TENSE AS A GOVERNOR IN IGBO SYNTAX

This work examines tense as a governor in Igbo syntax. The specific objectives are to reappraise tense in the Igbo language - the three demarcations of tense, their markers and syntactic positions. To examine the role of tense as governors in sentences, the tonal patterns of tense markers in the Igbo language and the pattern of the simple present tense marker in the Igbo language. The appraisal tool is used as the instrument for data gathering. The data are translated into English and analysed descriptively using government theory. The researchers reaffirm that the Igbo language has present, past and future tenses. While ‘nọ̀, dị̀, bụ̀, bì’ mark the simple present tense, ‘nà-’, ‘-rv’, ‘-la’ and ‘gà-’ mark the present continuous, simple past, past perfect and future tenses respectively. The findings also reveal that the present continuous and future tense markers derive before the verb in deep and surface structures. The simple past and the past perfect tense markers derive before the root verb in deep structure, while in surface structure, they are attached as suffixes, but simple present tense markers are seen under the verb branch because they are not overtly marked on the verb roots. The findings further reveal that tense governs the NP at the subject position by assigning a nominative case. The researchers also observe that since the simple present tense markers of the Igbo language are not located under the head of INFL, they cannot assign nominative case to subject NPs.