The semantics of Dagbani cut and break verbs

Abstract

This article discusses the semantics of cut and break verbs in Dagbani, a Mabia language spoken in Ghana’s Northern Region by the Dagbamba. We demonstrate that cut and break verbs are about different types of separation events with different lexicalisation. We show that BREAK verbs have a transitive/intransitive argument structure and take part in the causative/inchoative alternation; whereas CUT verbs are transitive and therefore require external arguments. We further explore the semantic extensions that are associated with the CUT and BREAK verbs of Dagbani. We also demonstrate that while ŋmààì ‘cut’ is the prototypical cut verb, kábí ‘break’ represents the prototypical verb for all the different break verbs. The selection of a particular cut or break verb depends on the instrumentality, the manner and the result of the separation. The data used in this article are drawn from three sources: (i) native introspection; (ii) elicitations using the 61 video clips by Bohnemeyer et al. and 82 video clips by Agyepong; and (iii) existing Dagbani literature which is classified as secondary data. The discussion is descriptive and therefore, does not employ any formal theory in the analysis.