REDUPLICATION IN IGBO LANGUAGE

ABSTRACT

          This study was designed to reveal the reduplication in Igbo language. The major objective of this study is to spell out as clear as possible the morphological structure of Igbo language in general which is located in the Eastern part of Nigeria. The study employs the primary method of data collection by interviewing competent native speakers of Igbo language with a special focus on those from all parts of Igbo land. The data consisted of lexical items and phrases and were tested using the institution of the researcher who is a competent speaker of Igbo language. The data for the study was analyzed using the general orientation of descriptive linguistics as described and advanced by Ferdinand de Saussure in the early part of the twentieth century. Descriptive linguistics is the order name for structural linguistics and represents the object approach to the structure of languages with special focus on the internal organization of languages. Our major findings in this study reveal that Igbo language has a rich reduplication. It was discovered that this process of word formation have syntactic and semantic implication in the grammar of Igbo language in English.