CHAPTER THREE INFLECTIONAL AFFIXES IN OKPE LANGUAGE 3.

0 INTRODUCTION Morphology as stated earlier is divided into two main parts which are: inflection and derivation. This chapter shall discuss the inflectional aspect of morphology as a process of affixation, while derivational affixes will be treat ed in the next chapter under derivational morphology alongside the other word fo rmation processes. This chapter shall study the inflection of Okpe language in t erms of numbers, person and tense. 3.1 Inflection In order to understand the concept of inflection, we must know that infl ectional morphemes are bound morphemes which cannot occur independently, but mus t be attached to a stem. We must also distinguish between word form and root. A word can have two or more phonological form for instance in English, the word walk can take the following forms: walking, walked and walks. We must note that the addi tion of a bound morpheme to a root does not change the word or its class rather it gives it an additional meaning. Therefore a root which can also be called a f ree morpheme can be said to be a lexical unit which carries the basic lexical me aning of the word (Aziza 2007: 291). The root is the independent part of a word which can stand on its own wi thout any attachment to it. From the above example given for word, the form walk i s the root. Lyons. (1977:521) says inflection produces from the stem(s) of a given le xeme all the word forms of that lexeme, which occur in syntactically determined environment. What he means is that, words could manifest themselves in different forms. Inflection in other words can be said to be the variation that words unde rgo to indicate their relations with other words. These changes mark such disti nction as: tense, person, number, gender, mood, voice and case. In this study we shall dwell on the first three categories of inflection . They are affixed elements that either come before or after the stem word. 3.1.1. Number

The most common manifestations of the category of number are singular and plural. The number prefix is attached to a nominal stem to produce different forms of a given lexeme, which distinguishes b etween singular and plural number. Number can be found in many languages of the world. This distinction clearly rests upon, the recognition of persons, animals , object which can be enumerated as one or more than one. kp nouns are inflected for number which are also made up of singular and p lural, but unlike in English where s is added as a suffix to form a plural noun, kp forms its plural through replacement i.e. it replaces the first sound of a word. However the sound to be replaced depends on the first sound of the singular for m. The kp plural marker consists of e and i. Before we go into analysing data, we mus first note that Okp every noun begin with a vowel. Based on the fact given above , we shall analyse our data in an orderly manner (i.e, a e i o u). Below are examples of inflected nouns to form plurals. Table 1: Prefix vowel a (singular) e (plural) nouns Singular Meaning Plural Meaning fitn rabbit fitn rabbits tan chewing stick tan chewing sticks fen bird fen birds From the above we can state that where a noun in Okp starts with a it takes i as the plural the plural mark. Table 2: Initial vowel e (singular) i (plural) nouns

Singular kpt box t pig b sack

Meaning kpt t b

Plural Meaning boxes pigs sacks

When a noun in Okp starts with e as seen from the above, it compulsorily take the plural marker i. Table 3: Initial vowel (singular) Singular Meaning Plural Meaning vb goat vb goats vbr colanut vbr colanut kpa bag kpa bags (plural) nouns

When a noun in Okp starts with in the singular, the plural form remain unchanged a s seen from the above example. Table 4: Initial vowel i (singular) i (plural) nouns. Singular Meaning Plural Meaning dm youth dm youths mdj table mdj table tor contribution tor contribution When a noun in Okp starts with i in the singular, the plural form remain unchanged as seen from the above example. Table 5: Initial vowel o (singular) e (plural) nouns Singular Meaning Plural Meaning rhan wood rhan woods wn clothe wn clothes ghu leg ghu legs tr land tr lands When a noun in Okp starts with o as seen from the above, it take the plural m arker e. Table 6 : Initial vowel (singular) e (plural) nouns Singular Meaning Plural Meaning kwrhr man kwrhr men l yam l yams gbt lady gbt ladies mas woman mes women

When a noun in Okp starts with as seen from the above, it take the plural marker e. Table 7: Initial vowel u (singular) i (plural) nouns Singular Meaning Plural Meaning kkoda coconuts kkoda coconuts ko cup ko cups sphr key isphr keys dn grasscutter dn grasscutters When a noun in Okp starts with u as seen from the above, it takes the plural marker i Table 8: Okp Uncountable Nouns remain the same Singular Meaning Plural Meaning phr wind phr wind m water m water rsn rice rsn rice so rain so rain fgb palm oil fgbo palm oil From the data presented above, Okp plural formation shows some regular pa tterns which have been discovered. Okp has seven oral vowels which include: a e i o u. The plural form of a word depends on its initial vowel.

Careful observation shows that, where the initial vowel is a, o or it takes the pl ural marker e, and where the initial vowel is e or u, it takes the plural marker i. words with initial vowel or i remain unchanged in their plural form as exemplified i n Table 3 & Table 4 above. The above observation can be said to be a theory. We must note that all uncountable nouns will also remain unchanged as is common to other languages. 3.1.2. Person This is a grammatical term that refers to personal pronouns. Lyon (1968:27 6) states that the category of person is clearly definable with reference to the notion of participant role. Further, he says that the first person is used by the s peaker to refer to himself as a subject of discourse; the second person is used to refer to the hearer while the third person is used to refer to persons or things other than the speaker and the hearer. These three grammatical persons can be re presented thus: 1st person, 2nd person and 3rd person. Below are examples of how Okpe language accounts for person. Table 5: pronoun markers in Okpe Person Singular subject Plural subject Singular object Plural object 1st meme , me , mi I am, I ame we me me ame us 2nd wewe , wu you are, you are you w ,wn you are you 3rd ,o he/she it aye they yi, ye him/her Aye them Examples of usage abound below. Subject pronouns 1. (a) me na t ye 1st Singular subject Gloss: I will say it. (b) am s 1st plural subject Gloss: We are coming (c) wu na nyan? 2nd singular subject Gloss: will you go? (d) are z 2nd p lural subject Gloss: you are running (e) grin 3rd singular subject Gloss: he vomited (c) aye rie mr 3rd plural subje ct Object Pronouns 2. (a). dirin s m me Gloss: Edirin served me water. (b) kk yere ame Gloss : Okoko gave us (c) Me tn wen ral object Gloss: I told you (d). yere are 1st singular object 1stplural object 2nd plu 2nd plural objec

t Gloss: he gave you (e). omo na n ya ye 3rd singular object Gloss: The child will write it (f). y mrm y 3rd plur al object Gloss: Go and greet them Other notable facts about the third person pronouns are that, there are several other ways 3rd person singular object can be represented. The sounds written in bold print, mark the 3rd person while the other part is the root word. Examples are shown below: 3.a. dmie (b). je yi try it open it (c). Rhrhien (d). kpolie Drop it drag it (e). Kpari carry it The above data show how Okp mark persons and how different it can be if compared to any other language. For instance where English uses the morpheme you to express the 2nd person singular and plural, Okpe uses wu and re to express the 2nd person p ronoun. We must note that the part of a word in bold print is where our emphasis lies. The other ways through which Okpe can mark the 3rd person singular object , further distinguishes it from other languages. 3.1.3 TENSE The category of tense has to do with time relations in so far as these a re expressed by systematic grammatical contrasts (Lyon, 1968:304). Tense express es the difference between past time and present time as well as the future time. The essential characteristic of tense is that, it relates the time of the actio n, event or state of affairs referred to in the sentence to the time of utteranc e. Okp forms past tense by attaching suffixes such as: ri, ru, ro and re to th e base of a verb in the present tense to form past tense.

Table 6: Past Tense marker STEM SUFFIX DERIVED FORM rh sell sold z run ran r do did mrn see saw t tell Re told S steal stole hu die Ru died

re re ru

rhr zre ruru re mre

tare Ri huru sri

s sing sang

ro

Soro

The past tense form can be used in the following examples: 4.a. Present Tense: Ediri z Gloss: Ediri is running b. 5.a. b. 6.a. b. a. b. Past Tence: zre Gloss: Ediri ran Present Tense: n hu o Gloss: He will die Past tense: hr rhike na Gloss: He died this morning Present Tense: m n t wen Gloss: I will tell you Past tense: me tare Gloss: I said it Present tense: kk n s m Gloss: Okoko he will sing me Past tense: soro Gloss: she sang

We have seen from the above, how the past tense is formed in the languag e. The past tense markers are written in bold letters. Haven discussed in detail inflection in Okp language, we must note that there are other inflectional categories such as gender and case which are which are not found in the language.

CHAPTER FOUR DERIVATIONAL MORPHORLOGY IN OKPE LANGUAGE 4.0 INTRODUCTION In this chapter, I shall discuss some essential processes involved in th e creation of new words. Languages of the world tend to be economical with the u se of words. Instead of using different words to express different ideas, they create new words from existing ones. Though Okp language does not employ all the processes, I shall examine the ones relevant to the language. Below are examples of processes to be discussed. 1. Derivationl affixes 2. Compounding 3. Reduplication 4. Borrowing 5. Coinage 4.1 Derivational Affixes This section will dwell on derivational affixes since the inflected for m has been dealt with in the previous chapter. Derivational affixes changes th e lexical category a word belong to when is added to a stem. a) Prefix b) Interffix 4.1.1 Prefixation: A prefix is an affix that occurs before the base word. Example in Okpe i

s shown below. Prefix e, e, o and u + stem = Derived word class Table 7: Okpe prefixed words. Prefix Stem Lexical Category Derived Word Derived word class E siy sit verb siy to sit noun E gbon smell verb gbon to smell noun E trh burn verb to burn noun E che laugh verb to laugh noun tn dig verb tn to dig noun l grind to grind noun O ku flood verb oku to flood noun Prefix Root Word Class Derived word Derived word Class o lo shine shinning adjective u yono teach verb uyn lesson noun U koko gather gathering/ association noun

etorh che

verb

verb

lo

verb

kko

From the above, it is observed that the addition of prefix vowels such as e, e, o and u to a root word (verb) gives it further meaning and also changing its word class from a verb to a noun. Table 8: Prefix ob(o) Location + Noun = Adverb Prefix Root Word Class Derived Word Derived word class obo taf Outside noun botf outside adverb Obo tre down/ground noun btre down/below obo rn top noun brnat the top adverb The above example is another type of preffixation that attaches the loca tion marker obo to stem (Noun) thereby changing its word class to an adverb. Another type of prefix is such that the prefix is more than a vowel, but cannot stand independently and meaningless on its own. Example can be seen belo w: Root word + prefix 8. gwe + mes = gwms women group of married women 4.1.2 Interfixation An interfix is an affix which occurs between two identical roots to inte

adv

rrupt the sequence of the two root words. Okpe uses -ghu-, -n-, -dj-, -y- to form the interffixation, examples of these can be found in the table below: Table 9: root + - ghu -, -y-, -dj- or n- + root ROOT WORD INTERFIX DERIVED FORM m child

-ghu- omoghuomo child pass child wn person owanghuowan person pass person be medicine beghub medicine pass medicine f wealth feghuef wealth pass wealth m child -ymym child is child wn person -djwodjwan one should tell the other r let us do -nrunru let us prepare to begin From the above examples it is shown, that interfix is used for different purposes, one of which is comparison as seen with -ghu- between things, persons, situations, events, etc. Reduplication This is a morphological process that copies a part or whole of a stem an d attaches it to the stem in other to achieve a double articulation. There are t wo kinds of reduplication. They are: partial and complete reduplication. 4.2.1 Complete Reduplication 9.a. ede kdkd day everyday b. mru kemrukemru thing anything/everything c. son ksonkson night everynight 4.2.2. Partial Reduplication 1o.a. erhomo rherhm prayer prayerful b. km kakamn small very small c. gbhn gbgbhn strong very strong d. re orir food heavy eater e. vi vivi cry always crying The above are examples of reduplicated words in the language under study . Note that in example 9. above, k is added as a prefix to a root, before it can 4.2

be reduplicated. For instance, a root word such as ason night will take the prefix k before it can be reduplicated to form kasonkason every night. We must also note the change in word class. For complete reduplication, the root changes from a no un to an adverb while in partial reduplication, the root changes from a noun to an adjective, with the exception of vi cry which is a verb. Reduplication as shown in example 10.b. above, can be used to show intensity. 4.3 Borrowing This is the most common process of word formation. It is the process of taking words from one or more languages (donor) to fit into the vocabulary of an other language (recipient). Since no language is free from borrowing, Languages depend on one another to account for the phenomenon that is not found within its vocabulary. Table10: Borrowed Words in Okpe Donor(English) Recipient(Okp) Meaning pot pt pot motor mt motor school skr school table tbr table teacher tisha teacher church shshi church Table 11: Donor (Portuguese) Recipient (Okp) Meaning sabato sbt shoe shimi shm singlet Donor (Hausa) Recipient (Okp) Meaning Suya suy roasted cow meat Donor (Igbo) Recipient (Okp) Meaning jime jime twin Donor (Yoruba) Recipient (Okp) olongbo lgb cat koroba krb bucket Meaning

We must note that Okpe nouns does not start with a consonant, where the borrowed word has a consonant in the initial position, a the vowel i is introduced to take the initial position. The examples above of borrowing show that Okp language is not exempted from the a ct borrowing. No language can be large enough to account for every phenomenon fo und in the world, ranging from science and technology to politics, economy, cult ure and religion. 4.4 Coinages: Coinage arises from the need to indigenize a foreign word into the vocab ulary of the recipient language. In other words coining of new words are based o n their function and distribution in the donor language. Table 11: Word Coinage Meaning television kptiughe box for viewing vehicle wtr boat on land airplane wrn boat in the sky clock nk something used for checking time radio kptagbro echoing for box match box oghuerhare container of fire shoe ephiagwe lather for the leg From the above, we can see that Okp forms new words that were originally not in existence simply by first borrowing the words from another language and g iving them new names in the local language based on the function they perform.

4.5

Compounding: This is said to be another vital word formation process, that forms new words by merging two or more independent words together to form a single word. I ts formation could be through the combination of Noun + Noun, Noun + Adjective, Verb + Noun etc. Compounds may show activities or could serve a descriptive purp ose. Compound of Description 4.5.1 Noun + Noun Compound New words can be formed in Okpe by merging two independent nouns together. This means that the meaning of the derived noun is gotten through a combination of th e meaning of the component nouns. This is the largest sub-grouping of compounds in which the majority of compound in this class is endocentric. Noun compounds i n this class are very productive. Noun + Noun compound 17.a. Idama + amwan = dmmun Youth town = community youth b. t + gbto = otugbto group girl group of girls c. zd + ikebi = izdkb road farm farm road d. ko + me = kam cup water cup of water e. aghu + orhn = aghuorhan leg wood root 4.5.2 Noun + Adjective compound This type of compound is also common. A noun is combined with an adjective to fo rm a compound which is endocentric in nature (i.e. The meaning of the compound can be inferred from the combined words). Examples of noun + adjective compounds in Okpe are given below. 18.a. m + kkm = omkkm child small small child b. owen + fuafun = wfufn cloth white white cloth c. enyon + gbogbahon = nyogbogbhon drink strong strong drink Compounding denoting activities 4.5.3 Noun + verb compound It is formed by merging a noun and a verb together. Though there are evidences of this sub-group of compound in Okpe, they are not really productive. Examples can be seen below: 19.a ame + eda = ameeda water + drinking = drinking water b. f + gulo = fgul wealth search search for wealth c. zd + gben = izdgbn road to clean clean road d. ghua + fen = oghufn house bird nest e. fi + gh = figh spray money spray money Okuorho + oduado = kuorhduado person big a big person Compound as seen, occurs in different ways in Okpe language. Such uses include d escription, which is usually shown by the combination of nouns and adjectives. W hen verbs are combined with nouns they show the compounding of activities. Compo unding is very productive and abounds in large quantity in Okpe language. CHAPTER FIVE SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION

5.0 SUMMARY This chapter discusses the findings of this research. In chapter one, the histor y of the Okpe people and the sound system was discussed. It was established that Okpe employs seven vowels and thirty consonant phonemes. Its syllable structure include: V, CV and CCV. Okpe operates two basic tones which are high and low pl us down stepped high tone. Chapter two reviewed literatures on concepts relating to morphological processes . Chapter three discusses inflectional morphology in Okp language where outstanding findings were made. It was established that Okp has a regular pattern of forming plural morpheme. The observation of this patterns show that, where the first so und of a word in the singular is a, o or the plural morpheme will be e and where a w ord starts with the sound e or u it takes the plural marker i while the remaining tw o vowel sounds and i do not have a plural form. It was also established that Okp uses several morphemes to express the category o f persons for example the 1st person singular subject could take the form mm, me or m i (I). Also for the 2nd person singular subject we have ww (you are) and wu(you), wi all other features used in expressing person, Okp morphology outstanding not leav ing out the use of tense and aspects in its uniqueness. The study of Okpe infle ction reveals that gender and case are not used in Okp language. Chapter four discusses the process of word formation in Okp language. Such proces ses which are relevant to the language are: Affixation, reduplication, compounding, borrowing and coinages. Okp form prefixes my attaching vowels such: a e e i o o, to the front of a word to derived another word while suffixes in this language are formed by ad ding bound morphemes such as ro, ri, re, etc to the end of the host word suffixe s in Okpe are class maintaining. Interfix are formed by inserting the morphemes ghu-,, -n-, dj- .etc. into a word to give it an additional meaning. The process of reduplication as discussed can either be partial or complete. O ne fascinating feature of Okpe reduplicated words in certain cases is the introd uction of a phoneme as a prefix and also duplicating it at the middle before fin ally reduplicating the whole word. For instance as mentioned earlier, son means n ight, the phoneme [k] is prefixed to it before reduplicating it to form Kasonkaso n(every night). In compounding, noun + noun compound is the most productive of all and is usuall y used to express possession. Most of the compounds that occur in Okp combine the noun with any other lexical category such as: verb + noun, noun + Adjectives, e tc. Verb compound are the result of a combination of verb + noun to form a compo und which depicts an activity taking place. The process of borrowing have shown that Okpe is not an Island of its own which makes it dependent on other languages to express the term it does not have in it s vocabulary. Coinages, as earlier emphasized is finding a word in a language to express a phenomenon which was originally not there at some point in time. Such words abo und in the language as we have seen from the data presented in chapter four. The previous chapters have been able to discuss at length the processes involved in the morphology of Okpe, looking at it from two major perspective which are: the inflectional and derivational perspective. 5.1 RECOMMENDATIONS Having considered the implications of the findings of this research, it becomes important to make the following suggestions that will hopefully enhance the lear ning of this language. With regards to the problems encountered by the researcher in sourcing materials on the morphological processes of this language, it will be worthwhile to sugge st that the native speakers of this language should contribute to the promotion and development of the language to enhance further studies. Furthermore, the teaching and learning of this language in schools should be cle arly spelt out, to enable the learners overcome the negative attitude of transfe

rring elements found in another language (Pidgin) into the Okp language. I would also recommend that government should go beyond formulating language pol icies and start to ensure the implementation of these policies through sanctions and by sending inspectors to government schools to ensure the enforcement of th e decree as stated in the Nigerian Policy on Education. Lastly the burden of language planning and development should not be left only f or the government to shoulder alone, but influential individuals should also sup port by making available funds and incentives to motivate the indigenous people of Okp, to learn and use the language effectively. Such incentives might include the sponsorship of scholarship programmes offered to students who will undertak e linguistic study of the language at the tertiary level. 5.2 Conclusion Thus far, attempts have been made in this work to establish the different morpho logical processes found to be present in the Okp language. It is hoped that a pioneering work of this nature will spur further linguistic r esearch in the Okpe language.