English – Kalabari Word Formation Systems: Convergence and Divergence.

Abstract:

The study is designed to examine the contrast that exist in the morphological processes of word formation in English and Kalabari languages. The English language is an Indo-European language, while Kalabari is a Niger-Congo Ijoid language. The crux of the investigation is to examine the distinct morphological features in the two languages. These languages are chosen because Kalabari is the first language and English is the second language spoken in the locality. The learning of a second language oftentimes is affected by the features of the first language of the learner. Learners and speakers of one language apply rules of their native language into the second language resulting into grammatical and morphological inaccuracies. This study identifies the similarities that may enhance English learning by Kalabari speakers as well as the differences that may pose challenges to the Kalabari learner of English as a second language. The different shades of morphological processes such as compounding, affixation, conversion, backformation, reduplication, among others are treated. While both languages share some morphological processes, they also exhibit unique morphological differences. This study navigates and gets immersed in the fundamental concepts of morphology, contrastive analysis, grammar, inflection, and pedagogy. The theoretical foundation here aligns with the principles set forth by Harris and Lado (the contrastive analysis) an approach that juxtaposes different languages to identifying the distinctions and similarities in the two languages. The study makes use of descriptive research design since the study is aimed to undertake a contrastive study of the morphological processes of the two different languages. The lexicological development of Kalabari in comparison with English constitute an important launching pad to catapult the former into the technological age of the present century. This is perhaps what the Kalabari speaker, and by extension, other speakers of the Niger Congo phylum would need to be fully part of the technological inventions of his times as a world citizen.