Posthumous festschrift in honour of late professor R.O. Ezeuko, edited by Dr. Odinye, Egenti & Orji Posthumous festschrift in honour of late professor R.O. Ezeuko, edited by Dr. Odinye, Egenti & Orji 56 PRONOUNS IN ETULO Adaobi Ngozi Okoye Department of Linguistics, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka ifynoels@gmail.com Abstract This study is a preliminary investigation of Etulo pronominal system. The purpose of the study is to identify the different types of pronouns in Etulo, their tone patterns as well as their functions in simple sentences. Data for the study was collected from Etulo informants resident in Adi, Buruku Local Government Area of Benue State. Five classes of pronoun are identified and they are the personal, demonstrative, interrogative, reflexive and indefinite pronouns. Our findings reveal that to a large extent, the personal pronouns are identical in their segmental and tonal composition. Reflexivity is expressed by attaching a noun àbuwò ‘self’ to the object form of the pronoun while possession is marked by a prefixation to the object form of the pronoun. The demonstrative pronouns comprise two proximal and two distal demonstratives that maintain an inherent tone pattern within a noun phrase. Keywords: pronoun, Etulo, language 1.0 Introduction Pronouns in most languages occur as independent word forms and usually have the same distribution as a full noun phrase. To use a pronoun effectively, it is often needful to identify the noun that the pronoun is standing in for i.e. the antecedent. Pronouns also agree with the antecedent in number, person, etc. This study provides an account of the types, forms and functions of pronouns in Etulo, the language of a minority group in Benue State. Etulo language belongs to the Idomoid group of the West Benue Congo languages of the Niger Congo language family. Etulo like most African languages is a tone language and in this study, high tones are left unmarked, low tones are marked with a grave accent (`), mid tones are marked with a macron ( ¯ ) while the rising falling tones are marked with a circumflex accent (^). Posthumous festschrift in honour of late professor R.O. Ezeuko, edited by Dr. Odinye, Egenti & Orji 57 1.1 Pronouns Yule (1995:88) defines pronouns as words used in place of noun phrases typically referring to things already known. This lexical category according to him is often described in terms of person and number in the English language. Pronouns substitute for noun and noun phrases. Pronouns also refer directly to some aspect of the situation surrounding the speaker or writer. Fromkin, Rodman and Hyams (2011:167) see pronouns as lexical items that can get their meaning from other NPs in the sentence or in the larger discourse. There are subclasses of pronoun. Such sub classes include the personal pronouns which are the main means of identifying speakers’ addressees and others. In the English language, mine, yours, hers etc are the possessive pronouns. They express ownership as in’ it is hers.’ Other sub classes include demonstrative, reflexive and interrogative pronouns For Bloomfield (1933:249), a pronoun is a grammatical element of variable reference which stands for some noun previously given, explicitly or implicitly in the context. He describes the pronoun in the light of its function in ‘derived sentences’ that is sentences within which nouns have been replaced with pronoun (masculine, feminine etc) as appropriate. For example, the utterance in 1.He will be here in a moment, presupposes the previous occurrence of some masculine noun or noun phrase to which the pronoun ‘he’ refers. Hatch and Brown (1995:234) opine that pronouns refer to nouns that have already been mentioned in the discourse or points ahead to a noun that is about to be mentioned. They distinguish between anaphoric and cataphoric reference. Anaphoric points back in the discourse to a noun that has already been established while cataphoric reference points forward to its referent. For example in 2. Christy Essen is called the lady of songs, she sings traditional African music’. The pronoun ‘she’ is anaphoric. Ruying (2005:1906) in his study on the pronominal system of English and Mandarin observes that substantial differences exist in the morphology, syntax and semantic/pragmatic functions of the pronominal systems of both languages. He claims that Mandarin personal pronoun forms are simpler than their English counterpart because there are no gender, animacy and case contrast in forms. Also each person consistently shares the Mandarin phonetic core and informaton such Posthumous festschrift in honour of late professor R.O. Ezeuko, edited by Dr. Odinye, Egenti & Orji 58 as plurality and possessive case are all encoded by one common morpheme attached to the stem. This, contrasts the English pronominal paradigm where a common phonetic core cannot be extracted. Syntactically, English has obligatory subject and uses co referential pronouns while Mandarin is null subject ( or pro drop) and prefers zero anaphora. Edo, a Niger Congo language spoken in Benin city distinguishes three persons (first, second and third) and two numbers (singular and plural) in its pronominal system. The language also has four series of pronouns which are the subjective, objective, emphatic and copulative series (Uchihara 2010:1). Edo distinguishes pronouns according to the grammatical function of subject and object as well as the contrast between the non emphatic forms (subjective /objective) and emphatic forms. Uchihara (2010:11) also claims the existence of logophoric pronoun and general person pronoun. The latter corresponds to impersonal or indefinite pronouns in other languages and is used when the speaker cannot or does not want to specify the human subject of a sentence as in 3 ā ) ōkpıa nī mà Gp (3.pl) COMP man DET be good It is said that the man is good. The former however are special pronouns used to refer to person whose words, thoughts, knowledge or emotions are being reported in a stretch of discourse. Edo uses the strong form of 3SG pronoun ((ı) yen) for logophoric reference as in 4 Osagie ı yēn y(o) evbā Osagie COMP 3sg EMPH went there Osagie said hei went there. In (3) above, ā is not specific on the human subject of the sentence while in (4), the person referred to with the pronoun ‘iyēn is understood to be the same as the subject of the main verb ‘say’ which is Osagie. Kari (2007:94) highlights a three way distinction in the pronominal system of Odual, a language spoken in Cross river state. He points out that an interesting and distinguishing feature of Odual pronominal system especially as regards the personal pronoun is the distinction the language makes between inclusive and Posthumous festschrift in honour of late professor R.O. Ezeuko, edited by Dr. Odinye, Egenti & Orji 59 exclusive first person plural. Kari (2007:95) citing Givon (1984:354) claims that the inclusive and exclusive pronouns pertain to the hearers’ inclusion in or exclusion from the referential scope of ‘we’ either dual or plural. This inclusion or exclusion according to him is not directly predictable from the speaker and hearer rather they are potentially ambiguous and it is only natural that they are given overt specification. He exemplifies as follows 5 èzìrǝ noò -ru 1PLS 1pl PRES PERF come We (incl) have come 6 èzǝǝr noò -ru 1PLS 1pl.PRES PERF come We (excl) have come The first person plural subject ‘èzìrǝ’ is used when the hearer is included within the referential scope while ‘èzǝǝr’ is used when the hearer is excluded. 1.2 Pronouns in Etulo 1.2.1 Personal Pronouns Etulo distinguishes three types of personal pronouns. The three types of personal pronoun are the subject, object and possessive pronouns. Etulo does not make any gender distinction in its pronominal system. It distinguishes between the first, second and third person. The first person is used by the speaker to refer to himself or to a group which the speaker is part of. The second person is used to refer to the hearer or to a group which the hearer is part of while the third person refers to persons or things excluding the speaker and hearer. In respect of number in the personal pronoun, the language distinguishes between the singular and plural pronouns. The language however lacks any overt distinction between the second person singular and the second person plural. 1.2.1.1 Subject Pronouns Subject pronouns occur before the verb and function as the subject of a sentence. In isolation, the pronouns are produced in the following forms Posthumous festschrift in honour of late professor R.O. Ezeuko, edited by Dr. Odinye, Egenti & Orji 60 Table 1 Singular 1st m/anî I 2nd abû you 3rd ò he/she/it Plural 1st èjî we 2nd emâ you 3rd a they Segmentally, all subject pronouns begin with a vowel. The first and second person singular subjects have the same tone pattern (i.e.) starting with high tone and ending with a rising falling tone. In Etulo /m / and /anî / are used interchangeably as the subject forms of pronoun. 7 illustrate the use of these pronouns in the subject position. anî bâ wà 1sgS come 1sg pres perf I have come abû bâ wà 2sgS come 2sg pres perf you(sg) have come O bâ wà 3sgS come 3sg pres perf He/she has come èjî bâ wà 1pl come 1pl pres perf We have come Posthumous festschrift in honour of late professor R.O. Ezeuko, edited by Dr. Odinye, Egenti & Orji 61 emâ bâ wà 2pl come 2pl pres perf You(pl) have come a bâ wà 3pl come 3pl pres perf They have come. In 7, all subject pronouns maintain their inherent tone patterns in sentences except the pronoun that refers to the third person singular subject which has a low tone in isolation and becomes high when used in a sentence. It is also observed that the present perfect marker is CV. The vowel of the verb stem agrees with the vowel of the present perfective marker. The form /wa/ is associated with the first, second and third person’s singular subjects as well as the plural subject pronouns. This is opposed to what obtains in the English language where the third person singular subject has a different form of present perfective marker. 1.2.1.2 Object Pronouns Object pronouns occur after the verb, and function as the object of a sentence. These pronouns, in their isolation forms are identical with their subject counterparts both segmentally and tonally except the object pronoun referring to the third person singular and plural objects. Object pronouns are also consistent in their tone patterns when used in a sentence. Forms of Object Pronoun Table 2 Singular 1st anî me 2nd abû you 3rd n him/her plural 1st èjî us Posthumous festschrift in honour of late professor R.O. Ezeuko, edited by Dr. Odinye, Egenti & Orji 62 2nd emâ you(pl) 3rd amâ they 8 illustrates the use of these pronouns in object positions ò kà dı anî 3sgS 3sg fut -see 1sgO He will see me m kà dı abû 1sgS 1sg fut -see 2sgO I will see you m kà dı n 1sgS 1sg fut -see 3sgO I will see him ò kà dı èjî 3sgS 3sg fut -see 1plO he will see us èjî kà dı ma 1plS 1pl fut -see 3plO we will see them. It is observed that the future marker has a CV form. /ka /the future marker remain the same and does not distinguish between number and person in the object forms of Etulo pronouns. 1.2.2 Possessive Pronouns Ownership in Etulo is expressed by the use of possessive pronoun. This is achieved by prefixing ‘mgba’ to the form of the object pronoun. When the possessive marker ‘mgba’ is in associative construction with the object forms of pronoun, the last sound segment (a) is elided. Forms of possessive pronoun: Table 3 Posthumous festschrift in honour of late professor R.O. Ezeuko, edited by Dr. Odinye, Egenti & Orji 63 Singular 1st mgbanî mine 2nd mgbabû yours(sg) 3rd mgban his/hers plural 1st mgbejî ours 2nd mgbemâ yours(pl) 3rd mgbamâ theirs 9 illustrates the use of these pronouns in possessive noun phrases ìgbe mgbanî bag 1sgPOSS my bag ìgbe mgbabû bag 2sgPOSS your (sg) bag ìgbe mgban bag 3sgPOSS his/her bag ìgbe mgbejî bag 1plPOSS our bag ìgbe mgbemâ bag 2plPOSS your(pl) bag ìgbe mgbamâ bag 3plPOSS Posthumous festschrift in honour of late professor R.O. Ezeuko, edited by Dr. Odinye, Egenti & Orji 64 their bag In a possessive noun phrase, the possessive pronouns retain their inherent tone pattern. Also the possessive noun phrases do not undergo any alteration in segments. Table 4: Summary of Etulo personal pronouns Subject Object Possessive 1SG m/anî ‘I’ anî ‘me’ mgbanî ‘mine’ PL ejî ‘we’ ejî ‘us’ mgbejî ‘ours’ 2SG abû ‘ you’ abû ‘you’ mgbabû ‘yours’ PL abû ‘you’ abû ‘you’ mgbemâ yours 3SG o ‘he/she ‘ n him/her mgban ‘his/hers PL a ‘they’ emâ ‘them’ mgbamâ ‘theirs 1.2.3 Reflexive Pronouns Reflexivity in Etulo is expressed by the use of a construction which involves the combination of a noun ‘àbuwò’ and the object forms of the pronoun. The pronouns always succeed the noun as shown in the table below. Table 5 àbuwò anî self 1sgO myself àbuwò abû self 2sgO yourself àbuwò n Posthumous festschrift in honour of late professor R.O. Ezeuko, edited by Dr. Odinye, Egenti & Orji 65 self 3sgO himself/herself àbuwò èjî self 1plO ourselves àbuwò abû self 2plO yourselves àbuwò emâ self 3plO themselves Below are sentence examples of the reflexive pronouns 10.m fo àbuwànî 1sgS hear 1sgPOss I heard myself abû fo àbuwabû 2sg S hear 2sgPOSS you heard yourself O fo àbuwon 3sgS hear 3sgPOss He heard himself èjî fo àbuwèjî 1plS hear 1plPOSS we heard ourselves a fo àbuwèmâ 3plS hear 3plPOss they heard themselves Posthumous festschrift in honour of late professor R.O. Ezeuko, edited by Dr. Odinye, Egenti & Orji 66 The noun /àbuwò/ ‘self’ remains the same for both singular and plural antecedent. It is also observed that the last sound segment of this form meaning self is elided except for the 3SG possessive pronoun where the last sound segment is retained. 1.2.4 Demonstrative Pronoun Etulo has four demonstrative pronouns. These pronouns express contrast between distant and near and both substitute for objects which are known to both speaker and hearer.The four demonstrative pronouns in Etulo are divided into two proximal demonstratives /nenì/’this’ and/nanì/’that’ and two distal demonstratives /tenenì/’these’ and /tananì/’those’. Forms of demonstrative pronouns are shown below Table 6 nenì this nanì that tenenì these tananì those In isolation, the proximal demonstratives /nenì/’this’ and/nanì/ ’that’ have high- low tone pattern. This tone pattern is maintained when they co-occur with other words. This is also true of the distal demonstratives tenenì/’these’ and/tananì/’those’. 11 illustrates demonstrative pronouns in noun phrases 11.òzû nenì house sg.prox this house òzû nanì house sg dist that house òzû tenenì house pl. prox these houses Posthumous festschrift in honour of late professor R.O. Ezeuko, edited by Dr. Odinye, Egenti & Orji 67 òzû tananì house pl.dst those houses In the above construction, the demonstratives follow the nouns they modify. 1.2.5 Interrogative Pronoun: Some of the interrogative pronouns identified in the study include: Table7 lème who /what mòle how mt∫osìnè why làlʊnwʊᴐ why zòle where Some illustrative examples of interrogatives are lème ze menâ who there who is there? ìjı abû lème name you what what is your name? The forms mt∫osìnè and làlʊnwʊᴐ can be used interchangeably to mean why as in 12 mt∫osìnè abu lı nwìkpᴐ why you be cry why are you crying? làlʊnwʊᴐ abu lı nwìkpᴐ why you be cry why are you crying Posthumous festschrift in honour of late professor R.O. Ezeuko, edited by Dr. Odinye, Egenti & Orji 68 Conclusion The pronominal system of Etulo has been examined. Our findings show that most forms of subject pronoun maintain their inherent tone and do not alter segmentally in simple declarative sentences. Reflexivity is marked by a combination of a noun àbuwò meaning self and the possessive pronoun. It is however noted that the noun marking reflexivity does not vary in form irrespective of whether its antecedent is singular or plural. Also observed is the fact that tense markers do not have distinct forms that reflect the differences in the forms of pronoun. References Bloomfield, L. (1933) Language New York : Henry Holt Gigone, K (2003) Reflexives and Pronominals in Ambiguous English Sentences. Retrieved from www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/linguistcs/papers . Hatch ,E.and Brown C (1995) Vocabulary, Semantics and Language Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Kari, E. E (2007) The pronominal system of Odual. Studies in African Linguistics Volume 36(1) pages 90-113. Kempson, R.M (1995) Natural Language Interpretation in Language and Meaning in Palmer F. R (Ed), Essays in honour of Sir Lyons .Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. Lyons, J (1995) Introduction to theoretical Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University press Fromkin, V., Rodman, R. and Hyams, N. (2011). An Introduction to language. Wadsworth: Cengage learning. Ruying, Q. (2005) From Nominal to Pronominal Person Reference in the early language of a Mandarin-English Bilingual child. Proceedings of the 4th Posthumous festschrift in honour of late professor R.O. Ezeuko, edited by Dr. Odinye, Egenti & Orji 69 international Symposium on Bilingualism, Cohen, M. K, Rolstad, K. and Macswan, J. S.( eds) MA; Cascadlla Press. Uchihara H (2010) Pronominals in Edo – A Descriptive Study. Retrieved from http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~uchihara/pronominals. Yule G (1995) The Study of Language. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.