Lexico-Semantic Relations of Verbs of Lighting Wood Fire in Okigwe-Igbo
Keywords:
Lexical relations, Igbo verbs, wood fire, hyponymy, OkigweAbstract
The paper examined the lexico-semantic relations of verbs of lighting wood fire in Okigwe dialect of Igbo. Its major objective was to examine the semantic relations of these verbs of lighting wood fire in Okigwe Igbo with the purpose of showing the specific lexical or meaning relations that exist among these verbs, their selectional restrictions or co-occuring elements and the individual entailment of these verbs. The descriptive research design was adopted and the data for this study were generated or collected from native speakers of Okigwe Igbo through oral interview and also the Semantic Field theory constitutes the theoretical framework of this study. These verbs were group into two categories in this study namely verbs of putting on and verbs of putting out wood fire in Okigwe Igbo. The study identified five verbs of putting on and five verbs of putting out wood fire in Okigwe Igbo respectively. The study also found out that these verbs of lighting wood fire in Okigwe Igbo show a hyponymous relations and are co-hyponyms of the superordinate “mènwụ” (put on) and “mènyụ” (put out). The study further found out that these verbs entail a sense of inclusion and usually co-occur or select the lexical word ọkụ (fire) as their nominal complement. The study concluded that verbs of lighting wood fire in Igbo are rich in hyponymy.
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