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National Research University Higher School of Economics Journal of Language & Education Volume 3, Issue 2, 2017
Oluwole Samuel, A. (2017). Relative and Conditional Clause Constructions in Iyagba Dialect. Journal of Language and Education, 3(2), 14-18. doi:10.17323/2411-7390-2017-3-2-14-18
Relative and Conditional Clause Constructions in Iyagba Dialect
Oluwole Samuel Akintoye
Ekiti State University
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Akintoye Oluwole Samuel, Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, Faculty of Arts, Ekiti State University, Iworoko road, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria, 360213. E-mail: akinwolesam1@gmail.com
Relative Clause has been discussed as a subordinate clause used to qualify a noun. It narrows down the meaning of the noun it qualifies. A relative clause marker ti is inserted to accomplish the noun qualified having coded in the sentence initially in Yoruba language on the one hand. On the other hand, a conditional clause in Yoruba language is introduced with ti-clause by coding it in the sentence initially as well. The paper focuses on relative clause and conditional clause constructions in the Iyagba dialect of Yoruba; a regional dialect in the north-east Yoruba. The author observes that though there are many scholarly works on the relative and conditional clause constructions in the Yoruba language, attention has not been paid to the relative and conditional clause constructions in the dialects of Yoruba. The data were collected from the informants from these dialect communities who reside in these communities and speak the dialects fluently, and the literature materials on these topics. The data presentation shall be based on descriptive analysis. Findings reveal that relative clause markers in the Iyagba dialect are in complementary distribution; they occur in an exclusive environment. Apart from that, conditional clause markers are not attested in the dialect
Keywords: relative clause, standard Yoruba, dialects, scholars, conditional clause
Relative Clause Construction in both standard Yoruba and its dialects has attracted the attention of Yoruba scholars. Bamgbose (1967; 1975a; 1975b; 1990) and Awobuluyi (1975; 1978) independently explain that a relative clause is derived from a simple sentence and it is used to qualify a noun. These two scholars accept that a relative clause is introduced by a ti-clause which appears immediately after the relativized items as shown below.
Omo ti ekun bi
Child REL tiger bear
The child that tiger gave birth to
The status of ti-clause has generated significant arguments among Yoruba scholars. For instance, Bamgbose (1975, pp. 1-16) is of the opinion that not all the clauses introduced by ti-clause are relative clauses. Hence, it is not sufficient to use the presence of ti- clause as evidence of a structure being a relative clause. He claims that while it is true that a ti-clause can introduce a relative clause, it as well introduces nominalization having a factive and a manner meaning.
Lilu ti Olu n lu ilu
The fact that Olu beat the drum
The manner at which Olu beat the drum
A ti-clause introduces a relative clause when it appears after relativized NPs and also nominalization having a factive and a manner meaning when it occurs after nominalized verbs.
Awobuluyi (1975, pp. 1-11) has a contrary opinion. While Bamgbose argues that ti-clause only introduces a relative clause when it occurs after a true noun and nominalization when it occurs after a nominalized verb. According to Awobuluyi (1975, pp. 1-11), ti-clause always introduces a relative clause construction when it appears after the relativized items whether the relativzed item is a noun or a nominalized verb and it conveys a relative clause meaning. Akintoye (2015, pp. 40-45) is of the opinion that ti-clause performs dual functions; it functions as both a relative marker and a conditional clause marker. It introduces a relative clause when it occurs after the relativized items and a conditional clause when it appears at the initial position of a conditional sentence.
The focus of this paper is to examine relative and conditional clause constructions in the iyagba dialect and compare them with how the two clauses operate
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
in other dialects of Yoruba. This research work will be a contribution to the existing works on the syntax of Yoruba dialects. The data presentation for this paper shall be based on descriptive analysis. This will enable the author to have a comprehensive explanation on the operation of relative and conditional clause constructions in the dialect under discussion. The data were collected from the native speakers of iyagba dialect. They reside in the dialect communities and they are fluent in speaking the dialect. Some of the informants are farmers and illiterates. They do not see any value in researching their dialect. Therefore, they did not give the author enough information. Because the author is not a member of the dialect community, some of the informants were suspicious and very careful in their response to the author's interview. The author also makes use of texts and articles in journals on relative and conditional clause constructions in the standard Yoruba and its dialects.
The paper is divided into three parts. Part one is the introduction. Part two contains the conditional clause construction in iyagba dialect. The focus of part three is the relative clause construction in iyagba dialect.
Materials and Methods
Conditional Clause in iyagba Dialect
iyagba dialect is one of the regional dialects spoken in the Northeast Yoruba according to Oyelaran (1977) and Awobuluyi (1998). iyagba speakers occupy the Northeast of Kogi-State and comprise three Local Government Areas. They are; iyagba West with the headquarters at igbaruku, iyagba East with the headquarters at isanlu and Mopamuro Local Government with the headquarters at Mopa. Each Local Government Area has many dialect communities under it which may not be possible to cover in a work like this. Therefore, the discussion and analysis shall be based on the sub-dialect of Mopa. It is a good representative of other sub-dialects because all the sub-dialects of iyagba are mutually intelligible.
Like the standard Yoruba and its dialects, Conditional Clauses are attested in iyagba dialect of Yoruba. According to Kirkpatrick (2007, p. 52), a conditional clause is an adverbial clause that indicates a possible situation and its consequence. What Kirkpatrick's definition implies is that there are two events in a conditional clause in which one event gives rise to the other. This claim is similar to the claim in Awobuluyi (2013, pp. 254-294) who views a conditional clause as two events in which one occurs before the other and the second event modifies the first one. Awobuluyi (1978, pp. 111-135) had earlier defined a conditional clause as a sentential modifier, modifying another sentence. Bamgbose (1967, p. 28; 1990, p. 197) views the conditional clause as an event that has
never occurred. Both Awobuluyi (1978, pp. 111-135) and Bamgbose (1990, p. 97) are of the opinion that a conditional clause in Yoruba language is marked with the introducers bi and ti and the adverb ba as shown below.
1 a. ti Olu ba de ki o jeun
COMP Olu be come COMP 3sg eat If Olu comes let him eat.
b. ti ojo ba ro, Olu maa lo oko
COMP ojo be fall, Olu PREV go farm If it rains, we shall go to farm.
c. bi Ojo ba lowo, e maa gbadun
COMP Ojo be have money, 2pl PREV enjoy If Ojo has money, you will enjoy.
A look at the examples above shows that conditional clause markers ti and bi occupy the sentence initial position while the preverb ba 'be' preposes the verb de 'come', ro 'rain' and ni 'have' respectively. Conditional clauses are transposable in the standard Yoruba. That is, the two structures that form a conditional sentence can be displaced such that the conditional markers will appear in the middle position as demonstrated below
2 ai. ti Olu ba de ki o jeun
COMP Olu be come COMP 3sg eat If Olu comes let him eat.
ii. ki Olu jeun ti o ba de
COMP Olu eat COM 2sg be come Let Olu eat if he comes.
bi. bi Tola ba lowo, e maa gbadun
COMP Tola be have money, 2pl PREV enjoy If Tola has money, you will enjoy.
ii. e maa gbadun bi Tola ba lowo
2pl PREV enjoy COMP Tola be have money You will enjoy if Tola has money.
In examples (aii and bii) the subordinate conditional clauses ti o ba de 'if he comes' and bi Tola ba lowo 'if Tola has money' occupy the middle position respectively.
Like the standard Yoruba, conditional sentences are present in the dialects of Yoruba. For instance, although the conditional clause markers appear at the sentence initial position, they vary form one dialect to the other. For instance, Ondo dialect employs di while Ekiti dialect employs ki to mention a few as demonstrated below.
3. Ondo dialect
Di Olu ba wa, a ka jeun COMP Olu be come PREVs eat If Olu comes, he will eat
Di iba i ba nowo e ka gbadun
COMP father be have money 2sg PREVs enjoy
If father is rich, you will enjoy.
4. Omuo dialect
a. Ki Olu ba a, aa jeun
COMP Olu be come PREV eat
If Olu comes, he will eat.
b. Ki babá bá léó, e ka gbádmi
COMP father be have money 2sg PREV enjoy If father is rich, you will enjoy.
Examples 3 (a, b) and 3 (a, b) above indicate that as it is found in the standard Yoruba, the preverb bá 'be' also accomplishes the function of a conditional clause marker in the dialects of Yoruba.
A question we should ask is whether the presence of conditional clause markers and the preverb bá in the conditional sentence are enough to identify a conditional construction in the standard Yoruba and its dialects. The reason both conditional markers and bá can sometimes be deleted in the construction without altering meaning as shown below.
5. Standard Yoruba
a. Bí o bá fe bí o bá ko, ó maá telé e
COMP 2sg be like COMP 2sg be refuse 3sgPREV follow you Whether you like it or not, he will follow you
b. Bí o fé bí o ko, ó maá telé é
COMP 2sg like COMP 2sg refuse, 3sgPREV follow you Whether you like it or not, he will follow you
c. O fé o ko, ó maá telé e
2sg like 2sg refuse, 3sg PREV follow you Whether you like it or not, he will follow you.
6a. Bí ojo bá ro bí ojo ko bá ro, isu á ta
COMP rain be fall COMP rain NEG be fall, yam PREV germinate.
Whether it rains or not, the yam will germinate
b. Bí ojó ro bí ojo ko ro, isu á ta
COMP rain fall COMP rain NEG fall, yam PREV germinate Whether it rains or not, yam will germinate
c. Ojó ro, ojo ko ro, isu á ta
Rain fall, rain NEG fall, yam PREV germinate Whether it rains or not, yam will germinate
There are some dialects of Yoruba, especially the regional dialect under study, where a conditional clause marker is not attested. For instance, unlike the standard Yoruba and some other dialects of Yoruba where conditional clause markers are attested as demonstrated in examples (2), (3) and (4) above, a conditional clause marker is not obtainable in the iyagba dialect as shown below.
7. Mopa dialect
a. Olú bá re, ghon á ghá
Olu be go, 3plPREV come If Olu goes, they will come
b. Ghon bá jeun alé tán, e gha retí gha
3pl be eat night finish, 2pl PREV expect 1pl If they finish lunch, be expecting us.
c. Olu bá máá jiyá, e ra ré
Olu be NEG punish, NEG go
If Olu is not discipline, he will not go.
In examples 6 (b) and 7 (b) above, the preverb bá 'be' is deleted and in examples 4 (c) and 6 (c), both the conditional clause marker and the preverb bá are deleted. Whereas, a conditional clause marker is
absent in the examples (7) above, but the preverb bá 'be' which always occurs with the conditional clause marker in the standard Yoruba and in some dialects of Yoruba is present. Even when the two conditional structures are transposed, the conditional marker is still absent as demonstrated below.
8ai. Olú bá ré, ghon á ghá
Olu be go, 3pl PREV come If Olu goes, they will come
ii. Ghon á ghá Olú bá ré
3pl PREV come Olu be go They will come if Olu goes
bi. Olú bá jeun ale tán, e gha retí re
Olu be eat night finish, 2pl PREV expect 3sg If Olu finish lunch, be expecting him.
ii. E ghá retí Tolú ó bá jeun ale tán
2pl PREV expect Tolú 3sg be eat night finish Be expecting Tolu if he finishes lunch
It is evident, according to the examples (8) above that conditional marker is not observable in the Iyagba dialect. One can now say that the occurrence of both the conditional clause marker and the preverb bá is obligatory in both standard Yoruba and its dialects on the one hand. On the other hand, the realization of a conditional sentence depends on the discretion of the native speaker At times, if one compares the occurrence of the conditional markers and bá with the occurrence of the relative clause tí and the focus clause ni in the sentence, it may be evident that these two markers are also obligatorily deleted as demonstrated below.
9. Standard Yoruba
ai. Eyí tí ó bá wú o ni kí o wi
This REL RSP be like 2sg FOC COMP 2sg say Say whatever you like.
ii. Eyí wú o kí o wí
This like 2sg COMP 2sg say Say whatever you like
bi. Eni tí o rí ni o bá lo
Person REL 2sg see FOC 2sg be go You follow whosoever You see,
ii. Eni won rí wón bá lo
Person 3pl see 3pl follow They follow whosoever they see
In examples 7 (aii) and 9 (bii) above, both relative and focus markers are deleted without altering the meaning of the expressions. This shows that in the standard Yoruba and its dialects, the occurrence of relative, focus and conditional markers is obligatory as earlier noted and their realization depends on the discretion of interlocutors.
In addition to this, bi and bá can also appear in expressions without giving conditional clause meaning as shown below.
10. Standard Yoruba
ai. Olu bá gba kámú ni tire nigba tí ó sún un
Olu be accept fate PART his when RSP feed up 3sg Olu then accept fate when he was fed up.
ii. Olu ba jokoo re _jee_je^ nigba ti ko mo eyi ti i ba se
Olu be sit his gentiy when NEG know this REL PREV be do Olu then sat down gentiy when he did not know what he could do
iii. O ba kuku gba fun Olorun ni ori oro yii
2sg be ADV accept PREP God PREP head word this You had better accept for God on this matter.
bi. Bi won se ji owo naa ko ye e
Be 3pl do steal money DET NEG understand 3sg He did not understand the way they stole the money
ii. Bi Olu se gbo oro naa ni o bu sekun
Be Olu do hear word DET FOC 3sg burst to tear As Olu heard the matter, he was crying
In examples 10 (i-iii) and 9 (i, ii), both ba and bi function as adverbs. If one compares the examples above with examples in (7), one can easily say that ba in the conditional sentence in the Iyagba dialect cannot be an introducer of a conditional sentence. A critical look at these examples shows that in both examples 6 and 8 (ai-iii), the preverb ba 'be' preposes verbs. What we are trying to put forward is that if ba 'be' performs the same function in examples 7 and 9 (i-iii) above, it cannot be said that ba is a recoverability of the conditional clause marker in the Iyagba dialect unless there is evidence that ba performs dual function. The observation is that although the Iyagba dialect does not have a conditional clause marker, a conditional sentence is realized by discretion of the native speaker.
Results and Discussion
Relative Clause Construction in the Iyagba Dialect
Scholars like Awobuluyi (1978, pp. 35-37) and Bamgbose (1990, p. 123) have explained that a relative clause construction is derived by movement transformation. A simple sentence is reduced to a relative clause by moving the relativized items outside the higher clause to the initial position of the relative clause construction. According to Hastings (2004, pp. 54-60), Mureili (2008, pp. 1-4) and Andreea (2010, p. 7), a relative clause is an attribute which qualifies the head of the noun phrase. It narrows down the potential reference of an NP by specifying the role of the reference of that NP.
Following the definition of the scholars above, a relative clause is a subordinate clause that qualifies and narrows down the meaning of a noun. Although Kayne (1994), Borsly (1997, p. 629) and Bianchi (2000, p. 145) mention the different types of relative clauses; Restrictive, Unrestrictive and Free or Zero relative clauses, in this paper, we shall limit our discussion to the restrictive relative clause. The reason is that the restrictive relative clause is more prominent in the standard Yoruba and its dialects.
The structures of a relative clause construction in both the standard Yoruba and its dialects are identical
in the sense that there is movement transformation as earlier noted and the relative marker comes after the relativized items. The only difference is that a relative marker manifests itself in different forms in the dialects of Yoruba. For instance, it takes ti form in the standard Yoruba and in some Northwest Yoruba such as Ibadan, Osogbo, Saki and Igboho to mention a few. A relative marker takes two forms; ghin and n in the Iyagba dialect as demonstrated below.
11. Mop a dialect
ai. Omo je isu
Child eat yam The child ate Yam
ii. Omo n o je isu
Child REL RSP eat yam The child that ate yam
bi. O ko ile
3sg build house He built a house
ii. Oun n o ko ile
3sg REL RSP build house He that built a house
12ai. Omo je isu
Child eat yam The child ate Yam
ii. Isu ghin omo je
Yam REL child eat The yam that the child ate
bi. Ghon ko ile
3pl build house They built a house
ii. Ile ghin ghon ko
House REL 3pl build The house that they built
In examples 11 (aii), 11 (bii) above, the relative clause marker n co-occurs with o whereas the relative clause marker ghin co-occurs with omo 'child', the 3sg gho n 'they' in examples 12 (aii), 12 (bii). This indicates that each of the relative clause markers n and ghin is restricted to a particular domain; n occurs with a resumptive pronoun whereas ghin occurs with NPs. If one considers the ikale dialect, there is a tendency for one to view n as the proform of the relativized items or a reduced form of oun as manifested below.
13. ikale dialect
a. Udabo n/oun o mu pa ejo Cutlass pro 3sg take kill snake
The cutlass that he took to kill the snake.
b. Okuta n/oun Olu ju Stone pro Olu throw The stone that Olu threw.
A critical look at the examples above shows that n/ oun are allomorphs and they refer to the relativized NPs; udabo 'cutlass' and okuta 'stone' respectively. This type of proform is common in Yoruba literature as demonstrated below.
12a. A-sape-fun-were-jo oun pelu were egbera ni
A person that beats bell for a mad man to dance, he and the mad are equal.
b. A-lu-fun-were-jo oun were jo lokanun kanun
A person that beats drum for a man to dance, he and the mad man are the same thing
(Olatubosun, 1973, p. 83) In the examples above, the 3sg oun 'he' is referring to the subject NPs A-sape-fun-were-jo 'he that beats bell for a mad man' and A-lu-fun-were-jo 'he that beats drum for a mad man'. But if one considers the example below, one may argue that n cannot be the reduced form of oun because if it is so, oun and n could not have co-occurred.
15. Iyagba dialect
Oun n o mu odun lu omo
3sg REL RSP take cane beat child
The one that took cane to beat the child.
Conclusion
Conditional and relative clause constructions in the dialect of Iyagba, a regional dialect in Northeast Yoruba, have been examined. Unlike the standard Yoruba and some dialects of Yoruba, a conditional clause marker is not attested in the Iyagba dialect. The author also argued in this paper that the presence of ba 'be' is not enough to determine a conditional clause construction in the Iyagba dialect and that the realization of a conditional clause depends on the understanding of the native speakers through intonation. The author explained further that a relative clause marker takes two forms in the Iyagba dialect; n and ghin, which occur in different domains. For instance, n co-occurs with a resumptive pronoun and ghin co-occurs with noun phrases. Further research on relative clause and conditional clause constructions will need to focus on comparative analysis of relative clause and conditional clause constructions in Iyagba and the other dialects of Yoruba. This will enable the author to see if what is discussed in the paper is obtainable in other dialects of Yoruba.
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