THE PHENOMENA OF TENSE AND ASPECT IN ILAJE OF YORUBA
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.0    INTRODUCTION
    The concept of time is universal because the units of time are extra-linguistic i.e they exist independently of the grammar of any language. In other words the expression of time in language is universal, whereas the means of expressing time is language specifics. Hence each language employs different linguistic means to express time.
    Generally, the writer or speaker of a language may apply lexical means to express time, he or she may apply temporal adverbs, adjectives, substantive preposition, conjunctions, particles and adverbs or grammatical three and aspect and other syntactical means.
    According to Syons (1968), the term tense has its origin in Latin. The Latin word for tense is tempus, while the term aspect is a dramatic of the Russian word “vid” though he did not give the meaning of vid in English. He explains that vid” was used for first time to refer to the difference between perfective and imperfective. In he changes of the verbs form a Russia and other Slavonic languages. The goes further to say that the perfective is completion, while imperfective means to be in progress. Aspect and tense are both seen as formal property of the verb. Tense refers to the absolute location of an event or action in time, either the present or t the past. In most  languages, it is marked by inflection of the verb. Aspect on the other hand refers to how an event or action is to be viewed with respect to time. Tense and aspect are properties of the verb. It is in view of this that most scholar hold the view that aspect always include tense. Most literature limit the interpretation of aspect of the basic distinction between events that are yet to be concluded at speech time and those that have come to a close at the time of speaking.
    Carric (1976), posits that aspect is conceptually and morphologically more varied across different languages. The grammatical aspect of a verbs always, define the temporal flow in the described events or data. Huddleston and Pullum (2002: 117) succinctly state that “the term aspect applies to a system where the basic meanings, have to do with the internal temporal constituent of the situation. “Aspect has to do with a kind of perspectivizing of the internal temporal structure of the situation described by the verb relation to the point of initiation of speech. Bull (1968) uses terms like the beginning, middle and the good of an event to describe such internal, temporal structure. He calls it aspect of any event. According to Dr. Yuka “Tense and aspect are two important constitutions of the inflectional mode of any natural language. Vater (1994: 18-28) “psychologically time is a crucial concept of humans, since everything we often experience is in some way related to time even though we do not often perceive time intentionally. We measure everything we do in temporal units such as years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds and so on. He further adds that the perception of certain phases of time depends on a reference point. That is something happened in the past requires a definition of the present moment without which no past would exist.
    Jeseperson (1970) states that it is of vital importance to make a distinction between “time” and event”. According to him, time is common to all mankind and it is independent of language. He is of the opinion  that tense varies from language to language and it is the linguistic expression of time relation. He explains that this may be marked morphologically. Although the words so used may also be used to perform other grammatical functions in some other circumstances.
    In this study, an attempt is made to show the grammatical means by which tense and aspect are expressed in Ilaje-dialect as well as the relationship between them. The markers of tense and aspect in the language will also be identified.
YORUBA SOUND SYSTEM
    Yoruba has eighteen consonants, seven oral vowels and it also has five nasal vowels. (Bamgbose, 1991) the Ilaje dialect in addition to having these eighteen consonants also has the sound “gwa”. “A     mi     gwa     gari” (we are eating gari)
    Ilaje makes use of the standard Yoruba orthography.
    Even when it is asserted that Ilaje uses the Standard Yoruba orthography, the way in which they speak and write differ from the standard Yoruba. Though, there is a great interference of lexical item, the sentence below show this in detail Ilaje.   
As noted in the chart above, Ilaje does not use the post alveolar fricative unlike the standard Yoruba. They (Ilaje) however have the labialized velar voiced stop [gw] e.g in gwa, ‘draw’.
    Another similarity in the sound system of the standard Yoruba and Ilaje, perhaps a justification of Ilaje as a dialect of the former is t he fact the latter uses the same number vowels, both oral and nasal vowels.  
TONE SYSTEM
    Yoruba is a tonal language with three tones high, mid, low. The high tone is indicated by an acute accent. The mid tone is not marked and the low tone is marked with a grave tone. These three tones also featured in Ilaje distinctively. Every syllable must have at least one tone. A syllable containing long vowel can have two tones.
Every syllable must have at least one tone, a syllable containing a long vowel can have tones. These three level of tones also features distinctively in Ilaje dialect.
1.1    ILAJE PEOPLE AND THEIR GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
    Ilaje dialect is one of the dialects of Yoruba The Ilaje local government was created out of the defunct Ilaje.Ese-Odo local government area on October 1996, by the federal government. According to Ayelagba (1986), the Ilaje local government consists of over hundred towns and villages covering an area of 3,000 square kilometers. It shares boundary, the south by Atlantic Ocean and in the west by Ogun state in the East by Delta state. The people’s main occupation is fishing.
1.2    ORTHOGRAPHIC SYSTEM OF ILAJE
    The Ilaje dialect lacks any standard orthographic system. Words are only written with the assumption of the standard Yoruba and the observance of the necessary sound added to the standard Yoruba word. For example, the Yoruba word for eat “mu” as in mu gari – eat gari, the ilaje form will be “gwa” gari.
    The speakers are conscious of this variation in speaking and in writing. There are no number of sounds documented for construction.  However, they do have a considerable number of sounds when placed against Standard Yoruba. For example the dialect lacks the following sounds, [v], [z], [x], They maintain the number of consonant sound in Standard Yoruba. It also shares the same number of vowels, both oral and nasalized vowels. They have a rich borrowing system from the standard Yoruba language. The Ilaje are proficient in the way and manner in which they form words based on the situation.
    In writing the Ilaje people basically make use of Standard Yoruba. It should however be noted that although the Ilaje dialect differ slightly from the standard Yoruba, they are both mutually intelligible.
1.3    OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
    This work is devoted to examining a number of things. They include,
The examination of tense and aspect system in Ilaje dialect.
The examination of the internal structure of the verb.
How tense and aspect are generated in Ilaje dialect.
The forms of the occurrence of these phenomena – tense and aspect
Tense category that will be treated in this work include.
Past  tense
Present tense
Future tense
In expressing aspect, the forms to be examined will include,
Perfect aspect
Imperfective aspect
1.4    METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION
    The source of data for this study was majorly provided by my father, Rev. Caleb Oke, a native speaker of the dialect. I also employed the competence of my friend in the dialect for this study. These two informants have good command of the dialect.
    The data was supplemented by published materials on tense and aspect in Yoruba and dialects especially the Kwa languages.