MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF SOME ASANTE HABITATION NAMES

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the morphological analysis of Asante Habitation Names. The paper examines the morphological form and some morphological processes in Asante Habitation Names. It is identified that, most of the Asante Habitation Names were initially realized as sentences or phrases which have been partially or fully lexicalized. In view of this, morphological analysis become very necessary in the study of these habitation names to help in identifying the lexical composition of these names and the process of their formation and this is what the current study seeks to achieve. The study is a qualitative research design specifically an ethnographic study. The data used for the study were obtained from the primary source and the secondary source. About 540 habitation names were collated, and samples were analysed and coded under their right morphological divisions whiles the morphological processes involved are discussed.  It is revealed in the study that, the Asante habitation names may be realised as a single root word, an affixed form or multiple roots. Morphological processes like affixation (prefixation and suffixation), compounding (solid, open, and hyphenated compounds), abbreviation and reduplication were realized as the core ways of deriving the habitation names.  Findings in this paper will contribute widely to Akan literature especially morphological studies and toponomastics.