THE SYNTAX OF HEADEDNESS IN IGBO STRUCTURES

Abstract

This work examines the headedness in Igbo structures with a view to the syntactic operations that characterize its derivations. The data for the study were gathered from the native speakers of the language. It examines the headedness from the structural and functional perspectives and noted the word order paradigms of their constituents. From the syntactic point, the work relies on the account of the Principles and Parameters model of grammar also called Government and Binding Theory. The researcher investigates whether the principle of headedness is in conformity with the Igbo syntactic structures. Findings reveal that all categories occurring at the phrase initials are characterized as heads and that each head is projected from the D- Structure. Also, each head is represented at all levels of analysis which include the D-Structure, S-Structure, Phonetic Form and Logical Form for grammaticality in Igbo.