25
all processes connected with combining two or more morphemes which
:i
ce before lexical insertion are termed derivational, and
take P la
all such processes which take place after lexical insertion are
termed inflexional.
For details see II.A.2. and II.A.3.
Finally, integrated phonology explicitly permits certain
presumably language-specific phenomena which we believe to exist
in Efik (and without which a coherent and insightful analysis is
not possible), but which are not part of generally accepted pract ice
in linguistics.
These include a phonologically contrastive Open
Transition (OT, II.C.2.), divocalic syllabemes (II.C.3.), the
function of the Open Transition as a domain (II.E.5.), and the
six-way distinction between no tone (0) , a Low tone anchored to
a syllabeme, a Low tone anchored to an Open Transition, a Drifting
Low tone which is followed by a Tonal Influence Boundary (TIB,
II.E.2.), a Drifting Low tone which is preceded by an Open Transition, and a Drifting Low tone which is neither preceded by a n
le
open Transition nor followed by a Tonal Influence Boundary (pp.
114-116).
I.C. PRACTICAL POINTS FOR THE READER
It must be admitted that this book is a rather strange conglomer-
'2 • /
ation of diverse substance: parts of the Efik sound system, a new
variant of a phonological model, etc.
Some remarks concerning
what a particular reader should read and how may therefore be in
order.
Descriptivists and other linguists interested in the detai l s
of Niger-Congo languages will perhaps find Chapter III and sections
V.C., VI.C. to and including VI.M., and VII.B. of interest.
Theoretical phonologists will hopefully find everything except
possibly Chapter III interesting.
All readers are emphatically advised to study the following
parts carefully before reading (the rest of) the book:
xxi
pp. xix-xxi
(abbreviations [for everything except features ] , pp. xxiii-
xxiv (symbols and transcriptions at various stages), p. xxv
).
(list of the charts), p. 92
II.A.10.
(~ of sylla~), sections
(summary of the stages of the derivation), II.B.
criptions, boundaries, etc . ), II.D.
(tiers), II.E.6.
(trans-
(tone classes
26
of Efik verbs and nouns and their underlying tonal form), II.F.9.
(summary of the features, including their abbreviations), II.I.
(hierarchy of the features), II.J.
(the names, abbreviations and
underlying forms of the inflexional and derivational affixes and
of the auxiliary verbs), II.K.
(the conventions), Charts II and III
(pp. 201, 202, vowels at the SPL), Chart VII (p. 364, vowels at the
p
(j
0
ML), Chart XIII (p. 593, consonants) and Appendices III, IV, V and
VI (the essentials of the Efik verb system).
1
In references to certain much-used specific works of other
e
writers, particular articles and books are referred to with an
abbreviation, e.g. "(W:32)" for Ward, 1933, p. 72.
f
These abbrevi-
ations are included in alphabetical order in the references.
Unless
it is clear from the context that someone else's work is being
discussed, all page numbers and section codes within parentheses
or square brackets refer to other pages or parts of this book, e.g .
"(pp. 413-419)" and "(II.E.5.)", i.e. "see pp. 413-419" and "see
section E.5. of Chapter II", respectively.
Frequent reference is made to certain morphologically and/or
phonologically defined positions in a word, e.g. the Initial Prefix
Position (IPP).
These are explained in the relevant parts of
Chapter III; to find the explanations, see the section titles for
Chapter III in the Table of Contents .
In the identification of verb forms, only the "marked" categories are generally mentioned .
If "Neg" is not mentioned, the
verb form may thus be assumed to be Positive; similarly, if "Seq"
is not mentioned, it may be assumed to be a First-Verb form rather
than a Sequential form, if "Hpth" is not mentioned , it may be
assumed to be non-Hypothetical, etc.
Unless there is some reason to refer to another stage of the
phonological derivation (as is often the case), Efik data are
cited in a transcription of the phonological representation at the
Surface Phonemic Level (SPL), i.e. between slanting lines with no
stage index (II.B.l.), e.g. / b j b/
('build').
Verb stems are
normally given in the isolation form (IF) of the Second Person
Singular Imperative (2sg Imp) , which is the form closest to their
Underlying Form. Efik words for which a gloss is given which is
not accompanied by an identification of the word class, e.g. "(adj.)"
for "adjective", are nouns if they begin with a vowel or a syllabic
I
SS
x
.) "
27
nd are verb stems if they begin with a non-syllabic consonasa 1 a
~(Conventions 47 and 48) ·
;,_--- Underlining is used in translations of Efik sentences or of
parts thereof to indicate which word or words are in focus or
.
(in a
few cases which will be clear from the context) which word
or words are in contrast.
Single quotation marks (' ... ') are used for glosses and translations of Efik data.
Double quotation marks (" ... ") are used
either for an equivalent in Nigerian English which is different
from the usage in British English (e.g.
"sweet" with the meaning
'tasty'), or for a literal quotation of (part of) a gloss from
Adams (A), Goldie (Gl) or Ward (W).
Otherwize glosses (or the most
common or most relevant parts thereof) from these works are usually
summarized (selectively) or paraphrased.
ward, Adams and Winston all do not distinguish between the
Efik vowels /e/ and /E/, and they transcribe tones, semivowels and
the palatal nasal /p/ in a way different from mine.
Their trans-
criptions have been reinterpreted in terms of my own in forms quoted
from them.
Ef ik words quoted from Goldie have been reinterpreted
(and when necessary, corrected) much more drastically unless his
particular way of writing them is relevant to the discussion.
It will often be useful to the reader to refer to the list of
the phonological rules with examples of their operation (II.L.).
The page number on which each of the P-Rules which is included in
this book can be found is given in this list.
Unfortunately it has in some cases not been possible to avoid
beginning a footnote on the page after the one on which it is
referred to, and footnotes often continue on the following page.
The footnotes are numbered consecutively from the beginning of
each chapter.
For the sake of clarity and for ease of reading, we have
repeated some explanations at various points instead of referring
to them with a cross reference .
29
Chapter II
Some Basic Aspects of our Descriptive Model
and of Efik Phonological Structure
II.A. STAGES IN THE DERIVATION AND LEVELS OF PHONOLOGICAL
REPRESENTATION
II.A.l. Static and Dynamic Stages
In accordance with the normal practice in generative phonology, our
model assumes· that the deepest level of phonological representation
is the Lexical Representation (LR, pp. 155-156).
This i s the re-
presentation with which individual morphemes are stored in the First
Lexicon (p. 30).
In our view the central tasks of a phonological description of a language are to characterize the processes
through which the LR is converted into the Surface Phonetic Output
(SPO), the most detailed description of the stream of speech sounds
which can be predicted from representations at deeper levels, a nd
to describe the phonological system of the language and the distribution of its elements at various stages in this process.
We shall divide the phonological derivation 1 into eighteen
stages, beginning with the LR (Stage 1) and ending with the SPO
(Stage 18).
Nine of these are dynamic stages, during which the
phonological representation is changed in some way, and nine are
static stages, at which no changes take place.
The static stages
are convenient levels of phonological representation which serve as
milestones in the derivational process.
Some of them clearly are
universally significant phonological levels.
Others are mot ivated
primarily by the groupings of various kinds of phonological rules
(P-Rules) which have emerged in ordering the P-Rules of Efik.
Their
I. The term "derivation" is used both for the process described here and for the
process by which a word or stem is formed from a smaller word or stem thr ough
the addition of a derivational affix or through compounding and the related
process or morpheme combination which we term coalescence (pp- . 396-397) .
is hoped that the intended meaning will be clear from the context.
It
30
possible validity and significance for other (tone) languages remains to be investigated.
The content, nature and status of some
of the static and dynamic stages is discussed at various points in
this volume (e.g. pp. 315-316 , 318, 321-323 , 355-358, 395,
417-419, 506, 552-555, 592).
The eighteen stages are
introduced briefly on pp. 29 - 52 and summarized schematically
p. 53 .
II .A.2. Derivation, Inflexion, the Two Lexicons and the
Morphemic Level
In our treatment of Efik we shall distinguish clearly between derivational and inflexional processes.
We assume that the underlying
representation of a sentence, after lexical insertion, consists of
a string of stems (which may be complete words), uninflectable words
and inflexional affixes.
The stems, uninflectable words
a~d
affixes
may be either monomorphemic roots and affixes or derived, polymorphemic stems, words and affixes.
In our framework there are two lexicons.
All the individual
morphemes of the language, both lexical roots and derivational and
2
inflexional formatives and affixes , are stored in the First Lexicon.
The derivational rules which combine individual morphemes in-
to polymorphemic words and stems (including compounds) and into polymorphemic affixes (pp. 396-397, 554, 558) and the phonological processes which accompany the derivation operate on morphemes from this
lexicon.
The Second Lexicon contains these derived words and stems,
all inflexional affixes , all monomorphemic words, and those monomorphemic stems which can be inserted directly into the string without any intervening derivational process.
The stems , inflexional
affixes and uninflectable words are inserted into the string from
2. we shall use the term formative to refer to a grammatical morpheme which
coalesces with another morpheme at Stage 5 of the derivation
(pp. 396-397)
Some formatives (e.g. the Singular- prefix formative, m/~/, on p. 397) coalesce
both with other grammatical morphemes and with lexical stems.
The terms
af-
fix, prefix and suffix will be reserved for non-root morphemes which do not
undergo such a coalescence, and for polymorphemic grammatical units which result from a coalescence.
For further discussion see pp. 36-39.
31
the second Lexicon.
Derivation must take place at a deeper stage than inflexion.
oer i ve d , Polymorphemic stems are attached to inflexional affixes as
a unit, not as one or more of the individual morphemes of these
Similarly, derived, polymorphemic affixes are attached to
stems.
stems as units, not as individual formatives (pp. 398-405). There
is therefore no reason to insert the morphemes of which derived
stems and affixes are composed into the syntactic string until after the derivational processes have taken place.
By having deriva-
tion take place before lexical insertion, the lexical insertion
process is greatly simplified.
Furthermore, by having the phono-
logical processes which accompany derivation operate before lexical
insertion, the formulation of some of the P-Rules which describe
those processes can be simplified considerably (e.g. P 4, pp.
ls
410-413).
!S
wurzel (1970)
comparable considerations have led Bierwisch (1967) and
3
to propose somewhat similar solutions for the treat-
ment of German derivational morphology.
The point of departure for our description of Efik phonology
is the model described by Stanley (1967).
We do not, however, adopt
Stanley's proposal (S:433-435) that dictionary matrices be fully
specified and that morpheme structure conditions be used only to
•state the constraints that exist on the morphemes of the language"
.y·
(S:434) and thereby characterize the redundancy of the language
(5:435).
Instead, we shall adhere to the system he discussed first
.s
(5:424-426, 428-430), in which a partially specified dictionary ma-
:,
trix selects a fully specified matrix from the set M(U) of fully
specified matrices of the language, which have been defined by the
1·
set of all morpheme structure conditions.
The representation in
our First Lexicon is therefore a partially specified, redundancy~ representation.
This representation (the LR, Stage 1 of the
phono logical derivation) is a static stage.
At Stage 2, a dynamic stage, each dictionary matrix in the
e
3 • Wurzel:
"Wir nehmen an, dafl neben dem Lexikon, in dem die Stiimme reprasen-
tiert sind, noch ein besonderes Lexikon oder eine zweite Lexikonabteilung
fur die Derivative existiert." (p. 81).
32
4
First Lexicon selects a fully specified , redundant matrix from
M(U) and replaces itself (i . e., the original, partially specified
matrix) with it.
M(U) is the set of all possible, well-formed,
fully specified matrices of Efik.
It is defined by the application
of the Phoneme Structure Conditions (PSCs, our equivalent of
Stanley's "segment structure conditions"; pp. 158-165)
and the Con-
figurational Moroheme Structure Conditions (CMSCs, our equivalent
of Stanley's "sequence structure conditions"; pp . 165-167) as a
single,
~ordered
set.
This set of PSCs and CMSCs, the Morpheme
Structure Conditions (MSCs), expresses generalizations about M(U).
Since the Morphemic Level (pp . 30-34) contains only matrices
which have been selected from M(U), and since no changes are made
in the representation of individual morphemes at Stage 3 (be low) ,
the generalizations expressed by the MSCs are also valid for the
Morphemic Level.
At Stage 3, also a dynamic stage, all morphemes which are to
be combined into derived stems , words and prefixes, including compounds 5, are concatenated 6 • This results in a fully specified, redundant linear representation (with an indication of all morpheme
boundaries) of all Efik stems , inflexional affixes and uninflectable
words before any of the phonological rules which accompany derivation apply.
This representation is Stage 4 in the derivation , a
static stage which we shall call the Morphemic Level (ML).
The re-
presentation of individual morphemes at the ML is identical to the
LR except that at the ML the original partially specified, redundancy-free matrix has been replaced by a fully specified, redundant
4. At this point in the derivation, "fully specified" in our model means that
all non-allophonia binary features which are not irrelevant are specified.
The allophonic features (pp . 145-149) and the rows in the matrices to accommodate them are introduced by P-Rules at Stage 15.
From Stage 3 onwards all
of the squares actually present in the matrices are specified .
5. Efik compounds may be combinations of two root morphemes or of two prefix
formatives (pp. 554, 559).
6. Derivation may be viewed as the result of two processes.
First the morphemes
which are to be combined into derived stems, words and prefixes are concatenated (Stage 3) , and then the P-Rules apply which carry out all necessary
phonological adjustments (Stage 5).
e
33
s concatenation has already taken place, however, i t is posone. A
to a polymorphemic, derived form at the ML, e.g.
sible to r efer
+ d ( + -' + dn +/, 'good {sg)' (participial adjective),
m;+ a +
/e - df - f~n/ at the Surface Phonemic Level.
A transcription of the ML representation is written between
slant lines with a raised "m" before the first line.
Morpheme
·
i'f marked, will be indicated in ML transcriptions conboundaries,
taining more than one morpheme either by the symbol "+", as in t h e
example just given, or by blank spaces, e.g. m/a '
d( -' dn/
(p. 555)
we shall maintain Stanley's sharp distinction between (phonological) rules, which "map one level onto another", and {morpheme
structure) conditions, which "state redundancies at a given level"
(S:424).
From this we do not conclude, however, that a representa-
tion at one static stage can be converted to a representation at a
later static stage only through the operation of P-Rules.
Through
the process of matrix selection at Stage 2, the phonological representation of a morpheme is changed dramatically in a theoretical l y
significant way:
partially specified, redundancy-free matrices are
replaced by fully specified, redundant ones.
At Stage 3 all mor-
phemes which enter into derivational processes are concatenated
with other such morphemes and thereby find themselves in a new environment.
Neither Stage 2 nor Stage 3 involves the application of
P-Rules, but they nonetheless bring about changes in the phonolog7
It therefore seems entirely justified to
ical representation.
regard Stage 4, the ML, as a new static stage and as a significan t
level of phonological representation.
Stage 5 is the dynamic stage at which the P-Rules apply wh i ch
describe the phonological changes that are part of derivational
processes.
At the very beginning of Stage 5, morphological deriva-
tion rules {pp. 407 - 409) apply to each of the morphemes which ex7. It may be objected that the changes in the representation brought about at
Stage 2 only involve filling in predi ctable, redundant informati on and do
not alter the structure of morphe mes.
however, are also predictable .
The changes br ought about by P-Rul es,
It is p recisely the f unctio n of P-Rules to
express generalizations a bout the pre dictable change s which wi ll take p l ace
in the phonological representation between t he ML and the Phoneti c Level .
34
hibit
suppletive allornorphic variation conditioned by morphemes
with which they have been concatenated at Stage 3.
These rules will
convert the morpheme to its proper allornorph in the given environment, complete with its phonological representation.
5 P-Rules apply.
Then the Stage
The first of these, P 1, is Morpheme Coalescence,
which causes some morpheme-initial Drifting tones of formatives and
of lexical morphemes to become anchored to the previously unoccupied domain of a preceding formative (pp . 396 - 397) .
Many Stage 5
P-Rules are highly irregular in the sense that their application is
conditioned by very specific and arbitrary non-phonological information which must be referred to with alphabet features
(pp . 153 , 405),
The Stage 5 P-Rules will only be illustrated briefly in this work
(pp. 398-417).
Certain P-Rules from later stages must apply not on-
ly at their own stage, but also at Stage 5 (pp . 557-558).
After all the Stage 5 P-Rules have applied, all the rnonornorphernic and derived (polyrnorphernic) sterns, uninflectable words and
inflexional affixes of Ef ik are stored in the Second Lexicon (Stage
6, a static stage).
The grammatical formatives, the derivational
affi xes and those stern morphemes which always u ndergo a derivational process (e.g. noun and adjective sterns which can co- occur with
more than one prefix [pp .
36-37 ] and verb stems which only occur
in combination with derivational suffixes), all of which were present in the First Lexicon, have been coupled with other morphemes
in the course of the derivation (Stages 3 and 5) and are therefore
not present in the Second Lex icon as individual entries, but only
in derived forms in combination with other morphemes .
It would be possible to formulate a set of " Stern Structure Conditions" and a set of "Prefix Structure Conditions" to express generalizations which are valid for the r e presentation of stems and
prefixes
8
in the Second Lexicon.
Such conditions , however, would
not make it possible to change the phonological representation in
any way, and, unlike MSCs, would thus not help to create a separate
stage in the derivation .
These structure conditions will not be
cons idered furthe r in this work.
8. Some polymorphemic prefixes are derived by coalescence (p. 3 96)
5.
we have as yet found no polymorphemic Efik suff ixes.
at Stage
Generalizations
about the phonological structure of Efik suffixes would therefore be no different for the representation in the second Lexicon than for the ML.
290
environment.
Examples:
/ f.-dl-d U , 2sg Rel Pres of /d l / , 'come'; and / n-dl-dl / , 'thread
yarn' (A, Gl); / n-dl-dU , lsg Rel Pres of / df/, and /n-d f-df / , '
FV Inf of /dl/; /n-kani -k e/, lsg Neg Pres of /kan i / , 'be(come)
old', and / n-kani-ka / , 'bell, clock'; / f-wao-ke / ,
of / wao / ,
'wind, loop', and / e-wao-k:i / ,
'rheumatism'
/ n-df-de / , lsg Rel Pres of /dl/, and /n-d f-do / ,
animal'; and /o -du-d U , 3sg Rel Pres of /du/ ,
and / a-du-du / ,
'Com Neg Pres
(n- m.);
'hind leg of an
'be (location) •,
'strength'.
III.H.5. The Vowels in Non-Initial-Type Verbal Prefixes
The non-initial-type verbal prefixes are all inflexional, and those
which have segmental substance all consist segmentally of a single
CV syllabeme followed by an OT.
Like initial-type inflexi6nal pre-
fixes, they can be divided into two groups with regard to their vowels:
those which have an identifiable, relatively constant , vowel
which does not depend on a vowel of the neighbouring syllabemes, and
those whose vowel is always in harmony with a vowel of a neighbouring syllabeme, and is thus not unarbitrarily identifiable as any
one of the SPL vowels.
At a deeper level some of these prefixes al-
so contain Drif ting tones which sometimes affect the tone of the
verb stem, but these tones are no longer Drifting at the SPL (P 45,
p. 600) and will be omitted from the present discussion.
The vari-
able, harmonizing vowel will be represented at the SPL as / Vh/
294-295).
The examples given here are all forms of the verb
(pp.
/b~b/ ,
' build'.
The following non-initial-type verbal prefixes have an ident ifiable SPL vowel:
a) / dl- / ,
'First-Verb-Infinitive' pfx, as in / -n -dl-b~b/ , FV Inf .
The /- n- / component recurs in
the Inf Seq forms , as in
/-n-/ (0 / ' n
~ / ), the pfx in
/ -n-b~b/.
b) / dl-/ plus the lowering of a following maximal uninterrupted sequence of High tones ,
' Ventive ' pfx, e.g . the second / dl-/
plus the lowering of the stem tone in / -n-df - df - b:ib/
(- / -n-dl-dl- b~b/ for my informant from Ik~t Ofi~o) , FV Inf
Ventive.
291
cl Homophonous with b} , 'Type I Negative Hortative pfx, as in
/e -dl-b~ b/ , 2sg and 3sg Type I Neg Hort.
dl /dl-/ - /du - / , 'Peripheral Focus (PrVF or PoVF) Positive Future
and (Neutral Focus} Negative Future' pfx, as in /e - dl-b5b/ ,
3pl Pos PrVF or PoVF Fut.
el
I
/ye~/
'
I
for many Calabar ~pea~ers, p. 261), 'Verb-Phrase,
, I
'
Focus Future' pfx, as in /i-ye~bob/ (- / i-yi~b~b / ( /yV h~ /
I
/l - yo ~bob / ),
f)
lpl VPF Fut.
/sl - / plus the lowering of a following maximal uninterrupted sequence of High tones,
'Habitual' pfx, as in /e-sl-b~b/
(- /e -sl-bob / for my informant from Ik~t ~fi~~), 2sg PrVF
Pres Hab.
b},
'Participial' pfx, as in / e-dl-b~b/, Par-
ticiple.
/k€-/, ' Verb-Phrase-Focus Present Continuous' pfx, as in
/-ke-n -bo b/ , lsg VPF Pres cntn.
/ku - / , 'Negative Imperative and Type II Negative Hortative' pfx,
as in / -ku-bob / , 2sg Neg Imp, and in /o -kO-bob / , 2sg and
3sg Type II Neg Hort.
bl above is clearly related to the verb / di / ,
'come ',
likely that d) is as well, at least historically.
ixes a) and c} may also be derived ultimately from this verb,
perhaps from the homophonous verb /dl/, 'be (identification)'.
The /di/ part of prefix g}, used to form the Participle of
(as in /e -df- yom / , 'searching, looking for', from /y6m/ ,
'look
) and to form a large group of adjectives derived from verbs
f-1
(sg), /n -d (- /
(pl}, as in /e-d f - yU (sg}, / -n-d f- yU (pl}
I
ty• (adj.)) (pp. 549-55 0), is probably from the verb /d (I , 'be
These 'participial adjectives' and the Parare discussed in detail on pp. 548-566.
Aa described on pp. 260-261, fo r the younger generations in
r it is more common for the vowel of prefix e} to harmonize
tbe
vowel of the following or preceding syllabeme.
The VPF
prefix appears to be in transition from the group of prefixidentifiable, more-or-less constant, vowels, to the group
ariable, harmonizing vowels.
292
In 2sg Negative forms, the / i / vowel of prefixes b), d) and
f) assimilates completely to the / u/ of the 2sg Neg SCP, / u- / th
becoming /u/ .
'
There is no way of determining whether the / i / of
us
prefixes b), d) a nd f) in Commo n Negative forms is the original / i/
or the result of a "zero assimilation" to the / i / of the Com Neg
SCP, / (- / . If the variant form / u-/ for the 2sg (Positive) SCP in
the Pe ripheral Focus Positive Future is chosen, then the vowel of
prefix d) assimilates completely to it as well.
h) and i ) are the only non-initial-type prefixes which occur
word-initially. The re is some doubt as to whether h) should be regarde d as a prefix or as a particle , or perhaps even as a conjunction . The /el of / ke - / assimilates completely to the following SCP
if it contains a vowel (e.g . in / ke-l-b6b / ([kf :b6p ]) , lpl VPF
Cntn), i.e . in all cases except lsg, but the resulting vocoid is
longer than a single vowel would be in that position , and when the
SCP has Low t one and the following VS High tone, the H plus L sequence formed by / ke - / plus the SCP falls to t he normal expected
level of a L anchored to a separate syllabeme in that position, rath•
er than to the level of a Downstepped H (which is the allophonic
realization of a H plus L anchored to a single syllabeme when followed directly by a H in the same word; pp. 126-127). It is thus
clear that I ke- / plus a vocalic SCP should be regarded as a sequence
o f two syllabemes (each with its own vowel phoneme) .
Prefix i) is word-initial only in the 2sg Negative Imperative,
In the Type II Negative Hortative it is preceded by a SCP, as is
illustrated by the second example on p. 291 . This is also the case
I
in the plural of the Negative Imperative (/e-ku-b~b / , [e ku b~p ],
\
I
I
I
2pl Neg Imp) , which is identical in form to the 2pl and 3pl Type II
Negative Hortative. It is possible that the / ku- / prefix is derived
historically from the Negative suffix / ke/ plus the 2sg Negative
SCP / u- / , probably in the Negative Imperative Sequential (and Negative Future Sequen t ial) form / u- / , with a L tone . / ku-b6b / , then ,
would be derived historically from a form * / ke - u-b6b / . It must be
emphasized , however, that the / ku- / prefix functions synchronically
as a single syllabeme with a single vowel, as is clear from the
relatively short duration of the [ u ) and, especially, from the fact
that t he H:L tone sequence falls only to the level of a Downstepped
High when followed directly by a High tone (i.e . with High-tone
293
The /u/ vowel in this prefix is retained in all environNo t e that the 2sg and 3sg SCP in the Type II Negative
•ive (p . 291) harmonizes with this /u/.
It sho uld be noted that the Precessive marker /ma/ (/me/ in
ive forms) and the VPF Past marker /ma/ are analyzed as auxil.-rbs rather than as prefi xes. Their vowels are thus excluded
e inventory of vowel s occurring in non - initial- type verbal
For many speakers the Precessive auxiliary together with
f o rms a compound verb with the main verb stem and its afThis cons truction (e . g. /n-ma-n-bob/ , lsg Non- Past Pres of
i s thus a s i ngle word for these speakers (pp . 578-579) .
foll owing non- initial- type v e rbal prefixes have a vowel
calabar dialect always harmonizes with the (dominant)
of t he f o l lowing or the preceding syllabeme , and which , therenot unar b itrar i ly ide ntifiable with any one of the SPL
This / Vh / is rea l ized as each of the seven SPL vowels in
nt enviro nments .
Each prefix will be given here in lsg and
of the ve r b /b6b/, in that order.
!; ,
'PF / Neg- Past' pfx , as in / - n - k6lb6b/ and in /l - kf lb6b/
- /i - kolbob/, PrVF Past.
-/ , 'Itive ' pfx, as in / - n - ko - b6b/ and in /l - kl-bob/
/ l- k6- b6b/ ,
(First- Verb) PrVF Itive Pres .
I
h; ; , 'Hypothetical ' pfx, as in
,r
I l - kpi
~ b6b/ -
v
,
/i - kpo~b6b/ ,
'
/mVh- / -
I
/mVh ~ /
,
-
/~~/
/mVh - / -
1~1
p letive ' pfx , as in / - n-m3 - b6b/ ~ / -m6 ~ bob/
and i n /l - ml - b6b/ -
/l - mf- bob/ - /n - mf-bob/ (Pres) Cmpl
,
a nd in
PrVF Non - P a st Hpth.
precedi ng 3sg or 3pl SCP) I
, I
/
/ - n - kp~~b~b/
t
(a Low tone anchored to
- / - / , ' (P os) VPF Com-
/ - m3 - b6b/ /n-mi-bob/ -
/-n - molb6b/
/ml - bob/
;1 -m~ - bob/ - 1l-m6 - bob/ , vPF
(see also pp . 253-256).
•/ , 'Hypo t hetical Hortative pfx ' , as in /n-kp~-bob/ and in
' Is s / '1- k p ~1 - b~b
,
/i - kp~-bob/
(W) , Hpth Hort.
Hypothetical Hortative, this form
lat ive, b ased on the variation in the non-Hortative Hypothetical prein other prefixes .
As elsewhere, Ward gives only the form
ing wi th the vowel of the following syllabeme.
14
In Efik two types of serial verb constructions must be
distinguished, as has been pointed out by Welmers (1973:367).
I follow Welmers in calling these the Sequential and the Consecutive Constructions.
A verb which is in a serial construction
with a preceding verb must have a Sequential (fn. 42, p. 61)
24
form
or
(more rarely) a Consecutive form rather than a FirstVerb form.
The system of contrasts and the underlying form of
the basic positive sequential verb forms are given in Appendix III,
and the Sequential forms which are required by the more common
First-Verb forms are given in Appendix IV.
Efix Sequential and
Contrastive Constructions and verb forms are described in more
detail by Welmers (1973:369-372) . 25
The Efik.vowel system is extremely interesting from a theoretical point of view.
Both at the Surface Phonemic Level and
at deeper levels (e.g. the Morphemic Level, ML), there is a system
of seven contrasting vowel phonemes, but the seven vowels at the
ML and the seven vowels at the SPL are not the same vowels, and
the systems of contrasts at these two levels are strikingly
different.
The ML phoneme m/e/ (pp.
359-362) is mani-
fested as two different phonemes at the SPL (/e/ and /€/) , and
the ML vowel m/a/ (IV.B . ), a chameleonic vowel which always
as s imilates to a vowel of the following or of the preceding
syllabeme, is manifested, depending on the environment (and on
the ideolect), as any one of the seven vowels /i e e a o o u/ at
the SPL.
The assimilation of m/a/, which we employ for the
treatment of what Ward (W:23-25) calls vowel harmony, is described
formally by the phonological rule P 41 (Appendix II, pp. 596-599).
A detailed description of vowel harmony at the SPL is given in
III.J.; at the SPL the various manifestations of ML m/a/ taken
together are represented as a morphophoneme, the harmonizing vowel
/Vh/.
In principle only the first twelve stages of the phonological
derivation (II.A.) are treated in this volume.
In order to illus-
trate the indispensability of the Surface Phonemic Level (Stage 14) ,
24.
Ward refers to the Sequential forms as the "second form" (of a particular
25.
These constructions have also been treated in an unpublished paper (Cook,
verb form).
1979), a copy of which can be obtained on request .
15
ever and also in order to make our rather abstract analysis of
h ow
,
26
the Efik vowel system at the ML and our transcription of Efik dat a
more accessible to the reader, the vowel system at the SPL is
described in detail
27
in Chapter III, in which the phonological
contrasts and the allophonic realizations of the syllabic nasal
are also described (III.F.).
Readers who are interested only in
the theoretical aspects of my analysis and not in the details of
Efik structure are advised to skip Chapter III.
This chapter, on
the other hand, should be of special interest to descriptivists;
1 have tried to formulate it in such a way as to make it accessible
to linguists of other schools who may not be familiar with (the
details of) generative phonology.
Most of the small minority of Efik nouns which in isolation
begin with a non-syllabic consonant (e.g. /bya/ ['yarn' ] , /mo - to/
9
[•car', <English 'motor' ] ) acquire a prefix /a-/ with a tone
anchored to the vowel when they are in a construction with a preceding noun or adjective
o-mo-to/ ['a new car']).
(/e- ti a-bya/
[ 'a good yarn'], /o-bu - fa
This interesting phenomenon is described
in III.J.5. and VI.J.
It so happens 28 that most of the important P-Rules which affect
consonants are ordered at Stage 15 of the derivation, i . e. after the
surface Phonemic Level.
They will therefore be treated in Volume II
rather than in this volume.
26.
Because some of the earlier P-Rules do
Unless there is an index letter or number before the slanting lines in a
8
transcription (e.g. m/a/,
/a - !. deb/), a tran scription between
I
slanting lines always represents the Surface Phonemic Level (e.g. /e~deb/) .
Most Ef ik data is given in SPL transcription unless there is a particular
reason to refer to the representation at another stage .
Ll
27.
For the measurement of vocoid duration (referred to in Chapter III and at
various points elsewhere ) , use was made of oscillograms produced with a
Honeywell 2206 Visicorder (10 cm . per second) and of a Grason-Stadler 12848
electronic switch (gate) (rise/fall-time 5 ms . ), remotely controlled by a
Devices Digitimer D-4030.
I am very grateful to the Phonetics Laboratory
of the Univerisity of Leiden for placing this equipment at my disposal.
28.
I assume that this is merely a coincidence of Efik structure rather than
something with universal implications.
For Efik, however, it leads to
surprisingly neat divisions between various stages of the derivation (II.A.).