Project Lead: Dr. Dorothy Agyepong, Department of Linguistics
The study aimed to investigate a form of separation— ‘Opening’ events. This category of events is a subtype of separation events. Majid et al. (2007: 147) in their cross-linguistic study of the categorisation of these events observed that actions such as opening, taking apart and peeling involve a minimal destruction of the affected objects and are often reversible. That is, objects that are opened can be closed. ‘Opening’ events are contrasted with cutting and breaking events (focus of previous study), which involve a significant material destruction often accompanied by non-reversible change in the material integrity of the affected object. Bowerman (2005) describes objects that are ‘openable’ as: (a) a unitary object that (may) have parts (ex. a pot with a lid), (b) an object that separates along predetermined lines, (c) separation affords access to a content, an interior space or a previously concealed part of the object.
The proposed research explored the semantics of verbs that describe events of ‘opening’ and ‘taking apart’ in Asante-Twi with the aim of contributing fresh data and analysis to already existing studies.