A note on the cross-dialectal diffusion of grammaticalization: The case of ma in akan

Abstract

Studies in grammaticalization have brought to light the fact that languages develop function words from lexical sources. Akan, a Kwa language, like many languages of West Africa, is known to have a complementizer that developed from the verb ‘to say.’ In addition to this, another complementizer has resulted from the grammaticalization of a causative verb ma ‘make, cause, give.’ Cross-dialectal evidence available reveals that this complementizer has only started and it is yet to diffuse throughout all the dialects of the language. The data from this language also goes to support the view that grammaticalization is not only the development of grammatical morphemes but also the creation of new constructions.