This research examines negation and marking strategies in the Ozubulu dialect of Igbo. It aims at identifying the negative markers and strategies used by Ozubulu native speakers.
The intended meaning and the function of negation are the same. The data were obtained through participant observation, elicitation method and the author's native introspection. The theoretical framework adopted in this research is the Principles and Parameters Theory (PPT) as posited by Chomsky and Lasnik (1993).
The results show that Ozubulu dialect realizes negation in six forms which include; 'du,' 'ho,' 'a/e…na/ne,'a…du,' 'ha' 'and 'hapu…i'.
The researcher observes that in Ozubulu dialect, the negators 'du' and 'ho' are always suffixed to the verb and the native
speakers use the negators interchangeably.
Again it reveals that the negators 'du' and 'ho' are used in indicative, progressive, perfective, future simple and future perfective sentences, the 'a/e'...'na/ne' occur in simple imperative and imperative progressive contractions, the 'ha-na' occurs in future progressive constructions, the 'a…du' are used in imperative unfulfilled constructions and function as double negators in the constructions and the 'hapu…i' occur in hortative sentences. It can be concluded that negation is a
functional category in language which can also be found in the Ozubulu dialect of the Igbo language.