A Feature Percolation Convention of Affixation Processes in Urhobo

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine headedness in affixation processes in Urhobo using a feature percolation approach. Affixation is a rich source of word formation process in the Urhobo language. The specific objectives are to identify affixation processes in Urhobo, investigate how they are used to derive words and determine headedness in the Urhobo language using a feature percolation theory as a framework. This paper reveals three affixation processes in Urhobo, which are prefixes, circumfixes and suffixes. Affixation is a derivational aspect of morphology and it brings about change in the grammatical class of the word or rather, provides additional semantic information to a word. The paper discovers that new words are derived in the language by attaching an affix either at the beginning (prefix), or to the end (suffix) of a word. This process is very productive in the language. The paper reveals that the head of a word using prefix is left-right branching while for suffixes, it is right-left branching. The prefix and suffix attached to a root to form the circumfix project to be the head of a word. The study observes circumfixes to have two heads. Feature percolation theory is also used to determine the head of a word in Urhobo. The paper concludes by recommending further researches on the use of theories especially morphological theories in analysing morphological processes in Urhobo.