Unable to retrieve citations for this document
Retrieving citations for document...
Requires Authentication
Unlicensed
Licensed
December 20, 2007
Abstract
Tone as a distinctive feature used to differentiate not only words but also clause types, is a characteristic feature of Bantu languages. In this paper we show that Bemba relatives can be marked with a low tone in place of a segmental relative marker. We treat this low tone as a morpheme rather than as just triggering a change in tone pattern that can then be related to relativization. The low tone strategy of relativization, which imposes a restrictive reading of relatives, manifests a phonological phrasing that requires the head noun to be phrased together with the relative clause that it modifies as opposed to non-restrictives where this is not the case. The paper shows that the resultant phonological phrasing favours a head-raising analysis of relativization where the head noun is considered to be inside CP. Despite the syntactic use of the relative tonal morpheme we see that it is also subject to purely phonological constraints that results in its being unable to be used to mark headless relatives. This paper therefore highlights the phonology-syntax connection and shows that phonology can directly inform syntactic analyses.
Unable to retrieve citations for this document
Retrieving citations for document...
Requires Authentication
Unlicensed
Licensed
December 20, 2007
Abstract
The case system of Datooga, a Southern Nilotic dialect cluster of Northern and Central Tanzania, is of the marked nominative type, i.e., it is based on the opposition of a nominative case which encodes both the subject of an intransitive verb (S) and the subject of a transitive one (A) vs. an accusative case which encodes the object of a transitive verb (P). However, in contrast to prototypical nominative/accusative systems, it is the nominative case rather than the accusative which receives morphological marking in Datooga. This unusual marking pattern reflects an unusual division of labour between the case forms, the marked nominative being confined to the function of coding S and A in pragmatically neutral clauses, whereas the unmarked “accusative”, or “absolute” as it will be called further on, takes over a wide range of functions apart from coding P, e.g., it characterizes the citation form, nouns in non-verbal predication and preverbal subjects. Thus, what at first glance appears as an odd and outlandish markedness paradox from a general typological perspective turns out to be a very economical case system at closer inspection of the syntactic distribution and functional load of the opposing case forms.
Unable to retrieve citations for this document
Retrieving citations for document...
Requires Authentication
Unlicensed
Licensed
December 20, 2007
Abstract
Two analyses are presented, Kafa I (with foreign sounds) and Kafa II (without foreign sounds). Kafa I is interpreted as the contemporary phonology, while Kafa II is the historical stage preceding the time when Amharic loanwords started to enter the language in larger quantities. Not all phonemes of Kafa I are equally integrated in the phonological system; phonemes with a low frequency are least integrated, and tend to be replaced by phonologically similar phonemes with a higher frequency. Both analyses differ from earlier ones, primarily because some distinctive consonant oppositions postulated earlier turn out to be non-distinctive when quantity is taken care of in a more exact way. Kafa II consonant clusters are shown to constitute strictly defined sets, and most foreign clusters in Kafa I do not differ radically from the native ones.
Unable to retrieve citations for this document
Retrieving citations for document...
Requires Authentication
Unlicensed
Licensed
December 20, 2007
Abstract
Angela Jakobi and Joachim Crass: Grammaire du beria (langue saharienne) . (Nilo-Saharan, 18) Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe, 2004. xiv + 292 pp. EUR 35.80. Shigeki Kaji: A Runyankore Vocabulary . (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Asian and African Lexicon n° 44). Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), 2004. xxxiii + 603 pp. Jelle Cammenga: Igikuria Phonology and Morphology: A Bantu Language of South-West Kenya and North-West Tanzania . (East African Languages and Dialects, 15). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe, 2004. 351 pp. EUR 64. Véronique de Colombel: La langue ouldémé (Nord-Cameroun). Grammaire, texte, dictionnaire . (Langues et cultures africaines, 34 = SELAF 416). Paris: Peeters, 2005. 242 pp. 50 EUR. Herman Batibo: Language Decline and Death in Africa: Causes, Consequences and Challenges . (Multilingual Matters 132) Clevedon (etc.): Multilingual Matters, 2005. 176 pp. £ 39.95. Zygmunt Frajzyngier and Eric Johnston (with Adrian Edwards): A Grammar of Mina . (Mouton Grammar Library, 36). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2005. xviii + 509 pp. EUR 148. Wilhelm J. G. Möhlig and Karl Peter Shiyaka-Mberema: A Dictionary of the Rumanyo Language . (Southern African languages and cultures, 2). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe 2005. 459 pp. EUR 52.80. Koen Bostoen and Jacky Maniacky (eds.): Studies in African Comparative Linguistics with Special Focus on Bantu and Mande . (Collection Sciences Humaines – Collectie Menswetenschappen, 169). Tervuren: Royal Museum for Central Africa, 2005. xi + 495 pp. EUR 25. Gerald Heusing: Die südlichen Lwoo-Sprachen . (Nilo-Saharan, 19). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe, 2004. xviii + 383 pp. EUR 39.80. Birte Kathage: Konzeptualisierung von Landschaft im Mbukushu (Bantusprache in Nord-Namibia) . (Southern African Languages and Dialects, 1). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe, 2004. 237 pp. EUR 34,80.