Imperfective constructions: Progressive and prospective in Ewe and Dangme

Abstract

This paper investigates an important feature common to Ewe and Dangme, but not shared with such Kwa languages as Akan or Ga, namely a periphrastic construction commonly having "progressive" and/or "prospective" meaning, in which the finite verb is selected from a very small set and takes a complement consisting of the event-naming verb that is preceded by its Object and followed either by a construction-specific suffix (Dangme) or one of two characteristic morphemes (Ewe). The finite verb, the post-event-verb morpheme, or both, generally have spatial features. The paper begins with a basic comparative description of the simple verb in the two languages, before proceeding to a detailed description of the progressive and prospective constructions in Ewe, followed by a comparably detailed description of the imperfective construction in Dangme. It is concluded that in both languages we have to do with an elaboration of the construction type V + nominalized NP Complement, which exists throughout the lower Volta Basin in many forms, if not always this one. Despite surface similarities the two languages exhibit important differences in both the semantic range of the construction and its syntax, such that it is likely that in this respect each language has developed independently of the other.

A Comparative Study of Bilingual Verb Phrases in Ewe-English and Gengbe-French Codeswitching

“…As in the Anlo variety of Ewe, which is what is in contact with English is the Ghana data, the object of an English transitive verb marked with progressive/prospective aspect is placed before it (instead of after it) in what has been called Aspect Phrase (cf. Ameka and Kropp Dakubu 2008). We saw this pattern in monotransitive clauses (e.g.…”

“…It is important to note right away that the category of tense-which in languages like English and French locates the time of an event expressed by a verb with reference to the moment of speaking or writing-is not expressed with Ewe and Gengbe verbs (Ameka, 2006;Ameka and Kropp Dakubu, 2008;Aboh and Essegbey, 2010).14 Consequently, tense is not expressed with English and French verbs in bilingual verb phrases in Ewe-English and Gengbe-French cs. It is aspect and modality categories that are expressed in Ewe and Gengbe.…”

“…Another difference relates to the fact that Ewe has a prospective marker (the post-verb ge) which Gengbe does not have. According to Ameka and Kropp Dakubu (2008), the form la that appears in Gengbe counterparts of Ewe clauses containing ge is the potential marker that Gengbe shares with Ewe. There is also ɖo (INTENT), a Gengbe modal marker which normally combines with Gengbe potential la when used (see a Gengbe-French cs use of it in 25 below); it is not used in Ewe and is not found in the Ewe-English cs data either.…”

“…clause structure [S Aux VO Other18], which is illustrated in (20a) where the transitive verb kplɔ̀ 'sweep' occurs: A different kind of structure is used in Ewe. In Anlo, the variety of Ewe that is involved in much of the Ewe-English cs recordings, the verb kplɔ̀ 'sweep' and its internal argument xɔ la me 'the room' would have been nominalised by permutation and the resulting nominalised vp selected by the progressive aspect marker -m, as in: Ameka and Kropp Dakubu (2008) refer to the unit which comprises the nominalised vp and the aspect marker, as "Aspect Phrase"; it is what we have marked off in (20b) above with a curly bracket. They depict the clause containing this Aspect Phrase as having an [S AspP Other] structure.…”

Review of Aboh & Essegbey (2010): Topics in Kwa syntax

“…Note that this in turn can be negated by a right-edge particle (or a vowel change in the verb, depending on the verb's tone class, see Ameka & Dakubu 2008b):…”