IGBOSCHOLARS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF IGBO SCHOLARS FORUM, NIGERIA

Serial verbal constructions (SVCs) are those constructions that involve a sequence of two or more verbs without any overt marker of coordination. Although previous studies on SVCs have examined its morpho-syntactic structure, classification and derivation, there are pockets of debates regarding the status of some inflectional morphemes and the derivation of SVCs. This study was, therefore, designed to re-examine Igbo SVCs based on the Minimalist Program with a view to determining the status of the open vowel suffix (OVS) and the negative morpheme as well as its derivational procedure. Primary data were collected through observations, interviews and introspection while secondary data were gathered from existing literature. The data were subjected to interlinear glossing and syntactic analysis based on the split VP hypothesis of the Minimalist program. In Igbo SVCs, it was observed that the –rV past tense suffix in V1 reflects as OVS on V2 and consequently gives it a past tense interpretation. With regards to the derivation of Igbo SVCs, the study posits that each verb in the construction projects its own ?P-structure or VP-shell which is headed by the causative light verb. This enables each of the lexical verbs to assign theta-role to their DPs at the point of merge and case checked in spec-head relation.

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