Aspects of Koro Word Formation Processes
Keywords:
Aspect, word formation, affixation, compounding, borrowingAbstract
This paper examines the concept, structure, and formation of the Koro (Migili) words. The analysis is based on the information obtained from Koro (Migili) speakers. The dearth of research on the morphology of the language triggers this research, in view of the relevance of word formation to syntax and the development of the orthography of any language. The analysis of the data identifies prefixation, compounding, reduplication and borrowing as productive morphological processes in the language and shows that prefixation plays both inflectional and derivational roles. The derivational prefixes are: í, mú, nyí-, nyε-and mù- and they nominalise prefixes: í-, mú-, nyε- and mù-. It is shown that n- is not a plural prefix and previous claims that nyí – and í- only play inflectional roles are also disclaimed. The boundaries of the words to be compounded can be strong or weak. It is a strong word boundary when segment or syllables are not elided during compounding. The study addresses the foundational levels of the morphology of Koro (Migili) by exposing some of its morphological patterns and laying the background for the study of syntax of the language, which scholars and students will find very useful for scholarly and pedagogical purposes.
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