Abstract:
Constituent interrogatives are employed to request for more than yes/no
answers from interlocutors. Extant works on constituent interrogatives in
Yorùbá are yet to pay adequate attention to the syntactic behaviour of
question nouns (QNs) , question verbs (QVs) and interrogative qualifiers in
the language. Therefore, this paper investigated the syntax of constituent
interrogatives in Yorùbá with a view to providing plausible evidence
showing QNs, QVs and interrogative qualifiers as constituent interrogative
markers in the language. Primary and secondary data were collected and
subjected to syntactic analysis within the confines of Minimalist Program
(MP). Yorùbá uses the following to form its constituent interrogatives: QVs
(dà, ńkọ́) , QNs (ta, kí, èwo, mélòó, èló, ìkelòó) and interrogative qualifiers
(wo, kelòó). A QN is copied to the clause left peripheral position in a
content-word question unlike an echoed question. Wo as the interrogative
qualifier, that is the question marker (QM) in ìgbà wo ‘when’ ibo (ibi è (wo)
‘where’, báwo (bá wo) ‘how’ has its [+Q] , the question feature percolated
through the entire DPs, that is the question phrases (QPs). A QN does more
than satisfying focus requirement in the language while the QVs (dà and
ńkọ́) perform predicate function. A QN qualifies a preceding noun just like a
nominal qualifier does in an affirmative sentence in the language.
Constituent interrogatives are employed to request for more than yes/no
answers from interlocutors. Extant works on constituent interrogatives in
Yoruba are yet to pay adequate attention to the syntactic behaviour of
question nouns (QNs), question verbs (QVs) and interrogative qualifiers in
the language. Therefore, this paper investigated the syntax of constituent
interrogatives in Yoruba with a view to providing plausible evidence
showing QNs, QVs and interrogative qualifiers as constituent interrogative
markers in the language. Primary and secondary data were collected and
subjected to syntactic analysis within the confines of Minimalist Program
(MP). Yoruba uses the following to form its constituent interrogatives: QVs
(da, nko), QNs (ta, ki, ewo, meloo, elo, ikeloo) and interrogative qualifiers
(wo, keloo). A QN is copied to the clause left peripheral position in a
content-word question unlike an echoed question. Wo as the interrogative
qualifier, that is the question marker (QM) in igba wo ‘when’ ibo (ibi e(wo)
‘where’, bawo (ba wo) ‘how’ has its [+Q], the question feature percolated
through the entire DPs, that is the question phrases (QPs). A QN does more
than satisfying focus requirement in the language while the QVs (da and
nko) perform predicate function. A QN qualifies a preceding noun just like a
nominal qualifier does in an affirmative sentence in the language.