COMPOUND VERBS IN YORÙBÁ
OYE TAIWO
1.0 Introduction
Compound words have been defined as words which consist of
two words. Selkirk (1982: 13) says ‘compounds in English are a type of
word structure made up of two constituents, each belonging to one of the
categories noun, adjective, verb or preposition. The compound itself may
belong to the category noun, verb or adjective’. Fabb (2001:66) defines a
compound as ‘a word which consists of two or more words’. The words
in (1) are derived from the combination of two or more words.
1.
a [N Adéọlá]

‘personal name’
b
[NAdé] + [N ọlá]
crown
wealth

[NÌsò ̣rí-ò ̣rò ̣-orúkọ]
‘the nominal group’
group

c [P níhìn ín]
‘here’
[NÌsò ̣ri] + [N ò ̣rò ̣] +[N orúkọ]
word
name
[P nì] + [N ìhín]
at
here
The nominal compounds in (1a&b) consist of two and three words
respectively. The prepositional compound in (1c) is made up of two
words. However, many Yorùbá compounds are derived from the clause as
is evident from the examples in (2).
2 a
sò ̣rò ̣
‘to speak’

b kíyèsára

‘to be observant’
sọ + ò ̣rò ̣
say
word
kó
put
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ISSN 1724-5230
Volume 6 (2008) – pagg. 345-370
Oye Taiwo – “Compound Verbs in Yoruba”
iyè
mind
sí ara
to body
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c
Babaláwo
‘herbalist’
man has a cult’.
d
ní
awo
 Baba1
old man/father has
cult
‘The old
Adéwálé
 Adé
wá sí
ilé
personal name
Ade come prep. house
‘Ade came to the house’/ ‘Ade came home’.
The compound words, sọ̀rọ̀ ‘to speak’, kíyèsára ‘to be observant’
babaláwo ‘herbalist’ and Adéwálé (personal name), are derived from full
clauses. While the first two are verbal compounds, the remaining two are
nominal compounds. We shall examine the structures of theses verbal
compounds; determine the levels of their derivations and the implications
of these compounds for subcategorization as well as the types of the
derived verbs. The paper is organized in this way: section 1 discusses the
theoretical background of the work. Here we adopt the Pulleyblank &
Akinlabi (1988) version of the weak lexicalist hypothesis (WLH) for the
derivation of the compound verbs and Chomsky (1995) bare phrase
structure for the diagrammatic sketch of the derived verbs. We also give
the typology of these verbs. In section 2, we give a detailed analysis of
the various compound verbs in the language. This includes the PS rules
that could account for them, the levels of their derivation and transitivity
of incorporated and amalgamated verbs respectively. Section 3 is the
conclusion.
1.1 Theoretical background
The weak lexicalist hypothesis (WLH) accepts that some words
are syntactically derived while others are not (Adeniyi 2007:36). The
morphology and syntax constitute semi-independent components, where
principles of the morphology govern categories of level Xo. No ordering
is imposed between the components hence, apart from the standard
situation whereby the morphology provides inputs for the syntax. It is
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also possible for the syntax to derive a word-level category. We adopt the
model in (3) following Pulleyblank & Akinlabi (1988).
3
Morphology 1&2
Syntax
Pulleyblank & Akinlabi (1988:158)
In considering the possible interactions between morphology and
syntax, (3) posits two morphological components – Morphology 1 and
Morphology 2. This is illustrated thus. The word adé personal
name/‘crown’ is derived by the combination of an agentive nominal
prefix and dé ‘cover’.
4
a+
agentive prefix
dé  adé
cover
personal name/ ‘crown’
Morphology 1
This word, adé, is the subject of the basic clause (the sentence) in (5).
5
Adé
wá
sí
ilé
Ade come prep house
‘Ade came to the house’/ ‘Ade came home’.
In (5), Morphology1 is the input to syntax,
6 Morphology 1  Syntax
where words are strung together to form a basic clause. It is possible to
derive a word from the words in the clause in (5).
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7 Adé
wá
sí
ilé

Adéwálé (personal
name)
Ade come prep house
‘Ade came to the house’/ ‘Ade came home’.
In (7), a clause is the input to the word.
8
Syntax  Morphology 2
The examples in (5) and (7) establish the fact that a non-lexical
category can derive a lexical one. The model in (3) is the one where all
morphological processes - derivation (including phrasal derivation) and
inflection- are located in a single grammatical component (Pulleyblank &
Akinlabi 1988:158-160). With a single morphological component in
which the syntactic input is needed in the formation of some words, the
model is possibly modified to allow recursion from syntax into the
morphology. They conclude that ‘the syntactic component determines the
well – formedness of syntactic representations, while the morphology
does the same for morphological representations. Where the morphology
and syntax interact,… each component governs the appropriate aspects of
the relevant construction’ (Pulleyblank & Akinlabi 1988:160)
In the analysis of these compounds, we employed the bare phrase
structure of generative syntax. In this model, ‘a category that does not
project any further is a maximal projection XP, and one that is not a
projection at all is a minimal projection Xmin ; any other is an X1…’
(Chomsky1995:242). This model is employed in the diagrammatic sketch
of the structures of the compounds. This is because many of the
compound verbs in Yorùbá can be termed ‘postsyntactic compounds’
(Fabb 2001:68). They are derived from phrases. For example, the verbs in
(2a&b), repeated below, are derived from phrases.
2 a sò ̣rò ̣
‘to speak’

sọ + ò ̣rò ̣
say
word
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b kíyèsára

‘to be observant’
kó
put
iyè
sí ara
mind to body
The syntactic component of the model in (3) will determine the well–
formedness of syntactic representations before such postsyntactic
compound is derived.
1.2 Types of compounds
In the literature, three types of compounds have been identified.
These are:
 endocentric compounds: those with a head
 exocentric compounds: those without a head
 co-ordinate compounds: those where both words equally share
head – like characteristics
(Selkirk 1982:13; Fabb 2001: 66-67)
The compound verb in (2a) has the verb sọ ‘to speak’ as its head, hence it
is an endocentric compound; Adéwálé (personal name), in (2d) is an
exocentric compound without a head, while padá ‘return’ is an example
of a co-ordinate compound in which both words equally share head–like
characteristics. The structures of these three compounds are given in (9)
below.
9a
V
V
NP
sọ
ó ̣rò ̣
sò ̣rò ̣ ‘to speak’
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V
b
V
V
pa
dá
padá ‘to return’
c.
N
IP
NP
NI
N
II
I
VP
VP
VI
TASP
nom. pre
V
adé
Ø
wá
Adéwálé (personal name)
VP
ilé
Yorùbá compound verbs exhibit two of these types. These are endocentric
and co-ordinate compounds. We shall discuss them in this paper.
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2.0 Verbal compounds
Most Yorùbá verbs are monosyllabic in structure; many of the bisyllabic (polysyllabic) verbs are derived through incorporation and
amalgamation. Incorporation was first understood as overt noun
incorporation, whereby a generic noun is included in the verb by which it
is governed. Baker (1988), as reported in Haacke (1995: 339), extended
this concept to a general theory of grammatical function changing through
the merging of morphological categories by movement of structurally
lower lexical heads (Xo) into their superordinate governors. The following
instances of incorporation and amalgamation are noticed in the derivation
of compound verbs in the Yorùbá language.



noun incorporation
preposition incorporation
amalgamation of verbs
The amalgamation of verbs is a process in which two or more verbs
are combined to form a compound verb. Serial verbs as well as splitting
verbs, with their inserted objects, could take part in the fusion.
In the discussions that follow, we shall examine the levels of the
derivations of these compound verbs in line with our model in (3), we
shall also categorize the verbs typologically as either endocentric or coordinate compounds, and as either transitive or intransitive verbs.
The various compound verbs in Yorùbá can be derived from the
following PS rules.






V
V
V
V
V
V






V + NP
V + NP + PP
V + PP
V+V
V + VI
V + NP (+ V + NP) + V
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2.1 V + NP verbal compounds
The universally most common type of incorporation involves
incorporation of direct objects (Haacke 1995). Verbs derived in this way
are many in Yorùbá because this is the most productive of all the ways
compound verbs are derived in the language. The PS rule for the
derivation of this type of compound is (10) below.
10 V  V + NP
Some verbs and nouns involved in this type of compound have lost their
individual meanings, what remains are the meanings of the derived verbs.
This seems to be the case with some of the compound verbs in (11).
11
a
b
c
d
e
V

jíròrò ‘discuss’
jókòó ‘sit down’
dúró ‘stop’
yípo ‘surround’
pàdé ‘meet’
V + NP
jì (V) ìròrò (N)
jó (V) òkó ‘seat’
dá (V) uró (N)
yí ‘turn’ ipo (N)
pa (V) ìdé ‘arrival’
The meanings of the individual words in (11a-c) seem to be totally
lost2. In (11d), the meaning of the NP object is lost, especially in the
standard dialect, while that of the verb is lost in (11e). Many other
compound verbs derived through this process still retain the meanings of
the individual words which combine to form them. These verbs are very
many in the language. Some examples are in (12).
V
12 a sò ̣rò ̣ ‘to speak’
b juwó ̣ ‘to wave’
c buyì ‘to honour’
d gbàdúrà ‘to pray’
e sáré ‘to run’

V
+
NP
sọ ‘say’
ò ̣rò ̣ ‘word’
ju ‘throw’
ọwó ‘hand’
bu ‘cut’
iyì ‘honour’
gba ‘make’ àdúrà ‘prayer’
sá ‘run’
eré ‘race’
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f
g
h
i
j
k
ṣeré ‘to play’
jọba3 ‘to
jẹ ‘eat’
ọba ‘king’
kígbe/kégbe ‘to shout’
ṣàlàyé ‘to explain’
dáhùn ‘to answer/reply’
kórìráa ‘to hate/abhor’
ṣe‘do’
eré‘play’
reign’
ké ‘cry’
ṣe ‘do/make’
dá ‘break’
kó ‘gather’
igbe ‘shout’
àlàyé explanation’
ohùn ‘voice’
ìríra ‘hatred’
All the compound verbs in (11) and (12) have similar structures because
they have the same combinations of a verb and its object. We give the
structures of some of them below.
13
a
b
V
V
VP
VP
VI
VI
V
NP
V
jí
ìròrò
jíròrò ‘discuss’
c
sọ
ò ̣rò ̣
s ò ̣rò ̣ ‘to speak’
d
V
V
NP
V
VP
VP
VI
VI
NP
V
ṣe
àlàyé
sàlàyé ‘explain’
NP
gba
àdúrà
gbàdúrà ‘pray’
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The verbal compounds, derived with the PS rule V V + NP, are
endocentric compounds. The head word in each of them is the verb. The
noun (phrase) loses its categorial status as it is incorporated into the verb
to derive the compound verb. Yorùbá belongs to languages like
Khoekhoe and Eskimo, where the original transitive verb is rendered
intransitive by object incorporation (Haacke 1995:341). All the derived
verbs in (11) and (12), apart from those in (12i – k), have become
intransitive in that they cannot subcategorize for NP object but could take
other complements such as PP and CP complements or none at all.
However, the derived verbs in (12i-k), sàlàyé ‘to explain’ dáhùn
‘to answer/reply’ and kórìráa ‘to hate/abhor’, still take NP objects as
complements hence they are transitive verbs. They occur in the sentences
in (14).
14
a. Òjó ṣàlàyé ò ̣rò ̣ náà
Òjó explain word the
‘Òjó explained the matter’.
b. Ó dáhùn gbogbo rè ̣
he answer all it
‘He answered all’
c. Mo kórìráa ò ̣lẹ ènìyàn
I hate lazy person
‘I hate a lazy person’
While the compound verb, kórìráa ‘to hate/abhor’ obligatorily
selects an NP object, ṣàlàyé ‘to explain’ and dáhùn ‘to answer/reply’ may
be intransitive; hence the sentences in (14a&b) are well-formed without
their object NPs. One other feature to be noted in the verbs in (11) and
(12) is their ability to occur in series. It is possible to have the following
combinations in the language.
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15 a sáré lọ
run go ‘go quickly’
b ṣeré dé
play come ‘play come’
c buyì kún
honour add ‘add honour (to)’
d
e
f sáré dáhùn/sàlàyé
run
reply/explain
wá yípo
come round ‘come round’
‘reply/explain quickly’
g rọra sò ̣rò ̣
be gentle speak ‘speak gently’
gbàdúrà fún
pray
give ‘pray for’
h rọra kìgbe
be gentle shout ‘shout
gently’
Both the morphological and syntactic components in (3) interact
in the derivation of the verbs in (11) and (12). Morphology 1 derived the
object NP either through prefixation (e.g. ì- + dé ‘to arrive’ = ìdé ‘arrival,
u- + ró ‘to wait/stop’ = uró, ọ - + ba ‘to dominate’ = ọba ‘king’); or
through consonant reduplication, insertion of vowel [i] and prefixation
(e.g. ra  rra  ríra  ìríra ‘hatred’ Awobuluyi 2008: 15-36). The
transitive verbs select and merge with these NPs to form verb phrases at
the syntactic level of (3). These objects are incorporated into their
respective verbs in Morphology 2 in the process of deriving the
compound verbs in (11) and (12).
2.2. V + NP + PP verbal compounds
In the formation of a compound verb from a verb and two
complements, NP and PP, these complements are incorporated into the
verb. Here, the syntactic component (the two phrases) interacts with the
morphological component (Morphology 2) in this derivation. The PS rule
for this type of compound is (16) below.
16
V 
V
+ NP + PP
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This type of verbal compound does not seem to be common in the
Yorùbá language. We give two examples and their structures below.
17
V

a kíyèsí4‘to note’/‘observe’
V + NP + PP
kó
iyè
sí
put
18
mind
b kíyèsára ‘to be observant’
kó
put
c. fọwó ̣sí ‘agree with/
support
fi
ọwó ̣
put/use hand
a
iyè
sí ara
mind
to body
b
VI
sí
to/with
V
V
V
to
VI
PP
V
NP
PP
NP
PI
P
kó
iyè
síc.
kíyèsí ‘to note/ observe’
NP
kó
iyè sí
ara
kíyèsára ‘to be observant’
c
V
I
V
V
PP
NP
fi
ọwó ̣
sí
fọwó ̣sí ‘agree with/support’
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We observe that the V in (18) first selects and merges with the NP
complement to form a VI, which merges with the PP to derive the
compound verb. The head word in each of the compound verbs above is
the verb. Both the PP and the NP lose their categorial statuses because the
two are incorporated into the verb. The two derived verbs are endocentric
compounds.
The derived verbs, kíyèsí’ to note/ observe’, kíyèsára ‘to be
observant’ and fọwọ́sí ‘to agree with/support’ are transitive verbs.
Witness this in the sentences in (19).
19
a
Ó
kíyèsí
ìwà wọn
he note/observe character them
‘He noted their behaviour’
b
c
Kíyèsára
rẹ
be observant your
‘Be careful’
Bàbá rè ̣ kò fọwó ̣sí ìwà
búburú rè ̣ yẹn
father his neg. support character bad
his that
‘His father does/did not support his bad behaviour’.
However, kíyèsára ‘to be observant’ will only optionally select an
object when it is used in an imperative sentence. That is why the sentence
in (20) is well-formed where it takes a CP complement.
20
Kíyèsára [CP kí ẹnikéni
̣ máṣe tàn ò ̣ jẹ]
‘Be careful so that no one deceives you’.
2.3 V + PP verbal compounds
A compound verb can be derived by the combination of a verb
and a prepositional phrase, in this situation the prepositional phrase is
incorporated into the verb to form the compound verb. The PS rule for the
derivation of this type of compound is (21) below.
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21. V  V + PP
This verbal compound type is also not common in the language.
Some examples are given in (22).
22
a
V

rànló ̣wó ̣ ‘help’
V + PP
ràn ní ọwó ̣
help? prep hand
ṣe
ní èṣe
do
prep hurt
tè ̣
sí iwájú
bend prep front
lọ sí iwájú
go prep front
b
ṣeléṣe
‘wound/ injure’
c tè ̣síwájú
‘move on’
d lọsíwájú
‘progress’
The structures of some of the compounds in (22) are given in (23).
V
23a
V
PP
PI
P
NP
ràn ní
ọwó ̣
rànló ̣wó ̣ ‘help’
b
V
V
PP
PI
P
NP
ṣe
ní
èṣe
seléṣe ‘wound / injure’
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In the derivation of these compounds, the preposition ní selects
and merges with object NP to form a PP at the syntax level of (3). The
verb selects and merges with this PP to form a VP at the Syntax level
also. Morphology 2 derives the compound verb from the VP. The nasal
vowel of ní is elided in contraction, the remaining segment [n] becomes
[l] before an oral vowel of ọwọ́ ‘hand’. This is also applicable to ṣeléṣe
‘to wound / injure’. These derived verbs are endocentric compounds
because they are headed by the verbs which incorporated them.
It is observed that the two compound verbs, rànlọ́wọ́ ‘to help’ and
ṣeléṣe ‘to wound/injure’ have the feature of splitting verbs in the
language. Hence, they would only occur as verbs if NP objects were
inserted into them. Without this insertion, their occurrence will render a
sentence ungrammatical. This is the situation in the sentences in (24) be
low.
24 a i. Ayò ̣ ràn wá ló ̣wó ̣
Ayò ̣ help us in-hand
‘Ayò ̣ helped us’.
ii. *Ayò ̣ rànló ̣wó ̣ wá
Ayò ̣ help
us
b
i. O ṣe wó ̣n léṣe
ii. *O ṣeléṣe wó ̣n
he do them injure
he injure them
‘He injured them’.
The two compound verbs are transitive verbs if their description
above is put into consideration. Their transitivity is due to the property of
the simple verbs ràn and ṣe which subcategorizes for NP objects. This
property is transferred to the compound verbs.
2.3 Amalgamated verbs
In this section, we shall examine the structures of compound verbs
derived from the amalgamation of two or more verbs. The amalgam verbs
could either be serial verbs or splitting verbs5. The PS rules for the
derivations of these compound verbs are given below.
 V  V+V
 V  V + VI
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
V  V + NP (+ V + NP) + V
2.3.1 V + V verbal compounds
Two verbs that occur in series could be amalgamated to form a
compound verb. Examples of this type are given in below.
25
26 a
V

jẹyọ ‘occur’/
‘appear’
V + V
jẹ yọ
? (v) out
b
padà ‘return’
pa
dà
kill? ?(v)
c
bùkún ‘bless’
bù
cut
kún
add
The structures of the compound verbs above are given below.
27a
b
V
V
c
V
V
jẹ
yọ
jẹyọ‘to occur’/
‘appear’
V
V
V
pa
dà
padà ‘to return’
V
bù
kún
bùkún ‘to bless’
In the V + V compounds in (26), the two amalgamated verbs
equally share head-like characteristics of the word. First, the two are
verbs and both contribute to the meaning of the derived word. We cannot
assign the head to only one of them. These compounds are co-ordinate
compounds. While jẹyọ ‘to occur’/ ‘appear’ and padá ‘to return’ are
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intransitive verbs; bùkún ‘to bless’ could subcategorize for an NP object.
These verbs occur in the sentences in (28).
28
a Ó
jẹyọ ní
ibí
it appear prep here
‘It appeared here’.
b
Ó padà sí ilé wa
he return prep house our
‘He returned to our house’.
c
Ó bùkún mi
he
bless me
‘He blessed me’.
2.3.2 V+VI verbal compounds
It is possible for some monosyllabic verbs to combine with padù6
‘to return’ to form another verb. However, in such an amalgamation, the
monosyllabic verb serves as the head of the derived verb. The PS rule for
this type of compound verb is given in (29).
29
30 a
b
V

yípadà 
‘to repent’
V + VI
yí
padà
turn return
ràpadà  rà padà
‘to redeem’ buy return
The structures of the verbs in (30) are given in (31).
31. a
b
V
V
VI
V
V
VI
V
V
yí
pa
dà
yípadà ‘repent/change’
V
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V
rà
pa
dà
ràpadà ‘to redeem’
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The V + VI compounds in (30), unlike the V + V in (26), have
distinct head words. The structures of these verbs in (31) reveal that the
verb that occupies the left-most part functions as the head. Semantically,
this verb brings a change in meaning to the derived verb when it is
combined with the other two verbs. For example, in (31a), padà ‘return’
becomes yípadà ‘repent’ when the verb yí is combined with it.
Structurally, pa is first combined with da to form padà. Thereafter, yí is
combined with padà as we have in (31a). If yí is first combined with pa,
the result will be a nonsensical word *yípa in Yorùbá. We observe that
the head words in the verbal compounds in (14a&b) and similar ones are
structurally similar to phrases which, as pointed out in Owolabi (1995a:
106), are also left-headed in the Yorùbá language. We conclude that these
compound verbs and similar ones are endocentric compounds.
The derived compound verbs in (30) could have the feature of
splitting verbs in the Yorùbá language. This is because they could
accommodate NP object insertion. Witness this in the sentences below.
32 a
Ó yí
mi padà
he turn me return
‘He made me to repent/ He changed me (my mind)’.
b
Ó rà
mí
padà
he buy me return
‘He redeemed me’.
c Ó yípaḍà [CP kúrò nínú ìwà búburù rè]̣
‘He repented from his evil behaviour’.
d
*Ó ràpadà mi ‘He redeemed me’.
Note however, that yípadà ‘to repent’ could be intransitive but
ràpadà ‘to redeem’ would not occur without the object NP inserted into
it, that is why (32c) is also well-formed but (32d) is not.
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2.3.3 V + NP (+ V + NP) + V verbal compounds
The other means of deriving a compound verb from other verbs is
the amalgamation of splitting verbs and their inserted objects. The PS rule
for this type of compound verb is (33) below
.
33
V  V + NP (+ V + NP) + V
Some examples of this type of verbal compounds are given in (34).
V
34 a. té ̣wó ̣gbà
‘accept’

V + NP (+ V + NP) + V
té ̣
ọwó ̣
gbà
spread hand
take/accept
b. gbó ̣kànlé
gbé
/gbé ̣kè ̣lé ‘to trust’ carry
c. dáríjì
‘to forgive’
dá
make
d. dé ̣rùbà
‘be afraid’
dá
make
ọkàn
lé
mind put
orí
head
è ̣rù
fear
jì
?(V)
ba
?(V)
e. darapò ̣
‘mix’
da
pour
ara pò ̣
body with
f
papòdà
‘change’
pa
ipò
dà
kill? position ? (V)
g
ronúpìwàdà  ro
inú
pa
ìwà
dà
‘repent’
think stomach kill? character ?(V)
The amalgamated verbs in (34a-d) are transitive verbs. As the
sentences in (35) would reveal, these verbs subcategorizes fro NP objects.
Those in (34e-g) are intransitive as we have in the sentences in (36).
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However, papòdà ‘to change’ could feature as a splitting verb as it allows
NP object insertion, hence a transitive verb. This is the case in (36d).
35. a
Ó té ̣wó ̣gba ọmọ rè ̣
he accept child his
‘He accepted his child’.
b
Ó gbó ̣kànlé/gbé ̣kè ̣lé wọn
he
trust
them
‘He trusted/ trusts them’.
c
Mo dáríjì yín
I forgive you(pl)
‘I forgive you’.
d
Mo déèrùbà wó ̣n
I be afraid them
‘I made them to be afraid’.
36. a
Ó darapò ̣ mó ̣ wọn
he mix with them
‘He mixed with them’.
b
Ó ti ronúpìwàdà
he perf repent
‘He has repented’.
c
Ó papòdà kúrò ní
àyè
rè ̣
he change from prep position his
‘He changed from his position’.
d
Ó papò
rè ̣ dà
he kill-post his change
‘He changed his position’.
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The structures of some of the compound verbs in (34) are give in (37)
below.
37
a
V
VP
VI
V
VI
NP
té ̣
ọwó ̣ gbà
té ̣wó ̣gbà ‘to accept’
b
V
VP
VI
V
dá
VI
NP
orí
jì
dáríjí ‘to forgive’
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V
c
VP
VI
V
VI
VI
NP
V
ro
VI
NP
inú
pa ìwà
ronúpìwàdà ‘to repent’
dà
The compound verbs in (34) are also examples of co-ordinate
compounds.
2.3.4. Levels of derivation of amalgamated verbs
The amalgamated verbs discussed above are derived through the
interaction of the morphological and syntactic components of the model
in (3) repeated below for convenience.
3 Morphology 1&2
Syntax
Pulleyblank & Akinlabi (1988:158)
In deriving the V + V compound verbs, Morphology 1 selects the
serial verbs and merges them to a compound verb. For example,
Morphology 1 selects pa and dà and amalgamates them to become padà
‘to return’. The derivation of V+VI compound verbs involves both
Morphology 1&2. After the derivation of padà ‘to return’ through
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Morphology 1, Morphology 2 selects and merges rà ‘to buy’ with padà
‘to return’ to derive ràpadà ‘to redeem’. To derive the V + NP (+ V +
NP) + V verbal compounds, the splitting verb selects and merges with its
object NP to form a VP at the syntactic level of (3). Morphology 2
amalgamates the VP into a compound verb. For example, to derive
té ̣wọ́gbà ‘to accept’, the splitting verb *té ̣gbà selects and merges with
ọwọ́ ‘hand’, which is inserted into the verb to form the VP té ̣ ọwọ́ gbà
‘to spread hand to take’. Morphology 2 amalgamates téè ọwọ́ gbà to
derive the compound verb té ̣wọ́gbà ‘to accept’.
3. Conclusion
Most Yorùbá verbs are monosyllabic in structure; many of the bisyllabic (polysyllabic) verbs are derived through incorporation and
amalgamation. In this paper, we examined these six ways by which
compound verbs could be derived in the language.





object incorporation (V + NP)
preposition incorporation (V+PP)
the incorporation of NP and PP complements (V+ NP + PP)
the amalgamation of two verbs (V + V)
the amalgamation of a monosyllabic verb with a derives bisyllabic
verb (V + VI) the amalgamation of (a) splitting verb(s) and with
its/their object(s)
The derivations of these compound verbs involve the interaction of
both the morphological and syntactic components of Grammar. We
examined how these two components interact in these derivations. The
derived verb examined the transitivity of the derived verbs and discovered
that many of them subcategorize for NP object including some of those
derived from object incorporation contrary to the established fact in the
literature. We also discovered that some of the derived verb would only
be acceptable in the language if they functioned as splitting verbs in that
they would accommodate object insertion. Finally, we noticed that all the
derived verbs are headed, hence endocentric; the only exception is the V
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+ V verbal compounds. In this type, the amalgamated verbs equally share
head-like characteristics of the derived words and therefore, it is a coordinate compound.
Oye Taiwo
Department of Linguistics and African Languages
University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
[email protected]
NOTES
The word Baba ‘old man/father’ which bears two mid tones has the
variant Bàbá with low and high tones.
2
Uró in (11c) could be derived by prefixing {u-} to ró ‘to wait/stop’ in
the Èkìtì dialect of the language. I am grateful to Professor Owolabi for
calling my attention to this.
3
The compound word jọba ‘reign’ is different from the verb phrase jọ́ba
‘be king’ which
is a contraction of jé ̣ ọba. The former is a compound word while the later
cannot be a
compound word but a verb phrase.
4
It is possible to derive nominal compounds from these
verbal compounds by attaching a nominal prefix to them.
1
ì- + rànló ̣wó ̣ =
à- + kíyèsí
=
ìrànló ̣wó ̣ ‘act of helping (someone)’
àkíyèsí ‘observation’
5
The term serial verb has been applied to the combination of verbs found
in many West African languages where all the verbs share a common
subject in the surface structure (Bamgboses 1974:17). Splitting verbs are
polysyllabic transitive verbs which have their NP objects inserted into
them.
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It seems that padà ‘to return’ as a verb could be employed in the
formation of many compound verbs in the language. Some examples of
such verbs are padàbọ̀ ‘to return/come back’, padàlọ ‘to go again’, padàwá ‘to
return/come back’ padàbọ̀wá ‘to return/come back’, papòdà ‘to change’, etc.
These verbs are instances where padà could occur with other verbs in
series. It actually occurs with another compound verb in padàbọ̀wá. It
can also allow object insertion as we have in papòdà ‘to change’, where
ipò ‘position’ is inserted into it. We shall discuss the derivation of
papòdà ‘to change’ and others like it in section 2.3.3. below.
6
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