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The Akan verb kɔ

Dorothee Beermann (2012)

To cite this page see footnote [1]

The verb kɔ

A mini grammar squib

The verbs bɛ and kɔ occur as independent verbs, meaning come and go respectively. Sometimes however they are used to convey functional information of aspectual nature, or information tied to deixis. There is a third use of kɔ which occurs when it preceeds a noun denoting a location. In this case Kɔ seems to express directionality. In the following we will only discuss kɔ, leaving the discussion of bɛ for another occasion. This squib was based on the TC Akan corpus from December 2012. At that point the database hosted 41 Akan sentences containing kɔ. By now the public TypeCraft Akan corpus, which is an improved version of the older open-end corpus, contains 174 instances of kɔ.

Kɔ either is an independent verb, or a verbal prefix.

Kɔ as an independent verb

Let us first look at sentence (1) and (2) which exemplify the use of kɔ as a main verb meaning go.


The first sentence is a negated imperative while the second shows kɔ as the main verb.

(1)HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

Type Exception Report

Message Servlet execution threw an exception

Description The server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request.

Exception

javax.servlet.ServletException: Servlet execution threw an exception
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Root Cause

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class tc2.core.util.HibernateUtil

	tc2.web.servlets.ExportServlet.doPost(ExportServlet.java:56)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:660)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:741)
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the server logs.

Apache Tomcat/9.0.10

In (2) the verb is glossed as a past tense verb following standard annotation practice. It has been argued that Akan has an Aspect based verbal inflection system (see for example [2]

(2)HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

Type Exception Report

Message Servlet execution threw an exception

Description The server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request.

Exception

javax.servlet.ServletException: Servlet execution threw an exception
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Root Cause

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class tc2.core.util.HibernateUtil

	tc2.web.servlets.ExportServlet.doPost(ExportServlet.java:56)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:660)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:741)
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the server logs.

Apache Tomcat/9.0.10

In (3) kɔ is the V3 in a 'Clause Chaining' verb serialisation

(3)HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

Type Exception Report

Message Servlet execution threw an exception

Description The server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request.

Exception

javax.servlet.ServletException: Servlet execution threw an exception
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Root Cause

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class tc2.core.util.HibernateUtil

	tc2.web.servlets.ExportServlet.doPost(ExportServlet.java:56)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:660)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:741)
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the server logs.

Apache Tomcat/9.0.10

Sentence (4) illustrates an 'Integrated' serialisation.

(4) HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

Type Exception Report

Message Servlet execution threw an exception

Description The server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request.

Exception

javax.servlet.ServletException: Servlet execution threw an exception
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Root Cause

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class tc2.core.util.HibernateUtil

	tc2.web.servlets.ExportServlet.doPost(ExportServlet.java:56)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:660)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:741)
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the server logs.

Apache Tomcat/9.0.10

Kɔ combines with a manner of movement verb "si" descend. There seems to be a certain similarity to a satellite marking pattern, using Talmy's terminology [1975]. However, neither of the verbs expressing the descending motion is the head per se, but both verbs are serialised. So far we have seen kɔ as an independent verb, but when part of a serialisation kɔ may also appear as a verbal prefix, expressing the onset of an event. When occuring in this capacity, it is annotated as INGR, standing for ingressive. Its function then is that of an aspectual verb or an aspectual marker.

(5) to (8) shows kɔ as an aspectual verb/prefix


(5) HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

Type Exception Report

Message Servlet execution threw an exception

Description The server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request.

Exception

javax.servlet.ServletException: Servlet execution threw an exception
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Root Cause

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class tc2.core.util.HibernateUtil

	tc2.web.servlets.ExportServlet.doPost(ExportServlet.java:56)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:660)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:741)
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the server logs.

Apache Tomcat/9.0.10

(6) HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

Type Exception Report

Message Servlet execution threw an exception

Description The server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request.

Exception

javax.servlet.ServletException: Servlet execution threw an exception
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Root Cause

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class tc2.core.util.HibernateUtil

	tc2.web.servlets.ExportServlet.doPost(ExportServlet.java:56)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:660)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:741)
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the server logs.

Apache Tomcat/9.0.10

(7)HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

Type Exception Report

Message Servlet execution threw an exception

Description The server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request.

Exception

javax.servlet.ServletException: Servlet execution threw an exception
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Root Cause

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class tc2.core.util.HibernateUtil

	tc2.web.servlets.ExportServlet.doPost(ExportServlet.java:56)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:660)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:741)
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the server logs.

Apache Tomcat/9.0.10

(8)HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error

Type Exception Report

Message Servlet execution threw an exception

Description The server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request.

Exception

javax.servlet.ServletException: Servlet execution threw an exception
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Root Cause

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class tc2.core.util.HibernateUtil

	tc2.web.servlets.ExportServlet.doPost(ExportServlet.java:56)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:660)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:741)
	org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the server logs.

Apache Tomcat/9.0.10


References

  1. ↑ Dorothee Beermann. 2012. The Akan verb kɔ. TypeCraft Grammar squib. http://www.typecraft.org. Accessed [DATE].
  2. ↑ OSAM, E. Kweku. 2003. An Introduction to the Verbal and Multi-verbal System of Akan. In Dorothee Beermann and Lars Hellan (eds.), Proceedings of the Workshop on Multi-verb Constructions. Trondheim Summer School 2003. Available from: http://www.ling.hf.ntnu.no/tross/TROSS03-toc.html
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