Comparative Syntactic Analysis of Predicative Possession and Transitive \u27Need\u27

This thesis contributes to the debate on the link between a transitive verb corresponding to \u27need\u27 and the verb of possession in the world’s languages. Specifically, I analyze data mainly from Ewe and three Ghana-Togo Mountain (GTM) languages; Likpe, Tafi, and Logba. First, I report that Ewe expresses predicative possession using a wide range of structures. Prominent among these structures is an intransitive locative construction in which the possessee c-commands the possessor. This characterization situates Ewe in the B-languages group of the have/be dichotomy. Second, I demonstrate, drawing on compelling pieces of evidence from object shift in nominalization, object shift in inceptive aspectual constructions, object extraction in wh-movement, and the nominative-accusative paradigm, that Ewe has a transitive verb \u27hiã\u27 corresponding to \u27need\u27. These facts pose a challenge to Harves and Kayne’s (2012) claim that all languages that have a transitive verb corresponding to need are languages that have an accusative-Case-assigning verb of possession. Third, I have shown that predicative possessees are not licensed in like manner as transitive objects, contra Halpert and Diercks’ (2012) prediction that all languages that have a transitive verb corresponding to \u27need\u27 are languages in which predicative possessees are licensed in the same manner as transitive objects. Fourth, I show that data from the three GTM languages also pose a challenge to the predictions in Harves & Kayne (2012) and Halpert & Diercks (2016). Finally, I suggest that the presence or absence of a transitive verb corresponding to \u27need\u27 is not necessarily contingent on a transitive verb of possession, and therefore, the optionality of a transitive \u27need\u27 in H-languages should be extended to B-languages