Word derivation

The term derivation in morphology refers to one of the word-formation or word building processes highly employed in natural languages. The basic function of derivational process is to enable the language user to make new lexemes. Lexemes belong to lexical categories such as N(oun) V(erb) and A(djective) and derived lexemes may belong to a different category than their bases (Booij, 2005: 51). Derivation processes involve morphemes which alter the meaning or grammatical category of the base (Katamba, 1993).

Nominal derivations

In Bantu languages nominal derivation covers the formation of nouns from stems of other nouns, verbs and adjectives, and the specification of the noun classes with which the noun stems may be associated in the construction of nouns (Maho, 1999; Schadeberg, 2003; Katamba, 2003).

Verbal derivations

Derivation refers to the process of addition of certain morphemes to the specific root portion of verbal morphology which change both the verb form and meaning of the verb (Lusekelo, 2012). In verbal derivation a suffix is attached to the verb root which may be associated with the change of the valence of the verb. Verbal derivations are also called verbal extensions and occur at the post-root position in Bantu, hence they are regarded as verbal suffixes (Schadeberg 2003; Hyman, 2009). Verbal derivation is also associated with the reflexive.

According to Kosch (2006), derivation is generally characterised by the following:

• The meaning of derived words is not always predictable from the constituent parts, and the derivational affixes responsible for the new word creation do not always add a constant, predictable meaning to the derived word.
• Derivational affixes are optional in the sense that they do not have to occur in a word. Their usage is not dictated by any factor other than the choice of an individual as to what (s)he wants to communicate (lexical considerations). Derivational affixes are also optional because they may be replaced by others depending on the meaning which is to be expressed.
• There is no limit to the number of new words which may be created as needs of changing societies dictate. The categories to which the words are added are in principle `open’, since it is always possible to add new items to word categories such as nouns and verbs. This does not mean that derivational affixes themselves can freely be added to a language. They are restricted in number, just like inflectional affixes, which constitute a `closed set’. Kosch (2006).

Derivation as a word forming process

As stated earlier, in its most general sense, word formation refers to processes whereby words are marked morphologically to signal grammatical relationships (inflection) or lexical relationships (derivation) (Kosch, 2006: 113). The principal devices for forming words are derivation and compounding with a third process which is closely linked to compounding is reduplication.

Certain bound morphemes have the effect of changing the part of speech of the word to which they are affixed and will be referred to as class-changing derivation, as in the following:

• -bhala > umbhali ‘write’ > ‘author’
• -thenga > umthengi ‘buy’ > ‘buyer’
• -zala > umzali ‘give birth’ > ‘parent’
• -funda > umfundi ‘read/learn’ > ‘learner’

It should, however, be noted that bound morphemes do not always change the word category (part of speech) to which they are attached.

• -bhala > bhal-ela ‘write’ > ‘write to’
• -bhala > bhal-isa ‘write’ > ‘register’
• -funda > fund-ela ‘learn’ > ‘learn to become’
• -sela > sel-ela ‘drink’ > ‘drink to become’
• -gungqa > -gungq-isa ‘loose’ > ‘loosen’

We can represent the rules in the examples above as shown in the examples below respectively:

• Class prefix + verb + terminative vowel > Noun class 1
  • umbhali / umthengi / umzali / umfundi
• Verb + extension suffix + terminative vowel > Extended verb
  • bhalela / bhalisa / fundela / gungqisa

It must be stressed that bound morphemes do not necessarily result in a change in word category (part of speech) as it is reported to be the case in some languages of the world. In fact even in these languages, it is a question of one language having more instances of change in word category than the other way round.

Derivational affixes may be responsible for a change in the class membership (word category) of a word or they may leave the class membership unchanged. We can distinguish between class-changing and class-maintaining derivational processes.

Class-changing derivation

There exist several possibilities of types of derivation in Bantu languages, and in isiXhosa in particular, such as the derivation of (a) verbs, (b) nouns, (c) adverbs and ideophones from a variety of other word categories. This list is not exhaustive:

Formation of verbs

Verbs may be derived from nouns and adjectives using the so-called verbalising suffixes (Kosch, 2006: 114):

• Noun > Verb
  • intloni ‘shame’ > ukuhlonipha ‘to respect’
  • ivila ‘lazy person’ > ukuvilela ‘to be lazy for’
  • ubukhali ‘sharpness’ > -khalipha ‘to be brave’
  • imfama ‘blind person’ > -mfameka ‘be blind’
  • umona ‘jealousy’ > -monela ‘be jealous of’
• Adjective > Verb
  • -khulu ‘big’ > -khulisa ‘augment’
  • -futshane ‘short’ > -futshanisa ‘shorten’
  • -uhlaza ‘greenery’ > -hlaziya ‘revive’
  • -mnandi ‘nice’ > -nandipheka ‘enjoyable’
  • -ncinci ‘small’ > -nciphisa ‘decrease’
• Ideophone > Verb
  • goqo ‘humming sound’ > -goqoza ‘sound by one carrying noise object’
  • hlaku ‘ploughing sound’ > -hlakula ‘to plough’
  • nkcenkce ‘water sound’ > -nkcenkceshela ‘to water garden’
  • menye ‘lightning sound’ > -menyezela ‘to shine’
  • shunqu ‘dismantling sound’ > -shunqula ‘to cut-off’
  • tyaba ‘flattening sound’ > -tyabeka ‘to plaster a wall or floor’

Formation of nouns

• Pronoun > Noun
  • wena ‘you’ > ubuwena ‘your personality’ class 14
  • thina ‘we’ > ubuthina ‘our personality’ class 14
  • mna ‘me’ > ubumna ‘my personality’ class 14
  • yena ‘he/she’ > ubuyena ‘her/his personality’ class 14
• Verb > Noun
  • ukuthetha ‘to talk’ > intetho ‘speech’ class 9
  • ukuthetha ‘to talk’ > isithethi ‘speech’ class 7
  • ukulamba ‘to be hungry’ > isilambi ‘poor person’
  • ukona ‘to offend’ > isono ‘sin’ class 7
  • ukwenza ‘to do’ > isenzo ‘an act’ class 7
  • ukukhuthala ‘to be industrious’ > isikhuthali ‘a diligent person’ class 7
  • ukunyamezela ‘to endure’ > unyamezelo ‘endurance’ class 11
  • ukukhululeka ‘to be free’ > inkululeko ‘freedom’ class 9
• Adjective > Noun
  • -bi ‘ugly’ > ububi ‘ugliness’ class 14
  • -hle ‘pretty’ > ubuhle ‘beauty’ class 14
  • -dala ‘old’ > ubudala ‘age’ class 14
  • -ninzi ‘much/many’ > isininzi ‘majority’ class 7
  • -nye ‘one’ > ubunye ‘unity’ class 14
• Ideophone > Noun
  • -thuthuthu ‘motorbike sound’ > isithuthuthu ‘motorbike’ class 7
  • -nqumama ‘abrupt stop’ > unqumamo ‘to pause’ class 11
  • -nqa ‘surprise’ > umnqa ‘a surprise’ class 3
  • -nkente-nkente ‘ringing sound’ > unkente-nkente ‘rumour’ class 3
  • -bham ‘gun sound’ > isibham ‘a gun’ class 7

Formation of adverbs

• Noun > Verb
  • ingomso ‘a tomorrow’ > ngomso ‘tomorrow’
  • ikamva ‘the future’ > kamva ‘a hindsight’
  • umneno ‘this side’ > nganeno ‘this side’
  • umphesheya ‘across’ > ngaphesheya ‘yonder’
  • umphantsi ‘side below’ > ngaphantsi ‘below’
  • phakathi ‘the middle’ > umphakathi ‘the inside’
• Adjective > Adverb
  • -ncinane ‘small’ > kancinane ‘a little’
  • -nye ‘once’ > kanye ‘one time’
  • -bini ‘two’ > kabini ‘twice’
  • -fuphi ‘near’ > kufuphi ‘nearby’
  • -khulu ‘big’ > kakhulu ‘a lot’

Formation of ideophones

• Noun > Ideophone
  • umgca ‘a line’ > gca ‘of being straight’
  • unonca ‘attachment’ > nca ‘of being attached’
  • inzolo ‘silence’ > zole ‘of being silent’
  • umnqa ‘wonder’ > nqa ‘of being surprised’
  • umtha ‘a light’ > tha ‘of being clear’
• Verb > Ideophone
  • ukutshona ‘to sink’ > tshoniyane ‘going down’
  • ukubimbiliza ‘to swallow’ > bimbilili ‘of swallowing’
  • ukujikeleza ‘to run aound’ > jika ‘of turning around’
  • ukunxunguphala ‘to be sad’ > xhungu ‘of being surprised’

Class-maintaining derivation

• Diminutive formation

  Class-maintaining derivations produce a derived form of the same class as the underlying form. Diminutives in Bantu languages often express physical smallness. However, diminutives can also be used to encode individuative, perforative or other connotative meanings, e.g., referring to group membership, off-spring, young age and/or deficiency (Gibson et al., 2017).

  Bantu languages employ noun classes for diminutive purposes. However, several other strategies are also attested, including the use of derivational suffixes and compounding processes. Over and above the use of -ana to indicate a diminutive many of the Southern Bantu languages display a varieties, of –ana. Several studies have attempted to account for the possible historical origin of the suffix -ana in Southern Bantu languages. Engelbrecht (1925) proposed that the diminutive suffix results from language contact with Khoisan languages, where similar derivational process is found. This development would have taken as a starting point in existing Bantu formations with ‘child’, as seen in the distribution of (lexicalised) forms of diminutives in –ana throughout the wider Bantu area. Güldemann (1999) supports Engelbrecht’s (1925) analysis about Khoisan interference, and provides additional evidence, by expanding the analysis, to include feminine suffixes such as Zulu -kazi, and the widespread locative –ni. He proposes that the emergence of the derivational suffixes in Southern Bantu, including the diminutive –ana (and its variants), is explained by contact with Southern African languages during the first Bantu migration waves, i.e., at a stage when Khoisan languages had a strong influence on Southern Bantu languages, and were not associated with the low social prestige with which they later became associated (Gibson et al., 2017). The historical development of the diminutive suffix –ana in Southern Bantu, appears to combine elements of both contact and grammaticalisation (cf. Meeussen, 1967).

Compare the use of the diminutive suffixes –ana, -azana, anyana-anana:

• -ana:
  • inkwenkwe ‘boy’ > inkwenkwana ‘small boy’
  • incwadi ‘book’ > incwadana ‘handbook’
  • umfazi ‘woman’ > umfazana ‘young woman’
• -azana
  • intombi ‘girl’ > intombazana ‘young girl’
  • ihobe ‘dove’ > ihotyazana ‘small dove’
  • umfazi ‘woman’ > umfazazana ‘a young pretty woman’
• -anyana
  • isilo ‘animal’ > isilwanyana ‘young animal’
• -anana
  • intaba ‘mountain’ > intatyanana ‘very small mountain’
  • intsimi ‘garden’ > intsinyanana ‘very small garden’

The diminutive -ana may also be used:

• With descriptives
  • indlela ebanzana ‘a little broader road’
  • ilizwe seliluhlazana ‘the country beginning to be greenish’
• With adverbs
  • msinyana > msinyane ‘quickly’
  • kude > kudana ‘further’
  • kufuphi > kufutshane ‘nearer’
• To show excellence
  • ukutyana okumnandi ‘nice food’
  • ukutya okumnandana ‘delicious food’
  • intombazana entle ‘beautiful woman’
  • intombazana entlana ‘very beautiful woman’

Feminine and augmentative formation

A feminine suffix -kazi, may be used to show feminity:

• ixhego ‘old man’ > ixhegokazi ‘grandmother’
• umnini ‘owner’ > umnikazi ‘female owner’
• utitshala ‘teacher’ > utitshalakazi ‘female teacher’

The suffix –kazi may also be employed to indicate augmentation and relationships.

Augmentation

• umthi ‘tree’ > umthikazi ‘big tree’
• ilizwe ‘country’ > ilizwekazi ‘big country’
• umlambo ‘river’ > umlambokazi ‘big river’

Relationship

• ubawo ‘father’ > ubawokazi ‘paternal uncle’
• uma ‘mother’ > umakazi ‘aunt’
• indoda ‘man’ > indodakazi ‘sister-in-law’

Locative formation

Locative words derived by means of locative affixes are generally referred to as locativised nouns (Kosch, 2006: 119). “This term implies that they are still considered to be part of the word category of nouns and they do in fact exhibit some characteristics of regular nouns, such as being able to function as subjects and objects and to trigger agreement. These locativised nouns may, however, also be employed to function as adverbs.” According to Kosch (2006: 119), they then have a dual nature and in this sense are both class-maintaining derivations (nouns > nouns) and class-changing derivations (noun > adverb).

The prefix e- is used with or without the suffix -ini (modified to -eni under certain conditions:

• Use of prefix e-
  • ikhaya ‘home’ > ekhaya ‘at home’
  • ubusuku ‘nighttime’ > ebusuku ‘at night’
  • umnyango ‘door’ > emnyango ‘at the door’
  • ukwindla ‘spring’ > ekwindla ‘during spring’
• Use of the prefix e- as well as suffix -eni
  • igama ‘name’ > egameni ‘on behalf of’
  • igumbi ‘room’ > egumbini ‘in the room’
  • ihlobo ‘summer’ > ehlotyeni ‘during summer’
  • ihempe ‘shirt’ > ehempeni ‘in the shirt’
• Use of ku- with nouns of classes 1(a) and 2 (a)
  • utata ‘father’ > kutata ‘to father’
  • unonkala ‘crab’ > kunonkala ‘by the crab’
  • uTsolo ‘place name’ > kuTsolo ‘at Tsolo’
• Use of kwa- as adverb formative
  • umXhosa ‘Xhosa’ > kwaXhosa ‘Xhosa land’
  • umfundisi ‘priest’ > kwaMfundisi ‘at the priest place’
  • uCentane ‘place name’ > kwaCentane ‘at Centane’

Some class-maintaining verbal derivational suffixes

• Reversive suffix

  The reversive extension indicates that the subject of the verb undoes or nullifies the results of the action expressed by the base or performs some action opposite in function to that expressed by the base (Satyo, 1985: 308). Kosch (2006: 121) states that semantically the reversive suffix causes the verb to express an opposite meaning or the `undoing’ of actions. Since the inherent meaning of the verb is affected, word formations of this type clearly fall within the realm of derivation (Kosch, 2006: 121). The reversive suffix is not very productive, since it only appears with a small set of verbs.

  • -vala ‘close’ > -vula ‘open’
  • -andlala ‘lay/spread’ > -andlula ‘roll up’
• Contactive suffix

  The significance of this extension is that it indicates physical contact of some sort between the subject of the action and the object, whether the latter is stated or implied.

  • -fumbatha ‘retain in the closed hand’
  • -singatha ‘take or carry a child in the arms’
  • -mumatha ‘keep something in one’s mouth’
  • -qulatha ‘contain’

Compounding refers to nouns formed by combining two or more words to represent one concept (a single unit of meaning (Mashauri, 2018: 3). Morphological, phonological and syntactic rules work together in forming nouns. Thus, during compounding the participating words often undergo phonological and morphological changes and parts of these words may be elided, replaced, or adapted in some way or another, so that the lexical components do not appear as full words, but as bound stems and roots (Kosch, 2006: 122). Only the prefix of the first word/stem/root will control the whole word, determining the concordial agreement with other words in a sentence. Thus, modules of grammar in any language, work together in various ways, to form grammatical word structures which are used by a speech community in daily interactions. A compound is pronounced as one word and considered morphologically as a single unit of meaning.

The two main dimensions in terms of which compounds are classified are the word categories to which they belong (noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb) and the syntactic relationship between the constituents of the compound word (Kosch, 2006). Most of the compounds are of the subordinate and possessive type, where one element modifies the other, for example in terms of qualification, locality, or possession (Kosch, 2006: 122). Most of the compounds created in the Bantu languages belong to the category of nouns.

• Noun + Noun
  • umnini ‘owner’ + umzi ‘house’ > umninimzi ‘householder’
  • intsimbi ‘iron’ + umthi ‘tree’ > umsimbithi ‘walking stick’
  • umnini ‘owner’ + ihashe ‘horse’ > umninihashe ‘horse owner’
• Noun + Pronoun
  • umnini ‘owner’ + lona ‘it’ > umninilo ‘its owner’
  • umnini ‘owner’ + zona ‘them’ > umninizo ‘owner of them’
• Noun + Adjective
  • ikhaya ‘home’ + -khulu ‘big’ > ukhayakhulu ‘main home’
  • usiba ‘pen’ + khulu ‘big’ > usibakhulu ‘general-secretary’
  • unyawo ‘foot’ + ntle ‘beautiful’ > unyawontle ‘priest’
• Verb + Adverb
  • ukufa ‘to die’ + ndawonye ‘one place’ > amafela ndawonye ‘patriots’
  • ukusebenza ‘working’ + emigodini ‘mines’ > umsebenzi-migodini ‘mineworker’
  • ukufa ‘to die’ + nenkosi ‘with king’ > amafanankosi ‘king’s protectors’
• Verb + Noun
  • ukufa ‘death’ + ilizwe ‘country’ > imfazwe ‘war’
  • ukutshona ‘setting’ + ilanga ‘sun’ > intshonalanga ‘sunset’
  • ukuswela ‘not to have’ + imali ‘money’ > intswelamali ‘penniless’
  • ukuva ‘feel’ + ndedwa ‘alone’ > umvandedwa ‘anguish/grief’
  • veza ‘show’ + indlebe ‘ear’ > ivezandlebe ‘an outsider’

Reduplication

Reduplication is viewed as the double occurrence of a morphological constituent meeting a particular morpho semantic description. It is a word formation procedure in which meaning is expressed by repeating all or part of a word. The unique feature of reduplication, the feature which leads diverse morphological processes to be grouped together under the title reduplication, is the resemblance of the added material to the stem being reduplicated. During reduplication a word may be repeated in totality, or a part of the word may be repeated, either initially, medially or finally, to modify the original word semantically in a certain way. It allows the derived word to convey a wide range of effects such as emphasis, added intensity (or in some cases reduction of intensity, thoroughness, repletion or customary activity, continuance, increase in site, plurality, and distribution (Kosch, 2006: 125).

Bantu languages allow verbs, nouns, adjectives, numerals and even pronouns and demonstratives to be reduplicated with specific semantic effects (Gabriel et al., 2018). Bantu languages make use of the causative suffix to denote intensity, as does the applicative suffix in the following:

• Causative
  • -hlamba – hlambisisa ‘wash thoroughly’
  • -cokisa – cokisisa ‘do thoroughly’
  • -buza – buzisisa ‘question thoroughly’
• Applicative
  • -sika – sikelela ‘cut finely’
  • -betha – bethelela ‘to insist’
• Nouns
  • iintlobo – iintlobo-ntlobo ‘various kinds’
  • izinto – izintoyinto ‘various matters’
  • izimbo – izimboyimbo ‘different tendencies’

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