LIVELIHOOD DIVERSIFICATION UTILIZED BY RURAL DWELLERS IN NSIT IBOM LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF AKWA IBOM STATE

0
321

ABSTRACT

Comparative Analysis compares two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor feature by feature, in order to extrapolate back to infer the properties of that ancestor. This work examines and analyses negation in Itu Mbon Uso and Igbo languages phonologically, morphologically and syntactically in a bid to identify the similarities that occur between the two languages studied. This research work is done using the survey researcher methodology and the informants used are two (2) literate natives of Itu Mbon Uso and two (2) literate natives of Igbo between the ages of 35-60. This work analyzed the data collected qualitatively, using comparative analysis as the theoretical frame work. The findings of this work show that negation in Itu Mbon Uso and Igbo differs phonologically, morphologically and syntactically. It is also discovered that although Itu Mbon Uso and Igbo differ in some ways, they are also similar in a way because Itu Mbon Uso and Igbo negation use prefixes and suffixes in marking negation. Thus, this work recommends that the younger generation be taught negation in their native languages and other neighboring languages from a tender age and that this work be used as a spring-board for further researches in the area of negation in Itu Mbon Uso and Igbo languages.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1             Introduction                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Language, according to Anagbogu, Mba and Eme (2010:1) is a means which human beings have devised for communicating ideas, feelings, emotions, desires and so on, through complex vocal or written symbols. This research work is concerned with negation. Negation to Essien (2008:96), is a syntactic and phonological device by which a positive proposition is denied or said to be untrue or by which a positive imperative order is prohibited among other things.

In every word or sentences uttered in our present world, there must be an act of denial, contradiction or misinterpretation. This is so because, as humans we have our different views. A universal property of natural language is that every language is able to express negation. Every language has some device at its disposal to reverse the truth- value of a certain sentence. However, languages may differ to quite a large extent as to how they express negation.

In this work, negation in Itu Mbon Uso and Igbo languages will be surveyed.

1.2       Background of the Study

Negation, according to Essien (2008:96), is a syntactic and phonological device by which a positive preposition is denied or said to be untrue or by which a positive imperative order is prohibited among other things.

            According to Huddleston (1976:70), negatives can be dealt with more quickly because the problems they raise are very similar to those associated with interrogatives.  He considers only simple constructions marked by the presence of ‘not’ and this excludes negatives like “nothing satisfies her”, “I saw neither John nor Bill” and contracted forms like “John hasn’t seen mark”.

            According to Crystal (2008:323), negation is “a process of construction in grammatical and semantic analysis which typically expresses the contradictions of some or all of the sentence meaning”. Also, in Standard English, negative clauses and sentences commonly include the negative particle ‘not’ or the contracted ‘n’t’. Other negative words include: no, none, nothing, nobody, never, etc. due to the intricate nature of language, negation is best studied alongside affirmative.

LIVELIHOOD DIVERSIFICATION UTILIZED BY RURAL DWELLERS IN NSIT IBOM LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF AKWA IBOM STATE