EZIOKWU: DENIZENS AND TRUTH-CONDITIONS IN IGBO PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE

Abstract

Eziokwu: Nature, Denizens and Truth-Condition in Igbo Philosophy of Language is advancing research on the Chapter Four of Professor Jerome Ikechukwu Okonkwo's Book- Zi: The Conditionality for Knowledge and Truth in Igbo Philosophy of Language. Truth and truth-condition in Igbo linguistic construct is different from the Western conception. Thus, the research explores the etymology and morphological manipulations of ezi (true) as the base-morpheme of eziokwu (truth). It explores the antinomies and cognate terms of eziokwu. It also accesses eziokwu from the treatise of Igbo linguists and philosophers of language, and from their ideologies, brings out different natures and postulates for the truth-conditions and truth-discovering in Igbo sociolinguistic construct. The work agrees with Prof Jerome Okonkwo that the Igbo truth-condition is adumbration. This adumbration-significance of eziokwu is akin to the Greek word for truth- aletheia, which morphologically portrays unveiling, as Martin Heidegger would explore in his Being and Time and this is the Igbo truth-condition: adumbration- Okwu ikpaoto. This study employs the philosophical methods of hermeneutics.