Verbal Elements

Cognate Objects

COs are true arguments of their predicate

This is shown by runing tests on the distinction between adjuncts and arguments. One of these tests is the ’do so test’ It shows that in an example like (1), the noun ’dance’ is an argument of the verb ’dance’ because ’do so’ functions as a proform for V’: “when do so is used as a substitute, it must stand for the verb and all its arguments”, (Macfarland 1995:104).

1. Examples

(1)

(1a)

ū	t(a)	ídō	(u)jɔ̀	ókō	úbī	mī	ǒchálà	ŋʷɔ̀	tʃ(e)	ǎlɛ̄	gɛ
1SG	dance(V)	dance(N)	cheerful	farm	back	my	Ochala	and	do	so/same	again
'I danced a cheerful dance in my garden and Ochala did so too.'

(1b)

*u

t(a)

ído

(u)jɔ

oko

ubi

mi

Ochala

ŋʷɔ

tʃ(e)

alɛ

ɛdo

dudu/ɛdo

ɛkpabjɛ

1SG

dance(V)

dance(N)

cheerful

farm

back

my

Ochala

and

do

so/same

sad

Intended: I danced a cheerful dance in the garden and Ochala did so a sad dance.

COs can be modified, including in relative clauses

(2)

u	t(a)	ido	k(i)	a	tʃ(e)	ujɔ
1SG	dance(V)	dance(N)	C	IMPF	COP1	cheerful/joy
‘I danced a cheerful dance’

fV marker

1. it shows up only with transitive verbs;
   1. it has a meaning similar to perfective;
   2. it is incompatible with negation;
   3. it is incompatible with A′
      1. extraction of any kind (questions, relative clauses);
   4. it is in complementary distribution with another marker, mV.

tʃɛ/tʃe

The morphemes tʃɛ and tʃe appear as verbal elements in Igala. tʃɛ adds the meaning that something has already been done to a sentence.

ū	gbɔ̋	kàkīnī	ɛ̀	tʃɛ̀	wā	mɛ̂
1SG	hear	C	2SG	already	come	now
‘I heard that you have already come' (D:225).

The morpheme tʃe is a copular element translated as do/does.

ido	e	ta	tʃe	ɛŋʷu	ɔla	mi
dance(N)	NMLZ	dance(V)	do	thing	body	1SG.OBJ
‘Dancing is my favorite thing (to do)' (D:193).

In certain cases tʃ(e) seems to note additional emphasis in a situation.

i	tʃe	uwɛ	dʒɛ	ɔda	lɛ	i	n	:
3SG.NEG	do.EMPH	2SG.STR	eat	pear	DEF.DIST	EMPH	NEG.SFP	?
‘Are you not the one who ate the pear?’(D:?).