Cite this article as: Wang F. M., Chinere U. & Yusuf H. B. (2025). A Morphological Analysis of Words used in Newspaper Editorials: A Study of “The Nation” Newspaper Editorial.Zamfara International Journal of Humanities,3(2), 35-45.www.doi.org/10.36349/zamijoh.2025.v03i02.004
A MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF WORDS USED IN NEWSPAPER EDITORIALS: A STUDY OF “THE NATION” NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL
Felix Mani Wang Ph.D1
Unigwe Chinere1
Hajara Bayaro Yusuf1
1 Department of Primary Education, Federal University
of Education, Zaria
Abstract: The paper
delves into the morphological processes used in the words of editorial writing
of newspaper editorial with particular reference to “The Nation” newspaper with
the aim of unveiling the morphological processes of the words used most and why
that choice as well as how the morphemes
used have contributed to the meaning of the editorials. The focus of the study
is on affixes, compounding and conversion which are some of the processes upon
which words are created in English language. To do that, the paper makes use of
a theory that is rooted in the approach qualified as “lexicalism,” a term used
to denote a set of theories that states that morphology is separate from syntax
in the sense that the structure of a complex word is not dealt with by syntax
but by lexical rule (Booij 2014). The paper makes use of one the editorials
each of the newspaper under study for the months of January, February, March,
June, September and October, (2022). Two sentences were taken from each of the
editorials so a total of 12 sentences were taken with a total of 331 words. The
words were distributed according to their morphological patterns of inflection,
derivation, compounding and conversion. The result shows that inflection is
used more than others, followed by derivation and compounding and the least
type used is conversion. The use of inflection more than others may be because
inflection is used to mark tense, aspect, person of a verb and plural marking
among many others. The paper recommends that all types of morphological
processes and other word creation processes should be emphasised in the English
curriculum of tertiary institutions. This is because it is a very important
asset for good communication.
Keywords: Morphology, Morphological Type, and Processes, Words and
Lexemes.
Introduction
Morphological
analysis is an effort made to study the structural parts of words used in a
language in order to unveil how words or lexicon are used by writers of a
particular time, place or period. The study sets to help readers and writers to
develop vocabularies that makes it possible for them to pass examination
easily, express themselves meaningfully and effectively and have an asset or
tool for good communication, (Oyedele and Olaniyi, 2009). Morphology is a
sub-discipline of linguistic which investigates how the internal structure of
words are formed and how their formation helps to interpret the linguistic
forms. By studying the morphology of a language, the speakers can have the
ability to keep the language alive and make it usable according to what they
want express (Pellicer, 2022).
Thus,
the morphological analysis of the Nation’ s Editorial News Paper is an attempt
to describe the morphological types that are prevalent in the editorials and
state how the morphological composition of the words or lexicon helps to
explain or mars readers’ understanding of the editorials. The aim of the study is to investigate the
morphological composition of the words and state the types that are used most
and why. The study therefore seeks to answer the following research questions.
What morphological types do the editorial of “The Nation” newspaper used most?
Which one is the highest type used and why? How has the use of the type
enhanced or mars the meaning of the newspaper editorial?
Literature Review
The review of the
literature will be based on the following subheadings:
The
definition of morphology, words and lexemes, morphemes, their types and
morphological processes. It will also review derivational and inflectional
types in English.
Morphology – Linguists have
defined morphology in different ways. Rahayu, (2021) sees it as an area of
linguistic that studies language beginning from the basic notion of sound to
the internal structure of words. She further cites linguists who defined it in
different ways as follows:
Carstairs – Mc Carthy,
(2018) states that morphology is the area of grammar concerned with the
structure of words and their relationships between words involving the
morphemes that composed them. Yule, (2010) views it as “the study of basic
forms in a language”. The definition above emphasizes that morphology studies
words and their component meanings but the definition did not say why there is
need to study it. Booij, (2014) supports that morphology is a linguistics study
that deals with the internal structure of words but is not a component of
grammar or at par with phonology and syntax; it pertains all levels of grammar
in (Jacken Dooff, 2002). This shows that while morphology studies the internal
structure of words, it cannot be at the same level with other linguistic levels
like phonology and syntax but can have influence over all levels of grammar.
The paper agrees with this belief. Also Olaoye and Olaniyi (2009) give a brief description of the term
morphology which says it is the study that revolves around the nuclei of the
root/stem/base, the suffixes and prefixes. This is right but it has to follow
the rules of the language concerned. The definition of Tomori, (1999) gives
perhaps more explicit description; it says that it is the study of the internal
structure of words, taking cognizance of the rules governing the formation of
the words. He further emphasises that the study of the internal structure of
the words takes place at two axis: Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations.
Tomori,
(1999) explains paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations are follows:
Paradigmatic Relation – This is the system
of morphemic variation which is correlated with a parallel system of variations
in environment (in Francis, 1958:187). Furthermore, it is a series of changes
in the shape of linguistic form which matches a change in position e.g play. Plays,
playing. played, man, men man’s. Thus, the paradigmatic change goes hand in
hand with grammatical position.
Syntagmatic Relation – this the formation
of utterances of a linguistic unit that are join with one another in a
structural bound according rule of the utterances in that language. Syntagmatic
relationship of morphemes can be found at all levels of grammar, phonology,
syntax etc. The interest of this study is at the level of words. Thus,
paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations of morphemes will be studied.
Why we Need to Study Morphology
It
is important at this level to know why we need to study morphology. Rahayu
(2021) gives some of the reasons why there is need to study morphology as
follows:
a.
To describe and analyse world’s
language with a set of descriptive tools;
b.
To understand the topology of
language dimension along which language differ and how the dimension of
variations is related or restricted;
c.
To investigate the nature of
linguistic system that linguistic have at two levels: paradigmatic and
syntagmatic;
d.
To help understand how the
linguistic rules work in a language: perception and production.
e.
To help us investigate the internal
structure of words, forms of lexemes (inflection and the processes lexemes are
generated i.e. word formation).
f.
To help understand how morphology
contributes to the expansion of language lexicon.
The
morphological study in the current paper will enable the researcher to describe
and analyse the words of English language used in “The Nation” Newspaper’s
editorial in terms of their structure – lexemes, inflection and word formation.
This is important to the understanding of the editorial.
Word and Lexeme
The
term ‘word’ is a common expression in English because a language user is likely
to pronoun a word, write it or even read it in any reading material. Akmjian,
Farmer, Bickmore, Demers, and Harnish, (2019) understand the importance of
words and affirm that words are one of the fundamental units of linguistic
structure and have integral role in human ability to use language creatively.
This is true because they are like building blocks that languages build upon.
Also emphasizing the importance of words in languages Rahayu (2021) opines that
“a speaker of language should store up to 45,000 – 60,000 words in the so call
lexical lexicon”. Akmjian, et al (2019) observe that children entering school
should have 13,000 words, adult should have 60,000 words, while literate adults
should have 12,000 words. The question now is what is the meaning of the word
“word” Rahayu, (2021) defines a word in four ways as follows:
A
word can be defined according to its phonological properties, its internal
integrity, in terms of meaning (semantic), or in terms of sentence structure
(syntactically). She further summarises the property of a word in Bader, (2019)
which includes the fact that words have part of speech specification, usually
have one main stress, have syntactic atom or “composer” syntactic in sentence
structure and have an invisibility unit (no intervening material possible).
Also, words are unit of language which are basic in two senses. They have
unpredictable meaning so must be listed in the dictionary and they are building
blocks out of which phrases and sentences are formed. The interest of this
paper is to research how the internal structure of words are formed and how the
process of their formation contributes to their meaning.
Lexemes
can be described as form of words which can be manifested in different other
words. Rahayu (ibid) defines a lexeme as “an abstraction over one or more-word
type that conveys lexical meaning in (Bauer, et al., 2013) eg the word write
has lexemes as write, writes wrote, written or writing while the word green has
lexemes greener, greenest etc. The examples have the same lexemes with
different word form. Thus, lexemes have lexical item because of their
unpredictable semantic form so they must be listed in a dictionary in (Bauer,
et al., 2013 and Carsther – Mc Carthy 2002). Booij, (2014) lays credence to the above description
of lexeme and observes that lexemes have a lexicon set which are the component
of grammar that minimally contains a specification of the lexical units of a
particular language. He adds that lexical units may be larger than set of words
because they may include idiomatic expressions such as kick the bucket, noun
phrases as blue cheese, proverbs, etc. The current study focuses on lexemes
that have same form with different words used according to the grammatical
functions.
Morpheme
– The discussion of morphemes and morphological processes cannot be complete
without a proper understanding of what a morpheme is. The word morpheme has
been defined in different ways by linguists but one general implied meaning is
that it is the smallest minimal semantic and grammatical unit of language.
Olaoye and Olaniyi, (2009) state that a morpheme is the smallest unit of speech
that has grammatical or semantic meaning. It can also be used in writing and
not speech alone. Rahayu (ibid) adds that a morpheme is not just a small
grammatical unit but also smallest meaningful unit that can be used in speech
or writing (emphasises mine). Akmajian et al., (2019)’s definition seems to be
more precise and is adopted in this study. “Morphemes are minimal unit of words
building in a language, so cannot be further broken down into recognisable
parts”. It can be seen from the above that the study of morphological
description in a language involves the study of the smallest unit that combines
to form a word and gives it meaning.
There
are certain requirements that morphemes will need to be qualified as morpheme.
Rahayu (2021) lists some of them that the paper believe are important as
follows:
A
morpheme should be distinguished from a word to another;
In
some senses, the meaning of the parts should contribute to the meaning of the
whole;
Morphemes
are constituent of a word and are not required to be of a particular length;
The
morphological structure of word is merely distinct from the phonological
structure.
Morphological Process
This is concerned
with how the smallest linguistic units in a language are combined together
according to the rules of the language to form words complex. Rahayu (ibid)
agrees with this and affirms that morphological processes involve how parts of
a words – morphemes are learned, how to form the word from single lexemes
through affixation, how words are formed (productivity) of words and how its
parts contribute to its meaning. Contributing to the description of
morphological processes Pellicer, (2022) observes that it is a process that
enables language user to create new words with grammatical resources already
available within the language. He further states that it involves patterning of
morphemes within a word which rules can find out. This is good because every
patterning of morphemes in a word must be in accordance with the rules
governing the formation of that language. Morphological processes have some
components that are very important in the analysis and interpretation of words
and their meaning. They are root, stem, and affixation.
Root and Stem – the root of a word
as the name implies is the heart or main base from which there could be affixes
or any other means of expanding the vocabulary. Pellicer, (2022) opines that
“root is the complex part of a word from which other affixes has been removed e.g.
commit in commitments”. Olaoye and Olaniyi, (2009) said that root is the
recurring morpheme that remains standing in any change that the word may take
by derivation, except in the process of suppletion (eg go and went). They added that it is a word in a simplest
form and may have other letters added from the beginning of it (prefix) or to
the end of it (suffix) which can alter the meaning (Pryse, 1963:35). They also
affirm that root most of the time have origin in other languages like Anglo-Saxon,
Greek, Latin, French and German. Tomori, (1999) describes the root as “the very
heart of the word”. The root of the word as has been defined above is the
beginning or heart of the word to which affixes can be added or subtracted.
The
stem of a word on the other hand is the word to which a last morpheme is added.
Pellicer, (2022), and Olaoye and Olaniyi, (2009) see it as a morpheme or word
which other morphemes are attached. Booij (2014) states that the stem is the
word minus its inflectional marker e.g. in the word worker, the stem is work.
From the description of stem above, it can be concluded that all roots can be
stem because other morphemes can be added to it but not all stems are root.
Affixes: This is a general
name for a morpheme that can be attached to a word or lexeme. It can be added
at the beginning or end of a word. Pellicer, (2022) defines affixes as a
morpheme that can be attached on a stem. In other words, an affix cannot be an
independent linguistic unit but it should be added to a stem to either change
the meaning of the word or give it a change to match a particular grammatical
position. Pellicer (ibid) observes that affixation process is one of the most
productive processes of word formation in English and that affixes can be
analysed according to their distribution. This is the stand of this paper.
Affixes can be distributed as prefix or suffixes and can be of two types
according to meaning: derivational which form a new word with a lexical meaning
and inflectional which forms a variant of words attached to add grammatical
meaning.
Derivational
morphemes are likening to lexical or content words because they carry semantic
content and have lexical meaning. Inflectional affixes are likening to
grammatical words because they carry grammatical meaning by marking grammatical
properties as tense, number, person, case and do not change the lexical meaning
of the words attached to. (Pellcer, 2022). Thus, derivational suffix may be
class maintained or class changing.
The distribution
of types of affixes in English by Pellicer, (2022) is acknowledged as very
important in this paper and is hereby adopted.
|
|
Derivational |
Inflectional |
|
Prefix |
√ |
√ |
|
Suffix |
√ |
|
Fig 6.2
The
table shows that derivational affixes can either be a prefix or suffix but
inflectional affixes can only be suffixes. This is very important for the
understanding of affixes in English.
WORD FORMATION PROCESSES IN ENGLISH
Much
has been discussed about morphemes and morphological processes in this paper.
This section looks at many processes that words are formed in English.
Affixation has been explained above so now we shall explain more about its two
types: Derivation and inflection.
Derivation- it is a process
that can lead to the formation of a new lexeme or word and may have different
meaning or belong to a different word class. The words can be created through
suffix or prefix as shown on the table above. Akmajian, et al (2019) agree with
this and add that in derivational process, words can be added to the existing
once but compositionality partially holds in derivational morphology (a process
whereby the meaning of a whole expression is determined by the meaning of its
part). It means the new word may or may not be predicted from its parts.
Inflection- these are affixes
that are usually placed after a root, base or stem for the purpose of giving
the word a grammatical function. Booij, (2014) defines them as a “set of
inflectional set of a lexeme traditionally represented in the form of paradigm
in which each cell contains a form that expresses a particular array of
grammatical features.’’ He further says that inflection has two basic forms:
One
that creates lexemes with a formal marking of certain grammatical categories
such as nouns, tense, aspects and verbs. This is because the choice of the
inflection form is not governed by syntactic context but semantic
consideration.
Context
inflection is determined by syntactic context in which a lexeme occurs e.g.
noun phrase will need a case form in some syntactic positions, finite verb has
to agree with person and number properties, adjectives have to agree in respect
to certain properties (gender, case etc.). This is very important in this study
because it investigates affixes and their types used in “The Nation” newspaper
editorial. Tomori (1999) makes a significant contribution to the study of
inflectional suffixes by listing their types as follows:
NOUNS- they have possessive case and
plural forms as in man’s, men and some have zero plurals.
PRONOUNS- these are broadly
classified into three groups morphologically: person, relative and
demonstrative pronouns.
VERBS- they have inflection for instance
in words like walk, walks, walking, walked and walked.
ADJECTIVES- they have
inflection in comparative and inflectional forms.
ADVERBS- they have
comparative forms like adjectives e.g. well, better, best, bad, worse, worst.
It
should be noted that the formation of affixes must agree with the rules in the
language. Pellicer (2022) understands this and gives rules that should help in
patterning affixes:
Morphemes
occur at certain positions within a word.
The
word class to which a lexical morpheme belongs is important for their ordering
e.g. we can have dark room not room dark.
Certain
bound morphemes must occur before others e.g. commitments not commitsment.
Bound
forms cannot be combined with another e.g. bird’s song not unmints.
It
means that for word formation to be effective, we must take note of the affixes
and the rules of putting them together.
Words
formed in English can be simple or complex e.g. tree, trees. Part of a complex
word is the base form plus a morpheme and morphemes can be bound or free. A
free morpheme can stand on its own to make sense while a bound one cannot. A
chart showing the classification of a morpheme by Akmajian, et al (2019) gives
a clear description of a morpheme and is adopted and shown below:
FIGURE 2.2 adopted. It is the summary
of the morpheme in English except the Bronto Igorot infix used to indicate the
product of a completed action. The chart shows that one of the main processes
of word formation is by the use of morpheme. It can be free or bound. A free
morpheme can either be an open class or closed-class. A bound morpheme can be
an affix, bound case or contracted form. Affixes are further classified into
prefix and suffix in English but there are other languages which have infix.
There are other processes of word formation in English
and are discussed as follows:
COMPOUNDING- this is act of
combining two free morphemes, lexes or words together as one. Booij (2014)
describes it as the act of putting two or more lexemes into a new word and that
one of the new words becomes the head (so called endocentric compound) e.g.
football where the lexeme ball is the head. Almajian at el, (ibid) define
compounding as putting individual words together as one e.g. ape-man, sick
room, red-hot etc. as one. They state further that the words joined together
may be of one class or different e.g. noun+ noun, side door, noun + verb, side
walk, adjective + noun, wild fire etc. they also affirme that the part of
speech of the new word will be the same with the head word and that the process
of compounding in English is limitless.
REDUPLICATION- this is a special
form of concatenative morphology because a part there of is copied and prefixed
or suffixed to the stem (Booij 2014).
CONVERSION – this is a process
that a word changes its class because of the context in which it is used.
Pellicer (2022) supports this and said that it involves changing a word class
without any change in the form of the word e.g. judge, fast, party, email etc.
They can all be used as a noun and as a verb. He adds that in English,
virtually any word can be converted to a noun e.g. the rich, a-have-not, the
whys and ifs etc.
CLIPPING – it involves
cutting a word short without referring to its morphological structure e.g.
exam, maths, net etc. This process can affect any part of a word: beginning,
middle or end e.g. fridge for refrigerator, flu for influencer. There are other
processes of word formation in English as acronyms, blinding, backformation
etc. which will not be the interest of this paper.
Theoretical Framework
In
any linguistic analysis, it is expected that there should be a theoretical
framework of the analysis. The theory used is rooted in the approach that is
qualified as “lexicalism” a term that denotes the set of theories in which
morphology is separated from syntax in the sense that the structure of a
complex word is not dealt with by syntax but by lexical rules that express the
generalisation about established and potential complex words (Booij, 2014). The
theory acknowledges the relationship between morphology and syntax and states
that the rules of syntax cannot manipulate words.
Methodology
The
method of gathering data is both qualitative and quantitative. The researcher
has to intensively read the editorial of “The Nation” newspaper for the period
of six months of the year 2022. The editorials are selected from the months of
January, February, March, June, September and October and two sentences is
chosen from each of the six editorials randomly. The words of the sentence are
grouped according to their morphological types of affixes, compounding and
conversion which are the major morphological types in English, (Booij 2014).
The distribution of the morphological types and their meanings are stated and
quantified and the scope of the morphological types in the study is limited to
the three types mentioned above.
The analysis
Sentences Taken from The Nation’s Editorial of
January, February, March, June, September, and October 2022
|
S/N |
DATE |
MONTH |
TITLE |
PARAGRAPH AND SENT. NO. |
THE SENTENCE |
|
1. |
3/1/22 |
January |
Over- regulating of
water |
1st paragraph sentence 1. |
There is water in many
places in Nigeria but scarcely a drop that is clean. |
|
2. |
3/1/22 |
January |
- |
3rd
paragraph 1st sentence |
This is why the
convention is tagged “Atajore” which means you have to sell to be profitable
and it has been flagged of in the north central and other parts of the
country. |
|
3. |
28/2/22 |
February |
Stalled e-custom
projects. |
Paragraph 3 1st
sentence |
In fact the chairman of
the CISS was said to have been invited by the controller general of custom
and after series of discussions made to realise that the committee not only
lacked the capacity to enter into any legal agreement but couldn’t have done
for custom |
|
4.. |
28/2/22 |
February |
Stalled e-custom
projects |
Last paragraph last
sentence |
Once again we expect
the AGF to act quickly and to put this matter to rest. |
|
5. |
31/3/22 |
MARCH |
Beyond Abba Kyari |
2nd
paragraph 1st sentence |
Even though he admitted
that Hush puppi indeed paid some money into an account with his knowledge,
Kyare said the purpose was to procure some clothing materials on behalf of
the former. |
|
6. |
31/3/22 |
March |
Beyond Abba Kyari |
Paragraph 4 sentence 2 |
One question that
bothered many minds was how and why an officer supposedly on suspension and
relieved of all police duties pending
the outcome of investigation still had the audacity to engage in
activities for which he was arrested by NDLEA |
|
7. |
20/6/22 |
June |
The mop-up |
Paragraph 7 sentence 1 |
The run up to the PDP
primaries in the centre of other primaries of the major parties, including
All Progressive Congress (APC) at the governorship and legislative levels
were not innocent of this sordid trend. |
|
8. |
2/6/22 |
June |
The mop-up |
The last paragraph and
the last sentence. |
The politicians buys up
forex to win elections is an act of corruption that ultimately damages the
common citizen. |
|
9. |
6/9/22 |
September |
Hopeful hint |
Paragraph 3 sentence 3. |
We aren’t only owing
20% equity, we also have the first right of refusal to supply crude oil to
the plant. |
|
10. |
6/9/22 |
September |
Hopeful hint |
Paragraph 4 sentence 2. |
This will happen- the
flow of supply will change by the middle of next year. |
|
11. |
21/10/22 |
|
Amosun goofed |
1st
paragraph 1st sentence. |
Former governor of Ogun
state and two term senator representing Ogun central senatorial zone Ibikunle
Amosun has blamed the exodus of young Nigerian professionals to the developed
countries on the latter. |
|
12. |
21/10/22 |
|
Amosun goofed |
Paragraph 9 1st
sentence. |
The senator is and has
been in the position that could have helped to stem the tide in his own
state. |
|
|
|
Composition of the Words used in the Sentences
A
total of 331 words have been used in the twelve sentences out of which 70 words
are polymorphic while the rest are monomorphic with few acronyms and
abbreviations. The concern of the paper is to investigate the morphological
structure of the polymorphic words, compounds and conversation of words used in
the text. The paper analyses the distribution of conversion, compound and the
use of affixes in the words used.
Conversion – this is a
situation where a word from one class is converted to another according to the
context. There are few words that have been converted from one class to another
in the text, they are:
i.
Drop in sentence 1. The word drop
in its main form is a verb but it has been used as a noun.
ii.
Damages in sentence 8 is used as a
verb but the word is mostly used as a noun.
iii.
The word stem used in sentence 12
is used as a verb while its main form is a noun.
Compounding
a.
There are few examples of
compounding as a way of forming words in English as used in the text, they are:
b.
In fact, which has preposition +
noun
c.
Indeed, has preposition + noun
d.
Into, has preposition + preposition
e.
Outcome, has preposition + verb
f.
Run up, has verb + preposition
g.
Buys up, has verb + preposition
h.
Chairman, has noun + noun
i.
Governorship, has noun + noun
Affixes: in this section, the distribution
of the morphemes used in the sentences will be done in two sections: inflection
and derivation.
Inflection
a.
Places, has place + -s as plural
marker.
b.
Tagged, has tag + -ed as past tense
marker.
c.
Means, has mean + -s as a plural
marker. (It could sometimes be a verb “mean” +s third person singular as in
means… he means).
d.
Flagged, has flag + -ed as a past
tense marker.
e.
Parts, has part + -s as a plural
marker.
f.
Invited, has invite + -d as past
tense marker.
g.
Have, has + 3rd person singular marker.
h.
Been, has be + past participle
marker.
i.
Was, has is + past tense marker.
j.
Said, has say + past tense marker.
k.
Made, has make + past tense marker.
l.
Admitted, has admit + -ed as past
tense marker.
m.
Paid, has pay + past tense marker.
n.
Materials, has material + -s as
plural marker.
o.
Bothered, has bother + -ed as past
tense marker.
p.
Minds, has mind + -s as plural
marker.
q.
Relieved, has relieve + -d as past
tense marker.
r.
Duties, has duty + -ies as plural
marker.
s.
Had, has ‘has’ + past participle
marker.
t.
Activities, has activity + -ies as
plural marker.
u.
Arrested, has arrest + -ed as past
tense marker.
v.
Primaries, has primary + -ies as
plural marker.
w.
Parties, has party + -ies as plural
marker.
x.
Levels, has level + -s as plural
marker.
y.
Politicians, has politician + -s as
a plural marker.
z.
Elections, has election + -s as a
plural marker.
aa.
Damages, has damage + -s as a third
person singular marker.
bb.
Professionals, has profession + -s
as a plural marker.
cc.
Developed, has develop + -ed as
past tense marker.
dd.
Countries, has country + -ies as
plural marker.
ee.
Could, has can + past tense marker.
ff.
Helped, has help + -ed as past
tense marker.
gg.
Lacked, has lack + -ed as past
tense marker.
hh.
Clothing, has cloth + -ing as a
progressive tense marker.
ii.
Pending, as pend+ ing as a
progressive tense marker.
jj.
Owing, has owe+ ing as a
progressive marker.
kk.
Representative, has represent+ ing
as a progressive marker.
ll.
Including, has include + ing as a
progressive marker.
Derivation – there are many
words that have been derived from one class to another in a sentence:
a.
Nigeria, has Niger+- ia which is a
noun derived to form another noun.
b.
Scarcely, has scarce+- ly which is
an adjective changed to an adverb.
c.
Convention, has convent+- ion which
is a noun derived from a verb.
d.
Profitable, has profit+- able which
is an adjective derived from a verb.
e.
Central, has centre +-al which is a
noun derived from a noun.
f.
Controller, has control +-er which
is a noun derived from a verb.
g.
Discussion, has discuss +-ion which
is a noun derived from a verb.
h.
Agreement, has agree+-ment which is
a noun derived from a verb.
i.
Quickly, has quick +-ly which is an
adverb derived from an adjective.
j.
Former, has form+ -er which is a
noun derived from a noun.
k.
Officer, has office+ -er which is a
noun derived from a noun.
l.
Supposedly, has supposed +-ly which
is an adverb derived from a verb.
m.
Suspension, has suspend + -ion
which is a noun derived from a verb.
n.
Investigation, has investigate –ion
which is a noun derived from a verb.
o.
Progressive, has progress + -ive
which is an adjective derived from a noun.
p.
Legislative, has legislate + -ive
which is an adjective derived from a noun.
q.
Corruption, has corrupt + -ion
which is a noun derived from a verb.
r.
Ultimately, has ultimate+ -ly which
is an adverb derived from an adjective.
s.
Refusal, has refuse+ -al which is
noun derived from a verb.
t.
Senatorial, has senator+ -ial which
is an adjective derived from a noun.
u.
Professionals, have profession+-al
+-s which is a noun derived from a noun.
Discussion of Findings
The
morphological distribution of the words in “The Nation” editorial newspaper
varies from derivation and inflection to compounding, conversion, acronyms and
abbreviations. Inflection processes have been used more, followed by derivation
and compounding. The least types used as shown in the analysis above is
conversion. Inflection has been used to show tense, plural marking and third
person singular verb form. Generally, inflection is also used to mark
possessive case and comparison of adjectives and adverbs but there is no
evidence of that in the study. Derivative processes have been used in the text
to change some words from one class to another according to the context but
there are some that are derived without any change of class. There are many
other processes of word formation in English which are not used in the study
e.g. reduplicating, clipping, blending etc. Majority of the words or lexical
items used are mono morphemic. This might be so because there are many content
words that are simple and grammatical words like conjunctions article,
demonstrations, preposition, comparatives and quantifiers are mono morphemic.
The three types of morphological types according to Tomori (1999): additive e.g. achieve + meat, replace e.g.
man, men and simpleton e.g. go, went, gone have been used in the study.
Conclusion
The
paper investigates the morphological processes of words or lexemes used in
English language with more interests on affixation, compounding and conversion
which are the most productive processes of word formation in English, (Booij,
2014 and Pellicer 2022). The data
analysed is “The Nation” newspaper editorials. It has been found that affixes
which are categorised into inflection and derivation are used more than others.
This may perhaps be so because content words used in the editorials in general
can be added, replaced or used simpleton to change a class of the word, or to
match a grammatical context. Although compounding as processes of forming words
is limitless, (Akmajian, at al 2019), it is the second in use and most of the
compounding processes are not more than two words and this might be considered
to be the style of the editorials or lack of the proper knowledge of how more
compounding can be done in English. Also, words are allowed to be converted
from one class to another according to the rules of the English language.
Pellicer (2022) understands this and asserts that virtually any word in English
can be changed to a noun. In this study only few conversions have been done.
Recommendations
Having
studied the morphological processes used in “The Nations” editorials, the
following recommendations are made:
The
study of morphology should be emphasised in the English language curriculum of
tertiary institutions where English is taught. This is because it will expand
the vocabulary of the learners as it will be an asset for good communication in
English.
Since
affixation processes of word formation seems to be used more than others, their
types and uses should be adequately taught by teachers.
Compounding
and conversion as ways of creating new words in English should be given more
attention so that writers can use them consciously in their writings to avoid monotony
and give variety and style of word usage.
There
are many other processes of word creation like reduplication, clipping,
blending etc. that have not been used in the editorials. This might be lack of
knowledge of it so it is important that all processes of word formation are
taught so that writers will use them as the occasion demands.
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