GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the structure of the VP in OÌ©gba. The language is spoken across forty-one communities in OÌ©gba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, Rivers State, Nigeria. This study adopts the X-bar theory which plays a significant role in the GB grammar. It employs the descriptive survey design. The data for the study were collected through the intuitive knowledge of the researcher and unstructured elicitation oral interview technique. The method of data analysis that is adopted in this study is purely descriptive method of morpheme-to-morpheme glossing. It is observed that the V is the only obligatory constituent of the VP in OÌ©gba. This suggests that V is the head of the VP. That is, the V is the most important grammatical element or category in a VP in the language. It is also observed that some verbs in the language can occupy a VP slot with or without any complement. This paper also ascertains that V can merge or combine with a single NP, double NP, an NPI with a PP, NP with a CP and CP alone to maximally expand or project into a VP.

KEYWORDS: Verb, Verb Phrase, Head, Headedness, OÌ©gba