A Grammar of Bangime

A Grammar of Bangime PDF Author: Jeffrey Heath
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110765217
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
Spoken only in a cul-de-sac valley in Dogon country in east-central Mali, Bangime is the most enigmatic language isolate in the whole of interior West Africa. It is apparently a Basque-like survival of a formerly widespread language family, now boxed into this small valley by the expansion of Niger-Congo languages (Dogon, Bozo, Mande) on all sides. This book brings out the full glory of its grammar, especially its 3-level tone system.

A Grammar of Bangime

A Grammar of Bangime PDF Author: Jeffrey Heath
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110765217
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 496

Get Book Here

Book Description
Spoken only in a cul-de-sac valley in Dogon country in east-central Mali, Bangime is the most enigmatic language isolate in the whole of interior West Africa. It is apparently a Basque-like survival of a formerly widespread language family, now boxed into this small valley by the expansion of Niger-Congo languages (Dogon, Bozo, Mande) on all sides. This book brings out the full glory of its grammar, especially its 3-level tone system.

Discourse Phenomena in Typological Perspective

Discourse Phenomena in Typological Perspective PDF Author: Alessandra Barotto
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027254885
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
This book aims at investigating discourse phenomena (i.e., linguistic elements and constructions that help to manage the organization, flow, and outcome of communication) from a typological and cross-linguistic perspective. Although it is a well-established idea in functional-typological approaches that grammar is shaped by discourse use, systematic typological cross-linguistic investigations on discourse phenomena are relatively rare. This volume aims at bridging this gap, by integrating different linguistic subfields, such as discourse analysis, pragmatics, and typology. The contributions, both theoretically and empirically oriented, focus on a broad variety of discourse phenomena (ranging from discourse markers to discourse function of grammatical markers, to strategies that manage the discourse and information flow) while adopting a typological perspective and considering typologically distant languages.

A Grammar of Bangime

A Grammar of Bangime PDF Author: Jeffrey Heath
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 9783110557497
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Spoken only in a cul-de-sac valley in Dogon country in east-central Mali, Bangime is the most enigmatic language isolate in the whole of interior West Africa. It is apparently a Basque-like survival of a formerly widespread language family, now boxed into this small valley by the expansion of Niger-Congo languages (Dogon, Bozo, Mande) on all sides. This book brings out the full glory of its grammar, especially its 3-level tone system.

Bridging constructions

Bridging constructions PDF Author: Valérie Guérin
Publisher: Language Science Press
ISBN: 3961101418
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Many descriptive grammars report the use of a linguistic pattern at the interface between discourse and syntax which is known generally as tail-head linkage. This volume takes an unprecedented look at this type of linkage across languages and shows that there exist three distinct variants, all subsumed under the hypernym bridging constructions. The chapters highlight the defining features of these constructions in the grammar and their functional properties in discourse. The volume reveals that: Bridging constructions consist of two clauses: a reference clause and a bridging clause. Across languages, bridging clauses can be subordinated clauses, reduced main clauses, or main clauses with continuation prosody.Bridging constructions have three variants: recapitulative linkage, summary linkage and mixed linkage. They differ in the formal makeup of the bridging clause.In discourse, the functions that bridging constructions fulfil depend on the text genres in which they appear and their position in the text.If a language uses more than one type of bridging construction, then each type has a distinct discourse function.Bridging constructions can be optional and purely stylistic or mandatory and serve a grammatical purpose.Although the difference between bridging constructions and clause repetition can be subtle, they maintain their own distinctive characteristics.

Reflexive constructions in the world's languages

Reflexive constructions in the world's languages PDF Author: Katarzyna Janic
Publisher: Language Science Press
ISBN: 3961104115
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 888

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Book Description
This landmark publication brings together 28 papers on reflexive constructions in languages from all continents, representing very diverse language types. While reflexive constructions have been discussed in the past from a variety of angles, this is the first edited volume of its kind. All the chapters are based on original data, and they are broadly comparable through a common terminological framework. The volume opens with two introductory chapters by the editors that set the stage and lay out the main comparative concepts, and it concludes with a chapter presenting generalizations on the basis of the studies of individual languages.

The Languages and Linguistics of Africa

The Languages and Linguistics of Africa PDF Author: Tom Güldemann
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110421755
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 1085

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Book Description
This innovative handbook takes a fresh look at the currently underestimated linguistic diversity of Africa, the continent with the largest number of languages in the world. It covers the major domains of linguistics, offering both a representative picture of Africa’s linguistic landscape as well as new and at times unconventional perspectives. The focus is not so much on exhaustiveness as on the fruitful relationship between African and general linguistics and the contributions the two domains can make to each other. This volume is thus intended for readers with a specific interest in African languages and also for students and scholars within the greater discipline of linguistics.

Participles

Participles PDF Author: Ksenia Shagal
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110633388
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
The book is the first large-scale typological study of participles, based on data from more than 100 languages. Its main aim is to model the diversity of non-finite verb forms involved in adnominal modification. Participles are examined with respect to several morphological and syntactic parameters, and are shown to be a versatile cross-linguistic category. The book is of interest to language typologists and descriptive linguists.

An Areal Typology of Agreement Systems

An Areal Typology of Agreement Systems PDF Author: Ranko Matasović
Publisher:
ISBN: 1108420974
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
The first areal-typological exploration of agreement systems in the world's languages.

Here – Hither – Hence and Related Categories

Here – Hither – Hence and Related Categories PDF Author: Julia Nintemann
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110672642
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 568

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Book Description
As a follow-up study to the global comparison of spatial interrogatives (Studia Typologica 20), the present book examines the spatial declarative counterparts which are provided by the expression class of spatial deictic adverbs. In a functionally motivated typological approach, equivalents of Early Modern English here – hither – hence and there – thither – thence are identified across a sample of 250 languages from all macro-areas. These are also quantitatively assessed to extrapolate areal and global trends of coding patterns. The formal relationships between spatial interrogative and spatial declarative paradigms are analyzed with a focus on the syncretism of categories and of individual cells. Qualitative discussions of patterns precede in-depth treatments of problematic cases and other relevant issues related to the research topic. The quantitative results strongly point to areal linguistic trends concerning the distribution of distinct and non-distinct coding of the three spatial relations Place, Goal, and Source. Additional aspects such as quantitative evaluations of constructional complexity are addressed subsequently.

Language Isolates

Language Isolates PDF Author: Lyle Campbell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317610911
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
Language Isolates explores this fascinating group of languages that surprisingly comprise a third of the world’s languages. Individual chapters written by experts on these languages examine the world's major language isolates and language isolates by geographic regions, with up-to-date descriptions of many, including previously unrecorded language isolates. Each language isolate represents a unique lineage and a unique window on what is possible in human language, making this an essential volume for anyone interested in understanding the diversity of languages and the very nature of human language. Language Isolates is key reading for professionals and students in linguistics and anthropology.