A Study of Morphosyntactic Interfaces Operations in Hausa

Cite this article as: Lawan, M. S., & Abdullahi, M. I. (2026). A study of morphosyntactic interface operations in Hausa. Sokoto Journal of Linguistics and Communication Studies (SOJOLICS), 2(2), 61-72. https://doi.org/10.36349/sojolics.2026.v02i02.005

By

Muhammad Sani Lawan, Ph. D

Department of Nigerian Languages and Linguistics

SuleL amido University, Kafin Hausa, Jigawa State.

msanilawan@gmail.com

+234 08063161900

&

Musa Ibrahim Abdullahi

Department of English and Literary Studies

Sule Lamido University, Kafin Hausa, Jigawa State.

musaibrahimabdullahi70@gmail.com

+23408039643016

Abstract

This paper attempts to examine linguistic features of interfaces of Hausa morphological operations. Thus, the aim of this study is to analyses some of the linguistic features of Hausa morphosyntactic interfaces and its components. It is observed that, moprhosyntactic interface in Hausa is characterized by morphological process or operations of affixation, derivation and formation. Moreover, Hausa morphosyntactic interface is also sensitive to genitive application that distinguish feminine and masculine gender, and on the other hand not necessarily encompassing the traditional ‘r’ or ‘n’ marker that distinguish the gender variation, but also employ other realization such as the ‘wa’, ‘ba’, da’, ‘aayee’ as in Galadanci (1976), and ‘uncii’, ‘ancii’ (Ahmad, 1994), and as well person and number, and takes into cognizance of syntactic class of noun, adjective and adverb. Therefore, this Therefore, this paper, however, attractsan in depth study into the phenomenon as a single entity topic, with a view to find more of the interface operations in contemporary morphological studies such as distributed morphology (DM), as the data used is based on a pilot study, and the work of some scholars. Thus, more field work is needed to make a detailed presentation on the various aspects of the linguistics unit different phases of the interface. 

Keywords: Hausa language; Morphosyntax; Affixation; Gender marking; Distributed Morphology.

1.0 Introduction

A theory of the syntax/morphology interface is first, a theory of how ‘words and their internal structure the traditional domain of morphology relates to the structures generated by the syntax, and second, a theory of how the rules for deriving complex words relate to the rules for deriving syntactic structures. A prominent line of research in this area consists of approaches assuming some version of the Lexicalist Hypothesis. For present purposes, this is the claim that (at least some) words are special in ways that e.g. phrases are not, and that this ‘specialness’ calls for an architecture in which the derivation of words and the derivation of syntactic objects occur in different modules of the grammar (the Lexicon versus the syntax). While the ‘words’ derived in the Lexicon serve as the terminals in the syntactic derivation Lawan (2026), there is a sharp division between syntax and morphology according to Lexicalist approaches of this type. In this way, the interface between syntax and morphology in such a theory is opaque or indirect: there is no reason to expect the structure and composition of ‘words’ to relate to the structure and composition of syntactic objects in any transparent or for that matter systematic fashion.

In language nothing is more important than words Katamba et al (2011). A word is a single unit of language which means something and can be written or spoken”, which could be formed through various process such as borrowing, blending, clipping reduplication, compounding etc Syal and Jindal (2011). Unlike phonemes and syllables which are simply elements of sounds that carry meaning, and unlike sentences which made up as needed and discard, words are permanently stored in a speakers’ mental dictionary or lexicon. They are equally the fundamental building blocks of communication. In linguistics, an interface refers to the boundary or connection points between two or more linguistic component, it is where different aspects of language meet and intereact.

Morphology is the component of grammar per excellence (Brown, 2000), interface is also the intereaction or relationship between linguistics components. Thus, generally morphology is about word generation through some processes known as morphological operations, which specifically comprises affixation and inflection within the level of lexicon before the syntax and after phonology. The unit is also considered as the oldest and as well the latest component of linguistics. It is the oldest as linguists were primarily morphologists (in Gwammaja, 2019), as they were preoccupied with the generation of well-structured list of words. Whereas, it is the youngest among the core linguistics components as, it was half of the nineteenth century that the term morphology was viewed and become current Hospelmath and Sims (2010). Similarly, as morphological interface in the linguistic framework operates to generate words via the core linguistics components, its operation is not the same in all languages, therefore, this means languages differ to some degree in the in the way they form their respective word’s internal structures. For instance, in English, the morpheme ‘s’ is used to generate plurals from singular in some cases like ‘boy’ and ‘boys’ , whereas in Hausa, it is the final vowel attached to the ‘root’ of a word as in yaar-oo .boy. [-plu] and yaar-aa ‘boys’ [+plu]. The change in tone on the first syllable of the word, ie from high to falling tone, which is as a result of one of the phonological operations affecting the derivational process (Gwammaja,2019).

Researchers such as that ofGaladanci, (1976) discussed these forms of morphological operations interfaces elements on either the phonological, syntactic or semantic level. They presented various lexical formations in the positions of morphological interface in ideophones, inflections or lexical formations, which in turn branched into derivation, falling within any of the linguistics unit. Additionally, Galadanci (1976) discusses an issue relating to morphological operation where the phenomenon of derivation as one of the processes demonstrated in the process of gender and number realization from a common stem (Gwammaja, 2019). Thus, the author Galadanci, (1976), however, analyses syntactic perspective operations using suffixes – uu-uwaa and aayee as seen below:

(a) Gunt + uu → guntuu ‘short’ [ms]

(b) Gunt + uwaa → guntuwaa ‘short’ [fs]

(c) Gunt + aayee → guntayee ‘shor’ [plural]

The examples cited above, demonstrate a combination of an agential copular morphemesuu_, for masculine, uwaa for feminine and aayee for plural form as suffixes to themorphemeGunt, which becomes the nucleus in all the formations. However, in the configurations of the examples, there are salient realization of some morphemes that become pertinent in the formations as seen in (a) the ‘t’ is a middle morpheme in the derived lexicons, that hops directly on to the immediate adjacent morpheme in all the three examples, Thus, in (a) masculine referent, in (b) we have feminine singular referent and in (c) we have plural referent. All the fused concatenated morphemes generate another realization employing common form that demonstrated different morphosyntacrtic behavior gender, number and word class.

In another phase Newman (2000) produced a Ma-Formation as prefix as in:

(a) Ma + shiriiriic + ii → mashiriiriicii ‘unorganised person’ [ms]

(b) Ma + shiriiriic + iyaa → mashiriiriiciiyaa ‘unorganised person’ [fs]

(c) Ma + shiriirii + taa → mashiriiriitaa ‘unorganised person’ [plural]

Similarly, as demonstrated derivation plays a role in word formation as in goonaa + rsa → goonarsa ‘his farm, in this formation a nominal phrase is joined to a possessive (Noun + short poss. → NP).  

Thus, this paper is to examine the morphological linguistics interface between the phenomenon and other linguistic components of morphology and syntax. As such, some morphological operations will be employed in the course of the study. Furthermore, the paper accounts this study within some scholarly works of some researchers in linguistics framework in Hausa, where the process will only discuss linguistic units of syntax interfaces with morphology

1.2 Morphological Process in Hausa Language

Morphological process is about word generation through some processes broadly known as word formation process (Yule, 1996) or morphological patterns (Haspelmath and Sims, 2010 in Gwammaja, 2019) or morphological operations (Halle and Mrantz, 1993). with processes such as affixation and inflection at the level of lexicon, after phonology before the syntax (Gwammaja, 2019). The operation in Hausa comprises various realization such as qualifier of an action, derivation as a process of gender and number that are also found in morphosyntactic categories which is the topic of this study. They are components of morphological operations at word or phrase level that equally add to the stock of Hausa words. The following operations illustrates their word formation processes, and productivity in Hausa.

2.0 Literature Review

A lot of researches have been conducted in relation to this study, below are some of them

Galadanci, (1969) extensively describes the grammar (syntax), the formation of words (morphology) and the meaning (semantics) of Hausa language in his research, with major concern on accurate description of the nominal phrase of the language (using the above interfaces) of Hausa language focusing Kano as the research area where he describes the structure of Nominal Phrase in Hausa and its constituent elements as well as their relationship to each other. The study focuses on the internal structure of the language (Hausa) as well as grammatical elements that constituted the nominal phrase in Hausa such as possessive markers, genitive cases, adjectives among others. The study also extensively reflects the grammar of words (morphology) and meaning (semantics) of Hausa language. Thus, his study serves as a guide to the present study, because of the morphosyntactic interfaces found within the framework of the study.

Ahmad, (1994) observes compound as an interface between syntax and morphology. His study claim that given the legitimacy of many of the points put forward by both the proponents of syntactic view and those of the morphological view ie syntax and morphology. As a result, there are properties of compounding that are purely syntactic and others that are purely morphological. Thus, in synthetic compound like truck driver where the head driver is derived by suffixation ‘er to the verb drive truck is the argument of that verb, as such, portraying a synthetic relationship. Also, evidence support the fuzziness between morphology and syntax, where in the first-place morphology is thought of as a concatenation of words to form phrases and sentences, while compound is found to differ from words because they have internal structures, and differ from phrases, because their constituents cannot function independently as do those of phrase (Scalise, 1994). With the above assertions, it is therefore, noted that compound has two sets of features, in which some are characterized by as morphological and others are syntactic, thus, it is evident that the two aspects are related and serve as interface.

Newman, (2000) studied compound and found that most compounds in Hausa are nouns. And these compounds are however, small number of compound words (or tightly bound phrases) as in ruwa a jallo (lit, water in bottle) desperately, takanas-ta-kano (lit. purpose of kano) purposely etc. This study is directly related to the present study because it helps the researcher to understand the nature of noun compounds in Hausa, but the study looks at Hausa compound while the current research study a different phenomenon which is term as hybrid compound (i.e. Hausa plus contact language- English.

Yusuf, (2011) posits compound formation as “combination of two or more words becomes a compound when it is lexicalized such that its component parts do not function independently but rather as a unit”. With this noun-based compound noun plus noun, noun plus short Gen. Cx (agr + n/r) + noun. Where noun-based compound is those which have structure comparable to that of a nominal phrase (NP) in which the head id a noun. Syntactically, the noun based can have four subtypes, i.e. Noun plus Noun, noun plus short Genitival complex (AGR + n/+r) + noun, adjective + AGR (+ n/+r) + noun. Where noun plus noun consists of two nouns connecting linker but jointly constituting the core e.g. gizo-gizo, bola-gaja, biri-boko: whereas in noun plus short Gen Cx (agr+n/+r) + noun which consist of a noun as a core that consists of short genitival complex (short Gen. CX) + n/+r suffixes which might refer to as AGReement markers (+n marks masculine gender and plural +r marks feminine gender) that link the two nouns because they contain AGR properties and are attached to (and agree with) the proceeding (head) noun. Here the noun core and the AGR suffixes/markers +n/+r share the same features; masculine singular and plural and feminine gender example; Karin-kumalloo (breaking – AGR nousee) breakfast, baccin-zomo (sleeping – AGR hare) sleeping with eyes open, rigar-ruwa (gown-AGR (of)- rain) rain-coat etc. The study is indirectly related to this study because it helps the research to clearly understand agreement of head markers (+n/+r) suffixes, the syntactic types, and noun compound formation in Hausa.

Lawan, (2026) studiesan Interface between Morphology and Syntax in the Generative Grammar of the Hausa Language: A Case Study of Nouns, Adjectives, and Verbs,in which he explains how morphology relates to syntax within generative grammar in Hausa. The study shows the interface between morphology and syntax that occurs in Hausa, specifically within nouns, adjectives, and verbs. And also explain the reasons behind this interface and highlight the relationship and differences between morphology and syntax in Hausa. The research utilized the Lexicalism theory and the Distributed Morphology theory, both of which originate from generative grammar which mens a collection of statements, rules or axioms which describe, define or generate all well-formed utteraces in a language,a theory founded by Chomsky in (1955). One of the findings of this research is the demonstration of the interface between morphology and syntax from the lexicalist perspective, through concepts such as the Mirror Principle, Headship, the Bracketing Paradox, and Syntactic Structure. Similarly, the Distributed Morphology theory shows the interface through Late Insertion, Underspecification, and the concept of “Syntax all the way down. “The study highlights the similarities and differences between these theories as applied to Hausa. Additionally, the research contains an introduction, a review of previous works, and a description of the research methods, followed by the core analysis namely, the structure of the interface between morphology and syntax in the minimalist generative grammar framework in Hausa.

3.0 Background to the Study

Morphosyntax has been studied for many years in different field such as syntax, semantics and morphology, the concept of morphosyntax witnessed a number of changes throughout time. For example, morphosyntax was subsumed under morphology. And then, morphology was subsumed again under linguistics in the late 19^th January and early 2000 with various classification of compound forms.

Several researches on Hausa compound operations were carried out such as that of Galadanci (1976) Fagge (1991), Ahmad (1994) Newman (2000) Jaggar (2001). As such, this paper makes an attempt to fill a gap in Hausa morphosyntax.

4.0 Theoretical Framework

The theoretical framework employed in this study is Distributed Morphology Theory (DM) introduced by (Halle and Marantz, 1993) in which the central claim of the theory is that there is no divide between the formation of words and sentences. Thus, the approach challenges the traditional notion of the lexicon as the unit where individual word-meaning correspondences are stored, and there is no unified lexicon as in earlier generative treatment of the lexicon, rather is distributed among other components of the grammar. Thus, the “distributed” of DM deals with separation of properties that are collected in other theories in the lexicon (Harley and Noyer).

5.0 Methodology

This study adopts qualitative research method. Qualitative research term is a methodology that employs natural data, through descriptive and holistic means. The method of the data will not rely on surface information, rather it will be sensitive and flexible whereby it will match the social context in which it is produced along with emphasis on the holistic forms of analysis and explanations. The aim of this methodology is to find out what is actually happening in a particular phenomenon or interaction. It will also collect authentic qualitative data within the domains of natural setting, as its objectives by looking at the perspective of individual speakers in the process of investigating the natural occurrence.

Affixation as Morphosyntactic Interface component.

Affixation and therefore concatenation, is a standard operation of morphology, which in its self is sensitive to the phonological properties of the stem to which it is attaching (Brown, 2005). Furthermore, affixation as a morphological process, is the attachment of a formative to existing word. The affix which is attached to a word at the initial position is the prefix, while the one at the medial is the infix, and those at the end are the suffixes. The suffix that is used to form a new word is term as the derivational affix, whereas those used in inflection are called the inflectional affixes 

Prefix as Morphosyntactic interface Operation in Hausa

Hausa use some prefix types of derivation such as the ‘ba’ and ‘ma’ form, which Newman (2000) calls the Ma-Forms as exemplified below: 

Prefix Word stem Derived Noun  Meaning

Ba  Hausa  BahausheHausa man [ms] 

Qauye Ba qauyee     villager 

Kano  Bakanoo    Kano man [ms]    

Whereas in Ma derivational prefixes we have the following:

Prefix Word stem  Derived Noun Gloss

Maginaa   maginaa  builders

Haifa    mahaifa   parents

Saqa    masaqaa  textile

Saqa    masaqi  carpenter

In all the two prefixes forms (Ba and Ma) there is manifestation of morphosyntactic intereaction otherwise known as interface as, the attachment of the prefix to the stem brings about a new derived word thorough morphological process, that produce an entirely different grammatical category that are mostly noun items eg as inba ‘of’ + haushe = ‘of Hausa’ as → ‘Hausa man’ (an adjective) a different phenomenon describing a specific person as a native of Hausa Land, in bakano ‘of Kano’ meaning a ‘Kano man’ or from Kano. In the ‘Ma-Form’, the example of haifa ‘born’ to mahaifa ‘parents’ also brings about a change in grammatical class from verb (born) to noun (parents). All the categories in both the ‘Ba and Ma’ formations have their realization word class through manifestation from both morphology and syntax, eg in ma + haifaa we have prefix maat the initial position of the stem word haifa ‘born’ which is a verb derived to a noun. Thus, from the foregoing, it is evident that, morphological process is also syntax derive that, together produce another element within linguistic phenomenon.

Morphological and Syntactic Operations as Interfaces in Hausa

The operations in the morphosyntactic (ie morphological and syntactic) usually occur by fusing two or more morphemes into a single terminal node, in which they work where there is agreement between the participating morphemes prior to the fusing operation. Fusion as one of the morphological operations, is an operation used where merger is not adequate (Halle and Marantz, 1993). Therefore, in these types of interface operations there is realization of words fused into a complex element that yields a different entity ie terminal node Lawan (2025).

Prefix Root/word Derived formMeaning

 a) Ma+ ginii>magini‘builder;

b)Ma +tsooroo +cii >matsooracii‘coward’

c) Ma + sassaka + kii>masassakii‘carpenter’

From the above formations, in (a-c) theMa (one who) prefix represents the affix process of morphological derivation and syntactic application from the root ofginii ‘building’ a gerundial verb, tsooroo‘fear’ (noun), and sassaka‘shaving’(gerundialverb)’ into a determiner phrase (DP), where in (a) we have prefix ma + ginii ˃ maginii ‘carpenter of matsooraacii employing morphological process in producing a different conceptualization of ‘coward’ person (an adjective node). That is how it goes in the examplesmatsooracii from tsooroo- ‘fear’ (noun), magini (builder) from gini ‘building (a gerund verb), and masassaqii ‘carpenter’ from sassaqa‘surface cutting’ (gerund verb). It is pertinent to state here that, in the morphosyntactic operations of the Maprefix there is also a salient manifestation of a fused suffixation morphemes inmatsooracii and masassakii, where intsooroo we have the prefix Ma at the initial position and acii at final position that together fused ma + tsoor + acii into a configuration of matsooraciimeaning ‘coward’in place of tsooroo‘fear’ (a noun). While in masassakii we have the Ma also as prefix and qiiasmorpheme as a final position suffix morpheme fused into sassaqa. As such, from the foregone analysis, evident that, morphological and syntactic components interfaces exist in this operation in Hausa that confined together in agreement to some extent, cutting across morphological formations and productivity as a linguistic component.

Morphosyntactic Compound as Linguistic Interfaces in Hausa

Morphosyntactic as an interface between morphology and syntax, is a combination of the two units in linguistic process. The levels appear in either lexical form or at compounding level, where the compound may belong to one of the syntactic categories noun, adjective or adverb, and semanticallyas a unit (Ahmad, 1994). As exemplified in the following: 

 Root Words Compound Form Meaning  Word Class

a) bakan+gizobakan-gizo‘rainbow’ noun

b) yin + hannu yin-hannu ‘handmade’ adjective

c) tsakar +dare tsakar-dare ‘midnight adverb

Whereas some lexical formation appears at an adjective form employing suffix ncii, as in:

Root/WordDerived Compound MeaningWord Class

a)Zumuu + ncii zumuncii friendship adjective

b) Waawaa+ncii waawaanciisimpletion adjective

In another syntactic category which is verbal noun, we have suffix yayyaa fused with a stem as represented in the following:

Root/Word Derived Compound Meaning Word Class

a)  Ji + yayyaa jiyayyaa hearing Verbal noun

b)  So +yayyaasoyayyaa loving  Verbal noun  

Thus, from the above examples there is syntax and morphology interaction. Where in the first place, the derived new word after morphological process or operation produced a syntactic class of either verbal noun fusing. While in the second example the morphosyntactic interface is at the lexical level using morphological merger as in zumuutozumuncii‘friendship. 

The ban Compound as Morphosyntactic Interface in Hausa.

The ban compound word which denotes ‘giving of’ is said to be a product of baa ‘give’ from the basic form baa and nii ‘me’ which turns intoban ‘giving of’, where the two morphemes are merged to become one syntactic element, as in:

a)  Baa nifuska → ban fuska ‘welcoming/facial expression

b)  Baa nigirma → ban girma ‘give respect to’

c)  Baa ni Magana → ban magana ‘persuasion”

 The above is a depiction of the position of Gwammaja (2019).Thus, ba morpheme is used in the morphosyntactic application in two phases, one in the formation of ethnonym as in ba + zazage as bazazzage, a person from Zaria city or from Zaria’,bajamushe ‘a German person or from Germanyetc, while the ba form exemplified above, has different shift from that of ethnonym, as it is used as a compound component producing parallel categories of realizations i.eban girma ‘give respect’ ban fuska‘ welcoming/facial expression, and ban magana‘persuasion.

The xan compound as Morphosyntactic Interface in Hausa

This is another different formation from the ba and the ban morphemes. In the formation of dan it is a realization of either a person born out of his home town, ethnic group or state, and on the other hand it signifies a ‘person from’ or ‘native of’ in place of its traditional diminutive usage of ‘little’ as in:

a)  xaa + -n(naa) + kano → dankano ‘born in Kano city’

b)  xaa+ -n(naa) + Hausa → danhausa ‘son of Hausa’

c)  xaa + -(naa) + Hadejia → danhadejaa ‘native of Hadejia’

In the cited examples above, there are three phases of operations where in (a) dankano is a formation that produced a concept of somebody born in kano, who is nicknamed as such in his native place, meaning as a person who was born out of his town, so the configuration of the two morphemes daa + naa as a reduced form dan plus Kano produced dankano word class of ‘adjective’. In example (b) rhe same reduced form dan is employed plus hausa element to mean someone that is termed as Hausa native whereas he is not even a native of Africa, as found during colonial period (eggidandanhausa in Kano near Nassarawa GRA emir’s palace, and opposite Kashim Ibrahim Road, next to Works Department and Audu Bako Way), which was named after a British administrator who speaks fluently in Hausa), the compound word is formed through concatenation of three morphemes into one nodexaa + -(naa) + Hausa →danhausa also an adjective class. In example (c) danhadejaa is not showing diminutive form but, either as a native person or someone that lives in Hadejia as a nickname, or from Hadejia, in place of small/little diminutive form.

Overview

Galadanci (1976) identify some issues dealing with morphological operations in which an ideophone function as a qualifier of an action in which he exemplified the function oftafiyaa ‘walking’ with its corresponding ideophone function as qualifier such as lakakai-lakakai, buguzum-buguzum ‘awkwardly’, faram-faram ‘untidy’. However, he (Gladanci, 1976) also demonstrated the phenomenon of derivation as one of the morphological prcess employing gender and number realization from a common stem of a word through analysis from syntactic perspective, and demonstrated these using suffixes _uu _ uwaa and _aayee as in:

-  gunt + uu → guntuu ‘short’ [short]

-  gunt + uwaa → guntuwaa ‘short’ [fs]

-  gunt + aayee → guntaayee ‘short’ [plural]

Similarly, Bature (1991) looks into the morphosyntax-semantics connection (interface) in the representation of ‘thematic role’ (Th-role), focusing on what lexical meanings of a predicate are expressible in the syntax and how those Th-roles can be associated with syntactic arguments. On this note, various researchers distinguish between Predicate Argument Structure (PAS), which expresses the syntactic relations of arguments to their predicate, and the lexical conceptual structure which includes the semantic relations arguments bear their predicates.

Furthermore, Ahmad (1994) observed that, proponents of the syntactic view and those of the morphological view in which, the group feels convinced that compounding represents an interface between syntax and morphology. As a result, there are properties of compounding that are purely syntactic and others that are purely morphological. Thus, this instance that best testify the above is synthetic compounding such as ‘track driver’, where the head driverism derived by the suffix –er to the verb drive, while truck is the argument of that verb, thus portraying a synthetic relationship. On the other hand, with the function of truck driver as a word, there is portrayal of a morphological phenomenon. As such, to attribute the compound to either morphology or syntax alone would be inappropriate. Therefore, an interface between the two is more inclined.

Moreover, Newman (2000) provides rich literature that looks into the Ma – forms and compounds which contains some phonological, morphological and syntactic operations that produce complex words, and also depicts almost every facet of Hausa language and linguistics. He (Newman,2000) touches on some phonological, morphological and syntactic operations that merge, or fuse two or more morphemes into a VI, and the operations did work where there is agreement among the participating morphemes before the merge, with analysis which results in complex words that become a cluster in what he calls the Ma-Formation, that yield complex structures: masassakii, ‘carpenter’ matsooracii ‘coward’, maginii ‘builder, whereas in frozen or fused compounds there are structures of abinci ‘food’, danuwaa (da na) ‘brother’ ban (bani) ‘give’.

However, Abubakar (2001) discuses all the operations in Hausa words (Gwammaja, 2019), which starts with morphology as a discipline narrowing down to all processes under inflectional and lexical operations, that branched into derivation and compounding, and further divide the deviation process into affixal and non-affixal each producing class maintaining and class – changing words as their end products. and presents analysis by identifying the stem of a word, the operation concerned and appropriate affix before the derived or inflected form as in:

Stem Derived word Gloss prefix

 Kano Bakano  Kano man ba

Jamus Bajamushee German ee

 Ji Jiyayyaa hearing (verbal noun) yayyaa

6.0 Conclusion

Looking at the interfaces of the language concern ie Hausa shows that interface in linguistics should be given a close attention in morphophonological and morphosyntactic form of investigation as an entity phenomenon., there avail many issues that need to be studied in the course of the work, such as conceptualization as semantic component, and tone pattern as phonological component in an interface, As observed in the paper, interface in linguistics is conditioned and strongly influenced by major linguistic units (ie phonology, semantics syntax and morphology). As such, the nature of the study is however. Expected to come up with linguistic explanations, which may include; the process of:

 -affixation of ie prefix, infix and suffixes, that undergo the application of tone, vowel length as phonological realizations.

-  The structural patterns as syntactic categories in the interface (noun, adjective and adverb)

-  the morphological processes of derivations and compounding to form new and complex words at the interface level

-  understanding of meaning via conceptualization in the interface.

As a final point, the linguistic interfaces in Hausa are confined within those morphological operations or processes. They have similar structure and identity, in fact the interface is found to be before and after the processes of derivations, affixations and sounds (ie tone and vowel length). Thus, the study established that linguistic interface exists in Hausa language morphological operations, and that the major linguistic units become part of the interface, and signifies rich data in stock for future investigation in each one of the components. Lastly, the interface very much employed among the Hausa speakers which becomes a means of forging communication via conceptual mapping in interactions or discourse, and that the interface contributed so much in the development of the language in the formations of new words through derivation and compounding. 

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