On classifying Yorùbá noun phrases

Abstract 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.