DUTSIN-MA JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND LITERATURE (DUJEL) Vol 8, No 2, 2024 269

A STUDY ON MORPHO-PHONOLOGICAL
AMBIGUITY IN BURA WORDS: A CASE STUDY OF
(MIS)INTERPRETATION OF SOME LEXICAL ITEMS

Comfort Usman Mshelbwala

Abstract
The study on morpho-phonology ambiguity in Bura lexical items
looked at the possibilities by which a word can have one or more
interpretations (meanings). It sought to determine the extent to which
communication gap is created especially in verbal communications,
most especially to a second language learner of Bura. Bura is a
language endowed with lots of words which are homonymic,
homophonic and polysemic. Consequently, second language
listeners/users of the language are left with the dilemma to
conceptually figure out which of the words the speaker is referring to.
To minimise the stress on the listeners/users, the data presentation
tried to make distinctions (functionally) between few of such words
with the aim to bring to limelight the semantic, morphological and
phonological difference that distinguishes the meaning of one word
from another. Data were collected from ten (10) native speakers of
the language, and were analysed using descriptive method of data
analysis. The result of the study showed that some Bura lexical words
can function as prefix, it was again realised that Bura has a lot of
homomorphic entries. The morphological process reduplication is
found in the language. Also, some words are homophony; meanings
are differentiated by stress, therefore meanings are contextually
determined. The Bura language seems not have the gerundive –ing
suffix. Lastly, the study realised that Bura language has a lot of
metaphors in its vocabulary.

Key words: Morpho-phonology, Ambiguity, Misinterpretation, Lexical

items, Bura language.

Introduction
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Morpho-phonology is a linguistic term that concerns with the

relationship that holds between morphology and phonology in
linguistics. It pays attention onto how the sound of a word changes
when a morpheme is attached to it. In other words, when a word is
structurally manipulated owing to the sounds surrounding it, the
process is referred to as morphophonemic or morpho-phonology. For
example, the vowel alterations that take place in the internal structures
of: ran/run/running, sweep/swept, sit/sat/sitting,
write/wrote/writing/written, bind/bound; and in consonants:
wife/wives, orange/oranges, loaf/loaves, travel/travelled/travelling.
Ambiguity on the other hand, is when a word has more than
one interpretation. When a word lacks exactness of meaning, that word
is said to be ambiguous. This may results to misrepresentation of the
information being passed across. The consequence is that, the listener,
in the case of verbal communication may be confused as to what the
speaker’s intended meaning is.
Ambiguity is a type of meaning in which a phrase, statement or
resolution is not explicitly defined; rather, it makes several
interpretations. In other words, it is an attribute of any idea or
statement whose intended meaning cannot be definitely resolved
according to a rule or process. The concept - ambiguity is generally
contrasted with vagueness. However, in the latter, specific and distinct
interpretations are permitted, whereas with information that is vague,
it is difficult to form any interpretation at the desired level of specificity
(https://en.m.wikipedia.org>wiki).

Conceptual Framework
The study chose among other frameworks to adopt Cross-
linguistic Intervention Concept. Columas (1989) as cited by Oreoluwa
(2015) identifies two forms of intervention: conscious and unconscious
interventions. He considers conscious linguistic intervention as a
deliberate effect exerted on a language that causes changes in the
language's internal structure; this happens at syntax and phonological
levels. Cross-linguistic interference by unconsciousness is an accidental
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intervention that may occur under different extra-linguistic conditions.

It arises when the learner of such a chosen language does not really
realise that the characteristics of a chosen language can vary from that
of another language especially where the learner is not able to contrast
with the relevant knowledge of the language.
Skiba (2016) has a similar idea with Columas (1989) as cited by
Oreoluwa (2015) concerning this concept when he notes that cross-
linguistic interference can be seen as transferring a concept from one
language to another at diverse aspects which include vocabulary,
sentence construction, linguistic structuring and phrasing, and
phonology. Once two distinct languages make contact within an entity,
the behavioural characteristic of one of the languages will be identified
or transferred to the performance of the other.
This concept fits in with the mission which triggered this study;
the consciousness a native speaker employs when words are uttered in
a conversation with a non-native speaker who may not be able to
identify or differentiate the sound(s) which qualifies same word
(orthographically) to have different meanings by simple manipulations
in the internal structure of a word.

The Concept of Ambiguity

A word which has the possibility of having one or more meaning
for a single word is referred to as ambiguity. An ambiguous word is
unclear, confusing, or not certain, especially because it can be
interpreted in more than one way. A sentence that employs ambiguous
words leads to misunderstand. In other words, if one uses ambiguous
words in a sentence, the one who reads or listens to the item may not
understand what the message is all about.
Ambiguity can come from either spoken or written language.
Whichever means it comes to the reader; one may read a write up and
find it difficult to understand what the speaker or writer means.
Ambiguity can occur in any part of speech: noun, verb, adjective and
adverb. Whatever part it occurs, it is obvious that it interferes with the
lexical, syntactic, and semantic meaning of the word or phrase. This
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may result into distortion of idea if not handled with accuracy,

(https://dictionary.cambridge.org>20 Dec 2023/ǣm.bi’gju:ǝ.ti/ C2).
Ambiguity is a phenomenon that occurs when a word or phrase
can have more than one interpretation or meaning. It is a common
feature of language and communication and can occur at various levels;
including lexical, syntactic, and semantic. Ambiguity can be intentional
or unintentional, and it can have significant implications for
communication, leading to misunderstandings, confusion, and
conflicts, Huang (2020).

Types of ambiguity
There are different levels at which ambiguity can occur in any
form of communication: Lexical, syntactic and semantic ambiguity.

Lexical ambiguity
Lexical ambiguity comes from morphemes which are basically
content words, they are categorised as nouns, adjectives, verbs and
adverbs. These classes of words can stand independently and still
express sense and meaning unlike the functional or grammatical
morphemes. Hence, lexical ambiguity is potential for multiple
interpretations of spoken or written language that renders it difficult or
impossible to understand without some additional information.
https://www.thoughtco.com>what.... Lexical ambiguity is obvious
when two words have the same form (homonymy or homophony), or
when a word has more than one meaning (polysemy). For example;
i. Bank in the sentence: I went to the bank. The ambiguity
here is which of the banks? Is it the river bank or bank the
financial institution? In this sense, additional information
has to be added in order to specify which of the banks the
speaker is referring to.
ii. Bat in the sentence: I saw a bat. The question the listener
needs to ask is: is it the flying bat or bat a wooden club?
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iii. Plant. The word plant could either mean something that
grows in the ground or a facility that makes something,
such as a power plant. (https://study.com>learn>lesson).
Lexical ambiguity is not just a problem to semantic analysis, it is one of
the chief causes of structural ambiguity, and this creates an issue with
which syntactic analysers must contend as well. Lexical ambiguity is
problematic because it deals directly with words which are independent
and which form the body of every writing or conversation. Therefore,
resolving its problems is like solving language issues.
There are three types of lexical ambiguity: homonymy,
homophony and polysemy.
Homonymy: these are different words that sound the same. It is a
situation of identical spelling or pronunciation but with different
unrelated meanings. Such words usually create problems of ambiguity.
Such as:
Ball (noun) – an object for play
Ball (noun) – a type of dance
Faint (adjective) - something not sharp or clear
Faint (verb) – to lose consciousness
Plain (adjective) – clear or straight-forward
Plain (noun) – open or flat land space
Fast (adjective) – quick or firm
Fast (verb) – to abstain from food
Homophony: are words with same sounds and pronunciation, though
their forms or spellings differ and have different meanings. Examples
as follows:
Meat- meet
Bear- beer
Pale- pail
Flour- flower
Eight – ate
Axe - ask
Polysemy: A situation of polysemy arises when one form of the word
has multiple meaning which is related by extension. Words that are
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polysemous have single entries in the dictionary. However, there are

numbers that suggest the list of possible meaning- as shown below:
Foot 1- of a person
2- of a bed
3- of a mountain
Head 1- of human
2-of department
3- of prefects
Arm 1- of a government
2- of a man
3- a weapon
Lexical ambiguity is the presence of two or more possible meanings for
a single word. This creates the difference to syntactic ambiguity, which
is the presence of two or more possible meanings within a sentence or
sequence of words.

Syntactic ambiguity
Syntactic ambiguity is when the role a word plays in a sentence
is unclear. It occurs when there are many other interpretations that
correspond to the same sentence. Similarly, structural ambiguity occurs
when there are two or more meanings within a sentence or phrase,
(https://www.microsoft.com>writing).
Syntactic ambiguity in many instances is implored for the fun
of it. This, therefore, entails that people may use it purposely; speakers
or writers like to use ambiguous words or expressions because they feel
they puzzle their readers by constraining them to search for the
appropriate meaning. For example:
*I have never tasted chicken cooked that way before! The
ambiguity the listener is left to puzzle is the intended
meaning of the speaker. Does he/she mean to say the
chicken was good or bad?
*Call me a taxi please. Now, what is it does the speaker
mean to say? Asking someone to hail him/her a taxi or to
be called a taxi?
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Considering these examples, it is expected that a speaker

use context clues to uncover the true meaning of a sentence
or phrase uttered.
In syntactic analysis, the problem of lexical ambiguity does
not only mean choosing the correct sense of a word but,
rather, the correct part of speech. Word-sense ambiguity
usually entails part-of-speech ambiguity as well,
(https://www.microsoft.com>writing).
Semantic ambiguity occurs when the meaning of a sentence is unclear
or open to much interpretation. For example, the sentence "I saw her
with a telescope" can be interpreted in two ways: either the speaker saw
the woman with a telescope, or the speaker saw the telescope with which
the woman was looking for.
Scholars have extensively studied the phenomenon of
ambiguity in language and communication. Lakoff and Johnson (1980)
proposed that metaphors and idioms can be ambiguous, as they rely on
context and cultural knowledge to be interpreted correctly. Frazier et al
(1982) investigated how readers resolve syntactic and semantic
ambiguities in real-time during reading comprehension,
(https://en.m.wikipedia.org>wiki). Gudykunst and Ting-Toomey
(1988) examined how cultural differences in communication can lead
to ambiguity and misunderstandings.
This study looks at lexical ambiguity and the role of morphology
and phonology in differentiating the meaning of a word from another
with the view to resolve the issue of misrepresentation of ideas and
meanings of Bura words. The survey of literature conducted showed
that many scholars have worked on ambiguity and its
misrepresentations by receivers or listeners of the message conveyed.
However, none of the works was carried on Bura lexical ambiguity; it is
on this ground that this study is conducted; to present some of the Bura
ambiguous words which may be confusing to second language learners
or researchers.
The essence is to point out some of the morphological
manipulations and phonological insertions in the structures of words
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which perform the functions of separating the meaning and

grammatical class of one word from another as obtained in other
languages, English in particular. This implies that the gap this study
intends to bridge may not apply to the works done by other scholars
although it deals with ambiguity since the study is on Bura language
and not a comparison with any language.

Methodology of Data Collection

The Participatory and Conversational Listening method of
research was adopted for the study. This method allows the researcher
to learn about the subjects under study by participating in their
activities, particularly by meeting them in their natural setting, DeWalt
and DeWalt (2002). This can be achieved by establishing rapport with
the subjects. The participatory method requires the researcher to study
the peoples’ mode of interaction and their choice of vocabularies. In
this method, the listener communicates in a transactional context, and
the goals and processes are unique, as interpersonal communications
are simultaneously carried out between a speaker and a listener. This
technique therefore provides a reliable and valid measure of one’s
cognitive conversational listening capacity.
Ten (10) Bura native speakers were involved in the study, each
of them offered ten (10) words (data) which analytically have the
tendency of being linguistically ambiguous. The data collected were
analysed employing the descriptive method.
The following are some of the ambiguous words which may be
confusing to a second language learner of Bura.

Data Presentation and Analysis

The data presented below are some of the ambiguous Bura words and
their English meanings.

S/N Words English meanings

1. Shar Canoe, ship, courgette spoon, squirrel, loom
shuttle, somebody with great wisdom
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2. Vi nzi-nzi/vi nzi
A place of domain/residence, stool/chair - (vi
nzi nzi), cult - (vi nzi), where nzi is not
reduplicated it means a form of cultism.
3. Digka To pound, to beat
4. Sa Drink (fluid/ liquid), sniff powder, drunkard
5. Shabar Cold, wind, storm, irresponsible /wayward
person - (bzir shabar).
6. Mbwi Tie, imprisoned
7. Ndasa/ndasimnya Swallow-(ndasa), swallowed - (ndasimnya),
/ndasi lust/desire - (ndasi)
8. Nkwa Daughter, number – six (6)
9. Khidla Chase after, hunting, corn stalks
10. Mpila/‘mpila/mp Tell (by way of unveiling) - mpila, loose -
i’la or mpili (‘mpila or mpili), a traditional kettle - (mpi’la)
11. Wula Take care/caution, see/look
12. Tsi My hand, put off, kill, spend (money)
13. Nki/n’ki House - (nki), to catch/fell something down -
(n’ki)
14. Msi’ra/’msira Delicious/nice-(msi’ra), escape/
relieved/freedom - (‘msira)
15. Hu-hw’i/hu-whi Run - (hu-hw’i), a type of wild fruits - (hu-hwi).
16. Ha Song, pass onto/over to
17. Sukwar Cooked soup of any kind, uncooked meat
18. Bara Hunting, search for, wants/ need/
desire/hustling.
19. Mwabulu Hyena, greediness, great strength
(personification)
20. Pumta Pour out, discard, forgive in a way of forgetting
21. Jaka A new born child to a family, promotion, add
some more to something measurable which
was bought
22. Mwabi Animal of all kinds, insult (personified to be
senselessness)
23. Sura Clan/family name, name of a tree,
moult/ecdysis
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24. Waksha Clan/family name, local powdered tobacco

container, a form of dance steps, costume,
an art of drumming
25. Kalkal Equal, correct
26. Sika To guard/watch/ wait
27. Khrata To study, read, to investigate
28. ‘Shagur/sha’gur Shade/ shadow/shelter - (shagur), a human
figure protector - (sha’gur)
29. U’u light, fire, a tough/difficult/ hard or harsh
person
30. Hyel/hye’l Supreme God, anything at a zenith position,
anything one trusts/ beliefs/ leans/ holds unto
- (Hyel), intestine (hye’l)
31. Fi Cheat, longevity
32. Bzirdiffu/ bzir Grief, fury, sadness - (bzirdiffu), a child after
diffu one’s heart – (bzir diffu)
33. Mara Rival, to sharpen
34. Gari/ga’ri/gar’i Talk - (gari), men’s big gown – agbada - (ga’ri),
cassava product (gar’i)
35. Mabbu Mud, mortal body
36. Msimnya Announce, to leak/eat up
37. Matsikar Left, negativity
38 Manjivar Scar, in memory of negative event which has
less or no effect anymore
39 Dǝla Wooden pestle, wooden prongs
40 Hya Early morning, full to the brim, run out of
patience
41 Tsaha To caution, to nail something
42 Diffu Heart, anger, centre/ middle of something,
43 Mthlaku Almighty, ownership, placenta
44 Sal A male figure, someone courageous or
fearless, an expert in doing something
45 Nuwa To follow someone/something, obey/abide by
an order /rules, worship/followership
46 Tsawa Lock, order/command
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47 Shari To reverse/ postpone/ unstitch

48 Mbwa/mbw’a Foamy texture, fume/anger, Boil - (mbwa),
room (mbw’a)
49. Thlawa/thlwa’a Cut into half – (thlawa), to greet someone or
go on a visit
50. Nama Make, to correct/change a person’s
behaviour, adjust, reconcile
51. Pwarzdi Escort/ see someone off, to eat together
52. Hathla Grind, a rhymed body movement preformed
by the women at the sound of locally made
guitar
53. Mhya Talk, mouth
54. Vi Place, surrender something, put down
55. U’uwa Breast, breast/ fresh milk, yoghurt/can milk
56. Thym Ear, name of (persons, animals or objects)
57. Hirra To love, peel, a type of cactus plant
58. ‘Thlara/thlar’a Help/ support - (‘thlara), a type of shrub -
(thlar’a)
59. ‘Pira/pi’ra Bathe, twist a rope on something, to be
converted to another belief or religion - (pir’a),
to branch to a place - (pira)
60. Khǝcha Wash, menstrual period, council by way of
insulting
61. Kǝla Dog, prostitution/womanising

62. Sili My leg, shame/shy

63. Hyni Sleep, sediment
64. Thlata To stand, to be strong/resilient
65. Ghiranta A person’s name, to stress up
66. Bubuha To cover up or conceal something, cover
against something
67. Hyipa/hyip’a Teach/learn - (hyipa), a type of wild fruits -
(thyip’a)
68. Faku/fak’u Farm land - (faku), dry season- (fak’u)
69. Thi Lies, to cut a portion of something
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70. Tuwa/tuw’a Cry - (tuwa), repay/ revenge - (tuw’a)

71. Ntawa/ntaw’a Divide into half - (ntawa), a type of wild fruits
- (ntaw’a)
72. Dikǝl Throne, a type of bed
73. Ntsa Ripe, to push or manage a situation
74. Hǝrta Moulding, cause confusion or trouble.
75. Nthla Backslide (religiously), fall down, to be satisfied
(with food or a situation)
76. Ndata Surprises, to mix into liquids
77. Kili Wean a child, meet someone up, put down
78. Hwada/hwad’a Mates/ equals - (hwada), groundnuts -
(hwad’a).
79. Bua/bu’a Cook something (bua), to beat (bu’a)
80. Mwardzi Friendship, in a relationship (courtship)
81. Bang Concubine, a child strapping on the back
82. Tasa Trash out (grains), castrate (an animal), severe
beating, dish.
83. Mtathla Chill or cool something , fever (malaria
common among last born children)
84. Fazda To rub onto, to fabricate, entangle or
blackmail
85. Pukthl’a/pukthla Flower or nectar – (pukthl’a), to crush into
pieces or excessive beating (pukthla)
86. Mhyabwa Door or entrance, family lineage or tree
87. Laku/lak’u A passage, a word of comfort to the bereaved –
(laku), to dig a hole - (lak’u)
88. Fa’a/fa Long life - (fa’a), carry ( away) - (fa)
89. Pinju Ashes, mosquitoes
90. Teipir Elbow, wall gecko
91. Mbthlawi Cat, a reference to someone who likes
delicacies
92. Hyni Sleep, sediment
93. Khithlir Work, to carry out a surgery
94. Kwatam/ kwa’tam Princess - (kwatam), wooden dish - (kwa’tam)
95. Abwari Light-skinned, Fulani - (tribe)
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96. Chiwar Elephant, excessively large, clan/family name

97. Kidl’a/Kidla Wild-game hunting - (kidl’a), stalk-- (kidla)
98. Fadza To smear, to fabricate a lie/image tarnishing
99. Ncha Eye, point, show off
100. Thili/thil’i Thirst, fast - (thili), erect - (thil’i)
From the data presentation, one will notice that there is morphological
and phonological relationship interwoven in one word. This is evident
in words such as: laku and lak’u, puk’thla and pukthl’a, hwada and
hwa’da, thlawa and thla’wa and so on; where stress plays a vital role of
differentiating a meaning from another. This further explains that the
internal structures of many words are morphologically manipulated to
produce different sounds of same words, but with different meanings.

Data Analysis
From the data presentation, it can be said that many Bura words
have multiple meanings which create ambiguity and
(mis)representation or interpretation; utterances are contextually
determined by the listeners. Also, Bura words can have dual functions,
as a subject as well as a verb. Unlike in English, Bura verbs can change
their grammatical class without compromising to function as gerund.
This may be because the language does not have the –ing form
of suffix; consequently, verbs are made to function as subject of a
sentence without promulgating it to behave as gerund. It is for a reason
such as this that the meaning of an expression is contextually and
semantically captured. The data presentation showed that many Bura
words are personified to animals, abstract entities and objects. Words
such as; shar -squirrel, mwabi – animal of all forms, mwabulu – hyena are
personifications from animals; shabar – wind/cold personification of an
abstract entity, mbwa - fume, personified from objects.
Many Bura nouns and verbs are structurally and phonologically
same; only differentiated by a stress pattern. The stress sometimes
determines the change in tense. For example; bu’a (beat) as glossed
below:
1. ya bu’a nga
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I will beat you (future tense).

2. I bu’a ni
I had beaten him/her (past perfect)
The to- infinitive is also attached to verbs as obtained in the
English language. It also appears before the verb as can be seen in the
data presentation in numbers 49, 57, 66 and so on. Some words in Bura
do not only double the consonant as in English when a word ends with
consonant sounds, but triple the consonants even at the beginning of a
word, as in: mtlaku, mbthlawi, bukchi, pukthla and so on.
The morphological processes: affixation and reduplication are
evidently active. The phonological symbol (‘) stress plays active role in
shaping the structure of a word to alter its meaning.
Affixation is a process in word formation when discussing
morphology. However, in Bura, it is not only a process but some of
them form part of the lexical items. For example; ndasimnya –
(swallowed), where as ndasi – (swallow) is the base and mnya becomes
the suffix as well as the past perfect tense of the verb. In another
formation, simnya can stand alone as a verb to mean announcement, in
this case, nda becomes a prefix to simnya. Also, the symbolised letter - ‘a
functions as a suffix as well as a sound in Bura, it forms part of the
orthography of many words but acts as an affix in another function. For
example; the vowel sounds: /a/, /i/. and /u/ behave as sounds and
affixes to words such as: fa’a, pukthl’a, hwad’a, gar’i, hwi- hw’i, lak’u,
fak’u and so on.
The morphological process reduplication is found in the
language. Reduplication in Bura takes place at two levels: word and
morpheme levels. At word level, reduplicated words are seen in words
such as: hwi-hw’i, vi nzi-nzi, wulwula, taktar, whatwhatu, thluthluari,
khacikhachari, kukuwa, and so on. At the word level, the second
reduplicated word takes a suffix as can be seen above. Whereas the
morpheme level include: u’u, u’ua, and so on; they are reduplicated for
greater impact. However, the word vi nzi-nzi seizes to function as
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domain or seat to become a form of traditional cultism practiced by

certain group of Bura speakers when nzi is not reduplicated.
It can again be deduced that Bura like the English language has
some phrasal verbs in its expressions. For example: bzir shabar and bzir
diffu. However, bzir in these formations are contextually different.
1. Bzir shabar
Child (male) wind or cold.
In this construction, bzir functions as a prefix to the base shabar.
2. Bzir diffu
A child (male/ female) heart
The function of bzir in this formation is different from that in item one
above. Here, it combines with diffu to form a phrasal verb. This explains
why the grammatical structure of Bura is uniquely different and can
sometimes be ambiguous or misinterpreted by non native speakers. The
data presented further explains that the language has a lot of
homonymic, homophonic, polysemic and homomorphomic words.
Meanings are contextually determined making it difficult to understand
by non native speakers. The verb whi means (run), and whi-whi also
means (run faster). Here, the main verb is reduplicated to serves as an
intensifier. This, however, indicates that some Bura verbs can function
as intensifier as well as the verb of the sentence. Also, the same word
whi in another sense means shift, leave a place or give way. This may be
confusing to a second language learner because the speaker’s intention
may be obscure, the listener may wonder whether to run, shift or give
way.

Findings
1. The morphological processes reduplication and affixation are found
in the language.
2. Some Bura lexical words function as affixes.
3. There are words which have same orthography with their
meanings differentiated by a stress pattern.
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in Bura words: … (DUJEL) Vol 8,C.U.
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4. The Bura language has a lot of metaphors in its vocabulary, .such

as mwabi (animal; to refer to someone who behaves senselessly),
cat (someone who loves delicious meals).
5. The language lacks tone-marking to differentiate identical words
which cause ambiguity since Bura has a lot of homomorphic
entries. That is, words with the same spelling or form, but have
slight difference in pronunciation and difference in meaning. For
example; hwada – hwad’a, pukthla –pukthl’a, laku – lak’u, kidla
– kidl’a, thili – thil’i. The difference with English homomorphy
is that, in English, the stress classifies the word to either noun or
verb, as in: ‘import (noun) and im’port (verb); but in Bura, the
stress does not classify the word, it remains in its original word
class either as a noun or verb.
6. It was established that many Bura words are homonymic,
homophonymic, homomorphomic and polysemic; making it
difficult for a language learner to grab meanings effortlessly.
7. The Bura language does not have the –ing suffix in its morphology
therefore, converting a verb to gerundive noun is not possible.
Rather, verbs function as gerunds without compromising.

Conclusion
Ambiguity is a common feature in communication that
has significant implications for understanding and interpretation. It
can be used for rhetorical or humorous purposes, it is generally
important to seek for clarity and precision in communication to avoid
misinterpretations. From the study, it was understood that Bura lexical
words can be confusing to a non native speaker or a second language
learner as meanings of some words are differentiated by stress. Also
grammatical classes of words are converted without derogating the base
to function as appropriate; consequently, meanings of many words can
better be understood contextually.
It can be recommended that this area of the Bura language
needs intensive research since language development emanates from its
DUTSIN-MA JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND LITERATURE (DUJEL) Vol 8, No 2, 2024 285

structure, morphology, semantic and phonology. These entirely put

together builds up a language.

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