Moses Effiong Ekpenyong Imelda Icheji Udoh   Editors Current Issues in Descriptive Linguistics and Digital Humanities A Festschrift in Honor of Professor Eno-Abasi Essien Urua Current Issues in Descriptive Linguistics and Digital Humanities fi Moses Ef ong Ekpenyong Imelda Icheji Udoh (cid:129) Editors Current Issues in Descriptive Linguistics and Digital Humanities A Festschrift in Honor of Professor Eno-Abasi Essien Urua 123 Editors Moses EffiongEkpenyong Imelda Icheji Udoh Department ofComputer Science Department ofLinguistics Centrefor Research and andNigerian Languages Development (CERAD) University of Uyo University of Uyo Uyo,Nigeria Uyo,Nigeria ISBN978-981-19-2931-1 ISBN978-981-19-2932-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-2932-8 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s),underexclusivelicensetoSpringerNature SingaporePteLtd.2022 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsaresolelyandexclusivelylicensedbythePublisher,whether thewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseof illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmissionorinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilar ordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. 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The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore Acknowledgements We acknowledge the University of Uyo, Nigeria, for providing the enabling environmentandsupporttowardthesuccessofthisFestschrift.Alsoacknowledged aretheUniversityofCalabar,Nigeria;UniversityofIbadan,Nigeria;Universityof Edinburgh,UK;andBielefeldUniversity,Germany.Theseinstitutionshavegreatly impacted the career/profession of Professor Eno-Abasi Essien Urua, to whom this Festschrift is dedicated. We are grateful to all the authors, co-authors, colleagues, and friends of Prof. Eno-Abasi Urua, for their valuable contributions to this book. We appreciate our Editorial Assistant: Miss Aniefon Daniel Akpan of the National Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAND), Aba, Nigeria, for manag- ing the huge correspondence and excellent documentation maintained during the book development phase. Lastly, we thank the anonymous reviewers whose invaluable comments have contributed to improving the quality of this Festschrift. To God be the Glory! v Introduction Descriptivelinguisticsisthestudyofhowlanguageisconstructed.Withinthisfield ofstudy,thewordsphonology,morphology,andsyntaxareoftenused.Virtuallyall academicresearchinlinguisticsisdescriptive;likeallotherscientificdisciplines,it seeks a description of reality, without the bias of preconceived ideas about how it should be. Current Issues in Descriptive Linguistics and Digital Humanities therefore x-rays a variety of language forms and functions, with the introduction of modern techniques for efficient representation and documentation of language resources into the future. This book is therefore a convergence of heterogeneous insights (from languages and literature, history, music, media and communications, com- puter science/technology, and information studies) which previously went their separateways;nowunifiedunderasingleframeworkforthepurposeofpreserving a unique heritage, the language. In a growing society like ours, description and documentation of human and scientific evidence/resources are improving. However, these resources have enjoyed cost-effective solutions for Western lan- guages but are yet to flourish for African tone languages. By situating discussions around a universe of discourse, sufficient to engender cross-border interactions within the African context, this book shall break a dichotomy of challenges on adaptative processes required to unify resources and assist the development of modern linguistic solutions for the African domain. This book addresses two hot topics: Modern Descriptive Linguistics and ComputationalTechniquesinTheHumanities.Itcontains48contributionsdrawn from various countries of the world, namely: Nigeria, Cote Devoir, Germany, Poland, UK, and USA. To ease the analysis of contributions, we classify them under four (4) distinctive parts as follows: (cid:129) Part One: Formal Linguistics (14 contributions) (cid:129) Part Two: Riddles, Proverbs, Folktales (6 contributions) (cid:129) Part Three: Indigenous Language Use, Communication and Status (13 contributions) (cid:129) Part Four: Language Technology and Documentation (15 contributions). vii viii Introduction Analysis of Contributions In Formal Linguistics, Akinbiyi Akinlabi examined both complete and partial vowel-vowel assimilation across consonants in Yoruba, a Niger-Congo language. He proposed that spreading through coronal [n/l] on the one hand and through [r] on the other hand are cases of incomplete vocalic assimilation. Otherwise, he proposedtheircaptureusing“singlefeaturespread”.IbokP.Offiongpresentedthe morphologyofsimplenounsinBete(aBantoidlanguage)withintheframeworkof lexical morphology theory; elaborating the process of deriving the nominal mor- phology of Bete. Ahmadu Shehu discussed the grammatical evolution of lexical items denoting body part items into grammatical markers of various grammatical notions in Fulfulde, a Niger-Congo language. Willie U. Willie explored subject-verb agreement in Ekid, a Benue-Congo language. He observed that Ekid exhibits subject-verb agreement in some astonishing ways, in contrast with the claim in Chomsky’s Minimalist Programme that proposed only one agreement projectionfortheclausestructure.Resultofadataanalysisrevealsthatsubject-verb agreement in Ekid is heavily marked on the verbal structure, hence, its ubiquity in the language. Unyime I. Udoeyo, Glory I. Hanson, and Victoria S. Enang examinedthestructureofnon-basicsentencesinEkid,todeterminetheirformation andtransformation.Theirworkservesasatoolforfurtherresearchontheaspectof Ekid syntax. Ogbanna Anyanwu and Juliet Udoudom examined and classified inherent complement verbs (ICVs) in Ibibio (a New Benue-Congo language) comparing them with lexical transitive verbs in the language. They found that IbibioICVscaneitherbetransitiveorintransitive.Basedonthesyntacticbehavior of Ibibio IC, they conclude that Ibibio ICs are not ‘true’ objects with regard to ‘affected’ objects of lexical transitive verbs. Escor Udosen and Emmanuel A. Okon adopted the Minimalist Programme of Chomsky (1995) and conceptualized onKayne’s(1994)linearcorrespondingaxiom,toexaminecomplementsandheads in Ibibio nominal compounds including the syntactic and semantic bond between constituents of a nominal compound. Monday O. Akpojisheri and Ochuko Okpan presented a contrastive analysis of the verbal group structures of English andUrhobo(aNiger-Congolanguage),foreffectivelearning.Theyfoundthatthere are phenomenal differences between their VG structures with few similarities. Enoima E. Etteokon and Rosemary E. Benjamin examined verb juxtaposition with special focus on aspect of serial verb construction in Ibibio. Using a descriptivemodel,theyfoundthattheorderofoccurrenceoftheverbsisparamount to the understanding of the envisaged meaning of the sentence. Shirley O. Yul-IfodeproposedaSTRUCTGENAUTICapproach(c.f.,Yul-Ifoldeetal.,2016) to illustrate tonal phenomena peculiar to Isoko, an Edoid language. Celestina P. Kekai evinced that Izon (a Niger-Congo language) is patterned toward the vigesimal numeral system. Specifically, addition, compounding, multiplication, deletion,andumlautareproductiveinthederivationalprocessofnominalsinIzon. Lynice I. Walter-Amadi provided a description of polar interrogatives and dis- cussed the various strategies Obolo (a Niger-Congo language) employ to derive Introduction ix them; including the positions polar interrogative markers occupy in the language. Merosobo Lawson-Ikuru examined the underlying tonal contrast in Ogbia (a Niger-Congo language)—investigating the tonal alternations in phonological and grammatical constructions as they interface, with tone playing an important role. AniefonD.AkpangaveaphonologicaldescriptionofIbibiopersonalnamesusing the Onset-rhyme theory and analyzed the syllable segments of Ibibio personal nameswithspecialreferencetothename‘Eno-AbasiEssienUrua’.Shefoundthat the name has a CV(V)C syllable structure and is classified under gratitude, supreme, and place of birth categories of Ibibio names. In Riddles, Proverbs, Folktales, Ojonugwa N. Johnpaul provided a mor- phologicaldescriptionofproverbialnamesselectedfromIgalapersonalnames.He discovered that Igala (a Niger-Congo language) proverbial names do not only contain philosophical and cultural values but are morphologically compound, complex and compound-complex words embedding rich linguistic information for understanding the grammar of the language. Using data obtained from participants observation and interviews of elderly respondents, Peter Silas and Bassey Okon investigated the use of proverbs and chauvinism in Anaañ (a New Benue-Congo language) society and recommend that male chauvinism should be discouraged. Itoro Michael, Ima Immanuel, and Ebuk P. Etim focused on fowl-related pro- verbs in Anaañ. They found that the activities, experiences, fate, and destiny of humans at most times are shaped by their environment and can be likened to the metaphoric instances of the fowl. Uwemedimo E. Iwoketok using an Animal-Animaltale:NtakÑkpekpemasekkeadiaudiaakonayo‘whythebathunts forfoodatnight’,discussedthecallousnessoftheBatwhotreacherouslykilledhis bosomfriend,theRat,resortingtonocturnality,anewandweirdlifestyle.Thestory condemnstreacheryandwhy we shouldbewaryofthose we call ‘bosom’friends. NgoziI.Ugo-OchuloexaminedthecreativeuseoflanguageinChimamandaNgozi Adichie’s ‘the thing around your neck’—a collection of 12 short stories. Findings fromanalyzeddatarevealthat:(1)thecode-switchedwords/expressionsaremostly content words; (2) loan blends are adjectival nouns with few noun-noun blends; (3) loan blends are endocentric; and (4) reduplicated words mark the degree of emphasis in the context they are used. Willie U. Willie and Moses B. Isong examined and described the semantic functions of metaphor in Oro riddles. They found that metaphors are deployed in Oro riddles to exemplify realities. In Indigenous Language Use, Communication and Status, Emmanuel I. Asonyearguedthattheadoptionanduseofindigenoussignedlanguage(s)andthe implementation of early detection, early intervention program are the lacking solutions totheperceived languagegapamong deaf childrenin Nigeria.Usingthe Austinian speech act theory, Happiness Uduk and Michael Gunn presented a pragmatic investigation of selected Internet-based entertainment contents (also knownasmemes)asdigitaltoolsforcreatingawarenessonCOVID-19,particularly from Facebook. They conclude that social media as a digital tool are used by netizens to exhibit speech acts for expressing generic opinions about government and co-existence. Uwem J. Akpan departed from the views of those conceptual- izingNsìbìdìasaculturalphenomenonwhichoriginatedasaformofgesturebythe x Introduction ekpe secret society before it developed and crystalized into writing. He concludes that even though Nsìbìdì has declined in its utility and value, it indicates the creativity of the people of the Cross River region before the era of imperialism. FrancisO.Egbokharepresented aproposalfortheunificationandharmonization oftheAfenmai(aNiger-Congolanguage)spellingsystemsusinglinguisticfeatures. PeterA.AchaduexaminedthedecliningstatusofindigenouslanguagesinNigeria, enunciating the factors responsible for the declining status and preference for English language, including possible suggestions for reversing this decline. Okokon Akpan and Aniefon D. Akpan surveyed Ibibio songs to examine the significance of indigenous music using data generated primarily through structural interviews.Theyfoundthatindigenousmusicconveysmessagesofbeliefs,values, and other fundamental philosophies of the Ibibio people and heritage. Akpobome Diffre-Odiete studied the interplay between religion and language use. A percentage analysis of primary data collected from church leaders in rural communitiesinNigeriashowsthatthetypeofrhetoricalstyleortechniqueusedby church leaders and the frequency at which they apply such rhetoric may influence the growth of their churches. Stella I. Ekpe and Juliet N. Ekpang evaluated the effectiveness of language use by the campaign speeches of the Mass Mobilization forSelf-reliance,SocialJustice,andEconomicRecovery(MAMSER)organization inrelationtoitsgoalofmassinformationforitslargeheterogenoustargetaudience. Friday E. Ude and Victoria S. Enang adopted a descriptive/qualitative design using Morris (1964) conceptual framework. Audio evidence involving naturally occurringdiscourseofstories,narratives,andculturalactivitiesinItuMbonUso(a New Benue-Congo language) reveals the neglect by the language community; hence, contributing to the attrition and disappearance of the language’s folktale. Maria-HelenEkahprovidedapurelydescriptiveanalysistoexaminegenderforms in English and Ibibio. Her analysis espouses how the grammatical category of gender occurs inthe two languages. Golden Ekpo and Benjamin Nyong through direct observations and interviews obtained from the Oro (a New Benue-Congo language)communityfoundthatthedecisiontousemultiplelanguagesinchurches with the community stems from creating understanding among worshippers from different language backgrounds and by this understanding, they are converted to boost the economy and power of the church. Nneoma F. Ugorji examined the thought patterns of the Igbo people to derive the semantic implication of Igbo inscriptions. She applied the use theory of meaning in documented data of Igbo expressionsinscribedontricyclesinAba,Nigeria.Shefoundthattheseinscriptions are idiomatic and informative. Furthermore, not marking tones may influence assimilation/understanding of the inscriptions by non-natives of the language. IniobongI.Ukobelievesthatcertainactivitiesandtendenciesengenderpowerfor a person; and this power is enhanced by some factors including educational attainment, professional affiliations, natural endowments, and more. In Language Technology and Documentation, Dafydd Gibbon presented an exploratory analysis of Ibibio speech rhythm with the goal of providing a theo- retical basis for future quantitative studies of the language’s rhythms and its neighboring languages, as well as their relation to other languages in Nigeria and Introduction xi beyond. John Harris and Larry M. Hyman hypothesized that segmental phonology of wide range of West African languages shows clear contrastive asymmetries between different positions within the prosodic stem. They conclude that the notion of relative consonantal strength is hard to define using standard featureclassificationsbutcaneasilybecapturedbydrawingonthemodelofspeech as a modulated carrier signal. Moses E. Ekpenyong, Aminu A. Suleiman, and Murtala Salihu reported on the creation of massive parallel corpus—toward developing a Hausa-to-English machine translation(MT) system. Theypresentthe methodsforachievingtheirfirstparallelcorpususingthe‘Ibadan400wordlist’—a set of basic English words selected from common (everyday activities). Their research is certain to revolutionize MT research in Nigeria and unleash the numerous potentials of achieving multilingual MT for low-resourced languages. Nadine Grimm reflected on aspects of dictionary making from the perspective of understudied, under-resourced, and possibly endangered languages of Africa. She provides an overview of the growing number of publications on documentary lexicography with the vast body of literature in general lexicography; arguing that these mostly disconnected perspectives could benefit from each other. EmemObong O. Udoh and Moses E. Ekpenyong developed a tonal pattern recognition framework that exploitsa two-tape finite state machine and supervised learning, for tonal pattern recognition in Anaañ nominal constructions. The pro- posed framework could serve as a byproduct to related NLP tasks and as peda- gogical material for educational and research purposes. Using phonetic features such as r-fulness, flapping, contraction, and intonation extracted from acoustic signals of Nigerian entertainment and news broadcasts, Japhet Ajani showed that entertainment news broadcast is more Americanized than traditional news broad- cast. Using Natural Language Processing (NLP), Deborah Ojo and Tunde Adegbola investigated the use offrequency and spread of words to automatically extractindextermsfromtheYorubabook:‘Aké:NíÌgbàÈwe’meaning‘TheYears of Childhood’, written by Wole Soyinka and translated by Akínwùmí Ìsòlá. Olúfé mi D. Ninan, Samuel M. Aládé, Karen C. Olúfokùnbí, Adékúnlé O. Afo lábí, Isaac O. E lé sè moyò and O dé túnjí A. O dé jo bí reported on an ongoing-research, interrogating the principle and theories for digitally rendering and animating stories from the perspective of the indigenous Yoruba culture; with theviewtoencode,asmuchaspossible,theauthenticcontentsofthemessagesand nuances of the stories. Joseph A. Ushie, Moses E. Ekpenyong and Richard O. Ajahre-echoedtheurgentmissionfordocumentingaspectsofouroralheritageand transmitting same through modern tools and techniques, for wide consumption by our African youths. They proposed a conceptual model for encouraging partner- ships, and domesticate the curation of community collections; transforming them through technology into enhanced digital collections for efficient learning and dissemination of oral traditions. Isaac O. E lé sè moyò and O dé túnjí A. O dé jo bí discussed the operations regarding base and arithmetic computations that occur in the Yoruba, Roman, Chinese, Hindu-Arabic, Hausa, and Igbo counting systems. They recommend the appropriate lens from which the counting system can be viewed for formal learning and use. Adam B. O ló runlóme rúè and O dé túnjí A.