ON THE NATURE AND STATUS OF THE MORPHEME “TʃE” IN LIMBUM
Abstract
In Limbum, a GrassfieldBantu language spoken in the Nkambe plateau of the North West Region of Cameroon, there exists the morphemetʃe. This morpheme has various interpretations depending on the context in which it is used. Due to the fact that in the various contexts where this morpheme can be used, its phonetic shape is same, in linguistic analysis and in the elaboration of didactic materials, the explanations or the meanings attributed to this morpheme in these contexts has been problematic to teachers of the language and those elaborating didactic materials for the language; it is the aim of this paper to bring to the lamp light the various uses of this morpheme and with illustrative sentences, bring out its different meanings/functions. In terms of theoretical orientation, I use an eclectic approach: the Structuralist Framework as propounded by de Saussure and his followers and Chomsky’s Minimalist Program.Tthe former aids in explaining the linear succession of elements and their relationship in Limbum sentence, while the latter, while capitalizing on the linear order, provides explanations on word order variation of this morpheme in the syntax.
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