GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

                                                                                               ABSTRACT

This research work examines the extensional suffixes- ‘ta/te’ in Igbo syntax, using Aboh Mbaise dialect of Igbo as a focus. It investigates such extensional suffixes in order to highlight other forms of extensional suffixes discovered in the dialect and also to identifying whether extensional affixes maintain constant meaning irrespective of the class of verbs with which they occur. The database derives from unstructured oral interview, a number of illustrative texts and internet sources. The method of analysis is descriptive, hence, no theoretical framework was adopted. Findings reveal that-‘ta/te’ has a much wider scope of meaning than has been suggested in the literature; it means other things than direction. Such other meanings it could have include benefactive, advantageous and a prepositional meaning. The study discovers also that the extensional suffixes can in principle be used in any and all constructions. It is also discovered that some of the extensional suffixes are inherently plural while some are inherently singular in the dialect. The study recommends that more studies in extensional suffixes in other dialects of Igbo be carried out to discovered their similarities and differences, and to keep the fire of research in Igbo grammar burning.

KEYWORDS: Affixes, suffixes, extensional suffixes, Igbo language and syntax.