The non-restricted -nyé in Igbo verb morphology

Abstract

The -nye element in Igbo has received some attention in the studies of Igbo verb. It occurs in a verbal complex. That is, it occurs with another verb to derive a verb. Earlier analysis describes it as a suffix, particularly an extensional suffix, which denotes the prepositional notion of illativity. The status of this element is doubtful, giving rise to varied analyses. Recently, it is reanalyzed as a non-suffix. By reference to this analysis, the verbal complex it constitutes a part of is at best a compound. This work recognizes and accepts this analysis and goes ahead to demonstrate that this element is not selectionally restricted in the derivation of compound verbs. That is, it occurs with almost all verbs in Igbo to derive compound verbs described here as v+nyé verb compounds. These compounds are grouped into compositional and non-compositional. The v+nyé verb compositional compounds retain the give-meaning overtly and in syntactic constructions are associated with recipient-theme semantic roles and the trivalent argument structure. On the other hand, the v+nyé verb non-compositional compounds are associated with theme-location semantic roles in syntactic constructions. The location is expressed by a PP and is analyzed to have surfaced as a [-HUMAN] caused to receive something. In other words, the ‘receive’ notion associated with nyé is evident in all the compounds it is a constituent and this qualifies the element as the head-constituent of the compounds. Among all the emerging issues, this work calls for a cross-linguistic study for elements with a similar behaviour. Perhaps, such elements could have something to do with give-meaning or there could be other interesting dimensions