Nigerian Pidgin

Nick Faraclas

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• ISBN:
  9781134975624
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This is the first comprehensive grammar of Nigerian Pidgin. This book provides basic descriptive and analytical treatment of the syntax, morphology and phonology of a language which may soon become the most widely spoken in all of Africa.

Syntax

1.1
GENERAL QUESTIONS

1.1.1
Sentence types

1.1.1.1
Direct speech and indirect speech

The only means regularly employed to indicate the difference between direct and indirect speech is a change in pronominal person categories from those found in the original utterance (quoted word-for-word in direct speech) to those appropriate to the situation in which the original utterance is being discussed (in the case of indirect speech). There is no formal way to distinguish logophoric from anaphoric reference:

(1)	direct speech
	Dèm tok ‘Wì layk yù.’
	6sP talkF+ 4sP likeF 2oP
	‘They said, “We like you.”’

(2)	indirect speech
	Dèm tok dèm layk mì.
	6sP talkF+ 6sP likeF 1oP
	‘They told me that they like me.’

A single object noun clause construction is used for direct speech, indirect speech and clauses following verbs of perception or cognition (see 1.1.2.2). In both direct and indirect speech, a verb of reporting obligatorily appears in the main clause followed optionally by a valence-increasing verb and/or a hearer/object. The subordinated object noun clause begins optionally with the noun clause introducer se (which is cognate with the verb of reporting se ‘say’) and consists of the speech material directly quoted or indirectly reported about (incorporating the appropriate changes in pronominal person categories) with an optional resetting (raising) of the intonation register over the first syllables of the clause:

(3)	noun clause construction for direct/indirect speech
	main clause: verb of reporting ± valence increaser ± hearer object ±
	noun clause: ncI se ± intonation register reset + speech material + indirect speech: pronoun change

(4)	direct speech:
	Dèm tok tel mì se ‘Wì layk yù.’
	6sP talkF+ tellV+ 1oP ncI 4sP likeF 2oP
	‘They told me, “We like you.”’ analysis:
	main clause:	Dèm tok (tel) (mì)
		6sP talkF+ (tellV+) (1oP)
		s + verb ± increaser ± o ±
		(reset)
	noun clause:	se ‘Wì layk yù.’
		ncI 4sP likeF 2oP
		ncI + speech material (no pronouns changed)

(5)	indirect speech:	Dèm tok tel mì se dèm layk mì.
		6sP talkF+ tellV+ 1oP ncI 6sP likeF 1oP
		‘They told me that they like me.’
	main clause:	Dèm tok (tel) (mì)
		6sP talkF+ (tellV+) (1oP)
		s + verb ± increaser ± o ±
		(reset)
	noun clause:	se dèm layk mì.
		ncI 6sP likeF 1oP
		ncI + speech material (pronouns changed)

Slightly different versions of this noun clause construction are used in indirect questions and commands (see 1.1.2.2.2–5).

If an oblique hearer/object is mentioned, noun clauses including a question word or a relative clause may be substituted for the noun clause types that normally occur in direct/indirect speech constructions (see 1.1.2.3.6):

(6)	Dèm tel mi watîng dèm chop.
	6sP tellF 1oP what? 6oP eatF
	‘They told me what they ate.’

(7)	Dèm tel mi dì ting we dèm chop.
	6sP tellF 1oP ar thing rcI 6oP eatF
	‘They told me the thing that they ate.’

1.1.1.2
Interrogative sentences

1.1.1.2.1
Yes-no questions

1.1.1.2.1.1 Neutral yes-no questions Almost any declarative sentence may be transformed into a yes-no question by replacing the normal sentence-final falling intonation contour by a rising contour. This is the most commonly attested means for signalling yes-no questions:

(8)	Yù go maket.
	2sP goF market
	‘You went to the market.’

(9)	Yù go makèt?
	2sP goF market Qù
	‘Did you go to the market?’

A yes-no question marker àbi may be used (usually together with a sentence-final rising intonation contour) at the beginning or end of a sentence in order to transform it into a yes-no question:

(10)	Abi yù go makèt?
	YNQ 2sP goF market Qù
	‘Did you go to the market?’

Sentence-finally, àbi automatically bears a rising contour due to the fa...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Nigerian Pidgin
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedicatoion
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations and symbols
• INTRODUCTION
• 1 SYNTAX
• 2 MORPHOLOGY
• 3 PHONOLOGY
• 4 IDEOPHONES AND INTERJECTIONS
• 5 LEXICON
• Bibliography
• Index