INTRODUCTION
Type craft is a tool for annotation and sharing natural language paradigms online.
The main purpose of annotation is to describe the meaning and grammatical structure of languages.
Type craft features the following tiers arranged in the following order:
1. Latinsed orthography
2. A tier for morphological analysis
3. A tier for meaning
4. A tier for glossing of morphological features
5. A tier for part of speech information.
Also type craft provides global tags that allows for classification of data along different morphological, syntactic and semantic criteria. In my analysis I have used the following default global tags: construction kernel, situation and aspect, additional predicates, Illocution and polarity.
In the following I discuss first general features of Èdó language and then multi-verb constructions in Èdó.
Èdó language: some basic facts
Èdó is a tone language spoken in Èdó state in Mid-Western Nigeria and belongs to the Edoid language group (Elugbe1979). It is a head initial SVO language with an open syllable system with no consonant clusters. The language has seven oral and five nasal vowels. Nasal vowels are distinguished from their oral counterparts by the orthographic convention of an [n] consonant after the nasal vowel. Their phonetic representations are as follows:
High front vowel: [ i ]/ [ ĩ ]
High back vowel: [ u ]/ [ ũ ]
Mid-high front vowel: [ e ]
Mid-high back vowel: [ o ]
Mid-low front vowel: [ ε ]/ [ ε̴ ]
Mid-low back vowel: [ Ɔ ]/ [ Ɔ͠ ]
Low central vowel: [ a ]/ [ ã ]
The mid-low front and back vowels [ε] and [Ɔ] have the following orthographic representations respectively ẹ and ọ.
I now discuss tone. There are two basic tones in Èdó: high ( ) and low ( ). Nominal heads bear constant tones while verbal heads bear relative tones. By relative tones, I mean grammatically and lexically constrained tonal realization. Tones in Èdó have contrastive functions and may serve to distinguish meaning in minimal contrastive forms as depicted in the following examples (Agheyisi 1990:18):
In addition to the two basic tones above, Èdó language has two other tones that are derived. The falling tone and the downstepped high tone. The falling tone is derived when a high tone precedes a low tone as in Ódò [ódô] Potash and Áwà [áwâ] hour in the examples above.
In Èdó due to the open syllable pattern of the language when two vowels occur adjacent across word boundaries contraction takes place and tone spreading and tone simplification processes apply. The downstepped high tone is derived when a word ending with a high tone bearing syllable combines with a noun with an initial low tone bearing syllable across word boundaries. In summary, the downstepped high tone is created through the processes of vowel assimilation and contraction (Agheyisi 1990)/vowel elision (Omozuwa 1993), tone spreading and tone simplification. The following example illustrates this:
/òwá/ 'house'+ / èbé / 'book' [òwá!bé]
òwá+ èbé = òwá!bé
“house+ book= School”
òwá!bé |
òwá!bé |
SchoolLH!H |
CN |
In annotating Èdó data, the following glosses have been incorporated into the set of glossing tags to account for tonal features in the language.
Glossing tag Tag description
H high tone
!H downstep high
L low tone
Tense
The glossing tags H, !H and L discussed above play a significant role in tense distinction. In addition, a gloss tag RT (Relative Tone) was introduced to account for the past tense suffix –rV.
Tense is marked on the first verbal element after the subject NP, that is, the AUX/ADV if present in a clause or otherwise on the verb.
It may be realized as tones: past tense high( ) and present tense low( ) or high
( ), a suffix: past –rV, or a lexical item: future tense ghá. Tone marking on verbs encodes tense and transitivity information. For CV intransitive verbs, present tense is marked as a high tone and for transitive verbs it is marked as a low tone.
Íràn bọ̀ òwá.
“They are building a house/they build houses(as a profession)”
For CV transitive verbs with direct objects realized in canonical positions, past tense is marked as a high tone.
Íràn bọ́ òwá
“They built a house”
Òzó mú mwẹ́n
“Ozo carried me”
mwẹ́n |
mwẹ́n |
me.AFF1SGDOACC |
PN |
The past suffix attaches to intransitive verbs and transitive verbs when their objects are not realized or are focalized in non-canonical positions. The suffix has seven allomorphs -re (dẹ́-rè "bought"), -ri (fí-rì "threw"), -ru (sún-rùn "smooth"), -ro (ròró-rò "thought"),
-rin (hín-rìn "climbed"), -run (súnrùn "smooth") and ren (gbẹ́n-rẹ̀n "wrote"). It harmonizes with the final vowel of the verb stem it is affixed to.
Ò gbé-rè
“He/she/it danced”
gbé-rè |
gbé | rè |
dance | IVRT |
Vitr |
Òwá ọ̀ré Íràn bó-̣rè
“It is a house they built”
bọ́-rè |
bọ́ | rè |
build | IVRT |
Vtr |
Ìmè òré Òzó mú-rù
“It is me Ozo carried”
For transitive CVCV verbs marking past time, the final syllable obligatorily has a high tone while the initial syllable may be high or low. This also applies to the intransitive CVCV verb in the past and in addition the -rV suffix is attached to the verb stem. Transitive CVCV verbs marking present tense have a sequence of low low tone marking while intransitive verbs have low high tone marking.
Past tense in some preverbal CVCV adverbs is marked as a high-downstepped-high tone and a low-high pattern in the present.The following examples illustrates this.
Íràn gé!lé bọ̣́ òwá
“'They really built a house.'”
gé!lé |
gé!lé |
reallyIVH!H |
ADVm |
Íràn gèlé bọ̣̀ òwá.
“'They really build/ are building a house.'”
gèlé |
gèlé |
reallyPRESLH |
ADVm |
Verbs, number and iteration representation
Most verbs in Èdó can be inflected for the purpose of pluralizing nouns that occur with them or to mark repeated action.The verb stem to which a plural suffix attaches always bears a low tone. In addition, the last vowel on the verb root determines the form of the vowel on the plural suffix. There are six allomorphs of the plural suffix -lẹ (dẹ̀-lẹ "buy iterated" ), -le (sè-le "sew iterated"), -lo (fì-lo "throw iterated"), -lọ(tà-lọ "talk iterated"), -nẹ (gbèn-nẹ "write-iterated") and -nọ (tìn-nọ "fly iterated").
For transitive verbs with a participant bearing the grammatical function of the direct object, the direct object is interpreted as plural when the verb has plural suffixation. In addition, the event may be interpreted as iterative.
Íràn bọ́ òwá
“They built a house”
Íràn bọ̀-lọ́ òwá.
“They built houses”
bò-̣lọ́ |
bò | ̣lọ́ |
build | PLIVH |
Vtr |
Íràn bọ̀-lọ̀ òwá.
“They are building a house”
bọ̀-lọ̀ |
bọ̀ | lọ̀ |
build | PLPRESL |
Vtr |
For verbs with only one argument which bears the subject grammatical function, the subject is interpreted as plural in the presence of plural suffixation on the verb and with the exception of accusative verbs,the event depicted by the verb may be interpreted as iterated event.
Íràn gbè-lé
“They are dancing (iterated event)”
gbè-lé |
gbè | lé |
dance | PLPRESH |
Vitr |
Ọ̣̣̣̣̣̀ gbè-lé
“He/she/it dances (iterated event)”
Ọ̣̣̣̣̣̀ |
ọ̣̣̣̣̣̀ |
3SGSBJNOMAGT |
PN |
gbè-lé |
gbè | lé |
dance | PLPRESH |
Vitr |
Order of plural and past suffixes affixation
Intransitive verbs and transitive verbs with focalized objects that encode past tense and plural information have the following order of affixation: Verbs stem + Plural suffix + past tense suffix.
Òwá ọ̀ré Íràn bò-̣lọ́-rè
“It is houses they built”
bọ̀-lọ́-rè |
bọ̀ | lọ̣̣̣̣́ | ̣rè |
build | PL | IVRT |
Vtr |
Noun and number representation
In addition to interpreting number representation of nouns from verb morphology as discussed above, nouns in Èdó may be modified by specifier premodifiers and quantifier and numeral post modifiers to encode number representation. The following examples illustrate this:
Òtiẹ̣̣̣̣́n rré èmwán
“A cherry is here”
Òtiẹ̣̣̣̣́n |
Òtiẹ̣̣̣̣́n |
CherrySBJTH |
CN |
Àvbé òtiẹ̣̣̣̣́n rré èmwán
“The cherries are here”
òtiẹ̣̣̣̣́n |
òtiẹ̣̣̣̣́n |
cherriesSBJTH |
CN |
Òtiẹ̣̣̣̣́n èsó rré èmwán
“Some cherries are here”
Òtiẹ̣̣̣̣́n |
Òtiẹ̣̣̣̣́n |
CherriesSBJTH |
CN |
Òtiẹ̣̣̣̣́n èvá rré èmwán
“Two cherries are here”
Òtiẹ̣̣̣̣́n |
òtiẹ̣̣̣̣́n |
CherrySBJTH |
CN |
Nouns in Èdó generally do not inflect for number or case. However, a sub-set of nouns designating humans may inflect lexically to represent number. The strategy employed is alternation of the nouns initial vowels. The nouns in the singular form fall into two categories: those with ọ as initial vowel and those with o as initial vowel (Agheyisi 1990:38-39).
Ọ̣̣̣̣̀mọ̣̣̣̣̀ rré èmwán
“A child is here”
Ọ̣̣̣̣̀mọ̣̣̣̣̀ |
Ọ̣̣̣̣̀mọ̣̣̣̣̀ |
childSGSBJTH |
CN |
Èmọ̣̣̣̣́ rré èmwán
“Children are here”
Èmọ̣̣̣̣́ |
èmọ̣̣̣̣́ |
childrenPLSBJTH |
CN |
Ògiè rré èmwán
“A king is here”
Ìgiè rré èmwán
“Kings are here”
I have given an overview of the syllabic structure, tone, tense and number representation on verbs and nouns in Èdó. I now discuss immediately word formation processes.
WORD FORMATION PROCESSES
There are two word categories in Èdó: content and function words. Content words consist of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs while function words consist of determiners, prepositions, pronouns and complementizers. Nouns and verbs make up more than 80% of the content words in Èdó (Agheyisi 1990:29). Three strategies are used in word formation processes: affixation, compounding and reduplication. Content words may or may not be derived while function words generally consist of basic words.In the following I discuss first content words and then function words.
Derivational processes in content words
Nouns
Nouns are formed from verb stems through the processes of affixation and compounding. First I discuss prefixation processes and then compounding.
The following examples are from Agheyisi (1990:32-33) and Omoruyi (1986:17-18)and illustrates prefixation strategy for noun derivation in Èdó.
èfè
“wealth”
èfè |
è | fè |
abstract.prefix | be.richVstem |
N |
èyán
“a vow”
èyán |
è | yàán |
abstract.prefix | vowVstem |
N |
ògié
“laughter”
ògié |
ò | giẹ̀ |
abstract.prefix | laughVstem |
N |
ìbuòkhiè
“judgement”
ìbuòkhiè |
ì | bu | òkhiè |
abstract.prefix | judgeVstem | case |
N |
àrhuárò
“a blind person”
àrhuárò |
à | rhuárò |
agentive.prefix | blindVstem |
CN |
òbuòkhiè
“a judge”
òbuòkhiè |
ò | bu | òkhiè |
agentive.prefix | judgeVstem | case |
CN |
ùgué
“cover”
ùgué |
ù | gué |
instrumental.affix | coverVstem |
CN |
The seven oral vowels above can function as nominal prefixes. While there is generally no phonetic restriction as to the affixation of these vowels to particular verb stems, they have restrictions in terms of their semantic function when attached to verb stems. Prefixation of the vowels i , e, o and ẹ to verb stems have as output abstract nouns, prefixation of the vowel u yields as output instrumental nouns while prefixation of the vowel a and ọ yields as output agentive nouns.