Managing Exceptions in Teaching Yoruba Pronouns

Abstract

One of the make-or-break aspects of the Yoruba grammar that a foreign language learner has to master is the Yoruba pronoun system.  However, there are several exceptions on Yoruba monosyllabic pronouns that language learners need to remember to use the language fluently. For example, even though the third person singular subject monosyllabic pronoun is shown to be ó  ‘he/she/it’ in Yoruba (Bamgbose 1990:114), there are exceptions to when it can be used in Yoruba sentences.  It must not occur before the negation marker, kò.  And, it must not occur before the future tense marker, yóò. Our students stumble on these and other exceptions that Yoruba imposes on monosyllabic pronouns with implications for their proficiency in the language. The goal of this paper is to highlight these and other exceptions that Yoruba teachers need to point out to the students in such a way that will make it less dauting for the students to process. Our hope is that bridging the gap will assist our students to reduce their errors and be more proficient in the language.