Verbs of Seeing in Ékid
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51699/ijllal.v2i7.2233Keywords:
Verb of ‘Seeing’, Transitivity, Conceptual Meaning and Semantic ExtensionAbstract
This paper examines the verbs of ‘seeing’ in Ékị́d, providing their conceptual and extended meanings, including their transitivity, within Ékị́d grammar. It adopts a descriptive research design for the collection of data via elicitation method from six competent adult native speakers (three men and three women, between the ages of 50 and 65) of Ékᴉ́d, who have resided in Ékᴉ́d all their lives. Also, relevant literatures were consulted for the review. This study adopts Palmer’s (1983) generalization, and Leech’s (1990) conceptual meaning views for the analysis of data. Findings show that Ékị́d has four verbs of ‘seeing’: kị́d ‘see/find’, kííñ ‘look (at)/see’, mǒ ‘able to see’; and nyʌ̀ññọ́ ‘peep’, which denote primarily, an act of sighting something/someone with one’s eyes either consciously or unconsciously. Also, findings show that, among these four verbs of ‘seeing’ in Ékị́d, kị́d and kííñ have extended meanings (apart from their conceptual meanings); while mǒ and nyʌ̀ññọ́ do not have extended meanings apart from their primary meanings. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that, kị́d, kííñ, and mǒ are transitive, while nyʌ̀ññọ́ is intransitive. This study contributes to the syntax and semantics of Ékᴉ́d verbs of sensory perception – seeing, which therefore serves as a reference material for further research on other verbs of sensory perceptions in Ékᴉ́d, including their pragmatic aspects.
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