A Minimalist Account of Movement Constraints in English and Naija

Syntactic theories have evolved to address limitations in earlier models, with the Minimalist Program providing a more economical account of grammatical computation. Although English and Naija maintain a superstrate-substrate relationship and coexist in Nigeria, they exhibit distinct syntactic systems, particularly in movement operations. While English has been extensively examined within generative syntax, comparable studies on Naija remain limited. This study investigates the application of minimalist principles to movement operations in English and Naija to determine the extent to which both languages conform to or diverge from Universal Grammar. Adopting a qualitative descriptive design, the study analyses wh-movement, passivization, and other derivational processes using Naija data extracted from BBC Naija publications on insecurity and inflation, alongside English data drawn from native-speaker syntax publications. The findings reveal that both languages employ movement operations to derive diverse constructions and that these operations are governed by grammatical principles such as Feature-checking, Shortest Move, Attract Closest, Greed, and Last Resort. However, whereas English consistently conforms to minimalist movement constraints, Naija displays a more flexible, context-sensitive syntax shaped by contact-induced influences from Nigerian languages. The study therefore supports the universality of grammatical principles while demonstrating that their implementation varies across languages.