) asserts that relativization leaves behind a gap in the relativized position
in English syntax but acknowledges the possibility of some cross- linguistic variations to this
phenomenon. She compares the Hausa with the English translation (the Hausa word da at the start of
the relative clause is a relative marker) as demonstrated below.

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(i) wuqud [da ya kashe ta da ita]
knife RCM he kiiled her with it
“The knife that he killed her with ---
Compare the Hausa example with this English example
(ii) The forms [ that --- arrived yesterday ] -subject
(iii) The paper [ ( which) we discuss -- next week ] --direct object
(iv) The film [ (that) we’re going to --- tonight ] --prepositional object
These relative clauses use the “gap strategy” the relativized position is simply empty
In English more or less, any position in a clause that can contain an NP can be relativized, including the
subject, direct object, and object of a preposition. The relativized position in the above examples
contained a gap, each gap is marked and its position (grammatical function) within the clause is shown
in the English examples. English is actually unusual, cross-linguistically, in using the gap strategy
when the relativized position is the object of a preposition (the film we’re going to --). Compare Hausa
in (a) with the English translation. The relativized position in the Hausa and in the English translation is
the object of the preposition da, “with”. English uses the gap strategy, and allows prepositions to be
stranded at the end of the clause: left with no prepositional object. But most languages avoid this one
way or another, for instance, by using the resumptive strategy as the Hausa does.
In verb-final languages, though, the relative clause often precedes the head noun. Consider the
Japanese examples in (v) and (vi): and the relativized position is the gap within the relativized position,
Japanese example illustration below:
(v) [kimura - san – ga -- katte – iru] inu.
kimura – Mr, - NOM keeps- NON PAST dog
“The dog that Mr. Kimura keeps”
(vi) [kimura – san – ga – inu – o ageta ] Kodomo
Kimura – Mr. – NOM dog- ACC give PAST child
“The child to whom Mr. Kimura gave a dog”.
In example (v), the relativized position is the direct object of the verb “katte” keep”, recall that
Japanese is an SOV language so the “missing” object NP immediately precedes the verb in the
bracketed relative clause. And in (vi), the relativized position is the indirect object of the verb “ageta”
“gave”, the basic position for an indirect object in Japanese is before the direct object, hence the
position of the gap shown here. There is no equivalent to the English relative pronouns “who” or
“which” in Japanese, nor any other word introducing the relative clause, and that does the relative
clause simply come right before the head noun.
This constituent order “relative clause-head noun” is common in other Head-final languages. For
instance, the relative clause construction which is native to Turkish (a language with SOV constituent
order) is also head-final in this way (Kornfilt, 1997), and the same applies to Korean, Hungarian,
however, has both types of relative clause- the English pattern “head noun- relative clause” as well as

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the head- final pattern. Another type of relative clause is from Bambara, a member of the African
language family Mande. Relative clauses whose head noun appears inside the relative clause itself.
This type is much rarer cross-linguistically. Consider first a simple sentence, where the constituent
order is SOV; as demonstrated below.
(vii) Tye ye so san (Bambara)
Man PAST horse buy
“The man bought the horse”
When “so” the object NP of this sentence is relativized, the relativized head noun “so” actually occurs
within the structure of the relative clause, as shown in (viii).
(viii) Tye ye [ne ye so min ye] san
Man PAST I PAST horse which see buy
“The man bought the horse which I saw”.
From the examples this study has given from other languages, we observed that relativization has
different typology as:
-Head – initial relative clauses
-Head – final relative clauses
-Internally – headed relative clauses.
2.1.2 Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework used in this study is the embedding principle of Principles and Parameters.
This theory is a brainchild of Chomsky (1981). It arose out of the weaknesses of the transformational
rules, which do not appear to head towards a minimal rule of linguistic generality. The principle and
parameter theory (P&P) has introduced two vital concepts namely, principle and parameter. A principle
refers to hypotheses, which capture a syntactic feature shared by all languages, Mbah (2016:116). On
the other hand, parameter is a measure of variation from or adaptation to the general principle.
Richards (2012, p. 177) posits that embedding is a generative grammar concept that indicates the
occurrence of a sentence within another sentence. He illustrated with this example. “The news that he
had got married surprised his friends”. Two sentences are fused into one.
(a) “The news surprised his friends”
(b) “That he had got married”.
Sentence (b) is embedded in sentence (a) and is therefore an embedded sentence. In early
transformational grammar, the embedding transformations generated as many sentences as possible.
Ejele (2014, pp. 128-129) asserts that sentences are introduced by “that essentially relative clauses such
as “that students were involved in last night’s orgy” and “that killed the rat”. She gave this sentence,
“This is the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that laid in the house that Jack built”. The above
sentence has four relative clauses embedded in it, each introduced by “that…” Both conjoining and
embedding show the recursive property of language. Mbah (2016, p. 125) summarizes the principle of
embedding to mean that sentential structures are made so that some get subordinated in others. Every

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grammatical category can be embedded in similar grammatical categories.
3. Result
Relativization in Ikwuano Igbo involves the syntactic processes involved in the formation of relative
clauses through the grammatical structure of word order. The combination of constituents in syntactic
and semantic analysis for grammaticality are analyzed through the speaker hearer performance.
4. Discussion
4.1 Structure of the Ikwuano Relative Clause
In Ikwuano, a relative clause follows the head noun it modifies. The relative clause marker in Ikwuano
are “´ónyé” – “who/ whom”, “nkè - that”, “nà – which”, “mà – whether”.
Let us start with the first relative marker, in the order presented above “onye – who”.
1) Nkechi [ónyé lùrù dí] bịàràà n’ụlò.
Nkechi who marry- PAST come PAST PREP house
“Nkechi who got married came to the house”.
2) Ogbonna [ónyé ísííké zùrù óhí] n’áhịá.
Ogbonna who headstrong steal – PAST PREP market
Ogbonna who is sturborn stole in the market.
3) Mpama [ónyé ànyí màrà] dàrà ádà.
Mpama whom we know fall PAST down
“Mpama whom we know fell down”.
4) Orji [ónyé bú diji] chiri echichi.
Orji who copular verb title holder perform – celebration
“Orji who is the title yam holder celebrated”.
50 *Nkechi [ònyè lùrù dí] bịara n’ụlọ.
*Nkechi which one married? came to the house.
The low tone on “ónyé” changes the clause to question clause which makes it ungrammatical.
Sentences 1, 2 and 4 have the relative clauses as “ónyé” “who” while sentence (3) also is “ónyé”-
“whom”. The sentences we produced are indicating emphatic analysis on the NP relative clause.
Sentence number (1) has two meanings are realized as;
(a) Nkechi bịara n’ụló. (matrix sentence)
Nkechi come PAST to the house
“Nkechi came to the house.”
(b) Nkechi lụrụ di. (embedded sentence)
Nkechi marry – PAST husband
“Nkechi got married.”
The emphasis is on “Nkechi who got married”. The relative pronoun marker “ónyé”, “who” represents

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Nkechi”. The “ónyé”- “who” lays emphasis on the subject of the sentence. “ónyé” is the embedded
sentence. The second “Nkechi” is deleted in the embedded sentence and was replaced by “ónyé” -
“who”.
Sentence (5) is ungrammatical because of the low tone on the relative NP “ònyè”- “who” here there is
deviation from the sentence because it is interrogating as in “who married”? Since it is clear that
Nkechi got married, it is wrong to ask a question “who married”?
The speaker – listener competence understand each other in the use of words and the tone of the voice
of the speaker. A tone either low or high can bring a change in the syntactic and semantic analysis of a
sentence as we have observed above. The second relative clause marker is “nkè” – “which”.
6) Ugboala [nkè Okeke gbara] ọkụ.
Car which POS PRON burn PAST fire
“The car which belongs to Okeke was destroyed by fire.
The relative marker in example (6) lays emphasis on possession which means that it is Okeke’s car that
got burnt not another person’s car. The relative marker “her” lays emphasis on Okeke’s car.
(7) Nwanyí [nke kwúrú gi ókwu] no ebe a.
woman that talk PAST to you COP,VB. Here
“The woman that talked to you is here.”
The relative marker in example (7) lays emphasis on the particular/known woman that talked to you is
here. The sentence knows the particular woman being referred to in the sentence. The
speaker/hearer/understands the woman being referred to. Here the syntactic and the semantic analysis
are already built in the brain of the speakers using the language.
(8) Eze [siri na nne ya] gara ahịa.
Eze say PAST REL PRO his mother GO PAST to the market.
“Eze said that his mother went to the market.
(9) Ada siri [ka anyị gba-egwu] n’úlọ ha.
Ada say PAST REL PRON we should dance in their house.
“Ada said that we should dance in their house”.
(10) Mpama jụrụ [ma nri agwula] n’ụlọ.
Mpama asked REL PRON food has finished] in the house
“Mpama asked whether the food has finished in the house”.
(11) Ipuomu jụrụ ma anụ ọ fọrọ n’ofe.
Ipuomu ask PAST REL PRON meat remain pot of soup.
“Ipuomu asked whether meat is still remaining in the soup.”
Sentences (8 – 11) are complex structures with NP features function as the subject of the matrix clause.
Relativization is one of the major strategies in the derivation of complex sentences in Ikwuano Igbo. If
the relative marker is removed from the sentences demonstrated above, what remain will be simple
sentences. Relative clause helps to form complex sentences in the languages.

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4.2 Complex NPs and Relativization
In Ikwuano Igbo, a complex NP is made up of a head noun and a clausal modifier. This type of
structure is generated if any major NP constituent of the simple sentence is relativized.
(12 a.) Nkita tagburu nwamba.
Dog eat PST cat.
“The dog ate the cat”.
(b) Nkita nke tagburu nwamba.
Nkita RCM eat PST cat
“The dog that ate the cat.”
(c) “Nwamba [nkè nkita tagburu].
cat RCM dog eat PST.
“The cat that the dog ate.”
The subject constituent of the simple sentence in (12a) is relativized to generate the complex NP in (12
b) while the object constituent is relativized to generate the complex NP in (12c), whereas (12a) is an
independent structure as a result of relativzation. The dependent structure depends on the main sentence
to make a complete meaning in Ikwuano Igbo.
The word order strategy are selected from the lexicon of the native speaker and combined into simple
and complex sentences. Every native speaker of his/her language knows the combinations that can
match or go together in syntactic and semantic relations.
4.3 Relativized Sentence Helps in the Formation of Complimentizer Phrase
A complementizer projects into a complementizer phrase. Ejele (2014) describes complement phrase
structure as functional clauses that allow clauses to be embedded in other clauses. A complementizer
projects a complimentizer phrase CP that takes IP as a complement. This is exemplified below.
(13) Chioma chere nà nne ya gara n’ubi.
Chioma think PST RCM mother went to the farm.
“Chioma thought that her mother went to the farm.”
The CP in the above sentence is “nà” “that” and it is the complement of “nne ya gara n’ubi”, “her
mother went to the farm”. The PP houses the NP complement of the sentence. We have the main clause
and the subordinate clause, the subordinate clause completes the meaning of the main clause. The past
suffix of the verb agrees in ATR features (advanced tongue root) in the main and the embedded clauses.
There is an agreement between the pronoun “ya” “her” and its antecedent “Chioma” in the above
sentence. This is one of the characteristics of a relative pronoun. The semantic property of the verb
“gà”- “go” in the subordinate clause is demonstrated on a tree diagram below.

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IP
NP I1
I VP
V CP
PST C IP
N NP I1
N
PRO I VP
V PP
P NP
N
Figure 1. Tree Diagram with a Complementizer Phrase
Chioma thought that the mother went to the farm.
The IP-inflection phrase represents the sentence. The IP performs a functional duty of providing
scaffold structure for sentences. According to Fasold & Connor – Linton (2011) shows its functions as
a “scaffolding” structure for meaningful words to be attached. The IP links the subject (the specifier)
with the functional category called inflection. Inflections are abstract elements such as tense (past and
present) aspects and modal auxiliaries.
Chioma -re che na nne
ya ra ga n’ ubi

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IP
SPEC I1
VP
I CP
IP
NP PST I1
-rV V
N C N PST V
Figure 2. A sentence with a complementizer phrase Eze said that Ngozi has not swept the house.
4.3 Explanations about the Tree Diagrams
The words in the above sentences are selected according to the word order of the language and
combined according to the selectional rule of the language. The semantic affinities are in order
otherwise the sentences will be declared ungrammatical. These elements project into an inflection
phrase. The IP links the subject and VP that completes its meaning. The complement phrase branches
from the inflection bar (1).
In addition to all the functional categories we have demonstrated that a comlpementizer projects a
NP
VP
NP
N
Eze -ri si na
Ngozi -beghi aza ulo

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complementizer phrase CP that takes an IP as its complement. Ejele (2014, pp. 137-141) documents
that complementizers are words such as if, for, and relative clause markers in English such as that, who,
whether, whom, and when. She posits that the relative clause markers in English describe features of
the embedded sentence with the complement. CP’s provide scaffolding structure for embedded clauses.
4.4 Conclusion
This study presented the phenomenon of relativization in Ikwuano Igbo. We found that the
relativization in Ikwuano includes; “ónyé- who, whom” with high tone (HH) not (LH), other relative
pronouns are “nkè – which”, “nà – that”, “mà – whether” and “kà – that”. It is clear that word order
strategy is selected from the lexicon of the native speaker and combined into a simple and complex
sentence from being competent in the language. The study observes that relativization accepts
embedded clause which generates the complementizer phrase in a complex sentence. Languages of the
world have relativization in their own strategic characteristics of grammaticality and the word order
arrangement. Relativization in Ikwuano is not only a strategy used to express complex but it is also a
strategy used to express complex clause but it is also a strategy used to give emphases to a particular
NP constituents of the sentence. The research filled the gap in Igbo grammar by introducing the
principle of embedding of the Principles and parameters of Chomsky (1981). This shows that the
module used for language analysis can be applied to any natural language of the world. Some of the
Igbo scholars who worked on relativization did not use any module in their analysis of language as a
means of communication. Chomsky and other scholars of syntax and semantics have set the standard
for every other language to fit into and apply their own strategy for language descriptions and
grammaticality.
Acknowledgement
About the author
Dr. Blessing Ugochi Uwasomba is a senior lecturer in the department of English and Communication
Studies, Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. She is one of the pioneer lecturers of the
department since 2012. Her areas of research interest include morphology, syntax, Nigerian Linguistics
(Igbo) and Socio-linguistics.
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Notes
Note 1
Abbreviations
ADJPs Adjective Phrases
ADVPs Adverb Phrases
ATR Advanced tongue root
AUX Auxiliary
COP copular
COMP compementizer
CP complementizer phrase
FUT future tense
GB government and binding
HT high tone
I (INFL) Inflectional phrase
IP Inflection phrase
LT low tone
NP Noun phrase
P preposition
PERF perfective verb form
PP prepositional phrase
P&P principles and parameters
PRO pronoun
PST past tense
SPEC specifier
RCM relative clause marker
TNS tense
V verb
VP verb phrase
1SG first person singular
1PL first person plural
3SG third person singular
3PL third person plural

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Note 2
ORCID Number:
0000-00010-8930-2432
https://orcid.org/0000-00010-8930-2432