Chapter 5. Moving from verbs to prepositions in Gbe

Abstract

Gbe languages have two classes of adpositions, namely prepositions and postpositions that have been argued to have developed from verbs and nouns, respectively. Focusing on the former, we highlight the functions of the forms across Gbe using examples from Eastern Gbe (e.g., Gungbe) and Western Gbe (e.g., Ewegbe). We further show that verb-to-preposition shift is gradual: some of the forms (e.g., ablative) are not fully grammaticalised in all the languages. Likewise, the process is associated with a semantic change from “temporal predicate” in Serial Verb Constructions (SVC) to a more abstract atemporal predicate, which is also reflected in the loss of the power of the verbal element to take aspectual inflections or markers.