scholarly journals A Discourse Analysis of Three Past TAM Forms in Vwanji

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 65-80
Author(s):  
Helen Eaton
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Past Time ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Natural Discourse ◽  
Discourse Functions

This paper presents data from Vwanji, an under-documented Bantu language spoken by approximately 28,000 people in southwestern Tanzania. Bantu languages are well known for having multiple degrees of past time reference grammaticalized in their TAM systems, and Vwanji is a good example of such a language, but one with some interesting typological differences from certain general TAM trends in Bantu languages noted in Nurse (2008). Three past TAM forms, in particular, are the focus of the research: P1 /Anterior SM-VB-ile, P2 SM-a-VB-a, and the Near Past Habitual SM-a-VB-aɣa. The analysis of data from a corpus of narrative and non-narrative texts (both written and oral) reveals that these three TAM forms have multiple discourse functions which do not necessarily follow in expected ways from their places in the TAM system as a whole. Comparing the Vwanji findings with those of neighbouring languages suggests some possible directions in which the verb forms in Vwanji may be changing functionally or being lost. The goal of this investigation is to increase understanding of a typologically interesting language which has not been well described and for which there is very little published data. The paper also shows the importance of taking natural discourse data into account when considering TAM functions in a language. Relying on elicited data alone may hide interesting complexities and variation.

scholarly journals On the aspectual system of Wushi (Babessi), a Ring Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-65
Author(s):  
Liliane Hodieb
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Time ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Grassfields Bantu ◽  
Past Tenses

One of the characteristics of Bantu languages, including Grassfields Bantu languages, is their multiple time distinctions. Within the Ring Grassfields group, multiple tenses are also well attested. For example, Aghem has three past and two future tenses (Anderson 1979), Babanki has four past tenses and three future tenses (Akumbu & Fogwe 2012), as well as Lamnso’ (Yuka 2012). Oku has three past tenses and two future tenses (Nforbi 1993) and Babungo has four past and two future tenses (Schaub 1985). These tenses represent different degrees of remoteness in time such as hordienal, immediate, distant, etc. However, in spite of the indisputable lexical unity of Ring Grassfields Bantu languages (Stallcup 1980; Piron 1997), Wushi strikingly stands apart: it does not mark tense morphologically. As a matter of fact, the aspectual system of Wushi is based on five aspects: perfective, imperfective, retrospective or anterior, potential, and the distal or dissociative marker kə̀ that is analyzed in the light of Botne & Kershner (2008). This paper sets out to analyze these verb forms.

scholarly journals Discourse functions of demonstratives in Eastern Bantu narrative texts

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-132
Author(s):  
Steve Nicolle
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Semantic Roles ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Discourse Functions ◽  
Activation Status

Demonstratives are an important feature of many eastern Bantu narrative texts. In addition to a basic tracking use, in which demonstratives are used to refer to different participants in a narrative, at least four additional functions can be identified: specifying the activation status (activated vs. reactivated) of major participants; distinguishing participants with agent semantic roles from those with non-agent semantic roles; distinguishing different kinds of participants and different episodes; and marking key thematic developments. These functions are described for 10 eastern Bantu languages based on analyses of original (i.e. non-translated) narrative texts.

scholarly journals Satisfying minimality in Ndebele

2000 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 23-39
Author(s):  
Laura J. Downing
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Phonological Word ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Generalized Constraint ◽  
Minimality Conditions

In this paper, I discuss four different verb forms in Ndebele (a Nguni Bantu language spoken mainly in Zimbabwe) - the imperative, reduplicated, future and participial. I show that while all four are subject to minimality restrictions, minimality is satisfied differently in each of these morphological contexts. To account for this, I argue that in Ndebele (as in other Bantu languages) Word and RED are not the only constituents which must satisfy minimality: the Stem is also subject to minimality conditions in some morphological contexts. This paper, then, provides additional arguments for the proposal that Phonological Word is not the only sub-lexical morpho-prosodic constituent. Further, I argue that, although Word, RED and Stern are all subject to the same minimality constraint – they must all be minimally bisyllabic - this does not follow from a single 'generalized' constraint. Instead, I argue, contra recent work within Generalized Template Theory (see, e.g., McCarthy & Prince 1994, 1995a, 1999; Urbanezyk 1995, 1996; and Walker 2000; etc.) that a distinct minimality constraint must be formalized for each of these morpho-prosodic constituents.  

The relative verb forms of Cuwabo (Bantu P34) as contextually oriented participles

Linguistics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 463-491
Author(s):  
Rozenn Guérois ◽  
Denis Creissels
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
The Subject ◽  
North Western

AbstractCuwabo (Bantu P34, Mozambique) illustrates a relativization strategy, also attested in some North-Western and Central Bantu languages, whose most salient characteristics are that: (a) the initial agreement slot of the verb form does not express agreement with the subject (as in independent clauses), but agreement with the head noun; (b) the initial agreement slot of the verb form does not express agreement in person and number-gender (or class), but only in number-gender; (c) when a noun phrase other than the subject is relativized, the noun phrase encoded as the subject in the corresponding independent clause occurs in post-verbal position and does not control any agreement mechanism. In this article, we show that, in spite of the similarity between the relative verb forms of Cuwabo and the corresponding independent verb forms, and the impossibility of isolating a morphological element analyzable as a participial formative, the relative verb forms of Cuwabo are participles, with the following two particularities: they exhibit full contextual orientation, and they assign a specific grammatical role to the initial subject, whose encoding in relative clauses coincides neither with that of subjects of independent verb forms, nor with that of adnominal possessors.

Vowel raising in Basaa: a synchronic chain shift

Phonology ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Schlindwein Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Representation ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Equatorial Africa ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Vowel Raising

Like many of the zone A Bantu languages of western equatorial Africa, Basaa, which is spoken over a large area to the north-east and east of Douala, Cameroon, shows an inventory of seven surface vowels (Guthrie 1953). The Basaa forms cited in this article, all of which are found in the comprehensive Dictionnaire Basaa-Français (Lemb & de Gastines 1973), are transcribed using the vowel symbols in (1):These vowel symbols differ from those used by Guthrie only in that the hooks are eliminated from underneath his [i] and [u] and the dots are eliminated from underneath his [???] and [???]. I assume for these vowels the characteristics indicated in (1), where non-parenthesised feature specifications are a property of surface phonological representation and parenthesised feature specifications are default phonetic values. Following Hyman's (1988) analysis of Esimbi, another Cameroonian language containing these vowels in its inventory, I take [E] and [ɔ] to be low.The verb roots in (2) contain instances of each of the seven surface vowels of Basaa:Though bare verb roots may surface unsuffixed, suffixal extensions may also be added to give applied, passive, habitual, direct causative, indirect causative, simultaneous, associative, possessive, reversive, reflexive, stative and nominalised forms. Of interest to us is the vowel raising induced within the verb root when certain of these suffixal extensions are added. In (3) we see the CVC verb forms of (2) along with their corresponding applied and indirect causative forms:Other suffixal extensions that induce raising are the passive, direct causative, simultaneous, reversive and stative extensions. For example, these other suffixal extensions attach to /ten/, one of the verb roots in (3), to give [tina], [tinis], [tinha], [tinil] and [tiní], respectively.

scholarly journals Germanising Oshiwambo language

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 26-40
Author(s):  
Johannes Uushona ◽  
Petrus Mbenzi
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Linguistic Study ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Languages In Contact ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
Phonological Rules

Oshiwambo, a Bantu language spoken in Northern Namibia and Southern Angola, like other languages in contact, has adopted foreign words from other languages to meet the needs of its daily life vocabularies and activities. This paper identified and described the phonological changes which the loanwords from German go through to fit into Oshiwambo speech system and established the phonological rules that account for these changes. The paper is based on the hypothesis that words borrowed from other languages, especially European languages, into Oshiwambo, are phonologically modified to fit the Oshiwambo speech system because little information is available on the phonological wambonisation of German words. The data were collected from school textbooks, daily conversations and personal vocabularies of the researcher. The loanwords were transcribed for phonological analysis. The paper investigated how Oshiwambo borrowed words from German yet the two languages differ widely in terms of phonemic inventories and phonotactics. It has become evident that there are several vowel and consonant changes in the process of borrowing. The paper contributes to the linguistic study in the area of Oshiwambo in particular and Bantu languages in general. The knowledge acquired could be utilized by the institutions of higher learning too.

scholarly journals Questions in Bantu languages: prosodies and positions

2011 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 182
Author(s):  
Laura J. Downing
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Student ◽  
Project Leader ◽  
Research Teams ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
Formal Syntax ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Cooperative Project

The papers in this volume were originally presented at the Workshop on Bantu Wh-questions, held at the Institut des Sciences de l’Homme, Université Lyon 2, on 25-26 March 2011, which was organized by the French-German cooperative project on the Phonology/Syntax Interface in Bantu Languages (BANTU PSYN). This project, which is funded by the ANR and the DFG, comprises three research teams, based in Berlin, Paris and Lyon. The Berlin team, at the ZAS, is: Laura Downing (project leader) and Kristina Riedel (post-doc). The Paris team, at the Laboratoire de phonétique et phonologie (LPP; UMR 7018), is: Annie Rialland (project leader), Cédric Patin (Maître de Conférences, STL, Université Lille 3), Jean-Marc Beltzung (post-doc), Martial Embanga Aborobongui (doctoral student), Fatima Hamlaoui (post-doc). The Lyon team, at the Dynamique du Langage (UMR 5596) is: Gérard Philippson (project leader) and Sophie Manus (Maître de Conférences, Université Lyon 2). These three research teams bring together the range of theoretical expertise necessary to investigate the phonology-syntax interface: intonation (Patin, Rialland), tonal phonology (Aborobongui, Downing, Manus, Patin, Philippson, Rialland), phonology-syntax interface (Downing, Patin) and formal syntax (Riedel, Hamlaoui). They also bring together a range of Bantu language expertise: Western Bantu (Aboronbongui, Rialland), Eastern Bantu (Manus, Patin, Philippson, Riedel), and Southern Bantu (Downing).  

Tense and aspect morphology in the Zhuokeji rGyalrong ver

2003 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-286
Author(s):  
You-Jing Lin
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Past Time ◽  
Recent Theoretical Work ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Two Component ◽  
Component Approach ◽  
Phonological Treatment

This paper analyzes primary tense and aspect distinctions in the Zhuokeji rGyalrong verb. The proposed analysis improves upon existing work on the same dialect partly due to its fine-tuned phonological treatment of the relevant verb forms, and partly due to its integration of methodological insights from recent theoretical work on tense and aspect, in particular Östen Dahl's framework as well as Carlota Smith's two-component approach to situational and viewpoint aspects. Zhuokeji is demonstrated to encode a typologically prominent aspectual opposition between Perfective and Imperfective as well as a distinction of absolute tense between Present Imperfective and Past Imperfective, with the Perfective usually carrying past-time reference.

scholarly journals The grammaticalization of -kotok- into a negative marker in Manda (Bantu N.11)

Linguistics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 653-679
Author(s):  
Rasmus Bernander
Keyword(s):  
Field Data ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
Functional Features ◽  
Negative Marker ◽  
Finite Verb

AbstractIt is common both crosslinguistically and specifically in Bantu languages for the prohibitive to be formed by a construction consisting of a cessative verb in collocation with a non-finite verb. This is also the case in Manda, an understudied Southern Tanzanian Bantu language. In Manda, a negative imperative is expressed by the auxiliary -kotok-, with the (lexical) meaning ‘leave (off), stop’, operating on an infinitive full verb. Intriguingly, there is variation in this construction, as -kotok- may be both formally reduced and may be used more broadly to denote non-factivity in other “non-main” (or non-standard) contexts. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that this functional and formal variation reflects a historical and ongoing process of grammaticalization along the verb-to-affix cline. Drawing on field data, the available historical data and (micro-)comparative data, this study argues that -kotok- is transforming into a more general non-main negation marker. These changes corroborate Güldemann’s hypothesis (Güldemann, Tom. 1999. The genesis of verbal negation in Bantu and its dependency on functional features of clause types. In Jean-Marie Hombert & Larry Hyman (eds.), Bantu historical linguistics, 545–587. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications) that the salient category of non-standard secondary negative markers in Bantu is derived from constructions with an auxiliary and a non-finite verb.

The Pronominal Origin of an Evidential

Diachronica ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Botne
Keyword(s):  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Person Pronoun ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Diachronic Analysis

SUMMARY Evidentials most commonly arise from reduced or reanalyzed verbs or tensed verb forms, particularly from performative verbs of saying or hearing. However, in a few seemingly rare examples, this is not the case. In this paper the author presents the case of two evidential particles —ambo and ampo — found in the Pangi variety of Lega, a Bantu language spoken in eastern Zaire. A diachronic analysis is proposed in which it is argued that ambo has derived from a third person personal pronoun. While the case of ampo is not as clear, it is proposed that it, too, ultimately derived from the same third person pronoun, but came into the Pangi variety of Lega via borrowing. RÉSUMÉ Les formes 'évidentiares' proviennent généralement des formes verbales réduites ou re-analysées, surtout des verbes performatifs de dire et de ouïr. Cependant, dans des exemples assez rares, ceci n'est pas le cas. Dans l'article actuel l'auteur présent le cas de deux particules 'évidentiares' — ambo et ampo — qui se trouvent dans le dialecte Pangi du Lega, langue bantoue de l'est du Zaire. Il propose une analyse diachronique dans laquelle ambo provient d'un pronom personnel de la troisième personne du pluriel. Bien que le cas de ampo n'est pas aussi clair, on propose que cette forme provient également du même pronom, mais à travers un emprunt. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Sog. 'Evidentiale' rühren von reduzierten oder reanalysierten Verbalfor-men oder Zeitverben her, insbesondere performativen, die sagen oder hören zum Inhalt haben. Bei einigen, scheinbar seltenen Beispielen ist dies jedoch nicht der Fall. Im vorliegenden Aufsatz werden zwei Evidentialpartikel vor-geführt —ambo und ampo — die in Pangi, einem Dialekt des Lega, einer Bantu-Sprache des östlichen Zaire zu finder ist. Der Autor schlägt eine diachronische Analyse vor, derzufolge ambo von einem Personalpronomen der 3. Person stammt. Obgleich der Fall von ampó nicht vollends klar ist, wird doch vorgeschlagen, daß auch diese Form denselben Ursprung hat, auch wenn sie durch Entlehung ins Pangi gelangt war.

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