Aspect and modality in Ewe: A survey

Ameka, Felix K.

doi:10.1075/slcs.100.07ame

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…It is important we note that the verbs used in this form are usually yi and gbɔ and what follows them is always an adverb. This is confirmed by Ameka (2008) where he stated that there is cross-linguistically an affinity between the progressive and the habitual.…”

Section: Forms Of the Eʋe Habitual Marker -Namentioning

confidence: 78%

“…The variations can be seen in words like tegli, tekli, tekle "patridge", zakple, sakple "chamber pot", aɖuba, aɖiba, "pawpaw", asike, asikɛ, "tail", and akpatogui, akpatogoe "salted tilapia", etc. Structurally, the dialect of the Northern Volta is slightly different from that of the southern part (Ansre, 2000;Ameka, 2008;Aziaku, 2016). This difference is mostly seen in the use of the habitual marker -na, the definite articles la/-a and the progressive markers, "le…m", etc.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Phonologically Conditioned Habitual Marker -<i>na</i> in T&#596;&eta;u Dialect of E&upsilon;e

Aziaku¹,

Awoonor-Aziaku²

2021

OJML

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This paper is a response to the claim made by some Eυe scholars during a seminar presentation on "The Orthographic Challenges of -na to Learners of Eυe" that the habitual marker, -na of the Standard Eυe, is basically a prolongation of the last vowel of a lexical verb in Tɔŋu dialect. The paper examines the habitual marker, -na, in Tɔŋu dialect of Eυe. The analysis is performed on data obtained in a face-to-face interview with Tɔŋu speakers randomly selected: a collection of speeches from the speakers in various social settings such as markets, churches, homes and funerals in some selected communities of Tɔŋu. The study has shown that Tɔŋu has four forms: -a, -e, -ε and -ɔ of the habitual marker -na, depending on the kind of sound that ends the lexical verb to which it is affixed. This study revealed four phenomena that bring about these variations; vowel lengthening, labialisation, palatalization and coalition. It is, therefore, evident that Tɔŋu does not mark customary action with vowel lengthening only; the assertion above is a misrepresentation of -na in the Tɔŋu dialect. The impression that vowel harmony does not exist in Eυe must, therefore, be looked at again.

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Section: Forms Of the Eʋe Habitual Marker -Namentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Phonologically Conditioned Habitual Marker -<i>na</i> in T&#596;&eta;u Dialect of E&upsilon;e

Aziaku¹,

Awoonor-Aziaku²

2021

OJML

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“…In the first, it is argued by Osam (1993), Aboh (2007), and Ameka (2008), and shared by Appah (p.c. ), that, in synchronic Akan, the NCS as syntactically active system is lost.…”

Section: Ncs In Akanmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The above observations corroborate the claim that noun classes in Esahie per se are morph-syntactically vestigial. As Ameka (2008) rightly notes, there is an interesting split as far as plural formation and nominal classes are concerned in Kwa. In his explication, he shows that both Akan and its Tano relatives each have several pairs of singular and plural prefixes, and that while there is usually number concord, there is generally however, no class concord.…”

Section: Esahiementioning

confidence: 99%

Broohm: Noun Classification in Esahie

Broohm

2017

Ghana J. Ling.

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This paper offers a description of the nominal class system in Esahie (Central-Tano, Kwa, Niger-Congo). It contends that, though the noun class system of Esahie per se is morpho-syntactically vestigial, hence differing from other African languages (e.g. most Bantu languages) where noun classes can be assimilated with GENDER, in Esahie, NUMBER, as a syntactic feature, triggers agreement, rendering the class system in Esahie a number-based one. On morpho-syntactic grounds, six distinctive noun form classes are established for Esahie. This paper also provides an account of how morpho-phonological information influences the noun form classes of Esahie. As argued for Akan (cf. Bodomo and Marfo 2006), morpho-phonological information is equally relevant for understanding the choice of one number affix over the other in Esahie. The present work presents yet another piece of evidence in support of the view (cf. Ameka and Dakubu 2008, Aboh and Essegbey 2010, and Güldemann and Fiedler 2017) that unlike the Ghana-Togo-Mountain languages, which have been attested to have a functional class system, the Central-Tano languages, to which Esahie pertains, have a relatively fairly decayed and less-conservative inflectional system. Comparing Esahie to Akan, however, data discussed in this paper seems to suggest, prima facie, that Esahie has suffered a relatively stronger deal of morpho-syntactic decay in the inflectional system of the nominal domain. Data used in this work is collected largely through elicitation from native speakers.

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“…1 Despite the abundance of names for this concept and the fact that it is mentioned in a good number of works on specific languages or language families, e.g. Ewe (Ameka 2008), Korean (Lee 1993), Japanese (Henderson 2011(Henderson [1945), Mongsen Ao (Coupe 2007), Papuan (Foley 1986), Sayan Turkic (Anderson 2004), and Tariana (Aikhenvald 2003), almost no attention has yet been paid to it in broader typological studies of modality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Seeing’ is ‘trying’: The relation of visual perception to attemptive modality in the world's languages

Voinov¹

2013

Lang Cognition

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This paper examines the relationship between the concepts of ‘seeing’ and ‘attempting/trying’ in various languages. These concepts have so far been found to be co-lexified in languages spoken in Eurasia, Papua New Guinea, India and West Africa, with an added implicature of politeness present in some languages when this lexical item is used in directives. After establishing a cross-linguistic sample, the paper proposes a specific grammaticalization mechanism as responsible for producing this semantic relationship. The explanation centers on a process involving metaphorical transfer, the loss of semantic features, generalization, and a specific syntactic context conducive to this meaning shift. First, the Mind-as-Body metaphor is applied to the mind-related notion of ‘seeing an object’ to derive the body-related notion of ‘controlling an object’, as has previously been demonstrated to be the case in the history of certain Indo-European languages. Second, semantic bleaching causes the meaning component of physical sight to be lost from the overall meaning of the morpheme, and semantic generalization allows attempted actions to be mentally treated the same as physical objects that are manipulated. Finally, the context in which this meaning shift occurs is posited as constructions involving multiverbs, such as serial verbs or converbs.

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Aspect and modality in Ewe: A survey

Cited by 17 publications

References 30 publications

A Phonologically Conditioned Habitual Marker -<i>na</i> in T&#596;&eta;u Dialect of E&upsilon;e

A Phonologically Conditioned Habitual Marker -<i>na</i> in T&#596;&eta;u Dialect of E&upsilon;e

Broohm: Noun Classification in Esahie

‘Seeing’ is ‘trying’: The relation of visual perception to attemptive modality in the world's languages

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Aspect and modality in Ewe: A survey

Cited by 17 publications

References 30 publications

A Phonologically Conditioned Habitual Marker -&lt;i&gt;na&lt;/i&gt; in T&amp;#596;&amp;eta;u Dialect of E&amp;upsilon;e

A Phonologically Conditioned Habitual Marker -&lt;i&gt;na&lt;/i&gt; in T&amp;#596;&amp;eta;u Dialect of E&amp;upsilon;e

Broohm: Noun Classification in Esahie

‘Seeing’ is ‘trying’: The relation of visual perception to attemptive modality in the world's languages

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A Phonologically Conditioned Habitual Marker -<i>na</i> in Tɔηu Dialect of Eυe

A Phonologically Conditioned Habitual Marker -<i>na</i> in Tɔηu Dialect of Eυe