On Lexical and Grammatical Meanings of Tone in Mwaghavul
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60787/jolan.vol6no1.468Keywords:
tone, Mwaghavul, temporal distinctions, adjectival verbs, autosegmental phonologyAbstract
Most previous studies on the grammatical functions of tone in Mwaghavul dwell on its relatedness with segmental and content word compositions of utterances. This paper provides further evidence on the grammatical functions of tone in Mwaghavul. It examines the observation that adjectival verbs nominals by means of tonal modification and the linguistic harmony between tone and temporal distinctions in the language. The data used for this study consist of 400 Mwaghavul lexical items, and 100 Mwaghavul sentences related to the subject of this study. The Ibadan word list of 400 basic lexical items was the main instrument for data collection while supplementary data were collected via participant observation. Five L1 speakers of the language, within the age range of 30 to 60 years participated as consultants for data collection. Analysis of available data was conducted mostly within the framework of Autosegmental phonology. The study provides evidence in support of the observation that adjectival verbs, like their non-adjectival counterparts, become nominals by tonal lowering or raising. Data analysis also showed that tone marks temporal distinctions in Mwaghavul. Specifically, tonal differences mark the distinction between the habitual, progressive and the perfective time frames in the language. The work furthers, and improves on previous studies of tone, as well as the interaction of tone and grammar in the language.
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