PRAGMA-SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF PERCEPTIVE VERBS IN ONICHA IGBOEZE DIALECT OF IGBO

Abstract

This Study examined the Pragrma-semantic Analysis of Perceptive Verbs in Onicha Igboeze dialect of Igbo language. The research investigated how speakers of Onicha Igboeze Dialect of Igbo use perceptive verbs to construct meanings, negotiate social content based relationships and infer meanings in different contexts of language use. The study unveils how certain lexical items in Onicha Igboeze dialect can change in meaning as a result of their frequent use in a new context. The verbs involved are hu (see), le (look at), nu (hear),ge (listen), metu (touch), nu uto (taste), and nu isi (smell). The primary data were purposively collected through elicitation from native speakers of Onicha Igboeze in Onicha LGA of Ebonyi State, Nigeria while the Secondary data were collected from books, journals, newspapers and online works. The study adopted cognitive semantics which observes that words can take different meanings from earlier meanings as a result of use in different contexts. Therefore, the study analyzes the semantic fields associated with perceptive verbs, pragmatic inference and contextualization. The findings of this research contribute to our understanding of the grammar and pragma-semantics of Onicha Igboeze dialect of Igbo language via pragma-semantic analysis.