A Contrastive Analysis of Word Formation Processes in French and Yorùbá: Areas of Convergence and Divergence

Abstract

The paper attempts to find answers to the following questions: are there areas of convergence/divergence in the word formation processes in French and Yorùbá? In what areas are the convergence and divergence? And if there is divergence, does it possess any learning difficulty for Yorùbá learners of the French language? To answer the questions, the paper ventures into the contrastive analysis of word formation processes in French and Yorùbá. Adopting the literary and historical-analytic methods, it takes a close at the various processes of word formation in both languages and points out areas of convergence and divergence. The paper further analyses the import of divergence regarding the mastery of the word formation process in French by the Yorùbá French learners and concludes by offering some didactic approaches that could make the wordformation process in French easier for the Yorùbá learners of the French language.