INVESTIGATING ASPECTS OF PREFIXATION IN ENGLISH AND IGBO LANGUAGES

Abstract

Prefixation is a morphological process which studies how morphemes are affixed in the beginning of their host words for either grammatical functions or for lexical expansion and derivation. This paper investigates aspects of the grammar of prefixation in English and Igbo Languages. It adopts a comparative theoretical framework, so as to identify the morphological similarities and difference in both languages. It also adopts the qualitative design, which gives the description of the data the way they are. The paper adopts both a primary and secondary methods of data collections. The primary data were basically from the native speaker’s competence, the researcher who is a speaker of the Igbo language supplied the necessary data. The secondary data were sourced from textual materials. The analysis shows grammatical and functional similarities and dissimilarities in both languages, as well derivative similarities and dissimilarities in both languages. Prefixes are used in both languages to derive new words, change word classes, but Igbo in additions realise grammatical functions with prefixes. The study of prefixation in both languages greatly reveals common universal principles of human language and at the same time, parametric variations in the languages, showing their uniqueness. The study concludes that prefixation in both languages are morphologically productive, being inflectional in the Igbo language; derivational flexible in both languages, and can as well perform different linguistic functions in both languages. The study notes the selective nature of the paper on instances of prefixation in both languages because of space, and thus, recommends an expanded investigation of the topic; and comparative investigation of other related morphological concepts, such as infixation, interfixation and suffixation in English and Igbo.