Serial verb constructions in Òkó

Abstract

The article explores the ways Òkó speakers construe experience as a flow of events through the verbal group in a clause. Some events which are construed in some languages as a nuclear process made up of a single event (that is a single verbal group) are expressed in Òkó through a series of verbs, usually referred to as ‘serial verb construction’ or ‘verbal group complex’ (see Matthiessen, 1995: 62). This article describes serial verb construction as a useful resource, systematically organized in Òkó, for expressing different logical relations in the semantics of the verbal group. Òkó is spoken in Kogi State—the Middle Belt of Nigeria, West Africa—by a population of about 60,000 people. It belongs in the West-Benue group of the Niger-Congo family. At present, the language exists only in the spoken mode. This study is a step towards a detailed description and codification of Òkó, to facilitate oracy and literacy in the language.