Grammatical and Semantic Relations in Hausa

The Categories ‘Point of View’, ‘Goal’ and ‘Affected Object’

Author: Zygmunt Frajzyngier, Muhammed M. Munkaila. Series edited by: Wilhelm J.G. Möhlig †, Bernd Heine.

Series: GA Grammatical Analyses of African Languages Volume 24

2004
10 pp. Roman, 92 pp.
1 table, 2 diagrams
Text language(s): English
Format: 160 x 240 mm
220 g
Paperback
€ 36.80

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The present study examines a distinct language structure built around categories that have been ignored until recently by linguistic theories. One of these is the category point of view of the subject. The other category is goal, coding the presence of the goal of the predicate. This study demonstrates that the two categories play a fundamental role in the grammar of Hausa, a West Chadic language. They determine the way arguments are coded, the form of the predicate, the semantic interpretation of the clause, and the interpretation of the semantic roles of the noun phrases occurring in the clause.

The presence of the first categories has created the motivation of yet another catogory, the coding of the presence of the affected object. This study demonstrates that, in some languages the coding of the point of view takes precedence of the coding of grammatical or semantic relations. The implication of this study is that structures of various languages may be organized around different functional domains having different hierarchical structures.

Accompanying material:

• African Linguistics in the 21st Century (ISBN 978-3-89645-765-3)
• Chadic and Hausa Linguistics (ISBN 978-3-89645-043-2)
• Dialoge, Prosa und Liedtexte aus dem Lehrbuch der Hausa-Sprache (Audio-CD) (ISBN 978-3-89645-007-4)
• From Oral Literature to Video (ISBN 978-3-89645-579-6)
• Hausa Comparative Dictionary (ISBN 978-3-927620-53-7)
• Hausa Verbal Compounds (ISBN 978-3-89645-292-4)

Cross-reference:

• Aspects of the Aesthetics of Hausa Verbal Art (ISBN 978-3-89645-264-1)
• Dictionary of Hdi (ISBN 978-3-89645-299-3)
• Goethe-Gedichte – in die Hausa-Sprache übertragen (ISBN 978-3-89645-410-2)
• Hausa and the Chadic Language Family (ISBN 978-3-927620-36-0)
• Lehrbuch der Hausa-Sprache (ISBN 978-3-89645-006-7)
• Lehrbuch der Hausa-Sprache mit Audio-CD (ISBN 978-3-89645-008-1)

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