An overview of noun derivation by affixation in Kulung

Abstract

This paper examines noun derivations in Kulung. The derivations are used to identify categories such as agentives, language names (patronyms), locations and instruments. Some of the nominal derivations are nouns derived from nouns. Very few are nouns derived from verbs and other grammatical classes. In Kulung, most of the derivations employ prefixes. The study seeks to describe an inventory of the derivational formations which is an aspect of Derivational Morphology in natural language. The position of the affix in derivation is critical that no meaningful discussion on word structure can be completed without it. The data for the study were obtained from two sources, Primary and Secondary. The primary data was gathered from the interview of native speakers while the secondary data were obtained from works on Kulung, particularly morphology and syntax. The study is anchored on the theoretical model of Morphological theory. This theory is an independent sub-theory of Grammar. The study discovered that Kulung makes use of only one type of derivational morpheme which is prefixes. The paper recommends that the structure of grammatical categories more especially verb (v) Noun (N) Adjective (A) should be studied for morphological analysis. As word is the building block of communication in natural language.