Revision as of 17:37, 25 February 2014
--Mark Nartey 13:54, 18 February 2014 (UTC)
Agreement
Eyɔse efufeemɔ feesɛɛ kɛkɛni eyimli ni emli ewola ni erɛɛehoehe, shi ekolɛ ni ehiɛ etɛŋ fe tsutsu.
“He later realized his folly and he left angry and sad, but perhaps a little wiser than before.”
| Eyɔse |
| e | yɔse |
| 3SG | realizePAST |
| V |
| efufeemɔ |
| e | fufeemɔ |
| POSS | foolishness |
| N |
| eyimli |
| e | yimli |
| 3SG | went_away |
| V |
| erɛɛehoehe |
| erɛɛehoehe |
| sorrowful |
| ADJ |
Within the domain of the construction above, i.e. the sentence, there is an agreement relationship with respect to the features NUMBER (singular) and PERSON (3rd). This is a referential chain where the head of the chain, a pronominal (e - 'he') which has been integrated into the verb (eyɔse – 'he realized') agrees with the following pronouns in NUMBER and PERSON: e - 'his' and e - 'he' (also the the second and third subjects).
Clause Linkage
Ena loohɔlɔ ko shwapo kɛkɛni ebote mli oya kɛkɛni eyaju wu fɛɛfɛo dɔkɔdɔkɔ agbo ko ni ka shɛɛfi lɛ nɔ.
“He saw a butcher's shop and (he) went quickly in and (he) stole a nice fat juicy bone from the shelf.”
| ebote |
| e | bote |
| 3SG | enterPAST |
| V |
| eyaju |
| e | ya | ju |
| 3SG | PAST | steal |
| V |
| dɔkɔdɔkɔ |
| dɔkɔdɔkɔ |
| sweet |
| ADJ |
The clause linkage above is indicative of parataxis, i.e. structural equality. There are three independent clauses which have been conjoined by the coordinating conjunction kɛkɛni. Hence, there is neither a form of integration or embedding nor reduction or downgrading. We can see that the clause linkage is explicit since the connective device (here, kɛkɛni) is present, hence syndesis or syndetic coordination.