Maarten Mous

Urban Youth speech Styles in Kenya and the Netherlands

In this chapter, we compare Urban Youth Speech Styles (UYSS’s) in Nairobi, Kenya (Kiessling and Mous 2004) and in the western parts of the Netherlands as it has been documented around the major cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag and Utrecht (Dorleijn and Nortier 2012 and references there). This chapter is a first attempt at a Northern-European/African cross-continental comparison.

The Comitative/conjunctive Preposition na in Chathu (Pare), a Bantu Language of Tanzania

The article discusses the problem of analysis of the element na in Chathu (Pare), a Bantu language of Tanzania. This element functions both as a preposition with a range of meanings and as a conjunction. A similar element with the same problem of analysis exists in most Bantu languages, and, in fact, the phenomenon of a word meaning both ‘and’ and ‘with’ is extremely common in other African languages as well. The article presents an overview of the semantics of na and proposes the most likely tines of semantic development that link the various meaning senses. After a discussion of the agreement phenomena when na is used in the conjunctive meaning, the conclusion is reached that na is a preposition in alt of its uses. A certain degree of grammaticalization has occurred in the possessive use of na.

Challenges of Cushitic reduplication for Generalized Template Theory

In this paper we investigate two typical Cushitic reduplication patterns, CVC- initial and -C final. They were chosen, as they would appear to be especially problematic for the generalized template theory of reduplication developed within OT: neither CVC- nor -C is an unmarked syllable or unmarked metrical foot. The challenge for any analysis is to motivate why these shapes are unmarked. We propose that CVC- is a minimal root, and variations in the realization of CVC- reduplicants are shown to be an emergence of the unmarked effect, following from different rankings of constraints on coda consonants and geminates in the different languages. We propose that the -C final pattern does not actually involve the morphological process of reduplication, but rather a phonologically motivated process of consonant copy. The patterns are illustrated with abundant examples drawn from a number of Cushitic languages.

Recollecting Words and Expressions in Aasá, a Dead Language in Tanzania

Aasá, a Cushitic language, was formerly spoken by a hunter-gatherer community that constitutes a servant group to the Maasai in northern Tanzania. Given that none of the ethnic Aasá surveyed in this study had ever spoken this language, their memory of it is remarkable and raises questions about how it is remembered. In this article, we consider what our corpus of collected data reveals about the patterns of recollection of Aasá and compare these patterns with similar instances of lexical retrieval in second-language attrition. The divergent recollection patterns identified in our study can be explained within the context of the historical reconstruction of language shift from Aasá to Maasai. We conclude that the data collected represent the vestiges of a stage of the shift at which Aasá was no longer a full-fledged language.

John M. Stewart, 1926–2006

Abstract John M. Stewart passed away on 22nd May 2006. John Stewart was born on 6th February 1926 in Lossiemouth in Scotland. He was proud of his Scottish identity and the last (and unfinished) article that he worked on was a new explanation of the historical developments in the vowels of Scots using his insights from vowel changes in West African languages.

Valency and expectation in Bantu applicatives

Abstract Bantu applicatives are standardly analysed syntactically, as encoding a change in valency. However, in many cases applicatives do not change valency, but are rather related to a change in interpretation. In particular pragmatic functions of applicatives related to focus and emphasis are often noted in the description of individual languages, but are very rarely reflected in typological or theoretical work. To address this problem, this paper develops a pragmatic analysis of applicatives, in which applicatives signal that the action denoted by the base verb is being carried out in some way remarkably, and so differently from normal expectations about the action. Pragmatic effects are found with all uses of applicatives, and may lead to a change in valency, or not. Absence of a change in valency is found in particular with locative and instrument applicatives, while benefactive applicatives almost always entail a change in valency. This is related to the thematic hierarchy: Beneficiaries occupy a high position in the thematic hierarchy and have a strong effect on the expectedness of the action expressed. The advantage of our analysis is that it addresses both interpretational and structural aspects of applicative constructions and provides a unified explanation for them.

The semantics of pluractionals and punctuals in Konso (Cushitic, Ethiopia)

Abstract Event number is an important grammatical category in Konso in addition to nominal number. Event number has two main values, singular and plural, which can be expressed by two distinct verbal morphological processes, punctual and pluractional. The interpretation of a sentence in terms of event number is arrived at through an intricate interplay of lexical meaning, the core meaning of the number marking morphology and the separate system of aspect. Each verb has its intrinsic values for event number associated with its systematic lexical distinctions in terms of event number. Event number includes both event internal and event external situations. The meaning of the markers of singular and plural event number has a primary and a secondary value. There are several situations in which the primary meaning is excluded and the secondary meaning is the only possible interpretation. The pluractional is fully productive while the punctual is not productive and has interesting structural morphological restrictions.

The syntactic function of a scope marking suffix in Iraqw

Abstract A morpheme that plays an important role in the organisation of information structure in the Iraqw sentence is the suffix -o. This suffix is used to indicate the clause that is the scope of negation, of yes/no questioning; the theme of the question; or the constituent that is the basis for comparison. It also indicates the setting of the sentence and appears on sentence adverbials of time or space. It is common on second objects that are not part of the verbal complex. Verbal nouns that occur outside the verbal complex contain this suffix. The suffix indicates the scope over which an operation is valid and excludes other comparable referents from the operation in question. Its verbal counterpart is a suffix -a which is used with verbal negation and questioning.