Interfixes in Igbo morphology

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article uses synchronic evidence to show that the interfix in Igbo does not always divide its host into two equal parts. It recognises the differences in the form classes of the source words and their co-occurrence potentials due to semantic or syntactic peculiarities as the major determinant of the morphological environment of the interfix. The theory of lexicalist morphology was used as the theoretical framework in data analysis. The article's findings show that lgbo interfixes serve to link outputs of two distinct morphological rules: reduplication and prefixation, and that only reduplication-motivated interfixes divide their host into two equal parts because they are found between a stem and its reduplicant. The structure of the interfixes is also found to be basically a consonant segment which is phonologically motivated to fulfil a basic lgbo syllabification requirement after the rule of word formation has taken place in the lexicon.