‘Shona (derivational) Morphology: An Observation in Search of a Theory'

Abstract

This article concerns a traditional analysis of Shona morphology, which is based on a (positional) classification of affix morphemes into prefixes and suffixes. It posits the hypothesis that the distinction supports the other traditional (but more controversial) distinction between inflectional and derivational affixes, a distinction which is seen by many scholars in the literature as not being a sharp one. What, however, seems to be the case for Shona, and possibly for Bantu as well, is that the distinction is in fact quite sharp, and is based on the simple positional distinction between prefix and suffix. All Shona affixes fall into three classes, namely inflectional, derivational and clitical. The data seems to support the hypothesis. This study on morphology proceeds on the basis of the following key assumptions. The morpheme as the basic notion of morphology is uncontroversial, theoretically speaking. Bloomfield's theoretical construct has remained basically the same over the years, and Nida's 1949 definition of morphology as 'the study of morphemes and their arrangements in forming words' is widely accepted in Linguistics. The other key assumptions are that the classification of morphemes into roofs and affixes, the positional classification of affixes, in relation to root morphemes, into prefixes and suffixes and the fact that morphemes are either free or bound are no longer controversial issues. Lastly, this article also proceeds on the assumption that root morphemes have either a primary or secondary (i.e. derived) lexical category membership. These assumptions mean that the following general observations about Shon.i can safely be made. Shona has roots and affixes, prefixes and suffixes, free morphemes and bound morphemes. The vast majority of Shona morphemes are bound, in the sense that each must occur with at least one other morpheme. Free morphemes, like ideophones, necessarily constitute monomorphemic 'words'. All Shona affixes are bound morphemes. All free morphemes in Shona are roots, but most Shona root morphemes are also bound. A Shona 'word' has the following typical morphological structure (root morphemes in bold):