An examination of the syntax, headedness debates, and argument sharing mechanisms of Yorùbá serial verb constructions across generative, typological, and historical frameworks.
A serial verb construction (often abbreviated as SVC; in Yorùbá grammatical terminology, àkópọ̀ ọ̀rọ̀-ìṣe, from àkópọ̀, combination or collection, and ọ̀rọ̀-ìṣe, verb) is a syntactic structure wherein two or more verbs or verb phrases occur within a single clause under a single intonation contour, without any overt marker of coordination, subordination, or complementation [S1, S2, S3]. In Yorùbá, these serialized verbs share grammatical polarity, aspectual framing, and tense specifications, while expressing what native speakers conceptualize as components of a single integrated macro-event [S1, S4, S5]. Serial verb constructions perform work that European languages typically distribute across prepositions, adverbs, subordinate clauses, verbal affixes, and coordinate conjunctions [S2, S6, S7].
This file presents the syntactic properties of Yorùbá serial verb constructions, classifies their structural typologies, examines the longstanding theoretical debates surrounding their syntactic and semantic headedness, details the formal mechanisms proposed for subject and internal argument sharing, differentiates serial verbs from lexical splitting verbs, traces the diachronic grammaticalization pathways of serialized items into functional categories, and documents the history of their scholarly analysis from nineteenth-century missionary grammars to twenty-first-century generative and typological linguistics.
Cross-linguistic and language-specific investigations establish several defining diagnostic criteria for identifying a genuine serial verb construction in Yorùbá [S1, S2, S3, S8]:
The interaction of these properties is demonstrated in the classic consequential sequence:
(1) Òjó ra ẹran jẹ.
Ojo buy meat eat
"Ojo bought meat and ate it."
In (1), Òjó serves as the subject of both ra ("buy") and jẹ ("eat"), while ẹran ("meat") serves simultaneously as the direct object complement of ra and the consumed theme of jẹ [S1, S8]. The negation of this event requires the negative particle to precede ra, yielding Òjó kò ra ẹran jẹ ("Ojo did not buy meat and eat it"), which negates the complete sequential transaction rather than merely the ingestion [S1, S5].
Yorùbá serial verb constructions are not syntactically or semantically uniform. Generative and typological scholarship categorizes them into several distinct structural classes based on argument alignment, event structure, and the semantic relation linking V1 and V2 [S1, S6, S11, S12].
In consequential and sequential SVCs, both verbs are transitive and denote actions that occur in immediate temporal succession as sub-events of a single cultural or causal script [S1, S8, S12]. Both verbs share the matrix subject, and they share an internal theme object that appears directly between V1 and V2 [S8, S11]:
(2) Adé mú ìwé wá.
Ade take book come
"Ade brought the book."
(3) Ó bẹ́ iṣu tú.
3SG peel yam spread
"He peeled the yam and spread it out."
In (2), the verb mú ("take/hold") combines with the motion verb wá ("come") to express directional transportation ("bring") [S1, S13]. The nominal ìwé ("book") is the direct syntactic complement of V1 and the moved theme of V2 .
Resultative SVCs (RSVCs) express a direct cause-and-effect relationship: V1 designates an action executed by the subject, while V2 specifies the resulting state or change of location undergone by the direct object of V1 [S8, S12, S14]. The second verb in a resultative construction is typically an intransitive, unaccusative, or stative verb [S8, S12]:
(4) Fẹ́mi tì Akin ṣubú.
Femi push Akin fall
"Femi pushed Akin down."
(5) Òjò wẹ aṣọ mọ́.
Ojo wash cloth be-clean
"Ojo washed the cloth clean."
In (4), Fẹ́mi initiates the pushing action (tì), and Akin is both the patient of tì and the sole argument that undergoes falling (ṣubú) [S8, S14]. In (5), aṣọ ("cloth") receives the theme role of wẹ ("wash") and the stative attribute of mọ́ ("be clean") . The construction does not permit an interpretation where the subject Òjò became clean as a result of washing the cloth [S8, S12].
Instrumental constructions in Yorùbá rely heavily on the defective verb fi ("take/use") in the V1 position [S2, S7, S15]. The instrument noun phrase appears as the direct object of fi, while V2 expresses the primary lexical action performed with that instrument [S7, S15]:
(6) Mo fi àdá gé igi náà.
1SG use machete cut tree the
"I cut the tree with the machete."
In (6), fi licenses the instrumental argument àdá ("machete"), while gé ("cut") selects the patient argument igi náà ("the tree") [S7, S15]. Both verbs share the external agent argument Mo ("I") [S11, S15].
Benefactive, dative, and recipient relations are expressed using a serialized chain where V2 is fún ("give") [S1, S7, S16]:
(7) Olú ra aṣọ fún Bọ́lá.
Olu buy cloth give Bola
"Olu bought clothes for Bola."
Here, V1 ra ("buy") takes aṣọ ("cloth") as its theme complement, while V2 fún introduces the beneficiary or recipient Bọ́lá [S7, S16]. The subject Olú controls the action of buying and the subsequent transmission to Bola .
Directional serial constructions link an initial action or manner of motion verb with a deictic or locational path verb such as lọ ("go"), wá ("come"), wọ̀ ("enter"), or jáde ("exit") [S1, S6, S13]:
(8) Tòbí sá lọ sí oko.
Tobi run go to farm
"Tobi ran to the farm."
(9) Wọ́n gbé àpótí jáde.
3PL carry box exit
"They carried the box out."
In (8), sá ("run") specifies the manner of movement, while lọ ("go") establishes the trajectory toward the prepositional goal sí oko ("to farm") [S1, S13]. In (9), the object àpótí is transported across a spatial boundary .
To encode scalar comparison and exceeding relations, Yorùbá uses comparative serial constructions where V2 is ju ("exceed / surpass") or kọjá ("pass / transcend") [S2, S6, S17]:
(10) Akin tóbi ju Báyọ̀.
Akin be-big exceed Bayo
"Akin is bigger than Bayo."
(11) Ó rin kọjá ilé wa.
3SG walk pass house our
"He walked past our house."
In (10), the stative verb tóbi ("be big") predicates size of Akin, while ju introduces the standard of comparison Báyọ̀ .
One of the central theoretical problems in the analysis of serial verb constructions across Niger-Congo linguistics is determining the headedness of the multi-verb chain [S3, S8, S11, S18]. Syntacticians have debated whether Yorùbá SVCs are left-headed (V1 as head), right-headed (V2 as head), co-headed (both verbs projecting jointly), or asymmetric adjunction structures [S8, S11, S18, S19].
Approaches to Headedness in Yorùbá SVCs:
1. Left-Headed (V1 Head)
- Proposed by: Vicki Carstens (1988, 2002), S. Adenike Lawal (1993), Joseph Lovestrand (2020)
- Core claim: V1 is the matrix functional head; VP2 is a complement or right-adjoined phrase.
- Key evidence: TAM markers, negation clitics, clefting, and auxiliary particles attach exclusively to V1.
2. Right-Headed / Semantic Head (V2 Focus)
- Proposed by: Enoch Oladé Aboh (2009), Carol Lord (1973 diachronic model)
- Core claim: In instrumental and dative serials, V1 is a semantically bleached light verb; V2 carries the primary lexical predicate.
- Key evidence: In "Mo fi àdá gé igi", the core event is "cutting" (V2), not "taking" (V1).
3. Double-Headed / Co-Headed (V1 + V2 Co-projection)
- Proposed by: Mark Baker (1989), Mark Baker and Osamuyimen T. Stewart (1999, 2002)
- Core claim: Both verbs project to a single compound VP node that jointly assigns theta roles to the shared object.
- Key evidence: Symmetric argument licensing and mutual event constraints in resultative and consequential serials.
Substantial empirical evidence indicates that V1 functions as the structural and syntactic head of the extended clausal projection in Yorùbá [S18, S19, S20]:
(12a) Rí-rà ni Òjó ra ẹran jẹ.
NOM-buy FOC Ojo buy meat eat
"It is buying that Ojo bought meat and ate it."
(12b) *Jí-jẹ ni Òjó ra ẹran jẹ.
NOM-eat FOC Ojo buy meat eat
(Ungrammatical under standard monoclausal serialization)
In (12a), nominalizing V1 ra into rírà is completely grammatical, whereas nominalizing V2 jẹ into jíjẹ in (12b) is barred . This syntactic asymmetry demonstrates that V1 acts as the primary verbal governor of the clause, while VP2 is an island or subordinate domain for extraction [S18, S19].
While V1 dominates syntactically, semantic analysis reveals that in certain classes of SVCs, such as instrumental (fi) and benefactive (fún) constructions, V2 carries the core lexical assertion of the sentence [S6, S7, S15]. In Mo fi àdá gé igi ("I cut the tree with a machete"), the real-world action asserted is cutting (gé), while fi contributes an auxiliary instrumental relation [S7, S15].
This tension between syntactic dominance (left-headed) and semantic prominence (right-headed) led linguists like Ayo Bamgbose and Oladele Awobuluyi to differentiate between modifying serial constructions (where one verb semantically qualifies the other) and linking serial constructions (where both verbs denote coordinate sub-actions) [S1, S16].
The defining formal puzzle of serial verb constructions in syntactic theory is how multiple verbs license their arguments without violating Chomsky's Theta Criterion, which stipulates that each argument must receive exactly one thematic role, and each thematic role must be assigned to exactly one argument [S8, S11, S22].
VP
/ \
/ \
V' VP2
/ \ / \
/ \ V2 NP2
V1 NP1
Figure 1: Adjunction structure of Yorùbá SVC where VP2 adjoins to the projection of V1, with an empty category or operator in VP2 linked to NP1.
In his seminal 1989 paper, Mark Baker proposed that serializing languages possess a distinctive phrase structure rule permitting a single VP node to be double-headed . Under Baker's analysis:
Baker's model argued that object sharing is an absolute diagnostic requirement of genuine serial verb constructions, predicting that serializing languages categorically disallow sequences where V1 and V2 take unrelated internal arguments without sharing .
Baker's co-headed ternary branching analysis faced significant theoretical and empirical challenges [S11, S20]. Chris Collins and Vicki Carstens demonstrated that Yorùbá freely permits serial constructions where V1 and V2 take distinct, unshared direct objects, directly refuting the claim that object sharing is structurally obligatory across all SVCs [S11, S20]:
(13) Olú fa okùn fa ọmọ jáde.
Olu pull rope pull child exit
"Olu pulled the rope and pulled the child out."
To account for standard object sharing while adhering to binary branching and standard X-bar principles, Collins (1997) proposed an analysis based on light verbs ($v\text{P}$) and empty categories :
(14) [IP Fẹ́mi [VP1 tì [NP Akin] [VP2 PRO ṣubú]]]
(15) [IP Òjó [VP1 ra [NP ẹran]i [VP2 jẹ proi]]]
Rose-Marie Déchaine (1993) refined this framework by categorizing Yorùbá SVCs into four distinct structural classes: dative, instrumental, resultative, and multi-event/sequential . Déchaine demonstrated that:
A major area of debate in Yorùbá linguistics is the relationship between serial verb constructions and splitting verbs (ọ̀rọ̀-ìṣe abẹ́yán) [S1, S16, S23]. Splitting verbs are discontinuous lexical items consisting of two morphemes that obligatorily separate when an overt direct object is introduced [S16, S23, S24].
Splitting Verb Paradigm:
Lexical Entry: bàjẹ́ ("to spoil / ruin / destroy")
Intransitive: Mọ́tò náà bàjẹ́. ("The car broke down.")
Transitive: Òjó ba mọ́tò náà jẹ́. ("Ojo ruined the car.")
Splitting Verb Paradigm:
Lexical Entry: gbàgbọ́ ("to believe")
Intransitive: Mo gbàgbọ́. ("I believe.")
Transitive: Mo gba Ọlọ́run gbọ́. ("I believe in God.")
Splitting Verb Paradigm:
Lexical Entry: túká ("to disperse")
Intransitive: Àwọn ènìyàn túká. ("The people dispersed.")
Transitive: Ọlọ́pàá tú àwọn ènìyàn ká. ("The police dispersed the people.")
Scholars disagree sharply on whether splitting verbs are merely a specialized subclass of serial verb constructions or an entirely separate morphological phenomenon [S1, S16, S23]:
The Splitting Verb Debate in Yorùbá Linguistics:
Ayo Bamgbose's Position:
- Splitting verbs are historically and syntactically reducible to serial verb constructions [S1, S24].
- In "Òjó ba mọ́tò náà jẹ́", the first morpheme "ba" functions as V1 ("to affect / hit") and "jẹ́" functions as V2 ("to spoil / rot") [S1].
- The insertion of the direct object between the two verbal morphemes follows the identical syntactic rule governing object placement in resultative SVCs [S1, S24].
Oladele Awobuluyi's Position:
- Splitting verbs constitute an independent, indivisible lexical class and must not be conflated with SVCs [S16, S23].
- In modern Yorùbá, the individual morphemes of most splitting verbs (such as "ká" in "túká" or "gbọ́" in "gbàgbọ́") cannot occur as independent predicative verbs with the assigned meaning [S16, S23].
- Splitting verbs carry non-compositional, idiomatic meanings that are listed as unitary items in the mental lexicon, unlike productive, compositional serial verb constructions [S16, S23].
Recent minimalist research demonstrates that splitting verbs occupy a structural midpoint: historically derived from resultative serial verb constructions through grammaticalization and lexical reanalysis, they have undergone lexicalization to become single lexical roots that project complex VP shells in syntax [S23, S24].
Because Yorùbá has an impoverished inventory of primary prepositions (possessing only the general locative preposition ní and directional sí), serial verb constructions serve as the primary historical source for new functional categories [S2, S7, S25]. Carol Lord (1973, 1993) documented the multi-stage historical process through which full lexical verbs in Yorùbá serialize, lose lexical content, undergo phonological attrition, and reanalyze as prepositions, conjunctions, or aspectual auxiliaries [S7, S25].
Historical Reanalysis Pathways in Yorùbá:
1. Lexical Verb "fi" ("take / hold")
-> Serial Verb V1 (Instrumental / Manner)
-> Case-assigning Preposition / Functional Head ("with / by means of") [S7, S15, S25]
2. Lexical Verb "fún" ("give")
-> Serial Verb V2 (Dative / Benefactive)
-> Preposition ("to / for") [S7, S16, S25]
3. Lexical Verb "ti" ("originate / push from")
-> Serial Verb V1 (Source / Path)
-> Ablative Preposition ("from") [S2, S7, S25]
4. Lexical Verb "kiri" ("wander / roam")
-> Serial Verb V2 (Iterative / Dispersive)
-> Adverbial Particle ("around / everywhere") [S2, S16]
5. Lexical Verb "pé" ("say / declare")
-> Serial Verb V2 (Quotative)
-> Finite Complementizer ("that") [S7, S25]
In archaic and modern standard Yorùbá, fún functions both as an independent transitive verb meaning "give" (as in Mo fún un ní owó, "I gave him money") and as a serialized item introducing beneficiaries [S1, S7, S16]. In serialized contexts (Mo ra aṣọ fún un, "I bought cloth for him"), fún has lost its requirement for independent nominal object transfer and behaves functionally as a dative/benefactive preposition [S7, S16]. Awobuluyi argued for reclassifying such occurrences of fún as true prepositions, whereas Bamgbose maintained their dual verbal-prepositional status within serial syntax [S1, S16].
The morpheme fi has advanced even further along the grammaticalization continuum [S7, S15, S25]. Unlike fún, fi can no longer appear as the sole lexical verb in a simple declarative matrix clause in standard Yorùbá (*Mo fi àdá is ungrammatical without a following VP) [S7, S15]. It functions exclusively in serialized structures, relative clauses, and wh-extraction contexts, marking instrumental, manner, and causal arguments [S15, S18, S25].
Serial verb constructions form the syntactical backbone of Yorùbá oratory, philosophical maxims, Ifá divination poetry (ẹsẹ Ifá), and lineage praise poetry (oríkì) [S6, S26, S27].
(16) Àgbá tó ra ìrẹ́kẹ jẹ,
àgbá tó san owó rẹ̀,
àwọn méjèèjì ni inú wọn ń dùn.
Elder REL.who buy sugarcane eat,
elder REL.who pay money its,
they both FOC inside their PROG be-sweet.
Idiomatic English: "The elder who buys sugarcane and eats it, and the elder who receives its payment, both of them rejoice." (Translated by Ayo Bamgbose ).
This proverb uses the classic sequential SVC ra ìrẹ́kẹ jẹ ("buy sugarcane eat"). In Yorùbá thought, the sequence ra...jẹ emphasizes legitimate acquisition prior to consumption, contrasting an orderly economic transaction with theft or greed [S1, S26]. The two verbs ra and jẹ share the internal theme argument ìrẹ́kẹ ("sugarcane") without any intervening pronoun or coordinator [S1, S8].
(17) Ọ̀rọ̀mọ̀tọ́ gbe ẹṣin gun wọ àfin,
ó fi idà ṣẹ́ ogun ìlú.
Orompoto carry horse mount enter palace,
3SG use sword break war town.
Idiomatic English: "Orompoto mounted a horse and rode into the palace; she used the sword to crush the town's warfare." (Attributed to Ọ̀yọ́ palace oral chanters, translated by Olasope Oyelaran [S6, S28]).
This oríkì celebrates the sixteenth-century female Alaafin of Ọ̀yọ́, Ọba Ọ̀rọ̀mọ̀tọ́, who introduced specialized cavalry warfare to the empire [S28, S29]. The first line features a three-verb directional serial construction (gbe...gun...wọ, "carry horse mount enter palace") detailing the continuous bodily act of mounting and riding into the royal courtyard [S6, S28]. The second line uses the instrumental serial frame fi...ṣẹ́ ("use sword break war") to express military subjugation [S6, S7].
(18) Ẹ̀jẹ̀ fọ̀ ọ̀nà mọ́ fún ire.
Blood wash path clean give goodness.
Idiomatic English: "The sacrificial blood washes the pathway clean for blessing." (From the Odù Ògúndá Méjì corpus, translated by Wande Abimbola [S26, S27]).
This ritual liturgical line embeds a resultative SVC (fọ̀...mọ́, "wash clean") within a benefactive serialization (fún ire, "give goodness") [S12, S26]. The argument ọ̀nà ("path") receives the theme role from fọ̀ and the resulting stative attribute from mọ́, while fún directs the spiritual efficacy (àṣẹ) toward incoming fortune (ire) [S7, S26].
The historical analysis of Yorùbá serial verb constructions mirrors the evolution of West African linguistics from nineteenth-century missionary descriptions to twenty-first-century formal syntax [S2, S7, S30].
Chronology of Scholarship on Yorùbá Serial Verb Constructions:
1852: Samuel Ajayi Crowther publishes "A Grammar of the Yoruba Language", identifying multiverb
chains and noting that verbs like "fi", "fún", and "ti" express English prepositional relations [S30].
1952: Ida C. Ward analyzes consecutive verb series and tone sandhi in "An Introduction to the Yoruba Language" [S31].
1963: John M. Stewart coins the term "serial verbal construction" in Volta-Congo linguistic studies [S32].
1966: Ayo Bamgbose publishes "A Grammar of Yoruba", providing the first structural classification
of linking versus modifying serial verbs [S13].
1970: Herbert Stahlke publishes "Serial Verbs" in Studies in African Linguistics, debating whether SVCs
are underlyingly coordinate sentences reduced by transformation [S2].
1973: Oladele Awobuluyi publishes "The Modifying Serial Verbal Construction: A Critique", arguing against
deriving modifying SVCs from coordinate deep structures and distinguishing splitting verbs [S16].
1973: Carol Lord analyzes the grammaticalization of serialized verbs into prepositions and conjunctions [S25].
1974: Ayo Bamgbose publishes "On Serial Verbs and Verbal Status", defending the verbal category of serialized items [S1].
1988: Vicki Carstens presents structural constraints on Yorùbá SVCs at the MIT Niger-Congo Workshop [S19].
1989: Mark Baker publishes "Object Sharing and Projection in Serial Verb Constructions" in Linguistic Inquiry,
proposing the double-headed VP parameter [S8].
1993: Rose-Marie Déchaine publishes "Predicates Across Categories", defining resultative, dative, and sequential SVC types [S12].
1993: S. Adenike Lawal publishes "Serial Verbs in Yoruba as Adjunct Phrases", arguing for right-adjunction of VP2 [S18].
1997: Chris Collins publishes "Argument Sharing in Serial Verb Constructions", proposing empty category
and light verb structures over Baker's double-headed model [S11].
2002: Mark Baker and Osamuyimen T. Stewart publish their comparative investigation of Edo, Yorùbá, and Nupe SVCs [S14].
2009: Enoch Oladé Aboh analyzes serialization within cartographic and aspectual projection frameworks [S33].
In precolonial Yorùbáland, particularly under the administrative and military expansion of the Ọ̀yọ́ Empire during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the standard dialects developed highly conventionalized serial verb idioms to handle complex mercantile transactions, judicial proceedings, and military communications across linguistic frontiers [S28, S29]. Serial structures such as fi...ránṣẹ́ ("use...send message"), mú...bá ("take...meet"), and gbé...fún ("carry...give") standardized across urban markets and administrative networks [S6, S28].
During the nineteenth-century Yorùbá civil wars (the collapse of Ọ̀yọ́-Ilé, the Owu war, and the Kiriji/Èkìtìparapọ̀ war), mass displacement concentrated diverse dialect speakers into military camps and newly founded metropolises such as Ìbàdàn, Abẹ́òkúta, and Ìjàyè [S28, S29]. This intense dialect leveling accelerated the standardization of the Ọ̀yọ́-Ìbàdàn verbal syntax that informed early written Yorùbá [S28, S30].
The earliest systematic grammatical recording of Yorùbá serial verbs appeared in 1852, when the liberated Yorùbá scholar and Anglican bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther published A Grammar of the Yoruba Language . Crowther astutely recognized that Yorùbá verbs frequently combine in series to convey spatial, instrumental, and directional relations that require auxiliary verbs or prepositions in European languages . Crowther catalogued how verbs such as fi ("take/use"), ti ("originate from"), fún ("give"), and kọjá ("pass") operate in continuous verbal strings .
In the colonial era, European scholars such as Ida C. Ward (1952) conducted phonetic and grammatical investigations of Yorùbá verbal strings, analyzing tone changes and elision patterns across adjacent verb phrases . Following the independence of Nigeria in 1960, a foundational renaissance in indigenous West African linguistics emerged, centered at the University of Ibadan [S1, S13, S16].
In 1966, Ayo Bamgbose published A Grammar of Yoruba, establishing the first systematic modern syntactic model of Yorùbá serial verbs . A major academic debate developed between Bamgbose and Oladele Awobuluyi in the 1970s regarding the underlying status of serialized items [S1, S16]. Awobuluyi (1973, 1978) argued that items like fi and fún had fully transitioned into prepositions and should not be analyzed as verbs, while distinguishing splitting verbs as non-serial lexical units [S16, S23]. Bamgbose (1974, 1986) defended their verbal identity by demonstrating their syntactic behavior under negation, aspectual assignment, and focus operations [S1, S5].
Simultaneously, Carol Lord (1973, 1993) utilized Yorùbá and related Kwa and Benue-Congo data to establish modern grammaticalization theory, demonstrating how serial verb constructions serve as the historical pathway for the emergence of prepositions, complementizers, and auxiliaries across human languages [S7, S25].
From the late 1980s onward, Yorùbá serial verb constructions became a central testing ground for formal generative grammar and Universal Grammar parameters [S8, S11, S12]. Mark Baker's 1989 paper in Linguistic Inquiry placed Yorùbá data at the center of the debate on phrase structure and thematic role assignment, proposing that serializing languages project double-headed verb phrases with shared direct objects .
This sparked extensive counter-analyses: Vicki Carstens (1988, 2002), S. Adenike Lawal (1993), Rose-Marie Déchaine (1993), and Chris Collins (1997) proposed alternative models utilizing right-adjunction, light verb projections ($v\text{P}$), and empty categories (pro and PRO) [S11, S12, S18, S19, S20]. In the twenty-first century, linguists such as Enoch Oladé Aboh (2009) have integrated Yorùbá serialization into the cartographic framework of functional projections and aspectual checking .
In the Yorùbá diaspora of the Americas (Lucumí in Cuba, Candomblé Ketu in Brazil, and Sango Baptist traditions in Trinidad), serialized verbal sequences survive in sacred liturgical chants, ritual incantations, and divinatory invocations [S26, S34]. Although everyday spoken Spanish and Portuguese replaced vernacular Yorùbá in these communities, priests and chanters preserve fossilized serial verb frames such as fi...ṣe ("take...make/do") and fún...ire ("give...goodness") in ritual formulas, maintaining the archaic syntactic event packaging of West Africa across centuries of Atlantic separation .
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