Cover not available
Part of
Predication in African Languages
Edited by James Essegbey and Enoch O. Aboh
[Studies in Language Companion Series 235] 2024
► pp. 189–221

Chapter 7
The eventive functional sequence

Take and give serial verb constructions in Gungbe

| University of Amsterdam
| University of Amsterdam
| Open University, Heerlen

The Kwa languages (Niger-Congo) of West Africa are well-known for displaying Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs). The literature on SVCs contains various definitions of the phenomenon and recapitulates the general observation that these constructions express fine-grained information about a complex event and the participants involved therein. This paper seeks to shed light on the structure that underlies Take and Give SVCs in Gungbe, a Gbe (Kwa) language spoken in Benin and Nigeria. The examples discussed in the paper demonstrate how Gungbe is able to employ SVCs to encode specific details about the eventive structure. The proposed analysis further sheds light on elements which were classified in the Kwa literature as ‘verbid’ (cf. Ansre 1966) for their ambiguous status between adpositions and lexical verbs. It is argued that the ambiguity reduces to the nature of roots and their functions in Gungbe: the same root can occupy different grammatical functions.

Keywords: serial verb constructions, Kwa languages, eventive structure
Article outline
  • 1.Prelude
  • 2.The Kwa data
    • 2.1Take-series
    • 2.2Give-series
    • 2.3Intermezzo
  • 3.The necessity of a decomposed V
    • 3.1Demarcating a functional layer within V
    • 3.2Double object constructions and give-series
    • 3.3Decomposing V
      • 3.3.1Subevents in the functional sequence
    • 3.4Two verb classes
    • 3.5Initiation-process verbs
      • 3.5.1Initiation-process-result verbs
  • 4.Reframing the Kwa data
    • 4.1Spelling out Take-series
    • 4.2Spelling out Give-series
  • 5.Coda
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References
Aboh, Enoch O.
2004 The Morphosyntax of Complement-head Sequences: Clause Structure and Word Order Patterns in Kwa. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009 Clause structure and verb series. Linguistic Inquiry 40(1): 1–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 The P route. In Mapping Spatial PPs: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Guglielmo Cinque & Luigi Rizzi (eds), 225–260. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Agbedor, Paul
1994 Verb serialization in Ewe. Nordic Journal of African Studies 3(1): 115–135.Google Scholar
Aikhenvald, Aleksandra
2018 Serial Verbs. Oxford Studies in Typology and Linguistic Theory. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aikhenvald, Aleksandra & Dixon, Robert
2006 Serial Verb Constructions: A Cross-Linguistic Typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ameka, Felix
2006 Ewe serial verb constructions in their grammatical context. In Serial Verb Constructions: A Cross-linguistic Typology, Aleksandra Aikhenvald & Robert Dixon (eds), 124–143. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ansre, Gilbert
1966 The Practical Units of Ewe: A Study of their Structure, Classes and Systems. PhD dissertation, University of London.
Awóyalé, Yiwola
1988 Complex predicates and verb serialization. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 28: 1–35.Google Scholar
Baker, Mark C.
1989 Object sharing and projection in serial verb constructions. Linguistic Inquiry 20(4): 513–553.Google Scholar
Belletti, Adriana
2001 Inversion as focalization. In Inversion in Romance and the theory of universal grammar, Aafke Hulk & Jean Yves Pollock (eds), 60–90. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2002 Aspects of the low IP area. In The structure of IP and CP: The cartography of syntactic structures, Luigi Rizzi (ed), 16–51. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2009 Structures and Strategies. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam
1995 The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Christaller, Johann Gottlieb
1875 A Grammar of the Asante and Fante Language Called Twi Based on the Akuapem Dialect with Reference to the other (Akan and Fante) Dialects. Basel: Evangelic Missionary Society.Google Scholar
Collins, Chris
1997 Argument sharing in serial verb constructions. Linguistic Inquiry 28(3): 461–497.Google Scholar
2002 Multiple verb movement. Linguistic Inquiry 33(1): 1–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Couvée, Sascha & Pfau, Roland
2018 Structure and grammaticalization of serial verb constructions in sign language of the Netherlands – A corpus-based study. Frontiers in Psychology 9: 993. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Da Cruz, Maxime
1995 Aspectual verbs fó, vɔ ‘finish’ in Fɔngbè. The Linguistic Review 12(4): 361–380. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Essegbey, James
2010 Inherent complement verbs and the basic double object construction in Gbe. In Topics in Kwa Syntax, Enoch Aboh, O. & James Essegbey (eds), 177–193. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grimshaw, Jane
1991 Extended Projection. Manuscript, Brandeis University.Google Scholar
Hale, Ken & Keyser, Samuel Jay
2002 Prolegomenon to a Theory of Argument Structure. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin
2016 The serial verb construction: Comparative concept and cross-linguistic generalizations. Language and Linguistics 17(3): 291–319.Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd, Claudi, Ulrike & Hünnemeyer, Friederike
1991 Grammaticalisation: A Conceptual Framework. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Larson, Richard K.
1988 Light Predicate Raising. Center for Cognitive Science, MIT.Google Scholar
Lefebvre, Claire & Brousseau, Anne-Marie
2002 The Structure of Fongbe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Lewis, Marshall
1992 Verb Serialization in Gen and the Structure of Events. Indiana University.Google Scholar
Lord, Carol
1993 Historical Change in Serial Verb Constructions. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Neeleman, Ad
1994 Complex Predicates. Utrecht: LEd.Google Scholar
Osam, Emmanuel K.
2003 An introduction to the verbal and multi-verbal system of Akan. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Multi-Verb Constructions. Trondheim Summer School.Google Scholar
Ramchand, Gillian
2008 Verb Meaning and the Lexicon: A First Phase Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015 Event structure and verbal decomposition. In The Oxford handbook of event structure, 314–341. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shluinsky, Andrey
2017 An intragenetic typology of Kwa serial verb constructions. Linguistic Typology 21(2): 333–385. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stewart, John M.
1963 Some restrictions on objects in Twi. Journal of African Languages 22: 145–149.Google Scholar
Veenstra, Tonjes & Pieter Muysken
2017 Serial verb constructions. In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax (2nd Edition), 1–51. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Westermann, Diedrich
1930 A Study of the Ewe language. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar