Word Formation in Ò̩kọ – Morphology.
Key
SG singular
PL plural
V verb
Key
Morphology is the study of what can be regarded as the grammatical building-blocks (morphemes) of words in sentences of a language. This may be what Ò̩kọ speakers metaphorically refer to as ẹ́gá-oti ọọ́rẹ (one breath of word) – ẹ́gotọọ́rẹ for short. The process of combining morphemes is generally described as affixation. The most relevant affixation processes in Ò̩kọ are inflection, derivation, compounding and reduplication. More affixation tendencies may be observed in other languages.
A morpheme is usually defined as the smallest indivisible grammatical unit – the lowest unit on the lexicogrammatical rank scale (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004: 50). It functions within the grammar of the word (Matthiessen, 1995: 76). Therefore, technically speaking, morphology deals with the internal structure of the word and how the morphemes may be organized to realize it. The morphological processes in Ọ̀kọ is relatively simple. They can be summarised simply as in Table 1 below.
| MORPHOLOGICAL PROCESS | STRUCTURE | MORPHEME | EXAMPLE |
| INFLECTION | a. Stem only | óró | |
| c. Stem + suffix | ẹsẹn “music” + –ro “person” | ẹsẹnro “ musician” | |
| b. Stem + prefix | gbamekon “to fight war” + o- | ọ̀gbamẹkọn “soldier” | |
| d. Stem + (number morpheme contrast) | /o/ (SG) contrasts with /e/(PL) | éró | |
| DERIVATION | An affix + root | (See details below) | |
| FREE | Root | Single | ébí, “water” ẹ̀kpàkpàlà “gun” |
| REDUPLICATION | Root 1 + root 1 | Symmetric repetition of part of the word. | fẹyanfẹyan “all”, nẹnẹ “that”- (relative) ọnẹ-ọnẹ “whichever” |
| COMPOUNDING | Root 1 + Root 2 | Two different roots combined in a word | ógbén + ọpa = ógbéọọ̀pa “youth” ógbén + òkeke = ógbéníkeke “small child) = kid. oti + igbèn = otigbèn “bottom of a tree |
| Complexing | Free + bound morpheme | ébé (fault) + -rò (person surfix ) = ébérò “enemy” ọ́yẹ́n “outside” + -rò (person surfix) = ọ́yínrò “outsider/stranger” òyìbó “fair skin” -ró (person surfix) = òyìbóró “white person” | |
Table 1: Examples of Ọ̀kọ morphological processes