Copy Pronouns

Copy Pronouns

ISBN 978-3-89645-424-9

Copy Pronouns

Case Studies from African Languages

Edited by: Anne Storch, Gratien G. Atindogbé, Roger M. Blench. With contributions by: Gratien G. Atindogbé, Roger M. Blench, Evelyn Fogwe Chibaka, Zygmunt Frajzyngier, Daniel Gya, Birgit Hellwig, Robert Koops, Rudolf Leger, Selbut Longtau, Helma Pasch, Anne Storch, Ulrike Zoch. Series edited by: Roger M. Blench.

Series: KWEF Kay Williamson Educational Foundation – African Languages Monographs Volume 3

2011
8 pp. Roman, 237 pp.
5 maps, numerous tables and charts
Text language(s): English
Format: 170 x 240 mm
480 g
Paperback
€ 49.80

The volume is a collection of articles which may be used as a reference work for the comparative study of West-Central African pronoun systems. The book is an original and innovative contribution insofar as it is a first collection of articles which focus on languages that share the typological features of copied pronouns. Even though there exist several case studies on Chadic and Benue-Congo pronouns, there is no extensive publication in form of a book on the phenomenon of copy pronouns. Moreover, the present volume for a first time correlates copy pronouns with middle voice verbs and mirativity. Main features are:

1. The presentation of new and original data on several little-studied West-Central African languages

2. new typological approaches to pronoun systems by emphasizing their relevance for the encoding of mirativity/evidentiality

3. providing new insights into transitivity and voice, e.g. by correlating copy pronouns and middle voice in Afrasian (Chadic).

A major goal of the present volume is to explore the richness, diversity, and origins of one of the most puzzling features of African pronoun systems, namely the copy pronoun of ICP (intransitive copy pronoun) of West-Central African languages. The repeated pronoun, designating the subject or agent in a phrase, has often been analysed as a marker of intransitive verbs. Since it occurs in neighbouring languages belonging to the Afroasiatic and Niger-Congo phyla, it has commonly been considered an areal feature of the Nigerian sprachbund typifying the Plateau and Benue-Gongola Basin.

The areas covered by the studies in this volume, however, reach beyond this geographical zone, and deal with copy pronouns that appear to express other meanings, and fulfil other functions than mark or construct intransitive verbforms. Ranging from Chadic to Bantu, through Adamawa, the contributions offer a first insight into the pronominal system of African languages by making special reference to their subsystems of copy pronouns.

CONTENTS

Preface

Gratien G. Atindogbé / Anne Storch / Roger M. Blench: Introduction

Rudolf Leger / Ulrike Zoch: Intransitive Copy Pronouns in Chadic

Zygmunt Frajzyngier: Point of View of the Subject – Possessive Subject Pronouns in Wandala

Birgit Hellwig: The Semantics of Copy Pronouns in Goemai

Anne Storch: Copy Pronouns and Pragmatics in Northern Jukun

Robert Koops: Focus Pronouns in Kuteb

Roger M. Blench / Daniel Gya: Rigwe Pronouns

Roger M. Blench / Selbut R. Longtau: Tarok Pronouns

Gratien G. Atindogbé: Encoding Ordinary Information through Emphatic Structure in Barombi

Gratien G. Atindogbé / Evelyn Fogwe Chibaka: Pronoun Serialisation in Kamtok – The Syntax-Semantic Interface

Helma Pasch: Intransitive Copy Pronouns of Zande Attributes


Following these links you will find publications by the contributors and descriptions of further West African Jukunoid languages and cultures:


Accompanying material:

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