Verb Phrases

The serial verb construction, also known as (verb) serialization or verb stacking, is a syntactic phenomenon in which two or more verbs or verb phrases are strung together in a single clause.

Serial Verb Constructions

Below is an example of a serial verb construction in Igala.

aladi	kpa	adʒuwɛ	dʒɛ
aladi	kill	chicken	eats
Alali killed and ate the chicken (D:22).

Cognate Objects

A cognate object (or cognate accusative) is a verb's object that is etymologically related to the verb. More specifically, the verb is one that is ordinarily intransitive (lacking any object), and the cognate object is simply the verb's noun form.

Below is an example sentence with a cognate object in Igala.

u	l(e)	t(i)	ona	dʒidʒi	ɛrɛ
1SG	walk(V)	to	path	long	trek
He walked a long walk (D:207).

Alice Tremblay (2021) notes that cognate objects in Igala only occur with unergative verbs, and not with unaccusatives.

ū	r(a)	úlɛ́
1SG	run(V)	run(N)
'I ran' (Tremblay 2021).

Tremblay (2021) writes that an important characteristic of cognate objects in Igala is their ability to be modified, including in relative clauses.

ū t(a)ídő (u)jɔ̀ 1SGdance(V)dance(N)cheerful/joy‘I danced a cheerfuldance’

ū	t(a)	ídő	(u)jɔ̀
1SG	dance(V)	dance(N)	cheerful/joy
‘I danced a cheerful dance’ (Tremblay 2021).

Split Verb Constructions

The split verb is a verb that sentence-finally appears as one word, however can be split so part of the verb appears earlier in the sentence.

Below is an example sentence containing a split verb in Igala.

dorkas	kp	lɛ	ɔna	fɔ
Dorcas	break	door	DEF.DIST	break
Dorcas, break the door! (D:?).