On classifying Yorùbá noun phrases
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21463014 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mayowa Akinlotan (0000-0001-5142-7168, University of Regensburg , Regensburg , Germany, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 341-367 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-24 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Folia Linguistica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0165-4004 • E-ISSN: 1614-7308 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/flin-2025-2012 |
| OpenAlex | W4411023605 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 8 |
The study examines some selected Yoruba noun phrases’ internal structure, processes and meaning. This predominant Nigerian language relies on creativity and innovativeness in its structures and meaning process. Drawing on contemporary everyday data and language idiosyncrasies, this study identifies four Yorùbá NP types and analyses their constituents. It argues that the determiner and modification systems exhibit complex movement and placement that not only form the characteristic structural features of the language but also as cues to the meaning and interpretation process. Findings reveal that there appears to be a movement-and-placement competition between these two constituents. However, the determiner system outweighs the modification system’s ability to move freely within the NP structure. While this is the case for the determiner system, the study establishes that the movement and placement of the modification system are more related to the processing of meaning and interpretation than the movement and placement of the determiner. The study concludes that structural properties may represent the nature and texture of international Yoruba, a new trend in language usage to meet the growing demand among diasporic speakers globally
Determiner phrase · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Nominalization · Noun · Noun phrase · Yoruba · Computer Science · History · Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation · Artificial Intelligence
The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language
Complex variability and difficulty processing Yoruba relativisers and the relative clause
Some Yoruba quantifier words and semantic interpretation a reply to a critique
Case, prequantifiers, and discontinuous agreement in Russian
Some Yoruba quantifier words and semantic interpretation
Some Yoruba quantifier words and semantic interpretation a critique
Determiner phrase in a language without determiners (with apologies to Jim Huang 1982)
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |