VERB AFFIXATION IN THE SELECTED TAGALOG AND BINISAYA SONGS

A RESEARCH PAPER

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Subject
English Phonology and Morphology (English 103)

to

Dr. Merceditha C. Alicando

by

Arleen Colacion
Jamelah M. Dangnan
Mark Irvin E. Barulo

April 2019
I. Introduction

1.1. Rationale

The topographical structure of the Philippines which is archipelagic brought the

existence of several languages. According to Yap (2010), the Philippines have over 170
languages spread across its 7,100 islands. Being not aware of the linguistic diversity of the
Philippines, one can say that every other languages spoken in the country has different
semantics, syntax, and morphology. Yet, various linguistic studies conducted in different
parts of the Philippines islands suggest that they are still all related to each other and shared
common language elements (Paz, 1996).

The role of other Philippine languages is to meet the lexical gap of the Tagalog
language. For instance, the word “asawa”, this word can be vague since this word refers to
“both husband and wife” in Tagalog language but in Binisaya it just means “wife”. For this
reason, the morpheme “bana” and “asawa” which in Binisaya language context means
husband and wife respectively are quite appropriate to be used to have a distinction of
meaning and grades in the lens of morphology. Moreover, the word “palit” can be as vague as
the word “asawa”. This word refers to “exchange” in Tagalog language but in Binisaya
language it means “to buy or purchase”. When used in a sentence in Tagalog context, “Palit
kayong dalawa ng lugar.” meaning “You two exchange places.” and in Binisaya context it
will be used this way “Palit ta og kape sa tindahan” which means “Let’s go buy coffee at the
store”. The vagueness of both Tagalog and Binisaya languages paved a way for the
researchers to conduct a study, which is however in terms of verb affixations in the lens of
morphophonemics.

According to Pedroza (2008), studying two different local languages has always been
considered as a good vehicle to understand the complexities of languages across culture and
the knowledge of these particular languages hastens the development of the communicative
competence on the part of the language learners. There were many research studies on
language affixations across the world. Much of the studies were done in the context of
proving some language theories. However, there were only few conducted on Philippine
languages specifically on Tagalog and Binisaya languages. Their verb affixations is of great
interest for the researchers. In terms of verb affixations, this study was conducted to bridge
the gap between the two languages. They were both local languages of the Philippines, but
their similarities and differences in terms of verb affixations are still vague. For these reasons,

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the need to conduct a research study on Tagalog and Binisaya verbs is necessary as this will
add to the existing corpse of studies on Philippine languages.

1.2. Statement of the Problem

Tagalog and Binisaya are two different local languages in the Philippines. They have
their own way of affixations, specifically on verbs. However, the vagueness of these two
languages in terms of their verb affixations paved a way for the researchers to conduct this
study. In regards to this, the study sought to answer the following questions:

1.) What are the common action verb forms in Tagalog and Binisaya?

2.) Does affixation occur in Tagalog and Binisaya verb formation? What are these kinds of
affixation commonly occurring in these two languages?

3.) What are the morphophonemic processes underlying the verbs and verb affixations in the
Tagalog and Binisaya?

1.3. Significance of the Study

Despite the differences of the two native languages (Tagalog and Binisaya), the result
of the study is expected to broaden the knowledge about Tagalog and Binisaya verb
affixations. It will not only help the native speakers of these languages better understand their
verb affixation processes, but also the non-natives. For the latter, they would be able
understand how these verbs undergo affixations, what kinds of affixations are occurring and
what morphophonemic processes are existing on such processes. They will appropriately use
such verbs without interchanging them. Moreover, the result of the study is expected to be
another reference for other researchers in conducting related research. This will help guide
other researchers in their similar studies. It will also help students gain more insights
especially in the field of morphology and phonology, particularly on Tagalog and Binisaya
languages.

1.4. Scope and Delimitations

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 The study focuses mainly on analyzing and comparing the verb affixation processes
of the selected Tagalog and Binisaya verbs present on Tagalog and Binisaya songs. The
songs were romantic/love songs like “Pangarap Ko ang Ibigin Ka by Regine Velasquez”,
“Pasabta Ko by Leela Laburada” and etc. 30 songs were used in this study; 15 from Tagalog
songs and 15 from Binisaya songs. These songs were chosen because many verbs were
evident, specifically action verbs. To be specific, prefixation, infixation, suffixation, and
circumfixation will be detailed in this study. In terms of morphophonemic features, only
selected action verbs from Tagalog and Binisaya songs are going to be analyzed in the study,
not nouns, adjectives, and adverbs respectively. This study does not also cover other verb
forms such as transitive verbs, intransitive verbs, auxiliary verbs, stative verbs, modal verbs,
phrasal verbs, and irregular verbs.

1.5. Definition of Key Terms

Binisaya. Binisaya or mostly referred to as Sebuano, is a language widely spoken by about 20

million people in Visayas and Mindanao (Litogo, 2007). This is one of the local languages
which will be dealt in this study.

Morphology. According to Anderson (2013), morphology, in linguistics, is the study of the

forms of words, and the ways in which words are related to other words of the same
language. This will be utilized in analyzing the affixation processes for this study.

Morphophonemics. Morphophonemics is a branch of morphology, deals with the variation in

the forms of morphemes because of phonetic factor (Sabtu, 2013). This is essential in the
analysis of the morphophonemic processes of the study.

Phonology. In Fundamental Concepts in Phonology (2009), Ken Lodge observes that

phonology is about differences of meaning signaled by sound. This will help in the phonetic
analysis of the study as part of the morphophonemics.

Tagalog. From the Living Language (2014), Tagalog is a language with more than 50 million
speakers, mostly in the southern parts of Luzon. Along with Binisaya language, Tagalog will
also be dealt in this study.

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Verb Affixation. Verb affixation is the process of inflection or derivation where new words
are formed that consists of adding an affix to existing verbs (Adebileje, 2013). This will be
used in the analysis of verb affixations in the study.

II. Literature Review

2.1. Tagalog and Binisaya Languages

The Philippines is made up of over 7000 islands with between 120 and 175 languages
with a very diverse mix that confuses many experts. According to Campbell and King (2011),
the number of individual languages listed for Philippines is 185. Of these, 183 are living and
2 are extinct. Of the living languages, 175 are indigenous and 8 are non-indigenous.
Furthermore, 39 are institutional, 67 are developing, 38 are vigorous, 28 are in trouble, and
11 are dying.

From an online networking site called Just Landed, it states there that for many
centuries until the early half of the 20 th century, the original official language of the
Philippines was Spanish. Then, under US occupation English was introduced into schools and
in 1935 English was added to the constitution alongside Spanish as a national language. In
1937, steps were taken to develop a national language based on one of the existing native
languages. Tagalog was chosen as the base language and in 1937, the language christened
Filipino, became the joint official language along with English. Filipino is almost exclusively
composed of Tagalog as spoken in the Manila region.

According to Sampolo (2017), Tagalog is a member of the central Philippine branch

of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family. It is most closely related to Bicol
and the Bisayan (Visayan) languages- Cebuano, Hiligaynon (Ilongo), and Samar. Native
Tagalog speakers form the second largest linguistic and cultural group in the Philippines and
member about 14 million; they are located in central Luzon and parts of Mindanao.

According to Singh (2008), Tagalog had its own writing system based on an ancient
script called the Baybayin that uses a syllabic alphabet, with the Spanish colonialist
romanized. Tagalog grammar is notable for its complex verbal system, including in particular
three distinct types of passive constructions. Its verbs conjugations are very complex because
it uses different affix (prefix, infix, suffix, and circumfix) combinations and even duplication
of syllables or words. Verbs are conjugated into any of the three tenses commonly known as

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Aspektong Perpektibo, Aspektong Imperpektibo, and Aspektong Kontemplatibo, respectively
(Dizon, 2006).

Binisaya or commonly known as Cebuano language is classified as a member of the

western or Indonesian subgroup of the Austronesian family of languages. Some linguists
have classified Binisaya as a dialect of a Visayan or Bisayan language, along with Iligaynon
and Waray languages, to which it is closely related. Wikipedia ranks it as the 55 th most
common world language by number of native speakers. It is the second most important local
language of the Philippines, after the official language Filipino which is based on Tagalog.

Just like Tagalog, the conjugation of verbs in Binisaya is quite unique in the sense
that it has its own structure and rules. The conjugation involves the transformation of the verb
into these different tenses: the present tense which conveys a situation or event in the present
times, e.g. “Makasulti ko ug Ingles.” which means “I can speak English.”, the past tense
which conveys situation or event in the past times, e.g. “Nibisita siya sa Tsina. ” which means
“She visited China.” and the future tense that conveys a situation or event which is
anticipated to happen in the future, e.g. “Muinom ko ug gatas.” which means “I will drink
milk.”

In Binisaya, almost all words can become verbs by affixation. Verbal affixes give the
verbs their inflection with respect to voice, mood, and aspect. Voice can either be active or
passive. For example are affixes –on, -gi, and –a when affixed to root word luto or “cook”
becomes “lutuon” or “to cook” and giluto or “cooked”. Examples for mood in Binisaya verbs
are Mitindog siya or “he stood up” and Magsulat siyag libro or “he’ll write a book”.

A study by Rowanne Marie R. Maxilom entitled “Semantic Change of the Selected

Cebuano Words” attempted to determine the types of semantic change of the selected
Cebuano words from the written texts, specifically the Bisaya magazine and spoken language
of Cebuano speakers aged 15 – 40 years old living in Cebu province. In Adeva’s (2005)
study, the semantic correlate in Cebuano and the way the semantic correlate were reflected in
the morpho-syntax and semantics of Cebuano were investigated. This study also determined
the transitive and intransitive constructions of the Cebuano stories. Using Hoppes and
Thompson’s (1980) transitivity hypothesis and Dixon’s (1994) syntactic-semantic primitive
cited in Adeva’s (2005) study, the results revealed that in actor focus, two affixes (mi-/ni-~m-
replesive) were evident and three affixes (i-, -un, -an) were evident in goal the focus. A study
by Jimmy Geminez Pedroza entitled “An Analysis on Filipino Language Morphemes” which

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focuses on the pragmatic analysis of how Filipino morphemes form and affect the roots
where they are being attached. The results of the research reveal the effects of some Filipino
morphemes on the roots they are being attached and the processes involved in affixation. It
also document the aesthetic connotation of some morphemes expressed in the form of
language politeness.

There were studies solely about Tagalog and Binisaya related to this study but there
were no studies yet that compromise the two languages together. This was also one of the
reason why this study was conducted. The study would like to see Tagalog and Binisaya in
bigger and in the same pictures, being studied together.

2.2. Phonology, Morphology, and Morphophonemics

From the SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) International (2003), phonology is the
study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages. The phonological system
of a language includes an inventory of sounds and their features, and rules which specify how
sounds interact with each other. Phonology is just one of several aspects of language. It is
related to other aspects such as phonetics, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics.

According to Nordquist (2019), phonology is the branch of linguistics concerned with

the study of speech sounds with reference to their distribution and patterning. A linguist who
specializes in phonology is known as a phonologist. In Fundamental Concepts in Phonology
(2009), Ken Lodge observes that phonology is about differences of meaning signaled by
sound.
Morphology, in linguistics, is the study of the forms of words, and the ways in which
words are related to other words of the same language. Formal differences among words
serve a variety of purposes, from the creation of new lexical items to the indication of
grammatical structure (Anderson, 2013).
According to Marantz (2016) in his Neurobiology of Language, within linguistics,
morphology is the subdiscipline devoted to the study of the distribution and form of
“morphemes,” taken to be the minimal combinatorial unit languages use to build words and
phrases. For example, it is a fact about English morphology that information about whether a
sentence is in the past tense occurs at the end of verbs. This fact reduces to a generalization

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about the distribution of the tense morpheme in English, which is a fact about
“morphotactics” (the distribution and ordering of morphemes) in morphology.

Sound structure (phonology) and word structure (morphology) are two of the main
components of a language system. However, many a times, these systems interact and affect
each other in some interesting ways and give rise to a phenomenon which is known as
‘morphophonemics’. Sometimes, due to this interaction, pronunciation of a morpheme may
get modified or completely changed. These changes may be regular or irregular and usually
are context sensitive in nature. In ‘morphophonemics’, the changes which occur at the
margins/boundaries of morphemes were specifically studied (Dwivedi, 2017).

According to Sabtu (2013), morphophonemics is a branch of morphology, deals with

the variation in the forms of morphemes because of phonetic factor. From the Introduction to
Phonetics and Phonology, morphophonemics is the analysis and classification of the
phonological factors which affect the pronunciation of morphemes or, correspondingly, the
morphological factors which affect the appearance of phonemes.

This study is basically a morphophonemic analysis on the verb affixations of the

Tagalog and Binisaya languages. The manifestation of phonology and morphology is very
important in the analyses of this study. This will help the study better analyze the affixation
processes and morphophonemic rules existing in the verbs and verb affixations of such
actions verbs present in the Tagalog and Binisaya songs.

2.3. Morphemes, Verbs, and Verb Affixation

According to Nordquist (2019), a morpheme is a meaningful linguistic unit consisting

of a word such as dog, or a word element, such as the -s at the end of dogs, that can't be
divided into smaller meaningful parts. Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a
language.

From the Supporting English Acquisition or the SEA, there are two types of
morphemes; free morphemes and bound morphemes. Free morphemes can stand alone
with a specific meaning, for example, eat, date, weak. Bound morphemes cannot stand
alone with meaning. Morphemes are comprised of two separate classes called bases (or
roots) and affixes. Related to morpheme is a "base," or "root" which is a morpheme in a

7
word that gives the word its principle meaning. An example of a free-base morpheme
is woman in the word womanly. An example of a bound-base morpheme is sent in the
word dissent.

From the Grammar Revolution by Elizabeth O’Brien, verbs are words that
express an action or a state or being. There are three categories of verbs: the action
verbs, linking verbs, and helping verbs. Main verbs are verbs that are strong enough to
be the only verb in the sentence. For example is the word “ate” in “I ate pizzas”.

In English grammar and morphology, affixation is the process of adding a morpheme

on affix to a word to create either a different form of that word or a new word with a different
meaning (Nordquist, 2018). Affixation is the most common way of making new words in
English. Affixes such as prefixes, infixes, infixes, and circumfixes are used depending on
their position with reference to the stem. Prefixes are added before a root (i.e un- in
unhappy), infixes are inserted inside a root (i.e -um in tumibok), suffixes are added after a
root (i.e -ness in firmness), and circumfixes are added before and after a root (i.e -en and -en
in enlighten) (Fromkin, Rodman, Hyams, 9th edition). Often, prefixes and suffixes
(affixes) will signify that a word is a verb. For example, the suffixes -ify, -ize, -ate, or -
en usually signifies that a word is a verb, as in typify, characterize,
irrigate, and sweeten. Prefixes such as be-, de-, or en- may signify that a word is a verb, as
in bestow, dethrone, and encourage.

2.4. Related Studies

A study by Dwi Astuti Wahyu Nurhayati (2015) entitled “Morphological and

Morphophonemic Process of Alay Variation” reports the morphological and
morphophonemic process of Alay variation as a communication model among Indonesia
youth. The study reveals that morphological process of Alay Words consist of affixation and
non-affixation. Affixation includes: Internal change, Infixation, and Core of vowel change.
Non-Affixation includes: Borrowing, Coinage, Clipping, Acronym, Multiple process,
Reduplication, and Combination Text. Morphophonemic process is categorized into Loss of
Phonemes, Addition of Phonemes, and Simple Consonant Change.

A study conducted by IkaKarmila (2006) entitled "The Influence of Studying Suffixes

Towards the Students’ Achievement In Arranging the Words at The Second Year of SMP

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Karang Sembung Cirebon" where she does the research using qualitative research and found
out the data from the response of the students in studying suffixes and also affixes.

"A Morphological Study on Affixations used in Song of Songs Holy Bible", a study
conducted by Suprayanto (2006) where she analyzed kinds of affixes and the process of
affixation that were used in Song of Songs holy bible. He found that there were only two
kinds of affixes used. They were prefixes, suffixes, and there were no infixes. He does the
research with qualitative research and also collects the data using three steps: data reduction,
data display, and conclusion.

Emmy Heniva’s (2008) study entitled "Affixation Used in the English Translation of
Sahih Bukhari by Muhsin Khan", in his research he describes kinds of affixes which were
used in the sentences, the process of affixation, and kind of affixes which was mostly used.

A study by Ana Aspiatun Hasanah entitled “An analysis on the English Affixation
Usage in News Column of Jakarta Post Newspaper” found out that the affixation used in the
discourses of the Jakarta Post newspaper were nominal suffix as derived from other nouns,
adjectives and verbs. Adjectival suffixes derived from nouns and verbs. Adverbial suffixes
were adverbs derived from adjectives. Verbal suffixes were verbs derived from adjectives
and nouns. And the last were prefixes that were negative prefixes and the prefixes forming
adjectives.

III. Methodology

3.1. Research Design

This study will employ a qualitative research design. A qualitative research design
refers to the meaning, concept, definitions, characteristics, metaphor, symbols, and
descriptions of things (Bergs 1989:2). The study will make use of a qualitative research
because the data in the study were collected in the form of words rather than numbers. This
study also tends to analyze the data inductively.

3.2. Corpora of the Study

The corpora of the study were selected Tagalog and Binisaya action verbs present in
random Tagalog and Binisaya songs. The genre of the songs was romantic/love songs

9
because action verbs are evident from these songs. 30 romantic/love songs were randomly
picked: 15 from the Tagalog songs and 15 from the Binisaya songs. This number of songs
will help strengthen this study and the data will be more credible.

3.3. Data Gathering Procedure

This study will collect the data through the following steps:

3.4. Data Analysis

The analyses of the data went through a series of steps, they were as follows:

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IV. Results and Discussions

4.1. What are the common action verbs in Tagalog and Binisaya?

ACTION VERBS (ROOT) AFFIXED ACTION VERBS

kain “eat” kumain “eat”

sulat “write” sulatan “to write to”

dating “arrive” dumating “arrived”

tawag “call” tawagan “to call (to phone)”

kuha “get” ikuha “to get something for”

basa “reading” basahin “to read”

gising “waking up” gisingin “to wake (someone) up”

palit “change” papalitan “to have replaced”

hiram “borrow” ipahiram “to let someone borrow something”

nood “watch” papanoorin “to let or make someone watch

something”

Table 4.1.1. Common Action Verbs Present in Tagalog Songs

ACTION VERBS (ROOT) AFFIXED ACTION VERBS

kaon “eat” mukaon “to eat”

suwat “write” suwati “to write to”

abot “arrive” naabot “arrived”

tawag “call” tawagi “to call”

kuha “get” kuhai “to get something for”

basa “read” basaha “to read”

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 mata “wake up” pamataha “to wake (someone) up”

ilis “change” ilisan “to change”

hulam “borrow” ipahulam “to let someone borrow”

tan-aw “watch” tan-awon “to watch”

Table 4.1.2. Common Action Verbs Present in Binisaya Songs

4.2. Does affixation occur in Tagalog and Binisaya verb formations? What are these kinds of
affixations commonly occurring in these two languages?

Affixation is very evident in the verb formations of Tagalog and Binisaya languages.
From the Tagalog word kain or “eat”, it became kumain or “eat” when the affix –um was
attached to the root word kain. Also in the Binisaya language, the word suwat or “write”
became suwati “to write to” when the affix –i was attached to the root word suwat. To be
more specific, the following are the kinds of affixations commonly occurring in Tagalog and
Binisaya languages:

4.2.1. Prefixation

Prefixation is the process of adding prefixes before a root. In Tagalog, the

word kuha or “get (something)” became ikuha or “to get something for” when the
prefix i- was added to the root word kuha. The prefix i- in Tagalog language means
“to do something for”. The word hiram or “borrow” became ipahiram or “to let
someone borrow something” when the root word hiram was prefixed with the affix
ipa-. The prefix ipa- means “to let, make or have someone do something” in Tagalog
context. In Binisaya language, the word kaon or “eat” became mukaon or “to eat”
when the prefix mu- was attached to the root word kaon. The prefix mu- denotes “to
do something”. The word abot or “arrive” became naabot “arrived” when prefixed
with an affix na-. The prefix na- means “something happened”. The word hulam
“borrow” became ipahulam “to let someone borrow” when the prefix ipa- was added
to the root word hulam. Just like in Tagalog language, the prefix ipa- means “to let,
make or have someone do something” in Binisaya context.

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4.2.2. Infixation

Infixation is the process of inserting an infix inside a root. The word kain or
“eat” in Tagalog language when added with an infix –um- became kumain or “eat”.
The Tagalog word dating or “arrive” became dumating or “arrived” when infixed
with an affix –um-. The infix –um- means “to do something” that expresses various
kinds of action. However, this infix is only added before the first vowel of a root, not
gisuming* in the root word gising or “waking up”. Among the selected action verbs,
infixation is only evident in Tagalog verb affixations.

4.2.3. Suffixation

Suffixation is the process of adding suffixes after a root. In Tagalog, the word
sulat or “write” became sulatan or “to write to” and the word tawag or “call” became
tawagan or “to call (to phone)” when suffixed with an affix –an. The suffix –an
means “to do something in the (physical or psychological) direction of something” in
Tagalog context. The words basa or “reading” and gising or “waking up” became
basahin or “to read” and gisingin or “to wake (someone) up” when the suffix –in was
attached to the root words basa and gisingin. The suffix –in in Tagalog context means
“to do something to a person or a thing (expresses various kinds of actions)”. In
Binisaya, suffixation is very evident. The words suwat or “write” became suwati or
“to write to”, tawag or “call” became tawagi or “to call (to phone)”, kuha or “get”
became kuhai or “to get something for”, basa or “read” became basaha or “to read”,
ilis or “change” became ilisan or “to change”, and tan-aw or “watch” became tan-
awon or “to watch” when suffixes –i, -ha, -an, and –on are attached after their root
words. These suffixes in Binisaya context means “to do something for”.

4.2.4. Circumfixation

Circumfixation is the process of adding circumfixes before and after a root.

The Tagalog word palit or “change” became papalitan or “to have replaced” when
the circumfixes pa- and –an were attached to the root word palit. These circumfixes

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 means “to let or make or have someone do something”. Similarly, the word nood or
“watch” became papanoorin or “to let or make someone watch something” when
circumfixes pa- and –in were attached to the root word nood. In this case, the
circumfix pa- was added twice before the root and before the circumfix –in was
added, the last consonant sound /d/ was changed to /r/ first. These circumfixes means
“to let or make or have someone do something” just like in Tagalog. In Binisaya, the
word mata or “wake up” became pamataha or “to wake (someone) up” when
circumfixed with affixes pa- and –ha. These circumfixes means “to do something
for”.

4.3 What are the morphophonemic processes underlying the verbs and verb affixation in the
Tagalog and Binisaya?

The morphophonemic rules occurring in the verbs and verb affixation of Tagalog and
Binisaya are as follows:

4.3.1. Simple Change of Phonemes

There is a change in the consonant phonemes of the Tagalog word nood or

“watch”. When this word undergo circumfixation (became papanoorin or “to let or
make someone watch something”), the phoneme /d/ was changed to phoneme /r/.
Additionally, the word sulat (in Tagalog) and suwat (in Binisaya) undergo a change in
consonant phonemes from /l/ to /w/.

The words kain (in Tagalog) and kaon (in Binisaya) which means “eat” also
undergo a change in vowel phonemes. The vowel sound /ɪ/ in Tagalog changed to /o/
in Binisaya.

4.3.2. Occurrence of Prefix ipa-

From the affixed action verbs ipahiram or “to let someone borrow something”
and ipahulam or “to let someone borrow”, the prefix ipa- occurs only before a glottal
stop [h].

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 4.3.3. Addition of Phonemes

In this process, /m/ and /n/ phonemes are added after every vowels. For
instance, phoneme /n/ in basahin or “to read”, gisingin or “to wake someone up”,
kumain or “eat”, mukaon or “to eat”, tan-awon or “to watch”, sulatan or “to write to”,
tawagan or “to call (to phone), and in ilisan or “to change” occur right after every
vowel of the word. Phoneme /m/ in ipahiram and ipahulam or “to let someone borrow
something” also possess the same process as the phoneme /n/.

4.3.4. Stress Shift

There is a shift in the stress of the Tagalog word kuha or “get (something)” in
the context of Binisaya. The stress in the Tagalog word is in the first syllable (ku.ha),
but in the Binisaya word kuha or “get”, it is in the second syllable of the word (ku.ha).

4.3.5. Lexical Gap

This is in the case of the infix –um- to which it is only added before the first
vowel of a root, i.e –um- in the word dumating or “arrived” and not in tawumag*
(from root word tawag or “to call”) and palumit* (from root word palit or “change”).

4.3.6. Metathesis

This is the process of reordering the sequences of phonemes. In the case of the
affixed action verbs ikuha (in Tagalog) and kuhai (in Binisaya) or “to get something
for”, the phoneme /ɪ/ was reordered. In Tagalog context, it was at the first syllable but
in Binisaya context it was at the last syllable.

V. Conclusions and Recommendations

Being not aware of the linguistic diversity of the Philippines, one can say that every
other languages spoken in the country has different semantics, syntax, and morphology. Yet,
various linguistic studies conducted in different parts of the Philippines islands suggest that

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they are still all related to each other and shared common language elements (Paz, 1996).
According to Pedroza (2008), studying two different local languages has always been
considered as a good vehicle to understand the complexities of languages across culture and
the knowledge of these particular languages hastens the development of the communicative
competence on the part of the language learners.

Tagalog and Binisaya are two different local languages in the Philippines. They have
their own way of affixations, specifically on verbs. However, despite the relatedness of these
languages, there is this gap about the vagueness of their similarities and differences in terms
of verb affixations. Moreover, there were no studies yet about these two languages’ verb
affixations together which paved a way for the researchers to conduct this study.

This study’s goal is to determine the common action verb forms in Tagalog and
Binisaya songs, know their affixation processes, and determine the morphophonemic
processes underlying the verbs and verb affixations.

The common action verbs in Tagalog language are sulatan or “to write to”, dumating
or “arrived”, ikuha or “to get something for”, basahin or “to read”, papalitan or “to have
replaced”, ipahiram or “to let someone borrow something”, papanoorin or “to let or make
someone watch something”, etc. On the other hand, the common action verbs in Binisaya
language are mukaon or “to eat”, suwati or “to write to”, naabot or “arrived”, basaha or “to
read”, pamataha or to wake (someone) up”, ilisan or “to change”, ipahulam or “to let
someone borrow”, tan-awon or “to watch”, etc.

These action verbs undergo the process of affixation, specifically prefixation or the
process of adding prefixes before a root, i.e the word hiram or “borrow” in Tagalog language
became ipahiram or “to let someone borrow something” when the root word hiram was
prefixed with the affix ipa- and the Binisaya word abot or “arrive” became naabot “arrived”
when prefixed with an affix na-. These verbs also possessed the process of adding affixes
(suffixes) after a root or the process of suffixation, i.e the Tagalog words sulat or “write”
became sulatan or “to write to” and tawag or “call” became tawagan or “to call (to phone)”
when suffixed with an affix –an and the Binisaya words suwat or “write” became suwati or
“to write to”, tawag or “call” became tawagi or “to call (to phone)”, kuha or “get” became
kuhai or “to get something for”, basa or “read” became basaha or “to read”, ilis or “change”
became ilisan or “to change”, and tan-aw or “watch” became tan-awon or “to watch” when

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suffixes –i, -ha, -an, and –on are attached after their root words. Another type of affixation
occurring is the infixation or the process of inserting an infix inside a root, i.e the Tagalog
word dating or “arrive” became dumating or “arrived” when infixed with an affix –um-.
However, among the selected action verbs, infixation is only evident in Tagalog verb
affixations and not in Binisaya. The last kind of affixation in the Tagalog and Binisaya
languages is the circumfixation or the process of adding circumfixes before and after a root,
i.e the Tagalog word palit or “change” became papalitan or “to have replaced” when the
circumfixes pa- and –an were attached to the root word palit and in Binisaya, the word mata
or “wake up” became pamataha or “to wake (someone) up” when circumfixed with affixes
pa- and –ha.

The morphophonemic rules occurring in the verbs and verb affixation of Tagalog and
Binisaya are (a) Simple Change of Phonemes, i.e a change in the consonant phonemes of the
Tagalog word nood or “watch”, when this word undergo circumfixation (became papanoorin
or “to let or make someone watch something”), the phoneme /d/ was changed to phoneme /r/,
(b) Occurrence of Prefix ipa-, i.e the affixed action verbs ipahiram or “to let someone borrow
something” and ipahulam or “to let someone borrow”, the prefix ipa- occurs only before a
glottal stop [h], (c) Addition of Phonemes, i.e /m/ and /n/ phonemes are added after every
vowels like phoneme /n/ in basahin or “to read” and phoneme /m/ in ipahiram or “to let
someone borrow something”, (d) Stress Shift, i.e the stress of the Tagalog word kuha or “get
(something)” in the context of Binisaya where the stress in the Tagalog word is in the first
syllable (ku.ha), but in the Binisaya word kuha or “get”, it is in the second syllable of the
word (ku.ha), (e) Lexical Gap, i.e the case of the infix –um- to which it is only added before
the first vowel of a root, i.e –um- in the word dumating or “arrived” and not in tawumag*
(from root word tawag or “to call”) and palumit* (from root word palit or “change”), and (f)
Metathesis, i.e the case of the affixed action verbs ikuha (in Tagalog) and kuhai (in Binisaya)
or “to get something for”, the phoneme /ɪ/ was reordered.

This study further concludes that among the four (4) kinds of affixation namely
prefixation, infixation, suffixation, and circumfixation, the infixation only occur in the
Tagalog language and not in the Binisaya language base on the given data of the study. The
rest of the affixation types are evident in both Tagalog and Binisaya languages. In addition,
this study concludes that such action verbs from Tagalog have the same (some)
morphophonemic features as the Binisaya. Whereas, morphophonemic processes emerge not
only in the root words but also in the process of their verb affixations.

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 This study recommends the following: (1) if there is an interest of conducting a
similar study, this study suggests to study not only action verbs of particular languages but
also other forms of verb like linking verbs, etc., and other parts of speech like nouns,
adjectives, etc., (2) read more similar studies on different local languages (Philippine context)
regarding affixations, and (3) try to conduct a study comparing a local language and a foreign
language in terms of their verb affixations.

References

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, & Nina Hyams. 2003. An Introduction to Language
(7thedition). London: Thomson Wodsworth.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language (9th
edition). London: Thomson Wodsworth.

Hasanah, Ana Aspiatun. 2014. An Analysis on the English Affixation Usage in News
Column of Jakarta Post Newspaper.

Katamba, Francis. 1989. An Introduction to Phonology. Harlow, Essex: Longman.

Mc.Charty, Carstairs Andrew. 2002. An Introduction to English Morphology Words and their
Structure. Endiburgh University Press.

Pedroza, Jimmy Geminez. 2012. An Analysis on Filipino Language Morphemes.

Plag, Ingo. 2003. Word-formation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Yule, George. 2006. The Study of Language: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

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