2A comparative Analysis of Yes/No Questions an English and Urhobo A Minimalist Investigation

Abstract

Abstract

This study is a syntactic investigation of the linguistic strategies employed in the derivation of yes/no interrogative structures on English and a south Western Edoid Nigerian language Urhobo. Its objective is to explore the different forms of polar interrogative structures in English and Urhobo and their various realizations and also to identify the syntax used on finding the role of tone and intonation in deriving polar structures in the said languages. The data analysis reveals that in English, the trigger or motivation for movement in yes/no question is the presence of a strong illocutionary force (IF) (question affixes which imposes both an interrogatives interpretation at logical form (LF) and the movement of operators to spec-CP at phonological form(PF). More so, the analysis also revealed that English negative yes/no interrogative structures contain a negative particle which is projected under the head projection ‘Neg P’ whereas Urhobo realizes negation by doubling the last morpheme for declarative statements while for negative yes/no structures, the tone functions as the negater and the question marker. In addition to this, English has double representation for some negative interrogative structures whereas Urhobo has a single representation as the translated equivalent for both structures. Arising from the findings, a conclusion can be drawn that, at the grammatical level, tone plays a prominent role in, among other things, the derivation of yes/no interrogative structures in Urhobo.