Root compound nouns in Tshivenḓa

Abstract

There are nominal compounds in Tshivenḓa but unlike in other languages, there are no verbal compounds. Some nominal compounds are formed by combining two nouns (Noun + Noun) while other nominal compounds are formed by the noun followed by other word categories. Compound nouns formed by Noun + Noun can be divided further into two main types: compound nouns formed by compounding two nouns: and compound nouns formed by compounding two elements where one of the morphemes is a root. The latter category can be further classified into: compound nouns formed by root and noun, compound nouns formed by noun and root and compound nouns formed by root and root. The article investigates the structure of such root compound nouns. It shows that root compound nouns have a structure that is similar to noun compounds, however, each of the three types of root noun compounds exhibits a specific tendency as regards the behaviour of the class prefixes of the original nouns and/or that of the root compound noun.