LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 22:8 August 2022
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Semantic Transparency and Productivity in Assamese Derivation

Pinky Moni Gayan and Dr. Arup Kumar Nath

Abstract

This paper explores how semantic transparency influences the phenomenon of morphological productivity in the Assamese language while looking into the fact whether phonological transparency has anything to do. There are shreds of evidence that certain affixes occur more frequently than others, or speakers prefer certain kinds of affixes to others in new word formations. There must be some underlying reasons because of which the speakers without being aware show preferences for some affixes. In this respect, the role of semantic transparency can be a considerable aspect to be investigated. Semantic transparency correlates with the cognitive understanding of speakers, which affects the productivity of a morphological process. However, in this process, phonological transparency may not always influence semantic transparency in Assamese morphology. The paper tries to discuss how semantic transparency is influenced by phonological transparency in Assamese, primarily focusing on derivative suffixes and its impact on productivity.

Keywords: Assamese morphology; semantic transparency; morphological productivity; phonological transparency; word-formation process; affixation

1. Introduction

The target language of this study, Assamese, is a dominant language of the state of Assam of the North-Eastern region of India which belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family. The language also works as the lingua franca of the region. It is also spoken in some parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Koch Bihar, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, etc. and is one of the twenty-two languages that is recognized and listed in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

Assamese comprises numerous affixes for the inflectional and derivational word-formation processes. The categories of affixes that are found in Assamese are prefixes and suffixes. Although a language may have several affixes, every affix has its pattern of getting added to a stem or base, and not all of them can be used randomly for forming words. There are some patterns, because of which, if one affix can be used for producing a certain type of word, other affixes may not be an alternative to it. Every affix has certain conditions of getting attached to a base or stem in forming words and hence, adding an affix to a random base might not produce a valid or accepted word or word-form. For example, in Assamese, -?k works as an agentive, denominal, deverbal and deadjectival noun suffix, whereas –aru is an agentive noun n-forming suffix which can be attached only to verb bases.

In an Indo Aryan language like Assamese, where a huge number of affixes exist for word formations (Morol 1974; Bora 2009; Bora 2015; Deka 2015; Deka & Deka 2009; Hakacham 7 2015; Goswami 1981; Goswami 2000), it is not a rare instance to observe that many affixes behave similarly, their selection of bases or stem and pattern of word-formation might be similar and sometimes they can be used as an alternative affix.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Pinky Moni Gayan
Research Scholar
Department of Linguistics and Language Technology
Tezpur University, Napaam, Tezpur 784028
Assam, India
pinkygayan111@gmail.com

Dr. Arup Kumar Nath
Assistant Professor
Department of Linguistics and Language Technology
Tezpur University, Napaam, Tezpur 784028
Assam, India
arupjnu@gmail.com
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