GBAGYI POLAR QUESTION FORMATION: THE OPERATIONS OF VOWEL LENGHTENING AND TONAL DOWNSTEPPING
1 Department of Languages and Linguistics Nasarawa State University, Keffi
* Corresponding author: ab4gee@yahoo.com
* Corresponding author: ab4gee@yahoo.com
Abstract
Although polar question is a phenomenon with a universal
spread across all natural languages, its structural
manifestation differs from one language to another.
Nwankwegu and Nwode (2020:50) affirm this by stating that
yes/no question exhibits varying syntax across languages,
hence the need to investigate the Gbagyi formation of polar
questions. Preliminary enquiry reveals that polar question
formation in Gbagyi involves some phonological
operations. The qualitative descriptive design is adopted to
interrogate the polar question phenomenon in Gbagyi. Data
for this study was primarily obtained from twelve (12)
Gbagyi native speakers who are hail from and are residents
of the research area, the Bwari Area Council. Following
evidence from this study, the researcher proposes two
mechanisms for marking polar question in Gbagyi: vowel
lengthening and tone downstepping. The discovery that
tone plays a pivotal role in polar question formation in
Gbagyi is a pointer to further explore other types of
interrogation in the language, for instance, tag questions and
content question, in order to ascertain the relevance of tone
and/or any other phonological feature in the expression of
interrogation in the language.
Keywords
interrogation
polar question
vowel lengthening
tone
tonal down stepping
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How to Cite
MUSA, A. D. (2023). GBAGYI POLAR QUESTION FORMATION: THE OPERATIONS OF VOWEL LENGHTENING AND TONAL DOWNSTEPPING. Humanity - Jos Journal Of General Studies, 14(1), 25-30. https://doi.org/10.67862/hjjgs.2023.l9qngqpn
A. D. MUSA, "GBAGYI POLAR QUESTION FORMATION: THE OPERATIONS OF VOWEL LENGHTENING AND TONAL DOWNSTEPPING," Humanity - Jos Journal Of General Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 25-30, January 2023. doi: 10.67862/hjjgs.2023.l9qngqpn
