HYPOTAXIS AND PARATAXIS IN THE TWO, THREE AND FOUR YEARS- OLD CHILDREN IN IGBO

Ugorji, Nneoma; Utah, David

Revue de Didactique, Linguistique et Traduction
Volume 2, Numéro 1, Pages 71-89
2024-06-30

Hypotaxis And Parataxis In The Two, Three And Four Years- Old Children In Igbo

Authors : Ugorji Nneoma . Utah David .

Abstract

Hypotaxis is the grammatical arrangement of functionally similar but unequal constructs, while parataxis is the syntactic placement of sentences, clauses and phrases in adjacent positions without any coordinate or subordinate marker. Some of the objectives of this paper are: to show that language acquisition is a gradual process, and that the use of hypotactic constructions is a reflection of the mastery of the use a language. The primary source of data in this paper was gotten through listening and writing down some utterances made by six children between two to four years old, who are acquiring the Igbo language. Also, use were made of the library texts and the internet. The framework on which this paper was carried out is the Language Acquisition Theory. The reason for the choice of this theory is because it gives account of the stages that a child undergoes in the acquisition of a language. Some of the findings of this paper are that: that children between 2-4 years acquiring the Igbo language, used less hypotactic constructions because of their inability to be logical, that 2-4 years children acquiring the Igbo language cannot use easily express causal relationships which require complex constructions, that the use of paratactic constructions by 2-4 years old children acquiring the Igbo language leave the listener to interpret the sentence for himself, that paratactic constructions reveal a relationship of asyndeton in the syntactic constructions of the 2-4 years old child in the Igbo language, and finally that paratactic constructions are used for attention grabbing. This paper thus, recommends that study be encouraged of the speech of the 2-4 years old child acquiring other languages, in order to enhance the teaching and learning of any language in the world.