COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS OF VERB RELATED ANTONYMS IN IGBO

Abstract

Antonym is a semantic concept that describes two forms, opposite forms of words. The main objective of the study is to: investigate the existence of antonym as it relates to verbs in Igbo, state the formation of antonyms that are verbs in Igbo and examine if antonym (verbs specifically) can be analysed using componential theory. Data for the study were generated through the observation of the speech of some native speakers and the use of the researcher’s intuitive knowledge as an Igbo native speaker. Descriptive survey research design is the methodology adopted for this research. The findings were that in the formation of antonyms that are verbs in the Igbo language, only the negative suffixes “-ghiâ€, “la†and ‘-beghi’ can be added to only the verb stem in order to form opposite in the Igbo language. One can use the suffix ‘-ghị’ for negating simple past declarations. This work will serve as a reference material to all linguists, lexicographers and other researchers, including classroom teachers.