GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT

This paper provides the analysis of Eká´‰d tense and aspectual systems, with a view to determining their morphological and syntactic features; that is, how tense and aspect are being formed and marked within sentences in Eká´‰d. A descriptive research design was adopted for the study. Data for the analysis were drawn from the central Eká´‰d via elicitation. The analysis reveals that the tense system in Eká´‰d include: the past, present and future tenses, which are marked by distinctive affixes and are prefixed to verbs in constructions; on the other hand, the aspectual system in Eká´‰d include: inceptive, habitual, completive (perfect and relative), progressive aspects, which are all marked by distinctive affixes which are prefixed to verbs in constructions, exception of the relative (completive) aspect which is marked by reduplication (doubling of the verb) in the expression. The analysis shows that, the tense and aspectual systems in Eká´‰d correspond to that of Ibibio, though slight morphological variation in their aspectual systems. This work serves as a tool for further research on Eká´‰d grammar for the development and preservation of Eká´‰d language.

KEYWORDS: Language, Syntax, Tenses and Aspect