Topics in Kwa Syntax

Topics in Kwa Syntax PDF Author: Enoch O. Aboh
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048131898
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
This book grew out of a concern we have had that very many theoretical and descriptive work on the Kwa languages were not accessible to the general linguistic community. As a result, these languages were only referred to in the context of very specific discussions such as serial verb constructions. But as the reader of this book will notice, syntactic topics discussed in the context of Kwa range from bare nouns, relative clauses, negation, discourse markers and the interaction with the clausal periphery, to argument structure. Many issues remain that need to be brought to the fore of the community and we hope that this book will trigger the curiosity of the reader to get to know more about these languages. Much of the work presented here could not have been possible without the help of many colleagues and the contri- tors whom we thank warmly for joining this enterprise. We are also grateful to the editors of the series, Marcel den Dikken, Joan Maling, Liliane Haegeman to have offered us this platform to initiate the debate about Kwa. We will also like to thank Helen van der Stelt and Jolanda Voogd from Springer for their kind collaboration and patience. We are also very grateful to Joscelyn Essegbey and Leston Buell for helping with editing the manuscript. Enoch, O. Aboh James Essegbey v Contents 1 The Phonology Syntax Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Enoch, O. Aboh and James Essegbey 2 The Morphosyntax of the Noun Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Enoch, O.

Topics in Kwa Syntax

Topics in Kwa Syntax PDF Author: Enoch O. Aboh
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048131898
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Get Book

Book Description
This book grew out of a concern we have had that very many theoretical and descriptive work on the Kwa languages were not accessible to the general linguistic community. As a result, these languages were only referred to in the context of very specific discussions such as serial verb constructions. But as the reader of this book will notice, syntactic topics discussed in the context of Kwa range from bare nouns, relative clauses, negation, discourse markers and the interaction with the clausal periphery, to argument structure. Many issues remain that need to be brought to the fore of the community and we hope that this book will trigger the curiosity of the reader to get to know more about these languages. Much of the work presented here could not have been possible without the help of many colleagues and the contri- tors whom we thank warmly for joining this enterprise. We are also grateful to the editors of the series, Marcel den Dikken, Joan Maling, Liliane Haegeman to have offered us this platform to initiate the debate about Kwa. We will also like to thank Helen van der Stelt and Jolanda Voogd from Springer for their kind collaboration and patience. We are also very grateful to Joscelyn Essegbey and Leston Buell for helping with editing the manuscript. Enoch, O. Aboh James Essegbey v Contents 1 The Phonology Syntax Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Enoch, O. Aboh and James Essegbey 2 The Morphosyntax of the Noun Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Enoch, O.

Topics in Kwa Syntax

Topics in Kwa Syntax PDF Author: Enoch O. Aboh
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9789048131884
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
This book grew out of a concern we have had that very many theoretical and descriptive work on the Kwa languages were not accessible to the general linguistic community. As a result, these languages were only referred to in the context of very specific discussions such as serial verb constructions. But as the reader of this book will notice, syntactic topics discussed in the context of Kwa range from bare nouns, relative clauses, negation, discourse markers and the interaction with the clausal periphery, to argument structure. Many issues remain that need to be brought to the fore of the community and we hope that this book will trigger the curiosity of the reader to get to know more about these languages. Much of the work presented here could not have been possible without the help of many colleagues and the contri- tors whom we thank warmly for joining this enterprise. We are also grateful to the editors of the series, Marcel den Dikken, Joan Maling, Liliane Haegeman to have offered us this platform to initiate the debate about Kwa. We will also like to thank Helen van der Stelt and Jolanda Voogd from Springer for their kind collaboration and patience. We are also very grateful to Joscelyn Essegbey and Leston Buell for helping with editing the manuscript. Enoch, O. Aboh James Essegbey v Contents 1 The Phonology Syntax Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Enoch, O. Aboh and James Essegbey 2 The Morphosyntax of the Noun Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Enoch, O.

The Morphosyntax of Complement-head Sequences

The Morphosyntax of Complement-head Sequences PDF Author: Enoch Oladé Aboh
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195159905
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
This is the first book on the syntax of the Niger-Conger language family, which includes most of the languages of sub-Saharan Africa. Aboh, who is a native speaker of one of the languages (Gungbe) discussed, analyzes different aspects of the syntax of the "Kwa" language group. Aboh also suggests how grammatical pictures for these languages can shed some light on Universal Grammar in general.

Tutrugbu (Nyangbo) Language and Culture

Tutrugbu (Nyangbo) Language and Culture PDF Author: James Essegbey
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004396993
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
A comprehensive description of Tutrugbu (Nyangbo), a Ghana-Togo Mountain (GTM) language. It examines phonological, morphosyntactic and pragmatic structures, comparing them to the neighboring Tafi and Avatime, and the dominant regional language, Ewe. It is for African language scholars, documentary linguists, and typologists.

Aspect and Modality in Kwa Languages

Aspect and Modality in Kwa Languages PDF Author: Felix K. Ameka
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027291381
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
This book explores the thesis that in the Kwa languages of West Africa, aspect and modality are more central to the grammar of the verb than tense. Where tense marking has emerged it is invariably in the expression of the future, and therefore concerned with the impending actualization or potentiality of an event, hence with modality, rather than the purely temporal sequencing associated with tense. The primary grammatical contrasts are perfective versus imperfective. The main languages discussed are Akan, Dangme, Ewe, Ga and Tuwuli while Nzema-Ahanta, Likpe and Eastern Gbe are also mentioned. Knowledge about these languages has deepened considerably during the past decade or so and ideas about their structure have changed. The volume therefore presents novel analyses of grammatical forms like the so-called S-Aux-O-V-Other or “future” constructions, and provides empirical data for theorizing about aspect and modality. It should be of considerable interest to Africanist linguists, typologists, and creolists interested in substrate issues.

The Emergence of Hybrid Grammars

The Emergence of Hybrid Grammars PDF Author: Enoch Oladé Aboh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316297942
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
Children are extremely gifted in acquiring their native languages, but languages nevertheless change over time. Why does this paradox exist? In this study of creole languages, Enoch Oladé Aboh addresses this question, arguing that language acquisition requires contact between different linguistic sub-systems that feed into the hybrid grammars that learners develop. There is no qualitative difference between a child learning their language in a multilingual environment and a child raised in a monolingual environment. In both situations, children learn to master multiple linguistic sub-systems that are in contact and may be combined to produce new variants. These new variants are part of the inputs for subsequent learners. Contributing to the debate on language acquisition and change, Aboh shows that language learning is always imperfect: learners' motivation is not to replicate the target language faithfully but to develop a system close enough to the target that guarantees successful communication and group membership.

Proceedings of the 7th World Congress of African Linguistics, Buea, 17-21 August 2012

Proceedings of the 7th World Congress of African Linguistics, Buea, 17-21 August 2012 PDF Author: G. Atindogbe
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956764868
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
This book is a composite of 40 purely scientific and peer-reviewed papers presented during the Seventh World Congress of African Linguistics (WOCAL7) at the University of Buea, Cameroon, in 2012. The different chapters of the volume fall within the scope of African languages in relation to linguistics and other related disciplines, where a varied range of theoretical examinations, investigations and/or discussions as well as pure description of aspects of language are offered. For the purpose of clarity and easy accessibility of the content, the chapters are further subcategorized into nine sections, which include: Borrowing, Discourse Analysis, Historical Linguistics, Intercultural Communication, Language Documentation, Language in Education, Morpho-syntax, Phonetics and Phonology, and Sociolinguistics.

Syntactic architecture and its consequences I

Syntactic architecture and its consequences I PDF Author: András Bárány
Publisher: Language Science Press
ISBN: 3961102759
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 562

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Book Description
This volume collects novel contributions to comparative generative linguistics that “rethink” existing approaches to an extensive range of phenomena, domains, and architectural questions in linguistic theory. At the heart of the contributions is the tension between descriptive and explanatory adequacy which has long animated generative linguistics and which continues to grow thanks to the increasing amount and diversity of data available to us. The chapters address research questions on the relation of syntax to other aspects of grammar and linguistics more generally, including studies on language acquisition, variation and change, and syntactic interfaces. Many of these contributions show the influence of research by Ian Roberts and collaborators and give the reader a sense of the lively nature of current discussion of topics in synchronic and diachronic comparative syntax ranging from the core verbal domain to higher, propositional domains.

Current Issues in Descriptive Linguistics and Digital Humanities

Current Issues in Descriptive Linguistics and Digital Humanities PDF Author: Moses Effiong Ekpenyong
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811929327
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 714

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Book Description
This book is a convergence of heterogeneous insights (from languages and literature, history, music, media and communications, computer science and information studies) which previously went their separate ways; now unified under a single framework for the purpose of preserving a unique heritage, the language. In a growing society like ours, description and documentation of human and scientific evidence/resources are improving. However, these resources have enjoyed cost-effective solutions for Western languages but are yet to flourish for African tone languages. By situating discussions around a universe of discourse, sufficient to engender cross-border interactions within the African context, this book shall break a dichotomy of challenges on adaptive processes required to unify resources to assist the development of modern solutions for the African domain.

Definiteness in Balkan Romance

Definiteness in Balkan Romance PDF Author: Daniela Isac
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192635204
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
This book is a study of the micro-variation in the realization of definiteness across languages belonging to the Balkan Romance family: Romanian, Aromanian, Istro-Romanian, and Megleno-Romanian. The definite article is a suffix in all of these languages, but nominal constituents show considerable variation with respect to the overt realization of the definite article: in some instances, the definite article is spelled out only once, in other situations it is spelled out multiple times, and in still other cases it can be phonologically null. Daniela Isac offers a unified analysis of these options based on a post-syntactic spell-out rule that specifies the conditions under which the definite article can be pronounced on various heads within the nominal constituent. Micro-variation in the patterns displayed by specific languages in this family is accounted for exclusively by lexicon-related differences (the feature specification of lexical and functional items may vary across languages) and by differences related to externalization (syntactic relations such as Agree may have various morpho-phonological overt expressions across languages). Crucially, the computational system is assumed to be invariant, a result that is consistent with the generative understanding of the knowledge and acquisition of language.