Animacy in Nkami
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4314/gjl.v4i2.7Keywords:
animacy, nominal affixes, pronouns, dispositional verbs, neutralizationAbstract
Drawing from a large corpus of synchronic natural data, this paper provides a detailed descriptive account of animacy distinctions in Nkami, an endangered Ghanaian language, spoken in the Afram Plains of Ghana. It demonstrates the remarkable linguistic resources that speakers employ to distinguish animates from inanimates, to a large extent, and humans from non-humans, to a lesser extent. The phenomenon is ubiquitous in forms and behaviours of pronouns, demonstratives, nominal affixes, nominal modifiers, dispositional verbs in basic locative constructions, inter alia. Some cases of animacy neutralization are also discussed.References
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Snider, Keith L., 1990. The consonants of Proto-Guang. The Journal of West African Languages 12: 3-26.
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Williamson, K. and R. Blench, 2000. Niger-Congo. In B. Heine and D. Nurse, eds., African Languages: an introduction, pp 11–42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ameka, Felix K. and Stephen C. Levenson, 2007. Introduction - The typology and semantics of locative predicates: posturals, positionals and other beasts. Linguistics 45.5/6): 847-872.
Boadi, Lawrence, 1976. A note on the historical antecedents of the obligatory pronoun -3- deletion rule in the Akan dialects. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 16: 1-10.
Christaller, J. C., 1875. A Grammar of the Asante and Fante Language called Twi. Basel: Basel Evangelical Missionary Society.
Casali, Roderic F., 2008. ATR harmony in African languages. Language and Linguistics Compass 2/3: 496–549.
Casali, Roderic F., 2002. Nawuri ATR harmony in typological perspective. Journal of West African Languages 29: 3-43.
Dakubu, M. E. Kropp, 1988. The Languages of Ghana. London: Kegan Paul International.
Dixon, Robert M. W., 2010. Basic Linguistic Theory, volume II. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dixon, Robert M. W., 1997. The Rise and Fall of Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dorvlo, Kofi, 2008. A Grammar of Logba. Utrecht: LOT.
Givon, Talmy, 1984. Syntax: A functional-typological introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Levinson, Stephen C. and David P. Wilkins, 2006. Grammars of Space. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Osam, Kweku E., 1994. Aspects of Akan Grammar: A functional perspective. PhD Dissertation, University of Oregon.
Osam, Kweku E., 1996. Animacy distinction in Akan grammar. Studies in Linguistic Science 23ː 153-164.
Saah, Kofi K., 1995. Studies in Akan syntax, acquisition and language processing. PhD Dissertation, University of Ottawa.
Saah, Kofi K., 1992. Null object construction in Akan. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 17: 219-244.
Snider, Keith L., 1990. The consonants of Proto-Guang. The Journal of West African Languages 12: 3-26.
Stewart, John M., 1970. Tongue root position in the Volta-Comoe languages and its significance for the reconstruction of the original Bantu vowel sounds. African Language Studies 11: 340-350.
Stewart, John M., 1963. Some restrictions on objects in Twi. Journal of African Languages 2: 145-149.
Williamson, K. and R. Blench, 2000. Niger-Congo. In B. Heine and D. Nurse, eds., African Languages: an introduction, pp 11–42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Published
12/01/2015
How to Cite
Asante, K. R., & Akanlig-Pare, G. (2015). Animacy in Nkami. Ghana Journal of Linguistics, 4(2), 64–91. https://doi.org/10.4314/gjl.v4i2.7
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