DERIVED

VERBS


Derived
Verbs

  

What are derived verbs?

By saying a verb is "derived", we mean that its base form has undergone some kind of change which shows the addition of special meaning to the base form. Hausa has four principal types of verb derivation. They are

  1. -o verbs, which, roughly speaking, indicate "action toward the speaker" (so-called Grade 6 in the Verbal Grade System)
     
  2. -u verbs, which, roughly speaking, indicate that the subject of the verb is affected by the action which the verb indicates (so-called Grade 7 in the Verbal Grade System)
     
  3. Causative verbs, which, roughly speaking, indicate that someone or something is made to undergo the action which the verb indicates (so-called Grade 5 in the Verbal Grade System)
     
  4. Pluractional verbs, formed by doubling part of the verb, which, roughly speaking, indicate multiple action instances of an action.

Technical note on the "base" verb forms in derived meanings


-o VERBS

"Action toward the speaker"

Almost any verb in Hausa can take an -o form (also known as "ventive" and called "Grade 6" in the Hausa Grade System). The meaning of the -o form is sometimes characterized as "action toward the speaker". This meaning works for most verbs that involve some sort of directional motion, such as shiga 'enter, go in' and its -o counterpart shigo 'enter, come in', but this meaning doesn't work very well for verbs that involve no motion. A more comprehensive definition might be

"An action which takes place or has its beginning at a distance from the speaker but which has its primary effect at the location of the speaker (or a location which the speaker is taking as a point of reference)."

Here are a few verbs contrasting the meaning in the base form and the -o form:

Base verb Base meaning -o Verb -o Verb meaning
shiga 'go in, enter' shigo 'come in'
saya 'buy' sayo 'buy and bring (the thing(s) bought)'
tambaya 'ask' tambayo 'ask and come back with the answer'
bari 'leave' (something and go) baro 'leave' (something behind and come)

One forms an -o form from a base verb as follows:

  1. Replace the final vowel of the base with long -o. (If the verb is monosyllabic, retain the final vowel and insert -w- before the -o.)
     
  2. Give the resultant verb all High tones.

 -o verbs are invariable, regardless of what type of object (or lack of object) follows:


-u VERBS

Intransitive or "passive"

Most transitive verbs and some intransitive verbs can potentially take a -u form (called "Grade 7" in the Hausa Grade System). All -u derived verbs are intransitive.

The -u form is sometimes characterized as a "passive" because of the possiblity of translating some -u forms with an English passive, e.g. compare sun soya nama 'they fried the meat' with the -u counterpart nama ya soyu 'the meat is fried'. Here, the object, nama 'meat', has become the subject of the -u derived form, parallel to the English active vs. passive translations.

However, if one has in mind the English passive as a characterization of the meaning of the Hausa -u form, "passive" is not a good characterization. English passive always implies the existence of an agent of the action, and the agent can be expressed by a "by" phrase, e.g. 'the meat was fried by the chef'. A Hausa -u verb does not imply the existence of an agent (or better, one might say that the existence of an agent is not important when one uses a -u verb), and indeed it is not possible to express the agent of the action of a -u verb using something like an English "by" phrase. English passive is often used with no expressed agent, either because the specific agent is not known ("my car was stolen"--but I don't know who did the stealing) or because the speaker wants to avoid mentioning the agent ("mistakes were made"). To convey this notion of "agentless passive", Hausa uses a sentence with an impersonal subject, NOT the -u form.

A characterization of the -u form would be something like the following:

"The subject of a -u verb has undergone or has the potential for undergoing the action expressed by the verb. To the base meaning of the verb, the -u verb often adds a sense thoroughness or taking the action to its limit."

Here are a few verbs contrasting the meaning in the base form and the -u form:

Base verb Base meaning -u Verb -u Verb meaning
soya 'fry' soyu 'be (thoroughly) fried'
saya 'buy' sayu 'be well-sold, be attractive to buyers'
bincike 'investigate' binciku 'be (thoroughly) investigated'
bi 'follow' biyu 'be followable (a road); be well-traveled'

There are a few commonly used -u verbs which have meanings that may not be readily predicted from the meaning of the base verbs, though they all share the property of being intransitive, with the subject being the undergoer of the action:

Base verb Base meaning -u Verb -u Verb meaning
buga 'beat' bugu 'be drunk'
fara 'begin' faru 'happen'
gama 'finish; join' gamu (da) 'meet up (with)'
raba 'divide' rabu (da) 'be divorced (from)'
samu 'get' samu 'be obtainable'
tambaya 'ask' tambayu 'be invulnerable (by taking special potions)'
tara 'collect, gather' taru 'assemble, come together'
yi 'do' yiwu 'be possible'

One forms an -o form from a base verb as follows:

  1. Replace the final vowel of the base with short -u. (If the verb is monosyllabic, retain the final vowel and insert -w- before the -u.)
     
  2. Place High tone on the last syllable with all preceding syllables Low.

Since all -u verbs are intransitive, they cannot take any kind of object and hence have the same form in all contexts.


CAUSATIVE
VERBS

In principle, most Hausa verbs could have a Causative counterpart (called "Grade 5" in the Hausa Grade System). In practice, only a limited number of verbs have commonly used causative counterparts. There are also a few verbs which are causative in form but which do not have a commonly used "base" form.

As the term "Causative" implies, the Causative form indicates that a person or object is "caused" to undergo the action of the base verb. One should not take the notion "cause" too literally, however. "Cause" in the literal sense would mean that the agent wielded some outside force that caused the event to happen (Hausa does have a separate verb sa 'cause' to express this notion). A few example verbs will clarify the element of meaning that the Causative derivation adds.

Base verb Base meaning Causative Causative meaning
tsaya 'stop' tsayar

'stop, bring to a halt'
(i.e. "cause to stop")

 

fita 'go out' fitar

'take out, remove'
(i.e. "cause to go out")

 

saya 'buy' sayar

'sell'
(i.e. "cause to buy")

 

koya 'learn' koyar 'teach (a subject)'
(i.e. "cause [someone] to learn (a subject)")


Many causative verbs can take any of three forms: (1) a "long" form, (2) a "short" form, and (3) a "pre-pronoun" form. All causative verbs can take a "long" form. A few seem never to appear in the latter two froms, e.g. koyar 'teach' in the table above.

See a list of some commonly used Causative verbs in all their forms.

(1) Long form (can be used in any context)

  1. Replace the final vowel of the base with -ar. (If the verb is monosyllabic, retain the final vowel and insert -y- before the -ar.)
     
  2. Give the resultant verb all high tones.
     
  3. If there is a direct object, insert the preposition da before the object. Note that if the object is pronoun, it is the Independent Pronoun rather than the Direct Object Pronoun.

Example from base verb tsaya 'stop, come to a stop'

No object Na tsayar. 'I stopped (it).'
Pronoun direct object Na tsayar da ita. 'I stopped her.'
Noun direct object Na tsayar da akwiya. 'I stopped the goat.'
Indirect object Na tsayar masa (da) akwiya. 'I stopped the goat for him.'

(2) Short form (can be used only when a direct object follows)

  1. Drop the final vowel of the verb. (If the verb is monosyllabic, retain the final vowel and lengthen it if the base verb vowel is short.)
     
  2. Give the verb high tone.
     
  3. Insert the preposition da before the object. Note that if the object is pronoun, it is the Independent Pronoun rather than the Direct Object Pronoun.

Example from base verb tsaya 'stop, come to a stop'

Pronoun direct object Na tsai da ita. 'I stopped her.'
Noun direct object Na tsai da akwiya. 'I stopped the goat.'

Technical note: A dialect difference in the treatment of da.

(3) Pre-pronoun form (can be used only with a pronoun direct object)

  1. Replace the final vowel of the base with -she. (If the verb is monosyllabic, retain the final vowel and lengthen it when adding -she.)
     
  2. Give the verb, including the -she ending, high tone.
     
  3. Use the Direct Object Pronouns.

Example from base verb tsaya 'stop, come to a stop'

Pronoun direct object Na tsaishe ta. 'I stopped her.'