Current typologies of event structures usually involve a distinction between verbframed, satellite-framed and equipollent systems (e.g. Bohnemeyer and Pederson 2010). This paper investigates directional marking on verbs in three unrelated language families, Afroasiatic, Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan, and shows that an additional sub-type occurs for so-called verb-framed languages. This sub-type, which is widespread in African languages, involves the combination of a verb root with a derivational affix expressing two causally unrelated sub-events. I refer to this symbolic unification and conceptual conflation or expression of macro-events in one grammatical and phonological word as "alloying ". Similarly, I will refer to a macroevent expressed by one word--i. e. the combination of two events, a basic element (here the verb with its core meaning) and an alloying element (expressed by way of a grammatical morpheme, here the Ventive marker)--as an alloy. The paper also explores the cognitive basis for this economy principle in terms of language production and processing.