‘To sit face down’ — location and position in Goemai

Abstract

This article discusses the semantics and pragmatics of postural, existential and positional verbs occurring in the basic locative construction of Goemai, a West Chadic language of Central Nigeria. The Goemai system is of special interest to the typology proposed in this issue, as it presents language-internal evidence for the existence of two different types of locative verbs: postural-type verbs and positional-type verbs. In most respects, Goemai patterns with postural-type languages: it has a small set of postural verbs that codes a limited range of semantic notions and that is used in both assertional and presuppositional ways. In addition, Goemai can recruit other verbs to occur in the basic locative construction: an existential verb that is available in many contexts where other postural-type languages tend to resort to the presuppositional use of posturals; and positional verbs that constitute a distinct form class and that can be used in an assertional way only. The article investigates the interaction of postural, existential, and positional verbs in Goemai, relating them to the proposed typology.

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