Humanities and Language
Vol. 2 No. 1 (2025): Humanities & Language: International Journal of Linguistics, Humanities, and Ed

Infixations and Morphological Structure in Makasae Language

Soares, Antonio Constantino (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
31 Mar 2025

Abstract

This study investigates the morphological complexity of the ML, focusing specifically on its system of infixation spoken primarily in Timor-Leste. The ML features are unique use of affixes, such as ‘tuli,’ ‘geri,’ ‘ta,’ and ‘tau,’ which significantly alter the meaning and grammatical structure of verbs. These infixes mark causality, reciprocity, aspect, and action completion. The research adopted a qualitative approach, utilizing elicitation and semi-structured interviews with two to four native speakers as the primary data collection methods. The study reveals systematic patterns in infix placement and its impact on verb meaning, such as transforming verbs into fatal actions, signaling attempted actions, or indicating mutual actions. The findings highlight ML's sophisticated verbal morphology and its potential contribution to Papuan linguistic typology. The study suggests further research into dialectal variations, as well as the development of resources for language preservation and teaching.

Copyrights © 2025






Journal Info

Abbrev

humaniola

Publisher

Subject

Arts Humanities Education Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media Social Sciences Other

Description

Humanities and Language : International Journal of Linguistics, Humanities, and Education (abbreviated as HUMANIOLA) is an academic, open access, peer-reviewed journal that was established and first published in 2023 by Abdul Media Literasi. It primarily focuses on the study of language, humanities, ...