Punjabi Adjectives: A Morphological Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to conduct a morphological analysis of adjectives in Punjabi language by employing the theory of distributed morphology. The study intended to identify the prefixes, suffixes and morphemes involved in the formation of the adjectives and to determine the pattern, how adjectives inflect for number and gender. Morphology is a vital aspect of linguistics, and the basic understanding of the morphological structure of a language is crucial for delving into syntax and semantics. This research focused specifically on the morphological analysis of adjectives in Punjabi, a language with rich morphological patterns. A corpus of Punjabi language was collected and tagged to extract the list of adjectives. The theory of distributed morphology was employed for morphological analysis. Patterns of prefixes, suffixes and the morphemes were identified to understand how adjectives are formed in Punjabi. The analysis revealed key morphemes such as ی، یا،ئے، دہ، لا, and وی, (la, deh, nay, ya and vi) as well as important prefixes and suffixes in the formation of adjectives. Adjectives were found to inflect for number and gender and displayed the agreement with nouns. Further research can explore the semantic nuances of these morphemes and their role in adjective formation in different syntactic contexts. Additionally, the pedagogical implications can be drawn for teaching Punjabi morphology and syntax to the first and second language learners of Punjabi language.