Abesabesi has three words that look like verbs and take up a verbal
position in a clause but feature a couple of deviant traits that
distinguish them from prototypical verbs. As they can be categorized
somewhere between verbs and particles, they will be called defunct
verbs.
The first defunct verb is
gó
, which can roughly
be translated as 'it is...'. Together with a preceding
NP, it constitutes a separate
utterance and forms the independent focus construction (see Section 9.1).
gó
never appears
negated, as the negated equivalent is ɛ́ɛ̀ tu
... è, literally translated as 'it is not'.
This construction uses the verbal copula tu and is discussed in Section 9.2.
The second defunct verb is
té
and can be translated as 'there is...'. It is
preceded by an NP and forms an
existential clause. Optionally, it can be followed by a dative object
(participant-adding auxiliary
ʃa
plus object), an adjunct (NP or PP),
or a negation particle
è
.
| 5.2 | a |
The third defunct verb is
síkɔ́
'where is/what about'
. It is also preceded by an NP and
may be used to inquire about a location (where is) or to lead a question
towards another referent (what about).
síkɔ́
does not appear with
the negation particle
è
.
All of these three defunct verbs have a verbal form (CV or CVCV) but
carry high tones. Lexical high tones are not frequent. High tones mostly
are used as tonemes (see Section 2.5) or are
carried by function words. Defunct verbs indeed rather have a
grammatical function than a meaning. Furthermore, they never appear with
markers or bound subject
pronouns. Independent pronouns have to be used (as in Example 5.1). The preceding NP
does not take a 1H (described in
Section 2.5) as in affirmative verbal clauses.