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:
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