Abstract:
This study investigates the interaction between focus constructions and case assignment in the Idoma language spoken in Benue State. It examines the type of case assigned to a focused NP when it is moved from its extraction site to its landing site. Arokoyo (2013, p. 94) proposed a case form called the Emphatic Case. This case is assigned by the focus marker to the focused NP in the specifier of the Focus Phrase. This study is intended to determine whether this feature is present in Idoma. Since the researchers are not native speakers of the language, data were collected through interviews, and the frame technique method was adopted in presenting structured grammatical sentences in English for native speakers of the language to translate into Idoma. The Principles and Parameters approach was employed for the analysis in this study. The study finds that in the Idoma language, the focus marker co-occurs with the emphasis marker, which appears at the sentence final position. That is, the definiteness marker in a focus construction in the Idoma language is mutually dependent such that the focus marker needs the emphatic marker syntactically and semantically to make sense in a complete declarative sentence. This study represents a modest contribution to the existing literature and serves as a resource for further research.
Keywords: Focus, Emphasis marker, Functor, Idoma, Specifier
DOI: www.doi.org/10.36349/tjllc.2026.v05i02.011
author/Oyewole, Lydia Damilola & Dr Fatai Toyin Kareem
journal/Tasambo JLLC 5(2) | February 2026 |
