scholarly journals Temne

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sullay M. Kanu ◽  
Benjamin V. Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
South Atlantic ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Class Membership ◽  
Class System ◽  
Basic Word ◽  
Southern Branch ◽  
Noun Class

Temne belongs to the South Atlantic Group of Niger-Congo (formerly the Southern Branch of the Atlantic Group of Niger-Congo; Blench 2006, Childs 2010) spoken in the northern part of Sierra Leone. According to Ethnologue (ISO 639–3: tem, Lewis 2009), Temne has a population of about 1.2 million native speakers. Like other South Atlantic languages, Temne is a tonal language with a noun class system, prefixed noun class markers and agreeing prefixes on dependent elements. Features determining class membership include number and animacy. Temne also features extension suffixes which alter the valency or the semantic structure of simple verb stems. The basic word order is Subject–Verb–Object.

Bom-Kim

2020 ◽  
pp. 437-450
Author(s):  
G. Tucker Childs
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
South Atlantic ◽  
Small Category ◽  
The South ◽  
Class System ◽  
Limited Knowledge ◽  
Endangered Language ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
Search Domain

The Bom-Kim dialect cluster in Sierra Leone, a member of the South Atlantic family within Niger-Congo, features an areally common segmental structure with a labial-velar (labiovelar) stop and prenasalized consonants, whereas tone is only marginally distinct lexically. It has a rather classic Niger-Congo noun class system, but a restricted system of verbal extensions or derivational suffixes. It combines a system of prepositions with postpositions, the latter specifying the search domain for objects. Next to the major categories nouns and verbs, there is a small category of adjectives and adverbs. Limited knowledge of ideophonic words among modern speakers of Bom-Kim may be interpreted as an instantiation of language obsolescence, as Bom-Kim is an endangered language.

Word Order and Agreement in Tagoi

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-174
Author(s):  
Suzan Alamin
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Class System ◽  
Order Types ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Constituent Order ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
South Kordofan

Abstract This study provides a detailed description of word order types, agreement patterns and alternations found in Tagoi, a Kordofanian language traditionally spoken in South Kordofan. After a brief presentation of the language (section 1), the noun class system is introduced (section 2) and the word order and agreement patterns are examined at the noun phrase level (section 3). Section 4 gives information about the constituent order at clause and sentence level, while Section 5 summarizes the findings and conclusion of the paper. All in all, the paper aims at contributing to a better understanding of the grammar, structure and typological features of Tagoi.

Cara

2020 ◽  
pp. 653-669
Author(s):  
Rainer Vossen
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Class System ◽  
Central District ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
Gender Based

Cara is a highly endangered, little-documented Central Khoisan (Khoe) language of the East Kalahari branch, spoken by a small number of persons in Botswana’s Central District. The chapter begins with a brief description of phonological inventories on the segmental (consonant and vowel phonemes) as well as suprasegmental level (tones). Derivational and inflectional aspects are discussed, separately for nominals and verbals, under morphological headings such as gender-based noun class system, pronominal paradigms (personal, demonstrative, possessive, and interrogative), structure of finite verbs, verbal extensions, tense and aspect, modality, and negation. The syntactic characteristics dealt with are word order, coordination, subordination, declarative sentences, questions, and relative clauses.

scholarly journals What happens to class when a language dies

2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-130
Author(s):  
G. Tucker Childs
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Everyday Language ◽  
Class System ◽  
Noun Class

This paper presents the first documentation of the noun class system of the dying language Mani (buy), “Bullom So” in Ethnologue, a.k.a. Mmani, Mandenyi, etc.) spoken in Guinea and Sierra Leone. Mani has some few hundred speakers, all of whom speak either Soso (sus) or Temne (tem) as their everyday language.

Waja

2020 ◽  
pp. 506-520
Author(s):  
Ulrich Kleinewillinghöfer
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Verbal Nouns ◽  
Basic Word ◽  
Phonological Features ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Genetic Unit ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
Basic Motion

Waja is spoken in Southern Gombe State, NE Nigeria. It is the largest language of the Tula-Waja group. Waja is one of the few “Adamawa” noun class languages and also one of the key languages validating the notion of an “Adamawa-Gur” genetic unit. In Waja, noun class markers are suffixed to the nouns, while the basic pattern of concord marking is bilateral affixation/cliticization. Verbs have three basic forms: two contrasting aspectual verb forms, “definite” and “indefinite”, and verbal nouns. Productive verb extensions are pluractional, altrilocal-ventive, passive/intransitive, applicative, directional, and benefactive. Basic motion and posture verbs form their own verb class, and they require copy pronouns. The basic word order in clauses is SVO; the head noun generally precedes modifiers. Notable phonological features of Waja are ATR vowel harmony with twelve phonetic and nine phonemic vowels, and prenasalized and labialized stops.

SYNONYMY OF STABLE PHRASES IN THE DICTIONARY OF SMOLENSK DIALECTS: THE ANALYSIS EXPERIENCE

2019 ◽  
pp. 122-132
Author(s):  
Nina Maksimchuk
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
National Language ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Spiritual World ◽  
Key Word ◽  
The World ◽  
Volumetric Representation ◽  
High Level ◽  
Linguistic Units

The attention of modern linguistics to the study of verbal representatives of the mental essence (both individual and collective one) of the native speakers involves an appeal to all subsystems of the national language where territorial dialects take a significant part. The analysis of dialect linguistic units possessing linguistic and cultural value is considered as a necessary way for the study of people’s worldview and perception of the world, national mentality as a whole. The ability of stable phrases (phraseological units) to preserve and express a native speaker’s attitude to the world around them is the basis for the use of the analysis of folk phraseology as a way of penetration into a speaker’s spiritual world. Volumetric representation of the external and internal peculiarities of stable phrases allows the author to get their systematization in the form of phraseosemantic field consisting of different kinds singled out in phraseosemantic groups. The article deals with stable phrases of synonymic value recorded in the Dictionary of Smolensk dialects and stable phrases forming a phraseosemantic group. These phrases are analyzed taking into account the semantic structure of the key word, the characteristics of the dependent word, and the method of forming phraseological semantics. On the example of the analysis of phrases with the key word «bit’» and a synonymic series with the semantic dominant «bezdel’nichat’», the article discusses the peculiarities of phraseological nomination in Smolensk dialects and confirms a high level of connotativity and evaluation in the folk phraseology.

scholarly journals The gender system of Longuda

2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-346
Author(s):  
Julius-Maximilian Elstermann ◽  
Ines Fiedler ◽  
Tom Güldemann
Keyword(s):  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
Classifier System ◽  
Class System ◽  
Nominal Form ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
Nominal Classification ◽  
Gender System

Abstract This article describes the gender system of Longuda. Longuda class marking is alliterative and does not distinguish between nominal form and agreement marking. While it thus appears to be a prototypical example of a traditional Niger-Congo “noun-class” system, this identity of gender encoding makes it look morpho-syntactic rather than lexical. This points to a formerly independent status of the exponents of nominal classification, which is similar to a classifier system and thus less canonical. Both types of class marking hosts involve two formally and functionally differing allomorphs, which inform the historical reconstruction of Longuda noun classification in various ways.

Word Order Universals: Refinements and Clarifications

1988 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyle Campbell ◽  
Vit Bubenik ◽  
Leslie Saxon
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Supplementary Data ◽  
Basic Word ◽  
Language Sample

Studies of word-order universals have had great impact in modern linguistics, thanks to Greenberg’s (1963) work and to Hawkins’s (1983) refinements. Greenberg’s conclusions were based on a sample of 30 languages “for more detailed information” and 142 languages “for certain limited cooccurrences of basic word order” (Hawkins 1983:xi; cf. Greenberg 1963:74–75). Hawkins expanded the 142 “to some 350 languages”, and for “between one-third and one-half of these supplementary data have been collected of the type that Greenberg listed in his 30-language sample” (Hawkins 1983:xi-xii). Hawkins proposed extensive revisions in Greenberg’s universals based on this expanded sample.

scholarly journals Honorifics: A sociocultural verb agreement cue in Japanese sentence processing

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 551-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUKI YOSHIMURA ◽  
BRIAN MACWHINNEY
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Role Assignment ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
New Type

ABSTRACTCase marking is the major cue to sentence interpretation in Japanese, whereas animacy and word order are much weaker. However, when subjects and their cases markers are omitted, Japanese honorific and humble verbs can provide information that compensates for the missing case role markers. This study examined the usage of honorific and humble verbs as cues to case role assignment by Japanese native speakers and second-language learners of Japanese. The results for native speakers replicated earlier findings regarding the predominant strength of case marking. However, when case marking was missing, native speakers relied more on honorific marking than word order. In these sentences, the processing that relied on the honorific cue was delayed by about 100 ms in comparison to processing that relied on the case-marking cue. Learners made extensive use of the honorific agreement cue, but their use of the cue was much less accurate than that of native speakers. In particular, they failed to systematically invoke the agreement cue when case marking was missing. Overall, the findings support the predictions of the model and extend its coverage to a new type of culturally determined cue.

Language background affects online word order processing in a second language but not offline

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (04) ◽  
pp. 802-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNIKA ANDERSSON ◽  
SUSAN SAYEHLI ◽  
MARIANNE GULLBERG
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Word Order ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Order Processing ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence

This study examines possible crosslinguistic influence on basic word order processing in a second language (L2). Targeting Swedish V2 word order we investigate adult German learners (+V2 in the L1) and English learners (-V2 in the L1) of Swedish who are matched for proficiency. We report results from two offline behavioural tasks (written production, metalinguistic judgements), and online processing as measured by event-related potentials (ERPs). All groups showed sensitivity to word order violations behaviourally and neurocognitively. Behaviourally, the learners differed from the native speakers only on judgements. Crucially, they did not differ from each other. Neurocognitively, all groups showed a similar increased centro-parietal P600 ERP-effect, but German learners (+V2) displayed more nativelike anterior ERP-effects than English learners (-V2). The results suggest crosslinguistic influence in that the presence of a similar word order in the L1 can facilitate online processing in an L2 – even if no offline behavioural effects are discerned.

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