PLURALISATION STRATEGIES IN EMAI

ABSTRACT

This study examined the pluralisation strategies in Emai. It examined the strategies employed by the Emai language to mark plurality on lexical items at word level and highlighted some of the peculiarities and distinctions which characterize the Emai plural system.

Data for this study were gathered from a variety of sources, including data collected from five (three males and two females) competent native speakers with the aid of a sound recorder as well as published and unpublished materials on pluralisation. The theoretical framework for the study was based on descriptive linguistics and the basic linguistic theory was adopted for data analysis.

The study concludes amongst others, that pluralisation in Emai involves more than one strategy. The study found that Emai uses numbers to pluralize nouns; quantifiers such as ésò ‘some’ were also used to pluralize nouns by combining them with the nouns. Initial vowel substitution of the singular form of a noun forms the plural of the noun though the substitution varies. Zero plural was also observed where the singular form of a noun remains the same in the plural form and also reduplication whereby the nouns are repeated in forming plurals. Other processes such as subtraction where a word or noun is reduced is also used. Pronouns in the language are pluralized by the process of suppletion, vowel substitution as well as addition.