Word formation: the Description of the Nyakyusa Derivation and Inflection
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Date
2016-11
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Publisher
Center for Promoting Ideas, USA
Abstract
This paper describes Nyakyusa, by examining the extent to which affixation is attested and making a distinction
between inflection and derivation. Studies show that the distinction between them is not clear. There is a blurred
distinction between derivation and inflection based on the morphology of the noun. The noun class prefixes are
inflectional since they mark person and number contrast and the same prefixes are derivational since they derive
new nouns with various degrees of semantic relationship to the original noun. Therefore, it seems to be difficult to
draw a clear demarcation between derivational and inflectional affixes based on the morphology of noun in
Nyakyusa. However, based on the morphology of the verb, several affixes can be analyzed as inflectional while
others are derivational. The pre-root and some post-root affixes of the verb are inflectional since they mark
tense/aspect and polarity while most post-root affixes in slot 7 are derivational.
Description
International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 2016: 3 (5)
Keywords
Nyakyusa, Derivation, Inflection, Noun Morphology, Verb Morphology