LWM 480: A Grammar of Ajagbe

A Grammar of Ajagbe

Eric A Morley
Center for Spoken Language Understanding, Oregon Health & Science University

Ajagbe is a Gbe language spoken by approximately 500,000 people in southwestern Benin and southeastern Togo. Little research has been done on Ajagbe.

This grammar begins with the phonemic inventory of the language and an overview of the phonology. It contains chapters on: different parts of speech, including nouns, pronouns, verbs and modifiers; morphological processes such as reduplication, derivational affixes, and compounding; and syntax, including tense, mood and aspect markers, clausal structures and a brief overview of serial verbs. Also included is a Swadesh word list.

The fieldwork for this grammar was conducted from 2007-9 when the author was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Klouekanme, Benin.

Contents:

1 Phonology (Segmental inventories, Phonotactics, Tones, Phonological Processes)

2 Nominal Structure (The Definite Determiner, The Plural Marker, The Indefinite Determiner, Bare NPs, Possession, Demonstrative determiners, Quantifiers)

3 Pronouns

4 Tense, Mood and Aspect

5 Functional Categories in Clause Structure

6 Clause Structures (Copular Structures, Wh-movement, Conditional Clauses, Concessive Clauses, Temporal Clauses, Causal Clauses)

7 Derivational Affixes

8 Reduplication

9 Compound Words

10 Verbs (The Verbal Lexicon, Argument Structures, Intransitive Verbs, Transitive Verbs, Argument Alterations, Middle Constructions, Unexpressed Objects, Internal Argument Alternations, The Causative / Inchoative Alternation, The Passive / Active Alternation, Modal Verbs)

11 Prepositions and Postpositions

12 Modifiers

13 Serial Verbs

Swadesh Word List

ISBN 9783862880225. Languages of the World/Materials 480. 128pp. 2010.