An Investigation into the Derivations of the English Language and the Ukwuani Language

Abstract

This paper looked into the derivations in English and Ụkwụani. Since derivation is a morphological process, the paper started by explaining derivational morphemes. Types of derivations were also explained such as: derived nominals, derived verbals and adverbials. Derivation of one word-class to another word-class; and derivations from the same word-class were critically examined in the two languages. These include: derived nominal from verbals, derived nominal from nominals, derived adjectival from adverbial. Also, this paper went further to investigate the affixes use in derivation in both English and Ụkwụani languages. The affixes used in English derivations include: prefixes and suffixes while the Ụkwụani language used prefixes and inter-fixes to derive words. All the foregoing were carefully examined in this paper. The method of research for this paper is the interview technique. The researcher conducted an interview with the aid of a questionnaire administered to some students in junior secondary school through random sampling. This is done with L1 speaker of Ụkwụani, for a proper analysis of the paper. Our study explained vividly that differences abound in the derivations of English and Ụkwụani. For example suffixes in English are used for derivation while Ụkwụni suffixes are used for inflection only and the nominal are derived by adding prefix to the verbally. Also there are no addition of suffixes in the derivation of Ụkwụani plurals as in the case of English. There are no derivational suffixes for a change of word class in Ukwuani as in the English language.