A Contrastive Analysis of Demonstrative Patterns in English and Ibibio
Abstract
This paper provides a contrastive analysis of demonstrative pronouns in English and Ibibio. The data for the analysis of demonstratives in Ibibio were drawn from central Ibibio by elicitation. The paper argues, based on the syntactic operations of demonstratives in the two languages that demonstratives in Ibibio consist of a three way opposition while those of English consist of a two-way opposition. It states that demonstratives in English inflect for person and number while those of Ibibio behave in two different ways, while some inflect for person and number, some do not. It further establishes that Ibibio has two classes of demonstratives, with each class being syntactically different from the other. Findings also indicate that demonstratives in the two languages can function as determiners, subject of the sentence, article as well as a verb in Ibibio; properties which are not found in English.
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