Tense And Aspect In Ogbunike Igbo

CHAPTER FIVE 5.0 SUMMARY, FINDINGS, AND CONCLUSIONS.

5.1 SUMMARY

This work sets out to survey and give a detailed analysis of tense and aspect in Ogbunike dialect of Igbo. The dialect shows a high degree of some similarities with standard Igbo with regards to the realization of tense and aspect. The core area of these differences is mainly Phonological.

5.2 FINDINGS This work has examined in detail, tense and aspect in Ogbunike dialect. Tense is the form of verb that shows the actual time of reference, while aspect is the form of the verb that gives additional information to the time as to the inception, duration, continuity or completion of an event/action. The distinction between these two categories of verb gave rise to the recognition of three categories of tense in Igbo namely: Future Tense (Tensi Ndiniihu), Past Tense (Tensi Ndinaazu) and Unfulfilled Tense (Tensi Ngaaradi) in Igbo Language. We have seen that in Ogbunike Igbo, those three categories of tense are also recognized.

Expressing future time in the dialect involves the use of the auxiliary verb “ya” and it usually co-occurs with the main verb as against the auxiliary verb “ga” as used in Standard Igbo, Nevertheless both Ogbunike and Standard Igbo show no morphological changes in the verb root in their various constructions. The Past Tense is marked by the use a regular – lu verbal suffix in all their constructions in Ogbunike Igbo unlike what is obtained in Standard Igbo –rv verbal suffix or in some other dialects of Igbo Language that use the –lv verbal suffix. Both dialects still show a regular morphological change in all their constructions. In the expression of the Unfulfilled Tense, there is no morphological changes in the verb root in Ogbunike Igbo. The construction is expressed through the use of a special kind of auxiliary verb “ka”.

There is no inflection of the verb root unlike Standard Igbo that uses “ga” inflected with “ara” which forms “gaara”. Under aspect, we discussed the Progressive Aspect (Aspeekiti Ngawanye), the Perfective aspect (Aspeekiti Mmecha), the Habitual Aspect (Aspeekiti Mmaahu) and the Stative Aspect (Aspeekiti Mfe). The Progressive Aspect is marked by the auxiliary verb “na” just as in Standard Igbo, no verbal morphology in all cases. In expressing the Perfective Aspect, the contribution makes use of the verbal suffix-gwo unlike, the “VLV” suffix in Standard Igbo both, show a regular morphological changes in their various constructions. Also the Habitual Aspect is expressed through the use of the auxiliary verb “na” in all cases.

Finally, the Stative Aspect makes use of the special verb called the stative verb. The Stative Verb states a fact e.g di, bu e.t.c.

5.4 CONCLUSION It is a fact that a linguistic investigation into different languages or dialects in order to x – ray the workings of grammatical categories is not an easy task. The difficulties notwithstanding, we have been able to survey tense and aspect in Ogbunike dialect of the Igbo Language. Our findings affirm that these grammatical categories can be confirmed for Ogbunike Igbo.