MORPHEME ACQUISITION ORDER OF OBOLO NATIVE SPEAKERS

Abstract

The paper investigates the morpheme acquisition order of Obolo native speakers. Morpheme acquisition order cross linguistically is a controversial phenomenon as there exists different opinions motivated by different empirical studies. Using the Processability theoretical framework, a well-established linguistic approach to acquisition based on the premise that the stages of acquisition are hierarchical, the paper examines speech samples collected from 160 Obolo children within the ages of 3-6 years. Following the data analysis, the results indicate that the morpheme acquisition order of Obolo speakers do not follow a similar morpheme acquisition order with those of the English speakers. The paper therefore concludes that there are parametric variations in morpheme acquisition order cross linguistically.