Serial Verb Constructions in Dangme

Abstract

Verb serialization in Dangme is an area which has not been studied. This paper seeks to examine the syntactic and the semantic properties of serial verb constructions in Dangme, a language that belongs to the Kwa group of family of languages. The paper describes the nature of serial verb constructions in Dangme in the Role and Reference Grammar framework (RRG) proposed by Foley and Van Valin (1984) and their associates.  The properties of the expressions to be examined are in consonance with some of the characteristics proposed in the literature, i.e argument sharing, shared aspect, mood and negation, switch-function of serial verb constructions and multiple object SVCs. In addition, the paper examines different functional types of serial verb constructions such as causatives (instrumental serial verb constructions, benefactive serial verb constructions and cause and effect serial verb constructions), comparative SVC, directional SVC and question and focus SVC. Data for the study were drawn from primary sources.

Keywords: shared arguments, single event, preposed arguments, causatives, adverbials