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Topic

The definition of head and the syntactic structure of verbs in the composition of Yorùbá serial verb constructions

School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures

Date & location

• Friday, December 12, 2025
• 10:00 A.M.
• Clearihue Building, Room B007

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Martha McGinnis, School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, ӣ��Ӱ�� (Supervisor)
• Dr. Catherine Léger, School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, UVic (Member)
• Dr. Bronwyn Bjorkman, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Queen’s University (Outside Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. Juvénal Ndayiragije, Department of Languages Studies, University of Toronto Scarborough

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Dennis Hore, Department of Chemistry, UVic

Abstract

I investigate serial verb constructions (SVCs) in Yorùbá within the Minimalist framework, addressing two fundamental questions: (i) which verb serves as the syntactic head in Yorùbá SVCs, and (ii) what hierarchical relation exists between verb phrases in these constructions. Focusing specifically on SVCs in which both verbs are transitive and select distinct internal arguments, this dissertation employs multiple empirical and syntactic diagnostics to establish the head of these complex predicate formations. The analysis shows that the first verb (V1) functions as the syntactic head of the Yorùbá SVCs. Three primary lines of evidence support this determination: (i) verb nominalization and clefting operations, which systematically target V1 while excluding the second verb (V2); (ii) adverbial modification patterns, wherein manner adverbs scope exclusively over V1, despite the ability to modify any verb in simple Yorùbá clauses; (iii) the distribution of functional categories including aspectual markers, negation, and modals, which appear only before V1.

Drawing on Chomsky's bare phrase structure theory (1995, 2000) and Stepanov's late adjunction hypothesis (2001, 2007), I establish the structural properties of the verbs in the SVC. I show that VP2 is an adjunct to the vP projected by VP1, rather than a complement. This conclusion is substantiated through the examination of extraction asymmetries, where wh-movement and focus movement proceed freely from VP1 and its complements (including DP, PP, infinitival CP, and finite CP complements), and extraction from VP2 is categorically blocked regardless of the syntactic category or structural position of the displaced element. This extraction behavior suggests that VP2 is in an adjoined position, making it inaccessible to syntactic movement. Additional evidence from adjunct placement possibilities and reflexive binding across V1 and V2 shows that the object DP of V1 cannot be an antecedent to the object DP of V2, corroborating this structural analysis.

This work contributes to the cross-linguistic understanding of SVCs by demonstrating that the mono-clausal properties characteristic of SVCs, including unified event structure, shared external arguments, and single tense, aspect, and mood specifications, can derive from adjunction configurations rather than being exclusively derived from the complement structure. This research advances both the descriptive understanding of Yorùbá syntax and theoretical discussions concerning headedness, complement/adjunct distinction, and complex predicate formation.