Verbal nominalization as a derivational process: The case of Akan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4314/gjl.v1i2.41Keywords:
Verbal nominalization, derivation, AkanAbstract
This paper discusses the derivational morphology of the Akan language with particular focus on verbal nominalization through affixation (particularly prefixation). There are two ways through which this nominalization process can be realized in the Asante-Twi dialect of Akan. These are direct verb stem/base nominalization and nominalization after reduplication. The main difference between the two nominalization processes is shown to be that while in the former process, the nominal prefixes adjoin the verb stem directly to derive nominals, in the latter process, the same prefixation process also applies but after the reduplication process. I first discuss direct verb nominalization through prefixation and follow it up with the discussion of the nominalization process that takes place after reduplication has applied. We observe that in the case of the latter process, sometimes the nominal prefix adjoins another prefix; the reduplicative prefix, as studied by Dolphyne (1988), McCarthy and Prince (1995), Abakah (2004), etc. therefore, giving us the morphological structure: Affix1 + Affix2 + Stem/Base. The paper argues that in the direct verbal nominalization, whereas nominal prefixation has to apply first before nominal suffixation in the Asante-Twi dialect so that the former forms a constituent with the stem/base, in the reduplicated stem, the Affix2 (i.e. the reduplicative prefix) has to adjoin first the stem/base before the Affix1, which is the nominal prefix. A swap in the order/level of prefixation between Affix1 and Affix2 renders the output form ill-formed, a case for Siegel’s ([1974] 1979) Level Ordering Hypothesis. Following Siegel (idem), the reduplicative prefix, which does not cause a change in lexical category in Akan, is treated as a Class/Level 2 Prefix while the nominal prefix, which changes the lexical category of the stem and/or the reduplicated form, is a Class/Level 1 affix. In the end, this paper proposes a common template structure to account for affixation in nominalization of verbs in Akan by conflating what looks like two similar morphological structures for both nominalization of stem/base verbs and reduplicated forms, as follows: Affix1 ± (Affix2) + Stem/Base ± (Affix3) in that order.Verbal nominalization as a derivational process: The case of AkanReferences
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Pater, J., 2010. Morpheme-specific phonology: constraint indexation and inconsistency resolution. In Steve Parker (ed.) Phonological Argumentation: Essays on Evidence and Motivation. London: Equinox. Pp. 123-154.
Raimy, E., 2000. The phonology and morphology of reduplication. Studies in Generative Grammar 52. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Pp. 201.
Schachter, P. and Victoria Fromkin, 1968. A Phonology of Akan: Akuapem, Asante & Fante. Working Papers in Phonetics Vol. 9. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles.
Siegel, D., 1979. Topics in English Morphology. New York: Garland.
Wilbur, R. B., 1973c. The identity constraint: An explantation for the irregular behaviour of some exceptional reduplicated forms. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 3.1: 143-154.
Wilbur, R. B., 1973a. The Phonology of Reduplication. Bloomington, IN : IULC Dissertations in Linguistics.
Wilbur, R. B., 1973b. Reduplication and rule ordering. Chicago Linguistic Society 9: 679-687.
Abakah, E. N., 1993. Some Aspects of the Phonology of the Mfantse Dialect of Akan. MPhil thesis, University of Ghana, Legon.
Allen, M. R., 1978. Morphological Investigations. PhD dissertation. University of Connecticut.
Appah, C. K., 2003. Nominal Derivation in Akan. MPhil Thesis submitted to NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.
Bodomo, A. B., 1997a. The Structure of Dagaare. Stanford Monographs in African Languages. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
Christaller, J. G., 1875. A Grammar of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi). Basel: Basel Evangelical Society.
Dolphyne, F. A., 1988 /2006. The Akan (Twi-Fante) Language. Its Sound Systems and Tonal Structure. Accra: Ghana Universities Press.
Fabb, N., 1988. English suffixation is constrained only by selectional restrictions. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 6.4: 527-539.
Kiparsky, P., 1982. From cyclic phonology to lexical phonology. In H. Hulst and N. Smith (eds.) The Structure of Phonological Representations. Dordrecht: Foris Publishing. Pp 131-175.
Lieber, R., 1987. An Integrated Theory of Autosegmental Processes. Albany: State
University of New York Press.
Marantz, A., 1982. Re reduplication. Linguistic Inquiry. Vol. 13, No. 3: 435-482.
Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
McCarthy, J. and Alan Prince, 1999. Faithfulness and identity in prosodic
morphology. In Rene Kager, Harry van der Hulst, and Wim Zonneweld (eds.) The Prosody-Morphology Interface. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 218-309.
McCarthy, J. and Alan Prince, 1995. Faithfulness and reduplicative identity. University of Massachussetts Occasional Papers in Linguistics 18: Papers in Optimality Theory, 249-384.
Pater, J., 2010. Morpheme-specific phonology: constraint indexation and inconsistency resolution. In Steve Parker (ed.) Phonological Argumentation: Essays on Evidence and Motivation. London: Equinox. Pp. 123-154.
Raimy, E., 2000. The phonology and morphology of reduplication. Studies in Generative Grammar 52. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Pp. 201.
Schachter, P. and Victoria Fromkin, 1968. A Phonology of Akan: Akuapem, Asante & Fante. Working Papers in Phonetics Vol. 9. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles.
Siegel, D., 1979. Topics in English Morphology. New York: Garland.
Wilbur, R. B., 1973c. The identity constraint: An explantation for the irregular behaviour of some exceptional reduplicated forms. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 3.1: 143-154.
Wilbur, R. B., 1973a. The Phonology of Reduplication. Bloomington, IN : IULC Dissertations in Linguistics.
Wilbur, R. B., 1973b. Reduplication and rule ordering. Chicago Linguistic Society 9: 679-687.
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Published
12/01/2012
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Adomako, K. (2012). Verbal nominalization as a derivational process: The case of Akan. Ghana Journal of Linguistics, 1(2), 43–64. https://doi.org/10.4314/gjl.v1i2.41
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