Aspects of Nominalisation in Idoma

Abstract

This research investigated aspects of nominalisation in the Idoma language as a contribution to studies on nominalisation processes in Idoma. The study used generative morphology as proposed by Scalise (1984) for the theoretical framework, and data were collected from the nọchi dialect of Idoma through participant observation. The article investigated three nominalisation processes, which are vowel prefixation process, ‘oó’ prefixation and a double prefixation process. For all the processes discussed, the verb is the stem/root. For vowel prefixation, the research observed that some nominals in Idoma are derived from verbs by adding the right vowel prefix in accordance with the vowel harmony of Idoma. The ‘oó’ prefixation is used for topicalization. For the double prefixation process, the first prefix is ‘o’ (3rd person singular pronoun), which changes the verb to an adjective. The derived adjective becomes a nominal element when prefixed by ‘ọd’, (a clipped form of ‘oda’). Findings show that the derived nominals have the same structure and perform the same grammatical functions as prototypical nouns in Idoma. The research concludes that these nominalisation processes are productive aspects of derivational morphology in the Idoma language.