Locative Constructions in Dangme

Abstract

This paper explores locative constructions in Dangme, a language that belongs to the Kwa family of languages. The paper discusses the components of the basic locative construction in Dangme. It also examines the syntax and semantics of verbs of position and verbs of change of location that function in the basic locative constructions in Dangme. Data were drawn from mainly primary sources from 14 native speakers of Dangme. I demonstrate that postposition and locative nouns mainly express location in Dangme. There are a set of nouns that also function as indicators of location and direction to places. It is to be noted that in locative constructions, the postposition class and the adjunct of location indicate the location of entities in Dangme as in other languages. The postposition class can take the form of a word or a phrase. The phrase is made up of an NP and locative morphemes: mi ‘inside’, se ‘back’, nɔ/hiɔwe ‘top’, kpɛti ‘middle’, he ‘side’ nya ‘edge of, tue ‘edge’ and sisi ‘under’. The data also revealed that in Dangme, a locative morpheme or phrase can co-occur with a positional verb in a construction to express the position of an entity at a location.

Keywords

• Dangme
• locative constructions
• postpositions
• positional verbs
• change of location verbs