Odingowei Kwokwo - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Odingowei Kwokwo

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), in particular Truth Commissions, are important instit... more National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), in particular Truth Commissions, are important institutions which can be established in both conflict and post-conflict periods to ensure that widespread or systematic human rights violations are accounted for and do not recur. Given the violent past and in some cases present human rights violations in African States, independent Commissions play a pivotal role in dealing with the past. However, no concept can be examined in a vacuum. Therefore, it is important to examine Truth Commissions within the context of the Paris Principles so as to ascertain the gains made in the past years of their emergence on the African continent. It is with much sadness that most Truth Commissions are thriving under the weight of authoritarian regimes, thus it is of utmost importance to take stock of the gains made so far in as far as truth, peace and reconciliation processes are concerned. Lessons learned from other countries will enable other Truth Commissions to navigate the rough terrain in Africa, but most importantly self-introspect, improve and shake-off the legacy of failure. Given the mammoth task facing Truth Commissions in Africa, it is pivotal for them to adopt international best practices and constantly look back, self-introspect and learn from each other so as to ensure that they effectively deliver their mandate. This paper will also proffer recommendations so that Truth Commissions are competent in implementing their intervention strategies and are able to navigate the obstacles posed by both non-state and state actors in Africa.

The Niger Delta Research Digest (NDRD) is the Centre for Niger Delta Studies (CNDS) official jour... more The Niger Delta Research Digest (NDRD) is the Centre for Niger Delta Studies (CNDS) official journal, published biannually to disseminate multi and inter-disciplinary research on the Niger Delta. The journal is a print journal and the views expressed are those of the author (s) and not the NDRD, its editors or the CNDS. Authors are entitled to one complimentary copy of any issue where their article, essay or book review appears. The journal does not pay honorarium to contributors. Similarly contributors are not required to any fee for publication. Editorial policy and submission guidelines. The Niger Delta Research Digest (NDRD) publishes feature articles/papers, essays and book reviews on issues in development, peace and conflict resolution, environment and sustainable development, agriculture, language, culture and history. The focus of the journal is on the Niger Delta and it is published twice a year.

Journal of Languages and Culture, 2016

This paper examines strength and interpretability of Agreement and Tense features in English and ... more This paper examines strength and interpretability of Agreement and Tense features in English and Izọn languages within Chomskyan minimalist program which places premium on feature checking. Agreement (Agr) and Tense (T) are abstract functional heads in the clause structure of natural languages which check corresponding Agr and Tense features of nouns and verbs to ensure the convergence of syntactic derivations. The objective of the study is to characterize the strength and interpretability of the morphosyntactic features of Agr and Tense in the process of checking in both English and Izọn. The study derived data from standard and regularly used textbooks in English and from competent native speakers in Izọn. The study reveals that phi-features in both languages are interpretable at both Phonetic Form (PF) or phonological level and Logical Form (LF) or semantic level, but the +N agreement feature of Izọn verbs is interpretable only at LF but is uninterpretable at PF. On the other hand, Tense features of verbs of both languages are strong and interpretable at both LF and PF. Consequently, checking of these morphosyntactic features takes place before Spell-Out but the +N feature of Izọn verbs undergoes Procrastination and is checked after Spell-Out. This study characterizes the interface between functional morphological features and syntactic derivations and contributes to the linguistic discourse of feature checking.

Languages are primarily spoken and produced as sound but are usually reduced to written symbols b... more Languages are primarily spoken and produced as sound but are usually reduced to written symbols based on conventionally accepted orthographies. This is an indicator of the level of development of a language. Orthographies are important because they enhance and facilitate the discrete representation of sound and meaning in readable symbols. Indeed, research has shown that there exists a positive relationship between language orthographies and acquisition, development and enhancement of literacy. Ịzọn language spoken by the central Ịzọn people of the Nigerian coastline from Bayelsa State in the east to Ondo State in the west has not had a standard orthography that would facilitate the proper documentation of the language primarily due to conflicting dialectal interests. This short research paper addresses the issue of a harmonized or unified Ịzọn orthography that would be applicable to and incorporate all the dialects. The study reveals that all the numerous dialects have a common orthography and recommend a thirty-one (31) letter alphabet that can be used as Standard Ịzọn Orthography.

African traditional literature is fraught with songs, dances, riddles, jokes, proverbs as well as... more African traditional literature is fraught with songs, dances, riddles, jokes, proverbs as well as chants, incantations, invocation, rituals and musical performances. Some of these features are found in earlier poet, Christopher Okigbo’s Labyrinths and comparatively recent poet, Christian Otobotekere’s A Sailor’s Son: in the wake of dance and games. Oral poetry in Iza»n tradition is diverse but one that is often neglected in scholarly discourse is the elegiac poetry of the ‘Obobo bi’ or necromancy which involves songs, dances, rituals, recitations, incantations and performances. The study will focus on the orality, performative style and creativity in the spoken word as a sub-genre of African poetry. This paper therefore seeks to investigate the poetry of Obobo bi with the aim of projecting into scholarly attention and reveal the alienation, liminality and the hidden literary aesthetics of the obobo bi tradition. The study hinges on the post-colonialism theory. Data for the study w...

Studies in Literature and Language, 2019

Languages are said to be productive because of their ability to adopt a variety of morphological ... more Languages are said to be productive because of their ability to adopt a variety of morphological strategies of word-formation through which they enrich their lexicon for ease and. facilitation of meaning creation and communication. Universally, sundry such morphological processes available for natural languages to exploit are affixation, compounding, clipping, blending and reduplication. Beyond these strategies, many African languages also adopt the device of verbal extension which seems to be absent in English morphology. This paper investigates the use of verbal extensions as a morphologically productive word-formation strategy in linguistic and communication studies. The data used for analysis in the paper are derived from standard textbooks written in English and from competent native speakers of Izọn language especially of Kolokuma and Gbarain dialects of Izọn both of which have 99% lexical contiguity. This was done through unobtrusive observations and purposive interviews and ...

This work is a stylistic study of Ogbowei in Marsh Boy and Other Poems which is a collection of p... more This work is a stylistic study of Ogbowei in Marsh Boy and Other Poems which is a collection of poems that vent a liberation ideology. Stylistics studies the style of language used by individual speakers and writers. It is a linguistic tool for the analysis and interpretation of meaning and manner of language use. There are two primary dimensions of stylistics namely linguistic stylistics and literary stylistics. Whereas the former focuses on the form of language, the later focuses on literary or rhetorical devices used by writers to achieve aesthetic purposes. A third relatively new dimension of stylistics is discourse stylistics which analyses language use and describes textual organisation. The aim of this study is to identify and analyse Ogbowei’s linguistic and literary style. The data is the collection of poems entitled Marsh boy and other poems. The study reveals the author’s productive use of various syntactic configurations such as parataxis, hypotaxis, foregrounding and pa...

Journal Of The Linguistic Association Of Nigeria, 2014

The theory of universal grammar relies predominantly on the biolinguistic concept of natural endo... more The theory of universal grammar relies predominantly on the biolinguistic concept of natural
endowment and innate knowledge of the general principles of language. It postulates that all humans
are naturally endowed with the general rules and configurations of language and to this extent, all
natural languages have similar structural features. The theory of universal grammar as hypothesized by
Chomsky and propagated by other linguists not only recognizes the universality of the general
principles of language but also the existence of language-specific idiosyncratic features that constitute
parametric variations among languages. These are the parameters of universal grammar. The most
prominent parameters that create distinctions between languages are head directionality, pro-drop or
null-subject and wh- parameters. This paper reviews the null-subject parameter in English and
juxtaposes its occurrence or non-occurrence in the Ịzọn language. The aim of the paper is to
characterize the parametric choices by English and Ịzọn languages in the derivation of grammatically
convergent sentences with null-subject constituents. The study is competence-based and used data
from tokens of sentences in conversation among competent native speakers of Ịzọn language. Data
from each language were translated into the other via a gloss and comparatively analysed. The study
reveals that null-subject constituent is not a characteristic feature of English syntax but a feature of
Ịzọn syntax. The study is significant because it contributes fresh linguistic data for the principles and
parameter theory.
Key words: Universal grammar, principles and parameters, parametric variations, null-subject, English, Ịzọn,
syntactic.

Book Reviews by Odingowei Kwokwo

This essay is a thematic and stylistic exploration of Otobotekere's new collection of poems antit... more This essay is a thematic and stylistic exploration of Otobotekere's new collection of poems antithetically entitled 17-Day Paradisal Tourist Picnic (Kidnap Experience Poems). This collection has not been subjected to critical intellectual discourse or analysis and therefore, needs such critical attention. The study expectedly draws data from the primary text and adopts the qualitative text analytic methodology. The study is steeped towards thematic analysis with some spattering of linguistic and literary stylistic analysis the content of a text is usually couched in the language and stylistic scrutiny is productive in revealing the meaning of the content of the text. The author is an acclaimed nature poet of the renaissance inclination. However, the study reveals that instead of the traditional romanticism that eulogizes nature, freedom of the mind and relationship with ordinary things of nature and the environment, there is a palpable shift of interest to such psychological phenomena as insecurity, fear, anxiety, pain, prayers and thankfulness to God the creator who is given, more or less, the epicenter of his consciousness. Apart from the linguistic and literary stylistic devices found in the poems, the author also seems to have unconsciously adopted the psychotherapeutic expressive writing therapy technique as a tool for achieving post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study concludes with a suggestion of an appropriate title: "Half of a Month in Captivity" in which the poet seeks to redeem and restore his sanity and humanity by dwelling in the psychotherapeutic poetic narrative.

Journal of Languages and Culture, 2016

Studies in Literature and Language, 2019

Journal Of The Linguistic Association Of Nigeria, 2014