TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page       -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           i

Certification -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           ii         

Dedication     -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           iii

Acknowledgement   -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           iv

Table of content       -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           vi

Abstract          -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           x

Chapter One – Introduction

1.0       Preamble       -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           1         

1.1       Obolo Language Classification    -           -           -           -           -           2

1.2       Background of Obolo People        -           -           -           -           -           5

1.3       Statement of the Problem               -           -           -           -           -           6

1.4       Research Question             -           -           -           -           -           -           -           7         

1.5       Research Question -           -           -           -           -           -           -           7

1.6       Significance of the Study   -           -           -           -           -           -           8

1.7       Scope of the Research       -           -           -           -           -           -           8

1.8       Research Methodology      -           -           -           -           -           -           9

1.8.1   Research Design     -           -           -           -           -           -           -           9

1.8.2   Research Population          -           -           -           -           -           -           10

1.8.3   Sampling Technique          -           -           -           -           -           -           10

1.8.4   Tools for Data Collection    -           -           -           -           -           -           10

1.8.5   Procedure for Data Analysis          -           -           -           -           -           11

Chapter Two - Review of Related Literature

2.0       Introduction   -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           12

2.1     Review of Related Literature on Obolo     -           -           -           -           12

2.2     Review of Related Literature on Ideophone        -           -           -           14

2.2.1   Phonology/Morphology      -           -           -           -           -           -           20

2.2.2   Syntax and Semantics        -           -           -           -           -           -           21

2.2.3   Pracmatic Functions           -           -           -           -           -           -           22

2.3       Type of Ideophone  -           -           -           -           -           -           -           22

2.3.1   Onomatopoeic Ideophone -           -           -           -           -           -           23       

2.3.2   Phonoaesthetic ideophones         -           -           -           -           -           23

2.4       Ideophone in English         -           -           -           -           -           -           24

2.5       Ideophones in Africa           -          -           -           -           -           -           26

2.6       Claims about Ideophones  -           -           -           -           -           -           27       

2.7       Function of Ideophone       -           -           -           -           -           -           28

2.8       Origin of Ideophones          -           -           -           -           -           -           29

2.9       Misconceptions about Ideophones          -           -           -           -           29

Chapter Three

3.1       Introduction   -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           34       

3.2       Data Presentation on Nominal Ideophone in Obolo     -           -           34       

3.3       Data Presentation on adverbial Ideophone in Obolo    -           -           34                   

Chapter Four – Data Analysis and Discussion of Finding

4.1       Introduction   -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           36

4.2       Data Analysis           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           36

4.3       Usage of Nominal Ideophone in Obolo   -           -           -           -           38

4.4       Usage of Adverbial Ideophone in Obolo -           -           -           -           38

4.5       Semantic Implications of the Obolo Idoephones           -           -           -           39

4.6       Syntactic  Distribution of Obolo Idoephone        -           -           -           39

Chapter Five - Summary/Conclusion and Recommendation

5.0       Introduction   -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           41

5.1       Summary of the Study -      -           -           -           -           -           -           41

5.2       Conclusion   -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           42

5.3       Recommendation    -           -           -           -           -           -           -           43

References   -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           44

ABSTRACT

This work aims to explore specific aspects of ideophone in Obolo and that aspects are nominal and adverbial ideophone. With Obolo language we have been able to identify nominal and adverbial ideophones, which are unique aspects of study and our focus on this work. Nominal ideophones are ideophone use in place of a noun while adverbial ideophones are ideophone use in place of an adverb. Adverbial ideophone can optional. Ideophone is a very interesting study in African languages because it conveys meaning on the basis of it sound pattern and also portray emotions. Qualitative research method is used and also interviews and questionnaires are also used. In this work we have, functions of ideophone, origin of ideophone, review of related literature on ideophone, types of ideophone,and so on. Let’s look at it carefully in this work.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0         Preamble

A characteristic feature of languages worldwide, but particularly those in Africa, is ideophones; words of adistinct semantic type, which can fill one or many syntactic slots.Ideophones may be defined as a subset ofsound symbolic words, which can also include phonaesthemes and other strategies to signal sensory qualities. This field is often referred to as phonosemantics. Although ideophones have begun to be of some interest tothe broader scholarly community,they have hardlyexcited the attention they merit in terms of their overall importance in the lexicon of many languages.

Ideophones constitute a distinct word category whose major purpose is to convey meaning on the basis of its sound patterns. Ideophones areabundant in natural and heightened speech, notable in Africa, but absent from typical example sentences, hence their failure to be treated adequately in typical grammar and dictionaries. Our understanding of the role they play in natural language is still very preliminary. It seems that ideophones are more prevalent in Africa and parts of Asia than in other regions of the world although the evidence is more ambiguous.

The classification of ideophones remains under debate. They have been defined very broadly in literature as anything with sound symbolic element, in which case they are realized as all major parts of speech. For example English verbs such as “gobble” or ‘twinkle’ are sometimes treated as ideophones. An aspect of ideophones in most African language is reduplication; words are wholly or partly reduplicated according to language.It is often these reduplications that give the onomatopoeic sense that plays a role in their generation.Ideophones tend to be polysyllabic and in some cases can be freely extended. Ideophonescan deepen the meaning of words.

Several studies have indeed been carried out on diverse features, structures and functions of ideophones in Nigeria as well as African languages which underlines the relevance as well as importance of this language classification.

This work is aimed at investigating and analyzing nominal and adverbial ideophones in Obolo language.

1.1       Obolo Language classification

            By linguistics classification, Greenberg (1955) categorized obolo language as a member of the cross River. Two group of the Niger Kordofanian (Benue-Congo) language but Williamson (1987) classified it as belonging to the lower cross branch of the Delta cross branch of the lower Eastern division of the south-central Niger-congo language. Later in 1989, bendo-Samuel reclassified it under the western cluster of the lower cross sub-branch of the Delta cross main branch of the cross River block.

            However, Gordon 2005 gives a concrete classification of the language as seen in the figure 1.1 overleaf.

Fig 1.1

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