TAUTOLOGY IN  IGBO LANGUAGE_HENRY_EZEUGWU

Abstract

This paper aims at studying tautological expressions in the Igbo language (tautology is an important aspect in sentential semantics which studies the meaning of phrases, clauses and sentences). Its objective is to identify or study expressions or phrases that says the same thing twice, just in a different way which sometimes is usually undesirable and in some cases, it can make one sound wordier than one need to be and also to appear foolish as well as the need to avoid redundancy. Occasionally, a tautology can help to add emphasis or clarity, or introduce intentional ambiguity, but in most cases, its best to choose just one way to state one’s meaning and eliminate the extra verbiage because tautologous expression is uninformative; it does not provide new information. Reasons speakers makes expressions that are tautological in Igbo language presented in this study include lack of knowledge of the form and mechanics of the language, poor or lack of training in the use of the language, both at home and in schools, lack of interest, the wave of the present trend of the (Igbo) youths in chasing foreign cultures at the detriment of the Igbo culture, lack of seriousness or lip service on the part of the government and other agencies as NGOs in promoting the Igbo language and culture. The data used for analysis were elicited/ came from introspection since the researcher is a native speaker of Igbo and from interviewing an Igbo speaker. The data gotten was analyzed descriptively. The findings of the research states that Igbo speakers make tautologous expressions in order to lay emphasis to what they are saying or for clarity of which they do unknowingly. Let’s consider these examples: “Agadi nwaanyị ahụ kara nka na-eri nri”, the above expression is tautological but the word “kara nka” is used there to explain better who was eating because in our normal life, one can actually call a young lady an old me as a way of insulting her. Another example is: “A gwọrọ ya ọrịa ọ laa”the use of “o laa denotes redundancy but it was used there to explain better what the speaker has in mind. Furthermore, it was observed that tautology is useful in the Igbo language in some cases like when the repetition of two identical words (reduplication) are being used as an adjective to modifiy a noun. For instance, when we have a construction as “Ngozi riri nri ahụ ọsọ ọsọ”, the repetition of the word ‘ọsọ ‘is used to show the degree at which the food was eaten. We have other

expressions that perform the same function as: mmiri mmiri, ọsọ ọsọ, ngwa ngwa , nwayọọ nwayọọ, oyi oyi, ọkụ ọkụ, mkpụrụ mkpụrụ, oriri oriri etc. As you can see, there are times when the use of tautology is helpful to emphasize a point. In most cases, since it doesn't add new information to a statement, it should be edited out of writing or during speech making.. This will show readers and listeners that you are in complete command of your vocabulary and don't need to use extra words to make your point. This paper recommends that further studies/ researches should be carried out on tautology in dialects of the Igbo language, varieties of other languages and other African languages in general. These findings therefore, will greatly help the teachers, students and the native speakers of the Igbo language to avoid redundancy in their speech. Also, Igbo newscasters, preachers, traders, actors and actresses, businessmen and indeed all those literate in Igbo language and who use the language in their daily interaction will find the work useful. This will ultimately enhance communication in the language.