SYNTACTIC BEHAVIOUR OF IGBO INTERROGATIVE WORDS

Abstract

Grammarians and linguistics of Igbo language have often casually talked about the Igbo interrogative words and their functions. Few though, have really taken the pains to carry to carry out an in-depth study of their individual syntactic behaviours in contexualized, pragmatic usage. In this study, we adopt a new strategy to classify the interrogatives under study according to their semantic affinity, in order to facilitate the study of their specific, individual syntactic behaviours in non-verbal and QW-verbal question constructions. This will help to systemize the study of this aspect of Igbo grammar. It is important to indicate that 75% of the interrogative words we intend to study here are those widely used in the Olu dialect of Igbo