Ditransitvity in Ga: A Lexical Functional Approach

Abstract

The paper examines diathesis alternation of Ga and English ditransitives verbs. It discusses simple ditransitive verbs found in English and compares them with Ga verbs that can be used in ditransitive constructions. Ditransitive verbs are known to subcategorise for two noun phrases as objects. The semantic arguments found in ditransitive constructions are most often the beneficiary followed by the theme. In English, ditransitivity is linked to dative shift. The NP that bears the semantic role of beneficiary /goal in a ditransitive construction is preceded by the theme. The verb, in this instance, then subcategorises for NP followed by PP syntactically. The PP bears the semantic role of the beneficiary and the NP bears the role of the theme. In ditransitive alternation, the semantic roles of the NP objects do not change. What differs in the construction is the syntactic form. Part of the paper will show some analysis using Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG). Data was gathered in consultation with native speakers for the analysis. It was evident that in Ga the constructions used to express dative shift of ditransitive were multiverb constructions and some of the verbs that were used to express ditransitivity were inherent complement verbs with subordinate clauses as their complements.

Keywords: ditransitive, diathesis alternation, semantic role, multiverb, ditransitivity