Focal aspects in the Lelemi verb system

  • In our presentation we will outline the verb system of Lelemi and concentrate on certain “focal” aspects which are of primary interest to us. Lelemi has two TAMP paradigms: one constituting the so-called “simple tenses”, the other the so-called “relative tenses” (Allan 1973), although not every “simple tense” has a counterpart in the “relative tenses”. The simple paradigm is formed by subject prefixes (prefixed pronouns for 1st or 2nd person and noun class pronouns for 3rd persons) and the verb form whereas the relative paradigm is build up by the obligatory use of an external subject noun, an invariable verb prefix, and the verb form. While the simple paradigm is used in quite a lot of syntactic environments the relative paradigm only shows up in relative clauses with the subject being the head as well as in subject and sentence focus constructions including questions concerning the subject. We will show some interesting interactions between the grammatical expression of focus and the verb system and sketch the grammaticalisation path of the morpheme nà.

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Metadaten
Author:Anne SchwarzORCiDGND, Ines FiedlerGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-1134296
Parent Title (German):International Workshop on "The Description and Documentation of Ghana-Togo-Mountain Languages". - Ho, Ghana: 24. - 28.7.2006
Document Type:Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2009/10/13
Year of first Publication:2006
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2009/10/13
GND Keyword:Informationsstruktur
Source:Vortrag International Workshop on "The Description and Documentation of Ghana-Togo-Mountain Languages". - Ho, Ghana: 24. - 28.7.2006
HeBIS-PPN:219440859
Dewey Decimal Classification:4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache
Sammlungen:Linguistik
Linguistik-Klassifikation:Linguistik-Klassifikation: Grammatikforschung / Grammar research
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht