The morpho-syntactic interaction and the derivation of nominal compounds in Yoruba

This work examines the internal structure of morphologically complex nouns in the Yorùb? language. These nouns are categorized into endocentric and exocentric compounds. Endocentric compounds are derived through the combination of a noun or a nominal prefix and other categories such as nouns, adjective, verbs and the verb phrase. Exocentric nominal compounds are formed through desententialization of various sentences in the language. The Pulleyblank-and-Akinlabi version of the weak lexicalist hypothesis (WLH), which allows recursion from syntax to morphology, is adopted for our analysis because the derivations of these nominal compounds involve the interaction of both syntactic and morphological components.