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A STUDY OF DANGME ADVERBS AND ADVERBIALS 
 
 
 
BY 
YVETTE DJABAKIE ASAMOAH 
(10340515) 
 
 
 
THIS THESIS IS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA IN 
PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF 
MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY IN LINGUISTICS DEGREE 
 
 
 
JULY 2018
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DECLARATION 
I, Yvette Djabakie Asamoah, declare that except for references to works that have 
been duly cited, this thesis is the result of my original research under the 
supervision of Professor Kofi Korankye Saah and  Dr. Mercy Bobuafor and that it 
has neither in whole nor in part been presented for another degree elsewhere. 
 
…………………………..     ……………………………. 
YVETTE DJABAKIE ASAMOAH     DATE 
(CANDIDATE) 
 
………………………………..    …………………………….. 
PROF. KOFI K. SAAH      DATE 
     (SUPERVISOR) 
 
…………………………..     …………………………… 
DR. MERCY BOBUAFOR      DATE 
     (SUPERVISOR) 
 
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DEDICATION 
  
 
To my first love, God Almighty, who is always there for me, my family and 
friends; without whom none of my success would be possible. 
 
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
I thank God Almighty for his mercies and unfailing love that has got me this far. I 
am also grateful to the Lord for the gift of life and the opportunity to undertake 
this research. I must admit that this journey had not been easy, there were tough 
and daunting times and therefore there is the need to express my gratitude to all 
who helped me complete this thesis successfully.  
 First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. 
Kofi Korankye Saah, my principal supervisor for his continuous support, 
guidance, patience, motivation and immense knowledge throughout the entire 
period. I must say, his patience and encouragement helped me to complete this 
work. I am truly grateful Sir. Similar profound gratitude goes to my other 
supervisor, Dr. Mercy Bobuafor for her expertise, invaluable guidance and her 
willingness to carefully crosscheck my data amidst all her tight schedules.  
 Besides my supervisors, I also express my humble gratitude to all the 
lecturers of the Department of Linguistics, especially, Prof Kofi Agyekum, Prof. 
Emmanuel Kweku Osam, Dr. Seth A. Ofori, Dr. J. T. Agor, Dr. Yvonne 
Agbetsoamedo  and Dr. Reginald A. Duah, for their words of encouragement. To 
my colleague MPhil students, I say thank you for your friendship and stimulating 
contributions to this study. I am also deeply thankful to my informants especially 
Mr. Richard Ayertey Lawer, Miss Catherine Aku Mensah and Miss Beatrice 
Coffie for their willingness to spare me their time and get me most of the data 
presented in this thesis. 
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I equally take this opportunity to also show my deep sense of gratitude to 
my study mates, Mr. Richard Ayertey Lawer and Mr. Okrah Oppong. You have 
been more than friends to me. Thanks for the encouragements, healthy criticisms 
and most especially all the sleepless nights you sacrificed for me, I say this 
because most times my work was the sole reason behind the long hours of staying 
up at night. God bless you. A big thank you also goes to my family, especially my 
mum, my dad, and my elder sister, Mrs. Ethel Amorkor Seddoh, who has been my 
powerhouse and source of encouragement throughout this journey.  
Finally, I would like to also convey my special thanks to Mr. Emmanuel 
Mensah Osafo, Prof. Emmanuel & Mrs. Elizabeth Owusu-Bennoah, Rev. Lydia 
Gyimah, Mrs. Mary Asante, Beatrice Okyerewah, Reginald Boye, Christiana Adu-
Ansah, Vitus Naako and everyone who has been part during this journey for their 
unwavering support and encouragement. 
  
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ABSTRACT 
This study investigated the nature of adverbs and adverbials in Dangme         
(Kwa, Niger-Congo). It looked at the morphological, semantic and syntactic 
properties exhibited by Dangme adverbs. Data for the study were gathered from 
books and recordings of free oral utterances of native speakers. Using functional 
grammar and its prototypical means of categorization as the theoretical framework 
of this study, adverbs and adverbials were identified and analysed.  
The finding showed that in Dangme, adverbial concepts are expressed not 
only by prototypical adverbs but also by derived elements, temporal nouns, 
adjectives and emphatic markers. The class ‘adverbs’ was also shown to be 
connected with other higher syntactic constituents termed ‘adverbials’. Dangme 
does not have affixes for the derivation of adverbs; however it does so through 
reduplication and compounding. 
The study also revealed that an adverb/adverbial in Dangme falls into six 
major semantic classes, namely; manner, time, place, aspectual, epistemic and 
contingency. The study showed that syntactically, an adverb in Dangme may be 
either a Sentence adverb or VP-adverb and revealed that the distribution and 
sequencing of adverbs/adverbials are influenced by the meanings of the adverbs 
themselves and their scope capabilities. 
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 
  
CONJ   Conjunction POSS   Possessive marker 
DEF   Definite POST  Postposition 
DEM  Demonstrative PRES  Present 
EMPH  Emphatic PROG   Progressive 
FM  Focus marker PST   Past 
FUT  Future   SUBJ  Subject 
HAB   Habitual TOP  Topic marker 
INDEF Indefinite 1SG  First person singular 
NEG  Negative 2SG            Second person singular 
NP   Noun Phrase 3SG  Third person singular 
OBJ  Object 1PL  First person plural 
PERF  Perfect 2PL  Second person plural 
PL  Plural 3PL  Third person plural 
 
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LIST OF TABLES 
Table 1: Reduplicated Adverbs formed from Adjectives ....................................... 71 
Table 2: Adverbs formed from reduplicated Nouns ............................................... 74 
Table 3: Positional Possibilities of Dangme Adverbs and Adverbials ................. 168 
 
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LIST OF FIGURES 
Figure 1. The language map of Ghana (Ethnologue 2017). ..................................... 8 
Figure 2. The language map of the Dangme speaking area ...................................... 9 
Figure 3. Prototypical representation of Dangme adverb category ........................ 62 
Figure 4.  Semantic Classification of the Dangme Adverb Class......................... 104 
 
 
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TABLE OF CONTENT 
DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... i 
DEDICATION ......................................................................................................... ii 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...................................................................................... iii 
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. v 
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................. vi 
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................... ii 
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................ iii 
TABLE OF CONTENT ........................................................................................... iv 
CHAPTER ONE ....................................................................................................... 1 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ 1 
1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................... 1 
1.2      Background of the Study............................................................................ 1 
1.3 Genetic Classification and Dialectical Information .......................... 5 
1.4 Structure of the Dangme Language ................................................ 10 
1.5 Problem Statement .......................................................................... 13 
1.6 Research Objectives ........................................................................ 15 
1.7 Research Questions ......................................................................... 15 
1.8 Significance of the study ................................................................. 15 
1.9 Research Methodology ................................................................... 16 
1.10 Organization of the thesis ............................................................... 17 
1.11 Chapter Summary ........................................................................... 17 
CHAPTER TWO .................................................................................................... 19 
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............. 19 
2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................... 19 
2.2 Fundamental Issues on Adverbs ..................................................... 19 
2.2.1 The Notional Definition of Adverbs ............................................... 23 
2.2.2 Distinction between Adverbs and Adverbials ................................. 27 
2.2.3   Defining Properties of Adverbs ..................................................... 28 
2.2.3.1       Morphological Properties of Adverbs ..................................... 29 
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2.2.3.2      Differentiating Adverbs from Adjectives ................................ 34 
2.2.3.3 Syntactic Properties of Adverbs .................................................... 35 
2.2.3.4 Semantic Properties of Adverbs .................................................... 38 
2.3 Theoretical Framework ................................................................... 43 
2.3.1 Functional Grammar ....................................................................... 43 
2.3.2 Core Tenets of Functional Grammar .............................................. 45 
2.4 Chapter Summary ........................................................................... 49 
CHAPTER THREE ................................................................................................ 51 
THE MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVERBS AND          
ADVERBIALS IN DANGME ........................................................................ 51 
3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................... 51 
3.2 Structures that Constitutes Adverbs and Adverbials in Dangme .... 52 
3.2.1    Prototypical and Peripheral Constituents of the Dangme Adverb 
category ........................................................................................... 56 
3.3 Morphological Classification of Dangme Adverbs ........................ 64 
3.3.1 Morphological Structure of True Adverbs in Dangme ................... 64 
3.3.2 Derived Adverbs ............................................................................. 67 
3.3.3  Deriving Adverbs in Dangme ......................................................... 68 
3.3.3.1. Adverbs formed through Reduplication .................................... 68 
3.3.3.1.1 Semantic Functions of Reduplicated Adverbs in Dangme ..... 76 
3.3.3.2      Adverbs formed through Compounding .................................. 81 
3.4 Other Lexical Categories that Function as Adverbs in Dangme ..... 84 
3.4.1      Nominals used as Adverbs in Dangme ...................................... 86 
3.4.2  Adjectives as Adverbs .................................................................... 88 
3.4.3 Emphatic Markers used as Adverbs in Dangme ............................. 93 
3.5 Adverbials in Dangme .................................................................... 94 
3.5.1 Adverbial Phrases in Dangme ......................................................... 94 
3.5.2 Noun Phrases Functioning as Adverbials ....................................... 95 
3.5.3 Prepositional Phrases functioning as Adverbials in Dangme ......... 96 
3.5.4 Postpositional phrases functioning as adverbials in Dangme ......... 97 
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3.5.5 Clauses used as adverbials in Dangme ........................................... 99 
3.6 Chapter Summary ......................................................................... 100 
CHAPTER FOUR ................................................................................................ 102 
SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF DANGME ADVERBS AND 
ADVERBIALS .............................................................................................. 102 
4.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 102 
4.2 Semantic Classes of Adverbs and Adverbials in Dangme ............ 103 
4.2.1 Manner Adverbs ............................................................................ 105 
4.2.1.1  Ideophones as Manner Adverbs ................................................. 107 
4.2.1.2  Instrumental Adverbials ............................................................. 110 
4.2.1.3  Pace Adverbs ............................................................................. 114 
4.2.2 Time/ Temporal Adverbs .............................................................. 115 
4.2.2.1  Time-when Adverbs ................................................................... 115 
4.2.2.2  Durational Adverbs .................................................................... 117 
4.2.2.3  Frequency/Repetitive Adverbs ................................................... 118 
4.2.3  Place/Locative Adverbs ............................................................... 120 
4.2.4  Aspectual Adverbs ....................................................................... 122 
4.2.5  Epistemic Adverbs ....................................................................... 123 
4.2.6   Adverbials of Contingency ......................................................... 124 
4.3 Chapter Summary ......................................................................... 133 
CHAPTER FIVE .................................................................................................. 135 
A  DISTRIBUTIONAL ANALYSIS OF DANGME ADVERBS AND 
ADVERBIALS .............................................................................................. 135 
5.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 135 
5.2 Positional Distribution of Dangme Adverbs and Adverbials........ 136 
5.2.1 Syntactic Positions of Manner Adverbs ........................................ 137 
5.2.2 Syntactic Positions of Time/Temporal Adverbs ........................... 143 
5.2.3 Syntactic Positions of Place Adverbs............................................ 148 
5.2.4 Syntactic Positions of Aspectual Adverbs .................................... 152 
5.2.5 Syntactic Positions of Epistemic or Speaker-Oriented Adverbs ... 154 
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5.2.6 Syntactic Positions of Adverbs of Contingency ........................... 155 
5.3 The Relative Sequencing of Dangme adverbs and adverbials ...... 160 
5.4  Chapter Summary ........................................................................ 166 
CHAPTER SIX ..................................................................................................... 169 
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ... 169 
6.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 169 
6.2 Summary of Chapters.................................................................... 169 
6.3 A Summary of Findings ................................................................ 172 
6.3.1 Findings on the Morphological Structure of the Dangme Adverb 
Class .............................................................................................. 172 
6.3.2 Findings on the Semantic Classes of Dangme Adverbs and 
Adverbials ..................................................................................... 174 
6.3.3 Findings on the Syntactic Distribution of Dangme Adverbs and 
Adverbials ..................................................................................... 175 
6.4 Recommendations for Future Research ........................................ 176 
References............................................................................................................. 178 
 
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CHAPTER ONE 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
1.1 Introduction 
This thesis is devoted to the study of adverbs in Dangme, a language that belongs 
to the Kwa group of the Niger-Congo family of languages. The study seeks to 
investigate the nature and structure of adverbs in Dangme, particularly examining 
what constitutes adverbs, their morphology, the various semantic classes present in 
the language and their syntactic distribution. 
 This current chapter presents the general introduction of this thesis. Section 
1.2 sets forth some general issues that underlie the study of adverbs. In section 1.3, 
I look at the genetic classification and the sociolinguistic status of the language. 
Section 1.4 gives a brief information about the structure of Dangme language and 
in section 1.5, I present the problem statement for this study. Sections 1.6 and 1.7 
explores the objectives and research questions that inform this thesis respectively. 
In section 1.8, the significance of the study is discussed. The research 
methodology and the organization of the thesis are captured in sections 1.9 and 
1.10 respectively.  Section 1.11 concludes the chapter. 
1.2      Background of the Study 
One key goal that can be seen in the works of linguists regardless of their 
viewpoints is discovering the underlying properties of human language and 
making clear generalizations about the nature and the entire system of the 
language.  One scope of language structure that has constantly remained an 
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eminent area of discussion for linguists, cross-linguistically is word classes 
(Payne, 2006; Schachter & Shopen, 2007; Simone & Masini, 2014).  Substantial 
studies have shown that the study of word classes has had a place in linguistics 
more than some millennia ago (cf. Schachter & Shopen, 2007; Simone & Masini, 
2014). This is mainly because of the varied properties that come with these parts-
of-speech systems; while most languages in the world make parts-of-speech 
distinctions due to some unique qualities that tend to be rather language specific, 
there are also a number of similarities that cut across languages (Simone & Masini, 
2014).  
Interestingly, one open-parts-of-speech class which seems to have gained 
little attention in the typological analyses of word classes of the world’s languages 
is the ‘class of adverbs’ (Lusekelo, 2010; McNally & Kennedy, 2008; Nurse & 
Philippson, 2003; Saah, 2004; Tabe, 2015). Adverbs as a word category is one 
other lexical class aside adjectives that plays a dominant role in the modification of 
structures of a language.  According to many linguists, the study of adverbs as a 
word category is intriguing, yet a relatively unexplored area for most languages in 
the world (McNally & Kennedy, 2008; Saah 2004; Tabe 2015). Formerly, the 
traditional term ‘adverb’ was used to grammatically denote lexical items that were 
used to modify a verb, an adjective or another adverb (Curme, 1935) however, 
given the wide functional and notional range of adverbs, it has now come to be 
more widely seen as a word category capable of not only modifying verbs, 
adjectives and other adverbs but also an entire sentence.  
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 One lexical class that adverbs is closely connected to both morphologically 
and syntactically is adjectives (Pittner et al., 2015). This is mainly due to the fact 
that a large number of adverbs are identified to be derived from adjectives and also 
because some languages express adverbs by the use of adjectives (Geuder, 2000; 
Pittner et al., 2015; Schachter & Shopen, 2007). In actual fact, cross-linguistic 
studies on word classes show that prototypical examples of adverbs are genuinely 
very adjective-like in nature and hence the rationale behind why many languages 
do not make a distinction between the two categories (Geuder, 2000; McNally & 
Kennedy, 2008).  
 However, the robust distinction that exists between these two modifying 
elements has been, by and large, identified as their complementary distribution; 
whereas adjectives tend to modify nouns, adverbs aim at other components other 
than the nouns.  As a result, some researchers regard adverbs as adjective-like 
items in non-adjective-like positions (Geuder, 2000; McNally & Kennedy, 2008). 
This study also give us a fair insight about how closely-related adjectives and 
adverbs are as the most cases presented here also show that most Dangme adverbs 
are genuinely very adjective-like. The reason being because Dangme (like all other 
human languages) productively uses words belonging to different word categories 
to execute functions that are generally not associated with them in any way. For 
instance, most of the data presented in this study reveal that Dangme does not only 
use adjectives to express adverbial functions, but also other lexical elements such 
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as temporal nouns, locative constructions as well as emphatic markers even though 
they all have their individual functions they perform when they occur in sentences. 
Languages have various ways of forming adverbs. In English, most 
adverbs are formed by attaching the suffix ‘-ly’ to adjectival base words (Geuder, 
2000). For Ewe, Dzameshie (1998) and Saah & Agbedor (2004) discover that the 
suffix   ‘-tɔe’ is used in the formation of Ewe adverbs.  Also in French and Italian 
languages, the suffixes ‘-ment’ and ‘-mente’ are attached to adjectives to form 
adverbs respectively (Tabe, 2015). A preliminary investigation of the 
morphological structure of Dangme adverbs shows that Dangme has a few true 
adverbs which are non-derived but then, the Dangme adverb category also consist 
of many derived adverbs. These derived adverbs are not formed by attaching 
affixes like observed in some languages, but formed through some other 
derivational processes.  
Apart from the derived adverbs, most languages use other syntactic 
constituents like phrases and clauses to perform adverbial function. In fact, most 
typological findings have shown that generally adverbs do not only come as single 
words, but also as other syntactic categories like PP, NP, Adv.P, Adj.P and even 
clauses; constituents that one normally cannot tell instinctively if they belong to 
the class of adverbs (Bobuafor, 2013; Pittner et al., 2015; Saah, 2004; Schachter & 
Shopen, 2007 Tabe, 2015). Therefore, in quest of examining which structures can 
be considered as adverbs in Dangme, the study also seeks to investigate other 
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syntactic constituents that may be used to express adverbial notions in the 
language.  
It is these assumptions and inferring generalizations that inspire this study 
on Dangme adverbs to investigate the nature, morphology and syntactic behaviour 
that are displayed by the adverbs in the language.  
1.3 Genetic Classification and Dialectical Information  
Dangme is a language spoken in Ghana, West Africa by the Dangmeli (Dangme 
people). It belongs to the Kwa group of the Niger-Congo language family. 
According to Apronti (1971), Dangme, is spoken in two main regions; the Eastern 
Region in towns such as Dodowa, Somanya, Odumase, Asesewa and Agormanya 
and east of  Greater Accra in the coastal areas such as Ningo, Ada and Prampram.         
However, in recent works (cf. Akortia, 2014; Caesar, 2016 & 2012;                                                                                    
Ameka & Dakubu, 2008), the Volta region is identified as the third area where the 
language is spoken. For all these three regions identified, the Greater Accra is 
estimated as the area with majority of the speakers (Akortia, 2014).  
Although, there have been some uncertainties lately regarding the number 
of dialects the language has, all the various dialects found fall under Dakubu’s 
(1988) dialectal classification of the language.  Dakubu (1988:94) recognizes two 
main dialects based on their geographical distribution, namely; the coastal dialects 
and the inland dialects. The coastal dialects include Ada, Gbugbla and Ningo. The 
inland dialects are Klo (Krobo), Sɛ and Shai. Apronti (1971) reports that the 
differences between the two dialects is as a result of some political divisions that 
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might have taken place in the past, precisely one that led them into agreeing to 
disperse at Lolovor to set up their own political territories at their present 
locations. While the two dialects may reflect marked differences in sound, 
grammar, or lexicon, Apronti (1971) further observed that the Dangme people are 
culturally and linguistically united mainly because they share a common heritage 
and language.  
 Geographically, the language shares borders with Ga to the west, Hill 
Guang (Ɔkere and Lɛtɛ) and Akan to the north and west, and Ewe to the east with 
the Volta Lake serving as the boundary mark (Dakubu, 1987; Amfo, 2011). The 
connections that Dangme has with its neighbouring languages explain the great 
influence of these languages on Dangme lexicon. The coastal dialects are 
influenced by Ga and Ewe. The inland dialects are greatly influenced by the Akan 
language. Dangme is also said to share close resemblance with Ga, the language 
spoken by the Ga people who reside in and around the Greater Accra region, when 
it comes to some basic words, but reflect striking differences in phonology, syntax 
and semantics (Dakubu, 1988; Adi, 1997). 
 Dangme has an official orthography and is one of the Ghanaian languages 
which was written on very early (Amfo, 2011). The language is taught as a subject 
in the primary and secondary schools. It is also learnt as a subject at the University 
of Education, Winneba and the School of Languages, University of Ghana. A 
number of scholarly works have been done on the semantics, phonology, 
morphology and syntax of the language. Many written texts in Dangme have also 
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been published by the Bureau of Ghana Languages. The language also features on 
the radio, specifically, on Obono fm and Rite fm, two major radio stations which 
can be found in the Dangme speaking area. Figure 1 and 2 show the various areas 
where Dangme is widely spoken. 
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Figure 1. The language map of Ghana (Ethnologue 2017). 
 
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Figure 2. The Language Map of the Dangme Speaking Area 
Source: Reginald Boye 
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1.4 Structure of the Dangme Language 
Dangme is a register tone language with three basic level contrastive tones; high, 
low and mid which has lexical as well as grammatical functions (cf. Caesar, 2012; 
Dakubu, 1987). The language has 23 consonants /p, b, t, d, k, g, kp, gb, f, v, s, z, 
ʧ, ʤ, m, n, j, w, h, l, ɲ, ŋ, ŋm/ and 12 vowels made up of 7 oral /i, e, ɛ, a, ͻ, o, u/ 
and 5 nasal vowels /i͂, ɛ͂, a͂, ɔ͂, u͂/ (Dakubu 1988). Dangme has three syllable types; 
CV, V and CCV but the most predominant syllable structure in Dangme is 
observed to be CV (Dakubu, 1988). 
When it comes to Dangme verbal system, every verb phrase is normally 
made up of only one verb (Dakubu 1987:56; Adi 1997:42; Caesar, 2012). The 
language has no tense. According to Dakubu (1987:60), in Dangme “verb system, 
tense is of secondary importance” because the verbs are normally aorist in nature, 
hence able to refer to events that have taken place without regard to their 
extensions over time.  
Dakubu (1987) also observes that the language’s little consideration for 
tense does not render it impractical of  indicating the time frame of an event as the 
language has enough particles and adverbial expressions to depict whether an 
event took place in the past, is taking place in the present or is to happen in the 
future. The language employs aspectual markers such as ‘hii…e’, ‘ngԑ…e’, ‘ᴐ’ 
and ‘maa/ma’ to distinguish grammatical properties such as habitual, progressing 
and future events. The aspectual markers ‘hii…e’ and ‘ngԑ…e’ are used to depict 
continuous tense and ‘ngԑ…e’ can also be used to indicate a habitual action 
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(Caesar, 2012). The Dangme example below gives us a glimpse of the a-fore 
mentioned.  
 (1)  a.  Dèdé  hìí  nyú  nù-é           b.  Dèdé      ngɛ        dò-é 
 Dèdé PROG water drink-PROG    Dèdé      PROG   dò-PROG 
 ‘Dede is drinking water.’               ‘Dede is dancing.’ 
The sentences in Example (1) show verbs in a progressive state. The 
progressive aspectual markers ‘hìí…é’ and ‘ngɛ…é’ that come with the main 
verbs nù ‘drink’ and dò ‘dance’ in these sentences indicate that the action of the 
verb is ongoing.  In Dangme, these two aspectual markers are also used to express 
an event that is habitual. In Example (1b), ‘ngɛ…é’ indicates a progressive action 
of ‘dancing’ and it can also mean the subject, Dede, is into ‘dancing’ by 
expressing an everyday action. The language also has a bound morpheme ‘-ᴐ’ 
which is used to distinguish habitual events when the aspectual markers mentioned 
earlier are absent in the sentence. It is attached to the main verb in the sentence and 
normally goes through some phonological changes (Caesar, 2012). This is 
illustrated in the example below. 
(2)  a.  Dèdé bá-á  sukúú má     b.  Dèdé    bu-ᴐ́  nᴐ 
  Dèdé come-PROG school early          Dèdé    respect-PROG people  
 ‘Dede comes to school early.’         ‘Dede respects people.’ 
In the example above, the bound morpheme ‘-ɔ’ is attached to the verb bá 
‘come’ and bu ‘respect’ to indicate habitual actions. It can also be observed that in 
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(2a), the bound morpheme totally assimilates to look like the preceding sound /a/. 
In (3), the future marker ‘maa’ comes before the verb ba ‘come’ and is used to 
show a future event. 
(3)   a.  Dèdé màá  ba sukúú má   
            Dèdé FUT come school early            
           ‘Dede will come to school early.’ 
 Aside these aspectual markers, Dakubu (1987) mentions that adverbs can 
also be added to sentences to help code tense in Dangme as exemplified in (4). 
(4)  a.  Dèdé ba-a  sukuu daa         
Dèdé come-HAB school always  
 ‘Dede comes to school always.’ 
     b.    Dèdé      ngɛ        dò-é  piɔ  
 Dèdé      PROG      dò-PROG now 
 ‘Dede is dancing now.’ 
   c.  Dèdé bá  sukúú má hiɛ 
  Dèdé come.PST school early yesterday  
 ‘Dede came to school early yesterday.’ 
  d. Dèdé maa bá sukúú má hwɔɔ 
  Dèdé FUT come school early tomorrow  
 ‘Dede will come to school early tomorrow.’  
 In the sentences in (4), the underlined expressions are all examples of 
adverbs in Dangme. It can be observed from the each of the sentences that adverbs 
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like the aspectual markers we saw earlier helps the verbs to express whether an 
action occurs always as in (4a), occurring now like in (4b), has already occurred as 
in (4c) or will occur later in the future like illustrated in (4d). This preliminary 
observation of Dangme adverbs is one of the contributory factors behind this study 
because if adverbs hold, such as important role, then it is equally important to 
investigate their nature, their various semantic types and distribution.   
 
1.5 Problem Statement 
Although, it has become a truism that ‘adverbs’, as a word category, has not 
enjoyed much attention in the works of linguists, one cannot overlook the 
substantive findings of some scholars about the class of adverbs. A few works that 
have been done, especially on African languages reveal the intriguing nature and 
syntactic behaviour of adverbs (Lusekelo, 2010; Saah, 2004; Saah &Agbedor, 
2004; Tabe, 2015). The insightful findings of these works show that there are 
various means through which languages form and use adverbs. These include the 
use of simple adjectives, nouns, verbs, locative particles, ideophones and 
reduplicated structures.  
 Saah (2004) reports that adverbs in Akan modify not only verbs, but other 
constituents like verb phrases and clauses classifying Akan adverbs into VP 
adverbs and Sentence adverbs. He also explains the reason for the placement 
restrictions on Akan adverbs. Saah (2004:73) reveals that “most of the words used 
as adverbs are nouns or adjectives” as the language tends not to derive adverbs 
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from other word classes. And hence, a wrong placement of an adverb may depict 
another kind of word class. For instance the manner adverbs in Akan cannot 
precede the verb, else they may be construed as adjectives. 
 Like Saah (2004), Tabe (2015) who looked at adverbs in Kenyang also 
points out that the position of adverbs affects the semantics of the proposition. She 
also mentioned adjectives in Kenyang can be interpreted as “manner adverb in VP-
final position or used attributively or predicatively with/without morphological 
change”.  
 However, nothing has been said of Dangme adverbs. The two works that 
feature some information on Dangme adverbs do not shed light on the nature of 
this open class part-of-speech.  Dakubu’s (1987) work shows that indeed the 
language has adverbs which help verbs express aspect. The study by Abaka et al. 
(2010) also looked at reduplication in Akan, Dangme and Gurene and the 
formation of adverbs through the process of reduplication was discussed.  
Therefore, this study seeks to delve into the nature, syntactic distribution and 
semantic types of adverbs in Dangme.  
 
 
 
 
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1.6 Research Objectives 
This study seeks to attain the following; 
i. To discover the various classes of adverbs and adverbials used in Dangme. 
ii. To examine the morphology of the Dangme adverbs.  
iii. To find out the various semantic types of adverbs in Dangme. 
iv. To investigate the syntactic distribution of adverbs in Dangme 
1.7 Research Questions 
The study will answer the following questions: 
(1) What constitutes the class ‘adverbs’ in Dangme? 
(2) What morphological properties are exhibited by them? 
(3) What kind of meaning do adverbs add to the constituents they 
modify? 
(4) How are adverbs distributed in sentences? 
1.8 Significance of the study 
This study provides a detailed analysis of the nature of Dangme adverbs and 
adverbials to add on to the existing works done on the subject in the Kwa language 
phylum. It will also complement the literature on the language. Also, this study 
will provide information about adverbs for typological studies which aim to 
describe and compare the parts-of-speech systems of the world’s languages. 
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1.9 Research Methodology 
The data for this study were gathered from both primary and secondary sources. 
The primary data were drawn from utterances made during interview sessions with 
12 native speakers of the language; five native speakers of the coastal dialect and 7 
native speakers of the inland dialect. Some of the data were also gathered from 
free speech of six traders at the Agormanya market. With permission from the 
participants, I recorded the conversations that took place between them and some 
farmers who had brought their farm produce to be bought by these traders. I also 
recorded bargains and informal conversations of these traders and their customers, 
who were all native speakers of the Dangme language.  
A large number of the data for this study were also extracted from available 
grammars and other written texts such as the Dangme Bible, the Language Guide 
and an array of novels and primers published by the Bureau of Ghana Languages. 
Also, as a native speaker, I provided some of the data, however, these were further 
cross-checked by other native speakers for their authenticity. 
 From the data gathered, I identify the structures that are considered 
‘adverbs’ or ‘adverbials’ in Dangme and also sub-categorized them into various 
semantic classes using the parameters of prototypical categorization. This is 
further explained in chapter two. 
 
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1.10 Organization of the thesis 
This thesis is organized into six chapters. This current chapter presents the general 
introductory information about adverbs. It also covers information about the 
genetic classification and structure of the language, problem statement, objectives, 
research questions, significance and purpose of the study, methodology and the 
outline of the thesis.   
Chapter two consists of the theoretical framework and literature review. In 
chapter three, I investigate the morphological properties that are reflected in 
Dangme adverbs and adverbials. Chapter four will primarily concentrate on the 
semantic classification of adverbs and adverbials in Dangme and chapter five will 
examine the syntactic distribution of Dangme adverbs. Chapter six presents the 
findings, conclusion and recommendations. 
1.11 Chapter Summary 
This chapter has presented the general introduction of the thesis. It began by 
addressing fundamental issues that surround the nature of adverbs. It looked at the 
genetic affiliation and structure of the Dangme language. It reveals that the 
differences seen in the two main dialects of Dangme were as a result of some 
misunderstanding which might have led to the linguistic divisions we see today.  
The chapter also discussed the structure of the Dangme language. From 
this chapter, we observed that Dangme adverbs help verbs to express aspect. This 
observation is one of the teeming issues that saliently explain why there is the need 
to investigate the nature of Dangme adverbs. The chapter also threw light on the 
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problem statement of the study, the significance of the work and the research 
objectives that inform this study. And finally, the chapter discussed how the data 
were gathered and analyzed. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER TWO 
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 
  
2.1 Introduction 
 This chapter explores some of the indispensable studies that have been done on 
adverbs as well as offers an overview of the theoretical framework that underlies 
this study. The chapter consists of two broad sections. The second section, 2.2, 
looks at the relevant informative surveys that linguists have done on the syntax, 
morphology and semantics of adverbs. In the third section, 2.3, I present the 
theoretical framework that underlies this study and the chapter summary is 
presented in section 2.4. 
2.2 Fundamental Issues on Adverbs 
Although it is an undeniable fact that the category ‘adverbs’ is one lexical class 
which is significantly less studied in almost all human languages, the insightful 
claims from the few works done on the subject have shown it to be one of the 
fundamental units in every sentence (cf. Curme, 1935; Dakubu, 1987; Jackendorf, 
1972; Pittner et al, 2015; Saah, 2004; Schachter & Shopen, 2007). This is because 
among all the open-class lexical classes, the ‘class of adverbs’ happens to have a 
wider distribution in terms of the structures they modify, as they modify 
constituents other than nouns. Even with nouns, there have been some identified 
cases in English, for instance, where adverbs are seen modifying pronouns like 
mine, hers, anyone and other quantity words which could be thought of as a noun.  
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For example; ‘Nearly/Hardly anyone came to the party.’ or ‘It is undeniably 
hers.’ (cf. Biber et al, 1999; Eastwood, 1999).  
According to linguists such as (Jackendorf, 1972; Pittner et al., 2015; 
Simone & Masini, 2014), adverbs form a lexical part of speech category that, aside 
adjectives, play a prevalent part in the modification of words of a language. 
However, it is interesting to know that while on one side, the class is said to be an 
integral part of a sentence responsible for the modification of almost all other 
lexical categories as well as the clause itself, it is also seen as the “most 
problematic major word class” (Haspelmath 2001:16543) and the “most maligned 
part of speech.” (Jackendoff, 1972:47). This is because of how varied the 
properties of adverbs are, an assumption which is in line with the generalization 
Quirk et al (1985) provided in the following statement: 
Because of its great heterogeneity, the adverb class is the most 
nebulous and puzzling of the traditional word classes. Indeed, it is 
tempting to say simply that the adverb is an item that does not fit 
the definition for other word classes. As a consequence, some 
grammarians have removed certain types of items from the class 
entirely, and established several additional classes rather than 
retain these subsets within a single adverb class.             
      (Quirk et al., 1985:438) 
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 The literature on adverbs has attributed the problematic nature of the class 
to several reasons; (cf. Jackendoff, 1972; Pittner et al., 2015; Saah, 2004; Tabe, 
2015; Tenny, 2000). One of the first assumption raised as evidence for why 
adverbs are very problematic among other word classes is because of the varied 
membership status it comes with. According to Jackendoff (1972:47), the 
predominant reason why the category ‘adverbs’ is presumed as being problematic 
is because it has traditionally been a ‘catch-all’ term” in many languages. A 
substantial number of researchers have also followed this line of thought by 
describing the class as a ‘mixed bag’ (Borjas & Burridge, 2001:66), a ‘rag bag or 
dustbin’ (Palmer 1971:47) and most times regarded as ‘the least satisfactory of the 
traditional parts of speech’ (Quirk et al 1972:267). Pittner et al. (2015:1) also 
mentions that “the class of adverbs has often been treated as a kind of waste paper 
basket for all words that do not fit clearly into any of the major categories like 
nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, and conjunctions.”  
From the assertions above, it can be deduced that the category of adverbs 
could constitute words that are true adverbs as well as those that are members of 
other syntactic categories.  For example, English has true adverbs such as early, 
now, here and completely as well as words belonging to different word classes 
which are used as adverbs like January (noun), fast (adjective), above 
(preposition) any many others (Biber et al., 1999). Similarly, this observation is 
also evident in most African languages (cf. Dzameshie, 1998; Lusekelo, 2010; 
Tabe, 2015; Saah, 2004). 
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 Another reason is tied to the heterogeneous nature of the class as it makes 
it notoriously difficult to identify the structures that constitute adverbs as well as 
define the precise features that come with them (Jackendorf, 1972; Pittner et al., 
2015). This is because whereas some features may hold for most word items 
recognized as adverbs of the language, others may tend to show entirely different 
properties different from the basic properties of the class. For instance, Jackendoff 
(1972:47) mentioned that due to the heterogeneous nature that come with the class, 
“adverbs have been maltreated beyond the call of duty” to the extent that “most 
studies in generative grammar do not even concede to them the right to be part of 
speech.” Pittner et al. (2015:2) also assert that the heterogeneous nature of adverbs 
has raised questions about their identification and the kind of relations they have 
with other lexical categories specifically, adjectives.  
For Pittner et al. (2015), another interesting reason for the problematic 
nature of adverbs is because in many languages adverbs are not morphologically 
marked and if they do, it is uncertain whether it belongs to the class. Hence, the 
category was looked at syntactically with their nature treated in the context of their 
syntactic function. However, because their nature and diverse properties project 
interactions between the various aspects of language, their internal structure, 
morphology and lexical meaning have recently come to receive more attention. 
These issues and many others that come with the class are largely responsible for 
the increased interest of linguists recently. 
 
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2.2.1 The Notional Definition of Adverbs 
Almost all languages have adverbs or various ways of expressing adverbial 
function. However, defining and naming their descriptive properties is one area 
that has remained a debate in the study of adverbs (Curme, 1935; Jackendoff, 
1972; Pittner et al., 2015; Saah, 2004; Tallerman, 1998; Tenny, 2000). The 
difficulty incurred in defining adverbs and assigning precise character traits to this 
class is not something new. Pittner et al. (2015) have observed that it can be traced 
to as early as the nineteenth century. According to Pittner et al. (2015:1), 
Schwarz’s (1982), generalization of adverbs clearly points out the difficulties in 
defining adverbs: 
Almost every study of the (so-called) adverb begins with a 
critique of the unclear status of this category. […] What, then, is 
an adverb? We cannot  answer this question because we 
suspect that it is a matter of largely indefinable word class. 
(Schwarz, 1982:61& 64) 
Saah (2004) and Schachter & Shopen (2007) also acknowledge the 
elusiveness in defining the class. Saah (2004: 47) emphasizes that “the term 
‘adverb’ has been used to cover quite a wide range of lexical items that perform a 
variety of functions.”  Schachter & Shopen (2007) also concur that the term is 
usually used to refer to numerous words in a given language and at most times 
these words do not necessarily share any notional or grammatical similarities with 
the lexical class.   
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 The earliest meaning of the term ‘adverb’ referred to any word that 
modified the verb of the sentence (cf. Curme, 1935; Rauh, 2010). This meaning 
was regarded as the actual sense of the word inferred from its literal meaning ‘that 
which is added to a verb.’ Curme (1935:71-72), confirms that an adverb was first 
seen as “an appositive to a verb, i.e. is placed before or after a verb to explain its 
meaning.” However, the traditional definition was seen as problematic mainly 
because it was realized that most of the words of this group did not only modify 
verbs but other constituents as well. Hence, defining the class solely based on its 
formal definition excluded many members that belonged to the category. 
 Therefore, radical updates were made by a number of researchers 
extending the term to capture the many properties and functions performed by the 
class.  The numerous definitions that came up all aimed to define adverbs based on 
the different forms adverbs came in, their distribution and function.1 Tallerman 
(1998) asserts that these areas are targeted because in the domain of defining word 
classes, linguists usually take into consideration the morphological structure and 
syntactic distribution. Therefore, like every word class, adverbs could not also be 
labeled and defined without using the morphological and syntactic criteria. Hence, 
all definitions of adverbs that abound in the literature go in that direction.   
                                                          
1 Tallerman (1998) provides an account of how word classes are defined. He mentions that 
all definitions and terminologies of any concept in language study employ the 
morphological and syntactic criteria as their yardstick. The morphological criteria deal 
with the various recurring patterns of a word, specifically targeted at the distinctive affixes 
that accompany the different parts of speech. The syntactic criteria on the other hand show 
the unique patterns of a word’s distribution. 
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 Many have defined the class in terms of their morphology (Huddleston & 
Pullum, 2002; Quirk et al, 1985; Tallerman, 1998). Huddleston (1988:31) observes 
that “although it is function that provides the primary defining characteristic of 
adverbs, the easiest route to an initial grasp of the class is probably through lexical 
morphology.” Lefebvre & Brousseau (2002:384) hold that from the morphological 
perspective, the category in many languages “constitute an eclectic class with a 
few monosyllabic adverbs” as well as “…morphologically-complex adverbs, 
reduplicated forms, unanalysable bisyllabic forms, and frozen phrases, all of which 
can be used adverbially.”  
 There are a number of researchers who also hold that adverbs should rather 
be defined and classified on the basis of their syntactic behaviour and distribution 
of the class (Cinque, 1999, 2004; Ernst, 2002; Jackendoff, 1972; Scot 1968). 
According to Scot (1968: 32), “the word class adverb is often defined by position 
rather than by form.” Again, Geuder (2000) confirms that though many languages 
identify and describe adverbs based on the different kinds of properties they come 
with; however, their syntactic distribution should be recognized as the only 
criterion for the identification and description of the class. Therefore, using their 
syntax as the yardstick, Potsdam (2017:4) defines adverbs as adjoining elements of 
the verb which are “realized in adjunction positions with a conservative clause 
structure that has a unitary IP dominating one or more VPs.”  
 Some have also defined adverbs in terms of their function. One of such 
influential explanations about the class ‘adverbs’ was presented by Curme 
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(1935:71), who looked at the lexico-semantic definition of the class.2 Curme 
(1935:71) defined an adverb as “a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or 
another adverb.”  He further added in Curme (1935:72) that “an adverb, however, 
modifies not only a single word, but often also a prepositional phrase, a 
subordinate clause, or an independent statement as a whole.” The term adverb is 
also explained by Trask (1993:9) to be “a lexical category, or a member of this 
category, whose members are usually grammatical adjuncts of a verb and most 
typically express such semantic notions as time, manner, place, instrument or 
circumstance.” Tallerman (1998: 63) also follows this line of thought, but further 
postulates that not all grammatical adjuncts are adverbs using the following 
sentences outlined in Example 5. 
(1) a. We’re leaving next week/today/tomorrow (NP) 
b. We’re leaving in a week (PP) 
c. We’re leaving rather hurriedly (Adv. P) 
     (Tallerman, 1998:63, ex.80) 
 As seen in the examples above, the elements in bold are performing 
adverbial function. They can also be said to be adjuncts as they are extra optional 
information added to the verb. Tallerman (1998:63) however, argues that though 
these “optional modifying phrases” representing different parts of speech are 
performing adverbial functions, they are all not adverbs, bringing us to the 
                                                          
2 Here, (Curme, 1935:52) states that “the lexico-semantic definition of adverbs sheds light 
on the nature of their relation to the constituent over which they scope.”   
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realization that many other constituents named ‘adverbials’ are closely tied to this 
class of ‘adverbs’. These constructions are also evident in Dangme sentences. The 
data gathered for this study reveals that the Dangme adverb system contains single 
lexical items which are regarded as true adverbs in the language as well as other 
single words belonging to other word classes. The class also constitutes different 
kinds of phrases and clauses which are used to indicate adverbial concepts in the 
language. Therefore, in the next sub-section, I look at what the distinctions that 
linguists have made between these two terms. 
2.2.2 Distinction between Adverbs and Adverbials 
Pittner et al. (2015: 4) mention that adverbs are closely linked with another group 
of syntactic constituents known as adverbials. They posit that even though adverbs 
and adverbials refer to two different linguistic categories yet are said to be closely 
related because they both indicate an adverbial function and often behave 
syntactically alike. The two categories ‘adverbs’ and ‘adverbials’ are explained 
differently by various researchers, however the principal idea that cuts through all 
is  similar to Greenbaum’s (2000: 173) definitions of the two concepts:  
The terms adverb and adverbial are distinct. Adverb is the name of 
a word class (or part of speech), so adverbs can be contrasted with 
adjectives. An adverb phrase is a phrase headed by an adverb […] 
Adverbial is the name of a constituent of a sentence or clause, so 
adverbials can be contrasted with complements of the verb such as 
subject predicatives and direct objects. An adverb phrase may 
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function as an adverbial […]. But so can other linguistic units, such 
as a prepositional phrase or clause. (Greenbaum, 2000:173) 
 
2.2.3   Defining Properties of Adverbs 
There are a variety of properties that come with the class of ‘adverbs’. Though 
adverbs in some languages may contain slightly differing properties that are bound 
to be language specific, generally adverbs all share certain features. These features 
first of all distinguish them from the other word classes and then also put them into 
the various sub-classes we see in our languages. For instance, Huddleston (1988) 
outlines the defining features of adverbs in English: 
… The adverb is definable as a grammatically distinct word class 
with the following properties: 
(a) Its central members characteristically modify (or head phrases 
which modify) verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.  
(b) Central members commonly express manner or degree; other 
frequent meanings (often associated with grammatically less 
central members) include time and place. 
(c) It is commonly the case that many members, especially those 
belonging to the manner subclass, are morphologically derived 
from adjectives. (Huddleston, 1988: 120)  
  
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The statement above clearly show that adverbs in every language may 
come with some defining features which are associated with their morphology, 
their syntactic distribution and semantic–features which have also been identified 
by many linguists over the years (Biber et al., 1999; Jackendoff, 1972; Lusekelo, 
2010, Saah, 2004; Tabe, 2015). Therefore, in the next sub-sections, I discuss the 
morphological, syntactic and semantic properties of adverbs. 
 
2.2.3.1       Morphological Properties of Adverbs 
Many detailed analyses made on adverbs reveal that adverbs come in a variety of 
forms (Biber et al., 1999; Geuder, 2000; Tabe, 2015). Generally, the category is 
morphologically classified into lexical and derived adverbs. The lexical adverbs 
are normally single words which are non-derived. These include words recognized 
as the true adverbs in the language as well as adjectives, nouns, verbs and 
prepositions which can be used to perform adverbial function. For derived adverbs, 
many languages rest on derivational processes to produce such structures. 
Compounding, affixation and all forms of reduplication are regarded as some of 
the morphological means through which adverbs are formed in many languages 
(Abakah et al, 2010; Dzameshie, 1999; Geuder, 2000; Lusekelo, 2010).   
 Berk (1999) asserts that English adverbs do not have any distinctive 
morphology in that the derivational suffix ‘–ly’ recognized as the primary means 
of forming adverbs is not applicable to all, adding that there are also some 
adjectives that are formed using the same suffix. However, Huddleston (1988) 
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disagrees with Berk (1999). Huddleston (1988) posits that even though many will 
be quick to regard the English adverbial system as one that lacks much 
morphology, the language has four major affixes sufficient for forming all adverbs 
needed in the language. He found the common suffixes ‘-ly’ (loudly), ‘-wise’ 
(health wise), ‘-ward’ attached to adverbs or prepositions (backwards), and the 
prefix ‘a-’ (ashore) as the affixes used for forming adverbs. He also added that 
some adverbs are formed through compounding and also by the attaching of the 
expressions ‘where or there’ to prepositions (wherein). Aside these derivational 
means of forming adverbs, the language also employs the use of other structures to 
perform adverbial functions. 
 Dzameshie (1998) and Saah & Agbedor (2004) observe that in Ewe, the 
category ‘adverbs’ is made up of single word items, phrases and even clauses. 
Also, adverbs in the language can be derived from nouns by the addition of the 
suffix ‘- tͻe’ as illustrated in Example 2. 
(2)   a.  Kofi ʄo nu dzikutͻe 
  Kofi beat mouth angrily 
 ‘Kofi spoke angrily.’  
b.  Ŋutsua ku    nukutͻe 
 man       die    surprisingly 
            ‘The man died mysteriously.’  (Dzameshie, 1998: ex. 3) 
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  From the examples above, the bolded portions are derived adverbs formed 
by attaching the suffix ‘- tͻe’ to the nouns dziku ‘anger’ and nuku ‘mouth die’. 
Here, Dzameshie (1998) and Saah & Agbedor (2004) reveal that when adverbial 
meanings are expressed by other parts of speech in Ewe, there is normally a 
change in the form of the word which often includes the adding of the suffix ‘tͻe’. 
Nevertheless, further in this section, we will find out that there are some languages 
in which these other parts of speech retain their form when used as adverbs 
(Lusekelo, 2010; Pittner et al, 2015; Tabe, 2015). Dzameshie (1998) also states 
that the suffixes ‘-e or -i’   are attached to nominalized phrasal verbs to form 
adverbs. This, he illustrates in the construction below. 
(3) a. Kpovitɔ la dzo numakemakee 
            policeman the leave no open mouth 
            ‘The policeman left without saying a word.’   (Dzameshie, 1998: ex.4) 
 Apart from adding suffixes to nominals to form adverbs, Dzameshie shows 
with the example above that adverbs can also be formed from verbs. Here, the 
word numakemakee meaning ‘without saying a word’ is a derived adverb formed 
by adding the suffix ‘-e’ to ‘numakemake’.  This finding is confirmed by Saah & 
Agbedor (2004)  who also observe that the suffix ‘-e’ can also be used in forming 
adverbs from adjectives showing this expression nyui ‘good’  becoming nyuie 
‘well’ as one of the many examples. 
 Saah (2004) presents a different case in Akan. According to him, Akan 
does not have any morphological means of deriving adverbs from other parts of 
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speech like seen in other languages.  But then, he mentions that aside the simple 
lexical adverbs such as bͻkͻͻ ‘softly’, basaa ‘haphazardly’ which is present in the 
language, Akan also uses ideophones, postpositional phrases and clauses for 
adverbial use.  He shows this in the following Akan sentences. 
(4) a.  Kwame    kasa-a    nyansa mu/*nyansa. 
Kwame    speak-PST    wisdom in /wisdom 
‘Kwame speaks with wisdom/wisely.’ (Saah, 2004:52) 
 b.  Abofra        no  didi   fukafuka 
            Child        DEF.  eat.PRES  greedily 
‘The child eats greedily.’ (Saah, 2004:55) 
 c.  Kofi bɛ-ware Amma  Kwasida  
Kofi FUT.marry Amma    Sunday  
a        ɛ-               re-ba      yi   
REL 3SG.INANIM.  PROG-come DEF 
‘Kofi will marry Amma this coming Sunday.’ (Saah, 2004:59) 
 Example (4a) presents the case where the meaning equivalent of the adverb 
‘wisely’ is expressed by the postpositional phrase nyansa mu ‘in wisdom’. In 
example (4b), we have an ideophone fukafuka meaning ‘greedily’ stand as the 
adverb describing the way in which the action of eating was done. Example (4c) 
also shows that in Akan, there are instances where a clause is used as an adverb in 
sentences. According to Lusekelo (2010), this morphological feature associated 
with Akan adverbs can also be seen in Kinyakyusa. He reports that attaching 
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nouns with prepositions or locative particles is one of the means through which 
adverbs are formed in Kinyakyusa.  
As seen in Akan (Saah, 2004), Tabe (2015) also reveals that in Kenyang, 
the principal language spoken in southwestern Cameroon, prepositional phrases 
introduced by the preposition  nɛ ‘with/ in’ are used as adverbials to describe the 
manner in which an action was executed. 
(5)  a.   Eta    à   dɛn m-mwɛrɛ à-wì  nɛ ßɛbé n-ӥ 
Eta    SG.PFV   beat 1-friend 1-POSS.3SG with pains 3-heart 
‘Eta beat his friend angrily.’ (Tabe, 2015:119) 
b. Ashu ǎ  ki bɛ-tèk  ǹtah yà nɛ màŋàk 
Ashu 1SG.1PFV do 7-work  for me with happiness 
‘Ashu works for me happily.’   (Tabe, 2015:119)  
 The expressions underlined in (5a) and (5b) are prepositional phrases 
which are used as adverbials in Kenyang.  A closer look at this data reveals a 
striking difference from what we discovered in the Akan examples. Although Tabe 
(2015) does not come clear about the type of structure the above expressions have, 
it can be observed that it is the usual case of using prepositional phrases to perform 
adverbial functions. Also, in Tafi, a language spoken in some settlements in the 
Hohoe District of the Volta region, Bobuafor (2013:235) identifies that there is 
“limited number of basic adverbs”. Therefore, to express adverbial meaning, the 
language often employs the use of ideophones, nouns, deictic expressions and 
prepositional phrases. The language uses these clausal elements to denote the 
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manner, degree, time, place and modality of the verb. In other words, both 
prepositional and postpositional phrases can be used to indicate adverbial 
concepts. Similarly, Dangme also uses both postpositional phrases and 
prepositional phrases as adverbials.  
 
2.2.3.2      Differentiating Adverbs from Adjectives  
That there is a high overlapping between adjectives and adverbs is one 
generalization accepted in virtually all theories of grammar (Pittner et al, 2015). 
Identifying the differences that exist between adverbs and adjectives is somehow 
very difficult.  The first reason is because both categories normally specify time, 
direction, location and modality (cf. Pittner et al., 2015; Geuder, 2000; 
Huddleston, 1988). Secondly, in many languages, these two classes tend to have 
similar morphological features since both are likely to be derived from the other 
(Geuder, 2000; Huddleston & Pullum, 2002; Pittner et al, 2015). For instance, 
Pittner et al. (2015:160), on their typological studies on word classes identify that 
adjectives in many languages are used adverbially without any morphological 
marking. According to them, “the class of adjectives simply does double duty, 
modifying verbs as well as nouns”.  
Several other cross-linguistic observations done, especially on the grammar 
of African languages, list adjectives as one of the major clausal elements used as 
adverbs in many African languages. Saah (2004) reports that in Akan there are 
some words that are used as adjectives and again as adverbs without any change in 
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the form. Tabe (2015) also confirms the same for Kenyang. She mentions that 
adjectives in Kenyang can also be used to depict adverbial meaning without any 
morphological marking. Therefore, to understand these two word classes, many 
emphasize that we must acknowledge that lexical categories normally have the 
tendency of containing numerous overlapping features with each other (Pittner et 
al., 2015; Huddleston & Pullum, 2002; Rauh, 2010). However, though adjectives 
and adverbs are widely noted to be closely related, the central difference that exists 
between adjectives and adverbs is their complementary distribution; whereas 
adjectives tend to modify nouns, adverbs aim at other elements other than nouns.  
 
2.2.3.3 Syntactic Properties of Adverbs 
In this sub-section, I look at the core syntactic properties that come with the class 
of adverbs. Adverbs are associated with two major properties; first, their 
‘modifying’ qualities and secondly, how they are distributed in sentences. 
‘Modifier’ is perhaps the oldest assertion associated with the adverbs. And 
depending on how modification is done in the language, adverbs may be observed 
to either precede or follow the constituents it modifies. However, Jackendoff 
(1972) mentions that the semantic interpretation that adverbs express and the 
nature of the syntactic constituents that license the adverb are what determine an 
adverbs’ distribution. This interaction is what makes the study of adverbs 
inextricably bound to both syntax and semantics (Cinque, 1999; Tabe, 2015; 
Tenny, 2000).  
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 In other words, the differences adverbs show in their positions and 
relations with other elements of the sentence is not mere coincidence but come up 
as a result of the constituents adverbs modify and the kind of meaning they add to 
what they specify (Cinque, 1999; Jackendoff, 1972; Saah,2004). This classifies or 
partitions adverbs syntactically into two major types; Verb Phrase adverbs and 
Sentence adverbs. VP-adverbs also known as Verb-modifying adverbs are adverbs 
that modify the verb phrase or predicate. They usually appear before or after the 
verb phrase depending on the modification rule of the language. Potsdam 
(2017:405) gives the syntactic distributional structure of VP adverb as ‘left or 
right adjunction to main verb V’. Sentence adverbs, on the other hand, are 
adverbial elements that modify the clause and normally express the opinions of the 
speaker on the statement uttered (Cinque, 1999; Jackendoff, 1972). According to 
Potsdam (2017:406) sentence adverbs occur ‘left adjunction to IP’, ‘left 
adjunction to I’ and ‘left adjunction to the topmost VP’. In (6), I exemplify the 
two syntactic classes of adverbs. 
(6)  a.   Joyce prayed quietly. 
b. Joyce quietly prayed. 
c. Joyce probably prayed quietly. 
d. Probably, Joyce prayed quietly. 
e. Joyce had probably prayed quietly. 
 Example (6) illustrates the positional distribution of VP adverbs and 
sentence adverbs. In sentences (6a) and (6b), is a VP-adverb quietly which can be 
found attached to the verb phrase. This adverb quietly modifies the verb phrase 
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prayed and can either occur before or after the verb phrase. Sentences (6c) and 
(6d) present probably as a sentence adverb which modifies the entire clause. The 
sentences in (6c), (6d) and (6e) show the sentence adverb probably appearing in 
the clause-initial position, the slot immediately following the subject of the 
sentence and the immediate right position after the modal or auxiliary verb.    
 Saah (2004:73) reports that Akan has both verb-modifying adverbs and 
sentence adverbs. He observed that these two groups are distributed differently 
based on what they have scope over. For instance, manner, pace and aspectual 
adverbs which fall under VP-adverbs can only occur after the verb which it scope 
over and therefore, placing them elsewhere could yield ungrammatical sentences 
or construed as other syntactic categories. Tabe (2015) also mentions that in 
Kenyang, VP-adverbs normally appear after the verb and can only occur at the 
clause-initial position when they are fronted. Here, the adverbs are seen as being 
accompanied by focus particles.  A preliminary observation of Dangme adverbs 
also reveal that there are adverbs that modify the verb or verb phrase and there are 
some that modify the entire sentence; however, their distribution is one area that 
this study seeks to investigate. 
 
 
 
 
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2.2.3.4 Semantic Properties of Adverbs 
The most important distinction in the semantic types of adverbs rests on the 
different information they tell about the verb or sentence. Therefore, for Saah 
(2004:48), “adverbs are classified semantically according to the kind of meaning 
they add to the verb or sentence.” For instance, an adverb may give extra 
information about how an action occurred, when it occurred, where it occurred and 
even the reason behind its occurrence. In light of this, many semantic types of 
adverbs have been proposed by various linguists cross-linguistically (Biber et al, 
1999; Cinque, 1999; Ernst, 2002; Jackendoff, 1972).  
 One of the earliest generalizations about the semantic classes of adverbs is 
Jackendoff (1972) who proposed that the nature of the syntactic constituent that 
licenses the adverb determines its semantic interpretation. With this analogy, 
Jackendoff (1972) semantically grouped adverbs into four groups. These include 
Speaker-oriented adverbs, Subject-oriented adverbs, Event-related adverbs 
and Focus adverbs. Speaker-oriented adverbs such as surprisingly, briefly and 
unfortunately are adverbs that express the attitude of the speaker. They often 
denote the evaluative opinions of the speaker. Subject-oriented adverbs, for 
example rudely, attentively, foolishly among others, are adverbs that are subject-
sensitive. Thus, they usually talk about the subject by assigning it with specific 
properties based on the action depicted by the verb. For adverbs which are event-
related (gently, frequently…) they specify the manner in which an event takes 
place, the time and the location of the action. Therefore, event-related adverbs are 
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usually made up of manner adverbs, temporal adverbs and locative adverbs.  The 
last group, focus adverbs such as exclusively, solely, only and exactly are used to 
draw attention to a particular part of the sentence. 
 Travis (1988) also provides a simplified form of Jackendoff’s (1972) 
classification. Though Travis (1988) concedes with Jackendoff’s semantic 
classification of adverbs, he points out that there are many instances where the 
subject-oriented adverbs and event-oriented adverbs coincide. Thus, when event-
related adverbs such as gently, carefully, quickly and many others of the group can 
also relate to the subject. Hence, Travis (1988) proposed that there should be a 
distinction between adverbs that are related to the event and manner adverbs. Here, 
Travis subdivided event-related adverbs into event-related adverbs that are agent-
sensitive and the true manner adverbs. 
 Cinque (1999) also looks at the different semantic zones and functional 
projections of adverbs. Regardless that this work is being done purely on syntactic 
grounds, it is widely seen as having a semantic strand as well. This is because it 
provides a description of the various semantic zones instantiated by adverbs within 
a sentence. Cinque (1999:106) shows adverbs to universally encode the following 
semantic zones: 
Moodspeech act >Moodevaluative >Moodevidential >Modepistemic >T(Past) 
>T(future) >Moodirrealis >Modnecessity >Modpossibility >Modvolition 
>Modobligation >Modability/permission  >Asphabitual > T (Anterior) > 
Asprepetitive  Aspperfect > Aspretrospective >Aspfrequentative >Aspcelerative 
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>Aspterminative >Aspcontinuative >Aspretrogressive  >Aspproximative > 
Aspdurative  > Aspgeneric/progressive> Aspprospective > Aspcompletive > 
Aspp/completive >Voice >Aspcelerative >Aspcompletive >Asprepetitive 
>Aspfrequentative.    (Cinque 1999:106) 
 Here, the universal hierarchy is grouped into various semantic zones. Each 
adverb is a representative of a larger class of adverbs. The class is labeled with a 
corresponding functional head and every square bracket depicts a separate 
functional projection. Cinque (1999) sees adverbs as specifiers which have 
designated specifier positions within a sentence. Hence, they do not just appear 
anywhere but adhere to some constraints which see to their ordering within a 
clause. 
 However, Cinque’s (1999) proposal has been criticized by a number of 
researchers, specifically Ernst (2004), who argues that the different distributional 
patterns adverbs display is semantically motivated, therefore, their distribution 
cannot be described purely on a syntactic account. Ernst (2004) asserts that the 
classification of adverbs is determined by the semantic and syntactic properties of 
the class which happens to be inextricably bound. Ernst (2004), like many other 
linguists, believes that most times, the semantic composition of the adverb is better 
understood by the syntactic behaviour it shows.  
For Ernst (2004), adverbs also often specify an event, a proposition, or a 
fact and their distribution and sequencing are guided by rules. Therefore, he 
proposes that adverbs should rather be divided into adverbs that are predicational 
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and the ones that serve other functions. He classifies adverbs into three different 
categories. These comprise predicational adverbs, participant adverbs and 
functional adverbs. According to Maienborn & Schafer (2011:1393), 
“predicational adverbials can typically be characterized as supplying a gradable 
property on the verbal or sentential base”. Ernst (2004) observes that in English, 
predicational adverbs are usually the ones formed by adding the suffix ‘-ly’ to an   
adjective. Participant adverbs are adverbs that normally introduce a new 
participant in the sentence. This new participant also helps in the action denoted by 
the verb of the sentence. These kinds of adverbs are often realized in many 
languages as prepositional phrases.  The last category ‘functional adverbs’ of 
Ernst’s (2004) taxonomy is often regarded as the heterogeneous class because it 
made up of  all other adverbs that do not belong to either of the two mentioned 
earlier.  
 Tenny (2000), also following the line of discussion, however, holds that the 
verb plays an important role in the categorization and distribution of adverbs. 
Therefore, Tenny (2000: 329) proposes that “the syntactic and semantic properties 
of adverbs are organized through an event structure constituted of semantic zones 
hooked up with a small inventory of functional projections”. Tenny (2000) 
observes that every VP within a sentence projects an event structure with various 
theta roles and therefore argues that the designation of arguments as adjuncts, 
agents, objects, instruments, location and many others depends on the semantics of 
the verb. Thus, it is the meaning that the verb carries which determines not only 
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the kind of arguments that it comes with, but also the class of adverbs that are 
likely to appear with it in the sentence. He also shows that the diverse distributions 
we see are due to the fact that adverbs “interact with event structure in different 
ways”. 
 Aside the various proposals seen, there have been other different 
taxonomic studies of adverbs in various languages which brings us to the assertion 
that languages do not all have the same number of semantic classes; some may 
have almost all the semantic classes identified cross-linguistically, however, others 
may have a limited number (Biber et al., 1999; Dzameshie, 1998; Givón, 1993; 
Saah, 2004; Saah & Agbedor, 2004).       
The analyses made about the adverb and adverbial systems of the various 
languages are of great importance to this study because the preliminary 
observation made on Dangme adverbs has also shown some resemblance with 
their counterparts in most of the languages, in terms of their morphological 
structure, semantic typology and how they are syntactically distributed in 
sentences. In sum, we encountered that languages use single word adverbs, derived 
adverbs, phrases and clauses of different kinds to express adverbial concepts. 
Similar patterns can also be found in Dangme and the Chapter Three of this study 
is devoted to investigating the morphological structure of Dangme adverbs. Again, 
these insightful studies have given the researcher a preliminary picture of what is 
likely to be seen in the ‘class of adverbs’ in Dangme when it comes to their 
semantic categorization. Also, it is worth mentioning that through these 
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observations, we have gained prior knowledge about the various positions adverbs 
occupy and this alerts us on the possible syntactic slots we are likely to find 
Dangme adverbs having seen how adverbs in some languages (especially Kwa) are 
distributed. 
2.3 Theoretical Framework 
The study and analysis of a language and its structure is not something new. One 
issue which immediately arises is which theory will better explain the nature and 
behaviour of the structures we see in our languages. There are quite a number of 
approaches used in analyzing the numerous sentences structures we encounter 
every day. However, one of the major approaches used is the functional approach, 
also known as functional grammar.  
2.3.1 Functional Grammar  
Functional Grammar is an approach employed by functionalists to explain the 
patterns of cross-linguistic variation as well as analyze the individual structures of 
everyday discourse of languages. Unlike other theories, functional grammar seeks 
to examine language in terms of its function. According to advocates of functional 
grammar, this is so because every structure has at least a semantic function and 
therefore, its structure cannot be analyzed, neither can rules be formulated without 
taking into consideration the function of the lexical element. This is not to say that 
grammatical structures are not important. According to Delancey (2001), the 
theory does not discount linguistic structures in its analysis, however, these 
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structures can only be understood and explained based on their discourse and 
function.  
   Nichols (1984) in her paper ‘Functional theories of Grammar’ provides an 
overview of the approach: 
Functional grammar … analyses grammatical structure, as do formal 
and structural grammar; but it also analyses the entire communicative 
situation: the purpose of the speech event, its participants, and its 
discourse context. Functionalists maintain that the communicative 
situation motivates, constrains, explains, or otherwise determines 
grammatical structure, and that a structural or formal approach is not 
merely limited to an artificially restricted data base, but is inadequate 
even as a structural account. (Nichols, 1984:97) 
From the statement above, we realize that the functional approach does not 
reject language structure and its importance to the study of language. These 
structures serve as a starting point for broader details that tend to explain not only 
the utterance, but also, other possible utterances in the language through the use of 
motivations, communication situation, participants and even the relationships that 
exist among these speakers. This helps linguists get a better cross-linguistic 
analysis, not only of the language being studied, but also other languages. This is 
because there may be variations in the forms, but not the function which is 
universal.     
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2.3.2 Core Tenets of Functional Grammar 
For the gathering and analysis of the data presented in this study, I employ Givón’s 
(2001) functional grammar. This comes with some tenets held by functionalists 
which will help to not only identify the structures that constitute  adverbs, but also 
help us to adequately account for the morphological, semantic and syntactic 
properties that are reflected in Dangme adverbs and adverbials. According to 
Givón (2001:9), functional grammar comes with a set of principles that guides 
functionalists in their course to analyze simple as well as complex structures made 
within well-defined contexts: 
  language is a social-cultural activity 
  structure serves cognitive or communicative function 
  structure is non-arbitrary, motivated, iconic 
  change and variation are ever-present 
  meaning is context-dependent and non-atomic 
  categories are less-than-discrete 
  structure is malleable, not rigid 
  grammars are emergent 
  rules of grammar allow some leakage 
(Givón, 2001: 9) 
Considering how heterogeneous the category ‘adverbs’ is and the wide 
range of functions that are associated with it, this set of principles outlined above 
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can be said to provide a flexible means through which members of the category 
can be described, characterized or even identified.  
From the statement above, it can be deduced that one of the defining core 
tenets of functional grammar is the assertion that language is a tool or an 
instrument of verbal communication among human beings. And this perception is 
embraced by functionalists who believe that language and function are intertwined 
(Osam, 1994; Dik, 1987). Osam (1994) points out that the theory of functional 
grammar is centered on the notion that language structures and the functions they 
code are interwoven. This assertion of utterances having a function or purpose 
confirms the observations that have been made by various researches about 
adverbs and adverbials consisting of various semantic classes based on the kind of 
meaning they add to the constituents they modify.  
 Another central tenet of functional grammar is targeted at the explanation 
of structures. In many other approaches, explanations of grammatical structures 
are generated only out of grammatical form or structure (Delancey 2001). 
However, because structure is non-arbitrary, functionalists hold that there should 
be some form of flexibility in its analysis in order to attain a practical explanation 
for its context-based meanings. This premise stands as one of the fundamental 
principles guiding this study because even though lexical classes may often come 
with clear distinctions, they may also sometimes have partial overlapping with 
other word classes. Therefore, there needs to be some form of flexibility in the 
strategies employed for the analyses of the structures presented in this study. This 
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brings us to another crucial tenet of functional grammar which is the belief in 
prototypical categorization. 
 Prototype categorization is the way of graded categorization where some 
members of the category are more central than others. This approach was 
established to address the shortcomings of the classical model of categorization 
which strictly categorize elements in terms of the set of necessary and sufficient 
features that were associated with the category. Under the classical theory, features 
were considered very essential and also binary, in that if an entity did not possess 
the full set of features, then it failed to be a member of the category. This raised a 
lot of problems in the concept of categorization as most members of a category 
tend not to possess all the defining features of the category. 
For prototype categorization, it is not a matter of ascertaining whether the 
entity possesses the attributes or not, but how closely related the entity is to other 
prototypical members. For instance, verbs cannot be categorized mainly on the 
basis of them being action words. This is because there are many verbs that do not 
depict any form of action in many languages. Therefore, prototypical means of 
categorization is identified by functionalists as the efficient means for identifying 
and grouping lexical classes as they cannot be defined by means of a single set of 
criteria (Givón, 2001). This is because they tend to show a family resemblance 
structure and generally on a radial distribution rather than having all members 
possessing the defining features of the class. Therefore, using the prototype theory, 
we then understand that members of lexical categories such as nouns, verbs and 
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adverbs may exhibit degrees of category membership where some members can 
possess all the qualities whiles other have a few. This does not mean that the 
members with few features are not perfect exemplars of the group as they are 
equally representative for a category. This way of categorizing elements helps us 
to understand that it is possible that here in this study, some entities may possess 
all the features of an adverb while others show various degrees of membership.  
 Functional Grammar will be of great importance to this study because its 
prototypical means of categorization will help in the identification and 
classification of adverbs and adverbials in Dangme. Also, a careful look at the 
observations made about adverbs in the languages covered in the review showed 
the underpinning principles of prototypical categorization, even though silent. This 
is because, in almost all the languages, we encountered words deemed as true 
adverbs in the languages as well as others which traditionally belonged to other 
word classes but somehow used as adverbs. And this could not have been attained 
without using the parameters of prototypical categorization. 
The flexibility that the theory comes with, in terms of how structures are 
described and explained, will allow typological work. And this is important for 
this study as it does not only seek to explain the nature of Dangme adverbs but 
also compare the nature of Dangme adverbs and adverbials to other languages, 
specifically those that share geographical boundaries with the Dangme language. 
Also, ‘function’ being the central idea of this theory will contribute to the 
gathering and analyzing of the data presented in this study. Under this theory, the 
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utterances are normally required to reflect the functional use of language hence; 
the analyses of this study are bound to be findings that reflect the everyday use of 
adverbs by Dangme natives.     
2.4 Chapter Summary 
This chapter looked at some pertinent studies linguists have made on ‘adverbs and 
adverbials’, their classification, morphology, syntax and semantics. Many of the 
literature reviewed here revealed the class of ‘adverbs’ to be the most 
heterogeneous category amidst the other word classes. The discussions showed 
that the heterogeneous nature of the class was partly because it is a ‘catch all’ term 
and also because it is closely linked with the syntactic function named ‘adverbial’. 
 The chapter also surveyed the various ways languages express adverbial 
concepts such as time, place, manner, frequency and many others. The distinction 
identified in most of the languages was between lexical adverbs (true adverbs) and 
other linguistic forms from other word classes or ones formed by suffixation, 
compounding, and reduplication.    
 In terms of its features, the class is recognized with some unique 
morphological, syntactic and semantic features that first of all separate it as a class 
as well as sub-group them into the various divisions we see in the languages that 
express adverbial meanings. The two latter features (semantic and syntactic 
features) were shown to play pioneering roles in how adverbs are distributed 
within a sentence and also contribute to the kind of semantic meaning adverbs add 
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to sentences. They are said to be inextricably bound and together account for the 
category’s nature, its varied distribution preferences and scope capabilities. 
 For the theoretical concepts, section 2 of this chapter gives in-depth 
information about Givón’s (2001) functional Grammar, the core tenets that the 
framework is centered on and tangible reasons why it is a good theory for this 
study.     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER THREE 
THE MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVERBS AND          
ADVERBIALS IN DANGME 
3.1 Introduction 
The principal purpose of this chapter is to provide a detailed description of the 
morphological properties of Dangme adverbs and adverbials. In discussing this, 
three questions will be considered. We have seen in Chapter two that many 
languages use adjectives, verbs, nouns and sometimes locative particles as  
adverbs (cf. Bobuafor, 2013; Dzameshie, 1998; Lusekelo, 2010; Pittner et al., 
2015; Saah, 2004; Saah & Agbedor, 2004; Tabe, 2015). Therefore, the first goal of 
this chapter will be to find out the forms used to express adverbial notions in the 
language. If there are, are there any words in Dangme that can be regarded as the 
prototypical members of the class? Secondly, does Dangme show any distinction 
between adverbs and adjectives as several studies on these two classes have shown 
that languages often tend to show limited distinction between the two?  Finally, 
what processes, if any, are responsible for turning words into adverbs in Dangme? 
 The chapter is organized as follows; section 3.2 looks at the various forms 
that make up the Dangme adverb and adverbial category and their classification as 
prototypical or peripheral members of the class, using the parameters of 
prototypical categorization. The morphological classification of Dangme adverbs 
is discussed in section 3.3. The classification here centers on adverbs which are 
non-derived and those that are derived. The section also investigates the processes 
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involved in deriving adverbs from other syntactic categories in Dangme. In section 
3.4, I look at other lexical constituents that are used as adverbs in the language. 
Section 3.5 is devoted to investigating the varied constituents that fall into the 
label ‘adverbials’ in Dangme and a brief summary is given in section 3.6.    
 
3.2 Structures that Constitutes Adverbs and Adverbials in Dangme 
Dangme, like many languages, has adverbs as well as other structures which are 
used to express adverbial function. According to Dakubu’s (1987) introductory 
survey of the Dangme language, adverbs do exist in the language, and form one of 
the integral components of a clause structure that do not only add some 
information to what is expressed by the verb or an adjective, but also help Dangme 
verbs to better express aspect. The Dangme ‘adverb system’ exhibits a 
heterogeneous class, rich with prototypical adverbs as well as other forms, ranging 
from nouns, adjectives, locative particles, emphatic markers, ideophones, phrases 
and clauses of different types. They include forms like pám ‘suddenly’, ma ‘early’ 
Hɔ̀gbà Sunday and mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀ ‘sorrowfully’. The sentences in (1) illustrate some 
of these varied lexical forms that are used to denote adverbial notions in the 
language. 
 
 
 
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(1) a.  Wà-yà-á  sɔ̀lèm  Hɔ̀gbà 
           1PL.SUBJ-go-HAB church  Sunday 
           ‘We go to church on Sunday.’ 
      b.  Dèdé tè      sī  pám 
           Dèdé wake.PST GROUND3 suddenly 
           ‘Dede woke up suddenly.’ 
      c.  Àblá fó yā4  mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀ 
          Àblá cry.PST sorrowfully 
          ‘Abla cried sorrowfully.’ 
     d.  Yò nɔ̀ péé-ɔ̀  hējɔ̄      sàmínyá 
          Woman DEM do-HAB laziness    very/really 
          ‘This woman is very lazy.’ 
  
                                                          
3The expression ‘ground’ used here does not denote its literal meaning but used as a basic 
conceptual term to refer to a static localization. The general conceptualization of most 
entities is that they are expressed with reference to a particular site, path or orientation 
known as ‘ground’. Talmy (2000:184) mentions that the ‘ground’ is the located site, path, 
or orientation associated with a locating entity which is often movable. The expression 
‘ground’ often co-occur with verbs of movement which normally have a ‘located site or 
position’ and a ‘locating entity’. So in (1b) for instance,  the word si is a ‘ground’ which 
represents an abstract locative site or orientation from the natural state of rest where you 
are unconscious to the state where you are awake and conscious and aware of what 
surrounds you. 
4The verbal construction in (1c) fo ya ‘cry’ is an inherent complement verb. Nwachukwu 
(1987:1562) defines an inherent complement verb as “a morphological subset of verbs 
which in its citation form consist of a consonant-vowel (CV) root followed by a free noun 
(or in very few cases a prepositional phrase). Normally, the two forms that make up the 
verb must come together to make meaning. This inherent complement verb fo ya ‘cry’ 
also presents us with another interesting phenomenon where both forms; fo and ya mean 
‘cry’. Here, the first is a verb and the second, a noun. This feature is seen in many of the 
inherent complement verbs in Dangme. 
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     e.   À  kɛ̄ húhúí        sɛ̀   wē-ɔ̀  mi 
         3PL.SUBJ with noise        enter.PST  house-DEF POST 
        ‘With noise, they entered the house.’ 
    f.  Wà      hìà        blɔ̀ Pɛ̀plɛ̀gbì makɛ ̃ nɛ̀ bè-ɔ́ 
        1PL.SUBJ   move.PST   path Tuesday dawn that pass.PST-DEF 
        ‘We travelled last Tuesday dawn.’ 
    g. Pàpá Tɛ̀tɛ̀ bà  sù wè mi nyɔ̀m kpɛ́tí 
        Pàpá Tɛ̀tɛ̀ come.PST reach home POST night middle 
        ‘Pàpá Tɛ̀tɛ̀ arrived at midnight.’ 
    h. Yòmóyó-ɔ̀  gbó  píàní  nɔ̀  
        old.woman-DEF  die.PST afternoon DEM 
        lókó   è-bí-nyùmù-ɔ̀        bà 
        before        3SG.POSS-child-man-DEF       come.PST 
        ‘The old woman died this afternoon before her son came.’ 
i.  Mànyàdàlɔ̀-ͻ̀ kɛ ̃  kɛ́ jé bè nɔ̀ mì 
        President-DEF say.PRES from time DEM POST 
        kɛ̄ yà-á  wà  màá nà tsákémí 
       CONJ go-PROG 1PL.SUBJ FUT see change 
       ‘The president says henceforth, we will see changes.’ 
 j.   Àmáné bͻ    mī       sè-ͻ    wà    kpàlé    
      news narrate    POST     back-DEF    1PL    return.PST    
      wà           sè    bā  wē mì 
      1PL.POSS    back    come.PST home POST 
      ‘After delivering the news, we returned home.’  
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The sentences in (1) exemplify the numerous structures that are used in 
Dangme to express adverbial meanings. Sentence (1a) presents us with the case 
where a proper noun Hɔ̀gbà ‘Sunday’ is used as a temporal adverb to tell when an 
action was executed. In (1b), we see an example of a true adverb pám ‘suddenly’ 
which contains an inherent adverbial meaning and in (1c) is mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀ 
‘sorrowfully’, a derived adverb formulated by reduplicating the adjective ‘mͻbͻ’. 
In the subsequent sentences, we see the emphatic marker sàmínyá ‘very/really’  as 
in (1d), noun phrases in (1f and 1g), prepositional phrases as in (1i), postpositional 
phrases in (1j), and a clause as in (1h), all performing an adverbial function of 
telling the time, manner, place and degree in which an action was performed.  
From the examples above, we realize that Dangme has a number of single 
words used as adverbs. But then again, the data also present instances where the 
language employs phrases and clauses to express adverbial meanings similar to 
what we have seen in some languages (cf. Lusekelo, 2010; Pittner et al., 2015; 
Huddleston & Pullum, 2002; Saah, 2004; Saah & Agbedor, 2004; Tabe, 2015).  
On this evidence, a question may thus be raised as to what then is regarded an 
adverb in Dangme? Which lexical item can be said to be a prototypical adverb? 
And which structures are regarded as adverbials in Dangme? These questions are 
answered in the sections that follow.  
 
 
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3.2.1    Prototypical and Peripheral Constituents of the Dangme Adverb category 
Several typological studies reveal that while, cross-linguistically, word classes of 
languages share some similar features, there are also many cases where these 
parts-of-speech inventories make striking distinctions (cf. Geuder, 2000; Pittner et 
al., 2015; Schachter & Shopen, 2007; Simone & Masini, 2014). This is often due 
to some unique qualities that tend to be language specific. Therefore, many 
linguists suggest that though a researcher must have knowledge about the 
generalizations which have been made about these syntactic categories, it is also 
very important to describe these terminologies as used in the language (Dixon, 
2009; Shachter & Shopen, 2007). For this reason, it is necessary to establish what 
the terms, ‘adverbs’ and ‘adverbials’ mean in Dangme.  Consider the following 
examples. 
(2) a.  Yó-ͻ́   lá  mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀ 
                woman-DEF sing.PST sorrowfully 
               ‘The woman sang sorrowfully.’  
          b.   Jókúɛ́   yòyó nɔ̀ hē ngɛ̀ fɛ̀ú     sàmínyá 
                child    female DEM self be.at beautiful  really/very 
              ‘This girl is really/very beautiful.’    
          c.   Wà  títsɛ̄-ɛ̄       bá-á   má  nítsɛ̄ 
              1PL.POSS teacher-DEF   come-HAB  early    very 
              ‘Our teacher comes very early.’   
 
                         
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          d.   È- péé-ɔ̀       wē  mì nͻ́ fὲε ̀ nͻ́ pὲpεp̀ε ̀
              3SG.SUBJ-do-HAB     house POST everything thoroughly 
              ‘He/She does all his/her house chores thoroughly.’ 
     Example (2) presents us with four grammatical sentences. In (2a), the 
lexical element mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀ ‘sorrowfully’ modifies the verb as it gives us 
information about how the action denoted by the verb lá ‘sing’ was performed. 
The bolded word   sàmínyá ‘really/very’ in (2b) on the other hand, modifies the 
adjective by showing the level or degree of the adjective fɛ̀ú ‘beautiful’ associated 
with the noun jókúɛ́ yòyó ‘girl’. In (2c), the lexical element nítsɛ̄ ‘very’ modifies 
the adverb má ‘early’ by giving us some information about the degree at which the 
action was executed. And in (2d), we realize that the bolded expression pὲpὲpὲ 
‘thoroughly’ modifies the entire clause because it depicts the speaker’s judgement 
about an event denoted by the clause. When we compare the morphological 
structure of the bolded expressions in (2) to that of (3) which comes here after, we 
find that though the constituents modified in the two examples are the same, the 
modifiers are different with respect to their form. This is because whereas the 
modifiers in (2) are single lexical elements, the modifiers in (3) come as a phrase 
as in (3a) and (3c) or clauses as in (3b) and (3d). 
(3) a.    Yó-ͻ́  lá  kɛ́ jé mɔ̀tù  ngmlέ 
             woman-DEF sing.PST from morning hour 
             nyͻ̀ngmá    kɛ̄ káké   kɛ̄        bà       sù 
             ten         CONJ      one CONJ      come.PST     reach  
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  píàní             nɔ̀ 
  afternoon      DEM 
  ‘The woman sang from eleven in the morning till this afternoon.’   
     b.   Jókúɛ́   yòyó       nɔ̀  hē pè  fὲú   
  child    female       DEM self do  beautiful 
  nɛ̄ è-wò             è-blóónyà   átádè-ɛ́ 
  when 3SG.SUBJ-wear.PST    3SG.POSS-Christmas dress-DEF 
  ‘This girl looked beautiful when she wore her Christmas dress.’  
     c.    Wà  títsɛ̄-ɛ̄       bá-á    má  
           1PL.POSS teacher-DEF    come-HAB   early 
           dàà  Hͻ̀gbí  
           every  Monday  
           ‘Our teacher comes early every Monday.’        
     d.  È- péé-ɔ̀   wē mì nͻ́ fὲὲ nͻ́ 
          3SG.SUBJ-do-HAB house POST everything 
          lókó   è-yà-á   súkúú 
          before      3SG.SUBJ-go-HAB  school  
          ‘He/She does all his/her house chores before he/she goes to school.’  
  
The functions the underlined expressions in (2) and (3) perform in their 
various sentences is in line with the functions adverbs and adverbials are noted to 
perform in sentences (cf. Greenbaum, 2000; Pittner et al., 2015; Saah, 2004; Saah 
& Agbedor, 2004; Schachter & Shopen, 2007). Just like adverbs or adverbials, the 
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underlined expressions in the data above modify a verb, an adjective, another 
adverb or an entire clause. Therefore, following Saah’s (2004:47) and 
Greenbaum’s (2000:173) definitions of the concepts, I define an ‘adverb’ in 
Dangme as any “single lexical item” that traditionally functions as a modifier of a 
verb, an adjective, another adverb or a clause. An ‘adverbial’ in Dangme on the 
other hand, can be defined as any group of words or clause that can replace an 
adverb in a canonical sentence and can characterize a verbal action, an adjectival 
expression, an adverbial expression or a whole clause. 
It can also be observed from (2) and (3) that the two forms (‘single lexical 
elements’ and ‘phrase/clauses’) are both used to express adverbial meanings. This 
shows that in Dangme also, the two forms (‘adverbs’ and ‘adverbials’) are used to 
perform the same function even though they are different in terms of their forms. 
This is consistent with the widely known assertion about adverbs not only being 
single lexical words, but also consisting of a group of words or clauses. Therefore, 
we can say that in Dangme, like any language that expresses adverbial concepts, 
these two groups together make up the adverb category of the language. However, 
because of the central idea that the category represents a heterogeneous class and 
most times consists of numerous misleading structures we may have to establish 
which structures are considered as ‘adverbs’ and ‘adverbials’ in Dangme and 
where the boundaries of these two groups end. 
Though the terms ‘adverbs’ and ‘adverbials’ have been explained, it is also 
very important to establish the kind of structures likely to be seen among these two 
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groups.  To do this, I employ the prototypical means of categorizing items because 
the group is noted to be made up of several varied members.5 Interestingly, though 
many updates have been made to cover the many functions that an adverb 
performs and the behavourial traits they come with, the basic function (α) 
associated with the class is being any word that modifies a verb, an adjective, 
another adverb or an entire clause.  The second central feature (β) that may test 
the prototypicality of the members rest on whether the element has ‘an inherent 
adverbial meaning’ or not. Inherent adverbial meaning here means that these 
words do not perform any other function like nominal, verbal or adjectival except 
an adverbial function. This set of possible core features is what ties together the 
members of the adverb category in Dangme. Therefore, an adverb which bears all 
the features outlined in (α) and (β) is said to be central or prototypical and the 
members which often may not possess all the features are known as less central or 
peripheral. 
Adverbs in Dangme come in various forms and so does the adverbial 
system.  But since this classification is done based on the prototype theory, we find 
adverbs that are prototypical and others that are peripheral. Adverbs which are 
central or prototypical are normally identified as true adverbs in the language. 
They do not belong to other word classes and often depict adverbial meanings 
                                                          
5The Prototype theory obviously will not only offer the easiest means of differentiating 
adverbs from other syntactic categories but will also help in the sub-categorization of 
Dangme adverbs into the various semantic sub-classes. For instance, the theory helps in 
distinguishing which Dangme adverbs fall into let’s say the ‘manner’ category, ‘temporal’ 
category, ‘epistemic’ category and many others (cf. Ramat & Ricca, 1994). 
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even when in isolation.  Thus, whenever a word considered as a prototypical 
adverb occurs in a sentence, it is likely to perform only an adverbial function. 
Peripheral adverbs, on other hand, were found to be other lexical categories like 
adjectives, nouns and locative particles that are used as adverbs. These kind of 
adverbs cannot be said to be true because they perform other functions when they 
are not used as adverb in sentences.  
When it comes to their morphological make up, true adverbs normally 
appear as single non-derived lexical elements. However, on the theoretical basis of 
prototypical categorization, I categorize true adverbs and every single lexical 
element that can function as an adverb into the group ‘adverbs’ and other syntactic 
constituents such as phrases and clauses that are used adverbially, I group as 
‘adverbials’. This, I illustrate in the diagram below. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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              g 
         f adverbials                   
             e 
               d
 
                        c 
          b 
         a             
                      adverbs 
         
 
 
a. true or pure adverbs 
 b. derived adverbs 
c. nominals 
 
d. adjectives 
 e. emphatic markers 
f. phrases 
 g. clauses 
 
Figure 3. Prototypical Representation of Dangme Adverb Category 
 
 
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The diagram above is the prototypical representation of the Dangme adverb 
class. The diagram shows that the Dangme adverb category has an uncertain 
membership because of the set of lexical categories that make up the class. As 
already explained, the most central members (a) are the true Dangme adverbs. 
They are often descriptive and typically used to give extra information about the 
lexical verbs, adjectives and other adverbs they are added to. Aside adverbial 
function, they do not perform any other function when used in a sentence. The 
next items in (b) are derived Dangme adverbs which are also single lexical 
adverbs, but, formed through reduplication and compounding. The group labeled 
(c) refers to the nominals which can be used as adverbs in Dangme without any 
change in the form of the word. In (d) and (e), we have adjectives and emphatic 
markers respectively. For this study, the five groups mentioned make up the 
category ‘adverbs’ in Dangme.  
Also, there are other constituents commonly known as adverbials which 
together with basic adverbs, are used to indicate adverbial concepts in the 
language. These structures are represented by the labels (f) and (g).  The label (f) is 
made up of adverb phrases, nouns phrases, prepositional phrases, and 
postpositional phrases. Label (g) represents clauses which are also used 
adverbially in Dangme utterances. I discuss these different types of adverbs and 
adverbials in subsequent chapters and sections. 
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3.3 Morphological Classification of Dangme Adverbs 
In this sub-section, I look at the morphological classification of Dangme adverbs. 
‘Adverbs’ in Dangme can be morphologically classified into two, namely true and 
derived adverbs. The distinction here is between single word items which are non-
derived and the ones that are derived from other syntactic categories which, 
sometimes may appear with slight morphophonological changes. This 
classification is apparently one of the commonest distinctions seen across 
languages and is also adopted for this study (cf. Bobuafor, 2013; Dzameshie, 1998; 
Huddleston & Pullum, 2002; Lusekelo, 2010; Pittner et al., 2015; Schachter & 
Shopen, 2007; Saah, 2004; Saah & Agbedor, 2004; Tabe, 2015). 
 
3.3.1 Morphological Structure of True Adverbs in Dangme 
 “True adverbs” (Lusekelo, 2010:64) or “pure adverbs” (Tabe, 2015:116) are 
linguistic terms for prototypical adverbs that are non-derived. According to Le 
Roux (2007:66), they are lexical items of the class ‘adverbs’ which “are not 
derived from other word categories and have an inherent adverbial meaning.” 
Although it is very common to see languages use words belonging to other 
syntactic categories as adverbs, several studies on this phenomenon show that 
languages tend to have some words that are true adverbs (cf. Bobuafor, 2013; 
Dzameshie, 1998; Geuder, 2000; Lusekelo, 2010; Pittner et al., 2015; Schachter & 
Shopen, 2007; Saah, 2004).  
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 One of such inferring typological studies is Bobuafor’s (2013) grammatical 
study of Tafi, a language spoken in some settlements in the Hohoe District in 
Ghana. Bobuafor’s (2013:235) analysis of the Tafi adverbs shows that although 
the adverb class is made up of several categories, the language has a number of 
basic adverbs such as mɔ̌ ‘well’, zɩa ‘fast’, tsɔ́ ‘to do early’ and grɔdzyɩɩ 
‘reluctantly’ which often reveal the time and the manner in which an action was 
enacted. 
Lusekelo’s (2010:64) study of Kinyakyusa adverbs shows that the language 
has true adverbs. He mentions that words like ulu ‘now’ mbibi ‘quickly’ and bwila 
‘always’ are lexical elements which belong to the adverb class and  are non-
derived. This supports his claim that aside the numerous linguistic structures that 
are used to depict adverbial meanings in the language, there are some which are 
regarded as the “true/ core” adverbs.   
Tabe’s (2015:117) discussion of Kenyang adverbs gives us another fair 
insight into the morphological structure of true adverbs. She indicates that the 
Kenyang language has few of what are termed ‘pure adverbs’ because “Kenyang 
does not have an open class of adverbs like its English counterpart. The category 
of adverb in some cases is interpreted from the phonological modification of the 
citation form of the verb or from the syntactic position of the adjective in Kenyang 
clauses.”   
 In Dangme, the data indicate a close resemblance of what have been 
considered so far in Tafi, Kinyakyusa and Kenyang.  Dangme has a few true 
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adverbs which are not usually linked with other functions aside from their 
adverbial functions.  Examples of such adverbs include má ‘early’, pám 
‘suddenly’, blɛuu ‘slowly’, piͻͻ ‘now’, and hluu ‘a long time’. Let’s consider the 
following Dangme sentences outlined in Example (4), where the bold expressions 
are examples of true adverbs in Dangme.  
(4)   a.     Pu ̀ -ɔ̀  jè  kpò má 
    sun-DEF leave.PST out early 
    ‘The sun rose early.’ 
        b.    Jókúɛ́-ɔ́ té  sī  pám  
    child-DEF rise.PST GROUND suddenly  
    nɛ  è-yà   tsɔ́mì-ɛ́ 
    CONJ 3SG.SUBJ-go.PST errand-DEF  
    ‘The child stood up suddenly and went for the errand.’ 
        c.     Hìɔ̀tsɛ̄ hi ̀     sì  blɛ̀ùù     ngɛ̀  sɛ́ nɔ̄ 
    patient sit.PST    GROUND slowly     be.at chair POST 
    ‘The patient sat down slowly on the chair.’ 
        d.    È-maa  yè   nɔ̄  piͻ  
    3SG.SUBJ-FUT eat.PST something now  
    ‘He/She will eat now.’ 
        e.    Bímɔ̀nyó-ͻ́ fó yā  hluu 
        baby-DEF cry.PST a very long time 
               ‘The baby cried for several hours.’  
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 The words in bold above are all true adverbs in Dangme. The only function 
they perform is the adverbial function. They cannot be associated with the 
nominal, verbal or adjectival function when they occur in sentences. As these 
examples indicate, Dangme has true adverbs which can be made up of one syllable 
as in má ‘early’ and pám ‘suddenly’ and two syllable words like  blɛ̀ùù ‘slowly’, 
piͻ ‘now’ and hluu ‘a long time’ in Example  (4c),  (4d) and (4e) respectively.  
 
3.3.2 Derived Adverbs 
The category ‘adverbs’ in Dangme is also made up of members which are derived 
from other word classes. These forms are known as derived adverbs. One 
generalization raised in light of the various observations done on this phenomenon 
is that derived adverbs are very common despite the fact that most languages may 
have several structures which they use to express adverbial concepts (Biber et al., 
1999; Geuder, 2000; Huddleston & Pullum, 2002; Saah & Agbedor, 2004). 
Derived adverbs are adverbs formed from other syntactic categories through 
derivational processes such affixation, reduplication and compounding. Thus, a 
word may be turned into an adverb by either adding a prefix or suffix to a base or 
by the repetition of a whole or part of lexical items or even by the joining of two 
independent roots  
The phenomenon through which languages form adverbs from other parts of 
speech is termed adverbialisation. According to Huddleston (1988: 122), it is “a 
concept analogous to nominalization and adjectivalisation.” He identifies two 
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types of adverbialisation; morphological and syntactic adverbialisation. He 
explains morphological adverbialisation as a concept which involves the 
derivational processes of yielding words for the adverb class from other lexical 
categories; examples being some of the processes mentioned earlier like 
reduplication and compounding. Syntactic adverbialisation on the other hand, 
involves the use of words originally belonging to other lexical categories as 
adverbs without a change in the form of the word. 
3.3.3  Deriving Adverbs in Dangme 
When it comes to the derivation of Dangme adverbs, there are no affixes involved 
like observed in some languages (cf. Lusekelo, 2010; Geuder, 2000; Saah & 
Agbedor, 2004). Nevertheless, there are two main processes involved in the 
formation of adverbs in Dangme namely; reduplication and compounding. For 
instance, the time adverb jehajeha ‘yearly’ is formed from the repetition of the 
noun jeha ‘year’ and yoku nͻ ‘mountain top’, a place adverb is derived from the 
combination of two bases yoku ‘mountain’ and the postposition nͻ ‘top’ 
 
3.3.3.1. Adverbs formed through Reduplication 
Reduplication is one of the major derivational process used in forming adverbs in 
Dangme. According to Roca (1994:12), reduplication is the “common word-
formation strategy, whereby a word has part of itself (or, in some cases, its entire 
melody) affixed to create another related word.” Thus, in reduplication, there is 
some form of repetition of the base or part of it to form another word. Many 
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scholars assert that reduplication is one derivational process used by most 
languages that express adverbial notions for the formation of adverbs and 
intensification of adjectives and adverbs (Abakah, 2010; Hevi, 2011; Mattes, 2006; 
Dolphyne, 1988). And this generalization holds for Dangme also, most adverbs are 
formed through the reduplication of adjectives and nouns. But before we look at 
these adverbs formed from reduplication, a brief premise must be laid out here 
about some true adverbs in Dangme which have multiple syllables. These adverbs 
normally appear as reduplicated forms but are not, hence revealing that not all 
adverbs with a morphological structure as reduplicated words have undergone this 
derivational process. Some notable examples are patapata ‘restlessly’, tsilͻtsilͻ ‘in 
bits’, kúmákúmá ‘eagerly’, lílíílí ‘grumpily’ in (5).    
(5)     a.    Kungwͻ-ɔ  hua            patapata            
      chicken-DEF struggle.PST    restlessly  
      ‘The chicken struggled restlessly.’  
          b.    Hìɔ̀tsɛ̄-ɛ  ngὲ zàm zii-ε         tsilͻtsilͻ 
      patient-DEF be.at urine urinate-PROG        in bits/bit by bit 
      ‘The patient is urinating in bits.’  
         c.     Wà  há   lɛ̀    nyù   nɛ̀ 
      1PL.SUBJ give.PST 3SG.OBJ   water   CONJ 
      è-nù   kúmákúmá 
     3SG.SUBJ-drink  eagerly 
     ‘We offered him water and he drank it eagerly.’ 
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         d.    Ò-tú    ò-hɛ́   mì lílíílí 
     2SG.SUBJ-frown.PERF 2SG.POSS-face inside grumpily 
     ‘You have frowned your face grumpily.’ 
The underlined expressions in the data are also examples of adverbs in 
Dangme. Though the structure of these adverbs appears as though they are 
reduplicated forms, their semantics does not show that they have undergone any 
form of reduplication. In other words, the meanings of these adverbs are not 
derived as a result of reduplication. For instance, in (5b), the adverb tsilͻtsilͻ has 
its base tsilͻ repeated, reflecting a reduplicated structure, however, tsilͻ is not a 
word in Dangme. Therefore, we cannot conclude that tsilͻtsilͻ is formed from the 
base tsilͻ through the process of reduplication.  These forms are ideophones and 
are further discussed in chapter four. Now, consider the examples that come in (6) 
and (7).   In (6), the adjectives  bͻdͻͻ ‘soft’ in (6a) and dͻlee ‘lazy/dull’ in (6c) are 
reduplicated to form the adverbs bͻdͻbͻdͻ ‘softly’ and dͻledͻle ‘lazily’ in (6b) and 
(6d) respectively.  
(6)  a.   Dàrléy   màmí      há             mī    òtìm       bͻ̀dͻ̀ͻ̀ kō 
            Darley   mother     give.PST      1SG.OBJ   kenkey    soft  INDEF 
            ‘Darley’s mother gave me a soft kenkey.’ 
       b.  Dàrléy  tsi ́  má kú-ͻ́6 bͻ̀dͻ̀-bͻ̀dͻ̀ 
            Darley  make.PST ma ku-DEF soft 
            ‘Darley made the ma ku soft.’  
                                                          
6 Ma ku is the Dangme name for banku, a Ghanaian dish prepared from fermented corn 
and cassava dough.  
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c. Mení nε ́ ò-péé       dͻ̀léé mwͻ̀nὲͻ 
            why that 2SG.SUBJ-do      dull  today  
            ‘Why are you dull today?’ 
d. Dèdé kàné      blὲfó tā-ͻ̀-mε̄      dͻ̀lé-dͻ̀lé 
            Dede count.PST pineapple-DEF-PL  lazily 
            ‘Dede lazily counted the pineapples.’ 
Several other examples of adverbs formed by reduplicating adjectives are 
outlined in the Table below.  
Table 1: Reduplicated Adverbs formed from Adjectives 
Base form (Adj) Gloss Reduplicated form (Adv) Gloss 
mͻbͻ ‘sad’ mͻbͻmͻbͻ ‘sorrowfully’ 
esͻ ‘quick’ esͻesͻ ‘quickly’ 
kunyaa ‘extreme’ kunyakunya ‘extremely’ 
fútáá ‘white’ fútáfútáá ‘very white’ 
dɔ́kɔ́ɔ́ ‘sweet’ dɔ́kɔ́dɔ́kɔ́ ‘very sweet’ 
falii ‘neat’ falifali ‘neatly’ 
kpitio ‘small’ kpitikpiti ‘rarely’ 
nyͻngͻͻ ‘small’                    n  y  ͻ  n  g  ͻ  n  y  ͻ n   g  ͻ                         ‘ i  n   s m   a  l l  p  i e  c  e  s ’                                                                                                                             
àgbò ‘big’ àgbò àgbò ‘in big pieces’ 
tsεtsε ‘smart’ tsεtsεεtsε ‘smartly’ 
bɔ̀kɔ̀ɔ̀ ‘slow’ bɔ̀kɔ̀bɔ̀kɔ̀ ‘slowly’ 
bàsàà ‘haphazard’ bàsàbàsà ‘haphazardly’ 
kekle ‘first’ kéklééklé  ‘firstly’ 
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In Table 1 above, we can observe that the adjectives in the base are 
repeated twice to form adverbs. Apart from fútáfútáá ‘very white’ and dɔ́kɔ́dɔ́kɔ́ 
‘very sweet’ which have the same grammatical categories as the base all the others 
have a change of class feature. Even so, these two reduplicated forms, are used as 
adverbs in Dangme without them being affected by their adjectival function. This 
is because whereas the derived forms fútáfútáá ‘very white’ and dɔ́kɔ́dɔ́kɔ́ ‘very 
sweet’ can be used to express an adverbial function, the single bases fútáá ‘white’ 
and dɔ́kɔ́ɔ́ ‘sweet’ cannot be used as an adverbs. On the other hand, the adjective 
bases, bàsàà ‘haphazard’ and esͻ ‘quick’ freely form the adverbs bàsàbàsà 
‘haphazardly’ and esͻesͻ ‘quickly’ when reduplicated. This shows that in Dangme, 
adverbs derived by reduplicating adjectives may be class changing or class 
maintaining. Similarly, in the constructions (7), some adverbs are formed from the 
reduplication of nouns. 
(7)  a.  Ligbi kpaago      pee-ͻ otsi kake 
  Day seven      do-HAB week one 
  ‘Seven days make one week.’  
      b.    I-mami ya-a  jua  nͻ    otsi-otsi 
  1SG.POSS go-HAB market  POST    weekly 
  ‘My mother goes to the market weekly.’ 
 
 
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c.  A-je-ͻ        jeha ehe sisi ngε  
       3SG.SUBJ-begin-HAB   year new under  be.at 
  Jͻne  kekle ligbi-ͻ  nͻ 
  January first day-DET POST 
  ‘A new year begins on the 1st of January.’ 
d.  Klo-li     ye-ͻ  Ngmayemi7 jeha-jeha 
  Klo-PL   eat-HAB Ngmayemi yearly/annually 
  ‘Krobos celebrate Ngmayemi yearly/annually.’ 
In the above example, the adverbs otsi-otsi ‘weekly’ in (7b) and jeha-jeha 
‘yearly’ in (7d) are formed by reduplicating the nouns otsi ‘week’ and jeha ‘year’ 
in (7a and 7c) respectively. More examples of reduplicated adverbs formed from 
nouns are listed below in Table 2. 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                          
7 Ngmayemi festival is a harvest festival celebrated by the people of Manya Krobo. 
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Table 2: Adverbs formed from reduplicated Nouns 
Base form (Noun) Gloss Reduplicated form (Adv) Gloss 
otsi ‘week’ otsi otsi ‘weekly’ 
jeha ‘year’ jeha jeha ‘yearly’ 
gbͻkuε ‘evening’ gbͻkuε gbͻkuε ‘every evening’ 
piani ‘afternoon’ piani piani ‘every afternoon’ 
be ‘time’ bebeebe ‘already’ 
daka ‘box’ daka daka ‘in boxes’ 
kake ‘one’ kakaaka ‘one each’ 
enyͻ ‘two’ enyͻͻnyͻ ‘two each’ 
nyu͂ ‘water’ nyu͂nyu͂ ‘watery’ 
tɛ́ stone tɛ́tɛ́ stony/lumpy 
ngo͂ ̀ salt ngo͂ǹgo͂ ̀ salty 
 
 As illustrated in Table 2, another category of Dangme words that can 
undergo reduplication to form adverbs is the nominal class. As shown in Table 2, 
the single nominal  bases piani ‘afternoon’, be ‘time’ and daka ‘box’ are repeated 
to derive the adverbs piani piani ‘every afternoon’, bebeebe ‘already’ and 
dakadaka ‘in boxes’ respectively. However, the last three resultant reduplicated 
forms nyu͂nyu͂ ‘watery’, tɛ́tɛ́ ‘stony/lumpy’ ngo͂ǹgo͂ ̀ ‘salty’ become adjectives 
when they are reduplicated. But these resultant reduplicated nouns which have 
adjectival function can be used as adverbs with the only change being the 
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constituents they modify in sentences. Example of such phenomenon can be seen 
in Example (26a and b) on page 92. 
 Also from the table, we observe that numerals in Dangme such as kake 
‘one’ and enyͻ ‘two’ can also be reduplicated to derive the adverbs kakaaka ‘one 
each’ and enyͻͻnyͻ ‘two each’. Reduplicated numerals in the language are 
normally used to signal distributive meaning. A distributive numeral in Dangme is 
a numeral which expresses a group of the number specified. This does not show 
any variation from what exists in Akan. Thus, in Akan, forms such baako baako 
‘one-one’, mienumienu ‘two-two’ mi͂ɛ͂nsa͂ mi͂ɛ͂nsa͂ ‘three-three’ and many others 
are reduplicative numerals that signal distributiveness. This is illustrated in the 
example below. 
(8) Pàpá nó     ma-a            mmofra  no      ankaa   mienu mienu 
          Man  DEF  give-PST  children   DEF orange  two each     
         ‘The man gave the children two oranges each’ 
 In Dangme also, distributive meaning is encoded by the operation of 
reduplication, similar to what persists in Akan. In Table 2 above we can observe 
that the cardinal numeral bases are subjected to the operation of reduplication to 
encode distributive meaning. This is illustrated in example (9), with the 
reduplicated numeral ényͻͻnyͻ ‘two each’. 
 
 
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(9) Matsɛ-ɛ ha     mɛ             lͻle ényͻͻnyͻ 
       man-DEF give.PST 3PL.OBJ  lorry two each 
       ‘The chief gave them two lorries each.’ 
 
3.3.3.1.1 Semantic Functions of Reduplicated Adverbs in Dangme 
In addition to the formation of new words, many languages reduplicate words to 
perform other functions (Dolphyne, 1988; Novotna 2000). This is one of the 
dominant assumptions about reduplication, that it is a reliant means through which 
languages not only widen their word classes, but also depict some grammatical 
developments that take place among utterances (Abakah et al 2010; Mattes, 2006; 
Roca, 1994). Likewise, reduplication in Dangme is not limited to the formation of 
new words only, but also normally used to show some other grammatical 
descriptions. These meanings can be attained from the initial reduplicated form or 
when the resultant reduplicated adverb is further repeated. Reduplicated adverbs in 
Dangme can be said to denote five major meanings; 
a. Intensification of the base meaning: 
This function of reduplication is associated with adverbs which are further 
reduplicated. In such instances, no new word is derived, however, there is an 
indication of more emphasis or intensification. This is illustrated in the sentences 
in (10) and (11).   
 
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(10)  a.   Kͻlete ye  blεfo tā-a  ma 
              Kͻlete eat.PST pineapple-DEF fast 
              ‘Kͻlete ate the pineapple fast.’ 
         b.   Kͻlete ye  blεfo tā-a     mamaama 
               Kͻlete eat.PST pineapple-DEF    very fast 
               ‘Kͻlete ate the pineapple very fast.’ 
(11) a.   Yo-ͻ             sa  goga-a  he fali-fali 
       woman-DEF      scrub.PST bucket-DEF body neatly 
      ‘The woman scrubbed the bucket neatly.’ 
b.   Yo-ͻ       sa  goga-a  he fali-fali-fali-fali 
                woman-DEF    scrub.PST bucket-DEF body very neatly 
                ‘The woman scrubbed the bucket very neatly.’ 
 The sentences in (10 & 11) show the intensity function of adverbs. As can 
be seen, the bases that undergo reduplication are already adverbs and therefore 
when reduplicated, they do not form any new word but intensify the meanings 
denoted by the single bases. However, when we look at the bolded expressions in 
the sentences (12) that comes here after, we realize that here, a new word is 
formed when the base is repeated. This is because unlike the bolded constructions 
in the previous examples, this base is a noun. 
(12)  a.   Ligbi    kpaago pee-ͻ  otsi kake 
   Day    seven do-HAB week one 
   ‘Seven days make one week.’ 
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       b.    I-mami ya-a  jua  nͻ    otsi-otsi 
   1SG.POSS go-HAB market  POST    weekly 
   ‘My mother goes to the market weekly.’ 
 
b. Distributive meaning: 
Some reduplicated adverbs express distributive meaning. This meaning is often 
conveyed by adverbs formed when cardinal numerals are reduplicated. 
Considering the reduplicated compound ényͻͻnyͻ ‘two each’ [lit. two two] in the 
example below, one may observe that the extra semantic meaning (distributive) of 
the reduplicated form does not originate from the single base, but attained when 
the base undergoes reduplication. Thus, the distributive semantic information 
available in the reduplicated form has to be understood as semantic feature that 
comes only with the resultant reduplicated form.  
(13)  a.   Matsɛ-ɛ he  lͻle enyͻ 
              Chief-DEF buy.PST lorry two 
              ‘The chief bought two lorries.’ 
         b.  Matsɛ-ɛ ha     mɛ             lͻle ényͻͻnyͻ 
        chief-DEF give.PST  3PL.OBJ  cloth two each 
              ‘The chief gave them two lorries each.’ 
 
 
 
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c. Repeated action: 
Some reduplicated adverbs in Dangme depict repeated action. This function 
normally comes with temporal adverbs derived from reduplicating nouns. As was 
illustrated in Table 2, reduplication of temporal nouns in Dangme mostly yields 
time adverbs. For instance, the temporal nouns jéhà͂ ‘year’, mɔ̀tù ‘morning’, 
gbɔkuɛ ‘evening’ and ótsí ‘week’ become temporal adverbs  jéha͂ jéha͂ 
‘yearly/every year’ mɔ̀tù mɔ̀tù ‘every morning’, gbɔkuɛ gbɔkuɛ ‘every evening’ 
and ótsí ótsí ‘weekly/every week’ when reduplicated. Though these reduplicated 
adverbs denote time, they actually show time at which an action or event 
replicates. In (14) that comes here after, it can be observed that the extra semantic 
information of ‘repeated action’ associated with the reduplicated forms is not 
traceable to the single bases and therefore must be considered as the semantic 
property of the resultant reduplicated constructions. 
(14)  a.   Gbɔkuɛ maa ba piɔ sɔ nɔ 
   evening FUT come right now 
   ‘Evening will come right now.’  
        b.   Dede  ba-a  hiɔ gbɔkuɛ gbɔkuɛ 
   1SG.POSS come-HAB here every evening 
   ‘Dede comes here every evening.’ 
 
 
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d. Continuous action: 
Dangme reduplicated adverbs may also denote continuous action. The continuous 
meaning denoted by adverbs in Dangme is peculiar to ideophonic adverbs. These 
are words that usually mimic the sounds of activities such as the falling of an 
object, hitting or striking of two objects or other qualities associated with an action 
(Saah, 2004). Examples of ideophonic adverbs that evoke the sense of continuous 
action are timtim ‘pounding of fufu or something’ tsilͻtsilͻ describes ‘the sound of 
liquid flowing in bits’ and ‘kúmákúmá depicts ‘the eagerness of continuous 
drinking of water especially when very thirsty’. A crucial property associated with 
these type of adverbs is the idea of a continuous action, often without any 
interruption.  
e. Collective meaning: 
There are some reduplicated adverbs in Dangme that evoke a sense of 
collectiveness. The reduplicated adverbs used to perform this function are usually 
derived by reduplicating adjectives. For instance, the adverbs agbo agbo ‘big 
pieces’ and nyɔngɔ nyɔngɔ ‘small pieces’ are derived from reduplicating the 
adjectives agbo ‘big’ and nyɔngɔ ‘small’ respectively. When such adverbs are 
used in sentences, they tend to show an action of grouping items of the same 
quality and size. For example, the adverbs  agbo agbo ‘big pieces’ in (15) and 
nyɔngɔ nyɔngɔ ‘small pieces’ in (16)  to some level show that the objects were cut 
in a collective manner. 
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(15)  a.   Dede  ha  mi  lo agbo 
              Dede  give.PST 1SG.OBJ fish big 
              ‘Dede gave me a big fish.’ 
         b.  Dede  po  lo-ͻ  mɛ mi agbo agbo 
              Dede  cut.PST fish-DEF PL inside in big pieces 
              ‘Dede cut the meat into big pieces.’ 
 
(16)  a.   Dede      ha        mi  lo nyͻngͻͻ ko 
              Dede      give.PST ISG.OBJ fish small  INDEF 
              ‘Dede gave me a small fish.’ 
        b.   Dede      po  lo-ͻ  mɛ mi nyͻngͻ nyͻngͻ 
              Dede      cut.PST fish-DEF PL inside in smaller pieces 
              ‘Dede cut the meat into smaller pieces.’ 
   
3.3.3.2      Adverbs formed through Compounding 
A number of adverbs in Dangme are also formulated by joining together two or 
more already existing independent structures to form a single words. The most 
common compound words used as adverbs are the ones that have some spatio-
temporal and locational relations. These category of compounds mainly fall into 
Noun+Postposition (N+P) compounds. It involves the putting together a noun and 
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a postposition. The underlined expressions in Example (17) indicate the use of 
N+P compounds as adverbs. 
(17)  a. Plaafo-hi  fuu la-a  a-he 
 Executioner-PL many hide-HAB 3PL.POSS-body 
 ngɛ yoku nͻ 
 be.at mountain-top 
 ‘Many executioners hide themselves on mountain tops.’ 
        b. Yò  nɔkɔtɔma du we ngɛ kpo nͻ 
 woman adult   bathe NEG be.at outside-top 
 ‘Elderly women do not bathe on the compound.’ 
c. Pànͻyalͻ-hi  nɛ  mā  ngɛ̄ pa hem 
    Fisherman-PL  see.NEG herring  be.at river-face 
          ‘Fishermen do not find herrings on the surface of the river.’ 
     d.* Yò  nɔkɔtɔma du we ngɛ kpo  
          woman  adult   bathe NEG be.at outside 
          
 The example above demonstrates cases where Noun-Postposition 
compounds are used to perform an adverbial function. As indicated above, the 
compounds yoku nͻ ‘mountain top’, kpo nͻ ‘compound’ and pa hem ‘river 
surface’ are derived by combining the nouns yoku ‘mountain’, kpo ‘outside’ and 
pa ‘river’ and the postposition nͻ ‘top’ and hem ‘face.’ From the data, we realize      
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that this group of derived adverbs are used to express the location or physical 
space in which the action was executed.  
One interesting observation about this group of derived adverbs is that their 
structure seems to bear some resemblance to that of postpositional phrases. Like 
Noun-Postposition compounds, postpositional phrases are also made up of nouns 
and postpositions. However, the striking difference between the two lies in the fact 
that one is lexicalized and the other is not. Noun +Postposition (N+P) compounds 
are lexicalized, thus they refer to a specific meaning. Normally, the two forms that 
form the compounds must always be put together before they can denote the 
particular meaning desired. If separated, the said meaning is lost because 
individually, they cannot refer to the entity. For instance, the form kpo of the word 
kpo nɔ cannot refer to compound unless joined to the postposition nɔ neither can 
nɔ also denote compound without being attached with kpo as shown in (17d). But 
this is not the case of postpositional phrases. When we examine the postpositional 
phrases underlined in (18), it can be observed that unlike Noun-Postposition 
compounds which needs its two forms to co-occur before generating meaning, the 
elements of a postpositional phrase do not have to. Often, the noun or noun phrase 
of the postpositional phrase can single handedly refer to the entity. This is 
demonstrated in the example below. Here, yoku and pa still refer to ‘mountain’ 
and ‘river’ respectively in the language even without the postpositions. 
 
 
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(18)  a. Plaafo-hi  fuu la  a-he 
 Executioner-PL many hide.PST 3PL.POSS-body 
 ngɛ yoku-ͻ       se 
 be.at mountain-DEF     back 
 ‘Many executioners hid themselves behind the mountain.’ 
        b. Mā  fuu ngɛ̄ pa-a            mi 
     herring many be.at river-DEF   inside 
           ‘There are many herrings in the river.’ 
 
3.4 Other Lexical Categories that Function as Adverbs in Dangme 
Aside true adverbs which are rather few, there are several other lexical items 
belonging to other word classes which are used as adverbs. Huddleston (1988:122) 
calls this phenomenon syntactic adverbialisation. He mentions that it is the use of 
other lexical items as adverbs. In such instances, no derivation takes place, only 
the slots the lexical elements occupy change. For instance, when a noun is used as 
an adverb, it may occur after the verb or verb phrase. This is an established fact 
which cuts across languages (that the category ‘adverbs’ consists of numerous 
members which most times may belong to different lexical classes) and the class 
‘adverbs’ in Dangme does not present anything different 
For Akan, I deduced from Saah’s (2004:70) study of Akan adverbs that 
“lexical” adverbs go beyond the prototypical members as it also encapsulates other 
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syntactic categories that can be used as adverbs without any drastic change in the 
form of the word.  He mentions that aside words such as ntɛm ‘quick’, bͻkͻͻ 
‘slowly’ which are regarded as true adverbs in the language, the group also largely 
comprises of single lexical items which may traditionally belong to other word 
categories but  stand as adverbs in a sentence. We see this feature in Akan because 
according to Saah (2004:70), “there is no such morphological process for deriving 
adverbs from other word classes” and so the same forms are used.  However, Akan 
speakers are able to identify when it is an adverb or not due to the syntactic 
position it may take within the sentence structure and the semantic notion it adds 
to the sentence. Consider the following illustrative sentences.  
(19) a.    Ànɔ́pá bɛ́ bá sééséí áraá 
          morning will come right now 
                ‘Morning will soon come.’  
         b.    Mè-bà-á  ànɔ́pá  
                1SG-come-PST morning  
                ‘I came in the morning.’   (Saah, 2004:60)  
         c.   Àmmá     tɔ̀ɔ̀  àtádé kámàkámà  bí 
             Amma      buy.PST dress very nice/beautiful INDEF 
             ‘Amma bought a very nice/beautiful dress.’ (Saah, 2004:70) 
        d. Kwámè    à-prá      dàǹ     nó   mù  kámà/ kámàkámà  
            Kwame    PERF-sweep   room   DEF   inside  nicely/very nicely 
            ‘Kwame has swept the room nicely/very nicely.’      (Saah, 2004:70) 
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Here, we see nouns and adjectives used as adverbs without any change in 
the form of the word. In the example above, the Akan noun ànɔ́pá  ‘morning’ is 
used to perform two different functions. In (19a), ànɔ́pá ‘morning’ is used as a 
noun and in (19b), the same lexical element is used as an adverb. Note the noun 
ànɔ́pá ‘morning’ in (19a) and (19b), there is no change at all. They only differ 
with respect to their syntactic position and the meaning they add to the sentences. 
In (19a), ànɔ́pá can be found in the subject position coming before the main verb 
of the sentence and (19b) demonstrates a contrastive distribution of the same form, 
this time coming after the verb which it modifies. Consider again Sentences (19c) 
and (19d) which illustrate something similar but this time with an adjective being 
used as adverb. Though the two sentences clearly show one lexical element 
kámàkámà ‘nicely’, nevertheless, they are seen to have scope over two different 
word classes. In the same way, Dangme ‘adverb class’ also consists of nouns such 
as Hͻgba ‘Sunday’, adjectives like nyunyu ‘watery’ and emphatic markers such as 
saminya ‘really/very’  which are used to indicate adverbial meanings in utterances 
in Dangme.  
3.4.1      Nominals used as Adverbs in Dangme 
Many cross-linguistic studies on adverbs reveal that aside the true adverbs, 
temporal nouns are one of the lexical elements that can be used as adverbs           
(cf. Bobuafor, 2013; Lusekelo, 2010; Pittner et al, 2015; Saah, 2004 Tabe, 2015). 
In Dangme, temporal nouns such as Pɛ̀plɛ̀gbí ‘Tuesday’, Maja ‘December’, 
pìàní‘afternoon’, gbͻ̀kùε/̀ nyͻ̀m ‘evening’, gbͻ̀kùε ̀ nyàsī ‘dusk’ and nyͻ̀m kpὲtí 
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‘midnight’ and  Bloonya ‘Christmas’ are used as temporal adverbs. This is 
illustrated in the example below. 
(20) a. Hͻgba ji  ligbi kpaago  ngɛ osti mi 
  Sunday be.PRES day seven  be.at week POST 
  ‘Sunday is the seventh day of the week.’ 
b. Sùkúú-bī-hī yέ        sùkúú Hͻ̀gbà 
      school-child-PL go.NEG      school Sunday 
      ‘School children do not go to school on Sunday.’  
 
(21)  a. Gbɔkuɛ maa ba piɔ sɔ nɔ 
      evening FUT come right now 
      ‘Evening will come right now.’  
            b.   Dede ba-a  hiɔ gbɔkuɛ  
      1SG.POSS come-HAB here evening 
      ‘Dede comes here every evening.’ 
 
(22) a.   Wa-ye-ͻ  blòònyà daa jeha   
       3PL-eat-HAB Christmas every year 
       ‘We celebrate Christmas every year.’ 
            b.   À-màá             gbè      tsū        nͻ̀  nyà Blòònyà 
      3SG.SUBJ-FUT    finish   building     DEM end Christmas 
 ‘They will complete the building in Christmas.’ 
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 As illustrated in (20, 21 & 22), nominals are used as temporal adverbs to 
express the time an action occurred. It can observed that even though here they 
take up an adverbial function, their forms remain the same. We can also deduce 
from the data above that although these nouns are used to perform adverbial 
function, the class of the words do not change. In other words, when a word takes 
up an adverbial function, it does not necessarily mean that there will be a change 
of lexical class of the word. And this answers why the adverb category constitute 
of numerous heterogeneous lexical forms. 
 
3.4.2  Adjectives as Adverbs 
The literature reviewed showed many cases where languages employed adjectives 
to denote adverbial notions. Some linguists including Geuder (2000) points out 
that this productive strategy is not limited to a few languages, but can be seen in 
many languages of the world, specifically ones that have these two modifying 
elements. This is because adverbs are said to be closely related to adjectives both 
morphologically and syntactically (Pittner et al. 2015).  
According to Saah (2004:70), a large number of Akan adjectives can be used 
adverbially, often without any precise morphological change.  They only tend to 
differ in their syntax, that is, in the kind of structures they modify. Some natural 
examples are shown in the example below. 
 
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(23) a. Adwoa hyɛ  ataade  fɛfɛɛfɛ  no 
         Adwoa wear.PST dress  beautiful DEF 
       ‘Adwoa worn the beautiful dress.’ 
           b. Adwoa a-pam  ataade  no fɛfɛɛfɛ 
               Adwoa PERF-sew dress  DEF beautifully 
              ‘Adwoa has sewn the dress beautifully.’ 
           c. Amma tͻͻ  ataade kamakama  bi 
              Amma buy.PST dress very nice/beautiful INDEF 
             ‘Amma bought a very nice/beautiful dress.’  (Saah, 2004:70) 
          d. Kwame a-pra dan no mu kama/kamakama 
              Kwame PERF-sweep room DEF inside nicely/very nicely 
             ‘Kwame has swept the room nicely/very nicely.’ (Saah, 2004:70) 
 The data above show that in Akan, adjectives, as in (23a) and (23c) can be 
used as adverbs without any morphological change in the word. This simply 
reveals that Akan does not morphologically indicate any strict distinction between 
adjectives and adverbs but rely on the constituents they scope over to bring out the 
difference. As the examples display, the only striking difference between these two 
lies on the structures they modify. The adjectives in (23a) and (23c) modify the 
nouns ataade ‘dress’ while the adverbs in (23b) and (23d) describe how the actions 
denoted by the verbs pam ‘sew’ and pra ‘sweep’ were executed.   
Similar patterns are found in Kenyang (Tabe, 2015). The adjectives sáìrí 
‘beautiful/nice’ and màndù ‘small’ are used as adverbs without any modification in 
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the morphological structure of the word. The following constructions outlined in 
example (24) demonstrate the phenomenon. 
(24) a.   M̀-mɔ̀ ǎ  kɔ̀ sáìrí 
           1-child 3SG.IPFV walk beautiful/nice/well 
           ‘The child walks beautifully/nicely/well.’ (Tabe, 2015:117) 
            b.   Ԑ̀- sáìrí  m̀-mɔ̀ 
                  7-beautiful/nice 1-child 
                  ‘A nice child.’ (Tabe, 2015:117) 
            c.   Màndù m̀-mͻ̀ 
                  small 1-child 
                  ‘A small child’ (Tabe, 2015:117) 
            d.   Ako  ǎ  rɛ̀m k̀-pǂ̀  màndù 
                  Ako  3SG.IPFV talk 14-talk  briefly 
                  ‘Ako talks briefly.’ (Tabe, 2015:117) 
 From Tabe’s (2015) data, we deduce that somehow adjectives in Kenyang, 
like those in Akan, have double functions of modifying nouns as well as verbs. 
The bolded expressions are words that, according to Tabe (2015:117) belong to the 
class of ‘adjectives’, however, they are used as adverbs in (24b) and (24d) without 
any change in their morphological structure. This holds for Ga also. The Ga 
adjectives mͻnyͻmͻnyͻ ‘smooth’ and fεεfεo ‘beautiful’ are used as adjectives in 
(25a and 25c) and also as adverbs in (25b and 25d) without any change in the form 
of the words. 
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(25) a. Mami lε hͻͻ  gari mͻnyͻmͻnyͻ     lε 
                woman DET sell.HAB gari smooth     DEF 
                ‘The woman sells smooth gari.’ 
           b.  Mami lε gbεlε       abele lε mͻnyͻmͻnyͻ 
                woman DET mill.PST    corn DEF smoothly 
                ‘The woman milled the corn smoothly.’ 
          c.   Adoley wo  ataade      fεεfεo ko 
                Adoley wear.PST dress      beautiful INDEF 
                ‘Adoley wore a beautiful dress.’ 
        d.     Adoley nyiɛ  fεεfεo  kɛ  
                Adoley walk.PST beautifully CONJ 
                tsͻ  onukpa-i a-hiɛ 
                pass  elder-PL 3PL.POSS-face.PL 
                ‘Adoley walked beautifully past the elders.’ 
In the Ga example above, the adjectives mͻnyͻmͻnyͻ ‘smooth’ and fεεfεo 
‘beautiful’ are used as adverbs. And as was observed in Akan and Kenyang, the 
distinction between adjectives and adverbs is based on the kind of constituents that 
these two lexical categories modify. In (25a and c), mͻnyͻmͻnyͻ ‘smooth’ and 
fεεfεo ‘beautiful’ modify the nouns gari and ataade ‘dress’ hence, an adjective. In 
(25b and d) on the other hand, the same lexical elements mͻnyͻmͻnyͻ ‘smooth’ 
and fεεfεo ‘beautiful’ are modifying the verbs gbɛlɛ ‘mill’ and nyiɛ ‘walk’ 
rendering them adverbs here. 
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This phenomenon is common in Dangme as well. The language has many 
instances where the same form can be used as adjectives and also as adverbs. In 
such cases, the only difference between the two lexical categories rests on the 
constituents they modify. Let’s consider the following valid exemplars. 
(26)  a. Korkor      ha     mi  amo flͻ nyunyu    ko 
 Korkor       give.PST  1SG.OBJ tomato stew watery     INDEF 
 ‘Korkor gave me some watery tomato stew.’ 
        b. Korkor  tsi  ma ku-ͻ nyunyu 
 Korkor  make.PST maku-DEF watery 
 ‘Korkor made the banku watery.’ 
c. E-la   la mͻbͻmͻbͻ ko 
            3SG.SUBJ-sing.PST song sorrowful INDEF 
           ‘He/she sang a sorrowful song.’ 
d.  E-la   la-a  mͻbͻmͻbͻ 
          3SG.SUBJ-sing.PST song-DEF sorrowfully 
         ‘He/She sang the song sorrowfully.’ 
   e.    Nyumu-ͻ fo ya  mͻbͻmͻbͻ 
           man-DET cry.PST sorrowfully 
           ‘The man cried sorrowfully.’ 
 From the Dangme sentences above, we have the adjectives nyunyu and 
mͻbͻmͻbͻ used as adverbs supporting the assertion that many languages use 
adjectives to express adverbial concepts. In Example (26a and 26c), nyunyu and 
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mͻbͻmͻbͻ function as modifiers of the nouns amo fͻlͻ ‘tomato stew’ and la 
‘song’ respectively and so seen coming after the constituents they modify. 
However, when we closely examine the examples (26b, 26d and 26e) where the 
expressions nyunyu and mͻbͻmͻbͻ are modifiers of the verb phrases, we still see 
the same forms nyunyu and mͻbͻmͻbͻ. Therefore, it can be said that Dangme, 
like Akan and Ga (Kwa languages) does not show any strict morphological 
distinction between adjectives and adverbs. Therefore, to differentiate them, one 
has to consider the meanings that they add to the sentences as well as the kind of 
structures they tend to modify. 
3.4.3 Emphatic Markers used as Adverbs in Dangme 
In addition to Dangme adverbs, one other forms used to express adverbial function 
is emphatic markers. Emphatic markers are lexical items used to lay more 
emphasis on something (Lau 2004). In Dangme, emphatic markers such as 
sàmínyá ‘very/really’ and nitsɛ ‘really’ are used to perform adverbial functions. 
These lexical elements often modify verb phrases and adjectival phrases as they 
show the degree of comparison of action and quality associated to a particular 
noun. In the sentences below, sàmínyá ‘very/really’ and nitsɛ ‘really’ are used to 
modify the verbal expressions. 
(27)    a.  Yò  nɔ̀ɔ̀ péé-ɔ̀  hējɔ̄      sàmínyá 
           woman DEM   do-HAB laziness    very/really 
         ‘This woman is very lazy.’ 
 
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            b.   Jokuɛ-ͻ  le nͻ  sàmínyá 
       child-DEF  know something very/really 
       ‘The child is very/really intelligent.’ 
            c.    Bo-ͻ       hi  nitsɛ 
       cloth-DEF       good really 
                 ‘The cloth is really good.’ 
 
 
3.5 Adverbials in Dangme 
The discussion so far has shown that phrases8 and clauses form another group 
known as ‘adverbials’ which are used to expressed adverbial concepts. In Dangme, 
adverbial functions are expressible by means of nouns phrases, adverbial phrases, 
prepositional phrases, postpositional phrases and clauses. These structures are 
examined in the sections that follow.  
3.5.1 Adverbial Phrases in Dangme 
One of the prevailing structures used in expressing adverbial meanings in Dangme 
are adverb phrases. Like true adverbs, adverbial phrases have a principal intended 
function of modifying verbs, adjectives and other adverbs other than any of the 
other structures. Within the group ‘adverbials’, we can say adverbial phrases are 
the most central because they tend to carry a conceptual meaning of telling when, 
                                                          
8 As mentioned earlier in this thesis, it is truism that phrases can be made up of single 
word items, however, adverbials that will be discussed here will normally constitute group 
of words. 
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how, why and where an action was enacted. Thus, they only perform adverbial 
function when they occur in sentences and often cannot be linked with nominal, 
verbal or adjectival functions. In the sentences outlined in Example (28), the 
expressions in bold are all various examples of adverbial phrases which are used to 
give extra information about the actions depicted in the sentences. 
(28) a. Nako  maa ba  we mi hwͻͻ        se      Bloonya 
 Nako FUT come home  POST tomorrow   back   Christmas 
 ‘Nako will come home next Christmas.’ 
      b.   Jokuε-ͻ ba  he klaladuku  piͻ sͻ nͻ 
 child-DEF come.PERF buy handkerchief right now 
 ‘The child has come to buy handkerchief right now.’ 
c. Wà  maa ya hiɛ sini mwͻnɛͻ gbͻkuɛ 
           1PL.SUBJ FUT go watch movie today  night 
            ngmlɛ  kpaanyͻ 
            hour  eight 
            ‘We will be going to watch movies at 8 o’clock tonight.’ 
 
3.5.2 Noun Phrases Functioning as Adverbials  
Noun phrases constitute another rich source of adverbials in Dangme. However, 
not all noun phrases are used, only the ones with temporal relations. Some 
examples are given below to shed light on this phenomenon. When we examine 
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the constructions in (29), we find that all the bolded expressions have temporal 
senses, hence able to tell the time an action was executed. 
(29)  a. Yòmóyó-ɔ̀  gbó  Pɛ̀plɛ̀gbì makɛ-̃ɛ̀   
 old.woman-DEF die.PST Tuesday dawn 
 ‘The old woman died on Tuesday dawn.’ 
        b. È-ba                 hiͻ  lingmi  Hͻgbi-ɛ 
 3SG.SUBJ-come.PST     here  last  Monday-DEF 
 ‘He/she came here last Monday.’ 
       c.   Zugbatsɛ-ɛ  maa ba hiͻ Osabu   nyagbe 
            land owner-DEF FUT come here June   end 
            ‘The land owner will come here at the end of June.’ 
 
3.5.3 Prepositional Phrases functioning as Adverbials in Dangme  
In Dangme, adverbial concepts are expressed by both prepositional and 
postpositional phrases. Prepositional phrases are other means through which 
adverbial meanings are expressed. Here, the adverbial function is depicted by a 
phrase which has a preposition as its head. In Dangme, prepositional phrases are 
used as time-durational adverbials to show the time length between when an 
activity started to when it ended. These types of prepositional phrases are often 
introduced by the preposition kɛ je ‘from’ as illustrated in the sentences in 
Example (30). 
 
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(30)  a. Nitsuli  fuu tsu-ͻ  nͻ   kɛ je 
 Worker.PL many work-HAB task/something from 
 Hͻgbi  kɛ ba su-ͻ  Soha 
 Monday CONJ come reach-HAB Friday 
 ‘Many workers work from Mondays to Fridays.’ 
        b. Hiͻmi nɛ   kɛ je    mͻtu        ngmlɛ nyͻngma 
 rain fall.PST  from    morning   hour ten 
 kɛ    kake    kɛ      ya    si    gbͻkuɛ ngmlɛ ekpa 
 CONJ    one   CONJ     go      end    evening hour six 
 ‘It rained from eleven in the morning to six in the evening.’ 
 
3.5.4 Postpositional phrases functioning as adverbials in Dangme 
Postpositional phrases can also be used as adverbs in Dangme. This is illustrated in 
the example below. In the sentences below, the postpositional phrases Asɛsɛwa júà 
nͻ ‘at the Asɛsɛwa market’, tsuͻ mi ‘in the room’, posͻfisiɛ se ‘behind the post 
office’ and Maja mi ‘in December’ are used to indicate where the action denoted 
by the verb took place. The sentences in (31) also shows that postpositional 
phrases functioning as place adverbials are usually preceded by the located verb 
ngɛ ‘be.at’.  
 
 
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(31)  a.  Kɔ̀dú júàlī-hī  bà-a  a-kpe-ͻ           ngɛ̄  
  banana seller-PL come-HAB 3PL.POSS-meeting-DEF    be.at  
  Asɛsɛwa júà  nͻ 
  Asɛsɛwa market  POST 
             ‘The banana sellers have their meeting at the Asɛsɛwa market.’ 
b.  È-nyɛ   na  kungwͻ bi-ͻ  ngɛ 
     3SG.POSS-mother see.PST chicken-DET  be.at 
     tsu-ͻ  mi 
  room-DET POST 
            ‘His/Her mother saw the chicken in the room.’ 
c.  Godotsɛ ko        huͻ-ͻ  si             
             mad person INDEF       sleep-PROG GROUND  
             ngɛ posͻfisi-ɛ se 
             be.at    post office back 
             ‘A mad person is sleeping behind the post office.’  
       d.   Tsō    kōmɛ̄     kplͻ́-ͻ́        à-bà      ngɛ̄    Màjà mī 
  tree   some     shed-HAB   3SG.POSS-leaf-PL  be.at  December POST 
   ‘Some trees shed their leaves in December.’ 
 
 
 
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3.5.5 Clauses used as adverbials in Dangme 
Clauses, especially dependent clauses are usually one of the mechanisms 
languages use to perform adverbial function. Though they most times contain a 
subject and a verb, they normally cannot stand on their own as a main clause but 
have to be joined to independent clauses in order to bring out a complete thought. 
These clauses are often introduced by various subordinators based on the kind of 
semantic roles they play in a sentence.  Dangme clauses are used to depict various 
adverbial notions but in (32), these clauses in bold are used as time/temporal 
adverbials to indicate the time when an action occurred.  
(32)  a. À-du     a-he      loko       
  3PL.SUBJ-bathe.PST   3PL.POSS-body  before  
  a-ye            gbͻkuɛ   ni 
3PL.SUBJ-eat.PST           evening  something 
‘They bathed themselves before they ate their supper.’ 
        b. Nyumu-ͻ nu  juͻ-ͻ  be nɛ  e-ngɛ̄ 
 man-DEF catch.PST thief-DEF when  3SG.SUBJ-be 
 àplétsí-ͻ̀ pinɛ-ɛ 
 goat-DEF untie.PROG 
 ‘The man caught the thief when he was untying the goat.’ 
 
 
 
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       c.  Teye   kpee        e-yo-ͻ                jeha      nε    be-ɛ 
 Teye  marry.PST    3SG.POSS-woman-DEF   year      that    pass-TOP 
 ngε Yomle  kekle  ligbi-ɛ  nͻ   
 be.at July  first  day-DEF POST 
 ‘Teye married his wife on the 1st of July of last year.’ 
 
3.6 Chapter Summary 
This chapter was devoted to investigating the morphological structures that make 
up Dangme adverbs and adverbials. Thus, it focused on first of all, examining the 
basic forms adverbs come in, then finding out which among them are central or 
peripheral. The chapter also discussed the various derivational processes involved 
in turning words into adverbs.  
In this chapter, it was found that the Dangme adverb category is made up 
of different linguistic structures which fall into two major groups namely ‘adverbs’ 
and ‘adverbials’. These two groups have different forms but perform the same 
adverbial functions as shown in the neighbouring Akan and Ewe languages (cf. 
Dzameshie, 1998; Saah, 2004; Saah & Agbedor, 2004). Using the principles of 
prototypical categorization, Dangme has both derived and non-derived adverbs. It 
was observed that Dangme has a rather few true adverbs made up of simple words 
such as ma ‘early’, pam ‘suddenly’ and  blɛuu ‘slowly’ and ideophones like 
tsilͻtsilͻ ‘in bits/bit by bit’ and patapata ‘restlessly’. Aside these true adverbs, 
Dangme also has many derived adverbs such as dͻledͻle ‘lazily’ and mͻtumͻtu 
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‘every morning’ and panya ‘river bank’ formed from reduplication and 
compounding. This chapter also showed that there are some lexical elements that 
are used as adverbs without any drastic change in the morphological structure of 
the word. These include temporal nouns like makɛ ‘dawn’, adjectives such as 
nyunyu ‘watery’ and emphatic markers like nitsɛ ‘very/really’  
The group ‘Dangme adverbials’ is also  equally made up of varied lexical 
structures including adverb phrases, noun phrases, prepositional phrases, 
postpositional phrases and adverbial clauses. These syntactic constituents are used 
to perform the same function as adverbs. For noun phrases, it was observed that 
only noun phrases with temporal or time senses could be used as adverbials. It was 
shown that prepositional phrases used as adverbials are very limited in Dangme. It 
is only prepositional phrases introduced by the preposition kɛje ‘from’ that can be 
used. Postpositional phrases and clauses were also identified as one of the 
structures used to indicate adverbial functions 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER FOUR 
SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF DANGME ADVERBS AND 
ADVERBIALS 
 
4.1 Introduction 
The aim of this chapter is to look into the various semantic classes of adverbs and 
adverbials in Dangme. It has been found that semantically, adverbs are classified 
not only based on the meanings they add to the constituents they modify but also, 
mostly influenced by the variety of constituents they scope over (Bonami et al, 
2003; Cinque, 2004; Jackendorf, 1972; Maienborn, 2011; Saah, 2004; Tenny, 
2000). This is because most of the semantic distinctions that come with the class 
are syntactic correlates and vice versa. In light of this, many linguists hold that to 
interpret the semantic functions adverbs perform in a sentence structure, it is also 
very important to look at the variety of constituents they specify. Therefore, this 
chapter concerns two issues linked with the adverb class. First, I look at the 
various distinct semantic notions that Dangme adverbs and adverbials9 add to the 
constituents they modify. And secondly, I discuss the classification of Dangme 
adverbs and adverbials with respect to their semantic scope.  
                                                          
9 In this chapter, the term ‘adverb’ or ‘adverb category’ is used to cover both adverbs and 
adverbials even though they are two distinct forms. This is to help draw generalization 
about the entire category however, a precise analysis is given about a particular label 
when there is the need to do so. 
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The outline of the remaining sections proceeds as follows. The next section, 4.2 
presents the various semantic classes associated with Dangme adverbs and 
adverbials as well as discuss their sub-categorization in terms of the constituents 
they scope over. Section 4.3 concludes the chapter. 
 
4.2 Semantic Classes of Adverbs and Adverbials in Dangme 
As widely noted in the literature, the lexical items that make up the ‘adverb 
category’ fall into various semantic classes. There are many typological studies, 
including (Geuder, 2000; Pittner et al. 2015; Schachter & Shopen, 2007) which 
postulate that though there are some basic semantic classes of adverbs that cut 
across languages, there are also some which tend to be language specific. In other 
words, there are many uncommon semantic classes associated with some 
languages which may not be present in other languages. However, these languages 
may also have other means of depicting these adverbial meanings. Dangme 
adverbs are sub-categorized into various semantic categories and I illustrate them 
in the diagram that comes here after. 
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 Instrumental  
Manner 
  
 Pace 
 Time-when 
Time 
 Durational 
Frequency & 
 
Iterative 
 
Place Locational 
 Directional 
 Aspectual 
 
Epistemic 
 
Contingency Cause 
 
Reason 
 
Purpose 
 Result 
Condition 
 
Concession 
 
Comparison 
 
Contrast 
 
Figure 4.  Semantic Classification of the Dangme Adverb Class 
Adverb Category 
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4.2.1 Manner Adverbs 
Traditionally, manner adverbs are identified as adverbs that tell how an action was 
acted out. For many researchers, lexical elements labelled as ‘manner adverbs’ 
often characterize a verbal expression specifically, describing the way in which an 
action was executed (cf.Givón, 2001; Saah, 2004; Tallerman, 1998). Manner 
adverbs are verb-modifying adverbs that scope over the verb phrase or the 
predicate in a sentence. They usually occur either before or after the verb phrase. 
In Dangme, manner adverbs stand as one of the most frequently used lexical 
elements for modifying the verb phrase of every sentence. Examples of manner 
adverbs in Dangme include mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀ ‘sorrowfully’, tsɛtsɛɛtsɛ ‘smartly’, blɛ̀ùù 
‘slowly’, má ‘fast’ and  tsilͻtsilͻ ‘in bits/bit by bit’. Example (1) illustrates some 
examples of manner adverbs in Dangme. 
(1)  a. Bímɔ̀nyó-ͻ́     fó yā   mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀ 
            baby-DEF     cry.PST  sorrowfully 
            ‘The baby cried sorrowfully.’ 
        b. Jokuɛ-ͻ po  gbɛjegbɛ-ɛ mi tsɛtsɛɛtsɛ 
            child-DEF cut.PST strret-DEF POST smartly 
            ‘The child crossed the street smartly.’ 
 
 
 
 
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     c. Jókúɛ́-ɔ́  té   sī   pám 
         child-DEF  rise.PST GROUND  suddenly 
         nɛ          e-ya        tsɔmi-ɛ 
         CONJ    3SG.SUBJ-go.PST       errand-DEF 
         ‘The child stood up suddenly and went for the errand.’ 
    d.  Hìɔ̀tsɛ̄      nyɛ̀ɛ̀     blɛ̀ùù        kɛ̀   sɛ́  tsu-ͻ          mi 
         patient       walk.PST    slowly      CONJ        enter  room-DEF   POST 
         ‘The patient walked slowly into the room.’   
   e.   Dèdé do-o  kaa e-mami 
         Dèdé dance-HAB like 3SG.POSS-mother 
         ‘Dede dances like her mother.’ 
   f.    Hìɔ̀tsɛ̄      ngὲ     zàm     zii-ε        tsilͻtsilͻ  
         patient      be.at   urine    urinate-PROG   in bits/bit by bit 
         ‘The patient is urinating in bits’ 
In the above examples, the bolded constructions are some adverbs which 
fall into the manner class. As required of all manner adverbs, these expressions all 
give some form of information about how a particular activity was done. 
Considering which structures can be manner adverbs in Dangme, it was observed 
that Dangme manner adverbs consist mainly of adverbs derived from reduplicating 
adjectives such as mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀ ‘sorrowfully’ and tsɛtsɛɛtsɛ ‘smartly’ in (1a and 1b), 
and  a few prototypical manner adverbs like  pam ‘suddenly’ and  blɛ̀ùù ‘slowly’ 
in (1c) and (1d) respectively. In Dangme, manner can also be expressed by 
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adverbials of comparison as illustrated by (1e). Here, we have the use of an 
adverbial of comparison kaa e-mami ‘like her mother’ used to show how the 
subject Dèdé dances. The sentence in (1f) also presents us with the case where 
manner is expressed by an ideophone tsilͻtsilͻ ‘in bit/bit by bit.’ This phenomenon 
happens to be one of the commonest structures used to show how actions are done 
in languages hence, cannot be overlooked. Therefore, in the next sub-section, I 
look at idephonic adverbs as a group subsumed under manner adverbs in Dangme. 
 
4.2.1.1  Ideophones as Manner Adverbs 
Some manner adverbs are ideophonic in nature. The lexical element ‘ideophone’ is 
quite a prevalent term in African linguistics   (cf. Bodomo, 2006; Saah, 2004; 
Dzameshie, 1998). According to Trask (1993: 131-132), it is “a grammatically 
distinct class of words, occurring in certain languages, which typically express 
either distinctive sounds or visually distinctive types of action.”  Saah (2004:54) 
on the same subject, explains these expressions to be “often onomatopoeic, and 
which describes a predicate, qualificative or adverb in respect to manner, colour, 
smell, action, state or intensity.”  
On observation of Akan ideophonic manner adverbs, Saah (2004:55) states 
that these ideophonic expressions are used to indicate how an action is performed 
by imitating the sound, movement and/or other qualities associated with the action. 
This is also evident among manner adverbs in Dangme. Consider the following 
illustrative examples.  
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(2)    a. Wà  há  lɛ̀  nyù   nɛ̀ 
  1PL.SUBJ give.PST 3SG.OBJ water   CONJ 
  è-nù.PST   kúmákúmá 
  3SG.SUBJ-drink.PST   eagerly 
  ‘We offered him water and he drank it eagerly.’ 
         b. Ò-tú    ò-hɛ́   mi ̀ lílíílí 
  2SG.SUBJ-frown.PST 2SG.POSS-face inside grumpily 
 ‘You have frowned your face grumpily.’ 
         c. È-bi-ɛ      ba             su we      mi       shweshweeshwe 
            3SG.POSS-child-DEF   come.PST reach house POST  safely 
            ‘His/her child arrived home safely.’ 
The above underlined expressions are all ideophonic expressions used to 
depict manner in Dangme. As can be observed in the sentences above, these 
expressions are usually used to describe the movement, nature or concept 
associated with the action denoted by the verb in each of the sentences. 
Concerning their morphology, it was discussed in the previous chapter that these 
expressions cannot be said to have undergone reduplication. This is because 
whereas the resultant reduplicated forms often come with some unique semantic 
meanings that are not expressed by the single bases they are derived from, the 
same cannot be said for the bolded expressions above. For instance, though the 
words kúmákúmá ‘eagerly’, lílíílí ‘grumplily’ and shweshweeshwe ‘safely’ seem 
like reduplicated forms derived from the initial bases kúmá, lí and shwe, we 
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cannot say that for a fact, especially when  the single bases are not words in the 
language.  
 In addition, there are other sub-classes that can be subsumed under manner 
adverbs. Generally, defining the term ‘manner adverbs’ has not been reported to be 
problematic as the thoughts of many linguists about this sub-class has remained 
the same; however, the semantic subtypes of this class of adverbs has been an 
issue of contention (Eckardt, 2003; Pittner et al., 2015; Quirk et al., 1985; Saah, 
2004; Tabe, 2015) . According to Quirk et al. (1985:482), manner, means, 
instrument and agentive adverbs form a semantic class known as ‘process’ 
adverbs, adding that this kind of  adverbs  come with the verb process. However, 
there are many like Eckardt (2003) who argue that all these other adverbs afore 
mentioned can rather be sub-grouped under manner class since they all tend to 
inform us about the manner in which an activity was done. Eckardt (2003:263) 
supplies the descriptive properties associated with the class to further substantiate 
his claim that all the distinct notions that these sub-classes express can be found 
with the manner class: 
I will use the term ‘manner adverbs’ to cover the class of adverbial 
modifiers that specify the manner in which a certain event was 
performed. This manner may come about due to a certain mood of 
the agent (wütend ‘angrily’), due to his/her intentions (vorsichtig 
‘cautiously’, absichtlich ‘intentionally’), be a mere matter of speed 
(schnell ‘quickly’, langsam ‘slowly’), be a mixture of these (hastig 
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‘hastily’, ruhig ‘calmly’) or an indication of his/her dispositions and 
qualities (fachmännisch ‘expertly’). (Eckardt, 2003:263)  
From the above generalizations, we can infer that the sub-classes ‘means’, 
‘pace’, ‘instrumental and even ‘agentive’ are all one way or the other connected 
with ‘manner’ adverbs. Even though this study is in no way seeking to refute or 
confirm the premises established by any of these researchers, the semantic         
sub-classes ‘instrument’ and ‘pace’ mentioned by both researchers are identified to 
be present in Dangme also. Therefore, in the sub sections that follow, we look at 
these sub-categories of the manner class. 
4.2.1.2  Instrumental Adverbials  
In Dangme, postpositional phrases formed from abstract nouns such as 
mifu/mimifu mi ‘anger’, de ngme ‘misery’, bua jͻmi ‘joy/happiness/gladness’, 
mimisa mi ‘sympathy’ hewa mi ‘strength’ and the postpositions kɛ ‘with’ and ngɛ 
‘in’ are used as manner adverbials or instrumental adverbials (a sub-class 
subsumed under the larger class ‘manner’). Like the manner class (which they fall 
under), these adverbs are normally attached either before or after the verb phrase 
they specify. These kind of adverbials often indicate the tool/instrument, mood, 
disposition or quality that the agent uses to get the action done (Eckardt, 2003; 
Givón, 2001:90). Here, the action is not executed with a physical tool but by some 
abstract means. This is exemplified in the sentences below. 
 
 
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(3) a.   Yò-ͻ̀              kɛ̄  mim̀if̀ú mí gbá  è-bi-́ͻ́ 
              woman-DEF with  anger   strike.PST 3SG.POSS-child-DEF 
              túé mì mā  
              ear inside blow 
              ‘The woman, with anger/angrily, slapped her child.’ 
        b.   Òsòfò-ͻ̀        kɛ̄     bùà jͻ̀ mi ̀   jͻ̀ͻ̀  gbà-à    nͻ 
              pastor-DEF  with  gladness     bless.PST marriage-DEF   POST 
              ‘The pastor with joy/gladness blessed the marriage.’ 
        c.   Kpàbíté kɛ̄ héwà mí hue  dáká-á        nͻ 
              Kpabite with strength pick.PST box-DEF    POST 
              ‘Kpabitey with strength picked the box.’ 
d. *Kε bua jͻ mi Osofo-ͻ jͻͻ  
              with gladness        pastor-DEF     bless.PST 
              gba-a       nͻ  
              marriage-DEF POST 
              ‘With joy/gladness, the pastor blessed the marriage.’ 
(4) a.   Yò-ͻ̀   gbá   è-bi-́ͻ́        túé mi ̀ mā 
              woman-DEF  strike.PST 3SG.POSS-child-DEF    ear inside blow 
              ngɛ̄ mim̀if̀ú mí mí 
              in anger  POST 
              ‘The woman slapped her child in anger.’  
 
 
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     b.      Osofo-ͻ jͻͻ  gba-a   nͻ         
              pastor-DEF   bless.PST     marriage-DEF    POST  
              ngε  bua jͻ-mi       mi 
              be.at   gladness       POST 
              ‘The pastor blessed the marriage in joy/gladness.’ 
     c.      Kpabite       hue       daka-a   nͻ          
              Kpabitey       pick.PST     box-DEF     POST  
              ngε      hewa mi     mi 
              be.at      strength     POST 
              ‘Kpabitey picked the box in strength.’ 
     d.      Ngε bua jͻ mi mi-ɛ10  Osofo-ͻ jͻͻ  
              be.at gladness POST- TOP pastor-DEF bless.PST 
              gba-a    nͻ  
              marriage-DEF POST  
              ‘In joy/gladness, the pastor blessed the marriage.’ 
 Examples (3) and (4) present us with cases of postpositional phrases 
introduced by the postpositions kɛ ‘with’ and ngɛ ‘in’ which are used to express 
adverbial function. As illustrated by the examples above, we realize that these 
expressions have specific syntactic positions. Whereas postpositional phrases 
introduced by the kɛ ‘with’ can freely occur before the verb or verb phrase in a 
                                                          
10 Topic marker is a grammatical particle used to mark the topic of the sentence. In 
Dangme, the determiner ‘-ͻ’ is homophonous as the same form can be used as a 
determiner and also as a topic marker. 
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sentence, postpositional phrases with ngɛ̄ ‘in’ cannot; they are rarely found in this 
position. Nevertheless, they also have a wider distribution. From the data, we 
observe that postpositional phrases beginning with ngɛ ‘in’ can either occur at the 
clause final position or begin the clause.  
Also, a further point that must be made at this stage is that when we compare 
the constructions in (3) and (4) to that of (5) which comes here after, we observe 
that a single or bare noun such as mim̀ìfú mí ‘anger’, bùà jͻ̀mì ‘gladness’ and 
héwà mí ‘strength’ cannot be used as a manner adverbial. It must always be 
preceded by the postpositions kɛ̄ ‘with’ and ngɛ̄ ‘in’ in order to avoid being 
construed with a nominal function. 
(5) a.* Yò-ͻ̀    mim̀if̀ú mí gbá è-bi-́ͻ́ 
              woman-DEF   anger   strike 3SG.POSS-child-DEF 
              túé mì mā  
              ear inside blow 
              ‘The woman, with anger/angrily, slapped her child.’ 
       b. * Òsòfò-ͻ̀ bùà jͻ̀ mi ̀ jͻ̀ͻ̀  gbà-à   nͻ̄ 
              pastor-DEF gladness          bless.PST marriage-DEF  POST 
              ‘The pastor with gladness blessed the marriage.’ 
       c. * Kpàbíté héwà mí wɛ̀  dáká-á        nͻ 
              Kpabite strength pick.PST box-DEF    POST 
            
 
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4.2.1.3  Pace Adverbs    
Pace adverbs form another sub-class of manner adverbs that reveal the speed at 
which an event is carried out over a period of time. According to Jacobson 
(1978:74), they are adverbs that designate “rapidness or slowness” of an action. 
Saah (2004: 55), also asserts that ‘pace’ adverbs “may be subsumed under manner 
adverbs. They describe the manner in which a particular action took place in terms 
of the pace/speed of movement.” Like other manner adverbs, pace adverbs scope 
over events coded by the verbs in a clause.  Dangme adverbs in this group include 
esͻesͻ ‘quickly’, mamaama ‘very fast’, patapata ‘restlessly’. In the sentences in 
(6), the underlined words expressed the pace in which the action denoted by the 
verb was done.  
(6)  a.  Yo-ͻ  bɛ  tsu-ͻ  nͻ mamaama 
              woman-DEF sweep.PST room-DEF POST very fast 
              ‘The woman swept the room very fast.’ 
        b.   Nyumu-ͻ     nyɛ̀ɛ̀    esͻesͻ        kɛ̀          sɛ́       tsu-ͻ         mi 
              man-DEF    walk.PST  quickly     CONJ    enter.PST   room-DEF    POST 
              ‘The patient walked quickly into the room.’ 
 
 
 
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4.2.2 Time/ Temporal Adverbs 
Adverbs that give information about the time the action denoted by the verb 
happened are termed ‘time or temporal’ adverbs. As mentioned earlier, time 
adverbs in Dangme are usually represented by single temporal nouns such as 
Hͻgba ‘Sunday’, mͻtu ‘morning’, piͻ ‘now’, noun phrases like jeha nͻ ‘this year’ 
and adverbial clauses, especially ones introduced by the subordinators bene 
‘when’ and loko ‘before’. These modifying elements modify the entire clause. 
Saah (2004:56) posits that “these adverbs have scope over the entire proposition 
because they situate the proposition within a particular time frame.” Dangme time 
adverbials can be distinguished into three different sub-classes, namely; time-when 
adverbs, durational adverbs and frequency adverbs (Leech & Svartvik, 1975:179). 
 
4.2.2.1  Time-when Adverbs  
This kind of time adverbs denotes a specific point or period of time (Leech & 
Svartvik, 1975:179; Saah, 2004:60). In Dangme, there are some time adverbs that 
express a fixed or exact time in which an action occurred. Here are some examples 
in Dangme. 
(7)  a.   A-hue       matsɛ  ehe hiɛ 
            3PL.SUBJ-pick.PST     chief new yesterday 
            ‘They enstooled a new chief yesterday.’ 
 
 
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       b.   A-maa     je       kpee-ɛ  sisi hwͻͻ  
             3PL.SUBJ-FUT leave       meeting-DEF  under tomorrow  
             piani  ngmlɛ enyͻ 
             afternoon hour two 
             ‘The meeting will start tomorrow afternoon at 2pm.’ 
       c.   E-maa   ya Amerika hwͻͻ  se jeha 
             3SG-SUBJ-FUT go Amerika tomorrow back year 
             ‘He/She will go to Amerika next year.’ 
       d.   A-nu   juͻ-ͻ  piͻ sͻ nͻ    nͻ 
             3PL.SUBJ-catch thief-DEF now/right now   DEM 
             ‘They have caught the thief now/right now.’  
 From the examples above, it is clear that time-when adverbs denote a 
specific period of time of an action. As shown in the examples, hiɛ ‘yesterday’, piͻ 
‘now’, hwͻͻ se jeha ‘next year’ all express the exact time an action occurs, even 
with differences in the aspects of the action. This quality associated with this 
group of time adverbs makes it different from the others even though they all fall 
under one class.  It can also be observed that with this group, both adverbs and 
adverbials are used, unlike instrumental adverbials which is limited to only 
adverbials.  
 
 
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4.2.2.2  Durational Adverbs 
Durational adverbs are temporal adverbs that offer  information about how long an 
action occurred. Thus, this group of adverbs is able to tell the length of time and 
the duration from some preceding point of time by implying the point from which 
the time is measured. The examples in (8) provide an illustration of the above 
adverbial role. 
(8)  a.  Korkor  blͻ  mo  kɛ je piani 
           Korkor  wait.PST 2SG.OBJ from afternoon 
           ngmlɛ  kake  kɛ ya si gbͻkuɛ ngmlɛ kpaago 
           hour  one  up to/till evening hour seven 
           ‘Korkor waited for you from 1pm in the afternoon to seven in the evening.’ 
       b. Hiͻmi nɛ   kɛ je mͻtu  ngmlɛ nyͻngma 
           rain  fall.PST from  morning  hour  ten 
           kɛ  kake     kɛ ya si  gbͻkuɛ  ngmlɛ  ekpa 
           CONJ    one    up to/till  evening  hour  six 
           ‘It rained from eleven in the morning to six in the evening.’ 
       c. Mànyàdàlɔ̀-ͻ̀    kɛ ̃ kɛ́jé bè nɔ̀ mì 
           President-DEF    say  from time DEM POST 
           kɛ̄ yà-á         wà     màá  nà tsákémí 
           CONJ  go-PROG    1PL.SUBJ   FUT  see  change 
           ‘The president says henceforth, we will see changes.’ 
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 In each of the Dangme sentences in (8), we have durational adverbials that 
indicate how long an activity lasted. Intuitively, when we compare the time-when 
adverbs in (7) and the durational adverbs shown in (8), we find that the time 
meanings that the former denotes differs from the later. The temporal adverbs of 
this sub-class measure the time that elapses between the time an activity starts out 
and the time it ends. It can also be observed that adverbs of this semantic class 
have the ability to show the spatial direction that is conceptualized with respect to 
the time expressed by the adverb. For instance, when we observe (8a) and (8b), for 
example, we realize that the duration starts from a point of time in which the 
speaker and hearer are oriented to a future time, however, sentence (8c) presents us 
with an instance where we have an action starting now but with an unexpected end 
in the future.  
 
4.2.2.3  Frequency/Repetitive Adverbs 
There are also adverbs in Dangme that show ‘how often’ a particular action 
expressed by the verb is performed. Cinque (1999:104) calls them ‘repetitive’ or 
‘frequentative’ adverbs. The semantic scope of frequency adverbs is the entire 
clause (Givon, 1993:73; Saah, 2004:62).  In Dangme sentences, they are usually 
the expressions elicited by the question ‘how often?’ They include single 
expressions such as daa ‘every time/always, si enyͻ ‘twice’, kpamisa ‘often’, hiɛ 
‘once/before’, hluu ‘a long time’, reduplicated forms like gbͻkuɛgbͻkuɛ ‘every 
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evening’ mͻtumͻtu ‘every morning’ and noun phrases like  daa jeha ‘every year’,  
daa ligbi ‘every day’ as shown in the sentences in Example (9) 
(9)  a.  Bimͻnyo-ͻ fo ya  hluu 
             baby-DEF cry.PST a long time 
             ‘The baby cried for several hours.’ 
       b.   Tɛtɛ tu-ͻ fo  daa mͻtu 
             Tɛtɛ run-HAB every morning 
             ‘Tɛtɛ jogs every morning.’ 
       c.   A-bli-ͻ        hͻspiti-ͻ  daa ligbi 
             3PL.SUBJ-open-HAB       hospital-DEF every day 
             ‘The hospital opens every day.’ 
       d.   Akupe ngɛ alsa nu-e  kpamisa 
             Akupe be.at fever catch-HAB often 
             ‘Akupe is often feverish.’ 
The adverbs in the above Dangme sentences all offer information about the 
number of times an action took place; however, there is yet another group 
associated with frequency adverbs known as ‘iterative’ adverbs which tend to 
contain a ‘repetition’ ideology. Dzameshie (1998:12) asserts that like ‘time-when’ 
and ‘durative adverbials’, iterative adverbials are temporal in their cognitive 
function. What is unique about the adverbials in this category, however, is that 
they express an iterative interpretation. That is, they suggest that an activity was 
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performed repetitively over a period of time. In Dangme sentences, these kinds are 
often with the word tsuo ‘whole’. Consider these examples. 
(10) a. È-do       mwͻnɛͻ tsuo 
           3SG.SUBJ-dance.PST    today whole 
           ‘He/She coughed the whole of today.’ 
     b. Bímɔ̀nyó-ͻ́ fó yā  nyͻm-ͻ tsuo 
           baby-DEF cry.PST night-DEF all 
          ‘The baby cried throughout the night.’ 
 
4.2.3  Place/Locative Adverbs 
Place adverbs are modifiers that indicate the location or physical space in which an 
activity took place. Place adverbs modify the verb phrase or the predicate of a 
sentence. The semantic functions expressed by place adverbs can be sub-grouped 
into two major sub-divisions. One group denotes a position with regard to a spatial 
location or the ‘ordinary sense of place’ and the other shows a direction of 
movement or ‘a directional path with or without any locational specification’ 
(Quirk et al., 1985:479). The first group is termed ‘locational’ adverbs and the 
other ‘directional’ adverbs.  These two groups are exemplified in the sentences in 
(11) and (12) respectively. 
(11) a. A-kɛ̀        gbógbóé-ɛ́  màá bà hiͻ 
           3PL.SUBJ-CONJ   corpse-DEF  FUT come here 
           ‘They will bring the corpse here.’ 
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       b. È-huͻ   léjɔ́-ɔ́ 
           3SG.SUBJ-sleep  there-DEF 
           ‘He/She slept there. 
       c. È-nyɛ   na  kungwͻ bi-ͻ    ngɛ 
           3SG.POSS-mother see.PST  chicken-DEF     be.at 
           tsu-ͻ  mi 
           room-DEF  POST 
           ‘His/Her mother saw the chicken in the room.’ 
       d. Godotsɛ   ko       huͻ-ͻ          si                 
           mad person INDEF      sleep-PROG GROUND  
           ngɛ      posͻfisi-ɛ  se   
           be.at    post office-DEF back 
           ‘A mad person is sleeping behind the post office.’  
 
(12) a. Nate kuͻ  kɛ  ho yiti-ɛ 
           Nate climb.PST CONJ go top-DEF 
           ‘Nate climbed to the top.’   
       b. Awo nyɛ̀-ɛ̀  kɛ kple11  yoku-ͻ 
           Awo walk.PST CONJ descend hill-DEF 
           ‘Awo walks down the hill.’(lit. Awo walks to descend the hill)  
                                                          
11 Kple ‘descend’ is an example of a conflating verb. In (12b), the verb kple connotes 
movement as well as the direction of the movement. The directional meaning here is what 
is construed as directional adverb.   
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In sentences (11) and (12) outlined above, we readily identify examples of 
the two different sub-classes generalized from empirical observations made by 
researchers such as (Quirk et al, 1985; Leech & Svartvik, 1975). The sentences in 
(11) all indicate a physical space which happens to be a fixed location. The 
expressions in (12) on the other hand show the directionality associated with the 
space expressed by the verb.  
  
4.2.4  Aspectual Adverbs 
Aspectual adverbs, according to Saah (2004:68), are used to “supply information 
about the temporal aspects of event or activity depicted by the predicate in the 
sense that they indicate whether the event/activity is recurring, continuing or has 
been completed.” Thus, members of this group mainly scope over the verb phrase 
and often depict some form of ‘time meaning’ to the constituents they modify as 
they create a temporal coherence between the beginning and end of the event, state 
or action mentioned in the sentence. In Dangme, they comprise expressions such 
as momo ‘already’, ekohu ‘again’, lolo ‘yet’ kpamisa ‘often’ and loloolo ‘still’. 
(13) a.  Wa  kpe  ekohu 
             1PL.SUBJ meet.PERF again 
             ‘We have met again.’ 
        b.  E-ye     nͻ  momo 
             3SG.SUBJ-eat.PERF   something already 
             ‘He/She have eaten already.’ 
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        c.  Dͻkita-a yɛ  lolo 
             doctor-DEF go.NEG yet 
             ‘The doctor has not gone yet.’ 
        d.  Dͻkita-a ngɛ lejͻ-ͻ  loloolo 
             doctor-DEF be.at there-DEF still 
             ‘The doctor is still there.’ 
  
 The adverbs listed in the Dangme sentences above are all examples of 
aspectual adverbs which express the various temporal aspects of the events coded 
by the verbs in the sentences. Dangme verbs are aorist in nature and therefore 
these apectual adverbs are what helps Dangme verbs to better express tense 
(Apronti, 1972: Caesar, 2012; Dakubu, 1987). A further observation of these data 
sets is targeted at the underlined constructions in (13c) and (13d). These two words 
reflect reduplication which was discussed in the previous chapter as one of the 
morphological means used in forming Dangme adverbs. In (13c), the base form 
lolo means ‘yet’ and the reduplicated form loloolo means ‘still’.  
 
4.2.5  Epistemic Adverbs 
The group ‘epistemic adverbs’ presents the speaker’s evaluation or judgement 
about the truth value of the proposition expressed in the sentence. Saah (2004:66) 
reports Givon’s (1993:74) claim that members of this category often tend to 
“convey the speaker’s attitude toward the truth, certainty or probability of the 
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proposition.” Epistemic adverbs in Dangme include ekomɛ ‘perhaps’ benͻͻ 
‘maybe’, kpakpa ‘true/truly’ and anͻkwale ‘truly’. Consider the following 
examples. 
(14) a. Benͻͻ   e-ye            nͻ  momo 
            Maybe  3SG.SUBJ-eat.PERF    something already 
            ‘May be he/she has eaten already.’ 
        b. Ekomɛ       wa        nibͻ-ͻ  nɛ         we mi blͻ  
            perhaps       1PL.POSS   visitor-DEF  see.NEG     home POST path 
          ‘Perhaps, our visitor cannot find his way home.’  
 
 
4.2.6   Adverbials of Contingency 
There are some adverbials in Dangme that convey the sense ‘in regard to’. Here, 
the truth or falsity of a particular action in a sentence is usually dependent on a 
relevant point of reference denoted by this group of adverbials. Quirk et al 
(1985:483-484) call such modifiers ‘adverbials of contingency’. They include 
adverbials of cause, reason, purpose, result, condition and concession. They are 
mainly sentence-oriented as they usually scope over the entire clause.  According 
to Quirk et al (1985:484), there is a close relation among the semantic notions 
depicted by these adverbials as they all serve “to identify a relevant point of 
reference in respect of which the clause concerned derives its truth value.”  
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While it is assumed as a semantic class here by Quirk et al. (1985), others 
postulate that the class should be classified syntactically because of its scope 
capabilities. This is because, unlike the other semantic classes that consist of both 
adverbs and adverbials, this group is made up of only adverbials, specifically 
subordinate clauses which tend to modify their superordinate clauses (Biber et al., 
1999; Bobuafor, 2013; Dzameshie, 1998; Maienborn, 2011; Tenny, 2000;).  This 
unique distinction that is associated with the group can be said to be one of the 
main factors that gives rise to its categorization under adverbial clauses.  
Bobuafor (2013) discusses some of these adverbials identified by Quirk et 
al. (1985), but list them under the types of adverbial clauses present in Tafi. 
Dzameshie (1998:7) also reports on some of these adverbials but treats them as 
clausal or sentential modifiers of main or dependent clauses that give “an 
indication of the motivations, conditions, causes and attitudes” responsible for the 
events denoted in the sentence they modify. Thus, it must be acknowledged that 
even though the semantic class ‘contingency’ does not surface in many of the 
typological studies done on adverbials, many languages have these adverbials and 
Dangme is no exception. There are adverbials that express the cause, reason, 
purpose, result, condition, concession, comparison and contrast for the event stated 
in the sentence. These are exemplified in the examples below. 
 
 
  
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(15) a. Kpabite tͻ   ngɛ mla-a  nͻ 
           Kpabite make mistake.PST be.at law-DET POST 
           lͻͻ heͻ    a-sa nɛ  a-gbla       e-tue 
           because of this   3PL.SUBJ-have to 3PL.SUBJ-pull.PST    3SG.POSS-ear 
           ‘Kpabite has committed a crime so he has to be punished.’ 
      b.  Bimͻnyo-ͻ ngɛ ya fo-e  ejakaa  hͻ 
           baby-DET be.at cry-PROG because hunger 
           ngɛ lɛ  ye-i 
           be.at 2SG.OBJ eat-PROG 
           ‘The baby is crying because she is hungry.’ 
      c. * Ejakaa hͻ  ngɛ jokuɛ-ͻ ye-i       
            because hunger      be.at man-DEF eat-PROG   
            e-ngɛ   ya fo-e  
            3SG.SUBJ-be.at cry-PROG 
           ‘Because the child is hungry, he is crying.’ 
The adverbials underlined in the sentences in (15) above indicate the cause for 
which an action occurred. As shown by example (15), such Dangme adverbials are 
often introduced by the expressions ejakaa ‘because’ and lͻͻ heͻ ‘because of this’. 
It can also be observed that adverbials of cause usually occur after the main clause. 
They cannot come before the clause they modify, when they do, the sentence 
become ungrammatical as illustrated in (15c). Apart from cause, there are some 
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Dangme adverbials that usually expresses the reason for an act mentioned in the 
sentence. This is illustrated in the set of examples below.  
(18) a.  I-be   sukuu ya-e        mͻnɛͻ ejakaa   
            1SG.SUBJ-NEG   school go-PROG   today because  
            pͻ tͻ       i-he  
            tired     1SG.POSS-body 
            ‘I will not go to school today because I am tired.’ 
       b.  Lako bu-ͻ  nͻ  lͻͻ heͻ   
            Lako respect.HAB people  because of this 
            i-suͻ   e-sane 
            1SG.SUBJ-like 3SG.POSS-case/matter 
            ‘Lako is respectful so I like her.’ 
        c. A-sane   a-wo   lɛ  heͻ 
           3PL.SUBJ-have to 3PL.SUBJ-pay 2SG.OBJ due 
           ejakaa  e-tsu      nitsumi-ɛ wawɛɛ  
           because 3SG.SUBJ-work.PST    task-DEF very/really 
           ‘He/She has to be paid because he really worked hard.’ 
When we compare the constructions in (15) and (16) we find that though 
adverbials of ‘cause’ and ‘reason’ are usually introduced by similar subordinating 
conjunctions (ejakaa ‘because’ and lͻͻ heͻ ‘because of this’), they depict 
strikingly different semantic notions. According to Quirk et al (1985:484), whereas 
adverbials of cause is “concerned with causation and motivation seen as 
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established with some objectivity”, adverbials of reason on the other hand involves 
a relatively personal and subjective assessment.  
There is yet another group of adverbials which show the purpose for which 
a particular action was executed as indicated in the cases below. 
(17)  a. Papa Teye si we-m  makɛ 
            Papa Teye leave house-POST dawn 
            koni   e-ma   ya su Akͻsomo ma 
            so that    3SG.SUBJ-FUT go reach Akosombo early 
            ‘Papa Teye left home at dawn to get to Akosombo early.’ 
        b. Wa  ngɛ ni  kase-i   
            1PL.SUBJ be.at something learn-PROG 
            nɛ         wa-maa      pee        nͻmlͻ     ngua-i           hwͻͻ         se 
            so that  1PL.SUBJ-FUT  become  people     prominent-PL tomorrow  back 
            ‘We are learning so that we can become prominent people in future.’ 
        c. Koni     e-ma  na hewa mi-ͻ 
            so that     3SG.SUBJ-FUT see strength-TOP 
            e-nu   tsopa-a 
            3SG.SUBJ-drink.PST medicine-DEF  
            ‘In order to get well, he/she drank the medicine.’ 
 As indicated in (17), adverbials of purpose in Dangme are introduced by 
the subordinators koni/nɛ ‘so that’. The sentences in (17) show that this group of 
adverbials can either occur before or after the main clause. However, when they 
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occur before it, they tend to be marked by the topic marker ‘-ͻ’ as shown in (17b 
and c). Whereas the adverbials in (17) show the purpose behind an activity 
performed in a sentence, Dangme has another group of adverbials which denote 
the result or outcome of an action stated in the main clause. For instance, in (18), 
the dependent clauses in each of the sentences indicate the result or consequences 
of an event expressed in the main clause they are attached to. 
(18)  a. E-be   hewa mi    kulaa       lͻͻ heͻ 
            3SG.SUBJ-NEG strength    at all        so  
            a-tsi      e-nya   ngɛ hͻspiti 
            3PL.SUBJ-block.PST   3SG.POSS-mouth be.at hospital 
            ‘He/She is not well at all so he/she has been admitted at the hospital.’ 
        b. Akuyo  be tikiti lͻͻ e-yɛ   
            Akuyo  NEG ticket so 3SG.SUBJ-go.NEG 
            ‘Akuyo did not have a ticket so she did not go.’ 
 In the example above, it can be observed that adverbials of result can only 
succeed the main clause. Again, a comparison of (15 &16) with (18) illustrates that 
in Dangme, the same subordinator lͻͻ heͻ is used but realized differently based on 
the meaning the entire subordinating clause adds to the constituent it modifies. 
Therefore, when it is used as a subordinator for adverbials of cause and reason, it 
is realized as ‘because of this’ but for result adverbials, it means ‘so’ as indicated 
in (18). 
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Some adverbials in Dangme also provide information about the 
circumstances under which the actions stated in the main clauses would be 
achieved. These adverbials are termed ‘conditional’ adverbials. They are 
introduced by the form ke ‘if’ and can precede or come after the main clause of the 
sentence. Here are some few examples. 
(19) a.  Ke o-gbe   nya ma lͻle-ɛ  be 
             If         2SG.SUBJ-finish end fast lorry-DEF NEG 
             mo si-ɛ 
             2SG.OBJ leave-NEG 
             ‘If you finish early, the lorry will not leave you.’ 
        b.  Ke hiͻmi-ɛ   nɛ-ɛ  alamua  maa wa 
             if rain-DEF   fall-PRES water yam FUT grow  
             ‘If it rains, the water yam will grow.’ 
       c.   Wa    be sukuu      ya-e   ke     hiͻmi-ɛ     nɛ       
             1PL.SUBJ    NEG     school    go-NEG  if       rain-DEF   fall 
             ‘We will not go to school if it rains.’  
Some Dangme adverbials express the idea that suggests the opposite of the 
action expressed in the main clause of the sentence. This group of adverbials are 
known as adverbials of concession. For Quirk et al (1985:484), adverbials of 
concession can be seen as “an inverted condition–indicating circumstances in 
which a result would ensue irrespective of the content of the concessive clause.” 
Dzameshie (1998:14) reports that, like seen English, adverbials of concession in 
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Ewe are introduced by togbͻ be ‘although/even though’. However, in Dangme 
adverbials of concession are normally preceded by the coordinating conjunction se 
‘but’. The expressions in bold in (20) are examples of Dangme adverbials with this 
kind of semantic role. 
(20) a. Adzo ye   nͻ  se e-tͻ-ɛ 
           Adzo eat.PST something but 3SG.SUBJ-satisfy.PST-NEG 
           ‘Adzo ate but she is not satisfied.’        
      b.  Nako be tikiti se e-sɛ                 mi 
           Nako NEG ticket but 3SG.SUBJ-enter.PST      POST 
           ‘Nako did not have a ticket but she entered.’        
The sentences in (20) reveal that Dangme adverbials of concession only 
come after the constituent they modify. From the above examples, it can be 
observed that each sentence is made up of two clauses which present two 
contrastive statements; one of which is the opposite of the other. There are also 
some Dangme adverbials that can be used to compare an action or state with 
another in the main clause. In such occurrences, they are used to demonstrate the 
comparison or the relative extent, either greater or less than usual, of an action to 
that in the other portion of the sentence. Consider the example is given below. 
 
 
 
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(21) a.  E-wa   pe  bene  wa  
             3SG.SUBJ-grow EMPH  more than 1PL.SUBJ 
             na-a  lɛ  ha  
             see-HAB 2SG.OBJ how 
            ‘He/She is older than how we perceive him/her to be.’ 
       b.  Dèdé do-o  kaa e-mami 
            Dèdé dance-HAB like 3SG.POSS-mother 
            ‘Dede dances like her mother.’ 
 The underlined constructions above are all examples of adverbials of 
comparison. From the examples, it can be observed that aside the subordinators 
bene ‘more than’, adverbials of comparison can also be introduced by the stative 
verb kaa ‘like’ as exemplified in (21b). 
 Lastly, some Dangme adverbials are attaached to the main clauses of 
sentences to give a contrast of an event, action or state with the one expressed in 
the other. The subordinator ne ‘while’ is used to introduce adverbials of contrast in 
Dangme. In (22), the constructions underlined are used in that respect. 
(22) a. Ne ni  komɛ   ngɛ    kpɛte jua-e  ni 
            While people  some   be.at    orange sell-PROG people 
            komɛ ngɛ madaa  jua-e 
            some be plantain sell-PROG 
            ‘While some people are selling oranges, some are selling plantain.’ 
 
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       b.  Ne Nako   ngɛ   la-e  Dèdé ngɛ do-o 
            while Nako   be.at   sing-PROG Dede be.at dance-PROG 
            ‘While Nako is singing, Dede is dancing.’ 
 
 
4.3 Chapter Summary 
This chapter discussed six major semantic classes of Dangme adverbs/adverbials. 
This include manner, time, place, aspectual, epistemic, degree and contingency. It 
was shown that Dangme adverbs are classified mainly based on the semantic 
notions they add to the constituents they scope over. Also, in the course of our 
discussion, it was observed that there is a correlation between the semantic 
features and the syntactic behaviours of Dangme adverbs as seen in most of the 
languages in the literature reviewed for this study.  
Also, at various points throughout this discussion, we observed that 
semantic classes normally consist of various sub-classes. It was found that manner 
adverbs, for instance, can further be grouped into pace and instrumental adverbs 
because of the kind of meaning that they add to the sentences. Temporal adverbs 
also have four other classes which are subsumed under time namely; time-when, 
durational, frequency and iterative adverbs. Place adverbs also have the sub-
classes ‘locational’ and ‘directional’. It was observed that these sub-classes 
normally behave like the members of the semantic class which they fall under with 
the exception of just a few. Another interesting finding showed here concerns 
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adverbials of contingency. It was revealed that whereas all the other semantic 
classes have the majority of their forms to be single lexical items with a few being 
phrases, adverbs of contingency are largely expressed by adverbials. 
   
 
 
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CHAPTER FIVE 
A  DISTRIBUTIONAL ANALYSIS OF DANGME ADVERBS AND 
ADVERBIALS 
5.1 Introduction 
This chapter describes the syntactic distribution of adverbs and adverbials in 
Dangme. The discussion is in two parts. First, I examine the various positional 
possibilities that come with the adverbs and adverbials identified in Dangme. This 
also involves finding out whether the various semantic classes of adverbs show 
any difference in their syntactic distribution. This is because the discussions on 
this area, so far, indicate that there is a close correlation between the semantic 
distinctions associated with the class and the syntactic properties they come with 
(Cinque, 2004; Jackendorf, 1972; Saah, 2004; Maienborn & Schafer, 2011). For 
instance, it can be observed that the classes ‘manner’ and ‘time/temporal’, 
(although they all belong to one main category ‘adverbs’) scope over different 
constituents and are also distributed differently in sentences mainly because of the 
different meanings they add to the sentences they occur in.  
 Secondly, this chapter investigates the relative order of Dangme adverbs 
and adverbials when different semantic types co-occur in the same sentence. This 
is because although adverbs are widely regarded as optional clausal elements, 
when they appear in sentences, they are observed to follow a certain order. This 
has been an interesting area of study for linguists over the years (cf. Cinque, 1999; 
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Ernst, 2004; Jackendoff, 1972; Saah, 2004; Tenny, 2000). In Saah’s (2004:72), 
analytical view of the adverb category of Akan (a Kwa language Dangme shares 
borders with), he shows that when it comes to how an Akan adverb is distributed, 
it is largely grounded on “the nature of the adverb and its scope capabilities.” 
Therefore, the second section of this chapter seeks to find out the ordering of 
Dangme adverbs as a chain of modifiers of constituents or clauses.   
 In this chapter, section 5.2 looks at the various distributional patterns of 
adverbs and adverbials in Dangme and 5.3 explores the relative order Dangme 
adverbs and adverbials follow when co-occurring with other adverbs. Section 5.4 
presents the chapter summary. 
 
5.2 Positional Distribution of Dangme Adverbs and Adverbials 
We have previously seen in the former chapter that each adverb in Dangme has its 
own constituents that it modifies and this is often determined by the type of 
semantic class it belongs to. Here, in this section, we look at the distribution of 
Dangme adverbs and adverbials, specifying where they can occur in a clause. The 
section also seeks to show whether the positions of Dangme adverbs are dependent 
on their semantics, as prevailed in other studies (cf. Cinque, 1999; Ernst, 2004; 
Maienborn, 2011; Saah, 2004). 
 
 
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5.2.1 Syntactic Positions of Manner Adverbs 
It has been a well-known assertion that adverbs are the most mobile elements of a 
clause; however, manner adverbs in Dangme exhibit a rather restricted 
distribution. This is consistent with what has been observed by Saah (2004:49) 
about Akan manner adverbs. According to him, manner adverbs in Akan “are 
restricted with respect to their position(s) in sentences” as they cannot appear at 
sentence-initial position like other Akan adverbs but can only occur at sentence-
final position or after the verb.  Nabaarese (2017:88) posits that although Kasem 
manner adverbs cannot occur at the preverbal and post verbal positions, they can 
occur at sentence-final position as well as sentence-initial position. However, the 
Kasem manner adverbs can only be placed in the sentence-initial position with the 
help of the focus marker mo. Manner adverbs in Dangme demonstrate a slightly 
different distributional pattern from what pertains to Akan and Kasem. The 
positional possibilities of Dangme adverbs of the class ‘manner’ are observed to be 
largely influenced by the kind of subtype they belong to. Consider the following 
sentences. 
(1)   a.    Jokuɛ yoyo-ͻ  sa  kuadaa  tsɛtsɛɛtsɛ 
              child  female-DEF grind.PST pepper  smartly 
              ‘The girl grinded the pepper smartly.’ 
        b. *Tsɛtsɛɛtsɛ        jokuɛ yoyo-ͻ  sa  kuadaa  
              smartly      child female-DEF grind.PST pepper 
              ‘Smartly, the girl grinded the pepper.’ 
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        c. * Jokuɛ        yoyo-ͻ  tsɛtsɛɛtsɛ   sa  kuadaa 
               child         female-DEF smartly grind.PST pepper 
               ‘The girl smartly grinded the pepper. 
         d.   Tsɛtsɛɛtsɛ      ne       jokuɛ yoyo-ͻ  sa  kuadaa 
               smartly   FM     child female-DEF grind.PST pepper 
               ‘It was with speed that the girl grinded the pepper.’ 
 
(2) a.   Nyumu-ͻ̀ gbá  ju-ͻ́  kͻni  mā  
               man-DEF  strike.PST thief-DEF shoulder blow 
               kɛ̄    mim̀if̀ú mí 
               with    anger 
               ‘The man hit the thief’s shoulder with anger/angrily.’ 
        b. *Kε mim̀if̀ú mi  nyumu-ͻ̀ gba       ju-ͻ́ 
              with anger       man-DEF   strike.PST    thief-DEF 
              kͻni  mā  
             shoulder blow 
             ‘With anger/angrily, the man hit the thief’s shoulder.’ 
        c.   Nyumu-ͻ̀ kɛ̄  mim̀if̀ú mí  gbá  ju-ͻ́ 
              man-DEF  with  anger   strike.PST thief-DEF 
              kͻnì  mā  
              shoulder blow 
              ‘The man, with anger/angrily, hit the thief’s shoulder.’ 
 
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        d.* Kε mim̀if̀ú mi  ne nyumu-ͻ̀ gba       
              with anger  FM man-DEF strike.PST    
              ju-ͻ́   kͻnì  mā  
             thief-DEF  shoulder blow 
       e.   Ngε mim̀if̀ú mi      mi-ͻ   nyumu-ͻ̀ gba       
             in anger       inside-TOP  man-DEF strike.PST    
             ju-ͻ́   kͻnì  mā  
             thief-DEF  shoulder blow 
             ‘It was in anger that the man hit the thief’s shoulder.’ 
(3)  a.  E-ngatsɛ-ɛ    ngͻ  bo-ͻ           
             3SG.POSS-father-in law-DEF   take.PST     cloth-DEF      
             ngε bua jͻ mi        mi 
             in      gladness POST 
            ‘His father-in law took the cloth with joy/gladness.’ 
      b.   Ngε bua jͻ mi mi-ͻ̀   e-ngatsɛ-ɛ   
            in gladness POST-TOP  3SG.POSS-father-in law 
            ngͻ  bo-ͻ    
            take.PST cloth-DEF   
            ‘With joy/gladness, his father-in law took the cloth.’ 
 
 
 
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      c.    E-ngatsɛ-ɛ      ngε bua jͻ mi       mi-ͻ 
            3SG.POSS-father-in law-DEF   in gladness      POST-TOP 
             ngͻ  bo-ͻ     
             take.PST cloth-DEF    
             ‘His father-in law, with joy/gladness, took the cloth.’ 
      d.    Ngε bua jͻ mi   mi         ne   e-ngatsɛ-ɛ   
             in gladness   POST   FM  3SG.POSS-father-in law-DEF  
             ngͻ  bo-ͻ     
             take.PST cloth-DEF    
             ‘It was with joy/gladness, that his father-in law took the cloth.’ 
 
(4) a.    Gbe   bi-ɛ  ngɛ fo tu-e  mamaama 
              dog    child-DEF be.at run-PROG very fast   
              ‘The puppy is running very fast. ’  
      b. *  Mamaama gbe bi-ɛ  ngɛ fo tu-e 
              very fast dog child-DEF be.at run-PROG 
      c. * Gbe   bi-ɛ  mamaama ngɛ fo tu-e   
             dog    child-DEF very fast be.at run-PROG    
     d. * Mamaama ne gbe bi-ɛ  ngɛ fo tu-e 
            very fast FM dog child-DEF be.at run-PROG 
 
  
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 The examples in (1) – (4) show that adverbs belonging to the class 
‘manner’ have varied distribution and this is mainly due to their membership to a 
particular semantic sub-class subsumed under the manner category. In the previous 
chapter, we found out that some manner adverbs may shed some meaning on the 
instrument/tool, mood, disposition or quality used in getting an action done        
(cf. Givon, 1993:73; Saah, 2004:53). Also, we observed that manner adverbs could 
be further sub-grouped into pace adverbs. So, in describing the syntactic 
distribution of manner adverbs, the positional patterns of these sub-classes cannot 
be left out.  
When we look more closely at the above examples, we realize that these 
adverbs are distributed in relation to their semantic distinctions. Each semantic 
class has its own distinctive way of being distributed in a sentence. In Example 
(1), we find the manner adverb tsɛtsɛɛtsɛ ‘smartly’ occurring in the sentence-final 
position and also in the sentence-initial position.  Nevertheless, the sentence-initial 
position is not permissible unless the Dangme manner adverbs are followed by the 
focus marker ne as shown in (1d).  
 The sentences in (2) and (3), on the other hand, illustrate the possible 
positions of instrumental adverbs, a sub-class of manner adverbs. This sub-group 
exhibits the greatest diversity from the basic positions associated with the Dangme 
manner adverbs. From the data, we realize that aside occurring in the clause-final 
position, they are also likely to appear at the pre-verbal position (i.e. after the 
subject) as can be seen in (2c) and (3c). However, unlike manner adverbs which 
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can be fronted with the focus marker ne, the ill-formed sentence in (2d) shows that 
instrumental adverbs beginning with the postposition kɛ ‘with’ cannot. 
 In addition to the discussion of the positional patterns of Dangme 
instrumental adverbs, we find that instrumental adverbs are usually expressed by 
postpositional phrases. And the two postpositions kɛ ‘with’ and ngɛ ‘in’ that 
introduce the phrases are observed to exhibit different syntactic distributions as 
exemplified above in (2) and (3). When we compare the constructions in (2b and 
d) and that of (3b and d), we realize that, whereas postpositional phrases beginning 
with ngɛ ‘in’ can occur at the clause-initial position and can also be focused, 
postpositional phrases with kɛ ‘with’ cannot. Also, the sentences in (1b, 2b, 3b & 
4b) show that among manner adverbs, it is only instrumental adverbials (manner) 
beginning with the postposition ngɛ ‘in’ that can be fronted and focused. However, 
when fronted, they must be followed by the topic maker   ‘-ͻ’ as illustrated in the 
Example (2e &3b).  
 Pace adverbs is another group of manner adverbs which also exhibit 
different placement possibilities from other manner adverbs. As can be seen in (4), 
pace adverbs in Dangme are only positioned after the verb. They cannot be placed 
in the pre-clause position, neither can they occur in the pre-verbal position.  
 Therefore, it can be observed that among the Dangme manner adverb class, 
it is only instrumental adverbials preceded by ngɛ ‘in’ that can occur in the clause-
initial position, clause-final position and preverbal positon (after the subject). All 
others (both adverbs and adverbials) are restricted in terms of where to occur in the 
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sentence; they normally surface in the slot after the verb or verb phrase with a few 
occurring after the subject (preverbal position) as illustrated in the Examples       
(1) – (4).  
 
5.2.2 Syntactic Positions of Time/Temporal Adverbs 
This sub-section deals with the various positions in which time/temporal adverbs 
such as hiɛ ‘yesterday’, mͻtu ‘morning’, piͻ ‘now’, hwͻͻ ‘tomorrow’ and 
adverbials like piͻ sͻ nͻ ‘right now’ and daa mͻtu ‘every morning’ surface in 
Dangme sentences. Time adverbs and adverbials have a wider distribution 
compared to manner adverbs. This is because they can occur at both the sentence-
initial and sentence-final positions and can as well be fronted for focus. One 
syntactic distributional property of this Dangme adverb class is that syntactically, 
the distributional tendencies associated with this adverb category hold for all the 
sub-groups that constitute the class. Thus, unlike the other identified semantic 
types, the sub-classes (‘time-when’, ‘durational’ and ‘frequency/repetitive’) that 
fall under the ‘time adverbs’ do not exhibit any vast difference in the positions 
they take in a sentence. As mentioned earlier, all the sub-groups normally can 
occupy the clause-final position as well as the sentence-initial position, however, 
they generate an ill-formed sentence when placed in the pre-verbal position. Some 
examples are given below. 
 
 
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(5) a.  A-ba        su     we       mi          hiɛ 
            3PL.SUBJ-come.PST   reach    house    POST     yesterday 
            ‘They arrived home yesterday.’ 
       b.  Hiɛ            a- ba    su     we       mi  
            yesterday      3PL.SUBJ-come.PST  reach     house     POST 
            ‘Yesterday, they arrived home.’ 
      c.* A- hiɛ    ba  su we   mi    
           3PL.SUBJ- yesterday  come.PST    reach house   POST 
     d.   Hiɛ          ne        a-ba      su    we       mi 
           yesterday     FM       3PL.SUBJ- come.PST   reach    house      POST 
            ‘It was yesterday that they arrived home.’ 
     e.    Hiɛ           lɛɛ12  a-ba             su         we           mi 
            yesterday       FM 3PL.SUBJ- come.PST   reach     house POST 
           ‘As for yesterday, they arrived home.’ 
         The expression hiɛ ‘yesterday’ in (5) is an example of time-when adverbs, 
a sub-class subsumed under time adverbs. From the example above, hiɛ 
‘yesterday’ can occur at both the left and right edges of the sentence (i.e. sentence-
initial and sentence-final positions), but cannot occur in the slot between the 
subject and the verb phrase of the sentence (i.e. pre-verbal position). This 
distributional pattern also goes for durational, frequency and iterative adverbs. 
                                                          
12 lɛɛ is an exclusive marker also used in marking focus in Dangme. As far as focusing of 
adverbs is concerned, ne is often used however some temporal adverbs are also marked 
with lɛɛ when there is the need to show an event out of many.   
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However, the data sets in (6) and (7) show that in Dangme, single frequency 
adverbs cannot occur in the pre-clause position like their other semantic 
counterparts. 
(6) a. Bimͻnyo-ͻ fo ya  hluu 
           Baby-DEF cry.PST a long time 
           ‘The baby cried for several hours.’ 
       b.* Hluu   bimͻnyo-ͻ fo ya 
             a long time baby-DEF cry.PST 
       c. * Bimͻnyo-ͻ hluu  fo ya  
              Baby-DEF a long time cry.PST 
       d.*  Hluu  ne bimͻnyo-ͻ fo ya 
              a long time FM baby-DEF cry.PST 
       
(7) a. Tɛtɛ ngɛ bͻlu-u  fia-ɛ  kpamisa 
           Tɛtɛ be.at ball-DEF hit-HAB often 
            ‘Tɛtɛ is often playing football.’ 
       b.* Kpamisa      Tɛtɛ ngɛ bͻlu-u  fia-ɛ   
             often              Tɛtɛ be.at ball-DEF hit-HAB 
       c.* Tɛtɛ kpamisa ngɛ bͻlu-u  fia-ɛ  
             Tɛtɛ often  be.at ball-DEF hit-HAB 
         
 
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       d.   Kpamisa  ne Tɛtɛ ngɛ bͻlu-u  fia-ɛ   
             often  FM Tɛtɛ be.at ball-DEF hit-HAB 
 From the cases above, whenever single frequency adverbs like hluu ‘a long 
time’ in (6) and kpamisa ‘often’ in (7) are fronted, they yield ungrammatical 
sentences. But when we compare them with their adverbial counterpart like 
kpamisa nͻ ‘all the time’ in (8) that comes here after, it can be observed that 
frequency adverbials fit perfectly into the sentence-initial slots. 
(8)  a.  Godotsɛ nͻ ngɛ la-e  kpamisa  nͻ 
              mad person DEM be.at sing-PROG  all the time    
             ‘This mad person is always singing.’ 
       b.   Kpamisa  nͻ  godotsɛ nͻ ngɛ la-e 
             all the time        mad person DEM be.at sing-PROG 
             ‘Always, this mad person is singing.’ 
       c.   Godotsɛ nͻ kpamisa  nͻ e-ngɛ        la-e  
             mad person DEM all the time 3SG.SUBJ-be.at    sing-HAB   
             ‘This mad person, always he/she is singing.’ 
     d.     Kpamisa  nͻ  ne godotsɛ nͻ ngɛ la-e 
             all the time FM mad person DEM be.at sing-HAB 
          Contrary to the sentences in (6) and (7), it can be observed in the sentences 
above that frequency adverbials can occupy other positions apart from the 
sentence-final position. These adverbials can come before the subject as shown in 
(8b) as well as the immediate position after the subject like in (8c).  However, 
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when they occur in that position, an anaphoric pronoun follows the adverbial. As 
can be seen in (8c), the anaphoric element e- ‘he/she’ follows the adverbial 
kpamisa nͻ ‘all the time’.     
 Another interesting finding about time/temporal adverbs or adverbials in 
Dangme is that they often agree with the verb with respect to tense/aspect. Here 
are some examples. 
(9) a. Yomoyo-ͻ  gbo  hiɛ 
                 old.woman  die.PST yesterday 
                ‘The old woman died yesterday.’  
            b. E-ba                       su      hiɛ 
                3SG.SUBJ-come.PST      reach      yesterday 
                ‘He/she arrived yesterday.’ 
            c. Kpabite jua  e-lͻle-ɛ      hiɛ 
                Kpabite sell.PST 3SG.POSS-lorry-DEF    yesterday 
                ‘Kpabite sold his car yesterday.’ 
When we examine the sentences above, it can be observed that the 
temporal adverb hiɛ ‘yesterday’ which refers to a past time tend to appear with 
verbs in the past tense like gbo ‘died’ , ba su ‘arrived’ and jua ‘sold’  as shown in 
the examples above. Also in the sentences in (10), it can be seen that the time 
adverbs piͻ ‘now’ and daa ‘every time/always’ often go with verbs that indicate 
progressive tense and a habitual action respectively. When they occur with the 
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verbs that indicate similar time frames, they tend to present a form of definiteness 
about the aspectual interpretations denoted by the sentences.  
(10) a. Tɛtɛ        ngɛ bͻlu-u     fia-ɛ      piͻ  
          Tɛtɛ        be.at ball-DEF hit-HAB    now 
          ‘Tɛtɛ is playing football now.’ 
b. Tɛtɛ     ya-a    sukuu     daa  
           Tɛtɛ    go-HAB      school    every time/always 
           ‘Tɛtɛ goes to school always.’ 
 
5.2.3 Syntactic Positions of Place Adverbs 
As far as distribution is concerned, place adverbs in Dangme generally occur in 
two major environments; the sentence-final and sentence-initial positions, except 
for directional adverbs which are often distributed after the verb or VP (i.e., 
sentence-finally). The possible distributions are illustrated in examples (11 and 12) 
(11) a.   A-kɛ̀        safi-ɛ́ fͻ  si  ngɛ hiͻ 
             3PL.SUBJ-with    key-DEF  put.PST GROUND be.at here 
             ‘They placed the key here.’ 
       b.   Hiͻ     a-kɛ̀       safi-ɛ́       fͻ            si    ngɛ  
             here    3PL.SUBJ-with   key-DEF    put.PST    GROUND     be.at 
             ‘It was here that they placed the key.’ 
       c.* A- hiͻ       kɛ̀     safi-ɛ́  fͻ  si  ngɛ 
            3PL.SUBJ- here   with    key-DEF  put.PST GROUND be,at 
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       d.  Hiͻ      ne       a-kɛ̀     safi-ɛ́        fͻ          si           ngɛ  
            here     FM     3PL.SUBJ-with   key-DEF    put.PST    GROUND  be.at  
            ‘It was here that they placed the key.’ 
 As the examples in (11) indicate, place adverbs can either occur at the 
sentence-final or sentence-initial position but, not likely to surface in the pre-
verbal position as shown in (11c). From the examples, we can also find that some 
place adverbs such as hiͻ ‘here’ in (11b) can freely be fronted for focus with or 
without a marked focus. A closer look at (11b) shows that even though the adverb 
is topicalized, it is not morphologically marked with any form of focus marker like 
in (11d).  According to Saah (2004:58), constituents are focused this way by the 
use of what he calls ‘Zero FM’  or ‘Unmarked Focus’  The distributional pattern 
also remains the same for place adverbials with the only unique feature being the 
topic marker that they come with anytime they surface in the sentence-initial  
position. Let’s consider the sentences below.   
(12) a.   Nako     na  klala duku-ͻ  ngɛ 
             Nako    see.PST handkerchief-DEF  be.at 
             okplͻ-ͻ     sisi 
             table-DEF      POST 
             ‘Nako found the handkerchief under the table.’ 
 
 
 
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        b.  Ngɛ okplͻ-ͻ sisi-ɛ   Nako     na 
  be.at table-DEF POST-TOP Nako     see.PST  
             klala duku-ͻ 
      handkerchief-DEF 
            ‘It was under the table that Nako found the handkerchief.’  
        c.  Ngɛ okplͻ-ͻ  sisi-ɛ ne Nako     na 
  be.at  table-DEF  POST-TOP    FM Nako     see.PST  
             klala duku-ͻ 
      handkerchief-DEF  
             ‘It was under the table that Nako found the handkerchief.’ 
       d.*  Nako        ngɛ okplͻ-ͻ           sisi e-na    
              Nako        be.at  table-DEF POST  3SG.SUBJ-see.PST           
               klala duku-ͻ 
               handkerchief-DEF 
 The underlined structures outlined in (12) are examples of place adverbials. 
As already hinted above, these adverbials behave just like their single lexical 
counterparts in terms of how they are distributed in a sentence. The only difference 
regards their morphological structure when they are placed in the sentence-initial 
position; they are modified by the topic marker ‘-ͻ’ which is realized as differently 
because of its preceding sound.  
But the same cannot be said for directional adverbials (another sub-category 
of place adverbs) which are not permitted either on the left fringe of a sentence or 
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in between the subject NP and the verb. They are only likely to surface in the slot 
that come after the verb or VP. This is illustrated by the following examples.    
(13) a. Jokuɛ-ͻ hwa  kɛ sɛ tsu-ͻ  mi 
             child-DEF crawl.PST CONJ enter room-DEF POST 
             ‘The child crawled into the room.’ 
        b.* Kɛ        sɛ               tsu-ͻ  mi  jokuɛ-ͻ hwa 
             CONJ        enter.PST   room-DEF POST child-DEF crawl.PST 
        c.* Jokuɛ-ͻ kɛ     sɛ      tsu-ͻ         mi           hwa    
              child-DEF CONJ     enter.PST    room-DEF   POST crawl.PST  
          d.* Kɛ        sɛ     tsu-ͻ  ne jokuɛ-ͻ         hwa 
                CONJ     enter.PST    room-DEF FM child-DEF   crawl.PST 
As can be seen in the sentences in (13), directional adverbials can only 
occur in the sentence-final position, any other distributional pattern generates 
ungrammatical sentences as shown in (13b) and (13d). Another interesting feature 
of this group of place adverbials is that unlike the locational adverbials which are 
mainly postpositional phrases, directional adverbials are usually expressed by a 
conflating verb plus a postpositional phrase as exemplified in (13). 
 
 
 
 
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5.2.4 Syntactic Positions of Aspectual Adverbs 
When it comes to Dangme aspectual adverbs such as momo ‘already’, ekohu 
‘again’, lolo ‘yet’ and loloolo ‘still’, we see a kind of restrictive distribution. 
Compared to the semantic classes of adverbs discussed so far, Dangme aspectual 
adverbs are by far, the least mobile of all. They are only permitted in the clause 
final position except for the adverb loloolo ‘still’ which can sometimes surface in 
the sentence-initial position. This is demonstrated in the examples (14) and (15) 
which follows. 
(14) a.  Matsɛ nͻkͻtͻma-a kɛ matsɛ wayo-ͻ 
          chief elder-DEF CONJ chief small-DEF 
          maa kpe ekohu 
                 FUT meet again 
                 ‘The paramount chief and the sub-chief will meet again.’ 
           b.* Ekohu  matsɛ nͻkͻtͻma-a kɛ matsɛ wayo-ͻ 
                 again chief elder-DEF CONJ chief small-DEF 
          maa kpe  
                 FUT meet  
               ‘Again, the paramount chief and the sub-chief will meet.’ 
           c.*Ekohu  ne matsɛ nͻkͻtͻma-a kɛ matsɛ wayo-ͻ 
                 again FM chief elder-DEF CONJ chief small-DEF 
          maa kpe  
                FUT  meet 
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          d.* Matsɛ nͻkͻtͻma-a ekohu  maa    kpe   
                chief      elder-DEF   again    FUT meet 
                matsɛ wayo-ͻ 
                chief small-DEF 
               ‘The paramount chief, again, will meet the sub-chief.’ 
 As mentioned earlier, the data in (14) show the permissible slot an 
aspectual adverb in Dangme can occupy. According to the data in (14a-d), 
aspectual adverbs only appear at the sentence-final position; they cannot occur in 
the sentence-initial position, neither are they permitted in the pre-verbal position. 
From the examples, we also find that this group of adverbs cannot be fronted or 
focused; however, the succeeding examples in (15) present us with a contrastive 
instance where the aspectual adverb loloolo ‘still’ occurs in the sentence-final 
position as well as pre-clause position.   
(15)   a.  E-tsɛngua-a    ngɛ lejͻ-ͻ  loloolo 
              3SG.POSS-uncle.paternal-DEF be.at there-DEF still 
              ‘His/her paternal uncle is still there.’ 
         b. Loloolo-ͻ e-tsɛngua-a        ngɛ      lejͻ-ͻ  
             still-TOP 3SG.POSS-uncle.paternal-DEF  be.at     there-DEF  
             ‘Still, his/her paternal uncle is there.’ 
         c. Loloolo-ͻ ne e-tsɛngua-a        ngɛ    lejͻ-ͻ 
             still-TOP FM 3SG.POSS-uncle.paternal-DEF  be.at  there-DEF 
             ‘Still, his/her paternal uncle is there.’     
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Example (15) illustrates the syntactic distribution of the aspectual adverb 
loloolo ‘still’. Here, we can see loloolo in the right periphery of the sentence as 
well as in the left periphery. When it occurs in the sentence-initial position, it is 
modified by the topic marker ‘-ͻ’ like place adverbials.  
   
5.2.5 Syntactic Positions of Epistemic or Speaker-Oriented Adverbs 
Epistemic adverbs in Dangme have restricted distribution. Except for occurring in 
the initial position on the left periphery of a sentence, it cannot appear elsewhere. 
The discussion made by linguists on various grounds about this subject suggests 
that this could be so because this group of adverbs tends to have scope over the 
entire clause. And these cross-linguistic empirical observations about the group 
throws light on why Dangme epistemic adverbs tend to occupy the left periphery 
position of Dangme sentences. In Dangme, epistemic adverbs such as benͻͻ/benͻ 
mi ‘maybe’ can only occur on the left-fringe of the sentence and cannot be focused 
like other semantic classes. This is exemplified in the sentences in (16) below. 
(16) a.  Benͻͻ/Benͻ mi wa-bi-ɛ        du 
                maybe  1PL.POSS-child-DEF      bathe.PERF 
                e-he   momo 
                3SG.POSS-body already 
               ‘Maybe our son has bathed already.’ 
 
 
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          b.* Wa-bi-ɛ    du  e-he 
                1PL.POSS-child-DEF bathe.PERF 3SG.POSS-body 
                momo benͻͻ/benͻ mi 
                already  maybe 
          c.* Wa-bi-ɛ    benͻͻ/benͻ mi  du  
                1PL.POSS-child-DEF maybe   bathe.PERF  
                e-he   momo  
               3SG.POSS-body  already   
          d.* Benͻͻ/Benͻ mi ne wa-bi-ɛ       du 
                maybe  FM 1PL.POSS-child-DEF     bathe.PERF 
                e-he   momo 
                3SG.POSS-body already 
 
5.2.6 Syntactic Positions of Adverbs of Contingency  
Adverbials of contingency form another major category of Dangme adverbials 
often made up of dependent clauses that are attached to other main clauses to form 
complete Dangme sentences. The basic place of occurrence for these kinds of 
adverbials is the clause-final position (right-periphery) with just a few occurring 
elsewhere. To investigate the distribution of this group of adverbials, let’s consider 
some illustrative sentences that show their distribution. 
 
 
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(17) a.  Kpabite tͻ   ngɛ mla-a  nͻ 
            Kpabite make mistake.PST be.at law-DEF POST 
            lͻͻ heͻ    a-sanɛ  a-gbla     e-tue 
            because of this  3PL.SUBJ-have to 3PL.SUBJ-pull  3SG.POSS-ear 
            ‘Kpabite has committed a crime so he has to be punished.’ 
       b.  Bimͻnyo-ͻ ngɛ ya fo-e  ejakaa  hͻ 
            baby-DEF be.at cry-PROG because hunger 
            ngɛ lɛ  ye-i 
            be 2SG.OBJ eat-PROG 
            ‘The baby is crying because she is hungry.’ 
      c.   Akuyo  be tikiti lͻͻ e-yɛ   
            Akuyo  NEG ticket so 3SG.SUBJ-go.NEG 
            ‘Akuyo did not have a ticket so she did not go.’ 
      d.   Adzo   ye  nͻ se e-tͻ-ɛ 
            Adzo   eat.PST      thing but 3SG.SUBJ-satisfy.PST-NEG 
            ‘Adzo ate but she is not satisfied.’     
      e.   E-wa   pe  bene  wa  
            3SG.SUBJ-to be old EMPH  more than 1PL.SUBJ 
            na-a    lɛ  ha  
            perceive-PROG  2SG.OBJ       how 
            ‘He/She is older than how we perceive him/her to be.’ 
 Example (17) illustrates the distribution of most adverbials of contingency 
in Dangme. Generally, all the adverbials in (17) seem to surface at the clause final 
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position no matter their semantic distinctions. Example (17) comprises adverbials 
of different semantic sub-classes. In (17a) and (17b), are examples of adverbials of 
cause. The sentence in (17c) presents an adverbial of result and (17d) and (17e) are 
adverbials of concession and comparison respectively. In all, we find the same 
pattern and therefore, it can be said that the marked position for Dangme 
adverbials of contingency is the sentence-final position. However, in addition, 
there are some Dangme adverbials of contingency that are not also restricted to 
appear at sentence-initial position. Thus, it is acceptable to have them in both the 
pre-clause and clause-final positions. This is illustrated in the Examples (18), (19) 
and (20). 
(18)  a.  Adzo ya jua ywie  koni 
            Adzo go sell palm nut so that 
                  e-ma  na sika-a 
            3SG.SUBJ-FUT see money-DEF 
                  ‘Adzo went to sell palm nut so that/in order to get the money.’ 
            b.   Koni Adzo  ma na sika-a 
                  so that Adzo  FUT see money-DEF 
                  e-ya  jua ywie 
                  3SG.SUBJ-go sell palm nut 
                  ‘In order to get the money, Adzo went to sell palm nut.’ 
 
 
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(19)    a.   Wa   ngɛ du-ɛ  esͻesͻ  
                 1PL.SUBJ  be.at bathe-PROG early 
                 nɛ  a-ko   je wa-he          
           so that 3PL.SUBJ-should leave 1PL.POSS-body 
                 ‘We are bathing quickly so that they don’t leave us.’ 
         b.*   Nɛ  a-ko   je wa-he-ͻ          
                 so that 3PL.SUBJ-should leave 1PL.POSS-body 
                 wa   ngɛ du-ɛ  esͻesͻ  
                 1PL.SUBJ  be.at bathe-PROG early 
                 ‘So that/ in order for them not to leave us, we are bathing quickly.’ 
(20) a.     Wa   ngɛ du-ɛ  esͻesͻ  
                 1PL.SUBJ  be.at bathe-PROG early 
                 bene  pe   ne  a-ko   je wa-he          
           so that  3PL.SUBJ-should leave 1PL.POSS-body 
                 ‘We are bathing quickly so that they don’t leave us.’ 
         b.     Bene pe ne  a-ko   je wa-he-ͻ          
                 so that  3PL.SUBJ-should leave 1PL.POSS-body 
                 wa   ngɛ du-ɛ  esͻesͻ  
                 1PL.SUBJ  be.at bathe-PROG early 
                 ‘So that/ in order for them not to leave us, we are bathing quickly.’ 
Adverbials of purpose outlined in (18), (19) and (20) are prime examples of 
Dangme adverbials that are able to end a sentence as well as begin one.  In (18a), 
(19a) and (20a), the adverbials occur in the sentence-final position and in (18b), 
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(19b) and (20b), they appear at the pre-clause position. Notice, however, that it is 
not possible for adverbials preceded by the subordinator ne to fill the sentence-
initial slot. This is because it generates an ill-formed sentence when in the 
sentence-initial position as shown in (19b). Therefore, speakers of the language 
tend to use the constructions with the subordinator bene pe ne ‘so that/in order to’ 
instead which also has the same reading as ne as illustrated in (20a and b).  
The structures in (21) that comes here after are also examples of Dangme 
adverbials of contingency that can appear in both sentence-initial and sentence-
final positions. The adverbials in (21) are adverbials of condition which function 
as connectives for the joining of two clause structures. As the examples indicate, 
the adverbials of condition show the relation between the antecedent and the 
consequence or result. Here, the consequent event does not hold unless the 
condition stated in the antecedent holds. The examples show that in Dangme the 
antecedent which happens to be the adverbial of condition does not have a 
specified location; they can occur on the left fringe of the sentence or on the right 
fringe. 
(21) a. Ke o-ye   nͻ mamaama ma ha 
             If        2SG.SUBJ-eat  thing fast  FUT give 
             mo   ahleu-ͻ 
             2SG.OBJ  sugarcane-DEF 
             ‘If you eat the food fast, I will give you the sugarcane.’ 
 
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        b. Ma ha  mo  ahleu-ͻ 
            FUT give   2SG.OBJ   sugarcane-DEF    
            ke o-ye   nͻ mamaama 
           if      2SG.SUBJ-eat  thing fast   
           ‘I will give you the sugarcane if you eat the food fast.’  
The structures in bold in the sentences in (22) below are examples of 
adverbials of contrast which also surface in sentence-initial position just like 
adverbials of purpose and condition. 
(22) a. Ne Darley  ngɛ fiɛ-ɛ  Amorkor ngɛ  
             while Darley  be.at play-PROG Amorkor be.at 
             tsu-ͻ  mi bɛ-e 
             room-DEF POST sweep-PROG  
             ‘While Darley is playing, Amorkor is sweeping the room.’ 
         b. Amorkor ngɛ tsu-ͻ  mi bɛ-e 
            Amorkor be.at room-DEF POST sweep-PROG 
            ne Darley  ngɛ fiɛ-ɛ 
           while Darley  be.at play-PROG 
 
5.3 The Relative Sequencing of Dangme adverbs and adverbials 
This sub-section deals with the sequencing of Dangme adverbs and adverbials in a 
sentence. Normally, sentences tend to have two or more adverbs/adverbials. And 
from the vast amount of literature on the subject, we have come to understand that 
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these adverbs do not just appear anywhere but follow some form of sequencing 
constraints (Cinque, 1999 & 2004; Ernst, 2004; Jackendoff, 1972; Maienborn & 
Schafer, 2011; Saah, 2004). One premise generalized in the discussions made by 
these linguists is that the relative ordering of adverbs within a sentence is highly 
determined by what they scope over. For instance, Saah (2004:72) postulates that 
for Akan “the reason for this ordering has to with the scope capabilities of the 
different types of adverbs.” In Dangme, it is possible for more than one adverb to 
occur in the same sentence/clause. When this happens, they occur in a special 
order. Consider the following examples. 
(23) a. Bímɔ̀nyó-ͻ́     fó yā   [mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀] [mͻtu-ͻ] 
              baby-DEF     cry.PST    sorrowfully morning-DEF 
              ‘The baby cried sorrowfully in the morning.’ 
          b.* Bímɔ̀nyó-ͻ́     fó yā    [mͻtu-ͻ]     [mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀] 
                baby-DEF     cry.PST  morning-DEF      sorrowfully  
          c.   [Mͻtu-ͻ]          Bímɔ̀nyó-ͻ́     fó yā  [mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀] 
               morning-DEF       baby-DE        cry.PST    sorrowfully  
               ‘The morning, the baby cried sorrowfully.’ 
 In the above example, we have manner adverbs and time/temporal adverbs 
co-occurring in the sentence. When this happens, the manner adverbs precede the 
temporal adverbs as illustrated by (23a). The ungrammatical sentence in (23b) 
shows that the reverse ordering is not acceptable in Dangme. This is because time 
adverbs scope over the entire clause and manner adverbs scope over the verb or 
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verb phrase. Therefore, the manner adverb mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀ ‘sorrowfully’ must be 
immediately adjoined to the verb and followed by the time adverb mͻtu-ͻ ‘in the 
morning’ which then scopes over the entire sentence.  
(24) a.  Nyumu-ͻ́     fó yā       [mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀]    [ngɛ   ya-a    sisi] 
      man-DEF     cry.PST   sorrowfully    be.at   funeral-DEF   under  
            ‘The man cried sorrowfully at the funeral.’ 
        b.  Nyumu-ͻ́     fó yā          [ngɛ   ya-a    sisi]    [mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀] 
             man-DEF     cry.PST    be.at   funeral-DEF   under   sorrowfully  
            ‘The man cried at the funeral sorrowfully.’ 
        c. [ngɛ   ya-a    sisi]      nyumu-ͻ́     fó yā         [mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀] 
             be.at   funeral-DEF   under   man-DEF     cry.PST   sorrowfully  
            ‘At the funeral, the man cried sorrowfully.’ 
In (24a), we realize that when place adverbs and manner adverb are to be 
sequenced in a sentence, they both can be placed after the main verb of the 
sentence as they all scope over the verb. Thus, having the manner adverb 
mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀ at the immediate position after the verb and succeeded by the place 
adverbial ngɛ yaa sisi ‘at the funeral’ is acceptable and the reverse is true as shown 
above. We can also have ngɛ yaa sisi ‘at the funeral’ on the left periphery of the 
sentence like in (24c) and this is not because it has any scope capability of 
modifying the entire clause but because adverbials preceded by the particle ngɛ are 
noted to be able to surface freely in the sentence-initial position in Dangme 
sentences. 
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 The same generalization holds for the linear ordering of the adverbs co-
occurring in the sentences in (25). Manner and place adverbs are adjoined to the 
verb while the time adverb is adjoined to the entire clause. This explains why it is 
distributed at the far end of the sentence after the verb-modifying elements. Its 
occurrence at the sentence-initial position too is acceptable.  
(25)  a.  Nyumu-ͻ́    fó yā       [mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀]   [ngɛ   ya-a         sisi]      [hiɛ] 
    man-DEF    cry.PST    sorrowfully     be.at   funeral-DEF  under   yesterday 
           ‘The man cried sorrowfully at the funeral yesterday.’ 
        b. [Hiɛ]      nyumu-ͻ́    fó yā      [mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀]   [ngɛ    ya-a              sisi] 
            yesterday  man-DEF  cry.PST  sorrowfully     be.at   funeral-DEF    under    
            ‘Yesterday, the man cried sorrowfully at the funeral.’ 
       c.  [Hiɛ]       [ngɛ     ya-a      sisi]    nyumu-ͻ́    fó yā       [mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀]    
           yesterday     be.at   funeral-DEF  under   man-DEF  cry.PST   sorrowfully      
          ‘Yesterday, at the funeral, the man cried.’ 
     d.   Ngɛ   ya-a        sisi]    [hiɛ]           nyumu-ͻ́    fó yā       [mɔ̀bɔ̀mɔ̀bɔ̀]    
           be.at  funeral-DEF  under  yesterday   man-DEF  cry.PST   sorrowfully      
        ‘At the funeral yesterday, the man cried sorrowfully.’ 
When place and temporal adverbs co-occur in the same sentence, the place 
adverbs precede the temporal adverbs as illustrated in (26a). The reverse ordering 
is not permitted as shown in (26b). 
 
 
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(26)  a.   Amorkor     màá  bà [hiͻ] [hwͻͻ]  
                   Amorkor     FUT  come here tomorrow 
                   ‘Amorkor will come here tomorrow.’ 
          b. *   Amorkor      màá bà [hwͻͻ]  [hiͻ]  
                   Amorkor      FUT come tomorrow here  
         c.       [Hwͻͻ]    Amorkor maa ba [hiͻ] 
                   tomorrow    Amorkor FUT come here  
                   ‘Tomorrow, Amorkor will come here.’ 
 
(27)  a.       Jokuɛ nͻ       bɛ       tsu-ͻ  mi tsɛtsɛɛtsɛ 
                   Child DEM      sweep.PST   room-DEF POST smartlly 
                   ‘This child swept the room smartly.’ 
         b.       Jokuɛ     nͻ         bɛ         tsu-ͻ     mi       [tsɛtsɛɛtsɛ]  [ekohu] 
                   child      DEM    sweep.PST    room-DEF  POST   lazily           again    
                   ‘This child swept the room smartly again.’      
        c.    *  Jokuɛ     nͻ        bɛ                tsu-ͻ             mi           [ekohu] [tsɛtsɛɛtsɛ]   
                   child      DEM    sweep.PST  room-DEF   POST      again      smartly  
                   ‘This child swept the room again smartly.’ 
 Whenever manner and aspectual adverbs occur in the same sentence, the 
aspectual adverbs comes after the manner adverbs even though they both scope 
over the verb phrase as in (27b). This is because aside the scope capabilities of the 
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adverbs, the linear ordering of adverbs sometimes also lies on the nature of the 
adverbs (cf. Saah, 2004). 
 The examples in (28) and (29) show how greatly the scope capabilities of 
an adverb influence the syntactic distribution of Dangme adverbs. The sentences in 
both examples contains the two partitions; verb-phrase adverbs and sentence-
adverbs and the manner in which they adhere to the placement constraints is very 
interesting. In the data sets, we have momo ‘already’ and lejɔͻ ‘there’ are VP-
adverbs, hence seen to immediately follow the verb phrase which they modify. 
The sentence adverbs  makɛ ‘dawn’ benͻ/ benͻ mi ‘may be’, ekomɛ ‘perhaps’ and 
the adverbial koni ema ya su Akͻsomo ma ‘so that he can get to Akosombo early’ 
are seen to be adjoined to the entire clause as observed in many languages. 
(28) a.     [Benͻͻ] e-ye    nͻ  [momo] 
                  Maybe 3SG.SUBJ-eat.PERF something already 
                  ‘Maybe he/she has eaten already.’ 
          b. *  [Momo]  e-ye        nͻ  [benͻͻ] 
                  Already 3SG.SUBJ-eat.PERF     something maybe 
          c.     E-ye                      nͻ      [momo]  [benͻͻ/benͻ mi] 
                  3SG.SUBJ-eat.PERF      something   already    maybe 
 
 
 
 
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(29) a. [Ekomɛ] Papa Teye je  [lejͻͻ] [makɛ] 
                perhaps Papa Teye leave.PST there dawn 
               [koni e-ma   ya su Akͻsͻmo ma] 
                so that  3SG.SUBJ-FUT go reach Akosombo early 
               ‘Perhaps, Papa Teye left there at dawn to get to here early.’ 
 When we look at the distributional possibilities of the VP-adverbs and that 
of Sentence adverbs in (28) and (29), it can be observed that in Dangme, 
adverbs/adverbials, to a large extent, are sequenced on the meaning they add to the 
sentences as well as their scope capabilities. 
 
5.4  Chapter Summary 
This chapter sought to examine Dangme adverbs and adverbials against two major 
claims.  First, that the positional possibilities of the adverb category were tied to 
the type of semantic class the adverbs belonged to and the constituents that they 
modify. It was shown in this chapter that, like in Akan, Kasem and English, the 
distribution of Dangme adverbs is influenced by the semantics of the adverb. In 
Dangme, it even goes beyond that, as some sub-types subsumed under a major 
class often have their own distributional patterns. One example is instrumental 
adverbs which were observed to occur in a different location from the slots 
generally associated with the manner class which it falls under. Instrumental 
adverbs in Dangme are identified as the only group able to occur in between the 
subject NP and the verb in a sentence. 
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  It was also observed that most adverbials in Dangme cannot be fronted or 
focused; they mostly occur in the sentence-final position except for manner 
adverbials beginning with the particle ngɛ. Aside pace, degree and aspectual 
adverbs which were observed to be restricted to the sentence-final position, most 
single lexical adverbs in Dangme were seen to freely occur in the sentence-initial 
position with or without the focus marker ne. Also, among Dangme adverbs, 
time/temporal adverbs were identified as the group with the widest distribution.  
 Secondly, the chapter looked at the relative ordering of adverbs when they 
co-occur in a sentence. The cases examined revealed once again that the Dangme 
adverbs are sequenced with respect to their scope capabilities. They also showed 
that verb-modifying adverbs assumed their specified slot of being immediately 
adjoined to the verb or verb phrase of the sentence. The sentence-adverbs, on the 
other hand, often occurred on the left fringe of the sentences. Again, it was 
identified that place adverbials preceded by the locative particle ngɛ showed a 
strikingly different positional properties. It was observed that in Dangme, 
whenever place adverbs co-occurred with time adverbs, the latter always 
succeeded the former in a sequence. However, place adverbials beginning with 
ngɛ presented something different where it either precedes or follows the time 
adverbs and the sentences are still grammatical.    
The observation made in this chapter about the syntactic distribution of 
Dangme adverbs and adverbials is summarized in Table 3 that comes here after. 
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Table 3: Positional Possibilities of Dangme Adverbs and Adverbials 
Adverb Type S-initial Focused Pre-verbal Position S-final Position 
Position 
 (After the subject) (After the verb/verb 
(Before the phrase) 
Subject) 
Manner *   *   
Instrumental * *     
Pace * * *   
Time-when     *   
Durational     *   
Frequency     *   
(only 
adverbials) 
Iterative     *   
Locational     *   
Directional * * *   
Aspectual   * *   
(only 
loloolo) 
Epistemic   * * * 
Adverbials of          * *   
Contingency 
(only 
adverbials 
of purpose, 
condition 
and 
contrast) 
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CHAPTER SIX 
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 
 
6.1 Introduction 
The main purpose of this study was to identify the structures that constitute 
adverbs and adverbials in Dangme, examine the morphological properties that are 
reflected in the structures, the semantic classes they fall into and how they are 
distributed in sentences. In this current chapter, I present the general overview of 
the study in the form of summaries of the inferring observations raised about the 
morphology, semantics and syntactic distribution of Dangme adverbs and 
adverbials. Section 6.2 briefly presents a summary of the preceding chapters. A 
summary of the findings of this study and the recommendations for future studies 
are captured in 6.3 and 6.4 respectively. 
 
6.2 Summary of Chapters 
The study consists of six chapters and the summary of the principal issues raised in 
each chapter are presented here. 
In the first chapter, I presented the general introduction of this thesis. Here, 
I introduced the subject matter of this study and set forth a series of generalizations 
made cross-linguistically about the intriguing nature of adverbs and adverbials 
among other word classes by way of orientation. The chapter revealed that though 
the category ‘adverbs’ or ‘adverbials’ is a relatively unexplored area in linguistics, 
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there are some substantive studies (Luseklo, 2010; Pittner et al., 2015; Saah, 2004; 
Saah &Abgedor, 2004; Tabe, 2015) that have been done on the subject in some 
African languages, hence, the need to carry out this study, especially since Dakubu 
(1987) mentions that adverbs help verbs to better express aspect. 
The second chapter was devoted to the literature review and theoretical 
framework that underlie this study. The chapter began by explaining some of the 
reasons identified as evidence for the problematic but intriguing nature of adverbs. 
The first reason is tied to the class being a ‘catch all’ term consisting of true 
members as well as other lexical elements that belong to other word categories. 
The second reason is that because of the heterogeneous nature of the category, it is 
often difficult to get precise properties for the category. And lastly, because many 
languages fail to morphologically mark adverbs and also tend to frequently use 
other structures as adverbs. Also, the chapter looked at the various definitions 
given by researchers and showed the distinction that exists between an adverb and 
an adverbial; whereas an adverb is a single lexical element, an adverbial could be a 
phrase or a clause that can function as an adverb. 
Regarding the properties of adverbs, it became clear from the literature that 
the category has morphological, semantic and syntactic properties that identify 
adverbs from other syntactic categories. Morphologically, the adverb class may be 
made up of single lexical items like nouns, adjectives, ideophones, derived 
structures like compounds and reduplicated forms and other higher-level 
constituents like phrases and clauses. Semantically, adverbs are categorized into 
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classes based on the meaning that they add to the constituents they modify. 
Concerning the syntactic features that are reflected in adverbs, it was shown that 
adverbs are the most mobile elements among the word classes of a language. It 
was pointed out that how adverbs and adverbials are distributed in sentences is 
greatly influenced by the constituents they modify and the kind of meaning that 
they add to the constituents they modify. 
The chapter also introduced Givón’s (2001) functional grammar as the 
theoretical framework that underlie the study and presented reasons as to why the 
theory was adequate for the study. It was argued here that functional grammar was 
of great importance to this study because of its flexibility and mode of 
categorization. This is because most lexical categories specifically, adverbs could 
not be identified and characterized strictly based on a set of defined features 
because of its heterogeneous nature. Therefore, the prototypical means of grouping 
items would help to first of all, adequately separate Dangme adverbs from other 
word classes and then also group them into their various semantic classes. 
Chapter three discussed the morphology of Dangme adverbs and 
adverbials. The chapter sought to examine Dangme adverb category against two 
major claims. First, their membership status as either prototypical or peripheral 
adverbs. Secondly, their morphological structure; thus whether they are simple 
non-derived forms or derived elements. 
In Chapter four, I discussed the semantic classification of adverbs and 
adverbials in Dangme. Six major semantic classes with their various sub-classes 
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were discussed, namely manner, time, place, aspectual, epistemic and adverbials of 
contingency. It was revealed here that the semantic class an adverb belongs to 
greatly have an influence on the kind of constituents, it modifies and this is why 
many hold that the semantics and syntax of adverbs/adverbials are inextricably 
bound to each other.  
Chapter five looked at the various syntactic positions Dangme adverbs and 
adverbials occupy in sentences. The data presented showed that adverbs and 
adverbials in Dangme also tend to adhere to certain constraints that surrounds how 
these modifying elements are distributed and sequenced. 
 
6.3 A Summary of Findings  
In this section, I present the major findings of this study. The findings are 
presented as follows; section 6.3.1 presents the findings about the morphological 
structure of the Dangme adverb category, section 6.3.2 presents the findings on the 
semantic classes of adverbs and adverbials and section 6.3.3 presents the 
observations made about the syntactic distribution of adverbs and adverbials in 
Dangme. 
 
6.3.1 Findings on the Morphological Structure of the Dangme Adverb Class 
 This thesis revealed that morphologically, Dangme adverbs are made up of simple 
and derived forms. The simple adverbs consist of true adverbs and single lexical 
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elements of other lexical categories such as temporal nouns, adjectives and 
emphatic markers which are used as adverbs.  True adverbs in Dangme were found 
to comprise monosyllabic words such as pam ‘suddenly’ and ma ‘early’, disyllabic 
elements like blɛuu ‘slowly’ and hluu ‘a long time’ as well as words made up of 
multiple syllables such as patapata ‘restlessly’, tsilͻtsilͻ ‘in bits/bit by bit’ and 
liliili ‘grumpily’. It was argued that though some of these multiple-syllablic true 
adverbs look like reduplicated structures, they are ideophones. This is because we 
cannot conclude that these structures are derived from the single bases of these 
words as they are not words in the language. 
 The data presented in this study showed that like Akan, Dangme does not 
have affixes which are used in deriving adverbs. However, adverbs are derived 
from adjectives and nouns through reduplication. For instance, derived adverb like 
tsɛtsɛɛtsɛ ‘smartly’ and jehajeha ‘yearly/annually’ are formed from tsɛtsɛɛ ‘smart’, 
an adjective and jeha ‘year’, a noun respectively. It was also found that aside the 
formation of new words, reduplication is used to trigger certain functions. Adverbs 
in Dangme are reduplicated to depict the intensity of the action expressed by the 
single base. This particular function was observed to be limited to single bases that 
already function as adverbs. Thus, a word like falifali ‘neatly’ could be 
reduplicated,  falifalifali  ‘very neatly’ to express intensity, but  then a word like 
mͻtu ‘morning’ will not depict intensity when reduplicated mͻtumͻtu ‘every 
morning’. The other functions, namely; distributive, continuous action, repeated 
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action and collective meaning were observed to be connected with derived adverbs 
formed through reduplication. 
 Aside reduplication, another derivational process found to be responsible 
for the derivation of adverbs is compounding. Some adverbs were found to be 
compounds formed by combining nouns and postpositions. For example,  place 
adverbs such as panya ‘river bank’ and yoku nͻ ‘mountain top’ are formed by 
attaching the nouns pa ‘river’ and yoku ‘mountain’ to the postpositions or relator 
nouns nya ‘mouth’ and nͻ ‘top’. The study showed that even though these 
compounds are almost similar to postpositional phrases, they are different. This is 
because whereas N-P compounds are lexicalized, postpositional phrases are not. 
Thus, Noun Postposition compounds, the noun and postposition must always be 
put together before they can generate meaning but then, the noun or noun phrases 
in the postposition can single handedly denote meaning.  
  For adverbials, it was realized that only nominal phrases, adverbial phrases, 
prepositional phrases, postpositional phrases and clauses are used in the language 
to express adverbial concepts. 
  
6.3.2 Findings on the Semantic Classes of Dangme Adverbs and Adverbials  
Dangme adverbs and adverbials are sub-categorized into various semantic 
categories and this study discussed six of them. This include manner, time, place, 
aspectual, epistemic and contingency. It was observed that most of these semantic 
classes had sub-classes which are subsumed under them. In Dangme, manner is 
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expressed by single word items like blɛuu ‘slowly’, ideophones such as 
kumakuma ‘eagerly’ and postpositional phrases like kɛ mimifumi ‘with 
anger/angrily’. It was also observed that some manner adverbs can also indicate 
the pace/speed in which the action took place like esͻesͻ ‘quickly. Time adverbs 
are often expressed by temporal nouns  such as piͻ ‘now’, noun phrases like jeha 
nͻ ‘this year’ and clauses beginning with the subordinators bene ‘when’ and loko 
‘before’.  
Like Dangme manner adverbs, time adverbs can also be further grouped 
into time-when adverbs which tell the exact time an action occurred, durational, 
frequency and iterative adverbs. For place adverbs, it was found that there are 
some that show the spatial location of the action like hiͻ ‘here’ and ones that show 
the direction of movement. The latter is usually expressed by conflating verbs.  
Aspectual and epistemic adverbs are also present in the language. It was found that 
these two classes are usually expressed by single lexical elements; rarely would 
one find these semantic notions expressed by adverbials. The last semantic class 
discussed in this study is ‘contingency’ which is made up of adverbials that 
indicate the cause, reason, purpose, result, and condition under which the action 
occurred. 
 
6.3.3 Findings on the Syntactic Distribution of Dangme Adverbs and Adverbials 
The study shows that Dangme adverbs, like in many other languages, do not show 
up anywhere but follow some form of constraint that influences how they are 
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distributed and sequenced in sentences. It was observed that in Dangme also, the 
syntactic positions that adverbs occupy and how they are sequenced are based on 
the constituents they modify, partitioning Dangme adverbs into verb-phrase 
adverbs and sentence adverbs. With the exception of epistemic adverbs, all other 
Dangme adverbs can occupy the sentence-final position. Among all the adverbs, 
manner adverbs have the least distribution; they can only occur in sentence-final 
position. Time/temporal and aspectual adverbs have a wider distribution. They can 
occur before the subject as well as after the verb. However, whereas time adverbs 
can also be fronted and focused, aspectual adverbs cannot. Also, the marked 
position for adverbials of contingency is sentence-final position; however, 
adverbials of purpose, condition and contrast, most times, occupy the sentence-
initial position.  
 
6.4 Recommendations for Future Research 
This study has investigated the nature of Dangme adverb category, specifically 
examining the structures that constitute adverbs, their morphological structure, 
semantic classification and syntactic distribution. However, there are a few issues 
that could not be investigated. First and foremost, due to time, this work could not 
investigate the morphophonological processes that take place when Dangme 
adverbs are derived and this gives opportunity for future research. 
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 Secondly, the analyses made about the syntactic distribution of adverbs are 
purely descriptive and therefore, I recommend that a further investigation could be 
done using adverbial placement theories. 
 Finally, there is the need to explore other semantic classes of adverbs since 
this study discussed only six semantic classes. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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