TY - JOUR AU - Adeniyi, Olubusola AU - Taiwo, Oye PY - 2018/12/01 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - More on the Indivisibility of {àì-} in Standard Yorùbá JF - Journal of The Linguistic Association of Nigeria JA - JOLAN VL - 21 IS - 3 SE - Articles DO - UR - https://jolan.com.ng/index.php/home/article/view/140 SP - 1-10 AB - <p>There are two schools of thought among Yoruba linguists regarding the morphological status of <strong><em>àì;&nbsp;</em></strong>the unitary school and the split school. Various arguments have been put forth by proponents of the two schools to justify their claims. This paper is an attempt to contribute to the debate on the status of <strong><em>àì </em></strong>in Standard Yorùbá (SY). These arguments are examined critical based on data from the language. The two contending positions, <strong><em>àì- </em></strong>as a singular morpheme and <strong><em>à-ì- </em></strong>as two morphemes, are&nbsp;examined. In this paper, we show that evidence from the structure, function and morphological behaviour of <strong><em>àì </em></strong>are consistently in favour of a unitary analysis. Our conclusion is that since a split analysis of <strong><em>àì </em></strong>proves not amenable to morphological tests while a unitary analysis on the other hand shows conformity to such tests, it is beneficial to treat <strong><em>àì </em></strong>as a single indivisible morpheme.&nbsp;</p> ER -