Abstract:

This work presents a morpho-syntactic and semantic analysis of ideophones in Tee. The work used the descriptive research design to describe aspects of the morphological and syntactic structures of ideophones in the language. Data for the work were gathered from the 5 Tee language consultants (native speakers), during oral interviews on the use of fixed expressions in the language. Reference was also made to library materials where necessary. Findings from this research reveal that ideophones in Tee perform grammatical roles through affixation. Prefixes and suffixes were the types of affixes with ideophonic functions in the language. Syntactically. Ideophones in Tee can be found in inchoative sentences, simple phrases and clauses and can also be used as adverbials, adjectivals and interjections. Semantically, ideophones can be active or stative. On the whole, ideophones perform grammatical, stylistic and semantic roles in Tee.