Cite this article as: Abubakar, M. K., Ayagi, J. S., & Muhammad, A. S. (2025). A morpho-semantic analysis of reduplication in Kurama language. Sokoto Journal of Linguistics and Communication Studies (SOJOLICS), 1(2), 103–105. https://www.doi.org/10.36349/sojolics.2025.v01i02.012
A
MORPHO-SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF REDUPLICATION IN KURAMA LANGUAGE
By
Mahmud Khamis Abubakar, PhD
Department of Languages, English Unit,
Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso College of Advanced and
Remedial Studies, T
udun Wada, Kano State
&
Jibrin Sani Ayagi, PhD
Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso College of Advanced and
Remedial Studies,
Tudun Wada, Kano State
&
Amina Sani Muhammad
PhD Student, Department of Linuistics and
Foreing Languages
Bayero University, Kano.
Abstract
Reduplication is one of the morphological processes. As a result
of reduplication, i.e. doubling the complete or part of the base, some meanings
exist. This meaning might mean “carrying an action over again” especially when
verbs are being reduplicated in some languages. In line with this, this paper
aimed at examining the nature of reduplication that appears with the meaning
“carrying an action over again”, i.e. repeated action, in Kurama. This study
was descriptive. However, a model by Kiyomi (1993), viewing reduplication as a
Morpho-Semantic process was adopted in the analysis. The Kurama data were
collected through interview and observation from the native speakers of Kurama
at Ὑarkasuwa town of Lere Local Government of Kaduna State, as it is
regarded as the Kurama’s first settlement. The findings show that there is the
meaning, repeated action inthe process of reduplication in the language. This
only existsunder full reduplication, with the nature of modification in the
process, i.e., Kurama has a cluster syllable structure. In the process of
yielding a meaning, repeated action under reduplication, the base long vowel is
shortened as well as thedeletion of the initial consonant cluster of the
reduplication. This process is productive in the language, in the sense that
the nature of reduplication coming with the base long vowel shortening and the
deletion of initial consonant cluster under verbs is mostly for the meaning
repeated action.
1. Introduction
The term Reduplication serves as one of the morphological
processes. The morphological processes usually come with a change of morpheme,
resulting in a change of word meaning. Thus, reduplication, which is among the
morphological processes, appears with the change of meaning in the process.
Therefore, this paper explores the meaning derived from reduplication,
especially the meaning, repeated action in the Kurama language. The view of
reduplication as a morpho-semantic process, i.e. deriving meanings, was fully discussed
in Kiyomi (1993) as in (Yakasai, 2023) and was widely supported by many
researches, such as Regier, (1994), Inkelas&Zoll (2005),
Alsamadani&Taibah (2019) to mention but few. According to Regier (1994: 1),
“Reduplication expresses a wide and initially somewhat arbitrary-seeming array
of meanings cross-linguistically”. Thus, in the process of reduplication, so
many core meanings occur in different languages that need to be explained.
According to Olsson (2015: 4), based on the cross-linguistic studies, the
functions/meanings of reduplication cannot be always “simple and clear-cut”;
the semantic effects (meanings) of reduplication in languages are at random.
Therefore, the meaning repeated action happens to be one of the language
meanings derived from reduplication, i.e. Kurama. Repeated action means the
happening of an action over and over again.
Reduplication being one of the morphological processes, as stated
earlier. There are two patterns of reduplication which include either the
repetition of the subpart of lexical items or the repetition of a single
lexical item, which morphologically results in the reduplicated nature of affix
or root (Keane, 2011).
The Kurama/T’kurmi language is a language of Niger-Congo
family spoken in about four states in Northern Nigeria, i.e. Bauchi, Kano,
Plateau and Kaduna states. Akurmi are the people who speak T’kurmi (Kurama)
language, and B’kurmi is one speaker of the language (e.g. one speaker of Hausa
is Bahaushe, while one speaker of Kurama is B’Kurmi). They are about 70% of
population in Lere, Kaduna State (Mathew, 2014). Additionally, the language has
many dialects, which include Garu (it covers some villages, i.e. Garu, Kadiri,
and other surrounding areas), Kudaru (it includes villages, like Ὑarkasuwa, Bitarana, Ukam, Saminaka and Ashema; they are regarded
as the first settlement of Akurmi), and other varieties called rural (found
mostly in the rural areas) and urban dialects (found in the urban
areas) (Amos, 2014).
2. Research Methodology
This Article study is descriptive in nature. However, an approach,
i.e. Morpho-Semantic Approach, which views reduplication as a process of
yielding meaning, was adopted in the analysis. The data were collected through
interview and observation from the native speakers of Kurama at Ὑarkasuwa town, Lere Local Government, Kaduna State, as it is
regarded as the Kurama’s first settlement.
3. Model of Approach
The idea of reduplication as a morphological process serves as a
means of creating meanings. The view of reduplication as a morpho-semantic
process was fully discussed in Kiyomi (1993) as in (Yakasai, 2006)
and was widely supported by many researches, such as Regier, (1994),
Inkelas& Zoll (2005), Alsamadani& Taibah (2019) to mention but few.
According to Regier, (1994: 1) claims that “Reduplication expresses a wide and
initially somewhat arbitrary-seeming array of meanings cross-linguistically”. Thus,
in the process of reduplication, so many core meanings occur in different
languages that need to be explained. Kiyomi (1995) argues that the full or
partial reduplication undergoes conditions of being semantically relevance
between the base and the reduplicant in the reduplication process.
However, Alsamadani& Taibah (2019) assert that reduplication
either changes the reduplicated stem’s entire meaning [i.e. as in Saramaccanfania ‘rice
meal’, faniafania ‘medicine’ (Olsson, 2015)] or adds new
information to the original meaning of the basic word. Inkelas& Zoll (2005)
mention that reduplication in several languages associates with various
semantic and syntactic properties. Furthermore, in regard to the approach to
reduplication, there are two basic approaches, which include the phonological
copying, i.e. it deals with copying the entire or portion of a phonological
constituent, feature or segment, while the second approach is morpho-semantic
(MS) feature reduplication, which brings a new semantic function, and it is
resulted by morphological process of reduplication rather than the
phonological. Yakasai (2006: 23) emphasizes that the specification of some
meanings can be identified with certain specific lexical categories (i.e.
adjective as a lexical category may have the meaning emphasis and attenuation
only, while verb may have the meanings plural action and reciprocity only in a
language); one lexical category can acquire more than one meaning. This may
actually differ within languages, whereby “a lexical category of adjective with
full reduplication in language X may have the meaning
intensity, while in language Y may have the meaning
attenuation”.
More importantly, Regier (1994) comes with the universal
components of reduplication, which are called the radial category of concept.
It illustrates the motivational factors for the links among many meanings
derived in the process of reduplication.
4. The Analysis of the Data collected from
the fieldwork
Under
the analysis, an analysis of the meaning, repeated action, derived in the
process of reduplication in the Kurama language was done. In the process of the
analysis, the nature of reduplication coming with the meaning, repeated action
was analyzed as well as the nature of some modifications that come along with
the reduplication, deriving the meaning repeated action in the language, as can
be seen under 3.1 and 3.2, respectively.
4.1
The Nature of Reduplication with the Meaning, Repeated Action
As
can be seen below, in the process of reduplication, the meaning or function
repeated action in the Kurama language only exists in full reduplication.
Consider Example 1a-c.
Base Reduplicated
Form
1. (a) nkúnáa ‘say’ nkúná-kúná
‘say repeatedly’
(b) nbúráa ‘expose’ nbúrá-búrá
‘expose repeatedly’
(c) ncházáa ‘write’ ncházá-cházá
‘write repeatedly’
(d) nchónzáa ‘pick’ nchónzá-chónzá
‘pick repeatedly’
(e) ndámzáa ‘taste, involve’ ndámzá-dámzá
‘taste many, involve repeatedly’
All the examples from 1a-e are verbs in the Kurama language with
their bases being fully reduplicated, appearing with the meaning or function,
repeated action. In other words, they are all full reduplications function as
repeated action in the language, as the all bases are doubled completely,
carrying along the meaning doing again and again, i.e. nkúnáa ‘say’, nkúná-kúná ‘say
repeatedly’, nbúráa ‘expose’, nbúrá-búrá‘expose
repeatedly’, ncházáa ‘write’, ncházá-cházá,
‘write repeatedly’, nchónzáa ‘pick’, nchónzá-chónzá ‘pick
repeatedly’, ndámzáa ‘taste, involve’, ndámzá-dámzá,
‘taste many, involve repeatedly’.
4.2
The Nature of Modifications in the Meaning of Reduplication, Repeated Action in
Kurama
Base Reduplicated Form
2. (a) nkúnáa ‘say’ nkúná-kúná
‘say repeatedly’
(b)
nbúráa ‘expose’ nbúrá-búrá
‘expose repeatedly’
(c) ncházáa ‘write’ ncházá-cházá
‘write
repeatedly’
(d)
nchónzáa ‘pick’ nchónzá-chónzá
‘pick repeatedly’
(e) ndámzáa ‘taste, involve’ ndámzá-dámzá
‘taste many, involve repeatedly’
As can be seen under the examples 2a-e, the bases are completely
repeated, yielding a meaning, repeated action. However, some modifications
appearin the process of reduplication, whereby the base long vowel is shortened
and the initial consonant cluster is deleted, i.e., nkúnáa, nkúná-kúná,nbúráa,
“say repeatedly” nbúrá-búrá, “expose repeatedly” ncházáa,
ncházá-cházá, “write repeatedly” nchónzáa,nchónzá-chónzá,
“pick repeatedly” ndámzáa,ndámzá-dámzá “taste many, involve
many”.
5. Conclusion
Conclusively, this paper examined the nature of reduplication that
comes with the meaning, illustrating “carrying an action over again”, i.e.
repeated action in the Kurama language of Niger Congo Family. The results show
that based on the nature of the meaning that shows “carrying an action over
again”, i.e. repeated action, this meaning appears under full reduplication in
the language, coming along with some modifications. For instance, in the
process of yielding a meaning that means “carrying an action over again”, i.e.
repeated action, the base long vowel is shortened and the initial consonant
cluster of the reduplicant is deleted, i.e. nkúnáa ‘say’, nkúná-kúná ‘say
repeatedly’, nbúráa ‘expose’, nbúrá-búrá‘expose
repeatedly’, ncházáa ‘write’, ncházá-cházá,
‘write repeatedly’, nchónzáa ‘pick’, nchónzá-chónzá ‘pick
repeatedly’, ndámzáa ‘taste, involve’, ndámzá-dámzá,
‘taste many, involve repeatedly’.This process is highly productive in the
language, in the sense that it is mostly for yielding a meaning that comes with
the meaning “carrying an action over again”, i.e. repeated action under verbs.
References
Alsamadani, M.
& Taibah, S. (2019). Types and functions of reduplication in palembang. Journal
of the Southeast Asinan Linguistics Society, 113-142. University of Hawai’I
Press.
Amos, D. T.
(2014). A Coparative study of some selected dialects of Kurama (T’kurmi). In
Jeremiah, M. &Dogara, E. M. (eds.). The Akurmi people of central
Nigeria: their heritage and hope, pp 158-168. Akurmi Study Group.
Mathew, Y.
(2014). An enquiry into the history of the Kurama (Akurmi People): traditions
of origins, migrations and settlement patterns. In Jeremiah, M.
&Dogara, E. M. (eds.). The Akurmi people of central Nigeria: their
heritage and hope, pp 42-55.Akurmi Study Group.
Yakasai, M. H.
(2023). Hausa reduplication in the process of grammaticalization and
lexicalization. Published PhD. Thesis, Bayero University Press: Kano.
YakasaiH. M. (2006).
Grammaticalization as Gradual Process in Hausa Reduplication. In Pilaszewicz,
S., Pawlak, N. &Krzywicki, (eds.). Studies of the Department of
African Languages and Cultures, pp 7-38. Warsaw: Warsaw University.
Inkelas, S.
&Zoll, C. (2005).Reduplication: doubling in morphology. Cambridge
University Press.
Regier, Terry
(1994).A Preliminary Study of the Semantics of Reduplication.Technical Report
(TR-94-019). International Computer Science Institute ,Berkely, California.
Olsson, L.
(2015). Form and Function of Reduplicated Nouns in
Japanese. Unpublished M.A. Thesis, StockholmsUniversitet.
Keane, E.
(2011). Phrasal Reduplication and Dual Description.Retrieved around 8: 06 P.M
from https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110911466.239 on
5th September, 2021.
Kiyomi, S. (1995). A New Approach to
Reduplication: A Semantic Study of Noun and Verb Reduplication in the
Malayo-Polynesian Language. Linguistics 33: 1145-1167.
0 Comments