A Constraint-based Analysis of Morphological Processes in the Ibibio Language Louisa Louis Michael Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria Ndubuisi Ogbonna Ahamefula Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria Olusanmi Olasunkanmi Babarinde Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria Abstract—This paper is on a constraint-based analysis of morphological processes in Ibibio (Lower cross language of Niger Congo: Nigeria). The study seeks to determine the phonological processes that condition and restrict the position of an affix while specifying where an affix may appear in a string of affixes; examine the influence of a morphological form on the phonological conditions that regulates affix placement in the Ibibio language, as well as determine the constraints that account for the appropriate placement of affixes on reduplicative forms. Leaning on the optimality framework, it was revealed that nouns in Ibibio accept only vowel prefixes which provides an enabling environment for vowel processes to occur in compounding and affixation. We observed that certain phonological forms, like the productive suffix –ke which has differing phonological realisations depending on the structure of the verb in Ibibio, are influenced by the morphological structure of a word while others are not. Certain constraints like the intervocalic constraint, the *[CC] constraint and the harmony constraint are some of the constraints that account for full reduplication in Ibibio. Also, partial reduplication in the Ibibio language adheres to the *complex ons and the NO CODA constraint. Index Terms—Ibibio, morphological processes, optimality theory, phonological constraints, phonotactics I. INTRODUCTION Language is a means of verbal communication among humans. Words that are used in communicating messages are formed through a number of processes. This study looks at the morphological processes in Ibibio. The analysis is couched within the framework of Optimality Theory (henceforth, OT) by Prince and Smolensky (1993) in which morphological processes are encoded in phonological constraints on the realisation of surface forms. It is primarily concerned with the phonological realisation of morphological properties and not in the nature of the morphemes themselves; its emphasis is in accounting for the influence of phonotactic restrictions on the phonological realisation of morphological processes. The restrictions on the environment in which sounds appear are part of what defines the phonology of a language; therefore, sounds are not just combined randomly but they are combined and constrained in a well-defined pattern. Constraints are used in linguistics (in areas such as phonology, syntax and morphology) for representing properties that a linguistic phenomenon or concept must satisfy. Constraints are universal and language specific (i.e. valid for different languages). In essence, constraints stipulate properties that remove structures which are unacceptable to a language. In a constraint-based approach, the surface forms are constrained, forms not conforming to these constraints are rejected. According to Spencer and Zwicky (2001), morphological forms when combined can affect each other phonologically but phonology has a more radical influence on morphology because it can determine whether or not some morphemes are combinable at all. As such, some morphological processes of affixation, reduplication, compounding, etc. are restricted to bases with certain phonological characteristics and cannot apply to bases without those characteristics even if they are appropriate on other grounds like (syntax, morphological and semantic). According to Onwuka (2007), the relation of phonology and morphology lies in the area of morpho-phonology. At this point, what is considered is the phonological information necessary for morphological analysis and the morphological information necessary for phonological analysis. Therefore, a constraint-based analysis of morphological processes within the framework of optimality theory will look at mechanisms for controlling the size and contents of reduplicative morphemes (reduplication), constraints responsible for the precise placement of affixes, and constraints that account for compounding as a word-formation processes. Many scholars have looked into the morphological processes in Ibibio but much attention has not been paid to those constraints that limit morpheme combination during word-formation processes and how such constraints determine the kind of morpheme that can occur with the other whether bound or free morpheme. This present study has not enjoyed ISSN 1798-4769 Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 242-251, March 2020 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1102.12 © 2020 ACADEMY PUBLICATION