The Structure of Motion Predicates in Akan
ECE 590SIP, March 29, 2023, Eunice Opoku and Katya Yegorova
Abstract:
Our study provides a formal syntactic analysis of how motion is expressed in Akan, a Kwi language spoken in Ghana and other parts of West Africa. Motion expression generally talks about movement in space during a time interval. Akan presents a relatively well-studied system of Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs) that are used in expressing motion events. Serial Verb Constructions are made up of two or more verbs or verb phrases strung together in a single clause. Each SVC, with its multiple verbs, is expressed as a single event. Therefore we are interested in investigating how motion is structurally encoded in the structure of Akan. We attempt to investigate how motion is expressed cognitively, which can be used to improve current language technology. The study of motion is important because motion, like space and time, is fundamental to humans since we experience motion daily. Previous studies have pointed out how motion expression reveals a lot about how humans interpret and interact with the world around them. Our preliminary findings show that Akan expresses motion with verbs, specifically through SVCs. In this particular study, we are interested in investigating a subcomponent that focuses on telicity, a measure of the completeness of an event. In doing this, we video-recorded data from native speakers of Akan with an instrument that consists of 475 animated video clips designed to elicit and contrast the following set of parameters that correspond to the various subcomponents of a motion event - path, telicity, result, and agentivity. This data is processed and coded in Elan.