A Contrastive Analysis of Tiv and English Pluralization Processes
CHAPTER ONE
Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to comparatively analyse the pluralisation process in Tiv and English languages. The analysis intends to look at the morpho-syntactic plural processes such as tonality, mutation, voicing, additives, replacive and inflectional patterns etc. This is both a comparative and descriptive work of the two languages aimed at discovering their levels of morpho-syntactic relativity.
The research, however, hopes to achieve the following objectives:
- To ascertain if morphological realization exist in Tiv as inEnglish
- To highlight the areas of similarities or dissimilarities in the morpho-syntactic pluralisation process in the two
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter basically discusses the efforts of other scholars on pluralisation with a view to looking at both the topical and authorial aspects of pluralisation. The chapter also handles the theoretical framework of the research which hinges on the Optimality Theory. It is this theory that is used in the analysis of the research.
Morphology, according to Matthews (1991:9) is the “the branch of grammar that deals with the internal structure of words.” This is to say that while morphology deals with the structure of words, syntax deals with the structure of sentences. This conforms to the position of Syal and Jindal (2008:77) who state that “the traditional linguistic theories, grammatical description largely operates on two important units: the word and the sentence.” They go ahead to look at morpheme as a short segment of language that meets three criteria as follows:It is a word or part of a word that has meaning, it cannot be divided smaller meaningful parts without violation of its meaning or without meaningless remainders and it recurs in differing verbal environments with a relatively stable meaning. The concern in this research is to look at morphology as it affects pluralisation and not any other class of words. Specifically, this work belongs to the inflectional morphology in order to investigate plural formation in the two languages of Tiv and English but with more focus on Tiv.
Several writers over the years such as Yina (2009), Torkor (2009), Waya (2012), Jija (2012) and others have discussed pluralisation in Tiv language as well as the processes. Yina (2009) in an article entitled “Radical Particles and Inflectional Processes in Tiv Morphology” notes that Tiv language is inflectionary. However, like English the inflectional affixes defy any descriptive pattern of regularity or consistency. He notes that the plural exponent in Tiv is realized by series of prefixations, vocalic transformations, additives, replacements and tonal inflections. This process, according to Yina, involves arbitrary fusion of morphemic segments with each other and with the lexical stem. The morphemes, he stresses, are added to the lexical stems but these added elements are fused with stems and have neither independence nor meanings on their own. This process according to him is quite complex and vexatious. He cites examples of nouns which he notes inflect by prefixing additive elements to the stem. These additive affixes include: i, u, a, m, mba, or tonal inflections, which are both singular and plural markers. Yina employs the combinatorial principle which includes all significant particles that contrast in shapes, functions and meanings recognized by the language user. This principle embraces the entire gamut of affixations; replacives, reduplications, vowel modifications and tonality.
In a related discussion, Torkor (2009) writes on Forms and Functions of Tiv Pronouns. He stresses that Tiv language pronouns do not only change their forms, but also perform distinct lexical functions, which are at variance with those of the English language. He notes that pronouns in Tiv language appear to be the same with those of the English language on the basis of type and form, but differ in terms of function. He adopted the foundation theory which considers word formation processes in Tiv language as essentially intuitive endeavour where morphemes acting as pronouns can also function as lexical words.
Waya (2012) studied the morphology of the Tiv language, focusing on inflectional morphemes with much emphasis on the plural/possessive and past-tense markers in Tiv language. He contrasted Tiv with English language and established their differences and similarities. He notes that the major types of formation are phonological and morphological conditions, while English is represented by suffix environment of word ending in voiceless segments, voiced and vibilant/affricate/vocalic respectively, where morphological conditions are irregular in pattern.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
Methodology of research is very essential to the success of any research work. It is sometimes referred to as research procedure and in the words of Osuala (1982:32) “the procedure section is perhaps the crux of the research report”. This is because it is the basis for the result of the research. This chapter looks at the validity and reliability of this research based on the type of method adopted. The chapter considers and establishes some methods used in gathering information for the research such as source of data collection, method of data collection and textual analysis which are inspiration to determining findings and conclusion of this research.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Introduction
In this chapter the researcher applies the methodology and analytical model stated in Chapter Three to the data of the research. This will help to answer the research questions and confirm the finding of the research which will definitely prove the reliability and validity of the research questions or otherwise. The chapter is to also ascertain what constitutes pluralisation and whether or not there are areas of similarities and dissimilarities between the pluralisation processes in Tiv and English languages in the analysis of the data. The data obtained shall be subjected to analysis under the morpho-syntactic processes of inflection, mutation, tonality, zero allomorphs etc. This is to conform with the theoretical framework (Optimality Theory)adopted for the work.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, FINDINGS,RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION
Summary
Language represents culture and development and any nation that wants to develop must take the study of language seriously. The researcher has in this piece done a contrastive study of Tiv language, which is one of the many languages in Nigeria and the study of English which is an international language. This is with a view to looking at the universality of languages and the similarity of the roles and purposes of all languages of the world.
The study opens with background to the study with language description and a brief historical introduction to Tiv language and its speakers. This is closely followed by the review of related literature of Tiv and English languages as it affects pluralisation. The analysis of data was done. Then, the summary, findings as discovered by the researcher in the course of this work. These were put to test and analyzed with significant result.
Findings
This study finds out the working of pluralisation in Tiv and English languages and attempts to answer the research questions of the work. The study shows that the idea of pluralisation in both Tiv and English languages is similar: Singular means one item or entity while plural means more than one item or entity. It is an issue of number in both languages.
The rules governing the formation of pluralisation in the two languages have been discussed and analyzed. In Tiv there are rules like inflection at the initial position of singular nouns to form plurals as against the inflections at the final positions of
singular nouns in English for the same purpose among other rules. The researcher also looked at other similarities and the differences that exist in forming pluralisation in the two languages. It was discovered that there exist irregular pluralisation in Tiv Language just as it is applicable in English among other things.
Recommendation for Further Study
In undergoing this research work the researcher was exposed to a lot of inadequacies in the area which need to be rectified. The researcher therefore recommends as follows:
- This study reveals that Tiv pluralisation can conveniently and carefully be divided into regular and irregular. So, further study on Tiv pluralisation should look more specifically into this aspect of Tiv language to widen the scope of research on the language.
- That Benue State Government should re-introduce the study of Tiv language in all primary and secondary schools in the Tiv-speaking area of the state including private nursery, primary and secondary
- Tiv Language should be made one of the subjects in Senior School Certificate Examinations in both West African Examination Council and National Examination Council to encourage the study of the
- A committee to be membered by writers of Tiv language should be set up to recommend good books for study to avoid mediocrity.The committee should also try to develop standard orthography for the Tiv language as there is no central orthography for the language. This is an ugly situation as lack of standard makes it very difficult to enhance the study of the
- Benue state University should be encouraged to introduce the study of Tiv language at degree level as it being done by the University of Uyo where Efik/Ibibio languages are studied at the degree level to compliment the effort of College of Education, Katsina-Ala where the study of Tiv language is
Conclusion
In conclusion, this research has revealed that Tiv language as any other language is worthy of study or attention as the research has dealt with the morphological processes and structures involved in the realization of Tiv and English pluralisation including additive, replacive, mutation, the zero allomorph, tonality and other morphological ways of forming plurals includingregular and irregular plural formations. The research has revealed that there are similarities and differences between Tiv and English pluralisation that constitute pluralisation in the two languages.
The work also dealt with how plurals can be formed from pronouns in in Tiv and English Languages as shown in the following table:
Singular Pronoun Pluarl Pronoun
Mo/me/m (I) se (we)
We (you) ne (you)
Un/ngu (he/she) ve/mba (they)
Ki/ngyi/ngu (It) nga/ma/mba(they)
The work has shown the relationship between Tiv and English languages. The research discusses pluralisation making use of books, journals and similar sources including the review of related literature. The work also makes use of the Direct Method by obtaining information through interviews from some informants from the study area to enrich the work. Most of the words used for the analysis of the work in Chapter Four are obtained from the Direct Method.
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