The Presentation and Analysis of Binding Conditions in Ibibio

Abstract

The Government and Binding theory (GB) is seen as one of the linguistic universal phenomena, however, parametric variations abound across languages. This therefore calls for critical investigation of languages to access the universality of the principle of the Binding theory (BT). This work discusses the various binding conditions which are found in overt NPs in Ibibio, a Delta-cross language of the Cross-river group of languages in Nigeria. Data used in carrying out this research were collected from both primary and secondary sources. Three competent native speakers of the language were consulted and interviewed. Secondary sources were drawn from relevant texts on Ibibio; books, journals, seminar materials, conference materials and online sources. The binding conditions in Ibibio which were treated in this work were those of overt NPs. The reflexives in Ibibio are formed by adding the morpheme ìdém to the personal pronouns. There is only one reciprocal in Ibibio kìèrékèn’ which is a morphophonemically realized from ‘kièt’ and ‘ékèn’ which literally translates to ‘one another’. In Ibibio, the binding conditions of anaphors in the language aligns with the universal binding Principle A which states that an anaphor must be antecedent bound in a minimal domain. Personal pronouns in Ibibio do not always conform to the Principle B of BT. R-expressions in Ibibio conform to binding principles C which states that the R-expressions are free both in their local and non-local domain.