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1、10ElementsofthegrammarofspaceinEweFelixK.AmekaandJamesEssegbey10.1ThelanguageanditsrelevanceforspatiallanguageresearchEweisamajordialectclusterofthelanguageclusterthathascometobeknownasGbeorTadoid(Capo1991,Duthie1996).Itisspokeninthesouth-easternpartofGhanaacrosstoparts
2、ofsouthernTogoasfarasandjustacrosstheTogo–Beninborderbyabouttwoandahalfmillionpeople.Ewe,andforthatmatterGbe,belongstotheKwafamilyofNiger-Congo(Stewart1989,WilliamsonandBlench2000).DialectvariationinEweisquiteenormouswheregroupsofvillagesthataretwoorthreekilometresapart
3、fromoneanotherusedistinctvarieties.Neverthe-less,thelocaldialectsmaybegroupedgeographicallyintocoastalorsoutherndialects,e.g.Aŋlɔ,Tɔŋuetc.,central,e.g.Ho,Kpedze,Dod´´ome,andnorth-erndialects,e.g.Hohoe,Peki,Kpando,F´odome,etc.Thecentralandnortherndialectsarecollectivelyc
4、haracterizedindigenouslyasEwedomegbeandmaybereferredtoastheinlandornortherndialectsasopposedtothecoastalorsouth-erndialects(seeAgbodeka1997,Ansre2000,Gavua2000).Speakersfromdifferentlocalitiesunderstandeachotherandareawareofthepeculiaritiesofthedifferentareas.Addtothese
5、,awrittenstandardthatwasdevelopedinthenineteenthcenturybasedontheregionalvariantsofthevarioussub-dialects(Ansre1971,2000,Adzomada1979).Withithasalsoemergedastandardcol-loquialvariety(spokenusuallywithlocalaccent),thatisverywidelyusedincross-dialectalcontactsituationssuc
6、hasinschools,marketsandchurches.ThepresentstudyisbasedonthevarietiesofEwespokeninTegbiandKetarepre-sentingonesoutherndialectandinAnfoegaandPekirepresentingtwoinlandornortherndialects.Aswillbecomeevidentinthecourseofthechapter,thethreedialectsreportedonvaryintheexpressio
7、nofspatialnotions.Forinstance,inthePekidialectthereisadistinctstative-resultativeconstructionthatisusedincomplemen-tarydistributionwiththesingle-verblocativeconstructionforexpressingthebasiclocativefunction.Similarly,whiletheEwelanguageassuchemploystherelativeframeofref
8、erence,inthecoastaldialectsthisisreplacedbyasystempredominantlybasedonakindofseawardandlagoon-warddescription.
