ASPECTS OF LEXICAL SEMANTICS IN URHOBO

ABSTRACT

This research project aims to investigate various aspects of lexical semantics in the Urhobo language. Lexical semantics refers to the study of meaning within the vocabulary of a language, including how words relate to one another and the associations they carry. The Urhobo language, spoken in Nigeria, is a rich and complex language with a diverse lexical system that reflects the unique culture and history of the Urhobo people. The study adopts Descriptive Linguistics which connects to cognitive linguistic framework that was considered appropriate theory that would be useful and instrumental to the analysis of the data collected for the purpose of the work. Themethodologyadoptedforthisstudyisbased on investigativelinguisticswhich attemptsto shed more light on the Urhobo language in terms of its current form (i.e., synchronically without reference to earlier forms or other languages). The data employed for the project was obtained from primary sourcesviainterviews.Someofthedatawereobtainedfromsecondarysources including theUrhobo dictionary. For lexical relations, the analysis showedthat Urhobo has synonymy, antonym. . It also showed that they are somewhat similar to what one finds in English language.