Preverbs: Their syntax and semantics in West Africa

Preverbs are positionally-delimited grammatical forms that remain understudied. We examine their semantic classes in West Benue Congo (WBC) and its minor language Emai, which until recently was undocumented. Preverb Emai display a subset of categories identified Dixon (1991, 2006, 2010) Nuyts (2001, 2005, 2016). There eight for 30 odd preverb forms. They apportioned according to qualitative or quantitative character. do not include traditional auxiliary aspect, tense, modality, exhibit distinct diachronic synchronic Common preverbs is orientation subject, rather than utterance speaker. Members each class ascribe property clausal subject. Preliminary evidence suggests similar character exist other African languages.