IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 7. No. 1. ISSN: 2488- 9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2021. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 73 ASPECTS OF COMPOUNDING IN TIV MBAPUUN, TORDUE FESTUS Department of Linguistics and Communication Studies University of Port Harcourt, Choba, Rivers State, Nigeria festus.sixtus@gmail.com;+2347062627620 DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.19482.59846 Abstract The present study investigates compounding in Tiv, a West-Benue-Congo language spoken mostly in Benue and Nasarawa states in North Central Nigeria and Taraba State in North Eastern Nigeria. This study, defines compounding, identified compound words as well as identified the derivational techniques/processes deployed for compounding in the Tiv language. Findings revealed that compounding in all its ramifications is richly employed in the Tiv language, in that, most of the formations could not happen without recourse to these other language levels. The analysis further confirms that all the aspects of lexical compounding obtainable in other languages such as English, Bantu, Nizaa and a host of other languages are also obtained in the Tiv language. Compounding generally has been found to be a highly productive word formation process in the Tiv language. Introduction Compounding is a morphological phenomenon, one of the two basic types of word formation, the other being derivation. Plag (2003), warns that “compounding is a field of study where intricate problems abound, numerous issues remain unresolved, and convincing solutions are generally not easy to find. Bauer (2001) also maintained that a compound is a lexical unit made up of two or more elements, each of which can function as a lexeme independently of the other(s) in other contexts, and which shows some phonological and/or grammatical isolation from normal syntactic usage. Compounding can be characterized as the formation of new lexical items through the syntagmatic arrangement of existing lexical items, because compounding lies “on the cusp between grammar and lexicon” Jackendoff (2010). It has ramifications for our understanding of language that go far beyond its own intrinsic interest. It poses a particular challenge for theories of language that operate with a strict separation between lexicon and grammar (Pepper, 2010). mailto:festus.sixtus@gmail.com IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 7. No. 1. ISSN: 2488- 9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2021. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 74 Ziering and Van der Plas (2014) state that, compounding represents one of the most productive word formation types in many languages. What constitutes a compound and where compounding takes place in grammar have interested many linguists. One obvious question concerns the number of elements in a compound. Selkirk (1982) and Anderson (1985) limit compounding to two elements. Asher (1994) says a compound is “a new lexical item created by putting together two free standing stems or words.” Many authors accept that compounds can be formed with a word and a stem (Bloomfield (1939, Selkirk (1982), Di Scioullo and Williams (1987) and Spencer (1991). Booij (2002) states that, “The defining criterion for compounding is that in compounding two lexemes are combined into a new lexeme.” Spencer (1991) does not limit compounding to two words, but categorically states that, “Compounding is prototypically the concatenation of words to form other words.” Similarly, Motsch (in Asher, 1994) avers that: “Compounds are complex words which have words as constituents.” Benue-Congo languages are highly productive in compounding as seen in the works of Omachonu & Abraham (2015)-Igala, Dimendal (2009)-Jukun, Nurse, Rose, Hewson & Beaudoin-Lietz (2002),-Narrow Bantu, Fura & Nyang, & Pepper (2010)-Nizaa etc. The motivation for this study arose from the above forgoing where a lot has been studied on word formation in other languages with little done on the same subject matter in Tiv language with preliminary reports on Tiv language such as the ones conducted by Orjime (1998), Angitso (2000) and Ortese (2012) only making mention of compounding as one of the types of work formation in Tiv language. These studies did not focus on the subject matter of Linguistic compounding in Tiv language, but dwelt generally on the types of word formation processes that are obtainable in Tiv language; Omachonu & Abraham (2015) there has been an outcry for a comprehensive study of Tiv language. It was as a result of some of these assertions that Omachonu & Abraham (2015) while conducting a comprehension research on compounding in Igala, averred that preliminary IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 7. No. 1. ISSN: 2488- 9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2021. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 75 reports on a language do not focus on subject matters in that language such as compounding, just as was the case with Igala. In addition, even with those languages in Nigeria, for instance, in which a fair amount of attention has been devoted to the description of compounding:- Yorùba (Bamgbose 1967, Owolabi 1995, Awobuluyi 2005, Oyebade 2007 and Taiwo 2008, 2009), Ìgbo (Anagbogu 1990, 1995, 2000, Nwaozuzu 1991, Oluikpe & Nwaozuzu 1995 and Iloene 2007), Urhobo (Aziza 2007) and Koríing (Anagbogu 2003, 2011). A critical look at the extant literature on compounding in the languages and even in African linguistics in general, would reveal that providing satisfactory criteria for patterning compounding still requires both language specific and cross-linguistic investigations for dependable linguistic generalizations. It is in the above light that we have set out to critically study compounding in Tiv language with a view of identifying the patterns of such compounding coupled with cross-linguistic investigations which we hope shall give some dependable linguistic generalizations which could be a standing point for further studies into compounding in Tiv language or any Benue-Congo Language within the Benue Valley. Aim of the Study The study aims at discovering the different morphological patterns involved in the formation of compounds in Tiv. In other words, it aims to bring out the patterns of word formation through compounding in Tiv. We intend to explore the class of the possible compound words of Tiv in this analysis. In a nut shell, this study intends to capture the possible morphological compounding patterns existing in the Tiv language. Defining Compounding in Tiv: An Overview According to Omachonu and Abraham (2015), the two major means of creating new words especially lexical categories such as nouns, verbs and adjectives in language are compounding and derivation. Compounding is a prominent word formation process which is attested when in a language two or more words are put together to form another. Compounding or composition which is the most frequently used means of producing new lexemes has its overall defining IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 7. No. 1. ISSN: 2488- 9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2021. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 76 property as ‘consisting of the combination of lexemes into larger words’ (Booij 2007). Attempts at documenting Tiv compound words in the past were almost absent except with the mention of some Tiv compound names by Bohanan & Bohanan (1963) and a similar mention of some compound words in Orjime (1998); Many of these preliminary studies on Tiv Grammar will help this research work in situating it within the scholarship on Tiv morphology. Thus, the present study does not cover a general ground as many of these past studies. Rather, the focus is restricted to compounding in Tiv language in all its ramifications. Even though this may not be a universally applicable distinction, the crucial demarcation between compounds and derived words in most languages is that compounds consist of free-standing lexemes whereas derived words, in most cases, contain affixes in the form of non-lexemic morphemes (Lieber & Štekauer 2009). The distinction is not always so clear-cut because (1) ‘a lexeme may develop into a derivational morpheme’ (Booij 2007), and (2) the elements that make up compounds in some languages may not be free-standing words, but rather stems or roots (Lieber & Štekauer 2009). However, the use of the term lexeme, Lieber & Štekauer (2009) argue, is ‘specific enough to exclude affixes but broad enough to encompass the roots, stems and free words that make up compounds in typologically diverse languages’(p.2). In Tiv, while we take examples (1a-c) below as typical (nominal) compounds, the examples in (2a-c) are considered as derived words with obvious presence of affixes (bound morphemes, prefixes) in the derivations. 1a. ór + kpén órkpén 2a. mbá + hénén mbáhénén person dead ‘corpse’ PL affix learning ‘learners/disciples’ b, ór + tésén ortésén b. mbá + vésén mbavésén person + teach ‘teacher’ PL affix elder ‘elders’ IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 7. No. 1. ISSN: 2488- 9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2021. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 77 c. ór + hénén orhénén c. mbá + yév mbáyév person learn ‘learner’ PL affix young ‘children’ Nominalisation or noun formation through the use of plural nominal prefixes attached to nouns (affixation) and the vowel the comes after the consonant in the nouns is always high as exemplified in 2 (a-c) and also through attachment of nouns in the prefixal position to verbs as in 1 (a-c) above is a very productive derivational process in Tiv morphology; in this case too, the vowel sound after the consonant at the beginning of the verb is always high. The vowels (ó, é and á) that are obtainable in the compounds above in examples 1 (a-c) and 2 (a-c) are all high, even if you change the pitch of the vowels from high to low, he words will still be compounds, but with different meanings. There are also significant instances of suffixation attested in the derivational morphology of Tiv, but we shall look at the possible patterns of compounding in Tiv as this will cover compounding through suffixation. Patterns of Compounding in Tiv 1. N + N N This pattern of compounding is found in most languages of the world, Tiv language is also not an exception to this type of morphological process, we shall under this section, exemplify and discus this pattern of compounding in Tiv language. a. tór + tiv tórtiv King Tiv King of Tiv b. ór + yá óryá Person House House Head c. wán + kwásé wánkwásé Child woman ‘Spinster’ d. ijiir + tóm ijiirtóm Place work ‘Office’ IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 7. No. 1. ISSN: 2488- 9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2021. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 78 e. tár + tór tártór World king ‘world of the King (Heaven)’ f. ór + utyá órutyá Person war ‘soldier’ g. nór + mngér nórmngér Elephant water ‘hippopotamus’ h. ór + nyár órnyár Person money ‘richman’ i. nór + tár nórtár Elephant world ‘Elephant’ j. wán + iywá wániywá Child dog ‘puppy’ The derivative history of the above compounds is as represented in the following tree diagram: Figure 1 Compound N N N Tór Tiv From the forgoing, it is glaring that when a nominal is added to another nominal in Tiv language, we will produce compounds, some of these compounds when translated to English, would become phrases or clauses as seen from example (e) above. There is no form of elision of any kind in the compounding of Nominals to form Nominals in Tiv language. This is somewhat different in some other IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 7. No. 1. ISSN: 2488- 9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2021. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 79 languages such as Igbo and Yoruba where elision is obtainable in some of the nominalizations, Dada (2015). N + V Nominal-Verb Compound In Tiv whenever a noun gets fused with a verb, a Nominal-Verb compound is derived as follows: a. kwágh + yán kwághyán Something eat ‘food’ b. ór + kpén órkpén Person dead ‘corpse’ c. áondó + ná áondóná God give ‘God Given’ e. shimá + vihin shimávihin Heart spoil ‘anger’ f. tér + yilá téryilá Father call ‘God Called’ g. yán + kyáá yánkyáá Day happening ‘day of reckoning’ h. ityô + yilá ityôyilá Kinsmen + called ‘the calling of kinsmen’ The derivative history of the above compounds is as represented in the following tree diagram: Figure 2 Nominal-Verb Compounds NP N V IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 7. No. 1. ISSN: 2488- 9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2021. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 80 ór kpén From the above examples, we can deduce that in Tiv language, nominal verb compounds are formed by attaching a Tiv verb at the end of a noun and the resultant compound which becomes a two syllable compound has a combination of stressed- unstressed syllables, with high tone vowels and a change in such a stress pattern renders some of the compounds meaningless, as we can find in example (a) above. If the stress is moved to the second syllable, the compound will no longer have its semantic import rooted in Tiv language. The tree diagram above explains the syntactic representation of the nominal verb compound in Tiv language. Syllable stress is a major player in meaningfulness in Tiv. Reduplicated adverbs Adjective a. félé + félé féléfélé Fast fast faster b. nungwá + nungwá nungwánungwá scatter scatter Scattered The derivative history of the above compounds is as represented in the following tree diagram Figure 3: Adv + Adv Adjectival Compound adv adv félé félé The above are good examples of compounding in Tiv, when adverbs are reduplicated as seen in examples (a-b) above. There is also no form of elission in the deverbals above because, Tiv language do not permit vowel elision, the town IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 7. No. 1. ISSN: 2488- 9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2021. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 81 'áliádé ' is pronounced as the word is written even though there is a diphthong /ia/ in between two consonants in the lexeme. So coupled with the situation where there are no two vowels in the examples (a-b) above, all the deverbals are in high tone and therefore vowel elision cannot take place at any point, and the reverse in the tone from high to low shall make example (a) meaningless. 4. Reduplicated Adj Adj Compound a. gbáng + gbáng gbánggbáng strong strong very stronger c. kéng + kéng kéngkéng must must very necessary d. dôúgh + dôúgh dôúghdôúgh loose loose very loose e. kúndú + kúndú kúndúkúndú cool cool very gentle’ The derivative history of the above compounds is as represented in the following tree diagram below: Figure 4: Adj + Adj = Adjectival Compound Adj Adj kúndú kúndú In Tiv language, when you join two adjectives, they form and adjectival deverbal compound. This is usually done through the process of reduplication. The examples above are those that were found to be meaningful but there are those that it is only when they are reduplicated that become meaningful for example, worls like 'gyanggyang' mean 'loud', but you can only realise that meaning only when the 'gyang' is reduplicated, but a single 'gyang' has no meaning in it at all. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 7. No. 1. ISSN: 2488- 9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2021. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 82 The tree diagram above is a syntactic representation of Adjectival compound of one of the compounding processes in Tiv language. Other Compounding Processes in Tiv language Lastly, compounding has generally been recognized as an important means of extending the lexicon of a language through the creation of new lexical categories such as nouns, adjectives and verbs mainly (in Tiv for example). As Altmann (1988) has argued, “The basic motivation for forming compounds is naturally the need to express a concept not having as yet a sound form”, which a speaker can use to express himself. It becomes obvious therefore that so many concepts in so many languages “may only find expression in compounds as there are needs to express these new concepts with new words” Oluikpe & Nwaozuzu (1995). Therefore, in addition to the variety of compounds discussed so far, there are two major areas in which the function of lexical expansion or extension through compounding is found very robust and highly productive in Tiv. It is in the representation of foreign concepts, ideas and institutions that were hitherto non- existent in the Tiv Kingdom and culture, and the use of reduplicative nominal compounding for creating new lexemes especially kinship terms in the language. In Tiv, compounding has been used copiously in naming concepts, particularly foreign institutions, ideas, items/objects and concepts which have been adopted within the host culture and system. The following examples, 5a. b & c) will suffice. a) iyôú + ádúá iyoúádúá house prayer ‘church’ b) iyôú + ci iyôúci house medicine ‘hospital’ c) iyôú + nyár iyôúnyár house money ‘bank’ In addition, adjectival nominal compounds have been used to derive kinship or family tree terms in the language as shown in (6a-e). 6 a) ngô + támén ngôtámén Mother eldest ‘grand mother’ IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 7. No. 1. ISSN: 2488- 9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2021. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 83 b) tér + támén tértámén father eldest ‘grand father’ c) tér + kém térkém father dowry ‘father in law’ d. tér + támén + támén tértáméntámén father eldest eldest ‘great grand father’ e) ngô + támén + támén ngôtáméntámén mother eldest eldest ‘great grant mother’ Conclusion Compounding, although a morphological process, touches every level of language – phonology, syntax and semantics – either directly or indirectly. This study examines compounding and compound word formation processes in Tiv. Besides, compounding generally has been found to be a highly productive word formation process in Tiv in terms of varieties (forms) and functions. Apart from noun + noun compounds, other compound types such as synthetic, deverbal and verbal compounds which could equally be accounted for using semantic criteria have been attested in Tiv. Even though endocentric nominal compounds in Tiv generally obey Left-Hand head rule (N1 as head), synthetic compounds in Tiv, it has been observed, exhibit the possibility for either Left-Hand head position or Right-Hand head position. However, the Right-Hand head rule is not and even found may not be very productive in the language. It is adjudged as an exception rather than the rule. Lastly, in addition to the general function of lexical expansion through creation of new lexical categories or lexemes, compounding has been used copiously in naming concepts, particularly foreign institutions, ideas, items or objects and concepts that were hitherto non-existent in Tiv. References Adeniyi, H. (2000) ‘Mofoloji Ede Yoruba’ In Adeniyi, H. (ed.) Ilo Ede ati Eda-Ede Yoruba (Apa Kinni) Lagos: Harade and Associates. Pp. 71-100. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 7. No. 1. ISSN: 2488- 9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2021. 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Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 85 Omachonu G. S. & David A. A (2012). Compounding in Igala: defining criteria, forms and functions. Ajol, Vol. 13,: pp184-206 Pepper, S. C, (2010). Nominal Compounding in Nizaa. London: SOAS, unpublished M.A. Project Plag I., (2003). Word formation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Taiwo, O. (2008). ‘Compound verbs in Yorùbá’. Studilinguistici e filologici online 6: 345-370.