1.1 Introduction
In Nigeria, Hausa is one of the three primary languages spoken, along with Yoruba and Igbo. In actuality, Hausa is a native tongue that is spoken not just in northern Nigeria but also in some regions of Niger, Chad, and Ghana. Within the Afro-asiatic language family, the language is a member of the Western Chadic branch. Many people in numerous regions of central West Africa speak it as a second language in addition to being their native tongue. Hausa is the second most spoken language in Africa, behind Swahili (Gordon 2008), with an estimated 50 million speakers, three quarters of whom reside in Nigeria (Caron 2015: 4).
This chapter will address the background information that motivated this study, the challenges that prompted it, its aim, and its objectives as a preface to subsequent sections of the study. Additional factors include the study's significance, scope, limitations, research questions and hypotheses, and the definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
In the history of linguistics, the twentieth century is crucial. This is due to the fact that several linguistic theories gained prominence and were developed by numerous linguists in the domains of morphology, syntax, semantics, and phonology. For example, in morphology, the many methods for identifying morphemes and the connection between morphemes and words became apparent at this time. Words are usually acknowledged as the lowest components of syntax, according to the Free Encyclopaedia (2008). It is evident that rules may link words in the majority of languages, if not all of them.
Hausa is a language of West Africa, while English is a European language in the Indo-European division. The two languages are genetically different. Regardless matter how genetically dissimilar two languages are, there must generally be some similarities between them. The morphological affinities among these languages could indicate a relationship with a universal element rather than a genetic or historical connection. It is clear that the only methods for clearly identifying universal features across languages are comparative and conflicting research. The main duty of a linguist is to describe the features of a language. In general, this kind of explanation is referred to as the grammar of the language. There are a number of important distinctions in linguistics about the precise structure of a grammar.
According to Muhammad (2009), no indigenous language in Nigeria has been granted admission to any of the country's current institutions or institutes of education, unlike Hausa. He claims that of the indigenous languages taught in Nigerian academic institutions, around 80% are taught in Hausa, with the remaining 20% going to the other indigenous languages (Muhammad, 2009).
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to analyze the Distinctive Word Formation Mechanisms in English and Hausa.
1.3 Statement of Problems
An analysis showed that the morphology of the English and Hausa languages are very similar. For example, both languages exhibit a strong reliance on affixation to indicate grammatical connections; they also make extensive use of borrowed terms, or words taken from other languages, a large number of compound words, and so on. In order to facilitate a comparative research on affixation, alternation, borrowing, clipping, compounding, and reduplication, it is hypothesized that the two languages under investigation can still share a great deal of word-formation processes, even in spite of their genetic dissimilarity.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to comparatively analyze the Distinctive Word Formation Mechanisms in English and Hausa. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To identify the word-formation mechanisms in Hausa the same as in English;
- To assess the Hausa's structure that contains morphemes including English;
- To examine the kinds of Hausa affixes are equivalent to their English counterparts;
- To determine the extent languages of Hausa and English produce words; and
- To find out the distinctions that exists between the Hausa and English languages' approaches to morphology.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Are word-formation mechanisms in Hausa the same as in English?
- Does Hausa's structure contain morphemes like those found in most other languages, including English?
- To what extent do the languages of Hausa and English produce words?
- What kinds of Hausa affixes are equivalent to their English counterparts?
- What distinctions exist between the Hausa and English languages' approaches to morphology?
