Incorporation

Incorporation is a phenomenon by which a word, usually a verb, forms a kind of compound with, for instance, its direct object or adverbial modifier, while retaining its original syntactic function. Chukchee, a paleosiberian language spoken in North Eastern Siberia, provides a wealth of examples. The constructions in (i) and (ii) have the same meaning and use the same roots. However, in (ii) the root qora 'reindeer' has been incorporated into the verb:

(i)  t@	-pelark@n	qoran@		`I'm leaving the reindeer'
     I	-leave		reindeer
(ii) t@	-qora-pelark@n				ibid

Link

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

References

• Baker, M. 1988. Incorporation: A Theory of Grammatical Function Changing, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
• Spencer, A. 1991. Morphological Theory, Blackwell, Oxford.