The Correlation between Aspect and Transitivity Alternation in Dagbani

Abstract

This paper attempts to describe and analyze the relation between aspect and transitivity in Dagbani, a Gur language spoken in the Northern Region of Ghana by the Dagbamba.  The author does this by focusing on the fact that there are different (perfective and imperfective) aspectual markers that correlate with the presence or absence of NP objects or adjunct phrases, such as adverbs. I conclude that pronouncing any syntactic element after a Dagbani verbal phrase or otherwise is determined by the aspectual suffixes of that verbal phrase.In an attempt to find explanations to this transitivity alternations, I make two hypothesises; the incorporated pronouns hypothesis and the focus hypothesis. None of these however, seems to adequately address the problem and I leave the working out of this to future research. It is shown that the correlation between aspect and transitivity in Dagbani sounds (at least superficially), very similar to the so-called “conjoint/disjoint” or “short/long” verb phenomenon that is found in a number of Bantu languages.