Ameka, Felix (1996). Body parts in Ewe grammar. In Hilary Chappell, & William McGregor (Eds.), The grammar of inalienability: A typological perspective on body part terms and the part-whole relation (pp. 783-840). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110822137.783
The purpose of this paper is to describe the treatment of body parts (and other meronyms, that is, part terms in part-whole relationships) in the grammar of Ewe, a Kwa language of West Africa. It is assumed that language and, in this particular instance, grammar, is an embodiment and a reflection of conceptual structures of its speakers. Hence an analysis of the Ewe syntactic structures in which body parts participate should reveal the way in which these items are conceptualized in that language. To this end, the semantics of three adnominal constructions are investigated: an “alienable” structure signalled by the possessive connective ɸé, body parts occur as possessa in this construction; an “inalienable” construction which has no overt marking, body parts do not normally occur in this construction except in some cases with a first or second person singular pronominal possessor; and the syntactic compound marked by a high tone suffix. These compounds may be possessive or classificatory in function, and body parts tend to occur in the latter. The semantic ramifications of the property of body parts to assume grammatical roles distinct from the roles of their “owners” are also explored.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
