P-ISSN 2708-6453 Pakistan Languages and Humanities Review Jan-Mar 2024, Vol. 8, No.

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O-ISSN 2708-6461 https://doi.org/10.47205/plhr.2024(8-I)48 [543-552]

RESEARCH PAPER
Punjabi Adjectives: A Morphological Perspective
1 Muhammad Farukh Arslan* 2 Prof. Dr. Muhammad Asim Mehmood and 3 Aisha
Kanwal
1. PhD Scholar, Department of Applied Linguistics Government College University Faisalabad,
Lecturer NUML Fsd Campus, Punjab, Pakistan
2. Chairperson Department of Applied Linguistics Government College University Faisalabad,
Punjab, Pakistan
3. Master in English, Department of English University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab,
Pakistan
*Corresponding Author Farukh.arslan@numl.edu.pk
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this research was to conduct a morphological analysis of adjectives in
Punjabi language by employing the theory of distributed morphology. The study intended
to identify the prefixes, suffixes and morphemes involved in the formation of the adjectives
and to determine the pattern, how adjectives inflect for number and gender. Morphology
is a vital aspect of linguistics, and the basic understanding of the morphological structure
of a language is crucial for delving into syntax and semantics. This research focused
specifically on the morphological analysis of adjectives in Punjabi, a language with rich
morphological patterns. A corpus of Punjabi language was collected and tagged to extract
the list of adjectives. The theory of distributed morphology was employed for
morphological analysis. Patterns of prefixes, suffixes and the morphemes were identified
to understand how adjectives are formed in Punjabi. The analysis revealed key morphemes
such as ‫ ال‬،‫ دہ‬،‫ئے‬،‫ یا‬،‫ی‬, and ‫وی‬, (la, deh, nay, ya and vi) as well as important prefixes and
suffixes in the formation of adjectives. Adjectives were found to inflect for number and
gender and displayed the agreement with nouns. Further research can explore the
semantic nuances of these morphemes and their role in adjective formation in different
syntactic contexts. Additionally, the pedagogical implications can be drawn for teaching
Punjabi morphology and syntax to the first and second language learners of Punjabi
language.

KEYWORDS Adjectives, Distributed Morphology, Prefixes, Shahmukhi Punjabi, Suffixes

Introduction

The process of word formation in any language is related to the field of

Morphology. Plag (2002) termed word formation as the process of creating new lexical
items from already existing words. It contains the addition and division of phonic aspects.
Bauer (1983) stated that the complex lexemes are generated through this process. Punjabi
possesses engrossing morphology including the inflectional and derivational morphemes
which change the form and derive new vocabulary items. It happens through the process
of affixation.

Inflections may help to pluralize any noun, but the derivational morphemes create
new word from already existing words. Derivational morphology includes the morphemes
which are termed as class maintaining and class changing morphemes (Yule, 1996). Studies
conducted in the past differentiate the sub-types of the Punjabi morphology; researchers
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stated that the inflections are commonly used suffixes, which exhibit the linguistic ties
between the tense, person and number (Pal, Ahuja, Bansal & Kumar, Sharma, 2010).

Punjabi has not received much attention on the level of Morphology, bundle of
research have been conducted on morphology of English, Hindi, Sindhi and Urdu but the
Punjabi morphology is still kept in the dark. Total sixty nine 69 languages are spoken in
Pakistan; Punjabi is among 6 major languages spoken in Pakistan. It is written in two
different scripts in India and Pakistan. Gurumukhi script is used by Indian on the other
hand Shahmukhi script is employed by Pakistani writers of Punjabi langauge. Gurmukhi
Punjabi is close to Sanskrit whereas the Perso-Arabic script has a major influence on
Shahmukhi script.

Punjabi is termed as syllable timed language, as (Schneider, 1997) explained that

most of the Asian languages are syllable timed languages are European languages are
stress timed langauges. It consists of 41 consonants known as vianjans, 9 vowel called
matras and 2 phonemic symbols for nasal sounds (Meenu, 2007; Rupinderdeep, 2010; Gill
& Gleason, 1969). Malik‘s (2006) argued that there are 65 phonemes in Punjabi including
49 consonants and 16 vowels is different from Meenu’s claim.

Arslan and Mahmood (2021) conducted the study on the idea of sound shift in
Punjabi language. The study highlighted number of sounds which are shifting from its
original pronunciation due to the influence of other languages as the first language. The
study concluded that this sound shift may lead towards sound extinction and language
death.

Islam (2011) conducted study on the morphology of loanwords in Urdu. In this

research, researcher described loan affixes help to change categories. Firstly, Islam’s work
was in Urdu but the study dealt with the formation of Punjabi nouns from other open class
words; nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs by employing the approach of derivation.

Hussain, (2018) conducted the study on nominal markers of Punjabi nouns. The
study found out various patterns which play vital role in the formation of nouns. Study
also found out patterns of derivational and inflectional morphemes attached with the
nouns.

Various studies are found on the idea of morphology but the morphology of
Punjabi language is addressed by very few researchers, furthermore the morphology of
Punjabi adjective is one of the aspects which still need to be explored. This study
contributes to the morphological patterns of Punjabi adjectives.

In this particular study different patterns of formation of adjectives are studied and
explored. This study also gives the examples of prefixes and suffixes joined with the words
to form adjectives. Theoretical frame of attributive morphology is adopted in this study to
analyze the patterns of adjectives of Punjabi language. Theoretical frame of distributive
morphology is employed for the analysis.

Literature Review

Lexical categories of a word are defined by the role it plays and the position at
which it exists. According to Sood, et al (2015), Punjabi has 11 word classes. All these sub
classes of words can be studied and analyzed under the filed to morphology to find out
what kind of role those words perform in a language and how the words in a particular
category are formed and produced.

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Morphology is the study of word form. It supports to understand the rules direct
the structure of complex words (Bauer, 2003). Aronoff and Fudeman (2005) termed
morphology as a mental state engaged in the activity and process word formation.
Morphemes are termed as the smallest building blocks of morphology carrying a lexical or
grammatical meaning (Booji, 2005). Lyons (1979) describes morpheme as “the minimal unit
of grammatical analysis in all languages”. Thus, the word undressed consists of three
morphemes {un}-{dress}-{ed} because all these chunks are separate units carrying
meanings. A morpheme can be a word or further part of a word.

Nida (1949) discussed it in two major categories‟, free morpheme and bound
morpheme. Free morpheme can stand at its own and carry the meanings but the bound
morpheme needs another entity to preserve a meaning, it cannot be a part of any
grammatical construction individually. Such as the word ‫بےگھر‬/beghar/ here in the word
‫ بے‬/be/ is bound morpheme which needs to be attached to convey its meanings.

Inflectional morphemes change the form of a word according to its specific

grammatical context (Lieber, 2009). Such as the word‫ چنگا‬/change/,‫ چنگی‬/changi/,‫چنگے‬
/changay/ and‫ چنگیاں‬/changian/ are the different variations of same word. The basic
meaning remains the same these morphemes attached at suffix position help in creating
different words within that same grammatical category of words.

Inflectional morphemes do not change the category of the word. These morphemes
are not separate words rather are variants of same lexeme. Lexeme is dictionary
demonstration in which affixes adds only a little grammatical meaning to fit in the context.
These words do not have separate entries in dictionaries rather it is assumed that the
speakers of a language are aware and understand the use and difference.

Arslan, Mahmood and Rasool (2020) studied the derivational morphemes of

English language across native, second and foreign language speakers of English language
through ICNALE date. The study found variations in the patterns of usage of morphemes
across all three verities of English language and recommended different patterns which
must be incorporated in the pedagogical activities.

Arslan, Mahmood, Shoaib, Idrees and Tariq (2023) conducted the analysis of
morphological patterns of nouns in Shahmukhi Punjabi. The analysis revealed that nouns
inflect for number and gender and showed same pattern of complementation among
adjectives and nouns. The study revealed various patterns for forming plural nouns in both
of the genders, and also for deriving nouns from the adjectives and vice versa.
Additionally, the study also revealed the patterns of noun derivation from the adverbs.

Derivational morphemes on the other hand can change the part of speech of a word
or can change the meanings of the whole word from the root. Bauer (2003: 14) differentiated
“an inflectional affix is one that produces a new word-form of a lexeme from a base. A
derivational affix is one which produces a new lexeme from a base”. Thus, the word ‫چنگا‬
/change/, is an adjective but after the attachment of suffix – ‫ یائی‬/yai. It becomes ‫چنگیائی‬
changyai “goodness” which is a noun.

Arslan, Kanwal, Mahmood, and Haroon (2023) conducted the analysis of

morphological analysis of case markers in Shahmukhi Punjabi nouns. The analysis
revealed that the morphemes within the Punjabi language function as specific case markers
for nouns. The investigation has illuminated that both the direct/nominative case and the
oblique/accusative case are distinguished by the presence of morphemes ‫ی ے‬، ‫ا‬،/aa, I,
ay/, and ‫ اں‬/an/ positioned at their respective locations, such as the subject and object
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positions within a sentence. The vocative case is identified through the inclusion of
morphemes ‫ ن‬and /,yo ,ya/ ،‫ یو یا‬/iay/ at the end of the word. The genitive case is marked
by the morphemes ‫دی دے‬، ‫دا‬، /da, di, day/, and ‫ دیاں‬/dian/, which signal possession. In this
way, the study signified the importance of morphemes which is vital for identifying the
form and function of Punjabi words in daily language use.

Root is a content morpheme which cannot be further divided into smaller

meaningful units (Melinger, 2001). Stem is also used to refer “root‟ and a “root‟ plus affix
c which allows the attachment of other affixes. The term base refers to partially complete
word form with which an inflectional or derivational affix is attached (McCarthy, 2002).

Keeping in mind the level of morphology, Punjabi is a rich language. Similar to

other languages such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, Punjabi is also affluent in its word
formation process. Frequent and highly productive morphological processes grade it
distinctive language. Being an agglutinative language, Punjabi uses affixation very
frequently to produce new words. However, compounding and reduplication are also very
frequent processes used in the formation of words in Punjabi language.

Punjabi is a gender oriented language. Punjabi nouns inflect for number (singular
and plural), gender (male and female) and case (direct, oblique, vocative, ablative, and
locative). Adjectives also agree with noun so they also use inflections according to their
nouns for example ‫ چنگا‬/changa/ becomes ‫ چنگی‬/changi/, ‫چنگے‬/changay/, ‫چنگیاں‬
/changian,‫ چنگیو‬/changio/ and ‫ چنگیو‬/changeo/.

In this way variety of inflections are attached with the roots to make other forms of
adjectives and derive adjectives from other grammatical categories of words. In this study
all these patterns are studied and explained using the theory of distributed morphology.
Morphemes in DM are distributed into two categories: functional head morphemes
specified as (<>) and the roots symbolized as (√). In Punjabi language, a noun ‘Farukh’ can
be described as: [√Farukh]. The syntactic features are inserted as [√Farukh <Noun, Sing,
Masc>]. In this way attachment of morphemes is explained in this study.

Material and Methods

The first step is data collection. This step consisted upon the collection of written
form of Punjabi language data in the form of books, newspaper, columns and novels etc.
Publishers were contacted and asked to share the published books, novels and other genres
for research purposes. Online web sites, newspapers, columns and short stories were taken
for the inclusion in the corpus.

Corpus Development

The second step was corpus development. Corpus of 9 million words was
developed. It consisted upon shahmukhi script of Punjabi language. At this step of the
study books and other linguistic data which was available in hard (printed) form was
converted into machine readable data. Google lens was used to convert printed data into
machine readable or editable text. Two techniques are available first one is google Docs, in
which pictures are taken of the printed pages and Pdf format is converted into pictures by
taking screen shots and then uploaded to Gmail drive then those pictures are opened with
google Docs and it extracts the linguistic data from it. Data analysis

Corpus of 9 million words was loaded into Antconc and the word list was
developed. The word list was sorted by words. This helped to arrange all kinds of lexical

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items collectively into one set. Then that list was further analyzed through excel sheet. At
this level every set of lexical items was studied to find out how words are changing into
different forms and part of speech categories of Punjabi language. All the prefixes and
suffixes were also extracted at this level by keeping in the mind that after removing the
prefix or suffix still the remaining part is a meaningful word.

Results and Discussions

Pattern 1
Derivation of Adjectives from Nouns with the insertion of /i/
Syntactic Function Morphological Function Semantic Function
Root morphemes Inflections Insertion Logical form
√maghrib ‫مغرب‬ Adjectives Maghrabi‫مغربی‬
√tareekh‫تاریخ‬ are derived Tareekhi‫تاریخی‬
√Mashriq‫مشرق‬ /i/ from Nouns Mashriqi‫مشرقی‬
√Shaoor‫شعور‬ by joining Shaoori‫شعوری‬
/i/ at the
end of the
word
<N°, Sing > <Sing>
<Sing, Adj>
This pattern is about the formation of noun from adjective with the help of inserting
/i/ morpheme at suffix position. The syntactic operation is described as √Azad is the head
word and abstract description of this function is <Adj°, Sing >. In morphological operation
process of insertion is applied. At semantic operation singular nouns are derived. The
abstract description is <Sing, Noun>.

Pattern 2
Derivation of Adjectives from Nouns with the insertion of /ial/
Syntactic Function Morphological Function Semantic Function
Root morphemes Inflections Insertion Logical form
√Sarr‫سڑ‬ Adjectives Sarrial‫سڑیل‬
√Mar‫مر‬ are derived Marial‫مریل‬
√Ghusa‫غصہ‬ /il/ from Nouns Ghusil‫غصیل‬
by joining
/ia/ at the
<N°, Sing > <Sing> end of the <Sing, Adj>
word

Pattern 3
Derivation of Adjectives from Nouns with the insertion of /vi/
Syntactic Function Morphological Function Semantic Function
Root morphemes Inflections Insertion Logical form
√Afsana‫افسانہ‬ Adjectives Afsanvi‫افسانوی‬
√Roman‫رومان‬ are derived Romanvi‫رومانوی‬
√Juz‫جز‬ /vi/, from Nouns Juzvi‫جزوی‬
√San‫ثان‬ by joining Sanvi‫ثانوی‬
√Dunia‫دنیا‬ /vi/ at the Duniavi‫دنیاوی‬
end of the
word

<N°, Sing > <Sing> <Sing, Adj>

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Adjectives are derived from noun. This pattern describes the process of derivation
adjectives from noun. The syntactic operation in this pattern shows that the root words are
like √Azad and √Udaas. These are the masculine nouns. The abstract description of the
pattern is <N°, Sing >. In morphological operation the morphemes such as /i/, /ia/, /vi/,
/ae/ and /la/ are added at the end of the word. The process of insertion is performed here
in result of which adjectives are formed.

The second pattern which is observed during the analysis that adjectives are also
derived from nouns by joining the morpheme )‫ (وی‬to make adjective like the words afsana
‫ افسانہ‬is changed in to ‫ افسانوی‬afsanvi and ‫ رومانی‬romani to ‫ رومانوی‬romanvi which is
adjectives. It shows the pattern that vi )‫ (وی‬is attached to derive the adjectives.

The third pattern found for the making of adjectives is to join )‫ (ئے‬/ae/ with the
noun such as with the word darya ‫ دریا‬the morpheme )‫ (ئے‬/ae/ is used to make the word
)‫ (دریائے‬daryae which is used as adjective in Punjabi language like ‫دریائے سندھ‬.

The fourth pattern found in the derivation of adjectives from nouns is the use of
morpheme /la/ )‫ (ال‬such as the word raitla ‫ ریتال‬and ‫ سریال‬sureela are adjectives which are
derived from the words ‫ ریت‬rait and sur ‫سر‬.

The fifth pattern which is not much frequent in Punjabi language but still found is
the use of the morpheme )‫ (ڑ‬with the roots to make the words like‫ کتابڑ‬and ‫بھکڑ‬.

Pattern 4
Derivation of Adjectives from Nouns with the insertion of /deh/
Syntactic Function Morphological Function Semantic Function
Root morphemes Inflections Insertion Logical form
√Nuqsan‫نقصان‬ Adjectives Nuqsandeh
√Takleef‫تکلیف‬ are derived Takleefdeh
√Mojood‫موجود‬ from Nouns Mojoodah
√Ranj‫رنج‬ by joining at Ranjidah
√Pasand‫پسند‬ the end of Pasandidah
the word
<N°, Sing > <Sing> <Sing, Adj>

Pattern 5
Derivation of Adjectives from Nouns with the insertion of /la/
Syntactic Function Morphological Function Semantic Function
Root morphemes Inflections Insertion Logical form
√rait ‫ریت‬ Adjectives Raitla‫ریتال‬
√Sur‫سر‬ are derived Surila‫سریال‬
√Ras‫رس‬ /la/ from Nouns Rasela‫رسیال‬
√Zehar‫زہر‬ by joining Zeharila‫زہریال‬
√Josh‫جوش‬ /la/ at the Joshila‫جوشیال‬
end of the
<N°, Sing > <Sing> word <Sing, Adj>

Prefixes
‫کم عقل‬ ‫ناحق‬ ‫ان پڑھ‬ ‫الپرواہ‬
Kam aqal Na haqq Anparh Laparwah
‫پرجوش‬ ‫بااعتبار‬ ‫بد تمیز‬ ‫بےچین‬
Purjosh Baetbar Badtameez Baychain
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The prefix ‫ کم‬kam, it originated from Persian language. It is mainly used to form
adjectives from already existing words. All the examples given in the above table show the
formation of adjectives except the one example ‫ کم زوری‬Kam zori. It will be used as noun in
Punjabi language. It became noun through the addition of ‫ ی‬/i/ morpheme at the end of
the word. Here, ‫ ی‬/i/ worked as derivational morpheme and made noun from adjective.

The prefix ‫ نا‬/na/, this prefix originates from the Persian language. It is basically
joined with other words at the beginning to make nouns in most of the cases. The prefix
equates the English prefix /un/ but it does not equate in all cases. Few words get different
prefixes and translation when they are equated to English words.

The word ‫ نا خوش‬Na khush is the translation of unhappy. It equates the English
prefix /un/ but it varies in context to other words such as ‫ نا ممکن‬Na mumkin is the
translation of impossible. So variations are found across language with relation to the use
of prefixes.

The other aspect which needs to mention here is that such prefixes ‫ نا‬/na/, ‫ ان‬/un/
‫کم‬/kam/ ‫ ال‬/la/‫ بے‬/bae/ and ‫ بد‬/bad/ are mostly used to construct words possessing the
meanings of negation and these words play vital role in the formation of antonyms.

Such kinds of words are also observed while analyzing the morphology and the
affixation that few prefixes are joined with the words which are actually used a suffix in
some other context like ‫ نادان‬/nadaan/. Here /na/ is joined as prefix with the word ‫دان‬
/dan/ which is used as suffix with the word ‫ پھولدان‬/phooldaan/ means flowerpot.

The prefix ‫ ان‬/an/ is joined at the beginning of the word to make new words. The
origin of this prefix was traced in Arabic language. This prefix is joined with the word to
form adjectives. The prefix ‫ ال‬/la/, this prefix originates form Arabic language. This prefix
is joined at the beginning to form adjectives and it denotes negative meanings, inability
and incapability of some person.

The prefix ‫ پر‬/pur/, this prefix is joined to make adjectives. This prefix originates
from Sanskrit language. It is joined with the words to show optimistic aspect and the
capability of something.

The prefix ‫با‬/ba/, it is basically used to form adjectives in Punjabi language. This
prefix originates from Persian language and it is used to form adjectives in Punjabi
language. The words carrying this prefix show the meaning possession, equipping and
carrying anything.

The prefix ‫ بد‬/bad/, it is basically used to form adjectives by joining it at the

beginning of the words. This prefix originates from Persian language. It is joined to make
the words of negation and negative connotations. If some other morpheme is added at the
end of the word it begins to work as noun in Punjabi language such as ‫ بدمعاش‬/badmaash/
becomes ‫ بدمعاشی‬/badmaashi/ with the addition of just one morpheme ‫ ی‬/i/. There are
many other examples of such noun formation in this particular case.

The prefix ‫ بے‬/bay/ was found in the corpus joined at the beginning of the words.
Its origin is found in Persian language. In most of the cases, it is joined to form adjectives
with the word but it is also used as noun if some other morpheme is joined at the end of
the word as told in the case of above discussed prefix ‫ بد‬/bad/. If ‫ ی‬/i/ and ‫ ا‬/a/ is joined
at the end it becomes noun. This prefix is also joined with the word to form words of

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negative meanings and connotation. It also shows the meaning of without, inability and
lack of potential and characteristics of possessing something.

Suffixes
‫خطرناک‬ ‫عقلمند‬ ‫ُخشگوار‬ ‫عالمانہ‬
khatarnaak Aqalmand Khushgwar Alimana
‫خوفزدہ‬ ‫سریال‬ ‫قومپرست‬ ‫نشہ اور‬
Khaufzadah Sureela Qomparast Nashaawar
‫َوفادار‬ ‫حرامکھور‬ ‫دلسوز‬ ‫خودساختہ‬
Wafadar Haramkhor Dilsoz Khudsakhta
‫دلدوز‬ ‫َوفادار‬ ‫جعلساز‬ ‫طاقتور‬
Dildoz Wafadar Jaalsaz Taqatwar
‫ہفتاوار‬ ‫دغیباز‬ ‫چشمدید‬
Haftawar Daghebaz Chashamdeed
The suffix ‫ناک‬/naak/ is joined at the end of the words to form adjectives. This suffix
originated from Persian language. The examples of all the adjectives found in the corpus
with the suffix are mentioned here.

The suffix ‫ مند‬/mand/, adjectives are formed usually by joining it at the end of the
words. The origin of the suffix was traced back in Arabic language. The above table also
includes all the orthographical examples of the words including this suffix. This suffix
gives the meanings of having and possession.

The suffix ‫ گوار‬/gawar/, the origin of this suffix is in Persian language. Most of the
words formed through this suffix are adjectives. This suffix forms the words related to
feelings, experience and emotions.

The ‫ نہ‬/na/, this suffix is added to form adjectives. The origin of this suffix is from
Persian language. The words formed with the addition of this suffix give the meaning to
qualify some noun as adjective. The suffix‫ پرست‬/prast/, It helps in the formation of
adjectives. Its origin in is Persian language. It gives the meaning depending or relating to
something.

The suffix ‫ زدہ‬/zadah/, adjectives are formed through the addition of this suffix. It
originates from Persian language. It works as a word which begins to describe the state of
being of a person.

The suffix ‫ یال‬/eela/, it helps in making adjectives in Punjabi language. All the
occurrences found in the corpus are of adjectives except the word ‫ گجریال‬/gajreela/.
Adjectives formed through the addition of this suffix tell about persons and things, their
qualities and features. The above example is related to the suffix ‫ اور‬/awar/ found in the
corpus. This suffix helps in the formation of adjectives.

The ‫ دار‬/dar/, adjectives and nouns both are formed through the addition of this
suffix. Its origin is traced back to Persian language. It conveys variety of meanings which
show the characteristics and feature of some person and thing.

The suffix ‫ کھور‬/khor/, it is equal the suffix ‫ خور‬/khor/. Due to dialectal differences
these two different suffixes are found. It gives the meaning of eater, doer and consumer.
Nouns and adjectives both are formed through this suffix.Within Punjabi language ‫ ف‬is
often replaced by ‫پھ‬, ‫ خ‬is often replaced by ‫ ز کھ‬is replaced by ‫ ج‬and‫ غ‬is replaced by ‫ گ‬by
most of the Punjabi speakers. Variety of factors play role here in this shift of sound. It might
be the education, locality and dialect which become the reason behind this shift.

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The above examples are related to suffix ‫ سوز‬/soz. Found in corpus. It helps in the
formation of adjectives. Its origin is is Persian language. It gives the meaning of hurting
and threatening. This example given above is related to suffix ‫ ساختہ‬/sakhta/. It helps in
the formation of adjectives. Its origin is in Persian language. It gives the meaning of form
and structure.

The above examples are of the suffix ‫ دوز‬/doz/ found in the corpus. It helps in the
formation of adjectives. Its origin is found in the Persian language. The above table includes
the examples of the suffix ‫ دار‬/dar/. Adjectives and nouns both are formed through the
addition of this suffix. Its origin is traced back to Persian language. It conveys variety of
meanings which show the characteristics and feature of some person and thing.

This table includes the examples of the suffix ‫ ساز‬/saaz/. This suffix helps in the
formation of adjectives. This suffix originates from Arabic language. It gives the meaning
of some profession or creation. This table provides the examples of the suffix ‫ ور‬/war/. It
helps in forming adjectives in all cases. It gives the meaning of ability and skill. This table
includes the examples of the suffix ‫ وار‬/war/. It helps in making nouns at higher frequency,
adjectives are lesser in number such as; zumewar, khushgawar, sogwar and qasoorwar. Its
origin is from in Persian language. It provides variety of meanings which cannot be
differentiated on the basis of suffix.

The suffix ‫ باز‬/baz/ helps in the formation of nouns and adjectives. It originated
from Arabic language. It shows the traits and quality of some person. The above table
includes the examples of the suffix ‫ دید‬/deed/. It originated from Arabic language. Both
adjectives and nouns are formed with the help of this suffix.

Conclusion

This analysis was concerned with the morphemes playing vital role in the formation
adjectives. Research intended to get the answers of the questions regarding the patterns of
morphemes helping in the formation of adjectives. Results of the study revealed that the
morphemes such as /i/‫ی‬, /vi/‫وی‬, /deh/‫دہ‬, and/ia/‫ ایل‬and/la/‫ ال‬were the morphemes
which play key role in the formation of adjectives. Results also showed that there are other
prefixes and suffixes through which adjectives are formed. The prefixes are /kam/ ‫کم‬, /la/
‫ال‬, /an/ ‫ان‬, /bay/ ‫بے‬, /bad/ ‫بد‬, /pur/ ‫پر‬, /ba/ ‫با‬, and /na/ ‫ نا‬and the suffixes are /naak/
‫ناک‬, /mand/ ‫مند‬, /gawar/ ‫گوار‬, /anah/ ‫انہ‬, /dar/ ‫دار‬, /khor/ ‫خور‬, /soz/ ‫سوز‬, /sakhta/ ‫ساختہ‬,
/doz/ ‫دوز‬, /saz/ ‫ساز‬, /war/ ‫ور‬, /war/ ‫وار‬, /baaz/ ‫باز‬, /deed/ ‫دید‬. Results revealed that the
number of suffixes are greater in number than the prefixes which play vital role in the
formation of adjectives.

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 Pakistan Languages and Humanities Review (PLHR) Jan-Mar, 2024, Vol. 8, No. 1

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