On The Structure Of Splitting Verbs In Yoruba

Yoruba has a set of bisyllabic verbs that obligatorily split around a direct object, as in Adé ba ilé nàá jé, meaning ‘Adé destroyed the house’, where both ba and jé make up the verb for destroy. These are called “splitting verbs” and have previously been analyzed as requiring that the first verbal element be merged directly on v. We introduce new data using an aspectual marker, tún, meaning again, which changes the typical word order such that both verbal elements appear string adjacent following the object, as in Adé tún ilé nàá bajé, meaning ‘Adé destroyed the house again’. This data supports a movement-based analysis of splitting verbs where both verbal elements are initially merged low in the structure, but the first verbal element is moved through Asp to v.