| Summary: | Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of African Languages at the University of Zululand, 2001. === Word-formation has received very little attention in isiZulu in the past. This situation has been caused by the approach of word analysis which was pioneered by grammarians like Doke (1956), Nyembezi (1965) and others that followed in their steps. The main aim of this study is therefore to put word-formation into its rightful place in isiZulu grammar, that is at the centre of every morphological application. Word-formation and word-formation rules should form the basis for every grammatical practice of every language.
Although word-formation is as old as the languages themselves, it is noticeable that there are no methods or approaches that has been agreed upon in any language. This implies that this study also attempts to develop the theoretical framework for word-formation in isiZulu since most studies done on word-formation are on English which is different from isiZulu. It therefore attempts to deal with processes that are vital in word-formation in isiZulu. It includes the processes like : affixation, grammaticalization, compounding, reduplication, word coinage as well as borrowing. This means that it covers both the morphological and lexical processes.
IsiZulu is one of the most flexible and ever developing languages and through contact with other languages like English, Afrikaans and other African languages, isiZulu has proved to be developing rapidly. This phenomenon has led to the researcher undertaking the study of this nature. This study will form the basis for linguistically approach to the study of isiZulu. A close look is put on topics like word coinage, word borrowing, compounding, grammaticalization and affixation.
Various conclusions and recommendations are drawn in an attempt to lead the way to rechanneling the focus of studies in isiZulu grammar. This study shows that isiZulu is not as backward and short of appropriate vocabulary as it is perceived to be. The shortage of words is remedied by processes like word borrowing, word coinage and extension of meaning in existing terms. On that note, isiZulu is at par with other languages of the world and this study says it.
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