Cover not available

In:Predication in African Languages
Edited by James Essegbey and Enoch O. Aboh
[Studies in Language Companion Series 235] 2024
► pp. 128–151

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 5
Moving from verbs to prepositions in Gbe

 | University of Amsterdam
 | Leiden University
 | University of Florida
Published online: 18 July 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.235.05abo
Abstract
Gbe languages have two classes of adpositions, namely prepositions and postpositions that have been argued to have developed from verbs and nouns, respectively. Focusing on the former, we highlight the functions of the forms across Gbe using examples from Eastern Gbe (e.g., Gungbe) and Western Gbe (e.g., Ewegbe). We further show that verb-to-preposition shift is gradual: some of the forms (e.g., ablative) are not fully grammaticalised in all the languages. Likewise, the process is associated with a semantic change from “temporal predicate” in Serial Verb Constructions (SVC) to a more abstract atemporal predicate, which is also reflected in the loss of the power of the verbal element to take aspectual inflections or markers.
Article outline
  • 1.The Gbe languages
  • 2.Establishing verbhood
    • 2.1Morphology
    • 2.2Position
    • 2.3Reduplication
    • 2.4Verb focus in Gungbe and Ewegbe
  • 3.Distinguishing between the V1 position and following verb positions
    • 3.1Pied-piping
  • 4.Becoming a preposition
    • 4.1From verbs to ablative prepositions
      • 4.1.1Tsó
      • 4.1.2Sɔ́n
    • 4.2From verbs to allative position
      • 4.2.1Ɖé
      • 4.2.2Xlán
  • 5.On the verbal origin of Sɔn
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (38)
References
Aboh, Enoch O. 2004. The Morpho-syntax of Complement-Head Sequences. Clause Structure and Word Order Patterns in Kwa. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2005. The category P: The Kwa paradox. Linguistic Analysis 32: 615 – 646.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2009. Clause structure and verb series. Linguistic Inquiry 40: 1–33. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. The P-route. In Mapping Spatial PPs. The Cartography of syntactic Structures Vol. 6, Guglielmo Cinque & Luigi Rizzi (eds), 225–260. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aboh, Enoch & Dyakonova, Marina. 2009. Predicate doubling and parallel chains. Lingua 119: 1035–1065. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ameka, Felix K. 1995. The linguistic construction of space in Ewe. Cognitive Linguistics 6: 139–181. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1999. The typology and semantics of complex nominal duplication in Ewe. Anthropological Linguistics 41(1): 1–32.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003. Prepositions and postpositions in Ewe: Empirical and theoretical considerations. In Typologies des Langues Afriques & Universaux de la Grammaire, Sauzet Patrick & Anne Zribi-Hertz (eds), XX–XX. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2006. Ewe serial verb constructions in their grammatical context. Aikhenvald, A. Y. & Dixon, R. M. W. (Eds.), Serial verb constructions: a cross-linguistic typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 124–143.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ansre, Gilbert. 1966. The verbid – a caveat to “serial verbs”. Journal of West African Languages 3(1): 29–32.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bisang, Walter. 1998. Grammaticalisation and language contact, constructions and positions. In The Limits of Grammaticalization, Anna Giacalone Ramat & Paul, Hopper J. (eds), 13 – 58. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Capo, Hounkpati. 1991. A Comparative Phonology of Gbe. Publications in African Languages and Linguistics 14. Berlin: Foris. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Collins, Chris. 1993. Topics in Ewe Syntax. PhD dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Duthie, Alan S. 1996. Introducing Ewe linguistic patterns: a textbook of phonology, grammar and semantics. Accra: Ghana Universities Press.
Essegbey, James. 1999. Inherent Complements Revisited: Towards an Understanding of Argument Structure in Ewe. MPI dissertation series 10. PhD dissertation, Leiden University.
. 2004. Auxiliaries in serialising languages: On COME and GO verbs in Sranan and Ewe. Lingua 114: 473–494. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd, Claudi, Ulrike & Hünnemeyer, Friederike. 1991. Grammaticalization: A Conceptual Framework. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. & Traugott, Elizabeth C. 1993. Grammaticalisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kandybowicz, Jason. 2007. On fusion and multiple copy spell-out. The case of verbal repetition. In The Copy Theory of Movement, Norbert Corver & Jairo Nunes (eds), 119–150. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kluge, Angela. 2000. The Gbe Language Varieties of West Africa: A Quantitative Analysis of Lexical and Grammatical Features. Master thesis, University of Wales.
. 2005. A synchronic lexical study of Gbe language varieties: The effects of different similarity judgment criteria. Linguistic Discovery 3: 22–53. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koopman, Hilda. 1984. The Syntax of Verbs: From Verb Movement Rules in the Kru Languages to Universal Grammar. Foris: Dordrecht.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. The Syntax of Specifier and Heads. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald. 1992. Prepositions as grammatical(ising) elements. Leuvense Bijdragen 81: 287–309.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lefebvre, Claire & Brousseau, Anne-Marie. 2002. A Grammar of Fongbe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lichtenberk, Frantisek. 1991. Semantic change and heterosemy in grammaticalization. Language 67: 475–509. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lord, Carol. 1989. Syntactic Reanalysis in the Historical Development of Serial Verb Constructions in Languages of West Africa. PhD dissertation, University of California.
. 1993. Historical Change in Serial Verb Constructions. [Typological Studies in Language 26]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ofulue, Christine. 2013. Bilingualism and language maintenance in small language communities in Nigeria: Case of Gungbe and Ò̟ko̟. Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Linguistics, 1–22. Département de Linguistique de l’Université de Genève, Genève.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Segurola, Basilio. 1963. Dictionnaire Fon-Français. 2 vols. Cotonou: Procure de l’archidocèse.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Segurola, Basilo & Rassinoux, Jean. 2000. Dictionnaire Fon-Français. Cotonou: Maison Regionale SMA.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stewart, John M. 1989. Kwa. In The Niger-Congo Languages, John Bendor-Samuel (ed), 217–246. Lanham: The university press of America.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994. Review article: The comparative phonology of Gbe and its significance for that of Kwa and Volta-Congo. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 15(2): 175–194. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Westermann, Diedrich. 1928. Ewefiala or Ewe-English Dictionary. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1930. A Study of the Ewe language. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williamson, Kay & Blench, Roger. 2000. Niger-Congo. In African Languages: An Introduction, Bernd Heine & Derek Nurse (eds), 11–42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Bobuafor, Mercy & Yvonne Agbetsoamedo
2024. Adposition classes in Tafi and Sɛlɛɛ. In Predication in African Languages [Studies in Language Companion Series, 235], ► pp. 99 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue