The Verbal Piece in Ebira (Sil International and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics, Vol.85) 2nd edition

The author, John Adive, is a mother tongue speaker of Ebira, a Nigerian language. He thinks the verbal piece of Ebira is the most complex unit in the language--phonologically and grammatically. Thus, this part of the Ebira grammar is the focus of this book.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Symbols

1. Introduction

1.1 The Ebira People and the Ebira Language
1.2 The Language Name
1.3 Neighboring Languages
1.4 Language Family Affiliation
1.5 Literature Survey
1.6 The Present Study
1.7 The Theoretical Basis of the Study

2. Phonology

2.1 The Syllable Structure
2.2 The Vowel Phonemes
2.3 Vowel Harmony
2.4 Syllabic Nasals
2.5 The Consonant Phonemes
2.6 Tone

3. Syntactic Junctures

3.1 Vowel Elision
3.2 Labial Syllable Prosody
3.3 Palatal Syllable Prosody
3.4 Tone Changes
3.5 High Tone as a Syntactic Juncture Feature

4. The Verbal Piece: Phrase Rank

4.1 The Verbal Piece
4.2 The Grammatical Hierarchy
4.3 The Verbal Phrase
4.4 Tense Figure
4.5 Mood
4.6 Negative Polarity
4.7 Dependent Clauses
4.8 Pluralization

5. The Verbal Piece: Clause Rank

5.1 The Clause
5.2 Transitive Clause
5.3 Ditransitive Clause
5.4 Semitransitive Clause
5.5 Intransitive Clause
5.6 Stative Clause
5.7 Equative Clause
5.8 Copula Clause
5.9 The Pronoun System in the Clause
5.10 Interrogation and Interrogative Words in the Clause

6. The Verbal Piece: Serial Verb Constructions

6.1 The Serial Verb Construction
6.2 Syntactic Characteristics of Serial Verb Constructions in Kwa Languages
6.3 The Verbal Status of Serial Verbs
6.4 Types of Serial Verb Constructions in Ebira
6.5 Auxiliary Verbs

7. Analyzed Text

Appendices

A. A Chart of Monosyllabic Verbs
B. A List of Monosyllabic Verbs
C. Sample Spectrograms

Bibliography

SIL International and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics 85