Morphology of plant names in Anlo

Abstract

The thesis is the study of the morphology of plant names in A`l4. E3e names in general are formed as root names or derived names (Atakpa, 1997). Agbedor and Johnson (2005) also say that E3e names carry semantic loads therefore one can only understand E3e names when one dissects the names. This presupposes that understanding of plant names hinges on a critical look at the internal structure of the names, hence this study aims at establishing the internal morphological structures of plant names and to identify word formation strategies employed in formulating A`l4 plant names. The method used to collect information for this study was elicitation. Pictures of plants were subjected to scrutiny by the indigenous A`l4 speakers for correct pronunciation of the plant names in order to construe the meaning of the names. Alongside the elicitation, the researcher used some selected books on plant names as a secondary data. Over one hundred and forty plant names were collected and analysed using Hockett’s (1954) Item and Arrangement and Item and Process Models. This research has revealed various morphological strategies that include compounding, reduplication and borrowing. Aside from the nominalization strategies, the various morphological structures were discussed. Finally, the study established the internal structures of plant names and identified word formation strategies of plant names in A`l4.