A tale of two distal demonstratives in Dagaare : reflections on directionality principles in grammaticalisation

Abstract

For the past half century, the versatile nature of demonstratives across languages has increasingly attracted attention in language typology. The present study contributes to this research agenda by examining the grammaticalisation pathways of two distal demonstratives in the Lobr dialect of Dagaare (Niger-Congo: Gur), namely, n epsilon, an adnominal demonstrative, and le, a pronominal demonstrative. The analysis reveals that the adnominal demonstrative n epsilon first got reanalysed as an identifying copula verb and, subsequently fused with third person pronouns, u and a, to derive identifying pronouns, no and na respectively. Further, the identifying pronouns nu and na fused with the attributive copula t to derive the focus particle nt. The identifying pronoun na has also been reanalysed into an affirmative final particle. On the other hand, the pronominal demonstrative le first developed into a scalar demonstrative determiner and then into an intensifier. Subsequently, the scalar demonstrative determiner evolved into a copula, which fused with third person pronouns u, a and be to derive the emphatic counterparts of these pronouns, comprising vl epsilon, al epsilon and b epsilon l epsilon respectively. These are further cliticised and have evolved into adnominal demonstratives and then postnominal focus particles. These grammaticalisation trajectories contribute to a finer-grained and richer account of the diachrony and typology of demonstratives, including the substantivizing role of morpho-phonemic fusion on the development of grammaticalisation chains.