Article Citation: Bulaun Doofan (2018). Affixation in Tiv Morphology: An Overview. DEGEL: The Journal of the Faculty of Arts and Islamic Studies, Vol. 16. ISSN 0794-9316

AFFIXATION IN TIV MORPHOLOGY: AN OVERVIEW

By

Bulaun Doofan, PhD

General Studies Unit

University of Mkar, Benue State

doojimmy2008@yahoo.com

Abstract

This paper examines affixation, a morphological process in Tiv language with a view to describing and analyzing its manifestation in the language. The operation of affixation in the Tiv language is the focus of this study. The study shows among others that affixation in Tiv performs a productive role in the lexicon of the language. Tiv is classified as a Benue-Congo language, which is a sub-member of the Niger-Congo family. This study is an attempt to contribute to the study of our indigenous languages in order to meet the challenges of development especially in the aspects of language teaching and learning. The methodology of this study is descriptive. It is hoped that this study will further enhance the development of the language and ultimately national development through more insight and enlightenment on its uses in healthy communication. Therefore, the study recommends among other things that more indigenous Nigerian languages be studied and documented for use.

Introduction

The Tiv language is spoken by the Tiv people, an ethno-linguistic group or ethnic nationality in West Africa, specifically in Nigeria. Their population comprises approximately 2.55 percent of Nigeria’s population numbering over 5.6 million people throughout Nigeria and the Cameroun (Ayoade and Agbaje, 1989). Most Tiv speakers are found in Benue State with few speakers in the states of Plateau, Taraba, Nasarawa and parts of Cross River State. Tiv language is classified among the Bantoid family, a member of the Benue-Congo and ultimately Niger-Congo phylum. The term Tiv refers to both the language and the people.

The morphological processes of language are rule-governed, indicating that there are rules which govern word formation processes in language and in the lexicon where all lexical items are stored. It is worthy of note that considerable efforts were made by Abraham (1940) to develop the Tiv language. He wrote A Dictionary of Tiv Language including other books on Tiv phonology and grammar. Unfortunately, indigenous Tiv writers, especially in the area of morphology where there still exists a large vacuum, have not supplemented these pioneering efforts. Ikpa (1987) attempted a morphological analysis of the Tiv language describing Tiv singular and plural noun classes. Ikpa’s (1987) efforts have also not been complemented. Udu (2010) has also made considerable efforts towards Tiv morphology where he considered the morphology of Tiv language generally. These encouraging attempts and efforts are all geared towards the study of Tiv morphology. Despite these attempts, Tiv morphology still experiences a vacuum yet to be filled.

The purpose of this study is to closely examine affixation as a word formation process that has enriched the lexicon of Tiv language. In doing this, the functions of the affix types that are attested in the morphology of Tiv will be discussed. Thus, the analysis and exemplification of the affixation processes in the language form the central focus of the study. Affixation is a common and productive word formation process in languages and it is also productive or clearly evident and useful in the language under study. Affixes perform both lexical and grammatical functions in the language. Lexical functions refer to the effects of affixes on the free morpheme that acts as the root or stem in the word formation process. The grammatical functions of affixes on the other hand refer to the effects of affixes on the roots in which case the class of the roots and stems does not change but rather adds information such as plural or tense marking. These details are presented in this study.

Morphemes

The morpheme has been identified and described as the basic element, the most fundamental unit or object of study in word formation or morphology. In the words of Agbedo (2001, p. 82) words rather than consisting of the smallest meaningful units in language are composed of smaller meaningful units. These smaller units which cannot further be broken into meaningful units are what we refer to as morpheme. Anagbogu, Mbah and Eme (2010, p. 140), has it that the morpheme is a unit of morphology. The word morpheme is used to refer to the smallest indivisible form which has a specific grammatical function. For example, in the word ‘untidy’ there are two morphemes ‘un’ and ‘tidy’: un is a morpheme. Omachonu (2001, p. 57) further strengthens the words of Okolo and Ezikeojioaku (1999) in explaining why morphemes and not words are recognized as the minimal meaningful units of language where he has this to say:

This conception leads to the recognition of linguistic elements

which would usually not be treated as words. Words, though

 may be definable as minimal free forms are not the minimal

meaningful units of language we are looking for, since they

can often be broken down further. The word hunters can stand

alone, it is thus a free form, nonetheless three meaningful parts:

hunt-er-s.

By this therefore, morphemes and not words are minimal distinctive or meaningful units of language. A close look at the status of morphemes reveals that there are two major types of morphemes as follows:

The Free Morpheme

These are the morphemes which can stand by themselves as individual or separate words, that is, minimal meaning-bearing units which can exist in isolation without necessarily attaching them to other morphemes or words. According to Yule (1996) “the free morphemes can be generally considered as the set of separate English word-forms” which when used with bound morpheme are technically referred to as the stem morphemes unto which the bound morphemes are attached. For example:

  Inter  – nation  – al

  Prefix   stem  suffix

  (bound) (free)  (bound)

  Faith - ful - ness

  Stem  suffix   suffix

 (free)  (bound) (bound)

Free morphemes are grouped into two categories to include lexical morphemes and functional morphemes. Lexical morphemes as the name implies, refer to ‘content words’ which carry the main messages conveyed in our utterances. This refers to open class words: nouns, adjectives and verbs, e.g. man, animal, good, bad, eat, jump, etc. They are referred to as (open class of words) because “We can add new lexical morphemes to the language rather easily” (Yule, 1996, p. 76).

Functional morphemes on the other hand consists of a ‘closed’ class of words such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns which are collectively referred to as functional words in language. For example, or, and, because, but, in, of, on, an, the, and others. Adding new functional morphemes is unproductive hence the tag ‘closed’ class of words. However, this distinction may be worthwhile and perfectly for other languages but not for the Tiv. This is because the division of lexical items into word classes or parts of speech in Tiv may not follow exactly the same pattern as is the case for other languages. For example, the distinction between subject and object case pronouns in Tiv is not clear as the word, ‘ve’ stands for both ‘they’ and ‘them’, ‘un’, ‘we’, ‘na’ stands for ‘him’ and ‘her’ (without gender distinction). ‘Un’ can be used both as subject and object of ‘he’ and ‘she’ (him and her) although most often ‘a’ is used as the subjective case for she and he. As is described in the following sentences:

1.         Erdoo and I are friends (English)

Mo vea Erdoo, se mba jende (Tiv)

Me and Erdoo, we are friends (literary meaning)

2.          Anadoo, Iveren and She will visit next month (English)

Un vea Anadoo man Iveren vea lu van sha ya Wer u sha (Tiv)

She and Anadoo and Iveren, them will be visiting Month of up (literal meaning)

3.         Erdoo and them spoke to the children (English

 Ve man Erdoo ve lam a mbayev (Tiv)

 Them and Erdoo they spoke with children (literal meaning)

Tiv language uses the objective case in place of the subjective case in sentence 1 and 3. The language displaces the position of the personal pronouns in the compound subject as it may be the case in other languages. In sentence 1 not only does Tiv use the objective form ‘me’ in place of ‘I,’ it also changes and displaces the noun ‘Erdoo’ which transposes to the position initially occupied by the pronoun ‘I’ in sentence 2 and 3, the pronoun ‘un’ (she) and ‘ve’ (they) respectively come before the nouns Anadoo and Iveren. ‘Ve’ (they) comes before the noun Erdoo thereby altering the arrangement as we may experience in other languages.

 Conjunctions in Tiv are many, namely:

Kpa, - but   Kua –  with

Man – and    Or –  include

Shi – with    Nahan – will

Shin – or   Gadia  – because, if not

Shaciu – because   vea –  include

U – of     ken –  in

All which function inherently as conjunctions in Tiv language.

Bound Morphemes

These are morphemes which though meaning-bearing units cannot occur in isolation and still retain their meanings but can only be recognized when joined to other morphemes especially root morphemes or stems. In other words, bound morphemes cannot occur alone in sentences except when attached to the base or stem morphemes. The analysis of morphological structure according to Okole and Ezikeojiaku (1999) in Omachonu (2001:58) ‘is based on the distinction between a free morpheme, which can constitute a word by itself and a bound morpheme, which must be attached to another element.

The Morphology of the Tiv Language

The branch of linguistics that studies the word formation processes in languages is known as morphology. Morphology, according to Crystal (1990) in Olubunmi (2006, p. 2), is ‘the branch of linguistics which studies the structures or forms of words primarily through the use of morphemes.’ The morpheme is the basic concept of the study of rules guiding word formation. It is the most fundamental unit in morphology. Oyebade, (1992) in Olubunmi (2006, ibid) defines the morpheme as ‘the minimal meaningful unit of grammatical analysis which may constitute a word or part of a word. The morphology of Tiv refers to the inner structure of Tiv words and processes of word formation. Languages as we all know differ in their morphological formations. Other languages have both derivational and inflectional formations which are the two main categories or processes of word formation. The case of the Tiv language is similar to the situation in other languages in this regard as a range of examples in Udu (2009) suggest that the morphology of Tiv language is largely inflectional. Reason been because the inflectional affixes (i.e. prefixes and suffixes) do not change the grammatical class (es) of the stem(s) to which they are attached but rather signal grammatical relationships such as plural, change in tense, and possession as is examined and described in this section.

 When a morpheme is a word on its own, it is regarded as a free morpheme.

   Tiv   Gloss

  E.g.  Ya - eat

   Ma -  drink

   Yav  -  sleep

   Tour - pour

Each of the words in the examples above consists of only one morpheme that cannot be sub-divided into any meaningful parts. That is each has independent existence and meaning. Thus it is regarded as a free morpheme. But when it functions as part of a free or another morpheme it is called bound morpheme or otherwise known as affix.

 Affixes in Tiv Language

Affixes appear as sub-parts of another morpheme, usually the free morpheme. It does not occur in isolation. It is meaningful only when it is attached to a free morpheme (i.e. a root and stem). An affix may occupy the structural position of a prefix, in which case it occurs before the root or it can occupy the position of a suffix, occurring after the root (Oyebade, 1992, p. 85). An affix that occurs in between two morphemes is called an infix. Suprafix is another type of affix. Tiv is a tone language and such tones perform both lexical and grammatical functions in the language. In Tiv, plurality is marked by changes in the tones of the root word in addition to the changes in the segments as will be exemplified and analyzed in this study.

Affixation in Tiv Language

Affixation is the morphological process by which morphemes are put together to form new word(s). According to O’Grady, Debrovolsky and Katamba (1996) in Olubumi (2006, p. 4), affixation is the adding of an affix to a free morpheme that acts as root or stem. Affixation is a productive morphological process that enriches the lexicon of languages. It is found in Tiv performing different lexical and grammatical functions. Affixes in Tiv are used to derive new words as well as to inflect existing words for grammatical functions. The affixes are thus derivational and inflectional. Thus the addition of the affixes to root morphemes results in changing class of the root morphemes as well as providing additional information.

Data Presentation and Analysis

Prefixation

Prefixation in Tiv involves morphological formation with the agentive prefix (Or). This is a highly productive inflectional prefix. It can be found in the following examples:

Inflectional Prefix  Root    Final word

Or-    Sule (farm)   Orsule (farmer)

Or- +human +male –female +noun (sule) =   agent formation

 (orsule) Farmer.

Or-     Gbande (drum)   Orgbande

 (drummer)

Or- +human +male +masculine – female+ noun (drum) Agent formation

 (drummer)

Or-   Ihyom (enmity)   orihyom

 (Enemy)

Or- Human  +  Noun (enmity) =    agent formation

 (Enemy).

Or-   Tato (hunt(ing)   Ortato (hunter)

Or- + human +male +masculine - female + noun (hunt) = agent formation

 (hunter)

Morphological Formation with the Agentive Prefix kwase-

Here a combination of the inflectional prefix with the root and the final word helps the understanding of the nature, quality, career or lifestyle of the one been described.

Inflectional Prefix   Root    Final word

Kwase-   Yoron – Cook (-ing)  Kwase-yoron

 (female cook)

Kwase- +human +female +feminine + Verb (cook (ing) = feminine agent

 formation (cook).

Kwase-    hemen (leader)  kwase-hemen

 (woman leader).

Kwase- +human +female +feminine+ noun (leader) = agent formation

 (woman leader)

Kwase-    Ya (house)   Kwaseya

 (house wife)

Kwase- +human + female +feminine +noun (house) =  agent formation

 (house wife).

Kwase-    Iyouci    Kwase-Iyouci

 (female health

 officer)

Kwase- +human+ female +feminine + (noun (health centre) = agent formation

 (female health

 worker).

Morphological Formation with the Prefix i-

Prefix    Root    Final word

I-     Or (man/person)  Ior (men/people)

I- noun  +human +male+masculine = plural formation

 (men/people).

I-     kpan (slave)   Ikpan (slaves)

I- +noun (Kpan) + human =   plural formation

 (slaves)

I-     gbaa (hoe)   Igbaa (hoes)

I- +noun (hoe) +non living =   plural formation

 (Igbaa)

Morphological Formation with the Prefix u-

 Prefix   Root  Final word

 U-    Uma (life)   Uuma (lives)

 Inflectional morpheme +noun (life) =    plural formation

 (lifes)

 U-     gbuuka (gun/rifle)  Ugbuuka (guns/rifles)

Inflectional morpheme +noun (gun/rifle) +non –living =plural formation

 (guns).

U-    Ter (father)  Uter (fathers)

Inflectional morpheme + noun +human +male +masculine +adult = plural

 formation (fathers)

U-     Ifyam(frog)   Uifyam (frogs)

Inflectional Morpheme +noun +living +animal = plural formation (frogs).

Morphological formation with the prefix mba-

Prefix    Root   Final word

Mba-    tsav (witchcraft)   mbatsav (witches)

 Inflectional morpheme  +  verb =  plural noun

 formation (witches)

Mba-     Abya (small Hoe)  Mbaabya (small hoes)

Inflectional morpheme + noun + non living  = plural formation.

Mba-    atsem (razor)  mbaatsem (razor blades)

Inflectional morpheme +noun + non-living =   plural formation.

Morphological Formation with the Prefix m-

Most words which begin with the vowel ‘I’ change to the consonant ‘M’ with other uses within the word in Tiv language, bringing about change in word class from verb to noun as illustrated below:

Prefix    Root    Final word

m-   koso (V) (preserve)   mkoso (n)

 (preservation)

 Inflectional morpheme  + verb =  noun formation

 m-    yange (v) (prevent)  myange (n)

 (prevention)

Inflectional morpheme  +  verb  -  noun formation

m-    kimbi (pay)  mkimbi (payment)

Inflectional morphem verb =   noun formation

 (mkimbi)

Morphological formation with prefix m- changing word-class from adjective to noun:

 Prefix    Root   Final word

 m-   tsee (adj) (hot)  mtsee (n) (heat/hotness)

Inflectional morpheme + adjective = noun formation (heat/

 hotness)

 m-   doo (adj.) good mdoo (n) goodness

Inflectional morpheme + adj. (doo) =  noun formation

 (goodness)

 m-   vihi (adj) (bad) mvihi (badness)

Inflectional morpheme +adjective (bad) =noun formation (badness).

Morphological formation with derivational prefix Or- changing verb to noun as demonstrated in the following examples:

Derivational Prefix  Root   Final word

Or-     maa (v) build(ing) ormaan (n) (builder)

The final (n) in ormaan serves as the qualifier describing or standing for builder.

Infixation

Infixation as observed is a process that infixes word medially which in most cases indicates plural forms of especially nouns in Tiv language, the word also prefixing to complete the process as described below. This also mean that a particular alphabet comes before or in-between a word to form a plural.

Ibya - ‘sack’   aba - ‘sacks’

Kwange – ‘belt’   ikyange – ‘belts’

Hunda – ‘door’   ihinda – ‘doors’

Kwa – ‘leaf’   ikya – ‘leaves’

Ihinga – ‘nose’   ahenga – ‘nostrils’

Hwange – ‘line’   ihyange – ‘lines’

Inima – ‘bat’ or umbrella’ anema – ‘bats’ or umbrellas’

Suffixation

This involves adding an affix to the end of a word or free morpheme either to change its word-class or indicate aspects of the grammatical functions of the word in the language as the data below illustrate.

Derivational root  inflectional suffix final word

Zege (mighty)    -or     zege-or (influential man)

Zege (adjective) +human + male + masculine - feminine= noun

 formation

 Nom (manly)      -or     nom-or

 (brave man)

Adjective + human + male +masculine – feminine = noun forma-

 tion

Telegh (puny, weak)   -or    telegh-or

 (Punyman,

 weakman)

Adjective + human +masculine +male  =  noun formation

 Ifyer (evil)     -or    ifyer-or (evil man)

Noun   + human +masculine +male –feminine = noun formation

Ican (poverty)     -or    Ican-or (pauper)

Noun  +human +masculine +male –feminine= noun formation.

Interfixation

Interfixation is one of the productive morphological processes in Tiv language. It involves the placement of an affix between two identical stems either to create a new word or alter the meaning of the existing one. Omachonu (2001, p. 61) identified this process in Igala language. Taking a cue from this, the following are likewise identified in Tiv.

Root    Interfix   Final word

Fele (fast) (adj.)   fe   Fele fe fele (to be fast)

Adjective   +interfix  = verb phrase formation

Telegh (weakness) (adj.)   te   telegh te telegh (without

 strength)

Adjective +   interfix =  adjectival phrase

 formation

Fegh (greed) (n)   fe   fegh fe fegh (being greedy)

Noun  +   interfix =  noun phrase formation

Za (go) (v)    ze   za ze za (to stagger)

Verb  +   interfix =  verb phrase formation

Kpianger (shake) (V)   kpi   Kpianger kpi kpianger (shaky Movement)

Verb +    interfix =  verb phrase formation

Tsele (insufficient) (adj)  tse   Tsele tse tsele (grossly insufficient)

Adjective +   interfix =  adjectival phrase formation

Gbughur (active) (adj.)  gbu  Gbugh gbu gbugh (make active)

Adjective +   interfix   adjectival phrase formation

Suprafixation

This is not represented by a segment (vowel or consonant) but by what is called a prosodic feature: (tone, stress and intonation), (Omachonu, 2001, p. 61). A common example of such a derivational affix (suprafix) is tone in Tiv language. Tone in Tiv performs a lexico-semantic function. Many meanings are scored from the same word or lexical item following changes in the tone(s) of the word. This process applies to both nouns and verbs in Tiv. For example:

Noun      Verb

a.      Tōr (king)    ya (eat)

Tór (pestle)    yān (eating)

      yán (eats)

b.      Tsár (bridge)     màà (build)

Tsàr (piece of cloth)   mar (birth)

Tsār (to light)    Ayem (race)

      A yem (gone)

Summary of Findings and Conclusion

It is generally recognized that languages have a lot in common. This attribute makes us refer to language as being universal, but we must equally be aware that there are variations despite this claim of universality. Despite the general belief that there are some regular and natural processes involved in word formation across languages, it is worthy of note that the actual principles and processes determining the derivation and existence of such basic linguistic forms vary with languages, as we may observe with the Tiv. For instance, the Hausa word for ‘Tailor’ is ‘Maidinki’ which has a prefix- ‘mai’ and a root word ‘dinki’. The Tiv word for Tailor ‘Orkike’ has the same formation with a prefix ‘Or’ and a root word ’Kike. However, this word is rather ambiguous as ‘Kike’ been the root word does not only refer to a sewing machine but also a bicycle thus ‘Orkike’ could be a tailor or a bicycle owner.

Affixation which includes all the affixes as discussed in this work. The Affixation processes examined by this work looks more thoroughly at universal strict control over the way we should form words in language: the peculiarity imbedded in the formation of words in the language which can only be unveiled by a careful and thorough look. From the illustrations of this work, it is observed that Tiv lends more to inflectional than derivational morphology. Besides, Tiv uses double letter vowels to represent long sounds in place of the universally recognized stressing or the colon (:) used as diacritic after the vowel to indicate long vowel sounds.

These findings are not to say that one claims the exhaustive treatment of this subject matter in a language that the researcher almost could not find analytical works on virtually all the aspects of the language especially morphology. It is hoped that further intensive research in this direction will be productive.

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