Abstract:
Be, the unit under study, is realised as /bέ/, /bé/ or /bəʹ/ across the
E3eme, T4`u and A`l4 dialects of the E3e language respectively. It has as an
equivalent, “that” in the English language, s1 in Akan and ake in Ga. S1 and
that have been studied widely as complementizers but be, according to
Clements (1975), is a prepositional verb synonymous with the verb gbl4 (to
say) in E3e. This study therefore sought to ascertain what kind of unit be
actually is on the premise of Tagmemic Grammar. It was observed from
analysing data collected from GES primary text books on E3e and 6 books
from the E3e Bible that be is a pro-verb since it can replace some verbs in the
language. It is also a complementizer like its English and Akan equivalents as
it introduces lower clauses in complementation. As a unit whose grammatical
class cannot be determined easily in some contexts, be is classified as a
particle as well. It was also observed that be collocates mainly with verbs of
request, advice, belief and motion as well as reporting verbs, factives,
emotives and resultatives. Between the verb and be, there could be noun
phrases functioning as objects and adposition phrases functioning as
adverbials.
