Affixation as a derivational process in Tiv

Abstract

The study of morphology is of the essence in every language in order to understand the processes involved in word creation and inflection. Affixation in Tiv has been studied by many researchers, however, more attention is given to the inflectional aspect of Affixation in the language. Although, a well-cited book in Tiv treats both inflectional and derivational morphology in the language, this book does not study Affixation with a theoretical back up. In addition to that, the book features a misrepresentation about the derivational processes in Tiv, hence, the paper set to examine Affixation as a word-derivation process in Tiv using Hockett’s theory of Item-and–Arrangement and Item-and-Process. The researchers collected data for the study through primary and secondary sources. The study presents the following findings: nouns are derived from verbs by attaching the prefix {m-} to roots, formation of diminutive nouns is by adding the prefix {an-} to roots, and the derivation of nouns from adjectives is done through prefixation and suffixation of roots with {m-} and {-n} respectively. The study contributes to the existing literature on Tiv morphology by discovering the derivational processes in Tiv and removing the formation of agentive nouns from the derivational processes in the language in order to correct the misrepresentation of the agentive formation process as part of derivational Affixation.