THE SEMANTICS OF COMPOUNDING IN ENGLISH AND TIV LANGUAGES
Published: March, 2020
Author(s):
Chahur A. A. & Vanessa Chivir Adzer
About Author(s):
Department of English,
Hill College of Education, Gwanje – Akwanga
Department of Languages and Linguistics,
Benue State University, Makurdi
Abstract
This research examines the semantic aspect of morphological compounding in the English and Tiv languages. The choice of the two languages is motivated by the fact that research works in word formation generally, and compounding particularly, in Tiv language have not taken this dimension. And with adequate studies of this nature in thenglish language, what is or not obtainable in the Tiv language can be discovered through a comparative method of analysis. The study is designed on a survey method, with both primary and secondary sources of information. The study finds out that a number of these compounds in both English and Tiv languages have heads referring to the categorical elements that have the basic meanings of certain compounds. Again, the English language, just like the Tiv language, is still identified with a number of compounds described as exocentric. These are compounds that are realised holistically without necessarily regarding any of the components as a head. But copulative compounds are discovered to be rich in English, but skeletal in the Tiv. It is concluded that the comparative analysis could help, to a great extent, in solving the problems usually associated with learning a foreign language. Therefore, learners of English, and especially from the Tiv community of speakers, can benefit richly from the research work which is shown to have phenomena contribution to this area of linguistic study.
Keywords: compounding, copulative, endocentric, exocentric, languages, semantics.
