Lexico-Semantic Relations in Tiv

This work examines semantic relations in Tiv. Semantic relations are a set of words with an identijiable semantic affinity. This affinity creates a relationship between words in which they are connected in order to make more acceptable meaning out of them. It is obvious that semantic relations in Tiv consist of vocabularies that empower speakers of the language in attaining proficiency in the use of the language, but is this always the case? When you listen to most communications in the language, users do not show good mastery and use of sense relations. It follows that, misapplication of these sense relations by speakers render the listeners confused as to what the right option of word or expression should be in a given scenario. This misapplication in the use of the semantic relations would also result to wrong grammatical construction in the language. This work, therefore, calls for the need to identify these semantic relations in Tiv and understand their uses and applications to produce very intelligible and pragmatic sentences. The work examines the various possible semantic relations that exist in Tiv language with emphasis on synonymy, antonymy, homonymy and hyponymy. The tendency for wrong choice of words meant for one situation for another is almost inevitable due to lack of mastery in these areas of linguistic domain. The researchers are able to detect these semantic relations and their wrong applications in this work through the researchers ’ interaction with native speakers using our intuitive knowledge of the language. The work explains the need to educate students and learners of the language on the importance of semantic relations and their appropriate applications in daily discourse. It is also expected that the work will deepen the grammar of the speakers and learners and will further enhance effective communication in the language.