Sémantique et emploi des verbes de position et de localisation dans les langues gur Oti-Volta- Orientales

Eastern Oti-Volta Gur languages (Biali, Ditammari, Mb lim , Nateni and Waama) express very rich and interesting location and position informations. Through Biali, used as an example, this article examines the different manners to express these informations. The method used is based on topological relationships. Depending on the form of the figure (the object) in relation with its base (support of the figure), there are four types of verbs of location: the existential verbs used for abstract location relationships, the verbs meaning “to be set on”, the verbs meaning “to be standing” and the verbs meaning “to be hanging”. The semantic nuances of the last three types of verbs are often translated by varied verbal forms. Verbs of position are of a certain number and they give information about posture (orientation, arrangement). The most remarkable category of verbs of position in the Eastern Oti-Volta Gur languages, examined in this work, is concerned with those verbs having their action produced in relation to the parts of human body in contact with the object used as ‘clothes’ or ‘finery’. Depending on the position of the body part (head, eyes, ears, neck, thorax / abdomen, breasts, hip, feet / wrists), there is a specific verb of position; all these verbs mean ‘to wear’ in English. To show the relevancy of the problem tackled in the Eastern Oti-Volta Gur languages, it was necessary to establish the correspondences and reconstruct the verbal proto-forms.