Swahili Morphology A Comparison English Language Essay

Swahili Morphology A Comparison side Language EssayIntroductionSwahili is an casing of a Bantu language. Bantu languages belong to the South aboriginal subgroup of the Niger-Congo language family. These languages ar closely related to languages used in central, east-central and southern Africa (Sands, 2009). Due to the colonial history of the countries in this ara, Swahili contains many loan reciprocations from incline, Arabian, Persian Indian languages, Portuguese, German and other(a) Bantu languages. Their origins argon often hardly recognisable. The reason for this is that the structure remains Bantu. In this structure, the ancestryal system has an important role (Mohammed, 2001). This constitution contains a description of this system and other underlying processes of Swahili syllable structure. In this description, we draw parallels between Swahili and English. As mentioned earlier, we jazz that Swahili is connected to English by its loan devises. But do the two lan guages cave in anything in common concerning morphological structure and processes?2 TypologyEnglish is an inflectional language forges atomic number 18 modified to express their well-formed run short. Swahili is a polysynthetic language complicated disapprobations be expressed using a single newsworthiness (Fromkin, 2000). Swahili is a Subject-Verb-Object language in which the targetive lens and the paper bear be abortive this may scat to insertion of a postal code morpheme. In a phrase, grammatical relations want defeat and object are determined by the positions they are in. This makes Swahili a position language instead of a end language. In a case language (like German) the form of the noun or pronoun changes to show the grammatical relation. The adjacent sort seasickustrates the use of SVO order in Swahili (Vitale, 1981) (Note a gloss basin be appoint in the appendix)(1) Juma a-li-wa-piga watotoJuma-he-P-them- ravisher-childrenJuma hit the childrenS V O3 Word and morpheme patternesMany Swahili words are built up by using chemical group and affixes. Affixes may be described in terms of the category or category of the word they combine with, and the category of word found by the root and affix combination. Whereas roots do not change, many affixes do. Swahili geomorphology is summarily described under the main copingings pronouns and pronominal phrase affixes, verbs and noun classes (Safari Akida, 1991).3.1 bare and bound morphemesWhether a morpheme is bound or remedy, corporation be defined by considering their exitrence. Morphemes that dirty dog cash in ones chips on their own are said to be free. Bound morphemes need to be inclined to other morphemes. In English, for instance, nouns are free- and determiners are bound morphemes (Fromkin, 2000). Both bound and free morphemes occur in Swahili, still on that point are more than bound morphemes than free morphemes. In English, certain word classes are incessantly b ound (like nouns) in Swahili one word class merchant ship contain both bound and free morphemes(2) baba fathersamaki tilt(3) m-toto childwa-toto childrenki-su knifevi-su knivesThe nouns in example (2) (Mohammed, 2001) are free morphemes. The nouns in example (3) are bound morphemes. The word stems -toto and -su require a affix that gives the word a certain conquer along and class (Givon, 2001). Adjectives, like -dogo, weting small, as well need a proceeds- and class prefix (m-, wa-, ki-, vi-, etc.). This leads to clauses like m-dogo, which can be used to express that it is small for a child (ibid.).3.2 Pronouns and pronominal prefixesPronouns in Swahili are coped into personal, possessive, demonstrative, generalising and interrogative pronouns (Myachina, 1981). Personal pronouns have a morphemic structure built out of roots improver the appropriate scrape.These independent pronouns can stand on their own and function as an object or a theater of operations. But they are unless used in selective contexts for instance the word ni am as in I am an African Mimi ni Africano. Next to that, they can withal emphasize the subject of the sentence. In (2i) and (2ii), mimi underlines the subject (Benjamin, 1998)(4) (i) Ninataka watoto I want children(i) Mimi ninataka watoto I (really) want children(ii) Nitapita posta I go out pass by the post authority(ii) Mimi nitapita posta I will pass by the post officeA pronoun can never replace a pronominal prefix, if a construction requires a pronominal prefix. A pronominal prefix must be included whether or not an independent pronoun is used. *Mimi tapita posta is an ill formed Swahili sentence.Pronominal prefix Personni- 1st person erraticu- 2nd person remaininga- third person singulartu- 1st person plural formm-/mw- 2nd person pluralw-/wa- 3rd person pluralNot still does the pronominal prefix marks the person, it alike marks the subject or object position. This is determined by the place of the pronoun withi n the verb(5) Wao wanaamka They are waking up (subject)Mimi nitawaamsha I will wake them up (object)3.3 VerbsBesides subject and object stains, strain markers can be attached to Swahili verbs as prefixes. The essential component of any bounded verb is (in the following order) subject prefix filtrate marker verb root. If an object prefix is inserted, the verb root always follows. A negation marker of the verb always precedes the subject prefix (Safari Akida, 1991).The following pathfinder illustrates how Swahili verbs are built (Deen, 2001)(6) Subject Agreement- Tense- Object Agreement- Verb-suffixes Mood(SA) (T) (OA) (V) (M)The object understanding is an optional item. If there is a particularised direct object, the object agreement is obligatory if the direct object isnt specific, the object agreement can be deleted (ibid.). Mood is always the final suffix. It can either be indicative -a, subjunctive -e, or negative -i. When the suffix is indicative, the word describes o ngoing actions or states, habitual actions of the present, actions and states in the past or future and imperatives. The subjunctive mainly expresses desires, possibility, necessity and requests (ibid.). In Swahili clauses, the infinitive (a prefix) is rarely used other inflectional prefixes are used to modify the clause. We can stop that Swahili is a bare verb language. In English, bare stems are excessively used without the infinitive to like in I can sing (Deen, 2003).This puts the two languages in the same class they are both bare verb languages instead of root infinitive languages.3.4 NounsIn Swahili, every noun is assigned to a specific noun class. The noun classes are generally marked by a class prefix. Swahili nouns are inflected for gender and physique by a characteristically Bantu prefix system (Vitale, 1981). Gender is grammatical and affixes mark a noun for membership in a noun class. These are, for the just about part, not definable on semantic grounds. There is a c ertain amount of discrepancy as to which of several numbering systems should be used in the miscellanea of the gender system.The original Swahili classes 12 and 13 have no reflexes in present-day Swahili. In late Swahili, nouns are categorised in far less noun classes as shown belowTable 5 new-made Swahili noun classes (Mohammed, 2001)Note that classes 15, 16, 17 and 18 have not been illustrated above because they do not have plural forms Nouns in classes 1/2 denote only humans (but not all humans are in class 1/2). Class 14 refers to abstract characteristics. Class 15 has verbal infinitives and classes 16 18 are locatives. For the remaining classes the semantic base is less obvious. For example class 3/4 contains words denoting plants and trees, class 9/10 contains names of animals, and class 6 contains liquids (Brown Ogilvie, 2009).3.5 CompoundingLike in English, words in Swahili compound to make a new word or give a specific definition to a word. This process of compounding mainly occurs in Swahili by conjoining two nouns (N+N), a noun and a verb (N+V), a noun and an adjective (N+A) and a verb and a noun (V+N). In some cases, compounding can also occur with a verb and a verb (V+V) or a verb and an adjective (V+A) (Nshubemuki, 1999). Table 6 shows a number of compounded terms in Swahili. Sometimes a word or term can get a unharmed new definition or can function in a whole new word classTable 6 Compounded Swahili words (ibid.)Elements Swahili terms (English equivalent) derived Swahili term (English equivalent)N+N msumeno (saw) + juu (top) msumenoju (top saw)N+V kemikali (chemical) + amsha (stimulate) amshakikemilkali(chemical stimulation)N+A tumba (bud) + bwete (dormant) tumbabwete (dormantbud)V+N tegemea (depend(ent)) + kimelea (parasite) kimeleategemezi(hyperparasite)V+V fanya (make) + tendana (to do with) mfanyikotendani (process)V+A pasua (saw in two) + nyofu (straight) upasuajimnyofu(to break down timber)4 Inflection and derivation in Swahili verbs The template of verbs in (6) makes it clear that inflection and derivation are morphological processes occurring in Swahili. Because of the importance of these processes, we will make water a at hand(predicate) look at prefixation, suffixation, infixion and incorporation.4.1 PrefixationSwahili is a prefix language where the verb stem or root is usually preceded by derivational prefixes. In turn, these derivational prefixes are preceded by inflectional prefixes (Prikola, 2001). The verbal morphology of Swahili involves many productive inflectional and derivational morphemes. The verbal prefixes are mainly inflectional. The main prefixes indicate the subject and object agreement markers and the tense markers (Seidl Dimitriadis, 2003). To specify this, we will give an example. Look at the Swahili sentences in (7) and their proposed displacement in English, shown in between apostrophes (Fromkin, 2000)(7) Ninasoma TunasomaNi-na-soma Tu-na-soma1S-Pres-read 1Pl-Pres-readI am reading We are readingFirst of all, lets have a look at what the two sentences above have in common. There is the verbs take aim, -soma, translated in English as (to) read. In (7) -soma works as the mentality of the sentence, the verb root. The morpheme -soma is bound. This verb root needs affixes, so that it can be used as a word (ibid.). The affixes in (7) are indicators of tense and person. Apparently, the prefix na- is a tense marker, which, combined with the verb root -soma, means something like present tense read, here translated as is and are. The remaining prefixes Ni- and Tu- result schooling whether the person who is reading is first person singular (I) or first person plural (We). Looking at these examples, we can say that inflected Swahili verbs give information about tense and person. These sentences are complex verbs, because a complete sentence can be expressed by forming one word (ibid.). We can therefore say that Swahilis subject-verb-agreement morphology takes place thro ugh prefixes.4.2 SuffixationIn Swahili, the verbal suffixes show derivation which can be very productive. Derivational morphemes increase the vocabulary, but their occurrence is not related to sentence structure (ibid.). The around productive and frequently used derivational morphemes are the causative, passive, stative, applicative and reciprocal ones. They function as an extension of the verb. Swahili verbs can carry some derivational suffixes, but are bound to a specific order after the verb root. Some derivational suffixes (such as the causative and applicative) add an argument, some lactate an argument and some leave the number of arguments unchanged (SD, 2003).4.3 Infixion and incorporationIn the passive form, we see that infixes can occur in Swahili verbs (Buell, 2002)(8) kitabu hakitasomwakitabu ha- ki- ta- som- w- a7.book neg- 7.subj- Fut- read- Pass- default.vowelthe book wont be readIn (8) we see that the -w- functions as an infix for the passive. As shown above, incorp oration of pronouns occurs in Swahili. The pronouns are incorporated within the verb. Infixion in negating infinitival nouns can occur as well. Here the infinitival noun shows an act of doing (and is derived from a verb) and therefore shows no number. Infixion of the grammatical fraction -to- gives a negation to the infinitival noun. To make this clear, we will give an example (Mohammed, 2001)(9) kutokujafailure5 Heads and hierarchyThe head of a word is the element that contains the category and other properties of the word itself (Lieber, 1981). There are different theories concerning head and hierarchy. Williams theory assumes that the category of the items and their composition are attached to syntactic features (Williams, 1981). In other words, the prefixes give information about number and class and syntactically modify the mother node. An example (Droste, 1989)(10) shind rootshind-a to conquer (verbal)shind-i / shind-aji / shind-e the vanquisher (person)m-shind-I / m-shind-a ji / m-shind-e who is conqueredwa-shind-I / wa-shind-aji plural(11) M-tu personWa-tu personsJi-tu giantMa-ji-tu giantsKi-tu thingvi-tu thingsIn English we see the same phenomenon(11) play Inf + -(e)d P playedDog Sg + -s Pl dogsUgly Adj + -er Com uglierThe fact that the suffix here functions as the head leads to a contradiction in terms in the analysis of the right wing head rule in the word shind. According to Selkirk, prefixes are markers for plural, tense and person. In m-shind-i, the suffix -i is the head and the nominalizer, the root -shind- is an unmarked non-head and the non-head m- is marked for class and number to be percolated. In m-tu the root -tu percolates its inherent nominal category, whereas the prefix again stands for number and class (Selkirk, 1984). According to Selkirk, suffixes in Swahili are responsible for the category of a word(12) A-li-vi-chom-aSg sub. P-Pl-root-VA-li-vi = non heads (but they show SA, TA and OA)chom= root-a = headIn English, the head always comes at the right most end of a word and determines the category or word class of the word. As mentioned above, we can conclude that in Swahili grammar membership of a word category is always determined by the right-hand morpheme. Williams noticed that the category of the items and the compositions are attached to syntactic features. Williams formulation of the right head rule therefore can be maintained.6 Variation in morphologyIn Swahili, there can be variation in morphology. In the following, we will take a closer look at the occurrence of allomorphy, free variation and portmanteau in Swahili.6.1 Allomorphy and free variationAllomorphs are morphemes that can be realized in different ways, man maintaining their meaning (Fromkin, 2000). In English, we see this in the word pills, which is pronounced as /pillz/, while the plural is usually formed by adding an consonant /-s/. Swahili also has allomorphs. For instance, the past tense markers -li and -ku. They are both used to express past tense, but differ in form. In passive verbs, the following allomorphs are used -w, -liw, -iw and -w. For the causative verb, the allomorphs -sh, -esh, -sh, -z, -ez and -z (Mohammed, 2001). We see the same phenomenon with nouns. A word from noun class 1 takes mu- as a prefix, but when a class 1 noun starts with a vowel, the prefix changes to m- or mw- (Zawawi, 1979).(13) muuguzi nurses(14) mwezi thievesBecause there is an underlying rule to this change, this is conditioned allomorphy.As we have seen, Swahili nouns take various class prefixes according to the class they belong. The noun class system is not as strict as implied. There are many words that do not fit in one of these classes based on a semantic characterization. There is variation which is illustrated in atypical, flexible, irregular, and un-prefixed nouns. A variation for the use of the noun classes is nominal derivation, by fracture nouns from one class to the other. For example, shifting nouns into class 7/8 den otes diminutive -kitoto a small child- while class 6 can be used to express a group of individuals, and not only the plural form fisi (class 10) hyenas, mafisi (class 6) a pack of hyenas .But not only the classification of the noun class can vary. There is also variation in the noun prefixes. Sometimes two noun classes share the same prefix, but do not share the same noun class. For example, the regular prefix in classes 1 and 3 is m- . Some agreements are the same for both classes, and some are not. This can depend on the phonological form of the prefix rather than the syntactic-semantic characteristics of the noun class (Alcock Ngorosho, 2002).6.2 PortmanteauA morpheme that contains multiple meaningful elements, is called a portmanteau. These different elements of meaning cannot be segmented within the morpheme (Fromkin, 2000). For instance, in English, the verb is represents third person, singular, present tense and the lexeme be. Portmanteaus also occur in Swahili. In the expre ssion tu-li-wa-lim-ish-a, meaning We made them cultivate, the morpheme tu represents second person, plural and subject. In the same example, the morpheme wa represents first person, plural, object (Katamba, 1994). It is clear that in both cases, different phi-features are expressed in one morpheme. Therefore, we can conclude that they are portmanteaus.7 ReduplicationSwahili contains morphological reiteration. This means that all or a part of a word is copied (completely or partial) to show a change in meaning or usage. An example of reduplication is monosyllabic reduplication (Akinlabi, 1995). In this case the reduplicated morpheme is phonologically similar in order to produce disyllabic words. This is core reduplication(15) ba-ba fatherbu-bu dumb personlu-lu pearlkwi-kwi hiccupA native consonant (C) nonnegative a vowel (V) can be reduplicated, therefore this CV-structure is reduplicated. In some cases there is also a prefix involved. This prefix is responsible for the class of t he word(16) m-dudu an insectNeither monosyllabic stems such as ba or bu, nor trisyllabic stems such as bababa or bububu has the meaning of a disyllabic form like baba or bubu (ibid.).Monosyllabic reduplication is also found in six personal independent pronouns, as shown in table 1 and in (17) below(17) Mimi ISisi WeWewe You (Sg)Nyinyi You (Pl)Yeye S/heThese pronouns are only meaningful when they are combined with another(prenominal) morpheme. Trisyllabic reduplication of a monosyllabic word like in (18) shows us partial reduplication (Akinlabi, 1995).(18) -eupe white Nyeupe pepepe very (snow) white-eusi black Nyeusi tititi very (pitch) black-fa check Kufa fofofo die completelyDifferent meanings can occur when (parts of) words are reduplicated as shown in the monosyllabic, disyllabic and trisyllabic words in (19)(19) Kaka brotherKakaka variety of vegetableKakakaka hastilyIn English, reduplication is not a regular process of word formation. It can occur thoughExact reduplication papa , mama, goody-goody, never-neverAblaut reduplication zig-zag, ping-pong, flip-flopRhyme reduplication razzle-dazzle, boogie-woogie, hodge-podge8 Problems in morphological analysis succession making this paper, we found some businesss in analyzing Swahili morphology. In the following paragraphs we will look at some of these difficulties.8.1 Zero morphemesWhile analyzing Swahili expressions difficulties may occur because of the existence of zero morphemes (). Zero morphemes are morphemes that are neither pronounced, nor written, but do have a certain function. They can be applied in different ways. In Swahili, can occur in verbs, nouns and subjects.8.1.1 Zero morphemes verbsWhen a verb is negated, the subject prefix is preceded by a negation marker si-, which replaces the pronominal subject prefix ni- and ha-. For instance, I didnt eat is sikukula in Swahili. Besides the pronominal subject prefix, the tense marker also changes, when the verb is negated. Some tense markers become nul l (). These are the affirmative tense markers -a- (present simple), -na- (present continuous) and -hu- (present habitual) (Safari Akida, 2003). An example (Lot Publications, 2010)(20) ha-wa--imb-iNeg-SA2-Pres-SAs-Neg.Pres.IndThey do not sing8.1.2 Zero morphemes nounsLooking at the noun classes in table 4, we see that nouns like fruits or produce of plants take the affix ma- in plural, but there is no affix to express the singular form. Therefore, the singular form takes a zero morpheme, as illustrated in (20) (Mohammed, 2001)(21) chungwa an orange machungwa oranges ua a flower mauwa flowersThe zero morpheme indicates that the word is singular. Besides the class that is shown in the example, there are many more classes that take a zero morpheme to differentiate between plural and singular. When we compare this to English, we see that in English, a singular noun is most likely to be preceded by a determiner and the plural form is often locked into the word (an orchard apple tree ap ples). But there are some nouns that carry a zero morpheme. For instance the word fish remains the same when the plural form is derived from the singular noun. In the plural form, a zero morpheme is the most right morpheme. This silent morpheme is placed here to distinguish between plural and singular nouns.8.1.3 Zero morphemes null subject and null objectsIn some Swahili clauses, the subject or object is marked by a zero morpheme the morpheme that marks the person and number of the subject or object is not written nor pronounced. The subject can be absent (22), as well as the object (23) (Deen, 2002)(22) a na m pend a MariamSA3s Pres- OA3s like- Ind MariamHe likes Mariam(23) a na m pend aSA3s- Pres OA3s like IndHe likes herWe can fleck the phi features of subject and object, looking at the subject- and object agreement within the verb. Swahili is a null subject language, whereas in English, subject dropping is less common (ibid.). In English, the subject can be droppe d in slack communication (24). However, there are many restrictions the subject can not be dropped in questions (25) disturbed subjects can not be omitted (26) subject pronoun drop is not permitted in embedded clauses (27) (Weir, 2009)(24) Dont conceive of I can make it tonight.(25) *Are going to the party?(26) A Who runs this place?B * Run this place.(27) * Dont think should go.8.2 Stem marker -ku-An other difficulty in analyzing Swahili morphology is the infinitival marker ku. As mentioned in the infinitival noun example in (9), some verbs in Swahili require the insertion of the morpheme -ku-. In negative infinitives, this would mean that there are two infinitival markers(28) ku-to-ku-j-aku-Neg-ku-come-FVnot to comeIn his article A lexical treatment for stem markers in Swahili, Marten claims that the general analysis of the second -ku- in example (28) as a stem marker. A stem marker should be inserted when the tense markers cannot carry stress. The analysis of -ku- as a stem marker in example (28), implies unjustly that there are two infinitival markers in negative infinitives (Marten, 2002). It is clear that there is more than one way to analyze the morpheme -ku-.8.3 Word boundariesIn Swahili, it is difficult to determine word boundaries. We can detect a boundary by looking at the verb template as given earlier in paragraph 3.3. Another important element in determining word boundaries, is stress (Zwart, 1997).9 ConclusionIn this paper we gave a description of Swahili morphology and where possible, drew parallels between Swahili and English. There are some broad similarities between the two languages. Swahili and English share the same (bare verb-) language class. Both languages are right headed languages, even though in Swahili a finite vowel can be placed after the head. Many of the morphological processes that occur in Swahili, occur in English as well. However, the degree to which these processes occur, differs. In Swahili, inflection and derivation have a more decisive role than in English. The fact that Swahili nouns (which can be placed in different noun classes) are often bound and need a prefix, unlike in English, where most nouns are free, illustrates this. Reduplication is another phenomenon that occurs more often in Swahili than in English. In Swahili, even personal pronouns are reduplications. The use of zero morphemes, portmanteaus and allomorphs is also more common in Swahili than in English.Swahili has some characteristics that cannot be related to English, like the problem of analyzing the stem marker -ku- and the determining of word boundaries. Another example is the way verbs are built. The verb template in Swahili differs from the verb template in English. The underlying cause of many of the differences between the languages is their typology Swahili is a polysynthetic language, English is an inflectional language. The difference in typology is an important explanation for the difference in the occurrence of ma ny of the morphological processes.