SYNTAX OF ADJUNCTS IN THE IGBO LANGUAGE

Abstract

This work examines the syntax of adjuncts in the Igbo language. It aims to verify the claim of Mbah (1999) that adjuncts have many privileges of occurrence within a sentence structure. The work seeks to investigate adjuncts in Igbo to explicate the meaning of adjunct and ascertain their features and syntactic positions. The data used in this work are drawn from the standard Igbo through the researcher's ‘day to day’ interaction with Igbo speakers and the researcher's intuitive knowledge of the language. The transformational theory of Chomsky (1965) will shape the study. The descriptive analyses of the Igbo sentences used as data confirm that adjuncts are optional constituents and have many privileges of occurrence within a sentence structure; there are three main positions accessible to the adjuncts in a sentence structure namely: initial, medial and final positions; their meanings are unlike with any other lexical category, the same in these positions. The work supports the claim that adjuncts in the Igbo language are mobile constituents which can occupy different positions within a sentence structure.