Zygmunt Frajzyngier

A grammar of Mina

A Grammar of Mina is a reference grammar of a hitherto undescribed and endangered Central Chadic language. The book contains a description of the phonology, morphology, syntax, and all the functional domains encoded by this language. For each hypothesis regarding a form of linguistic expression and its function, ample evidence is given. The description of formal means and of the functions coded by these means is couched in terms accessible to all linguists regardless of their theoretical orientations. Because of these unusual linguistic characteristics, the Grammar of Mina will be of interest to a wide range of linguists.

Explaining Language Structure through Systems Interaction

This book proposes a framework for describing languages through the description of relationships among lexicon, morphology, syntax, and phonology. The framework is based on the notion of formal coding means; the principle of functional transparency; the notion of functional domains; and the notion of systems interaction in the coding of functional domains. The study is based on original analyses of cross-linguistic data.The fundamental finding of the study is that different languages may code different functional domains, which must be discovered by analyzing the formal means available in each language. The first part of the book proposes a methodology for discovering functional domains and the second part describes the properties of various functional domains. The book presents new cross-linguistic analyses of theoretical issues including agreement; phenomena attributed to government; nominal classification; prerequisites for and implications of linear order coding; and defining characteristics of lexical categories. The study also contributes new analyses of specific problems in individual languages.

Population Frequencies of the Triallelic 5HTTLPR in Six Ethnicially Diverse Samples from North America, Southeast Asia, and Africa

Abstract Genetic differences between populations are potentially an important contributor to health disparities around the globe. As differences in gene frequencies influence study design, it is important to have a thorough understanding of the natural variation of the genetic variant(s) of interest. Along these lines, we characterized the variation of the 5HTTLPR and rs25531 polymorphisms in six samples from North America, Southeast Asia, and Africa (Cameroon) that differ in their racial and ethnic composition. Allele and genotype frequencies were determined for 24,066 participants. Results indicated higher frequencies of the rs25531 G-allele among Black and African populations as compared with White, Hispanic and Asian populations. Further, we observed a greater number of ‘extra-long’ (‘XL’) 5HTTLPR alleles than have previously been reported. Extra-long alleles occurred almost entirely among Asian, Black and Non-White Hispanic populations as compared with White and Native American populations where they were completely absent. Lastly, when considered jointly, we observed between sample differences in the genotype frequencies within racial and ethnic populations. Taken together, these data underscore the importance of characterizing the L-G allele to avoid misclassification of participants by genotype and for further studies of the impact XL alleles may have on the transcriptional efficiency of SLC6A4.

That-clauses and other complements

Abstract The fundamental assumption of the present paper is that complementizers have specific communicative function. We propose a tripartite distinction of complementizers in English. Complementizer that marks the following clause as belonging to the semantic domain de dicto in which reference is made to the elements of speech rather than to the elements of reality. Gerundive -ing clauses and infinitival clauses belong to the domain de re. We provide evidence for the analysis based on several properties of the de dicto and de re expressions. Our analysis enables us to explain a number of properties of that-clauses that remained unexplained so far. Long attendant to the philosophical debates about the problem of opaque and transparent contexts are sentences containing that-clauses. The hypothesis advanced in this paper helps to articulate the nature of opacity from the point of view of linguistics.

A grammar of Wandala

This is the first description of a most interesting Chadic language spoken in Northern Cameroon and Northern Nigeria. The grammar provides proofs for all hypotheses concerning forms and functions grammaticalized in the language. The grammar is written in a style accessible to linguists working within different theoretical frameworks.

A previously unrecognized typological category: The state distinction in Kabyle (Berber)

Abstract The study addresses the functional distinction between the annexed and absolute states of nouns, a controversial issue in Berber linguistics. It is demonstrated that the annexed state provides the specific value for a grammaticalized meaning encoded earlier in the sentence. The absolute state carries no function within the grammaticalized domains of the language. The importance of this study for linguistic typology is that it demonstrates the existence of a coding system on noun phrases that is not related to grammatical functions, semantic functions, or information structure.

Ergative and Nominative-Accusative. Features in Mandara

Among the existing studies of Mandara , a Chadic language belonging to the Biu-Mandara branch(Newman 1977), there appears to be a gap in the description of the plural formation of verbs and also in the description of the function of the plural forms. The present paper, which is based on the Mandara dialect spoken in Pulka, is intended to fill thisgap. The purpose of the paper, however, is more than just to provide some additional Information on this language, but rather to show what can be learned about the history of Mandara and Chadic from the forms and functions of verbal plurals. The syntax of plural verbs in the Mandara dialect spoken in Pulka and possibly in other dialects exhibits both nominative-accusative and ergative characteristics. While the former are represented by fully productive devices in the form of subject prefixes and infixes, the latter are manifested through traces of various plural markers whose distribution may be quite limited in the contemporary language. The importance of the data from Mandara lies in the fact that ergative characteristics have been claimed for Proto-Chadic (cf. Frajzyngier in press) and for Afro-Asiatic (cf. Diakonoff 1965). A detailed study of a particular language may contribute to the elucidation of the question äs to whether those characteristics are innovations in a particular language or retentions from an earlier, possibly Proto-Chadic System.

An analysis of be-passives☆

Abstract The presence of the equivalents of the verb ‘to be’ in the passive constructions of various languages has prompted several analyses in which this verb was explicitly or implicitly considered a characteristic feature of passive in general. This is particularly true for transformational and some post-transformational grammars. This in turn has led to certain conclusions concerning the meaning of passive. The present paper shows that such analyses were in error and that ‘be’ is not an attribute of the passive. This is demonstrated by analyses of the meaning and form of passives in some thirty languages. The paper also presents a hypothesis as to why ‘be’ is present in the passive constructions of so many languages, namely because ‘be-passives’ are a subset of a set of sentences with nominal predicates. This hypothesis is supported by data from synchronic analyses of over thirty languages and by historical developments in several unrelated languages.

From verb to anaphora

Abstract In the existing literature on grammaticalization there is no mention of the change from verb to anaphora. Such a change is of interest because the usual explanations for grammaticalization through metaphorical extension do not seem to apply in this case. An internal reconstruction of the grammatical system of Mopun and comparative study of Chadic languages indicate that deictic and anaphoric demonstratives in Mopun derive from verbs of movement. The major components of this paper are as follows: hypothesis and evidence that there exist in Mopun two kinds of locative demonstratives: deictic and anaphoric; evidence that the anaphoric demonstrative derives from the old deictic remote demonstrative; evidence that both types of demonstratives derive from verbs, and in particular that the deictic demonstrative derives from the verb ‘to come’ and the anaphoric demonstrative derives ultimately from the verb ‘to go’. I have also considered the possibility that the logophoric pronouns of Mopun derive from the locative anaphora.

Language-Internal versus Contact-Induced Change: The Split Coding of Person and Number: A Stefan Elders Question

The aim of this study is to contribute to the methodology for determining whether a given characteristic of a language is a product of language contact or of language-internal grammaticalization. We have taken as a test problem a formal structure that is relatively rare across languages but that occurs in a few geographically proximate languages belonging to different families. The presence of a typologically rare phenomenon in neighboring but unrelated languages raises the question of whether the structure may be a product of cross-linguistic contact.The structures that we examine involve the split coding of person and number of the subject, in which a pronoun preceding the verb codes person only. Plurality of the subject is coded by a suffix to the verb, usually the same suffix for all persons. In some languages the split coding of person and number operates for all persons, while in others the split coding is limited to some persons only. This structure has been observed in several languages spoken in a small area of Northern Cameroon. Three of these languages, Gidar, Giziga, and Mofu-Gudur, belong to the Central branch of the Chadic family, while two other languages, Mundang and Tupuri, belong to the Adamawa branch of the Niger-Congo family. Outside of this geographical area, this structure has been observed in Egyptian, some Cushitic languages, and in some languages of North America.Since every linguistic phenomenon must have been grammaticalized in some language at some point, we must consider first whether there are language-internal prerequisites for such grammaticalization. For each language of the study, we show that the split coding of person and number may represent a product of language-internal development. The presence of the phenomenon in a language that does not have language-internal prerequisites can then be safely considered to be a product of language contact.