Paper short abstract:

Yoruba, Morphology, Deverbal Nouns, Construction Morphology, Schemas, Oral Presentation

Paper long abstract:

The attachment of a prefix-vowel to a simple or phrasal verbal element in Yoruba changes the structure of the verb to deverbal nouns (Awobuluyi, 2016; Bamgbose, 1990). These affixes can perform single/multiple semantic functions. For example, the prefix ì- denotes an instrument in (1a) and the act of performing an action in (1b), a- expresses a person who performs the action in (1c), while o- denotes an expert in (1d).

(1)(a) ì+gbálẹ̀ ìgbálẹ̀

to sweep broom

(b) ì+rìn ìrìn

to walk walk(N)

(c) a+dájọ́ adájọ́

judge(V) judge(N)

(d) ò+ṣeré òṣèré

act actor

Issues arising from the Yoruba deverbal nouns include the syntactic and semantic compositions of the verbal elements to which the affixes attach (Ekundayo, 1976; Pulleyblank & Akinlabi, 1988), the semantic interpretation of the affixes, the phonological constraints of the structure, and the uniformity of the entire process. In this presentation, I show a holistic representation of the deverbal nouns by representing the phonological-syntactic-semantic relationship between the verbal elements and the affixes. Following the Construction Morphology (CxM) framework (Booij, 2010), I propose a uniform schema through which different subschemas that express the quality of the vowels are derived.

This study has relevance for Yoruba nominalization particularly and its morpho-semantics generally, thereby showing a uniform way through which Yoruba speakers can use different prefixes to form new categories of nouns. It also contributes to CxM work by showing the potential infinite nature of the prosodic structures of the verbal elements to which these affixes are added.