A STUDY ON MORPHO-PHONOLOGICAL AMBIGUITY IN BURA WORDS: A CASE STUDY OF (MIS)INTERPRETATION OF SOME LEXICAL ITEMS

Abstract

The study on morpho-phonology ambiguity in Bura lexical items
looked at the possibilities by which a word can have one or more
interpretations (meanings). It sought to determine the extent to which
communication gap is created especially in verbal communications,
most especially to a second language learner of Bura. Bura is a
language endowed with lots of words which are homonymic,
homophonic and polysemic. Consequently, second language
listeners/users of the language are left with the dilemma to
conceptually figure out which of the words the speaker is referring to.
To minimise the stress on the listeners/users, the data presentation
tried to make distinctions (functionally) between few of such words
with the aim to bring to limelight the semantic, morphological and
phonological difference that distinguishes the meaning of one word
from another. Data were collected from ten (10) native speakers of
the language, and were analysed using descriptive method of data
analysis. The result of the study showed that some Bura lexical words
can function as prefix, it was again realised that Bura has a lot of
homomorphic entries. The morphological process reduplication is
found in the language. Also, some words are homophony; meanings
are differentiated by stress, therefore meanings are contextually
determined. The Bura language seems not have the gerundive –ing
suffix. Lastly, the study realised that Bura language has a lot of
metaphors in its vocabulary.
Key words: Morpho-phonology, Ambiguity, Misinterpretation, Lexical
items, Bura language.