Abstract
The aim of the study is to describe and analyse content word questions (interrogative focus constructions)in in-situ and ex-situ positions in the Bina language.Bina is one of the endangered languages spoken in Kauru Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. Data for the study comprising of seventy content word questionswas retrieved from primary source through oral interview from sixteen fluent native speakers of the language. The data for the study was analysed within the theoretical framework of Principles and Parameters Approach otherwise known as Government and Binding Theory (GB) as developed by Chomsky (1981). The findings revealed that Bina employs two strategies in the derivation of content word questions; the language exhibits both in-situ and ex-situ strategies. The study equally established that there is an inseparable interaction between content words ex-situ and the focus marker nà in the language. The study further revealed that contentword question constructions in Bina are interrogative focus constructions since the focus marker nà carries the interrogative force of the content words when realized ex-situ. The paper concludes that the content words cannot be the only motivation for this force without the focus marker nà . Therefore, the sentence-initial content question word (CQW) has undergone focus movement (movement of the wh-word to Spec, FP position)rather than wh-movement ( theparameter which determines whether expressions can be fronted (i.e moved to the front position of the overall interrogative structure containing themor not) in Bina.
Keywords: Bina; focus movement; interrogative force; content question word
DOI: www.doi.org/10.36349/sojolics.2025.v01i01.032
author/Usman, A., & Salami, H.
journal/Sokoto JOLICS 1(1) | June 2025 |
