Investigating Valency Decreasing Verb Operational Devices: A Case Study of the Oromo Language
Ayub Ismael Jarso 
& Giorgio Banti
Issue: Vol.5 No.16 Issue Article 33 pp.3103-3120
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.202451633 | Published online 24th December, 2024
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
The purpose was to examine and analyze the mechanisms used in the Oromo language to decrease the valency (or argument structure) of verbs. Specifically, it aimed to understand how valency-decreasing operational devices are employed, their semantic motivations, and their implications for linguistic theory. To assess the valency-decreasing devices, the first corpus analysis was used to collect a representative corpus of Oromo texts containing valency-decreasing verbs. Next, linguistic annotation was used to involve tagging verbs, identifying their valency properties (such as transitivity), and noting any derivational devices used to decrease valency. Then, interviews with native speakers were carried out to provide valuable insights. Finally, an in-depth qualitative analysis of selected examples was conducted to only explore the semantic motivations behind specific operational devices regardless of considering cultural and pragmatic factors. The valency-decreasing operations in Oromo are the passives with -am- suffix, the anticausatives with -at- suffix, the inchoatives with -a(a)t-, -a(a)h- and -o(o)m- suffixes and the impersonal inflections of syntactic constructions. The findings revealed how these devices function in Oromo verbal operations. This study seeks to contribute to (i) providing a comprehensive analysis of valency-decreasing mechanisms in the Oromo language; (ii) identifying universal patterns or language-specific variations in valency decrease strategies; (iii) informing linguistic theories by examining how operational devices impact verb valency; (iv) offering insights for language documentation, language teaching, and natural language processing (NLP) systems.
Key Terms: Oromo, Valency, Valency-decreasing devices, Basic verbs, Derived verbs.
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AYUB ISMAEL JARSO is a lecturer of linguistics in the department of English Language and Literature at Jimma University, Jimma, Oromia, Ethiopia. He is currently completing his Ph.D in linguistics at Addis Ababa University on the topic ‘Valency in Oromo’. He has completed Masters Degree in Linguistics from Addis Ababa University in 2009 and bachelor’s degree in Amharic with English language. He has some publications and is presently workings on many more papers. He has co-authored this article with Emeritus Professor Giorgio Bati, a linguist and scholar of numerous books and articles.
GIORGIO BANTI has been professor of Linguistics in Rome, Potenza and the University of Naples L’Orientale, where he has also taught Somali Language and Literature. He has been Vice Rector of that institution from 2014 to 2019. He is now professor emeritus of L’Orientale, and a member of the Board of Directors of the ISMEO ― International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies. He also taught and did research in other Universities, such as those of Hamburg, Bayreuth, Zurich, Addis Ababa, Djibouti, and the former National University of Somalia in Mogadishu. Since 1979, he has been several times in the Somali-speaking countries of the Horn of Africa (former Somalia, Puntland, Somaliland, and Djibouti), as well as in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya and Northern Sudan for doing fieldwork in linguistics, oral and written local literatures, and Ajami manuscripts and printed writings. He has published scientific contributions on Somali, Oromo, Saho, Nara, Old Harari, Arabic, Sanskrit, Ancient Greek and other languages.
Jarso, Ayub Ismael, and Giorgio Banti. “Investigating Valency Decreasing Verb Operational Devices: A Case Study of the Oromo Language,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 5, no.16 (2024): 3103-3120. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.202451633
© 2024 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
