Current Issues in Linguistics, Language and Gender Studies: A Festschrift in Honour of Professor Cecilia Amaoge Eme 24 GA AS A HOMONYMOUS LEXEME IN IGBO: A MORPHOSYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC ANALYSIS Christiana Ngozi Ikegwuonu Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, Anambra State Introduction In many natural languages, words may not only have meaning properties in isolation, they often bear some meaning relations with each other. Words may be semantically related either because they share certain properties or because they exhibit contrastive semantic features. There are quite a number of meaning relations which words exhibit due to how they interact with each other in the sentence. Some words enter into some kinds of meaning relations to make different meanings other than they could have made in isolation. It is this notion that gave rise to different meaning relation that obtain both at word and sentence levels. In Igbo language, there are many homonymous lexemes. These lexemes have different and unrelated meanings, but their surface phonetic forms are the same. Ga is among the homonymous lexemes we have in Igbo. This study therefore undertakes its study to find out how it manifests in the syntactic structures of the language. This paper has five sections. Section one is the introduction. Section two is overview of homonymy. Section is the morphological structure of ga whereas section four is the syntactic and semantic analysis of ga in Igbo. Section five is the conclusion. Homonymy: An overview Homonymy appears to be a universal phenomenon. In different natural languages, many words from different word classes appear to have the same spelling and pronunciation. A homonymy is a word which has the same sound, and the same spelling as another but with a different meaning or origin. Crystal (2007:220) defines homonymy as “a term used in semantic analysis to refer to lexical items which have the same form but differ in meaning.” According to Anagbogu, Mbah and Eme (2010), homonymy can be looked at from two different angles: the first is to see it as a word having many meanings (polysemy) or to assume that different meanings realize themselves in a similar form, that is, they are spelt and pronounced alike though they do not have the same meaning. To Yule (2006:107), the term “homonymy” is used “when one form, (written and spoken) has two or more unrelated meanings.” Allan (1986:84) defines homonymy as “a lexical meaning relation holding between lexemes that have the same phonetic features but have two or more different meanings.” Palmer (1981:102) notes that “if identical forms have different origins, they are treated as homonyms and form separate entries.” In his view, Saeed (2003) posits that homonyms are unrelated sense of the same phonological word. Ndimele (1999:51) illustrates using below example: Current Issues in Linguistics, Language and Gender Studies: A Festschrift in Honour of Professor Cecilia Amaoge Eme 25 Living organism distinguished from animal Plant A factory Machine for generating electricity From the above example, we observe that the word plant describes three different items. That is, plant 1, describes living organism distinguished from animal, plant 2, describes a factory and plant 3, describes machines for generating electricity. The above example shows that a homonymous lexemes can have two or more entirely distinct meanings. The morphological structure of Ga in Igbo Morphologically, ga is formed with a consonant and a vowel thus: g + a ga [CV] structure. With the CV structure, it can function as a full lexical verb as well as verb root, which can take affixes. Nwachukwu (1983:132) posits that ga is not quite an auxiliary like na, because unlike na “it can function in a non-auxiliary capacity, that is, as the only verb of an independent clause in the language.” He gives the feature specification of na thus [+V, + Aux.–], ga has the specification thus [+ V, + Aux] since ga can be used as a verb that is [+V] and as an auxiliary, that is [+Aux]. The syntactic and semantic analysis of Ga in Igbo constructions Ga as a lexical verb The verb is a universal phenomenon in human natural languages. The meaning of a verb can be analyzed into a structure representation of events it designates. A verb has been described traditionally as a word which states the action performed by the subject. It is a word that tells us what the subject does in the sentence. That is why it is defined as an action or a doing word. The Igbo verb form is complex and it is the most fascinating of all the word class in the language. Mbah (2006) describes Igbo language as a verb language. This is because verb plays significant roles in the grammatical structures of the language. Unlike English where word formation cuts across different grammatical categories, Igbo words are only formed from the verb. According to Nwachukwu (1983) no verb is formed from any other part of speech. Green and Igwe (1963:64) claim that the “verb is distinguished formally from all other parts of speech by the fact that it is the only one in which an inflectional affix is found.” The verb takes the harmonizing vowel prefix a-/e- according to the root vowel of the verb. The morpheme constituents of the verb in various verb forms are either the CV root or the root and the vowel prefix. The verb root can be independent in the sense that it can stand alone. The affixes which are attached to the verb root cannot stand alone but depend on the main verb to have meaning. The dependent particles are affixes which can come before the main verb root. They are called prefixes whereas those that are attached after are called the suffixes. It is important to not that the verb root and its nominal modifiers are in one semantic unit, and as such, they form one entry in any dictionary because without the nominal, the verb root would be very ambiguous and unspecified. Emenanjo (1987:128) notes: Current Issues in Linguistics, Language and Gender Studies: A Festschrift in Honour of Professor Cecilia Amaoge Eme 26 The inherent semantic nature of the Igbo verb is that it obligatorily co-exists with a nominal element which always complements. It is the nominal element that we call the complement … the truth is that the semantic content of every Igbo verb inherently describes a certain action or state which by its very nature implies the co-existence of complements. Following Emenanjo’s view, it implies that ga cannot in isolation form a meaningful semantic unit unless it co-occurs with inherent complements. Below are the examples of some of the inherent complements of ga. 1. a. Ga ǹga (imprisonment/go to prison) b. Ga ǹjèm̀ (go for a journey) c. Ga ògù (go to war) d. Ga ọlàakā (bead the bangle) e. Ga òwu (knit the thread) f. Ga ihe olū (bead the neckles) g. Ga ùle (go for examination) h. Ga àkpà (bead the bag) i. Ga mbọ (scratch) The data below show homonymous ga and its different unrelated meanings. 2. a. go b. pass through a small opening c. bead Ga d. hook somewhere e. rake fallen leaves and make soil smooth f. scratch with nails or something sharp g. pin together/chain together From the above data, examples (2a – g) can be represented in the sentences below: 3. a. Uchè gàrà ǹga. Uche g-rvpst prison. Uche went to prison. b. Òkụkọ gàrà nà m̀pìo. Fowl pass-rvpst prep small hole. The fowl passed through the small hole. c. Ùju gàrà ọlàakā. Uju bead-rvpst bangle. Uju beaded the bangle. d. Ijèọma gàrà òwu nà ǹtụtū. Ijeoma knit –rvpst thread prep-needle. Ijeoma knitted the thread. e. Ọkpụkpụ gàdoro Òbi n’àkpịrī. Bone hook-rvpst Obi prep-throat. . . . . . . . Current Issues in Linguistics, Language and Gender Studies: A Festschrift in Honour of Professor Cecilia Amaoge Eme 27 The bone hooked Obi inside the throat. f. Ebe ogwu ahù gàdoro Chikē dì njọ. Place thong Dem hook-rvpst Chike be bad. The place that thong hooked Chike is bad. Ha gachara ugbo ha. 3pl rake-rvpst farm 3pl. They raked their farm. g. Uchè gàrà Ibè mbọ n’ihu. Uche scratch-rvpst Ibe nails prep-face. Uche scratched Ibe’s face. From the foregoing, ga takes the rv suffix in the syntactic structures to indicate different semantic readings. It is also observed that the ga in sentences (2a - b) and (2c - d) are somehow related in meaning in the sense that it indicates movement of an entity or object. Examples (2e - g) do not related to movement. Ga in sentences (e, f and h) are related in the sense that pains are inflicted on the entities. Ga can take an open vowel suffix to express imperative Ga as the verb root can take an open vowel suffix to express imperative readings. The structure is thus: [CV + V] verb. Consider examples below: 3. a. Gàa Ga – ovs Go b. Gàa ụkà Ga-ovs church Go to church c. Gàa ōwū Ga-ovs thread Knit the thread d. Gàa yā mbọ Scratch-ovs 3pl nail Scratch him/her/it e. Gàa hā ichè Ga-ovs 3pl different Pin them differently In the above data, the tone of verb roots are consistently on low tones whereas the open vowels which are attached to them are consistently on high tones. Ga can take -rv suffix to indicate past tense The -rv suffix is attached to the verb root ga to express past tense in Igbo. The structure is thus: [CV + rv] verb. Consider below examples: 5. a. Àda gàrà ugbō. Ada go-rvpst farm. Ada went to the farm. . . . Current Issues in Linguistics, Language and Gender Studies: A Festschrift in Honour of Professor Cecilia Amaoge Eme 28 b. Ijèọma gàrà ọlà ntì ya ùnyàahụ. Ijeoma bead-rvpst earring 3g yesterday. Ijeọma beaded her earring yesterday. c. Nwambā gàrà Obi mbō. Cat scratch-rvpst Obi nail. The cat scratched Obi. d. Ọ gàrà hà ọfụma. 3pl pin-rvpst 3pl well. He pinned them well. The -rv past tense marker assumes the features of the vowel of the CV root and becomes low tone. Ga can take extensional suffixes Ga can take extensional suffixes to extend the meaning of the verb root in the syntactic structures. Consider the following examples: 6. a. Ọ gàtèrè aka 3sg go-suff hand He went far b. Ewu gafèrè n’oghere ahù. Goat pass-rvpst prep-hole Dem. The goat pass through that hole. c. Ọ gaāla ihe olu Àda. 3sg bead-rvp-ovs-perf thing neck Ada. She has beaded Ada’s neckless. d. Ọ gakpọrọ Ada anya m̀gbè ha rụrụ ọgù. Scratch-rvpst Ada eye when 3pl fight-rvpst war. Scratched Ada’s eye when they fought. e. M̀gbè Uchè rìrì nri nnukwu ọkpụkpụ gachìrì ya n’àkpịrī. When Uche eat-rvps food big bone hook-rvst 3sg throat. When Uche was eating big bone hooked her throat. f. Ibè agachasīala ebe ọ gà-akọ ugbo. Ibe pr-rake-rvpst place 3sg fut-pr-farm farm. Ibe has raked where he will farm. g. Ọ gàkọtàrà akwụkwọ àbùọ. 3sg pin-rvspt book two. He pinned the two books together. In the above data, the underlined words indicate the CV root, that is ga which takes the extensional suffixes. Ga can take the prefix i/ị to derive infinitive The structure is thus: [Pref i/ị + CV] verb as in: i + ga ịgā (to go) 7. a. Ịgā nga adịghī mmā. Pr-go prison pr-be-Neg good. . . . . . . . . . . . Current Issues in Linguistics, Language and Gender Studies: A Festschrift in Honour of Professor Cecilia Amaoge Eme 29 To go to prison is not good. b. Ọ hìàrà àhụ ànyìnyà ịgā n’oghere ahù. 3sg difficult body horse pr-pass prep-hole Dem. It is difficult for the horse to pass through that hole. c. Ha chòrò ịgākọ akwụkwọ ahù. 3pl want-rvps pr-pin book Dem They wanted to pin those books together. d. Onyeisī ānyị chọrọ ịgā ya mbọ ebe ahù. President 1pl want-rvpst pr-scratch-suff 3sg place Dem. Our president wanted to scratch him that place. In the above data, the tone of ga is no longer low. It changes to downstep tone because it indicates infinitive. Ga can take the prefix o/Ọ with cv + cv roots to derive gerund The morpheme structure is thus: [Pref o/ọ + CV + CV] verb. In forming the gerund, the CV root is reduplicated as in: ọ + ga + ga ọgịga In the above data, the reduplication is a partial one. Consider the following examples: 8.a. Ògịga Chikē gara be Ezè wètàrà udo. Going Chike go-rvpst home Eze bring-suff peace. Chike’s going to Eze’s home brought peace. b. Ògịga ebe ahù sìrì ike. Passing place Dem cook-rvpst strenght. Passing through that place is difficult. c. Ògịga ọlà ntì ahù adīghī mmā. Beading earring Dem pr-be-neg good. The beading of that earring is not good. Furthermore, n is prefixed to ga and another CV root to derive words such as: 9. a. Ǹgàngà (pride) b. Nganye (beading) c. Ngado (hooking) d. Ngacha (raking) e. Ngakọta (pinning together) From the above data, (9a - c) can be represented in the sentences thus: 10. a. Ǹgàngà ya dì egwù Pride 3sg be fear His pride is too much b. Nganye ọlà ntị ahụ adịghī mmā Beading ear ring Dem pr-be-Neg good The beading of that ear ring is not good c. Ngàdo ogwu ahụ dị omimi Hooking thong dem be deep. The hooking of that thong is deep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Current Issues in Linguistics, Language and Gender Studies: A Festschrift in Honour of Professor Cecilia Amaoge Eme 30 From the foregoing, it is observed that the verb ga has different meanings in the sentences. It also takes different affixes to extend its meaning. Ga as an auxiliary In Igbo, there exist a number of auxiliaries. They have their phonological shapes and their syntactic behaviours respectively which vary from dialect to dialect. ga is among the well known auxiliaries recognized in Igbo. Nwachukwu (1983:122) posits that Igbo auxiliaries are verbs because they can take inflectional affixes which are the strongest diagnostic test for verbs.” However, unlike full verbs which can be the only verbals in sentences, the auxiliaries cannot be found alone. They are always obligatorily used with the participle verb complement, that is, bound verb complement which are dominated by the verb. Nwachukwu (1983:123) adds that in “terms of feature specifications, full verb are [+ V, - Aux] where auxiliaries are [+ V, + Aux]”. He further comments that “the dependent nature of the auxiliary in an utterance is confirmed by the fact that whenever there is need to emphasis the meaning of the sentence by a cognate verbal qualification, this element (the bound cognate noun) is derived from the verb rather than from the auxiliary.” Unlike the full verbs, auxiliaries cannot be used to derive any item. Mbah (2011:20) contends that “the auxiliaries verb helps the main verb to function properly or have specific meaning.” We are going to discuss the auxiliary ga in below: Ga can be used to express future time meaning (aspect) Ga and the participle verb can be used to express future time meaning. In terms of semantic ‘implications of ga Welmers and Welmers (1968:73) quoted in Nwachukwu (1983) posit that the verb form with ga is used for referring “to future” rather than “intensions”, something not yet begun.” Winston (1973:151) quoted in Nwachukwu (1983) contends that ga future also expresses probability or expectation” in addition to “literal future time”. Consider the following examples expressing the affirmative and the negative counterparts: 11. a. Ezè gà-èje ụkà Ezè agāghī eje ụkà Eze fut-pr-go church Eze pr-go-Neg-pr-go church Eze will go to church Eze will not go to church b. Uchè gà-àbịa echi Uchè agāghī ābịa echi Uche fut-pr-come tomorrow Uche pr-fut-Neg-pr-come tomorrow Uche will come tomorrow Uche will not come tomorrow In the above data, the auxiliary is consistently on a low tone, following by the participle verb. The above sentences indicate simple future time meaning. Furthermore, the ga future marker and the participle verb “aga” can co-occur in the sentence as in: 12. a. Ọ gà-àga ụkà Ọ agāghī āga ụkà 3sg fut-pr-go church 3sg pr-fut-Neg pr-go church He will not go to church He will not go to church b. Ọ gà-àga nga Ọ agāghī āga nga 3sg fut pr-go prison 3sg pr-fut-Neg pr-go prison He will go to prison He will not go to prison . . . . Current Issues in Linguistics, Language and Gender Studies: A Festschrift in Honour of Professor Cecilia Amaoge Eme 31 The below examples express the future past time meaning that indicate unfulfilled action. It is expressed with gààrà which is always on a low tone and is followed by either the participle verb or infinitive. Consider these examples: 13. a. Ibè gààrà èje/ìje ụkà Ibè agāraghī īje/ije ụkà Ibe fut-suff pr-go church Ibe pr-fut-suff-Neg pr-go church Ibe would have go church Ibe would not have go to church b. Ha gààrà abịā/ịbịā ebe à Ha agāraghī abịā/ịbịā ebe à 3pl fut-suff pr-come here 3pl pr-fut suff-Neg Pr-come here They would have come They would not have come here Ga can be used to express future progressive In some dialects of Igbo, ga can be used as a suffix to the verb root in order to express future progressive aspect. Examples: 14. a. Ha rìgà nri 3pl eat-prog food They are eating food b. Ike tàgà ọjị Ike chew-prog kola Ike is chewing kola c. Ijèọma nùgà mmirī Ijeoma drink-prog water Ijeoma is drinking water When ga expresses progressive, it retains its low tone. Ga can be used to express future perfective Ga and the participle verb plus the perfective marker can be used to express future perfective. 15. a. Òbi gà-azụtala akwụkwọ Obi agāghī àzụtala akwụkwọ Obi fut-pr-buy-suff-perf book Obi fut-pr-buy-suff-perf book Obi will (already) have bought the book Obi will not have bought the book b. Àda gà-echutela mmirī Ada agāghī echutela mmirī Ada fut-pr-fetch-suff-perf water Ada pr-fut-Neg pr-fetch-suff-perf water Ada will (already) have fetched water Ada will not have fetched water It is observed that the tone ga in the affirmative is low whereas in the negative becomes downstep with the negator ghị. Ga as a plural enclitic Ga can occur alone as an enclitic to indicate plural. It is glossed as some. Consider the following examples. 16. a. Àda bùte oche ga. . . . . . Current Issues in Linguistics, Language and Gender Studies: A Festschrift in Honour of Professor Cecilia Amaoge Eme 32 Ada bring-suff chair some. Ada bring some chairs. b. Ọ chọrọ akwụkwọ ga. 3sg want-rvpst book some. He wanted some books. c. Akwụkwọ ga kà ọ chọ̀̀̀ ̀ rọ̀̀̀ ̀ . Books some that 3sg want-rvpst. Some books that he wanted. d. Òbi, Uchè nà Egō bụ̀̀gà ụmụ̀̀nnē m. Obi, Uche and Ego are siblings me. Obi, Uche and Ego are my siblings. In the above data, ga becomes high tone and follows the nouns in the sentences to indicate plurality in (16a – c) whereas in (16d), it is attached to the verb to indicate plurality. Conclusion In this work, we have analyzed ga as a homonymous lexeme in Igbo. Phonologically, ga can be realized as single lexeme but it can be semantically interpreted in different ways. It is observed that ga can function as a verb, auxiliary as well as plural marker in the syntactic structures. It can accept inherent complements. It can also take different affixes to extend its meaning in the syntactic structures. Finally, if ga stands alone without any inherent complements or affixes, it will be semantically empty and ambiguous. Therefore, as a homonymous lexeme, it needs inherent complements and attachment of different affixes to enable it become meaningful in the syntactic structures. References Allan, K. 1986. Semantics: An Overview. In Bright W. (ed). International Encyclopedia of Language. 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