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ABSTRACT
This study focuses on a morpho-semantic analysis of affixes in Urhobo language. The aim is to describe the semantic interpretation of the affixes in Urhobo language, while its specific objectives are to determine the meanings associated with each affix in the language, determine semantic relationship among Urhobo affixes, and lastly, investigate whether or not affix meaning depends on the properties of the base. The motivation behind the study is to deepen understanding of the structure and meaning of affixes in the Urhobo language, shedding light on its morpho-semantic patterns. The significance of the study lies in its contributionto linguistics, preserving cultural heritage, and aiding language preservation efforts. The research involves uncovering how affixation shapes word formation and semantic nuances within the Urhobo language, potentially informing language teaching, translation, and documentation endeavors. The method of data collection for this study was done by conducting interviews with competent native speakers of Urhobo, as well as sourcing existing data base to serve as aid to the research on morphosemantic analysis of affixes in Urhobo language. The Basic Linguistic Theory (BLT) was employed for the analysis of the data. The Basic Linguistic Theory (BLT) aims to identify universal principles underlying language structure and use and also recognizing variation among languages. It helps linguists understand how languages are structured and how they function across different cultures and contexts. The data were presented in accordance to the different affixes gotten from the data collection. The data were analyzed and the formed words were realized and explained extensively via the various affixes used in the language such as; prefixes, suffixes and circumfixes. The research successfully addressed its objectives by determining affix meanings, identifying semantic relationships among affixes, and investigating the dependency of affix meanings on the properties of the base in the Urhobo language. The findings revealed that there are meanings associated with each affix in the language, there are semantic relationships among Urhobo affixes, and lastly, affix meaning depends on the properties of the base. The researcher recommends further study on this research and areas not touched in this research work such as infixation or any aspect of morphology in Urhobo language should be carried out by scholars, linguists and any other person interested in the morphology of the language.
