Coding participant marking : construction types in twelve African languages / edited by Gerrit J. Dimmendaal.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Dimmendaal, Gerrit Jan.

Series:

Studies in language companion series ; v. 110.

Studies in language companion series, 0165-7763 ; v. 110

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African languages--Semantics.

African languages.

African languages--Syntax.

African languages--Grammar, Comparative.

Physical Description:

xiv, 389 p. : maps.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Whereas Africa as a typological area is often associated with extensive verb morphology and verb serialization, this collection of studies shows that there is tremendous typological diversity at the clausal level. Verb serialization in the Khoisan area contrasts with extensive case-marking in languages of northeastern Africa, which also use converbs and light verb plus coverb constructions. Although the categorial distinction between nouns and verbs is generally clear in African languages, a number of them nevertheless provide intricate analytical challenges in this respect. Whereas some languages are strongly head marking at the clausal level, others manifest an interesting mixture of alternative strategies for the coding of participants. The analysis of information packaging, and related issues such as split ergativity, Differential Object Marking, and discourse-configurational properties also play a role in several contributions. The collection contains not only innovative analyses for the respective language families these languages belong to, but also material relevant for the current debate in theoretical linguistics concerning lexical specification as against construction-based approaches towards argument structure.

Contents:

Introduction / Gerrit J. Dimmendaal

!Xun / Christa König

Alaaba / Gertrud Schneider-Blum

Haro / Hirut Woldemariam

Hone / Anne Storch

Ik / Christa König

Jalonke / Friederike Lüpke

Khwe / Christa Kilian-Hatz

Likpe / Felix K. Ameka

Makonde / Peter Kraal

Tama / Gerrit J. Dimmendaal

Tima / Gerrit J. Dimmendaal

Wolaitta / Azeb Amha.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612104183

9781282104181

1282104187

9789027289612

9027289611