University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh FORCE DYNAMICS AND CAUSATION IN AKAN BY REGINALD AKUOKO DUAH (10166760) A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON, IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEGREE IN LINGUISTICS JUNE 2013 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh i DECLARATION I do hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own original research and has not been presented either in whole or in part for another degree elsewhere. References to other sources of information used in this work have been duly acknowledged. …………………………………. ……………………. REGINALD AKUOKO DUAH Date (Candidate) ………………………………… …………………….. PROF. E. KWEKU OSAM Date (Supervisor) ………………………………… …………………….. PROF. KOFI K. SAAH Date (Supervisor) …………………………………. ……………………… PROF. NANA ABA A. AMFO Date (Supervisor) University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh ii DEDICATION For my mentor, Prof. E. Kweku Osam University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my three thesis supervisors Prof. E. K. Osam, Prof. K. K. Saah and Prof. Nana Aba Amfo for their guidance and support throughout the writing of this dissertation. I am especially grateful to Prof. E. K. Osam who has insisted, over the years, that I have no excuse not to reach my full potential in academic pursuits. Such a firm commitment on Prof. Osam’s part has spurred me on throughout the writing of this dissertation. Prof. K. K. Saah also deserves much commendation for his unwavering support and encouragement in improving my writing. He has always been available when I needed direction and guidance and I cannot thank him enough for such keen interest and concern. Prof. Amfo’s mild strokes of comments have been a source of refreshment and at the same drawing my attention to subtle issues which could mar the integrity of my research. I thank you for your encouragement and confidence in my work. I would also like to acknowledge other faculty of the Department of Linguistics, especially Dr. Evershed K. Amuzu and Prof. Kofi Agyekum for their encouragement and support. I am also grateful to the non-teaching staff Mrs Agartha Augustt, Mr. Christopher Frimpong, Mr. Albert Edmund for their support. I am especially grateful to Matt Shibatani (Rice University, Houston, Texas) for his comments on earlier versions of chapters three and four of this dissertation. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh iv My family, my mum Akua Afriyie, my grandmother Elizabeth Owusu Ansah and my sister Adwoa Frema and her husband Charles Koomson have been very supportive throughout these not-so-easy five years. Together they provided a calm and refreshing environment where I thrived in doing my research. You have done your job and have done it more exceedingly. I fondly remember my friends, Benjamin Osei Bamfo, Emmanuel Darko, Stephen Anorbobier, Samuel Delali Ayibor, Samuel Addo Quarshie, Osei Kankam Boadu, Frank Boateng, Emily Egbenoma, Atikonda Akuzike Mtenje who have proven to be a source of joy to me. Many thanks also to Regina Oforiwaa Caesar for her unwavering friendship. I am also grateful to a special friend Mr. Nii Armah Tackie whose exhortation, “finish what you started!” has been ringing in my head ever since he uttered them. To my colleagues Abigail Ayiglo, Efua Mmra Blay, Akua Agyei-Owusu, Anthony Musah, Sarah (nokonoko) Marjie, Joana Vanderpuije and Obadele Bakari Kambon, I say thank you for bearing with my crazy and controversial ideas but not failing to point out any brilliant spark, no matter how little, there be in those ideas. I would like to thank the organizers of the African Linguistics School (ALS) 2009 (Accra, Ghana), 2011 (Porto Novo, Benin) and 2013 (Ibadan, Nigeria) Enoch O. Aboh, John Singler, Chris Collins and Akinyibi Akinlabi for providing a platform for students working on African languages to discuss issues in African linguistics. During these summer schools, I was able to discuss my work with some faculty of ALS including Claire Halpert, Malte Zimmermann, Enoch Aboh, Hilda Koopman University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh v and Chris Collins and their comments helped greatly in improving earlier incarnations of this thesis. I am also grateful to the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) African Humanities Program (AHP) for providing funding for this research through their African Humanities fellowship. Through this fellowship, I was able to discuss my research with some scholars in Rhodes University, South Africa. In this regard, I am grateful to Prof. Hendriks (Dean of Humanities) and Karen Kouari for their amazing hospitality and the many opportunities they offered for serious academic work. I also enjoyed a warm association with faculty in the Department of English Language and Linguistics including Prof. Adendorff, Prof. Ron Simango, Mark de Vos, Sally Hunt, Ian Sieborger and Hazel Mitchell. I would like to also thank Dr. Adeniyi Osunbade for his support and friendship during our time at Rhodes. This research was partly supported by University of Ghana Staff PhD Grant facilitated by the Office of Research Innovation and Development (ORID), University of Ghana, Legon. It also received some financial support from the Akan Verbs Database Project (2009-2011) led by Prof. E. Kweku Osam as the Principal Investigator with funding from the University of Ghana Research Fund. I also received some support from the Akan Verbs Database Project (2009-2011), working as a research assistant to the project. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh vi ABSTRACT This study investigates the expression of force-dynamics in Akan (Talmy 2000). Two main types of causatives can be found in the language, namely non- periphrastic causatives (lexical causatives and cause-effect SVCs) and periphrastic causatives (analytic causatives). The study examines the syntactic properties of causatives and shows that while lexical causatives and cause-effect SVCs involve a monoclausal structure, the analytic causative displays a complex (bi-clausal) structure. In Akan, the difference in the coding of the causee argument in analytic causatives is neither coincidental nor superficial but points to a difference in syntactic properties and structure. It is argued that the different syntactic marking of the causee argument in Akan causatives is not predicted by a syntactic case hierarchy as claimed by Comrie 1976 neither is it motivated by the degree of agentivity of the causee in the causative interaction as Cole 1983 proposed. Rather, the alternative marking of the causee is as a result of restructuring of a complement causative sentence into a partial lexicalised serial verb construction in the language. Five event types of causation are identified namely, MANIPULATION, CREATE, TRIGGER, PROMPT and ALLOW and their properties analysed through Talmy’s (2000) force-dynamics framework. The notion of direct and indirect causation is also examined in Akan. It is emphasized that, at least in Akan, it is better to map event type of causation with the notion of (in)directness of causation because a single causative expression may involve more than one event type of causation. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh vii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... i DEDICATION .......................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .....................................................................................iii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ vi LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................... xi LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................ xii ABBREVIATIONS ...............................................................................................xiii CHAPTER ONE ....................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 1.0 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 2.0 AIMS/OBJECTIVES .......................................................................................... 3 3.0 DATA ................................................................................................................. 4 4.0 THE AKAN LANGUAGE ................................................................................. 4 4.1 Dialects ........................................................................................................... 4 4.2 Sociolinguistic Aspects ................................................................................... 6 4.3 Linguistic Features .......................................................................................... 9 4.3.1 Phonology ................................................................................................. 9 4.3.2 Syntax and Morphology ......................................................................... 11 5.0 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ................................................................. 25 6.0 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ..................................................................... 25 ENDNOTES ..........................................................................................................