NJIKO: A Multi-Disciplinary Journal of Humanities, Law, Education and Social Sciences

This study is set to look into “The Semantics of Igbo Fixed Combinations: Dywords and Polywords”. The research objectives are as follows: to explain the meanings of fixed combinations, dywords and polywords, evaluate the semantics of dywords and polywords and establish the linguistic implications of this study on the Igbo language. The study adopts a descriptive approach, as secondary data are used. The researcher's knowledge, as an intuitive speaker of the Igbo language, is employed in the analysis. The Use Theory of Meaning functions as the theoretical framework to guide the analysis. The study finds out that fixed combinations are Igbo expressions in which each of the units that make up a string of linguistically acceptable utterances is not on its own, but is a mandatory contributor to the meaning of the usual utterance. It also discovered that dywords and polywords are Igbo fixed collocations which employ two words and many words, respectively, in expressing different Igbo meanings. Some evaluated semantics of Igbo dywords are found in: 'ka chere' (still wait), 'any[ any[' (it is all about us), 'hoo haa' (fully or completely said) and 'jisi ike' (be encouraged/keep on trying), whereas 'jide onwe gi' (take heart), 'ka q d[ echi' (let us suspend it till tomorrow), 'ka chi fo' (good night), and 'lad[ mma' (safe journey back to base) are all polywords. The findings on the implications of the study are that it has not only revealed the depth of Igbo semantics, but also constitutes a sort of education to those yet to know about fixed phrases in Igbo semantics. The study is a huge contribution in increasing the stature of Igbo semantics as well as becoming another perspective for students and researchers in classifying the collocations used in communication in the Igbo language.

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