Citation: Tijjani SALISU & Sa`adu INUSA (2021). A Descriptive Analysis of Affixation in Bade Language. Yobe Journal of Language, Literature and Culture (YOJOLLAC), Vol. 9, Issue 1. Department of African Languages and Linguistics, Yobe State University, Damaturu, Nigeria. ISSN 2449-0660
A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF AFFIXATION IN BADE LANGUAGE
Tijjani SALISU
Sa`adu INUSA
Abstract
This paper attempts to examine the incidences
of Affixation processes that are found to operate in Bade central dialect.
Affixation is one of the three major morphological processes, others being
Reduplication and Modification. This paper adopts the work Abubakar 2001 as its
model of approach. Both primary and secondary methods of data collection were
used in gathering the data for this study. The process of Affixation was
clearly established to exist in Bade language. Affixation in Bade language is
divided into prefix, infix and suffix. Prefix involves attaching of a formative
in the word-initial position; infix is concerned with inserting a formative in
the word-medial position while suffix, which has the largest number of
derivational as well as inflectional morphemes when compared with prefixation
and infixation, involves attaching the morpheme to the operand-final position.
This study proved that affixation process is productive in Bade language. For
instance, prefix such asga-attached to bàksau (evil) to derived gabàksau (evil
one), infix too was also observed to operate in Bade in instances like, kùtfNlu(untie) when -fà- is inserted word medially we inflect
the word to become kùtfàfNlu (unties). The other process is suffixation which also
found to operate in Bade language, let take this example of Nzgәl (leg) if suffix formative of –àu is attached, word
finally we get Nzgalàu (legs). __
1.0
Introduction
Affixation is one of the three morphological
processes, the others being reduplication and modification. Affixation is a
process where additional formative is being attached to an existing lexeme to
inflect or derived a new word. The process is further divided into three i. e.
prefixation, infixation and suffixation. Prefixation is concerned with
attaching an affix in the word initial position; while infixation involve
inserting an affix in the word medial position, while on the other hand
suffixation is concerned with attaching a morpheme in the word final position
(Mathews, 1974, p 130).
Affixation process was found to be productive
in Bade language as it was in many languages of the world. According to
Greenberg (1966), Newman (1977) and Schuh (1981), Bade language is classified
in the group “B” sub-branch of west Chadic, under the Afroasiatic phylum.
However, this paper focusses to discuss three
affixation processes particularly to ascertain those that are observed to
operate in Bade language. Bade as language has different varieties, thus, the
paper is solely on Bade Central dialects. Therefore, all the examples in this
paper are from Bade Central variety.
1.1Aim
of the paper
The aim of this paper
is to establish whether or not Affixation processes
Operates in Bade
Central dialect with the view to discuss the three different types of
Affixation i.e. prefix, infix and suffix.
2.0
Literature Review
Several scholars hold
quite a different view on affixation process but this does not in any way make
things to be complex for the reader but rather provides so many alternative
ways for him to understand the concept clearly.
2.1 Affixation
According to Mathews
(1974, p. 131) affixation is the first among the three major processes which
involves addition of formatives. Affixation is characterized by two things,
which is the result or the outcome form of the operation, which is seen as the
derived form, this includes the base or stem of the word and the attached or
additional morpheme.
Process of affixation
is further divided into three, i.e. Prefixation which refers to when affix is
added before the base and infixation which involves inserting of additional
morpheme in the mid of base form and finally suffixation which involves
attaching of additional morpheme in the word final position (Mathews, 1974, p.
130)
Let’s take the following example:
Productivity is a
variable competition between formatives, productive vs unproductive in English
adjectives such as dis-, un-, non-, -ion, -ness etc.
Example 1.
dis- __ advantage __ disadvantage
-ion __ elect __ election
-ion __ generate __ generation
-ion __ divert __ divertion
un- __ paid __ unpaid
-ness __ happy __ happiness
Affixation process is
found to be very productive in English language as we have seen.
Abubakar, (2001, p, 3) assets that, Hausa
makes used of only two types of derivational morphemes as prefix, which are ba-
that is usually used to derive a patronymics and ma-, on the other hand which
is used to derived a places name, noun of agent and noun of instrument, let
take the following examples in Hausa.
Example 2.
Prefix __ verb stem __ derived noun __ gloss
ma- __ ginaa __ maginii __ mason/builder
Sakaa __ masaakii __ weaver
qeeraa __ maqeerii __ smith
ba- __ kanoo __ bakanoo __ Kanoo man
Katsina __ bakatsinee __ Katsina man
Sakkwatoo __ basakkwacee __ Sakkwatoo man
He went further to
discuss suffixation process in Hausa where he claims that, there are not less
than fifteen derivational morphemes in Hausa as we can see in the example
below:
Example 3.
suffix __ noun stem
__ derived noun __ gloss
-unaa __ bankìi __ bankunàa
__ bank
-ukaa __ tsaunìi __ tsaunukàa
__ mountain
-aayee __ zoomòo __ zoomàayѐe __ hares
The affixes that are
normally used to derived new words are referred as derivational affixes while
the one used in inflecting words are called inflectional affixes. The affected
words and their affixes are technically called morphemes. And the stem of the
words is referred to as free morphemes while the suffix formatives are
technically called bound morphemes (because they cannot stand on their own
(Abubakar (2001, p. 2).
Fagge (2012, p. 29)
asserts that, affixation is one of the three morphological processes. It
involves attaching a morpheme into an existing lexeme. Affixation can be
inflectional, which involves adding of an affix into the root or base of the
word to determined or limit its grammatical significance. The affixes do not
result in producing a new word but rather signal or change grammatical
categories such as gender or number. The other one is derivational affixes
which is geared towards formation of new word by attaching formatives into the
base or root to form a new word depending on where the affixes are attached
within the word base or stem. Let take the following examples:
Example 4.
Masculine __ inflectional affix __ feminine
__ gloss
Kafir-i __ -aa __ kafiràa
__ unbeliever
Sheeg-ѐe __ -iyaa __ sheegiyàa
__ bastard
Zak-ii __ -anya __ zakanyàa
__ lion __
Also Fagge, (2012, p.
31) describes derivational process as the way of forming a new word, through
the use of affixes, where the result or the output change the grammatical class
of the derived word. As we can see in the examples below:
Example 5.
Affix __ base __ derive form __ gloss
ba- __ hau-shѐ __ bàhaushѐe __ __ Hausa man
Kano-wàa __ bàkanoo __ kano man
Turai-wà __ bàturѐ __ european
Derivation simply refers to a process of word
formation to form a new word from an existing lexeme.
2.2
Inflectional affixes/Inflectional morphemes
Inflection is a
branch of morphology which concern itself with the process of word formation
that inflect a word without changing its grammatical class, is specifically
concerned with tense, plurals and gender (Mathews, 1974, p. 61).
Inflectional
morphemes or affixes are bound morphemes which cannot stands on their own, they
usually indicate tense, number, gender or possession.
Or inflectional
morpheme is a morpheme that performs some grammatical functions in a word
without changing the word class of a particular word (Timori, 1977).
Sibani (2002)
describes inflectional morpheme as abound morpheme which is normally used to
create or inflect different forms of the same word by changing neither part of
speech nor meaning but rather refines and give extra grammatical information
about already existing meaning of a word.
Fagge, (2012, p. 29)
refers inflection as a process of attaching an affix to an existing lexeme to
determine its grammatical status. The process of adding formatives does not
change the grammatical category of the new formed word, is only concern with gender
or number.
3.0
Method of Data Collection
The method employed
in gathering the data for this research are unstructured interview and
unobtrusive observation.
The informants were
selected based on random sampling method where thirty (30), Bade native
speakers were allotted a numbers, where those with odd numbers among them were
selected for questioning, the researcher also used unobtrusive observation and
native speaker`s intuition in the course of the study.
Bade dictionary and
Bade wordlist were also used to verify the data obtained during the interview.
This study adopts the work of (Abubakar,
2001) An introductory Hausa morphology as model of approach. __
4.0
Analysis of data collected from the field
This study dwelt on affixation process that
are clearly observed to operate in Bade language with specific reference to
Bade Central dialect.
4.1Prefixation
Prefixation is one of
the three types of affixation which involves attaching of a bound morpheme into
an existing lexeme in the word initial position to inflect or create a new
word, depending on where it occurs within the word (Abubakar, 2001).
Bade language makes
used of some few derivational prefix morphemes as we can see in the following
examples. The words written in brackets stand for the glosses of the first word
entries. This phenomenon is illustrated in example, 6 below:
Example 6.
Stem __
Derived Form __ Deri / Affixes __ Glosses
(a) b[1]adài
(Bade) __ gàbàdài __ gà- __ in a Bade way
(b) bàksau (evil) __ gabàksau __ gà- __ evil/bad
one
(c)ganNm (orphan) __ kwànganNm __ kwà- __ make/become orphan
(d)valamâ (grain store) gavalama __ gà- __ like
grain store
We were able to
establish or witness how a prefix formative was used to derive a new word that
change the grammatical class of the underlying form from noun to adjective or
adverb. These clearly demonstrate how prefix formative operate in Bade
language. The first three examples i.e. a, b and c are adverb while the last
example i.e. d stands for adjective.
4.2
Infixation
This is the second
type of affixation which is concern with inserting a segment in the word medial
position technically known as infixation. (Mathews 1974). Bade language have of
such process which mostly have disyllabic and disyllabic words with unpredictable
tone and the examples provided consist both the derivation and inflection. The
words written in brackets stands for the glosses of the first word entries.
Let’s take the following examples, as shown in Example, 7 below:
Example 7.
Stem __
Derived Form __ Inf Affixes __ Gloss
(a)kùtfNlu (untie) __ kùtfàfNlu __ -fà- __ unties
(bkaglà (canoe) __ kaghlà __ -h- __ canoes
(c)mNsàakau __ (tamarind) __ mNsakNkau __ -kN- __ tamarinds
(d)xoonàk (p/ grass) __ xuwanàk __ -wa- __ planted
grasses
(e)gòokaamàk (c/s bed) __ gòokwaamâk __ -w-
__ cornstalk beds
(f)ràku (chase away) __ ràrku __ -r- __ chase
somebody away
Going by the examples
in (example 7), are typical examples of both derivation and inflection. Note
that derivation concern its self with deriving a new word from the existing
lexeme that change the grammatical class of the stem, either from noun to verb or
adjectives, adverb to verb or adjective to noun or verb or vice versa. While
inflection does not change the grammatical class of a word, is mainly concern
with gender, tense and number of a word. For instance, example 7 item (a, b, c,
d and e), is a clear example of inflection where the grammatical forms of the
said words are being maintained but their numbers were inflected on the process
of plural formation by inserting some elements in the word medial position. The
remaining last example, in example 7, item (f) is a clear example of derivation
where the grammatical class of the affected words was changed from verb to
adverb through the use of infix formatives.
4.3
Suffixation
Suffixation is the
third type of affixation, it plays a major role in the morphology of Bade and
it has the largest number of inflectional affixes. These inflectional suffix
morphemes are categorized into six distinct groups based on their terminating
sounds which carry some semantic ingredients.( Abubakar 2001, p. 3) The suffix
formatives (i.e. –au, -әn, -at, -un and -Nn) exhibited different behavior as we can see in example
8 below. The words written in brackets stands for the glosses of the first word
entries as illustrated in example 8 below:
Example 8.
Stem __
plural __ Inflection __ Gloss
(a) Nvji __ (monkey) __ Nvjayàu __ -àu __ monkeys
(b) Nzgәl (leg) __ Nzgalàu __ -àu __ legs
(c) axâ (head) __ axNxàu __ -àu __ heads
(d) balà(hunting) __ balNlàu __ -àu __ huntings
(e) kàdarà/(s/man) __ kàdaràu __ -àu __ short
men
(f) àuxu(grave) __ àuxùxNn __ -Nn __ graves
(g) awùk(bone) __ awaangNn __ -Nn __ bones
(h) bNlgà(lake) __ bNlgәn __ -әn __ lakes
(i) àrjùwà(bean) __ àrjùwNn __ -Nn __ beans
(j) aikwak(finger) __ aikәn __ -әn __ fingers
(k) agàmu(m/gany) __ agàmat __ -at __ mahoganies
(l) alaliiwà(spider) __ alaliiwàt __ -àt __ spiders
(m) amà (wife) __ amàt __ -àt __ wive
(n) badài (Bade) __ badàyat __ -at __ bades
(o) bàagiiram(l/pot) bàagiiràmwat __ -at __ large
pots
(p) axuwà(d/palm) __ axuwùn __ -ùn __ dum
palms
(q) axìyu(g/plant) __ axìwuwun __ -un __ gourd
plants
(r) kałჳuwà(food) __ kałჳuwùn __ -ùn __ foods
(s) kNluwa(shouting)kNluwuwùn __ -ùn __ shoutings
(t) àkau (back) __ àkNkau __ -au __ backs
The examples shown in
example 8 clearly demonstrated how the inflectional allomorphs of -àu,-Nn, -әn, -àt,-ùn are use,
these are identify as the inflectional morphemes in Bade language. This
signifies that Bade language used-àu,-Nn, -әn, -àt,-ùn suffix formative in plural
formations as we have witness in example 8, in item, b, e, h, I, k, l, m, n, p
and r) above, while in the remaining examples there are some items that
undergoes some kind of modification as we have seen in item, a, c, d, f, g, q,
s and t respectively.
5.0
Conclusion
Numerous studies of different language pairs
were largely conducted by different scholars in order to develop and exploits
their operational status, this too was geared towards that purpose.
This paper examined
the existences of affixation process in Bade language. Affixation is one of the
three morphological processes others being Reduplication and Modification.
Affixation is divided into prefixation, infixation and suffixation; these processes
were clearly established and discussed under the two headings of derivational
and inflectional morphemes or affixes with their examples. The process was
found to be productive in Bade language in instances like ganNm (orphan) and if,
kwà- formative is attached we arrive at kwànganNm (make or become orphan) another example of infixation
in Bade language, as in mNsàakau (tamarind)
where an infix formative of -kN- is inserted word
medially to arrive at the word mNsakNkau (tamarinds). Also
among the findings of this study is the example of suffixation process in Bade
language in some instances like, kàdarà “shot man” and when you attached a
suffix formative of –àu you get kàdaràu “short men” other examples of suffix
also includes àuxu (grave) and if -Nn formative is attached to the base form you get àuxùxNn (graves).
References
Abubakar A. (2000). An introductory Hausa morphology. Faculty of Arts University of
Maiduguri, Borno State.
Fagge U.U (2012). Hausa languages and linguistics. University Press.
Greenberg, J.H. (1963). The languages of Africa (3rd, ed) Blooming Indiana University.
Mathews P.H. (1974) Morphology, Second Edition, London Press Syndicate of the
University of Cambridge.
Newman, P (1977a) Chadic classification and
reconstruction. afro-asiatic __ linguistic 5 (1) 1-42. __
Schuh, R.G. (1981). Using dialect geography
to determine pre-history: A __ chadic case study sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 3:201-250).
Sibani. R. (2002). Introduction to morphology. Medan usu press.
Timori. S. H. (1977) The morphology and syntax of present day
English an introduction. Heinemann
publishers.
[1] The high tone is left unmarked in this paper throughout while the low and fallen tones are marked in all the examples provided in the paper.
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