IRREVERSIBLE BINOMIALS AND MEANING IMPLICATION IN IGBO LANGUAGE: SEMANTIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

Over the years, people have used language to communicate various intentions, especially native speakers of a particular language. The way people use language in different social situations gives rise to different meanings, which can be described as context. This context affects communication in several ways, particularly in the area of meaning, which forms the basis of this research paper titled “Irreversible Binomials and Meaning Implication in the Igbo Language: A Semantic Analysis.” The Igbo language contains binomials with meanings that reflect the social and cultural life of its speakers. Accordingly, the first objective of this study is to explain binomials and their different types, while the second objective is to analyze the varieties of binomials in the Igbo language with regard to their contexts of usage. This study adopts the Lexical Theory of Meaning as its theoretical framework and employs the descriptive research method. Data for the study were collected from the everyday conversations of speakers from Umuoji, Nkpor, Obosi, and Onitsha. Additional data were obtained through personal interviews with speakers from these communities, as well as from semantic contexts such as affinity (e.g., ji na mmanụ), personal or intimate relationships (e.g., di na nwunye, nne na nwa), and from previous studies including Agbo (2016:33–42) and Madueke (2020). The findings reveal that binomials are expressions consisting of two words joined by a conjunction. Secondly, there are two types of binomials: reversible and irreversible. Thirdly, binomials can be grouped into different categories based on context, such as negation and affirmation, completeness or totality, enmity, and intimate relationship contexts. This work is expected to be of significance to linguists and scholars seeking to expand the scope of semantic studies in the Igbo language.