An adjective is a universal concept that forms an integral component of all the languages in the world. The importance of adjectives in articulating the realism of any growing language and the paucity of literature in Ibibio adjectives informed this research. This paper focuses on structures, features, functions, interpretation of Ibibio adjectives. The data were gathered from a face to face interview with native Ibibio informants as well as special Ibibio programmes such as “Local Man” and “Native introspection” By our intuition as native speakers of the speech form in focus, the data so selected were categorized and analysed using the Descriptive model and generative morphology theory. The analysis reveals that at the morphological level, Ibibio adjectives can be classified into deep and derived structures, and that deep structure adjectives are monomorphemic in a nature, most of the Ibibio adjectives are lexical items. It is also observed that in Ibibio, predicative adjective are often preceded by the copular verb ‘ado’ in the construction. The predicative copular construction is purely ascriptive in Ibibio.
Written By
Enoima Edet Etteokon
Department of Nigerian Languages
Akwa Ibom College of Education, Afaha Nsit,
Email: enoimaette@gmail.com
Dr. Rosemary Ekerete Benjamin
Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages
University of Uyo, Uyo
Email: romektina@gmail.com
