Morphology

Dr. Oye Taiwo

Department of Linguistics and African Languages,
University of Ibadan,
Ibadan, Nigeria

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Table of Contents

General Introduction and Course Objectives

Lecture One: Morphology
Lecture Two: Inflectional Morphology
Lecture Three: Derivational Morphology
Lecture Four: The Morpheme
Lecture Five: The Nature of Morphemes
Lecture Six: Segmentability of Words
Lecture Seven: Types of Morphemes: Roots, Stems and Bases
Lecture Eight: Other Types of Morphemes
Lecture Nine: Affixes
Lecture Ten: Class Changing Affixes
Lecture Eleven: Class-Maintaining Affixes
Lecture Twelve: Reduplication
Lecture Thirteen: Compounding

General Introduction and Course Objectives

This course is about morphology, one of the four levels of linguistic analysis. The other levels are phonology,
syntax and semantics. Morphology is the level of linguistic analysis which studies the structures or forms of
words.
This course is an introductory one. In it, I shall discuss the subject-matter of morphology and the two
major branches of the discipline. These are inflectional morphology and derivational morphology. Inflectional
morphology is is the study of the ways in which words vary (inflect) in order to express grammatical contrasts
in sentences such as singular/plural, past/present/future; negative/positive, etc. This change in the form of
words could be by the addition of affixes such as boy/boys; or by the replacement of one sound or word with
another in a construction such as man/men, go/went.
The other branch of morphology is derivational morphology. It is one study of the formation of new
words. I will explain some of the ways by which we can form new words in language such as affixation,
reduplication, compounding, clipping and conversion. I will also give examples of these processes in English
and Yoruba languages to enable you to have proper understanding and be able to identify them in your
language.
Another important topic I shall treat in this course is the morpheme. It is the smallest meaningful
indivisible unit or segment of grammatical description used in the analysis of words. I will explain, with
examples, the various forms of the morpheme such as morphs and allormorphs and how words of a language
can be segmented into their various morphemes. Our discussion will also include types of morphemes. These
are roots, stems and bases. Others are free and bound morphemes, lexical and grammatical morphemes.
You will also come across the various discussions on affixes; the types of affixes such as prefixes,
suffixes, infixes and interfixes and how these are employed in the formation or change in the form of words.

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LECTURE ONE Morphology

Introduction
In this lecture, I will discuss the subject-matter of morphology. I will give some definitions of morphology,
explain them and introduce you to the various branches of morphology.

Objective
This introductory lecture will give you adequate knowledge of the definitions of morphology and its various
branches.

Levels of linguistics analysis

Morphology is the level of linguistic analysis which studies the structure or forms of words. It is concerned
with the shape or form of words.
There are four levels of linguistic analysis. These are:

Fig. 1 Levels of linguistic analysis

Semantic level

Syntactic level

Morphological level

Phonological
Phonology is the study level of speech sounds in a language and the patterns of these sounds
of the description
in the language. We study about the structure of words in morphology. The syntactic level is the level where
we study how words are combined to form phrases and clauses while semantics studies the meaning a speaker
of a language gives an utterance in a speech or in language.

Definitions
Nida (1949:1) defines ‘morphology as the study of morphemes and their arrangements in forming words.’ In
other words, it is the study of the internal structure of words – the study of the rules governing the formation
of words in a language. (Tomori 1975: 21, Katamba 1993: 3, Taiwo 2006:1).
Morphology is the branch of grammar which studies the structure of words. The smallest meaningful
elements into which words can be analyzed are known as morphemes; and the ways morphemes operate in
language provide the subject of morphology. The scope of morphology may be represented in the following
way.

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 Figure 2: Branches of Morphology
Morphology

Inflection Word-formation

Reduplication Conversion
Additive Replacive

Compounding
Clipping

Derivation

The diagram in figure 2 above reveals that morphology can be divided broadly into two branches, namely:
inflection and word-formation processes. Inflectional morphology can also be divided into two types. These
are the additive inflections and the replacive inflections. Some of the ways of forming new words are
derivation, reduplication, compounding, clipping and conversion.

Post-test questions
1. What is morphology?
2. Mention the various branches which we can divide morphology to.

LECTURE TWO Inflectional Morphology

Introduction
After defining morphology and have introduced you to its two major branches, I shall go ahead to explain to
you one of the branches. This is known as inflectional morphology. I shall discuss the two main types of
inflections and give various examples from languages for you to be able to identify any of the types of
inflections.

Objective
After studying this lecture, you should be able to explain vividly what is meant by inflectional morphology.
You should also be able to give examples of the types of inflections in language.

Inflectional morphology
Inflectional morphology treats the change in the forms of words. Bloomfield (1933: 222) referred to inflection
as the outer layer of the morphology of word forms and derivation/or word formation as the inner layer. For
example the word-form stewardesses has the natural morphemic segmentation stewardess + -es and not
steward +* -esses. In other words, inflection are added when all derivational processes are already complete.
Inflectional morphology studies the ways in which words vary (or inflect) in order to express
grammatical contrasts in sentences such as singular/plural, past present, negative/positive etc. It is the study
of the change in the form of words by the addition of affixes to such words (additive) or by the replacement of
one sound or word with another in a construction (replacive).
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 The change in the form of a word (inflection) will not cause a change in the word-class of such word.
Examine the words below.

1a. Adjective: big bigger biggest

b. Noun boy boys
house houses
c. Verb walk walks walked walking

2a. Noun man men

foot feet
mouse mice

b. Verb come came

write wrote
go went

In 1a, the addition of –er and –est to ‘big’ does not bring any change of the word from being an adjective,
neither does it cause a change of meaning from ‘big’. In 1b, ‘boy’ is a noun, ‘boys’ is also a noun despite the
fact that ‘-s’ has been added to ‘boy’, the meaning does not change either. In 1c, the addition of –s, -ed and -
ing to walk does not change the meaning of any of the words from walk, the addition just modify it.
In 2a, there is vowel change in the plural nouns from the singular, yet the words still remain nouns. The
same explanation goes for the verbs in 2b. There is a vowel change in the first two sets while the whole word
is completely replaced in the third set i.e. go/went. In Yorùbá language, short subject pronouns and future
tense markers have different forms for affirmative and negative sentences.

Future tense affirmative negative

à/yóò/máa ní

3a. Òjó à/yóò/máa lọ sí Èkó

Ojo fut go to Lagos
‘Ojo will go to Lagos’.

b. Òjó kò ní lọ sí Èkó
Ojo neg. fut go to Lagos
‘Ojo will not go to Lagos’.

short pronouns affirmative negative

1st person singular mo mi
3rd person plural wó ̣n wọn

4a. Wó ̣n gba àdúrà sí Olúwa

they say prayer to Lord
‘They prayed to the Lord’.

b. Wọn ó gba àdúrà sí Olúwa

they neg say prayer to Lord
‘They did not pray to the Lord’.

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5a. Mo gbó ̣ ò ̣rò ̣ yín
I hear word your (pl)
‘I heard your word’.

b. Mi ò gbó ̣ ò ̣rò ̣ yín

I neg. hear word your (pl)
I did not hear your word’.

From the various examples from the languages cited above, inflectional morphology can be attested to in all
languages. However, while some of the examples above have bound morphemes added to the base, in others,
a sound or a word is used to replace another. Hence, we can have two types of inflections: they are replacive
and additive inflections.

Fig 3: Types of inflection

Inflection

Additive
e.g. boy + -s = boys Replacive
e.g. man = men

In inflectional morphology, the bound morpheme (aka affix) added to the root/stem or used to replace
another does not cause a change in the word-class of the word, that is why big, bigger and biggest are all
adjectives despite the addition of –er and –est to big respectively. The replacement of one sound or word with
another does not cause a change in the word-class of such word either, hence man, men; foot, feet are all
nouns despite the replacement of a with e and u with I: respectively.
While it is easy and simple to segment the morphemes in additive inflectional morphology, those in
replacive type cannot be so easily segmented.

Additive

6a boys N(oun) b. bigger Adj(ective)

N affix Adj affix

plural er
boy boys big bigger
-s

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7. Replacive
a. men b. came - verb
N
V

N affix
N affix
plural
man
men came past
come

LECTURE THREE Derivational Morphology

Introduction
Apart from inflectional morphology which studies the ways in which words vary in order to express
grammatical contrasts in sentences, the other branch of morphology is the formation of new words which is
also known as derivational morphology. In this lecture, I shall introduce you to the various ways by which
new words are form in language. I shall give examples for you to be able to identify these word formation
processes.

Objective
The objective of the lecture is that you should be able to identify and understand various ways of forming new
words in language. You should, most importantly, be able to explain the word-formation processes in your
language.

Definition of derivational morphology

Derivational morphology studies the principles governing the construction of new words, without reference to
the specific grammatical role a word might play in a sentence. It is the study of the formation of new words,
how new words are derived. There are various ways by which new words can be formed. Some of them are
affixation, which include prefixation, infixation, suffixation, compounding, derivation by the zero morph,
blending, clipping, reduplication and conversion.

Prefixation: a prefix is placed before the base of the word

e.g. dis- + obey  disobey, re- + make  remake

ì- + mò ̣  ìmò ̣
to know knowledge
a- + pa ẹja  apẹja
kill fish ‘a fisherman’

Infixation: an infix is inserted into the root itself

root possessed form
e.g. su:lu  su:kalu ‘dog’
ana :la :ka  ana :kala :ka ‘chin’
kuhbil  kuhkabil ‘knife’
Ulwa language in Nicaragua (Napoli 1996 : 195)
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Suffixation: a suffix is attached after the base of the word e.g.
kind + -ness  kindness, love + -ly  lovely.

Interfixation: an affix is inserted between two other morphemes e.g. ọmọ  ọmọ-kí-ọmọ  ọmọkó ̣mọ
‘any/bad child’; iye  iye – bi – iye  iyebiye ‘priceless’, ọdún  ọdún - mó ̣ - ọdún  ọdúnmó ̣dún ‘many
years’

Compounding: two base forms are added together e.g. black + board  blackboard, Adé ‘crown’ + ọlá
‘wealth’  Adéọlá (personal name)

Conversion: a word changes its class without any change of form. It is also known as derivation by the zero
morph e.g. the carpet (N), to carpet (V).
VP + VP  N
Kó(v) ọlá(NP) + wọ(v) ilé(NP)  Kó ̣láwọlé
bring wealth enter house (Personal name)

Reduplication: a type of compound in which both elements are the same, or only slightly different e.g.
goody-goody - wishy-washy
pẹja(vp)  pẹjapẹja(N)
kill fish a fisherman

sùn (v)  sísùn (N)

to sleep the act of sleeping

Clippings: An informal shortening of a word, often to a single syllable e.g. ad (advertisement), gents
(gentlemen), telly (telivision) Fúnmi (Fúnmiláyò ̣) Tolú (Tolúlọpé ̣) Uzor (Uzorchukwu) etc.

Acronyms: Formation of words from the initial of the words that make up a name e.g. NATO (from North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation), radar (radio detection and ranging) NECO (National Examination
Commission) etc.

Alphabetism: It is a sub-type of acronyms in which the different initial letters of the words are pronounced
e.g. IITA, UI, WHO.

Blends: Two words merge into each other e.g. Unibadan (from University + Ibadan), brunch (breakfast +
lunch), telex (teleprinter + exchange).

LECTURE FOUR The Morpheme

Introduction
The morpheme is the segment employed in the study of the structure or form of the word. I shall discuss the
various definitions given to it in this lecture. I shall also explain what is known as the morph and allomorphs.

Objective
Since the morpheme is central to the study of the structure or form of the word, you should be able to explain
what a morpheme is and also identify the morph, allomorphs.

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The Morpheme defined
Various definitions have been given to the morpheme by linguists. Some of them are the ones below.
A morpheme is a minimal unit of speech that is recurrent and meaningful. It may be a word or part of a
word. it is a distinct linguistic form, semantically different from other phonetically similar or identical
linguistic form and not divisible or analyzable into smaller forms.
A morpheme is a linguistic form that is not further divisible without destruction or alteration of meaning,
and is the minimal meaningful unit; it may be monosyllabic or polysyllabic.
A smallest unit of speech that has semantic or grammatical meaning is known as the morpheme (Tomori
1977: 25).
Another definition of the morpheme is that it is the smallest meaningful indivisible unit or segment of
grammatical description used in the analysis of words (Taiwo 2006: 18)
Katamba (1995: 24) defines the morpheme as the smallest difference in the shape of a word that
correlates with the smallest difference in word or sentence meaning or in grammatical structure.
The various definitions given above reveal these features about the morpheme
 it must be meaningful (semantic or grammatical meaning)
 it is the smallest minimal unit
 it cannot be further divisible without destruction or alternation of meaning.

A morph
The analysis of words into morphemes begins with the isolation of morphs. A morph is a physical form
representing some morpheme in a language. It is a recurrent distinctive sound or sequnce of sounds e.g.

kindness has 2 morph kind and –ness;

Inflections: 3 morphs: inflect, -ion, -s
boyhood: 2 morphs: boy, hood
incomplete: 2 morphs: in-, complete

Allormorphs
If different morphs represent the same morpheme, they are grouped together and they are called allomorphs.
For example, the past tense of regular verbs in English is realised as /ɪd/, /d/ or /t/. The phonological
properties of the last segment of the verb to which it is attached determines the choice.
It is realised as /ɪd/ if the verb ends in /d/ or /t/.

e.g. mend /mendɪd/ mend - mended

peit /peitɪd/ paint - painted
It is realised as /d/ after a verb ending in any voiced sound except /d/ e.g.

Klin - klind clean - cleaned

wei - weid weigh - weighed

it is realised as /t/ after a verb ending in any voiceless consonant other than /t/ e.g.

pa:k pa:kt park - parked

mis mist miss - missed

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 Past tense

allomorph allomorph allomorph

morph morph morph

/ɪd/ /d/ /t/

Another example of allomorphs in English can be found in the negative morpheme in the words below.
i. impossible, impatient, immovable
ii. iŋkɔmplit (incomplete), iŋkɔmpætibl) (incompatible)
iii. iŋgrætiju:d (ingratitude)
iv. intolerable, indecent, intangible, inactive, inelegance

The negative morpheme can be realised as [im], [iŋ] or [in]. It is [im] if it is attached to a base that begins
with a labial consonant e.g. im- + possible  impossible, im- + movable  immovable.
It is realised as [iŋ] if it is attached to a base that begins with a velar consonant ( k or g).
It is realised as [in] if it is attached to a base that has any other sound apart from labial and velar
consonants.
Negative morpheme

allomorph allomorph allomorph

morph morph morph

[im] [iŋ] [in]

In the Yoruba language, the future tense marker has two set of morphs. One set is used in affirmative
sentences, they are à, yóò and máa. The other set consists of ní used in negative sentences. So also the 1st
person singular short pronoun has mo for affirmative sentences and mi as its negative counterpart.
Mo máa wá Mi ò ní wá
I fut come I neg fut come
‘I will come’. ‘I will not come’.

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LECTURE FIVE The Nature of Morphemes

Introduction
In lecture four, I explained the morph and allomorph. I shall continue in this lecture to explain some other
terms such as homophones and portmanteau morphs. I shall also discuss the differences and similarities
between the morpheme and the syllable so that you will be able to identify them whenever you come across
any of the two.

Objective
The objective of this lecture is for you to be able to explain terms such as homophones and portmanteau
morphs and be able to identify them in language. You should be able to give a clear distinction between the
morpheme and the syllable.

The Nature of Morphemes

There are four basic facts that you must know on the nature of the morphemes.
1. There may be a one-to-one correlation between morphemes and morphs e.g. come/kʌm/, I /ai/ no /nou/; ẹ
/Ɛ/ the 2nd person singular object pronoun in Yorùbá, sùn /s ũ /̀ ‘sleep’, wá /wá/ ‘come’ etc
2. A morph may belong to two or more different morphemes. This is where a form has more than one
meaning e.g.
English /sait/ sight, site, cite
/rait/ right, write, wright, rite
Yorùbá jó /ɟo/ to dance, to burn
jẹ /ɟƐ/ to eat, to win
A morph that belongs to two or more different morphemes as in the examples above are referred to as
homophones i.e. forms which sound the same but differ in their meaning or grammatical function.
3. A single morpheme may be represented by a variety of phonological representation e.g. /iz/, /z/, /s/
plural morphemes in English mo, mò, mi first person singular short subject pronoun in Yorùbá.
4. The same string of sounds may cumulatively represent several morphemes. A morph like this is
referred to as postmanteau morph. E.g. The –s in walks signals three morphemes simultaneously: 3 rd
person, present tense and singular number. Ní consists of two morphemes in Yorùbá: future tense
marker and negative marker.

Morphemes and Syllables

Syllables are groupings of sounds for the purposes of articulation, while Morphemes are the smallest units of
meaning or grammatical function. A word that consists of one morpheme (i.e. monomorphic) can have more
than one syllable (disyllabic). Below are some examples:
English sofa - 2 syllables
balloon - 2 syllables
camera - 3 syllables

Yorùbá ilé ‘house’ - 2 syllables

ọmọ ‘child’ - 2 syllables
garawa ‘bucket’ - 3 syllables
òroǹbó ‘orange’ - 4 syllables
A monomorphic word (a word that consists of one morpheme) can also have one syllable as we have in the
following examples.
English come /kʌm/, it, I, you, why, etc.
Yorùbá jẹ ‘to eat’, ‘to win’
wá ‘to’, ‘seek’ ‘to come’
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 lọ ‘to go’
A monosyllabic word can indeed consist of two or more morphemes e.g.
English books book -s 2 morphemes
went go past 2 morphemes
Yorùbá yín object pronoun 3rd person, plural (2)
ní future tense marker, negative (2)

wọn (subject pronoun) 3rd person, plural, negative

(3 morphemes)
When we divide a word into morphemes, we focus on strings of sounds that are meaningful regardless of
whether or not they constitute syllables at the phonological level.
A morpheme can have allomorphs i.e. different morphs (read again about allomorphs in lecture 4) the
syllable does not have this feature. In our discussion of allomorphs in lecture 4, I gave examples in both
English and Yorùbá languages where different morphs represent the same morpheme. However, it is not the
case for syllable.

LECTURE SIX Segmentability of Words

Introduction
In this lecture, I shall explain how you should be able to segment (divide) any word that is made up of more
than one morpheme in any language. I shall discuss three types of segmentability or ordering of components
morphemes of Tomori (1977).

Objective
After studying this lecture, you should be able to segment polymorphic words in any language.

Segmentability of words
Any word made up of more than one morpheme has its constituents joined in a structural bound according to
the rules of utterance formation in that language. This is known as syntagmatic relationship. Words exhibiting
syntagmatic relationship between the component morphemes display three types of segmentability or ordering
of component morphemes (Tomori 1977)
1. Some words can be segmented in a clear way into their component morphemes e.g.
respectable respect, -able
boys boy, -s
eats eat, -s
illegal il-, legal
Yorùbá ìfé ̣ ‘love’ ì-, fé ̣ ‘to love’
ò ̣mùtí ‘drunkard’ ò ̣-, mu ‘to drink’, ọtín ‘wine’
onílé ‘house owner’ oní-, ilé ‘house’
2. A second group of words cannot be be segmented in a clear fashion as we did for the examples given
above. For example the English word redemption consists of two morphemes.
Redemption: redeem, -tion
It is quite clear that the word cannot be neatly segmented into these two
morphemes, redemp- is a bound alternant of the morpheme redeem because the form redemp- does
not occur alone.
Other example: retention: reten-, -tion
reten- is the boud alternant of retain

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 3. A third group of words are words that are not easily segmentable into their component morphemes.
For example, went is the past tense form of go. We know that the form went includes the meaning of
the word go and also conveys the idea of the past tense. The word went therefore, is normally taken
to be composed of the two morphemes below:

went - go, the past tense morpheme

other examples:
came - come, past tense
ate - eat, past tense
men - man, plural morpheme
Yorùbá: ní - future tense, negative
a subject pronoun: mo 1st person; plural

Data analysis: Luganda language (Katamba 1993: 25 – 26)

a. List all the morphemes.
b. Give the meaning of each.
c. Identify the allomorphs and state their distribution.

tulilaba kitabo ‘we will see a book’

tuligula katabo ‘we will buy a little book’
baalaba bitabo ‘they saw books’
tulilaba butabo ‘we will see a book’
balilaba kitabo ‘they will see a book’
tulilaba bitabo ‘we will see books’
baatunda butabo ‘they sold little books’
baligula bitabo ‘they will buy books’
baagula katabo ‘they bought a little book’
tutunda bitabo ‘we sell books’
twaalaba kitabo ‘we saw a book’
twaagula bitabo ‘we bought books’
twaatunda kitabo ‘we sold a book’

Answer
-tabo ‘book’ ki- singular (normal size) noun prefix,
bi- plural (normal size) noun prefix;
ka- singular (small size) noun prefix;
bu- plural (small size) noun prefix,
tu- ‘we’, -li- future tense marker
-laba ‘see’, ba- they, -gula ‘buy’,
-tunda ‘sell’, -a- past tense marker
twa- ‘we’
tu- and twa- both represent the first person plural pronoun in different
environments, they are allomorphs of the same morphemes.
tu- is attached to a morpheme beginning with a consonant
twa- is used with a morpheme beginning with a vowel.

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LECTURE SEVEN Types of Morphemes: Roots, Stems And Bases

Introduction
I shall continue with the discussion of the morpheme in this lecture. I will explain three of the types of
morphemes in language. These are the root, the stem and the base. I will support my explanation with
examples for you to be able to identify any of these three types in language.

Objective
The focus of this lecture is the three of the types of morphemes in language. You should be able to identify
these three types and explain how they behave in the word.

Roots
A root is a morpheme that occur as a word. It is the irreducible core of a word, with absolutely nothing else
attached to it. It is the part of the word that is always present, possibly with some modification, in the various
manifestation of a lexeme (the vocabulary item listed in the dictionary). In other words, it is that part of the
word that remains after all the bound morphemes have been removed from a derived word. For example in
walks, walked, walk and walking, all have the root morpheme walk.

Yorùbá: ìfé ̣ ‘love’, fé ̣ ‘to love’, àìfé ̣ ‘lack of love’

all have the root morpheme fé ̣ ‘to love’.

gbó ̣n ‘to be wise’, ọgbó ̣n ‘wisdom’,
àìgbó ̣n ‘lack of wisdom’
aláìgbó ̣n ‘the unwise/foolish one’
ọló ̣gbó ̣n ‘the wise one’
all have the root morpheme gbó ̣n ‘to be wise’.

There are two types of roots: simple root morphemes and complex root morphemes.
A root will be a simple root if it consists of only one free morpheme. Some examples are given below.
Derived word Simple root Bound
morphemes
uncountable count un-, -able
Illegal legal il-
Unwise wise un-
Boys boy -s
Yorùbá derived word Simple root Bound
morphemes
aláìgbó ̣n ‘the unwise/foolish gbó ̣n ‘to be wise’ oń-, *àì-
one
ọgbó ̣n ‘wisdom’ gbó ̣n ‘to be wise’ ọ-
olówó ‘a rich man’ owo ‘money’ oní-
àìgbó ̣ ‘lack of hearing’ gbó ̣ ‘to hear’ àì-

A root will be a complex root if the part of the word that remains after all bound morphemes have been
removed is more than one root morpheme. It may be two or more root morphemes. Below are some examples
in the Yorùbá language.

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 Derived word Complex root Bound morphemes
aláìgbó ̣ràn ‘a disobedient person’ gbó ̣ ‘hear’ oní-, àì-
ò ̣ràn ‘something’
ìlọsíwájú ‘progress’ lọ ‘go’ ì-
sí ‘to’
iwájú ‘forward’
àìnílọsíwájú ní ‘to have’ àì-
‘not having progress’ lọ ‘go’
sí ‘to’
iwájú ‘forward’

You should note that in the examples above, each of the complex roots have more than one word. It is
possible for these complex toots to used as words without any bound morphemes attached to them. That is
why these words are acceptable in Yorùbá language.

gbó ̣ràn ‘hear something’ / ‘be obedient’

lọsíwájú ‘to progress’
nílọsíwájú ‘to have progress’

*Some Yorùbá scholars regard {àì} as two morphemes.

The two types of root morphemes discussed are shown below.

ROOT

simple complex
Stems
The stem is that part of a word that is in existence before any inflectional affixes have been added. Such part
of the word may or may not have derivational affixes. Some examples are given below.

Derived word RootDerivational Stem Inflectional

affix affix
Boys boy - boy -s
workers work -er worker -s
disagreed agree dis- disagree -ed
unfaithfulnesses faith un-, -ful, - unfaithfulness -es
ness
irrelevances relevance ir- relevance -s

Note that it is possible for a root morpheme to be a stem. This will be where no derivational affix but only
inflectional affix is attached to the root morpheme to derive a word. In the above examples, boy is a root
morpheme as well as a stem. Hence, all root morphemes are stems, though not all stems are root morphemes.

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Bases
A base is any unit whatsoever to which affixes of any kind can be added. The affixes attached to a base may
be inflectional affixes or derivational affixes. Bases are called stems in a wider sense by some Linguists.
Below are some examples:
Derived Root Base Derivational Stem Inflectional
word affix affix
boyish boy boy -ish - -
faithfuls faith faith, -ful faithful -s
faithful
cleaners clean clean, -er cleaner -s
cleaner
wickedness wicked wicked -ness - -

Yorùbá language
Derived word Root Base Derivational Stem Inflectional
affix affix
aláìgbó ̣n gbó ̣n gbó ̣n ‘ to àì-, oní- - -
‘foolishness’ ‘to be be wise
wise’ àìgbó ̣n
‘lack of
wisdom’
àìsùn sùn ‘to sùn ‘to àì- - -
‘sleeplessness’ sleep’ sleep’
ìmò ̣ mò ̣ ‘to mò ̣ ‘to ì- - -
‘knowledge’ know’ know’

LECTURE EIGHT Other Types of Morphemes

Introduction
Having discussed some types of morphemes such as roots, stems and bases in the last lecture, I will go ahead
to discuss the remaining types of morphemes in language. These are free morphemes, bound morphemes,
lexical morphemes and grammatical morphemes.

Objective
The purpose of this lecture is to explain to you other types of morphemes so that you will be able to identify
these morphemes in language.

1. Free morphemes
A free morpheme is a morpheme that can stand on its own without the attachment of any other morpheme.
Some examples of free morphemes are listed below.

Nouns: house, boy, girl, etc

Verbs: eat, come, meet, etc.
Pronouns: I, he, she, me, it, etc.
Adjectives: short, big, fat, etc.
Conjunctions: and, but, etc.

16
 All free morphemes are roots, though some root may not be free morphemes e.g. redemption
and retention have redemp- and reten- respectively as roots. These roots are the bound alternants of
redeem and retain in that order.

2. Bound morphemes
A bound morpheme is a morpheme that cannot stand on its own, it can only occur when attached to some
other morpheme or morphemes such as a root, a stem or a base. Bound morphemes are also referred to as
affixes.

Types of affixes
Prefixes: A prefix is an affix attached before a root, stem or base. Examples
re- + make  remake
im- + possible  impossible
un- + countable  uncountable
Yorùbá examples:
ì- + fé ̣ ‘to love’  ìfé ̣ ‘love’
ọ- + gbó ̣n ‘to be wise’  ọgbó ̣n ‘wisdom’

Suffixes: A suffix is an affix attached after a root a stem or base. Examples

kind + -ness  kindness
boy + -s  boys
play + -er  player

Infixes: An infix is an affix inserted into the root, stem or base itself. There are no infixes in English and
Yoruba languages. The examples below are from Ulwa language in Nicaragua.

root infix possessed form

su:lu -ka- su:kalu ‘dog’
ana:la:ka -ka- ana:kala:ka ‘chin’
kuhbil -ka- kuhkabil ‘knife’
(Napoli 1996: 198)

Interfixes: An interfix is an affix inserted between two other morphemes. The Yorùbá language has this type.

morphemes interfix derived word

ọmọọmọ grand -kí- ọmọkó ̣ mọ any/bad
child(ren) child(ren)
iye iye -bí- iyebíye ‘priceless’
ọdún ọdún -mó ̣- ọdúnmó ̣dún ‘many years’

3. Lexical morphemes
A lexical morpheme is a morpheme that has semantic content. Semantic content is loosely defined to cover
notions like referring to individuals (e.g. nouns: Ayò ̣, Uche) attributing properties (e.g. adjectives: kind,
clever), describing actions, process or states (e.g. verbs: eat, see, rest etc), expressing relations (e.g.
prepositions: in, on, under) and describing circumstances like manner (e.g. kindly, quickly) and derivational
morphemes

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 4. Grammatical morphemes or function words
A function word differ from a lexical morpheme in that while the lexical morpheme carry most of the
semantic content, the function word mainly signal grammatical information or logical relations in a sentence.
Examples: Articles: a, an, the
Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
Pronouns: I, you, we, etc.
Conjunctions: and, yet, if, but, or, etc
Inflectional morphemes: plural, tense, number, negation, gender etc.

Summary
The various types of morphemes and their sub-types discussed in this lecture and the previous one are given
in the table below.
Morpheme

root stem base free bound/affixes lexical grammatical

simple complex prefix suffix infix interfix

LECTURE NINE Affixes

Introduction
An affix is a bound morpheme attached to the root, stem or base. I shall explain how to represent an affix
orthographically so that you do not confused it with a free morpheme and I shall also discuss the co-
occurrence of the various types of affixes.

Objective
The objective of this lecture is that you should be able to identify and represent affixes properly when writing
and be able to explain properly the co-occurrence of affixes.

The mark of the affix

When an affix is to be orthographically represented, a dash is put beside it. Examples are given below.

1. un-, il-, im- etc.

2. -ed, -ful, -s, -es etc
3. -sí-, -dé-, -kí-

One main purpose of putting a dash ( – ) beside an affix is to signify that the morpheme is not a free one
but must be attached to a free morpheme. That is why a dash is put besides each of the affixes in (1) – (3)
above. However, the dash is not just put at any part of the affix. If the dash is put after the affix, it shows that
such an affix should be attached before the root, base or stem. The examples we have in (1) are affixes
attached before the root, stem or base. They are called prefixes.

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 A dash put before an affix signifies that such an affix is attached after the root, stem or base. The
examples in (2) are instances affixes of such. They are called suffixes. If a dash is put before and after an
affix, it denotes that such an affix is inserted inbetween a morpheme or two other morphemes. This is the case
with the affixes in example (3) above. These affixes are called infixes (if they are inserted into a morpheme)
or interfixes (if they are inserted inbetween two morphemes). The examples in (3) are interfixes inserted
inbetween two morphemes in Yorùbá language (see interfixes in lecture 8 above).

Co-occurrence of affixes
In whatever language, research has shown that different affixes can co-occur in a polymorphic word. In other
words, it is possible that in a derived word, a prefix, an infix/interfix and a suffix to co-occur with a root. Let
us examine some examples from English and Yorùbá languages.
In the English language, a prefix and a suffix can co-occur, there are not infixes or interfixes in the
language.
1 a. unkindlinesses
b. unfaithfulness
c. revegetations
d. mismanagements

Each of the words in (1) has the morphemes in (2)

2 a. un-, kind, -li, -ness, -es (five morphemes)

b. un-, faith, -ful, -ness, -es (five morphemes)
c. re-, vegetable, -tion, -s (four morphemes)
d. mis-, manage, -ment, -s (four morphemes)

The analysis in (2) reveals that while there are five morphemes each in (2a & b), (2c & d) consist of four
morphemes each. In (2a) for example, kind is the root morpheme, un- is the prefix while –li, -ness and –es are
the suffixes.
In the Yorùbá language, the prefix and the interfix that are in the language can co-occur in a derived
word. Consider the examples in (3) and their segmentations in (4) below.
3a. aládígarawa ‘the one who patches buckets’
b. onílékónílé ‘the owner of any house’/
‘anyone who owns a house’
c. aláìgbó ̣n ‘the one who lacks wisdom’

Each of the words in (3) has the morphemes in (4)

4a. oní-, a-, dí, garawa (4 morphemes)
owner agent patch bucket
b. oní-, ilé, -kí-, oní-, ilé
owner, house any owner house (5 morphemes)
c. oní- àì- gbó ̣n (3 morphemes)
owner agent be wise
neg.
As our analysis in (4) reveals, there are four morphemes in (4a), five (4b) and three in (4c).
Note that it is possible for suffixes to co-occur as we have in (2a) where -li, -ness and –es co-occur in the
derivation unkindlinesses in English. Prefixes can also co-occur in Yorùbá language, that is why it is possible
for oní- and a- to co-occur in (4a) and oní- and àì- to co-occur in (4c). Also observe that the interfix
-kí- co-occur with oní- in (4b).

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LECTURE TEN Class Changing Affixes

Introduction
In our discussion of affixes, we identified four types according to the structure or form of the affix. These are
the prefix, the suffix, the infix and the interfix. We shall, in this lecture and the next one, discuss two other
types of affixes. These are class changing and class-maintaining affixes.

Objective
At the end of the lecture, you should be able to explain and identify affixes that change the class of the root or
stem to which they are attached to another one in the derivation of a new word.

Class-changing affixes
It is possible for any of the affixes we identified so far to change the class of the root or stem to which it is
attached to another word class. In other words, if a root or stem is a verb or a noun, when an affix (a prefix, a
suffix, an infix or an interfix) is attached to the root or stem, the word-class of the derived word may be
different from that of the root or stem. Where a situation like this occurs, such an affix is referred to as a clas-
changing affix.
A class-changing affix is an affix that changes the word-class of the root or stem to which it is attached to
another word-class. In other words, when an affix is attached to a root or stem, if the word-class of the derived
word is different from the word-class of the root or stem, such an affix is regarded as a class-changing affix.
Some examples of this type of affix are shown below.

1. prefix root word-class derived word word-class

a. en- + slave (N)  enslave (V)
b. em- + bitte (N)  embitter (V)
c. a- + head (N)  ahead (Adv)
d. a- + loud (Adj)  aloud (Adv)
e. en- + rich (Adj)  enrich (V)
In the English examples in (1), the prefixes are attached to the roots. The roots in (1a – c) are nouns (N)
while those in (1d – e) are adjectives (Adj). Note that when the prefixes are attached to roots that are nouns in
(1a & b), the word-class of the derived words are verbs, when the prefix is attached to the noun in (1c), the
derived word is an adverb (Adv), where a prefix is attached to a root adjective in (1d) the derived word is an
adverb, but in (1e) the derived word is a verb while the root in an adjective. The affixes in (1) are called class-
changing derivational prefixes.
It is also possible for suffixes to change the class of the root or stem to another when such suffixes are
attached to such root or stem. In the examples in (2), -able, -er, -al, -ate and –ness are class-changing
derivational suffixes in Englishh language because they change the word-class of the root morphemes to
which they are attached.

2. root word-class suffix derived word word-class

a. adapt (V) -able  adaptable (Adj)
b. buy (V) -er  buyer (N)
c. nation (N) -al  national (Adj)
d. saliva (N) -ate  salivate (V)
e. glad (Adj) -ness  gladness (N)

The tree-diagrams below explain further the class-changing nature of the prefixes in (1) and the suffixes
in (2) above. I give the tree-diagrams of (1a – c) in (3a – c) while those of (2a – c) are in (4a – c).
20
3. a. b. c. Adv
V V

Adv N
V N V N

Pre
Pre Pre

a- head
en- slave em- bitter ahead
4. a. enslave
Adj b. N
embitter c. Adj

V Adj V N V Adj

Suf. Suf. Suf.

adapt -able buy -er nation -al

adaptable buyer national

The examples in (5) below are instances of class-changing derivational prefixes in the Yorùbá language.

5. prefix root word-class derived word word-class

a. àì- gbó ̣n (V) àìgbó ̣n (N)
‘be wise’ ‘lack of wisdom’
b. ì- fé ̣ ‘to love’ (V) ìfé ̣ ‘love’ (N)
c. ò- ṣe eré (VP) òṣèré (N)
‘do play’ ‘an actor’

We give the tree-diagrams of the derived words above in (6) below.

6. a N b. N

N V N V

Pre Pre

àì- gbó ̣n ì- fé ̣

àìgbó ̣n ‘lack of wisdom’ ìfé ̣ ‘love’

21
 c. N

N VP

Pre
V NP

ò-
ṣe N

eré
òṣèré ‘an actor’

From the tree-diagrams in (6), it is revealed that when the prefix is attached to the verb in (6a & b) or the verb
phrase in (6c), the derived words are nouns, hence, these prefixes are class-changing.

LECTURE ELEVEN Class-Maintaining Affixes

Introduction
In the last lecture, I discussed and explained class-changing affixes. In this lecture, I will discuss the other
type known as class-maintaining affixes.

Objective
This lecture’s goal is to explain the second type of affixes know as class-maintaining affix. You should be
able to explain and identify this type of affix in a polymorphic word.

Class-Maintaining affixes
A class-maintaining affix is an affix that does not change the word-class of the root, stem or base to which it
is attached to another word-class. In other words, if a root, stem or base belongs to the word-class verb or
noun, when an affix (a prefix, a suffix, an infix or interfix) is attached to it, the word-class of the derived word
will be the same as that of the root stem or base. Therefore the word-class of the derived word and that of the
root, stem or base to which it is attached is the same.
Some examples are shown below.
1. prefix root word-class derived word word-class
a. un- + fair (Adj)  unfair (Adj)
b. en- + close (V)  enclose (V)
c. ir- + regular (Adj)  irregular (Adj)
d. il- + legal (N)  illegal (N)

The tree-diagrams below further reveal that the prefixes in (1) are class-maintaining derivational prefixes.

22
2. a. Adj b. V

Adj Adj V V

pre fair pre close

un- en-
unfair
c. d. enclose

c d.
Adj N

Adj Adj N N

pre regular pre legal

ir- il-
irregular illegal

Other examples of class-maintaining affixes are in (3) below.

3. root word-class suffix derived word word-class

a. king (N) -dom  kingdom (N)
b. friend (N) -ship  friendship (N)
c. gang (N) -ster  gangster (N)

4. a. N b. N c. N

N N N N N N

Suf. Suf. Suf.

king -dom friend -ship gang -ster

kingdom friendship gangster

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Inflectional affixes are also class-maintaining affixes. Recall that they do not change the class of the word to
which they are attached. They just perform some grammatical functions such as number, person, case,
negation etc. Some examples are given below.

5. root word-class infectional derived word word-class

affix
a. look (V) -ed  looked (V)
b. boy (N) -s  boys (N)
c. come (V) -s  comes (V)
d. go (V) es  goes (V)

V
6.a V b. N c. V
V V
V V N V V V
Suf.
Suf. Suf. Suf.

go -es
look -ed boy -s come -s goes
looked boys comes

In the Yorùbá language, the interfixes in the examples below are instances of class-maintaining derivational
affixes. This is because when these interfixes are inserted inbetween two morphemes, the word-class of the
two morphemes and the derive word are the same.

7. morpheme interfix morpheme derived word

a. ọmọ (N) -kí- ọmọ (N)  ọmọkó ̣mọ (N)
child child ‘any child’/ ‘stubborn child’
b. oṣù (N) -dé- oṣù (N)  oṣùdóṣù (N)
month month ‘month to month’

c. ilé (N) -sí- ilé (N)  ilésílé (N)

house house ‘house to house’

The tree-diagrams of the words in (7) are given in (8) below.

24
 N
8. a. N b. N

N N N
N N N N N N

ọmọ inf ọmọ ilé inf ilé

oṣú inf oṣú

-sí-
-kí- -dé- ilésílé
ọmọkó ̣mọ ‘any child’/ oṣùdóṣù ‘house to house’
‘stubbornchild’ ‘month to month’

These are class-maintaining derivational prefixes in Yorùbá too. These are oní- and oni-
9. prefix root/base derived word
a. oní- àìsàn (N) aláìsàn (N)
‘sickness’ ‘sickperson’
b. oní- ilé (N) onílé (N)
house ‘house owner’
c. oni- è ̣ gàn (N) ẹlé ̣gàn (N)
‘mock’ ‘a mocker’

10. a. b. N
N

N N N N

pre N V pre N V

oní- pre sàn oni- pre gàn

-àì-
aláìsàn è ̣
‘sick person’ ẹlé ̣gàn ‘a mocker’

LECTURE TWELVE Reduplication

Introduction
Another way of forming new words is reduplication. I shall discuss and explain this process in this lecture. I
will give examples of various by which this is employed in languages.

Objective
The purpose of this lecture is to introduce you to the morphological process of reduplication for you to be able
to identify and explain the process in language.

25
Definition
Reduplication is a process whereby an affix is realised by phonological material borrowed from the base. It
can also be defined as the repetition of all or part of the radical element. The repeated part of the word serves
some derivational or inflectional purpose (Katamba 1993: 18).
Taiwo (2006: 148) defines reduplication as a morphological process used in the derivation of new words
or new utterances from root morphemes especially from free morphemes or lexical morphemes.
This process is generally employed to indicate such concepts as distribution, plurality, repetition, increase
in size, added intensify etc. I shall employ three ways to discuss reduplication in this lecture. These are the
function of the reduplicated word, the form of the reduplicated word and finally the result of the reduplicated
word.

Functions of reduplicated words

Reduplication can be used to show plurality, emphasis, to reveal the participant or event or action.

Plurality: The reduplicated words in the examples below show the plural by prefixing a copy of the first
syllable of the singular noun and lengthening its vowel.
1. singular plural
tini tiitini ‘mouth’
kuna kuukuna ‘ husband’
(Papago language: Katamba 1993: 181)
In the Yoruba language, as reported in Taiwo (2006: 149), full reduplication of the modifier of a noun can
also indicate plurality.
2. singular plural
ńlá ‘big’ ńláńlá ‘big big’
méjì ‘two’ méjì méjì ‘in twos’
wẹẹrẹ ‘very small’ wẹẹrẹ wẹẹrẹ ‘very small very small’

The modifiers above are used in the sentences below.

3 a. Ilé ńlá wà ní Ìbàdàn
house big be at Ibadan
‘There is/are (a) big house(s) in Ibadan’.

b. Ilé ńlá ńlá wà ní Ìbàdàn

house big big be at Ibadan
‘There are big houses at Ibadan’.
The sentence in (3a) may refer to one house or more than one house depending on the context, but the
one in (3b) will only refer to more than one house. This is made possible by the reduplicated word ńláńlá.

To show emphasis
A reduplicated word can be used to show the intesify of an action or show emphasis. The examples below
from Taiwo (2006: 150) show that adjectives and adverbs can be so reduplicated.
4. root reduplicated word
fío ‘tall’ fíofío ‘very tall’
ré ̣gí ‘exact’ ré ̣gíré ̣gí ‘very exact’
díè ̣ ‘small’ díè ̣díè ̣ ‘very small’
burúkú ‘bad’ burúkú burúkú ‘very bad’

26
Participant/Actor
The doer of an action can also be referred to through reduplication. In Yoruba language (Taiwo 2006: 151), a
verb and its object (i.e. a verb phrase) can be repeated in total reduplication for this purpose.
5. root reduplicated word
pẹja ‘kill fish’ pẹja pẹja ‘ a fisher man’
wolé ‘check house’ wolé wolé ‘sanitary inspector’
sò ̣rò ̣ ‘speak’ sò ̣rò ̣sò ̣rò ̣ ‘speaker’/ ‘one who leads a programme’

To show event
Reduplication is also employed to reveal an event or to show a particular event. In Yoruba language, partial
reduplication (which we shall discuss shortly) is employed for this purpose. These are some examples.

6. root reduplicated word

sò ̣ rò ̣‘speak’ sísò ̣ rò ̣ ‘act of speaking’
pẹja ‘kill fish/fishing pípẹja ‘act of fishing’
wolé ‘check the house’ wíwolé ‘act of checking the house’

The form of the reduplicated word

A part of the base may be copied to derive a new word, it is also possible to copy the whole word in
reduplication. This why a distinction is made between partial and total reduplication. Where a part of the root
or base is copied, such is an instance of partial reduplication, but if the whole part of the word is repeated in
the derivation of a new word, we refer to that as total reduplication.
Examples of partial reduplication

7 a. tini ‘mouth’ tiitini ‘months’

kuna ‘husband’ kuukuna ‘husbands’
(Papago language: Katamba 1993: 180)

b. -pik ‘touch it’ - pipik ‘touch it lightly, repeatedly’

(Tzestal language)
guyon ‘to jest’ guguyon ‘to jest repeatedly’
(Sudanese language)
(Katamba 1993: 180)

c. gbó ̣ ‘to hear’ gbígbó ̣ ‘act of hearing’

búru ‘be bad’ bíburú ‘act of being bad’
sùn ‘to sleep’ sísùn ‘act of sleeping’
(Yoruba, Taiwo 2006: 157)
Examples of total reduplication
8a. kurdu ‘child’ kurdukurdu ‘children’
kamina ‘girl’ kaminakamina ‘girls’
mardukuja ‘woman’ mardukujamardukuja ‘women’
(Waspiri language: Katamba 1993: 182)
b. pẹja ‘to fish’ pẹjapẹja ‘a fisher man’
wolé ‘to inspect the house’ woléwolé ‘a sanitary inspector’
dára ‘be good’ dáradára ‘be very good’
(Yorùbá, Taiwo 2006: 153)

27
Class-changing and class-maintaining reduplication
A distinction is also made between the word-class of the reduplicated word and that of the root or base form
which it is formed. It is possible for the two words to belong to the same word-class or to two different word-
classes. Hence, we have class-changing reduplication and class-maintaining reduplication.

Class-changing reduplication
Where the word-class of the reduplicated word differs from that of the root or base from which it is derived,
we call such reduplication a class-changing reduplication.

9a. pẹja ‘to fish’ (V) pẹjapẹja ‘a fisher man’(N)

wolé ‘to inspect the house’(V) woléwolé ‘a sanitary inspector’(N)
dára ‘be good’ (V) dáradára ‘be very good’ (Adj)
b. gbó ̣ ‘to hear’ (V) gbígbó ̣ ‘act of hearing’(N)
búru ‘be bad’ (V) bíburú ‘act of being bad’(N)
sùn ‘to sleep’ (V) sísùn ‘act of sleeping’ (N)
(Yoruba, Taiwo 2006: 157)

Class-maintaining reduplication
A class-maintaining reduplication is the one which has a word-class that is the same with the root or base
from which it is derived.
Examples
10a. tini ‘mouth’ (N) tiitini ‘months’ (N)
kuna ‘husband’ (N) kuukuna ‘husbands’ (N)
(Papago language: Katamba 1993: 180)

b. -pik ‘touch it’ - pipik ‘touch it lightly, repeatedly’

(Tzestal language)
guyon ‘to jest’ guguyon ‘to jest repeatedly’
(Sudanese language)
(Katamba 1993: 180)

c. root reduplicated word (Adv)

fío ‘tall’ (Adv) fíofío ‘very tall’ (Adv)
ré ̣ gí‘exact’ (Adv) ré ̣ gírégị́ ‘very exact’(Adv)
díè ̣ ‘small’(Adv) díè ̣díè ̣ ‘very small’ (Adv)
burúkú ‘bad’ (Adv) burúkú burúkú ‘very bad’ (Adv)
(Yorùbá, Taiwo 2006: 157)

28
LECTURE THIRTEE Compounding

Introduction
One other way of forming new words in language is composition or compounding. This process involves the
combination of a at least two roots or bases. I shall employ various types of compounds with examples from
English and Yorùbá languages.

Objective
After studying this lecture, you should have a clear understanding of compounding by being able to identify
and explain it in your language.

Definition
A word which contains more than one root is called a compound word. Sometimes bare roots are combined in
compounds, and sometimes an input base contains an affixed form.
Examples:
1a. teaN potN  teapotN
weekN endN  weekendN
b. hairN dressN  -erN-  hairdresserN
kindA heartN  -edA  kindheartedA
openV endN  -edA  openendedA

Types of compounds
Three types of compounds are identified in language. These are endocentric, exocentric and co-ordinate
compounds.

Endocentric compounds
Compounds which have a head are called endocentric compounds. A head of a compound has similar
characteristics to the head of a phrase. It represents the core meaning of the constituent, and it is of the same
word class. Examples in English.

2a. meat eaterwith eater as the head

b. sneak-thief thief as the head

Yorùbá
3a. sọ(V) ‘throw’ + ò ̣rò ̣ (N) ‘word’  sò ̣rò ̣ ‘speak (V)
b. té ̣ (V) ọwó ̣(N) gbà(V)  té ̣wó ̣gbà ‘accept’ (V)
c. okún (N) fà (V)  okùnfà (N)
rope pull ‘cause’

Exocentric compounds
Compounds without a head are called exocentric compounds. Examples are the following verbal compounds
in the Yorùbá language.
V V  V
4a. jẹ yọ jẹyọ ‘appear’
b. pa dà padà ‘return’
c. bù kún bùkún ‘bless’
in the formation of the compound verbs in (4), two verbs combine. None of the two verbs in these
combination can be said to be the head of the compound verb.

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Co-ordinate compounds
A co-ordinate compound is a compound in which the words that constitute it share head-like characteristics.
None of these words can singly be regarded as the head of the compound. All the words that form the
compound word share the characteristics of the head. Some examples are in the Yorùbá language where a
sentence can become a word, a noun, through desententialisation.
5a. Ọló ̣run fún mi  Ọló ̣runfúnmi
God give me (personal name)
i.e. ‘God gave me’.

b. Olú bá ò ̣ rò ̣ dé  Olúbó ̣rò ̣dé

Olu follow wealth come (personal name)
i.e. ‘Olú came with wealth’.

c. Bá mi dé ilé  Bámidélé
follow me reach house (personal name)
i.e. ‘Follow me home’.

d. Gbá ojú rè ̣  Gbájúè ̣ ‘fraudster’

slap face his
i.e. ‘Slap his face’.

The compound words in the above examples are Ọló ̣runfúnmi, Olúbó ̣ ròdé,
̣ Bámidélé and gbájúè .̣ They
are formed from sentences, no part of these sentences can be ascribed the head in these words, each part has
head-like features of the derived word.

References
Elson, B. and V. Picket. 1962. An Introduction to Morphology and Syntax. California: SIL
Fabb, Nigel. 2001. Compounding. In Spencer, Andrew and Arnold Zwicky (Eds) The Handbook of
Morphology. Oxford Blackwell publishers, pp. 66 – 83.
Fromkin, Victoria and Robert Rodman 1998. An Introduction to Language. Orlando: Harcourt Brace
Jovanorich Publishers.
Katamba, Francis 1993 Morphology. The Macmillan Press Ltd. London.
Malmkyaer, K. (ed.) 1999. The Linguistic Encyclopedia. London & New York: Routledge.
Mario, Pel 1966. Glossary of Linguistic Terminology. New York & London: Columbia University Press.
Okolo, B. A. and P. A. Ezikeojiaku 2000. Introduction to Language and Linguistics. Benin City: Mindex
Publishing Company.
Spencer, Andrew & Arnold Zwicky (Eds) The Handbook of Morphology. Oxford Blackwell publishers.
Taiwo, Oye 2006. Mofó l̩ ó j̩ ì (Morphology). Ibadan: Layof publishing services
Tomori, S.H.O 1977. The Morphology and Syntax of Present-day English. An Introduction. London: HEB.

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