On Raising: A Study of English and Yoruba
Keywords:
Raising structures, noun phrases, Adjacency Condition, second language situation, Yoruba, EnglishAbstract
This paper examined raising in Yoruba with a view to spelling out its manifestation in Yoruba, while contrasting it with English. This was to reveal the peculiarities of raising structures in Yoruba in relation to English, and their implications for learners of both languages in a second language situation. Chomsky’s Principles and Parameters Theory served as the theoretical framework. Yoruba sentences were obtained from naturally-occurring discourses among native speakers of Yoruba. The acceptability of the structures was validated by twenty native speakers of Yoruba in Oyo, Oyo State, Nigeria through oral interview. Secondary data were obtained from textbooks in both languages under study. Theoretically, raising is induced by (raising) adjectives and verbs. It could be to subject or object position. However, contrary to the common subject-to-subject raising that English structures justify, Yoruba permits object-to-subject raising. Also, Yoruba has raising verbs, like English. In Yoruba, raising can occur without necessarily being triggered by adjectives or verbs because the verbs in such constructions lack the features of typical raising verbs. Besides, object raising in Yoruba is cyclic, as moved elements land temporarily at the SPEC position of the subordinate clause, in fulfilment of adjacency condition.
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