CIVIRTER ESTHER YANGEADOO

This research work titled “A Morphological Analysis of Tiv Personal Names” examines the structure, formation processes, and meanings of Tiv names within the framework of morphological theory. The study aims to identify the morphological processes involved in Tiv name formation and explain how These processes reflect the linguistic creativity and worldview of the Tiv people. Data for the study were drawn from native speakers of Tiv and analyzed using four major theories of morphology— Item-and-Arrangement Theory, Word-and- Paradigm Theory, Generative Morphology, and Morphological Typology. The analysis revealed that Tiv names are not mere labels but meaningful linguistic expressions formed through systematic morphological processes such as compounding, affixation, and sentence formation. The findings further showed that Tiv names often take the form of complete sentences that express faith, gratitude, or personal experience, for example, Terdoo (“The Lord is good”), Ngumimi (“He is truth”), and Selumum (“We agree”). The study concludes that Tiv names serve as a rich linguistic resource that encodes the people’s spiritual beliefs, moral values, and social experiences. The research therefore establishes that Tiv is an agglutinative language whose naming system demonstrates rule-governed ord formation processes consistent with the principles of generative morphology. It recommends that further studies be carried out on the phonological and semantic dimensions of Tiv personal names, as well as comparative analyses with other Nigerian languages, to promote the preservation and appreciation of indigenous linguistic heritage.