In this study, we examine exocentric compounds in Berom; a minority Niger-Congo language that is spoken in parts of central Nigeria and describe the structural and semantic properties of N-V compounds. Basically, the study is designed to achieve three aims: to contribute to the documentation of Berom, to provide the structural classification of exocentric compounds in the language and to provide the semantics of N-V compounds. Contrary to the nominalization process in defining the lexical class of compounds in languages, we show that in Berom compounding, the verbal and adjectival compounds are also attested. Based on a data set of 200 compound words that were previously drawn from Bere Naha (a newsletter publication in Berom), we propose three categories of exocentric compounds in Berom: Nominal Compounds [NC] and Verbal Compounds [VC] and Adjectival compounds and present the structure of each category by showing the class of their constituents. We show that Berom, N-V compounds have a nominal classification that are interpreted as agentive or locative nouns. We conclude that the meaning of Berom N-V compounds may not be solely determined by the sheer interpretation of the constituents of the compound.
Nominal compounds, which are very productive in Berom, are formed by combining the noun and verb constituents. The NV compounds are interpreted as the agent, location, or instrument based on the meaning of the existing nominal constituent. This study analyses the semantics of two types of Berom agentive compounds: mwat tabak ‘preacher, [literally, person shoot]’ and mwat ha ‘speaker, [literally, person talk]’. First, both words are realized from the NV structure and the agentive meaning of the compounds is derived from the interpretation of an unspecified N [mwat] that performs the action which is apparently expressed by the V constituent in mwat ha and an action that is not expressed by the V constituent in mwat tabak. Secondly, the two compounds lack the deverbal suffix such as the English -er that is usually attached to agentive nouns and as such they are both treated as compounds with different semantic realizations. The analyses show that the two constructions vary significantly not only in terms of semantics, but also in their specific role and interpretation of the action expressed by the verbal constituent. We argued that the agent nouns in the compounds employ diverse prosodic features such as tone and pitch, in the activity that the compound revealed. Consequently, we conclude that the meaning of agentive compounds in Berom may not necessarily be determined by the structural and semantic property of the compound but by the interaction between the constituents and the relevant context of usage.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.