GB Syntax on NP Movement to Argument Position in Ùdá
Keywords:
argument position, ergative, middle sentence, preposed, theta-chainAbstract
This paper examines NP movement to argument position in Ùdá, a Lower Cross language spoken in the South-South Geopolitical Zone; specifically, Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The argument position in this work is identified as SPEC-I' - a position that is potentially a recipient of theta role and case. The paper adopts four modules of the Government-Binding (GB) framework which are: X-bar, theta, case, and government. Data were elicited from Ùdá through the Ibadan Four Hundred and Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) wordlists. Samples of sentences relating to the NP movement were also collected and analyzed. The study reveals that ergative and middle sentence constructions show evidence of NP movement to argument position. The constituent which occupies the subject position of an ergative construction superficially originates from the Verb Phrase (VP) of the underlying form. For the movement of the object to be possible, there must be a matching empty slot in the SPEC-Iˈ position of the same clause where the pre-posed NP can be anchored. Transitive object and its ergative subject counterpart must have the same θ-role because they are in a θ-chain. Furthermore, the study discovered that ergative and middle sentence constructions are similar but differ in the sense that middle sentence constructions contain adverbials and are realized in the present tense, unlike the ergative constructions whose verbs are rendered in the past tense. This paper concludes that the NP movement to an argument position is for case features to be checked.
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