Berom Exocentric Compounds: A Structural and Semantic Analysis of the N-V Compounds

Abstract

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.

A study of number marking in Izere nouns

“…The study relied on 200 exocentric compounds that were previously drawn from Bere Neha (a quarterly newsletter publication that is written in the Berom language) and analyzed in Marcus (2021). Several volunteers contribute to the writing of articles in Bere Neha which essentially cover opinions on local and national issues that are socio-political, cultural, religious, educational, etc.…”

“…Aboh & Essegbey, 2010) and Esahie (cf. Broohm & Melloni, 2021) suggests that the verb intervenes between the agent and patient in both transitive and intransitive clauses as shown in the subsequent illustrations from Marcus (2021).…”

“…Berom NV compounds, such as those demonstrated in (4), are known to be very productive in the language (Marcus, 2021;Marcus & Yamaguchi, forthcoming) In spite of their productivity, Berom NV compounds have not attracted the attention of researchers (Blench, 2000 2 ) and the study on the semantics of Berom NV compounds has not been sufficiently carried out (Marcus, 2021). This study focuses on two compounds: mwat tabak and mwat ha whose NV lexical categories reveal that they are both nominal compounds with agentive meanings that are interpreted differently.…”

“…the illustration in 3b above abound in Berom and their interpretation is not expressively deduced from the meaning of their constituent parts. The present study considers nominal compounds as productive mechanisms that can be exploited in developing the morphology and semantics of words in the language.Berom Noun-Verb (henceforth, NV) compounds are lexically categorized as nominal compounds consisting of a left-hand constituent noun which typically heads the compound and a right-hand complement verb(Marcus, 2021; Marcus & Yamaguchi, forthcoming, (IJHSSM)). The compounds illustrated in 4a-c are typical examples of exocentric N-V compounds in Berom and their respective agentive, locative, and instrumental meanings in 4a, b, and c do not emanate from the compositional meaning of the constituents in each of the NV compound structure.…”

“…Marcus, 2021;Marcus & Yamaguchi, 2019; Marcus & Yamaguchi, forthcoming) and are summarily presented in Table1.Table 1: Pattern of Berom Nominal Compounding(Marcus, 2021) …”