International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2016, Vol. 8, No. 4 An Analysis of Verbal Extensions in Malawian Tonga: Towards Mirror Principle and Templatic Morphology Mexon Manda Dept. of Languages & Literature, Mzuzu University P/Bag 201, Luwinga, Mzuzu 2. Malawi Wellman Kondowe (Corresponding author) Lecturer in Linguistics, Dept. of Languages & Literature, Mzuzu University, P/Bag 201, Luwinga, Mzuzu 2. Malawi E-mail:
[email protected] Flemmings Fishani Ngwira Dept. of Language and Communication, University of Malawi, The Polytechnic, Private Bag 303, Blantyre, Malawi Lydia Kishindo Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, Dept. of Languages & Literature Mzuzu University, P/Bag 201, Luwinga, Mzuzu 2. Malawi Received: April 30, 2016 Accepted: July 11, 2016 Published: August 18, 2016 doi:10.5296/ijl.v8i4.9907 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/ijl.v8i4.9907 Abstract The question on affix ordering is among the central concerns in morphological analyses of Bantu languages, with most studies drawing insights from Mirror Principle and Templatic Morphology theoretical underpinnings. However, it remains debatable to a larger extent on whether conclusions drawn from such studies can be extended to all languages with 66 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2016, Vol. 8, No. 4 agglutinative morphological structures. This study was carried out to examine the structure of suffix ordering in Malawian Tonga by examining the two theories. On morpheme co-occurrence, the study reveals that causatives and applicatives, as argument-structure increasing suffixes, should always precede other extensions which are argument-structure reducing suffixes in order to be consistent with the tenets of the two theories.