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Classroom:Consecutive Marker in SVC of Akan

This page was created as an in-classroom exercise in LING 2208 NTNU

By Miaomiao Zhang and John Gannah

From the TC database Akan Future Aspect, there were two occurrences of FUT-FUT aspect as in the examples below:

εbεyε animguaseε sε wobεsεe awareε.
“It will be humiliating to commit adultery.”
εbεyε
ε
3SGINANIMFUTbe
V
animguaseε
animguaseε
disgraceful
ADJ
COMPL
PRT
wobεsεe
wosεe
2SGFUTdestroy
V
awareε
awareε
marriage
N


From the two examples we can see that when there are two subjects in the sentence, the FUT-FUT occurs. In other cases, where the FUT-CONS occurs,there is only one subject of the event described by the string of verbs.

Esther bɛfa oslo akɔ Germany
“Esther will pass through Oslo to go to Germany”
Esther
esther
SBJ
Np
bɛfa
fa
FUTpass
V
Oslo
Oslo
OBJ2
Np
akɔ
a
CONSgo
V
Germany
germany
OBJ
Np
Sε yεpɔn adwuma a, yεbεnantew akɔ fie.
“When we close from work we will walk home.”
COND
PRT
yεpɔn
pɔn
1PSBJclose
V
adwuma
adwuma
work
N
a
a
COND
PRT
yεbεnantew
nantew
1PSBJFUTwalk
V
akɔ
a
CONSgo
V2
fie
fie
home
N
Mansa bεpɔn ne ho afi adepam mu afe yi.
“Mansah will finish and come out of dressmaking this year.”
Mansa
mansa
mansa
Np
bεpɔn
pɔn
FUTclose
V
ne
ne
3SG
PN
ho
ho
REFL
PN
afi
afi
CONScome.out
V
adepam
adepam
dressmaking
N
mu
mu
inside
Nrel
afe
afe
year
N
yi
yi
PROX
DEM


Kofi bεtɔ dware aku no anoa awe.
“Kofi will buy a sheep, kill it,boil it and eat it.”
Kofi
kofi
K.SBJ
N
bεtɔ
FUTbuy
V
dware
dware
sheepOBJ
N
aku
aku
CONSkill
V
no
no
3SGOBJ
PN
anoa
anoa
CONSboil
V
awe
awe
CONSchew
V
yaa bɛ tɔ brodeɛ anoa adi ada
“Yaa will buy plantain, cook it, eat it, and sleep.”
yáá
yaa
Yaa
Np
bɛ´tɔ´
bɛ́
FUTbuy
Vtr
bròdéɛ`
brodeɛ
plantain
CN
ánóá
anoa
CONScook
V2
ádí
adi
CONSeat
V3
ádá
ada
CONSsleep
V4

We found a total of 16 phrases which had the token we sought to investigate.Below is a statistical occurrence of the Future Aspect in Akan SVCs from the TC database.

Aspect Type Frequency
FUT-FUT 2
FUT-PROG 4
FUT-CONS 10

[1]

References

  1. Boadi, L.A. (2008).Tense, aspect and Akan. In Ameka, F.K. and M.E. Kropp Dakubu (eds) Aspect and Modality in Kwa Languages. Benjamins.