The structure of folktales has been largely considered within literary tradition. Though a few studies have examined folktales from a linguistic perspective, little or none has studied the Generic Structure Potential of Nigerian folktales. In this study, we purposively studied twenty folktales narratives selected from a corpus of one hundred Nigerian folktales, downloaded online. The texts were closely examined for uniformity and representativeness of both the Nigerian folktales and folktales in general and on that basis a GSP catalogue for Nigerian folktales, [TT^OR]^CA^1^2^RS^1^2^[F]^(MR) was generated. The elements generated in the catalogue include: Title TT, Orientation OR, Conflicting Action CA, Resolution RS, Finis F and Moral MR. while MR is an optional element, the remaining elements are obligatory. The paper concludes that the elements of GSP catalogued here are typical of Nigerian folk narratives and suggests that the model could be applied to other forms of narratives that have not so far been studied.
Keywords: Corpus, Folktale Narrative, Generic Structure Potential, Nigerian Folktales, Representativeness
