Grammaticalization of the deictic verbs 'come' and 'go' in Syer (Senufo, Gur)

Title data

Dombrowsky-Hahn, Klaudia:
Grammaticalization of the deictic verbs 'come' and 'go' in Syer (Senufo, Gur).
In: Mietzner, Angelika ; Claudi, Ulrike (ed.): Directionality in grammar and discourse : case studies from Africa. - Köln : Köppe , 2012 . - pp. 89-114 . - (Topics in Interdisciplinary African Studies ; 29 )
ISBN 978-3-89645-899-5

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Abstract in another language

In the Senufo language Syer the elements ka(a) and pa(a) which evolved from the deictic verbs kɛ ‘go’ and pɛ̀ ‘come’ are very frequently found in all sorts of texts. This paper aims to give a first account of the different functions of these elements in Syer grammar and discourse. I hypothesize that they developed out of their use as a first verb in asymmetrical serial verb constructions. They function primarily as speaker deictic elements of itive and ventive which have been extended to non-deictic usage in narrative texts through the possibility of shift of perspective. Transferred from spatial motion to motion from one event to another they function as discourse connectors expressing such notions as purposiveness, unexpectedness, culmination and foregrounding. Extended from spatial motion to motion in time, they have developed to tense-aspect categories like intentional and prospective. They interact in a special way with stative verbs which denote states or processes leading to states according to the aspectual category of the predicate.