The Source of Degema Clitics

Ethelbert E. Kari
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan (ILCAA)

The source of Degema clitics has not been given any attention. The popular view about the source of clitics in human language is that they developed from free lexical items, or from syntactic categories that must appear without accent in various languages, and may become affixes at a later stage (Zwicky 1977, Hopper and Traugott 1993, Bybee 1985, Spencer 1991, among others). In this study, we will look critically at these views that do not seem to account for the source of clitics in Degema, and establish the source of Degema clitics from language-internal and language-external pieces of evidence. This work is divided into seven sections. Section 1 provides some background information that is necessary for the discussion on clitics in Degema; section 2 considers some general views about the source of clitics; in section 3 we make some assumptions about the source of Degema clitics; in section 4 we attempt to establish the source of Degema clitics from language external facts; we examine deaffixation in other languages in section 5; a modification of Hopper and Traugott's unidirectional cline is proposed in section 6, we conclude the work in section 7.

ISBN 9783895864513. Languages of the World 25. 60pp. 2001.

Cliticization, Movement, and Second Position

Ethelbert E. Kari
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan (ILCAA)

Investigation shows that some issues relating to cliticization in Degema are closely tied to movement. Put differently, there appear to be certain facts about cliticization in Degema that may not be easily explained without appealing to a movement analysis. For example, how do clitics form a phonological unit with their hosts? What is the origin of the subject NP that appears before the subject clitic? How do subject clitics get the grammatical features associated with the subject? How is second position defined in Degema, since it appears that some clitics also occupy second position? How do clitics in Degema get placed in second position? These are some of the questions we will attempt to answer in this study with regard to clitic placement in Degema. This work is organized into five sections. Section 1 discusses subject and non-subject clitics; section 2 examines cliticization and two movement operations – subject and verb movements; section 3 looks at cliticization and the 'second position' phenomenon; section 4 considers clitics as functional heads, and their implication for clitic doubling, while section 5 is the conclusion.

ISBN 9783895863639. Languages of the World 26. 42pp. 2001.

Bata phonology: a reappraisal

Raymond Boyd
Lacito, CNRS

This study deals with the phonology of a Nigerian (Adamawa State) Central Chadic language, Bata, of which another dialect is known as "Bachama". In recent years, studies of Central and Eastern Chadic languages have revealed that, in many cases, the vowel system may be conceived as founded on phonological contrasts of height and length alone. Phonetic frontness and backness are attributable to the influence of separate, neighboring palatal and labial features. Other languages in the same branches seem, however, to have vowel systems which have incorporated front/back contrasts. The case of Bata is interesting because, although it apparently belongs to the latter group, it might also be analyzed as belonging to the former.

Raymond Boyd is a Chargé de Recherche with the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Unité mixte 7594, Langage, Langues et Cultures d'Afrique Noire (LLACAN), and has worked for the past fifteen years on Chamba Daka and its neighbors.

ISBN 9783895863646. Languages of the World 27. 60pp. 2002.

Studies on Cross-linguistic Transfer Patterning and Prosodic Typology

Cantonese, Japanese, English

Esther Yuk Wah Lai
University of Hong Kong

The present book is a collection of studies on prosody and universal transfer patterning in distinct prosodic types.  The languages of reference are Cantonese, Japanese and English.
The first paper: “Cantonese Stress: its Forms and Functions” investigates the stress phenomenon in the under-researched tonal language of Cantonese (a Chinese dialect belonging to the Yue dialect group).  An original Cantonese Durational Stress/Accent Hypothesis is motivated to explain prosodic operations that are hitherto overlooked on the basis of stress behaviour in other tonal dialects of Chinese as well as languages of distinct typologies.
The second paper: “Predictability and Universality of Transfer Patterning in Distinct Prosodic Types” adopts the contrastive approach to examine cross-linguistic transfer patterning, proposing a Contrastive Transfer Hierarchy to predict, or explain, transfer prominence and degrees of difficulties in SLA with L1 and L2 from distinct prosodic typological backgrounds.
The third paper: “A Cantonese Accent: Transfer of Cantonese Prosodic Traits in the Acquisition of Japanese as a Second Language” and the forth one: “Which is more Difficult for the Japanese Native Speaker to Master, Cantonese or English Prosody?” present rather straight-forward accounts of learning difficulties in the particular group of first language speakers regarding the prosody of the specified second languages on the basis of the assumptions laid down previously in the first papers.

ISBN 9783895867019. Languages of the World 28.100pp. 2003.

Usage of pronouns, address and relationship

Siew-Yue Killingley
Grevatt & Grevatt

Enhanced by a questionnaire on attitude and usage using thirteen respondents (ten of them native Chinese speakers), this study traces the development of the written pronoun ta1, the expression of ‘it’ in Chinese, and the use of ta1men with non-human reference. The exclusive-inclusive distinction between wo3men and zan2men (including its variants) is examined, followed by an examination of the expression of number when using nin2. Is there a form nin2men, and if so, how is it used? The study also investigates the way speakers feel about certain terms of address and relationship terms largely connected with sex differentiation and marital status, taking into account the complex situation arising from various language reforms and counter-reforms in the People’s Republic of China reflecting the accepted politically correct ideas at different stages.

Some unexpected features of usage among Chinese speakers worldwide are revealed. There are similarities of usage across geographical and social divisions as well as among members of different age groups, although in the area of address and kinship terms, there is an occasional tendency for usage to be linked to geographical distribution. Surprising dissimilarities of usage among speakers of the same geographical and social group are also revealed.

The study also incidentally reveals the diversity of names with which Chinese speakers refer (in Chinese and in English) to what is loosely described as ‘Chinese’ or ‘Mandarin’ by foreigners.

ISBN 9783895868474. Languages of the World 30. 70pp. 2003

Artificial Descendants of Latin

Alan Libert
University of Newcastle

Among the hundreds of artificial languages created in recent centuries are a fair number of modified versions of Latin and languages which have taken many elements from Latin. These diverge in varying degrees and ways from Classical Latin. This book is a survey of such projects. The languages examined include Communia, Latino sine Flexione, Linguum Islianum, SPL and Universal-Latein. An introduction presenting the languages is followed by chapters on phonetics, lexicon, morphology, syntax, and semantics.

CONTENTS: Preface Abbrevations 1 Introduction 1.1 Carpophorophilus’s Language 1.2 Kosmos 1.3 Latino Moderne 1.4 Latino sine Flexione 1.5 Latinulus 1.6 Linguum Islianum 1.7 Mundelingva 1.8 Myrana and Communia 1.9 Nov Latin 1.10 Reform-Latein 1.11 SIMP-LATINA (SPL) 1.12 Universal-Latein 1.13 Uropa 1.14 Weltsprache (Eichhorn) 1.15 Weltsprache (Volk and Fuchs) 2 Phonetics 2.1 Sound Inventories and Orthography 2.2 Suprasegmentals 3 Lexicon 3.0 General Issues 3.1 Forms of Nouns Used 3.2 Words for Modern Concepts 4 Morphology 4.0 General Issues 4.1 Nouns 4.2 Pronouns 4.3 Numerals 4.4 Adjectives 4.5 Adverbs 4.6 Verbs 4.7 Prepositions 4.8 Conjunctions 4.9 Particles and Interjections 5 Syntax 5.1 Word Order 5.2 Binding and the Use of Reflexive Pronouns 5.3 Pro-drop 5.4 Absolute Constructions 6 Semantics 6.1 Ambiguity and Homonymy 6.2 Synonymy 6.3 Idioms 6.4 Generics References.

ISBN 9783895868184. Languages of the World 31. 140pp. 2004.

Daughters of Esperanto

Alan Reed Libert
University of Newcastle

Esperanto is by far the most successful artificial language. However, some of those who learned it were not satisfied with it and changed it in various ways. Esperanto has also been modified to serve as an intermediate language in machine translation. In addition, designers of some other languages borrowed many elements from Esperanto. This book is a survey of artificial languages resulting from these processes. After an introductory chapter in which the languages are presented, there are chapters on phonetics and phonology (including orthography), the lexicon, morphology, syntax, and semantics.

At various points comparisons to Esperanto are made. The languages covered include Ido (the best known language of this type), Aiola, Arlipo, Atlango, the DLT Intermediate Language, Ekselsioro, La lingvo Esperantida, Esperloja, Farlingo, Hom-idyomo, Linguna, Modern Esperanto, Mondezo, Mondlango, Mondlingvo, Neo, Olingo, Perio, Zamenhof’s Reformed Esperanto, Romániço, Sen:esepera, and Virgoranto. Some of these languages are quite similar to Esperanto, while others are rather different in several respects. Some daughters of Esperanto involve simplifications in one or more areas of the grammar, but some have introduced greater complexity, e.g. more personal pronouns or more morphological cases.

ISBN 9783895867484. Languages of the World 33. 178pp. 2008.