Kingdom of Mankon: Aspects of History, Language, Culture, Flora and Fauna

Chapter Five: Morphology

 155 Chapter Five Morphology 5.1. The notion of morphology Morphology in biology is the scientific ‘study of forms’ of plants and animals (matter). Nevertheless, in linguistics, it is the analysis of language elements. In our earlier analysis, we examined the phonological (sound) level of language investigation. At the morphological level, our analysis is based on ‘words and phrases’ that make up a sentence. We shall call this the ‘intermediate level’ of analysis of these ‘elements’. The elements investigated at this level are called m morphemes. A morpheme is a ‘minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function’. When a nominal prefix morpheme (bound for the most part) is removed from the stem/root/base, the latter is also bound (i.e. has no meaning). We can call this a ‘bound stem/root/base’ (see Yule 1985:61). However, with derived nouns, the nominal prefix is bound whereas the root/stem/base is free. Mankon has a few cases of free nominal prefixes (cf 3.5.1). These notions and more will be explained in the course of this chapter. 5.1.1. Derivational morpheme: This morpheme is used through the process of derivation to create new words that have a grammatical function different from the stem/root. Kingdom of Mankon  156 5.1.2. Inflectional morpheme / d declension: This type does not create new words but is used to indicate aspects of grammatical function, that is, whether the word is plural, singular, past tense or not, comparative form, passive form, concord or gerund. 5.1.3. Free morpheme: A free morpheme is one that can stand on its own as a word. Examples are [n ndâ] (house), [y yí ] (come!), etc 5.1.4. Bound morpheme: This morpheme cannot stand on its own as a word. Therefore, it is attached to a root/stem/base. A bound morpheme is naturally an a affix (cf a affixation in 5.1.7 below). Examples of bound morphemes in Mankon are prefixes: : à-, n/ -, -, b -, m-, m - and suffixes: - , -n , -n , etc. (See suffixes later at 5.6; Table 20). 53. [k kwá an ] (tempt) + [a a-] = [à àkwa an ] (temptation). [ kyì(-İ)] (water + ø (plur.) = [ kyì(-İ)] = (uncountable N.) [ kyì(-İ)] (stream / river / pool / lake /ocean ) + [m m -] = [m m kyi(-İ)] i.e. (various streams / rivers / pools / lakes / oceans). [à àtsİ İ] (piece of cloth) +[ -] = [ tsİ İ] (clothes). [ kùm( )](noble) + [b b -] = [b b kum( )] (nobles). [n ndʫr ( )](garland) = [m m -] = [m m ndʫr ( )] (garlands). [m mà k ( i)] (past marker) ge a a m mut (a a) -zô] (I went to the market yesterday.) Morphology  157 In rapid speech rendition, the prepositional marker (a a) above could be elided. Nevertheless, in deep structural analysis, it must be there. [m mbá n t nda ka (a)1 be yi wò]. (A man without a house / compound is nobody). Again, in the example above, the personal pronoun marker (a a) can be elliptical (though not its tone) without impairing intelligibility in rapid rendition. In all the examples above, we can easily discern that Mankon nominal prefixes safe [t t -] and [m mâ-] are all bound morphemes. 5.1.5. Lexical Morpheme: A free morpheme is an example of a lexical morpheme. 5.1.6. Functional morpheme: This is a functional word in a language. Examples are conjunctions, adjuncts, prepositions, articles and pronouns. Mankon:(a) [a a]. This is a functor serving as (i) a preposition and (ii) a pronoun for humans and some nonhumans (cf 7.3.). 54. (b) [ ] is (i) a pronoun for non-humans and some humans (cf 7.3.). (c) [b bô, bʫ ʫ] (and) Kingdom of Mankon  158 (d) [l lá] (but) (e) [m mú] (in) (f) [m mb ke] (because) (g) [t tám( )] (loan = time) (h) [m mpfú za (m mba a), óm wa (m mba a)] (when) (i) [z z ] (which) (j) [n n ] (with) (k) [w wá], [z zá] (relative pronoun) (l) [w wú] (indefinite article reference) (m) [w wá] (definite article reference) 5.1.7. Affixation: This is a derivational process of forming new grammatical words by: (a) p prefixing (b) i infixing (c) s suffixing  Infixation exists in other languages but not in Mankon and English. 55. Ká b n- (d)zʫ ʫ yi a fʫ Not they (morphophon) rub/smear themselves (obj. pron.) king/chief deriv.morph. funct.morph. funct.morph. lex.morph. funct.morph. funct.morph. lexicalmorph. n- (d)zİgh m- bo a ye. (morphophon) wipe...