Kasus im Ik

Wortarten, Kontext und Diskurs

Author: Christa König. Series edited by: M. Lionel Bender †, Franz Rottland †, Norbert Cyffer.

Series: NISA Nilo-Saharan – Studies in Language and Context Volume 17

2002
18 pp. Roman, 626 pp.
1 map, 19 graphs and figures, 67 tables, appendix: 9 narratives with interlinearization and translation
Text language(s): German
Format: 160 x 240 mm
1230 g
Paperback
€ 69.80

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Ik is a east-Sudanic Kuliak language, spoken in north eastern Uganda. According to African standards, Ik has an elaborated case system: seven cases are distinguished. In the book a profile of the complex case system is given. From a cross-linguistic perspective case in Ik shows some peculiarities: Most elements in the language are case inflected, such as nouns, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions. Among the core-participants, case shows a lot of irregularities.

Basically, Ik has an accusative/nominative system, but there are many syntactically conditioned contexts in which the case distinction is neutralized. From a cross-linguistic perspective it is quite common for ergative languages to have split systems. So far accusative systems described in the literature seem to be quite consistent. Ik is an example of a split accusative language. The book deals with case on the noun phrase level, on the syntactic level, and on the discourse level. Latter is based on narrative texts which are appendixed. The encoding of core-participants are treated separately from the encoding of peripheral participants. Some case grammemes, such as the dative, show a wide range of functions. Therefore, grammaticalization is also a further topic.

The book is a must for all who are interested in case systems in general, in grammaticalization of case systems, in discourse use of case. The unclear genetic position of the Kuliak languages may also attract readers who are interested in the issue of language classification. Last but not least, all readers who are interested in East African verb-initial languages may also be attracted.

The present publication was derived from the habilitation thesis (2000) by the author at Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany.

Under these links you will find descriptions of further Ugandan Bantu and non-Bantu languages and cultures:

Accompanying material:

• Die südlichen Lwoo-Sprachen (ISBN 978-3-89645-137-8)
• Erwachsenenbildung in Äthiopien und Uganda (ISBN 978-3-89645-684-7)
• Ik Dictionary (ISBN 978-3-89645-133-0)
• Linguistic Landshapes (ISBN 978-3-89645-085-2)
• The Noun Morphology of Western Nilotic (ISBN 978-3-89645-139-2)

Cross-reference:

• A Modern Runyoro-Rutooro Grammar (J.10) (ISBN 978-3-89645-023-4)
• Beyond the Language Issue (ISBN 978-3-89645-819-3)
• Naaho Nubo – The Ways of Our Ancestors (ISBN 978-3-89645-420-1)
• The People of the Rwenzoris (ISBN 978-3-89645-421-8)

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