Language Description

This is the authors' final version of a chapter that appears in "Non-verbal Predication in the World’s Languages" (eds. Pier Marco Bertinetto , Luca Ciucci and Denis Creissels), published by De Gruyter Brill. The published version of the chapter is available here: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110730982-017/html

Abstract: This chapter provides an overview of non-verbal predication (NVP) in the languages of the Zaparoan family, a small group of highly endangered languages of northwestern Peruvian Amazonia and eastern Ecuador. We provide a detailed description of NVP in Iquito, the sole language for which we have ample information, followed by briefer descriptions of NVP in Arabela and Sápara, the two other Zaparoan languages for which some data and descriptive materials are available. In all three languages, NVP constructions employ multiple strategies, with a major split between locative predication constructions, on the one hand, and other types of NVP, on the other. Locative predication constructions are most similar across the family, employing cognate locative copulas: Iquito iíkìL , Arabela ki, and Sápara iki. In each language, the locative copula is one function of a polyfunctional verbal element that inflects for TAME like typical lexical verbs in the language. The strategies used for non-locative NVP are less similar. Iquito exhibits a contrast between irrealis and realis copula constructions, the former of which employs a polyfunctional element kuúkì L , and the latter of which employs a dedicated copula that exhibits three allomorphs: Htɨɨ , taáLL , and ta. 20th century Sápara exhibited a copula, ta, that is cognate with one of the allomorphs of the Iquito standard copula, but in 21st century Sápara, the locative copula of 20th century Sápara, iki, has subsumed all copula functions. Arabela diverges from its sister languages in exhibiting no standard copula and deploying juxtaposition, Type IIIa predicative inflection, and the copula ki in non-locative NVP constructions.

I’m sharing my presentation on isiZulu negation, presented at Rhodes University, Linguistics and Applied Language Studies. The study explores how negation interacts with verb morphology, subject markers, and adjectival agreement in isiZulu. This is ongoing research.

Les idéophones sont des mots permettant d'exprimer une idée dans une langue. Tout comme dans beaucoup de langues africaines, les idéophones sont très productifs en tupuri. Cependant, peu de travaux se sont intéressés à cette catégorie de mots. L'on peut donc s'interroger sur leur processus de formation et sur leur fonctionnement. La présente contribution a donc pour objectif de décrire les mots idéophoniques en tupuri, langue parlée au Cameroun et au Tchad. À partir d'un corpus constitué de 72 idéophones collectés auprès de locuteurs natifs de la langue, l'analyse des données a pris en compte les propriétés phonologiques, morphosyntaxiques et sémantiques de ces idéophones. Inscrit dans le cadre de la grammaire générative et transformationnelle, cet article s'inspire des travaux de Chomsky, N.

Os dados estatisticos se apresentam como desafios concretos no dia a dia das escolas e motivam a busca de solucoes criativas para incluir estudantes com deficiencia em sala de aula. Neste sentido, este artigo apresenta o resultado de um projeto de pesquisa que pretende contribuir com a inclusao de alunos surdos em cursos tecnicos. Trata-se da traducao do livro de AUTORESX sobre desenho auxiliado por computador (traduzido do ingles por Computer Aided Design - CAD) para Libras. Alinhado com a busca pela inclusao na sala de aula, visando obter um material didatico nao somente para o surdo, mas para o maior numero de usuarios possivel, como preconiza o conceito de Desenho Universal, o material resultante foi um video explicativo com audio em portugues e com um quadro traduzindo simultaneamente o conteudo para Libras.

L’examen des genèses des paradigmes personnels du berbère
(cf. Allati, 2022) m’a conduit à leur reconstruction que j’ai menée dans
une perspective totalement différente. Pour ce faire, je me suis fondé sur les différents renseignements que nous disposons sur les stades antérieurs de cette langue (inscriptions libyques, données médiévales, vestiges de ses stades antérieurs conservés dans les berbères moderne et actuel) et sur les comparaisons avec les autres groupes afro-asiatiques.

Mot clés : berbère ; reconstruction ; conjugaisons ; personne ; stades ; 
diachronie ; vestiges, évolution

The study examines the issue of shaping the modern discourse on literary description. The research is carried out on the most recognised and influential texts directly referring to this form of expression (e.g., by Gotthold E. Lessing, Émile Zola, György Lukács, Alain Robbe-Grillet). Special attention is devoted to the negative evaluation of description. This attitude, strengthened by Lukács, developed mostly around a series of oppositions: deep versus surface, autonomy versus subordination, action versus stagnation, anthropocentric versus non-anthropocentric. Additionally, the paper states that the categories traditionally linked to description as a threat to the work’s coherence, the position of the protagonist, and the clarity and purposefulness of communication served the writers and critics of the nouveau roman as justification to employ it as a tool for deconstructing the classical form of the novel.

Systems of grammatical gender are widespread, yet evidence on how these systems emerge is surprisingly scarce. We report on novel research using storyboard experiments in six Oceanic languages of Vanuatu and New Caledonia, to probe the initial stages in the emergence of grammatical gender from possessive classifiers. This would appear to be an unlikely source, yet we can demonstrate the development and investigate it through current experiments. Our storyboard experiments were designed to reveal the use of classifiers as reference tracking devices across units of discourse and in different interactional contexts. The particular interest is in the degree to which the use of these classifiers becomes fixed and hence redundant for given nouns. The general interest is the investigation of the way in which apparently useful distinctions are lost, as transparent classification becomes opaque.

This volume presents the first comprehensive grammatical description of Bəṭaḥrēt (also known as Baṭḥari), one of the least documented and most endangered modern South Arabian languages, spoken by a once remote and marginalised community in southern Oman. Drawing on decades of fieldwork by Miranda Morris and more recent linguistic analysis by Fabio Gasparini, the grammar offers a detailed account of the phonology, morphology, syntax, and sociolinguistic context of this unique language.
The small Bəṭaḥrēt-speaking community, once coastal fisherfolk with a distinct identity, now only speaks Arabic. The grammar reflects not only a linguistic system in decline, but also a cultural heritage at risk of disappearing. Special care has been taken to present the data clearly and typologically in order to make it accessible to readers beyond the field of Semitic studies. Rich in examples and based on extensive recordings and notes, this grammar is an invaluable resource for linguists, anthropologists and historians interested in endangered languages, Semitic linguistics, and Arabian Peninsula ethnography.

All over the world, there have been varied studies on tendency of languages borrowing concepts from other languages. This has always had a significant mark of enrichment in languages. The aim of this paper is to establish the impact of loanwords borrowed from Luganda, a Bantu language spoken in Uganda into Kupsabiny, a Southern Nilotic language in Uganda. Whereas studies have been conducted on the same that reveal that loanwords have been a major source of vocabulary expansion in Kupsabiny, the present study focuses on a morphological analysis of borrowed nouns by Kupsabiny language speakers from Luganda. This is done with an objective of examining the morphological and patterns exhibited by borrowed nouns; and determining the morphological processes engaged in the adaptation of nouns borrowed. The study employed a descriptive study design. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, with the aid of an interview schedule and audio tape recorder. Moreover, the targeted population was native speakers of the Kupsabiny language within the municipality of Kapchorwa District estimated at 12,399 in number. In addition, purposive sampling procedure was used to settle on a sample size of 50 informants. Thereafter, corpus of data collected were then analysed using Optimality Theory (OT) by Kager (1999). The findings reveal that Luganda borrowed nouns undergo morphological changes to conform to Kupsabiny's noun class system. These findings are intended to shed light on the linguistic dynamics in language contact and adaptation. Consequently, the findings are also relevant to linguistics enthusiasts, language researchers, and those interested in the intricate workings of language borrowing and language change. The findings therefore seek to contribute to both empirical understandings of language borrowing and adaptation.

El documento "Formatos para analizar discursos" ofrece una herramienta pedagógica diseñada para facilitar el análisis estructural de textos académicos y profesionales de aproximadamente 800 palabras. A través de tres formatos especializados —para discursos descriptivos, informativos y persuasivos—, esta guía enseña a simbolizar visualmente las ideas clave mediante esquemas adaptados a cada tipo discursivo. Cada formato incorpora espacios para registrar autoría, fuentes, temas centrales y secundarios, promoviendo un análisis riguroso y metodológico. Dirigido a estudiantes pre-universitarios, este material busca desarrollar competencias en comprensión lectora, síntesis visual y pensamiento crítico.

Cet article s’attache à dégager une organisation dans la disparité des statuts des compléments de verbe en français. Exploitant la piste ouverte par la distinction entre trois niveaux de représentation d’un verbe (schéma de lexis, forme schématique, structure argumentale), il montre que cette disparité est réductible à une organisation générale mais qui ne se joue qu’au coup par coup en prenant en compte la singularité des unités lexicales en jeu, ce qui exclut toute catégorisation de ces unités en elles-mêmes. L’exemple du verbe compter, aux constructions particulièrement complexes vient illustrer les principes mis en avant.

The aim of this article is to show that the disparity of cases standing for the notion of complement in French is ruled by underlying invariant principles grounding on the description of a verb deployed on three levels of representation (« lexis scheme », « shematic form », and syntactic structure of the arguments) with various possible links between those levels. This description must be worked out according to the singularity of each verb. An illustration is worked out through the French verb compter and its complex constructions.

Mots clés : complément, préposition, arguments, compter.

Todo hablante es básicamente multilectal. Entre las comunidades de habla monolingües y multilingües hay una similitud de principio. La sociolingüÍstica actual reconoce los repertorios lingüisticos de las comunidades de habla bilingües, como un ejemplo de los repertorios que caracterizan todas las comunidades de habla diversifi.cadas fun- cionalmente. Dado que la diferenciación sociolingüística, en general, puede ser más fácilmente reconocible en los repertorios bilingües que en los monolingües, el estudio del multilingüismo puede contri- buir a Ia clarificación y solución de los problemas básicos, teóricos y metodológicos, con los que se enfrenta la üngüística contemporánea. Por otra parte, las divergencias lingüísticas y el cambio lingüístico han sido estudiados durante mucho tiempo como disciplinas separa- das, a saber, dialectología y lingüística histórica. La sociolingüística, investigando la dinámica del cambio lingüístico en progreso, ha aña- dido una tercera coordenada: las relaciones sistemáticas entre los datos cuantitativos de las variantes lingüísticas y las variaciones fun- cionales y sociales. La lingüística diacrónica atribuyó aI bilingüismo, como factor externo, el papel de «primer motor» de las transforma- ciones sufridas por el diasistema lingüístico, y ha entrevisto la tras- cendencia de la contribución sociolingüística del multilingüismo, para superar la propia limitación interna con respecto a los cornplejos

Nous plaçant, une fois de plus , dans une position assurant le maximum d'écart et pouvant, par là, donner une idée de la plus grande diversité possible de types de langues ou de structures, il nous a paru intéressant de présenter, à l'occasion d'une journée d'études intitulée Sémantique et pragmatique des grammèmes : autour de la définitude, un type de langues où ni l'opposition défini/indéfini, ni les équivalents de nos « quelqu'un », « quelque chose », « quelque part », « quelque X » ne s'expriment à travers des grammèmes. Ce qui, dans ces langues, marque l'opposition entre défini et indéfini ou fournit les équivalents de nos « quelqu'un », « quelque chose », « quelque part », etc., relève de constructions syntaxiques, elles-mêmes déterminées par la pragmatique (hiérarchie de l'information et continuité discursive).

Sources of general undergoer voice forms in Sulawesi

This study focuses on the emergence of general undergoer voice prefixes, such as *da-, *di-, and *ni-, in Central, Southern, and Southeastern Sulawesi languages. It builds on previous research by Smith and Erlewine (2024), which focused on voice systems in Central Bornean languages, and offers a similar description of voice systems in Sulawesi.
The undergoer voice prefixes in question include the prefixed form of the reflexes of the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) locative case-marker *di, as in ri-anre ‘be eaten’ (uv-eat) in Buginese (South Sulawesic), the post-PMP third-person plural agentive prefix *da-, as in da-koni ‘be eaten’ (uv-eat) in Pamona (Kaili-Pamonic; Central Sulawesi), and an earlier prefix *ni-, as in ni-kanre ‘be eaten’ (uv-eat) in Makassarese (South Sulawesic). The last prefix may be traced back to the prefixed form ni- of the PMP realis infix *<in>, PMP genitive case-marker *ni, or the shortened form of the PMP instrumental case-marker *kani.
This study will examine the formal and systematic loss of the Philippine-type three undergoer voice affixes, that is, PMP *-en, *-an, and *i-, and reinterpretations of the non-voice grammatical items in various Sulawesi languages. This comprehensive approach will provide a deep understanding of the evolution of voice-marking systems in western Malayo-Polynesian languages in Island South East Asia and underscore the significance of grammatical changes in historical linguistics.

Reference
Smith, Alexander D. and Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine. 2024. Emergence of passive voice in Central Borneo. Paper presented at SLE 57.

The main objective of this book is to enlighten the reader about some of the areas and their functions of linguistics with the articles the present writer has written up to now, on Linguistics, Sinhala Language, Sign Language, Teaching English and Translation, to various Reputed Journals, Commemoration Volumes of Academic Dignitaries in Sri Lanka and abroad and National Newspapers. The articles that have been written in Sinhala were published in a separate Volume. This compendium too would help the students who are mastering various subject fields of Linguistics, with special reference to Sinhala Language, Sign Language and Translation. Those outside the university circle, other than university students of Linguistics who are interested in Language Studies, would also benefit from this book, as they have no access to books written in English covering all the issues dealt with on Sinhala Language structure, Sign Language and Translation in one single book.
This book consists of 20 chapters covering four main areas, Sinhala Language and Linguistics, Sign Language and its structure, Teaching English as a second language and Translation. First chapter, Origin and Evolution of the Sinhalese Language is a preamble, that comes under Historical Linguistics which explores the origin of the Sinhala Language. This article represents a part of the Introductory chapter of the present writer's PhD thesis, A Study of the Syntax and Phonology of Modern Colloquial Sinhalese (University of Exeter, England. 1973). Second chapter is a Comparative Study of the Sinhalese and English alphabets which are derived from different sources, and any resemblance between the two is hardly noticeable owing to the fact that these alphabets are constructed on very different principles. Both are phonetic scripts and each element of writing corresponds to a sound or sounds in the language. As in the case of every other Indian writing system, Sinhalese writing is syllabary in appearance, whereas English letters represent a single sound. Third chapter is a study of the Phonetic Features of the Sinhala language in comparison with that of English and the role and characteristics of each phoneme in both languages are analyzed in terms of place of articulation, manner of articulation and voice, in order to identify the similar and dissimilar phonemic features characterized in these two languages.  Fourth, fifth and sixth chapters, Passivization in Sinhalese, Causativization in Sinhalese and Grammar of the imperative sentences in Sinhalese, present some outlines for formulation of a grammar of the passive sentences, causative sentences and imperative sentences in colloquial Sinhala. In these studies, I have largely followed the principles that have been laid down by Chomsky and other transformationalists in the early works.
Chapter seven, Transitivity and Voice in Sinhala examines the syntactic distribution and the semantic and pragmatic functions of three basic forms of the Sinhala verb.  A form, P form and C form. We have attempted to show that in the sentences which we analyze, both case-marking and verb-form reflect transitivity as defined by Hopper and Thompson (1980) and in particular that the morphological form of the Subject NP as an indicator of different kinds and different degrees of agent-hood. Eighth chapter on the Study of Panini and Other Indian Grammarians and Scholars and the Bias towards the West,  evaluates the contribution made by the greatest Indian grammarian called Panini and his followers to both grammar and language studies, to analyze the bias towards the West in respect of the developments of many disciplines today, followed by brief comments on the ancient Greek scholars such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and the ancient Indian scholars such as Patanjali, Bhartruhari, Yaska, Kautilya, Manu and Vatsyayana. Chapter nine on What is Linguistics is a critical overview, giving an explanation on its definitional issues, functions, language style etc., profiting from the contemporary literature. Though complex and concocted with jargon, Linguistics is an interesting subject that should receive the attention of all and sundry, not only who are interested in Linguistics but the general readership interested in other disciplines too.
Chapters 10 – 14 deal with some aspects of the Sign language in a Linguistic point of view with a description of the deaf community and their culture. Modern Linguistic Studies in Sign Language actually started in 1960, when Stokoe’s paper on Sign Language Structure appeared. He was the first to recognize the integrity and internal organization of the Sign Language and that researchers over the last sixty years have shown that the communication functions and general principles of organization in Sign Languages are comparable to those of spoken languages. Sign languages use visible distinct elemental units whereas spoken languages use vocal elemental units. Although the terminology of modern phonology would appear to eliminate sign languages from phonological analysis, the concepts that underline the terminology are sufficiently broad to permit its application to the levels of organization of the sign languages too. It is now possible to refer to the phonetic structure, the morphemic structure, syntactic structure, semantic structure and the phonological processes of sign languages as analogous to similar phenomena in spoken languages. The chapter on Deaf Education emphasizes the facts that the failure of deaf education to live up to its promise results, first, from deaf children's fundamental lack of access to curricular content at grade-level, and, second, from the general acceptance of the notion that below grade-level performance is to be expected from deaf children. The first of these problems, access- is largely a language related issue as they are expected to try and learn through a language that they don't have. The first language of deaf children in Sri Lanka is Sri Lankan Sign Language and their medium of instruction should be Sri Lankan Sign Language. Sinhala is their Second language. The second, low expectations- is primarily an issue of values and attitudes that have developed among those who educate deaf children.
Next three chapters 15 – 17 deal with teaching of English as a second language in Sri Lanka, and how influential and widespread the English language is. Final three chapters are devoted to Translation Studies with the renewed interest in translation as a method of linguistic harmony and also a means for facilitation of the understanding between the two main nationalities. They describe the aims and functions of translation, its classifications and types, and many other concepts that are involved in the process of translation in simple language, without involving complex jargon. Also, reviews the status quo of the teaching of translation in Sri Lanka.

This book consists of 20 chapters covering four main areas, Sinhala Language and Linguistics, Sign Language and its structure, Teaching English as a second language and Translation. First chapter, Origin and Evolution of the Sinhalese Language is a preamble, that comes under Historical Linguistics which explores the origin of the Sinhala Language. This article represents a part of the Introductory chapter of the present writer's PhD thesis, A Study of the Syntax and Phonology of Modern Colloquial Sinhalese (University of Exeter, England. 1973). Second chapter is a Comparative Study of the Sinhalese and English alphabets which are derived from different sources, and any resemblance between the two is hardly noticeable owing to the fact that these alphabets are constructed on very different principles. Both are phonetic scripts and each element of writing corresponds to a sound or sounds in the language. As in the case of every other Indian writing system, Sinhalese writing is syllabary in appearance, whereas English letters represent a single sound. Third chapter is a study of the Phonetic Features of the Sinhala language in comparison with that of English and the role and characteristics of each phoneme in both languages are analyzed in terms of place of articulation, manner of articulation and voice, in order to identify the similar and dissimilar phonemic features characterized in these two languages.  Fourth, fifth and sixth chapters, Passivization in Sinhalese, Causativization in Sinhalese and Grammar of the imperative sentences in Sinhalese, present some outlines for formulation of a grammar of the passive sentences, causative sentences and imperative sentences in colloquial Sinhala. In these studies, I have largely followed the principles that have been laid down by Chomsky and other transformationalists in the early works.
Chapter seven, Transitivity and Voice in Sinhala examines the syntactic distribution and the semantic and pragmatic functions of three basic forms of the Sinhala verb.  A form, P form and C form. We have attempted to show that in the sentences which we analyze, both case-marking and verb-form reflect transitivity as defined by Hopper and Thompson (1980) and in particular that the morphological form of the Subject NP as an indicator of different kinds and different degrees of agent-hood. Eighth chapter on the Study of Panini and Other Indian Grammarians and Scholars and the Bias towards the West,  evaluates the contribution made by the greatest Indian grammarian called Panini and his followers to both grammar and language studies, to analyze the bias towards the West in respect of the developments of many disciplines today, followed by brief comments on the ancient Greek scholars such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and the ancient Indian scholars such as Patanjali, Bhartruhari, Yaska, Kautilya, Manu and Vatsyayana. Chapter nine on What is Linguistics is a critical overview, giving an explanation on its definitional issues, functions, language style etc., profiting from the contemporary literature. Though complex and concocted with jargon, Linguistics is an interesting subject that should receive the attention of all and sundry, not only who are interested in Linguistics but the general readership interested in other disciplines too.
Chapters 10 – 14 deal with some aspects of the Sign language in a Linguistic point of view with a description of the deaf community and their culture. Modern Linguistic Studies in Sign Language actually started in 1960, when Stokoe’s paper on Sign Language Structure appeared. He was the first to recognize the integrity and internal organization of the Sign Language and that researchers over the last sixty years have shown that the communication functions and general principles of organization in Sign Languages are comparable to those of spoken languages. Sign languages use visible distinct elemental units whereas spoken languages use vocal elemental units. Although the terminology of modern phonology would appear to eliminate sign languages from phonological analysis, the concepts that underline the terminology are sufficiently broad to permit its application to the levels of organization of the sign languages too. It is now possible to refer to the phonetic structure, the morphemic structure, syntactic structure, semantic structure and the phonological processes of sign languages as analogous to similar phenomena in spoken languages. The chapter on Deaf Education emphasizes the facts that the failure of deaf education to live up to its promise results, first, from deaf children's fundamental lack of access to curricular content at grade-level, and, second, from the general acceptance of the notion that below grade-level performance is to be expected from deaf children. The first of these problems, access- is largely a language related issue as they are expected to try and learn through a language that they don't have. The first language of deaf children in Sri Lanka is Sri Lankan Sign Language and their medium of instruction should be Sri Lankan Sign Language. Sinhala is their Second language. The second, low expectations- is primarily an issue of values and attitudes that have developed among those who educate deaf children.
Next three chapters 15 – 17 deal with teaching of English as a second language in Sri Lanka, and how influential and widespread the English language is. Final three chapters are devoted to Translation Studies with the renewed interest in translation as a method of linguistic harmony and also a means for facilitation of the understanding between the two main nationalities. They describe the aims and functions of translation, its classifications and types, and many other concepts that are involved in the process of translation in simple language, without involving complex jargon. Also, reviews the status quo of the teaching of translation in Sri Lanka.

This study offers a detailed comparative analysis of the reflexes of Proto-Bantu noun class prefixes within nine Gabonese languages belonging to the B50, B60, and B70 groups of Guthrie's referential inventory of the Bantu languages. Genealogically speaking, all of them are part of the Kwilu-Ngounie subclade of the Bantu family's West-Coastal Bantu branch. Starting out from a robust dataset comprising over 4000 lexical items collected through fieldwork and existing descriptions, the Comparative Method is used to distinguish changes in noun class morphology due to regular sound shifts from those emerging from analogical reanalysis and levelling. The comparative study shows a systematic reduction and reorganization of the inherited Proto-Bantu noun class system, notably the loss of classes 12/13 and 19 across all languages, variable retention and loss of classes 7/8 and 11, and complex patterns of reshuffling involving classes 5, 9/10, and 1/2. Key innovations, potentially reinforcing lexicon-based hypotheses of phylogenetic subgrouping within Kwilu-Ngounie, include the development of a class 7 allomorphy conditioned by stem-initial segments in the B50 languages and the emergence of vocalic prefixes restricted to the B60 and B70 languages.

The present study provides a description of object complement clauses in Guarijío (Glottocode: huar1255; ISO 639-3: var), a Southern Uto-Aztecan language of the Taracahitic branch (Miller 1983), spoken in the outskirts and mountains of Sonora and Chihuahua in northwestern Mexico. The main objective is to characterize these constructions from a typological and functional perspective, adopting five morphosyntactic variables: (a) complement-taking predicates, (b) predicate marking, (c) participant coding, (d) clausal boundary marking, and (e) clause position. Based on these parameters, I identify five structural types of complements in Guarijío.

Fieldwork is conceived in this study as a constellation of decisions that are consolidated into  sequentially  coordinated  actions  that  range  from  the  consideration  of  carrying  it  out  to  the preparation of the database for the analysis of the linguistic phenomenon(s) that have been proposed for research. This set of activities outlines fieldwork as an elaborate concatenation of tasks that focus on four procedural axes: (i) methodologies, (ii) techniques, (iii) instruments, and (iv) equipment, which are designed based on a theoretical foundation that formalizes the efforts of this complex component in the field of linguistic science. Likewise, the ethical treatment presented at each stage of fieldwork is shown, as well as a practical way that is implemented in northwestern Mexico to contact collaborators and establish a collaborative contract in the documentation of linguistic data of indigenous languages based on informed consent. At the end of the text, the results of this work are presented, as well as a discussion of the relevant points of this essential element for linguistic work, that is, fieldwork (Chelliah 2001; Vaux and Cooper 2003; Bouquiaux and Thomas 1992; Crowley 2007; Bowern 2008; Atencio et al.  2011;  Thieberger  2012;  Sakel  and  Everett  2012;  Chelliah  and  De  Reuse  2011;  Chelliah  2013; Meakings, Green, and Turpin 2018; among others).

The authors and editors of Pacific Linguistics publications are drawn from a wide range of institutions around the world. Publications are refereed by scholars with relevant expertise who are usually not members of the editorial board. My encounter with the language of Araki was quite by chance. I had only spent my first week in Vanuatu, and was heading to the Banks Is. to carry out linguistic fieldwork on Mwotlap, when circumstances made me spend one more month in the island of Espiritu Santo, the largest of the archipelago. A French ethnobotanist asked me to carry out a questionnaire about plant names in some of the thirty languages which are spoken on this island of Santo; and on that occasion, I heard the people of Tangoa mention the existence of a 'small language' which had survived on the island of Araki, with only a handful of elderly people still capable of speaking it fluently. This is how I first met Chief Lele Moli, who was about seventy seven years old at that time. Being himself aware of how much his language was in danger, he insisted that I record as much of it as I could before it was too late, which of course I accepted without hesitation. Since at that moment he was staying in Luganville, the second largest city of Vanuatu, I postponed my trip to the island itself; and during the month of November 1997, I took the habit of visiting him almost every day at his house, for an hour or so, to have long conversations about the language of Araki. He welcomed me into his family, always ready to teach me more and more; to all my questions he had the patience to answer carefully, together with his son Graham, whom I thank for his assistance. The majority of the linguistic information on which this book is based was given to me by Lele himself, to whom this work is fully dedicated. Sadly, Lele Moli passed away in June 2000, without seeing the fruit of our collaboration. Although I was living mainly in the northern parts of Vanuatu, I was able to spend some time, in April 1998, on the island of Araki. This gave me a better idea of its geography and culture, and allowed me to appreciate the hospitality of Arakians. Especially, I could meet and hear some of the last speakers of the language; 1 my first thanks go to Ropo, to Sohe Moli, to Vari Tamaute, who shared their stories with me -some of them are reproduced at the end of this book. I am also indebted to Vevuti, Lele's daughter, who helped me transcribe my recordings; 1 Although we did not meet him, we also know of the Pastor Varisipiti Livo, who was involved in translation work, and was highly concerned with the survival of his language Araki (see . Unfortunately, he passed away in 1999, at the age of sixty two. xviii Grammar of Araki and to Hannah Bogiri-Vari (University of the South Pacific), for the precious information she sent me about the sociolinguistic backgroung of her island. My discovery of Araki was a personal detour in the context of a fieldwork among the islands of Vanuatu, in 1997-1998, which was made possible with the financial support of the Ecole Normale Superieure (paris) and of the Academie Fran9aise. Moreover, it is a pleasure for me to recall how I was helped in my research, by my supervisor Alain Lemarechal

L'article traite de l'histoire de la formation du predicat 'stand' dans la langue française. Depuis les temps anciens, le prédicat de 'standing' fait partie de deux oppositions : 'stand' VS 'sit', 'lie', (position correcte dans l'espace), 'stand' VS 'move'. Dans les langues romanes, l'acception 'standing' peut être transmise de plusieurs manières, par exemple, it. stare, roum. sta, esp. estar di pie, catal. estar dret, mais uniquement en français elle est exprimée par le prédicat être debout. L'article formule une hypothèse concernant les conditions sémantico-syntaxiques d'apparition et de distribution de ce prédicat, ainsi que sa chronologie.

Le traitement automatique de la langue quechua (TALQ) ne dispose pas actuellement d&#39;un dictionnaire électronique des verbes, du français-quechua. Pourtant, un projet visant la traduction automatique nécessite au préalable, entre autres, cette importante ressource.Cette thèse consiste à élaborer un dictionnaire électronique français-quechua des verbes. La réalisation d&#39;un tel dictionnaire peut ouvrir également de nouvelles perspectives dans l&#39;enseignement à distance, dans les domaines de l&#39;accès multilingue aux informations, l&#39;annotation/l&#39;indexation des documents, la correction orthographique et pour le TAL en général. La première difficulté consiste à sélectionner un dictionnaire français comme base de travail. Parmi les nombreux dictionnaires français, il en existe très peu en format électronique, et moins encore ceux dont les sources soient en libre accès au public. Parmi ces derniers, l&#39;ouvrage Les verbes français (LVF), contenant 25 610 sens verbaux,...

O presente estudo, fruto de uma pesquisa no Mestrado Profissional em Ensino de História (ProfHistória), traz, em seu escopo, a análise de duas obras de História para o Ensino Médio por nós utilizada na formatação das aulas numa perspectiva bilingue de surdos numa turma de 3ª série de uma escola da rede estadual de ensino em Cajazeiras, na Paraíba. O objetivo de nosso escrito é analisar, no campo do Ensino de História, saberes que articulem o papel social do professor e a utilização do livro e recursos didáticos na educação básica e no ensino de História num formato bilingue a surdos e ouvintes, fomentando, assim, a consciência histórica a partir da experiência vivenciada através da aplicação do Diciosinalário de Conceitos Históricos, produto final de nossa pesquisa de mestrado. Para tal destacamos, como referencial teórico no campo do Ensino de História com Cerri (2022), Caimi (2011), Rüsen (2016), bem como Silva (2014), o qual ancoramos o nosso olhar sobre a função (social) do livro didático de História. Na pesquisa, constatamos que os livros didáticos são formatados para um público ouvinte, o que nos possibilitou buscar, para as aulas, ao longo da construção do Diciosinalário de Conceitos Históricos, recursos didáticos, tais como vídeos e outros materiais, a fim de atender às necessidades do público surdo e proporcionar uma experiência de um ensino bilingue (e inclusivo).

A inclusão da disciplina de Libras como obrigatória em todos os cursos de formação de professores e de Fonoaudiologia nas instituições de ensino superior, públicas e privadas, deu-se partir da determinação do Decreto n.º 5.626/2005, que estabeleceu essa entre outras prerrogativas voltadas para os direitos linguísticos da pessoa surda. Dessa forma, acadêmicos ouvintes e falantes de uma língua oral-auditiva passaram a ter que aprender outra de modalidade visual-espacial, no caso: Libras. Nesse sentido, destaca-se que tais aprendizes estão acostumados a se expressarem por meio das línguas orais, que usam o aparelho fonador e o auditivo. No entanto, para se comunicarem na Língua de Sinais precisam aprender a utilizar as mãos e o corpo, o que, em princípio, tende a ser um desafio, na medida em que também devem se acostumar com a exposição que ocorre ao sinalizarem, que é diferente da que existe ao usarem a oralidade. A utilização de recursos visuais, entre eles os jogos, constitui-se em um otimizador e facilitador da aprendizagem da Libras, diante da complexidade de sua aprendizagem. A autora deste artigo, que é professora da disciplina de Libras em uma instituição de ensino superior, desenvolveu uma série de jogos, utilizados como recursos facilitadores da aprendizagem da Libras em sala de aula. Neste artigo, três desses recursos visuais serão apresentados, detalhando-se sua importância para estimular a sinalização e a aprendizagem dessa língua, assim como o processo de produção e a aplicabilidade em sala de aula.

In this paper it is shown that parallel concordancing represents an efficient means of explicating the grammaticalization level of linguistic forms. One progressive form in Norwegian and the progressive in Spanish are found to be translationally equivalent in some contexts but not in others. In addition, the degree of overlap of the two constructions is seen to vary with the direction of the translation, i.e. the Norwegian progressive is more often translated by a Spanish progressive than vice versa. These results correspond neatly to the part of grammaticalization theory which emphasizes the relation between the general meaning of a form, the widening of distribution and the increase in frequency.; The general meaning of the Spanish progressive gives it a wider distribution and a higher frequency than the Norwegian progressive. Corresponding results are also found in a test case comparing the Norwegian and the English progressives. Parallel concordancing thus strengthens the claim based on monolingual studies that this Norwegian progressive is partially but not totally grammaticalized. The parallel concordancing method has the additional advantage that the contexts determining when the forms are translationally equivalent can be read off directly from the concordances.

Koalib is a Kordofanian language traditionally spoken in South Kordofan (Sudan). This paper, based on first-hand data, is the first in-depth study of the morphology of imperatives in this language. Section 1 introduces the language and the structure of the paper. Section 2 provides the reader with basic facts about Koalib grammar in order to enable them to better follow what comes next. Then, Section 3 deals in detail with the main characteristics of standard imperative morphology, including both positive and negative polarity. Section 4 investigates specific types of imperatives: imperatives in (i) reported speech, (ii) attenuated and (iii) intensive imperative paradigms, as well as (iv) imperatives of irregular verbs. Section 5 takes stock of forms semantically related to imperatives, namely jussive constructions and commands addressed to animals. The conclusion emphasizes the particular typological interest of Koalib imperatives.

This study investigates the phonological pattern of Sherpa, a Bodic language of the Tibeto-Burman family, spoken in Sikkim and North Bengal, India.  It provides a foundational resource for the phonological study of Sherpa in India, supporting the broader goal of documenting and preserving this endangered language.

Digor and Iron are the two dialects of Ossetic language (Iranian < Indo-European) that have a standard variety. Unlike standard Iron, segmental and suprasegmental features of which have been subject to instrumental analysis in several recent works, descriptions of standard Digor phonetics are very limited. Present study is aimed at filling this lacuna by determining the quantity and quality of Digor vowels. 
Among other conclusions, the differences in vowel length were proven to be statistically significant for the pairs a–ɜ, o–u, e–i. Quantity was, in agreement with earlier studies, found to be a better cue for i–e and u–o oppositions than F1, a natural correlate of vowel closeness.

Abstract:  This study conducts a comparative linguistic analysis of discourse markers (DMs) and cohesive devices in Burmese, a Sino-Tibetan, topic-prominent language, and English, an Indo-European, subject-prominent language, to explore their forms, functions, and cultural influences. Using a mixed-methods approach, including corpus-based analysis of spoken and written texts (50,000 words per language), the study identifies English DMs (e.g., “so,” “well,” “you know”) as syntactically flexible and explicit, contrasting with Burmese’s clause-final, multifunctional particles (e.g., pwe for causality, la for softening). Cohesive devices in English rely on pronouns, conjunctions, and synonyms, while Burmese employs zero anaphora, repetition, and particle-based conjunction, reflecting its high-context communication. Findings highlight typological differences—topic-prominence in Burmese versus subject-prominence in English—and cultural norms, such as Burmese indirectness versus English clarity. Quantitative analysis reveals higher DM frequency in English (15–20 per 1,000 words) than Burmese (8–12 per 1,000 words) and greater pronoun use in English (10% of words) versus Burmese (2%). The study refines discourse and cohesion frameworks (e.g., Schiffrin, 1987; Halliday & Hasan, 1976) for cross-linguistic applicability, offering implications for linguistic theory, bilingual education, translation, and computational linguistics. It addresses gaps in Burmese research, providing a foundation for future studies on understudied languages and cross-cultural communication.

Koalib is a Kordofanian language (Heibanian family) spoken by ca. 100,000 people living in or coming from the areas of Abri, Delami, Tongole, Umm Heitan, Umm Berembeita and Djebel Nyukur, in the northeastern part of the Nuba Mountains (Southern Kordofan, Sudan; see MAP 1). As happens in many other Niger-Congo languages, verb extensions are a key element of Koalib verb morphology. Indeed, out of a total of 2,397 verbs registered in our Koalib dictionary (Quint & Ali Karmal Koko, forthcoming), 406 at most are underived verbs, while the rest, i.e., 1,991 items or 83% of the total, are extended verbs. At least 10 different extensions are attested in contemporary Koalib. To this day, only two publications are available about Koalib verb extensions, namely Stevenson (1956/57: 29), which gives examples of some extensions, and Quint (2010), which focuses on applicatives (benefactives and malefactives).
The purpose of this chapter is to provide a general overview of verb
extensions in Koalib. Its contents are organized as follows. In SECTION 2, the different verb extensions are scrutinized regarding their main characteristics (segmental and tonal morphology, valency, productivity, phonological constraints, semantics and borrowed verbs). In SECTION 3, the question of the boundaries between basic and extended verbs is tackled, with particular attention being paid to the case of frequentative and pluractional verbs. In SECTION 4, a brief comparative insight is provided, in order to allow the reader to situate Koalib verb extensions with respect to other Heibanian and Kordofanian languages. SECTION 5 summarizes the main points developed in this chapter and makes suggestions for further research.

This paper aims to discuss the methodological considerations in language description with Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen. It is a dialogic reflection on effective procedures and approaches that have been deployed by the interviewer and interviewee in their practice in language description. The discussion draws on the architecture of language outlined in systemic functional linguistics (SFL) to provide guidelines on ensuring comprehensiveness and reliability in language description. Some of the topics examined include the goals of language description in SFL, the use of theory as a guiding grid in language description, the effective way of structuring a grammar, common mistakes in language description and the role of register in sampling texts for language description. This paper provides insights for both novice and expert grammarians in the pedagogy of descriptive linguistics.

Este trabajo se enfoca en el uso de la expresión «en pisse» entre los locutores del nouchi, utilizando método tanto descriptivo como explicativo. Su objetivo es resaltar los fundamentos lingüísticos de la expresión «en pisse» y describir los procedimientos de su construcción sintáctica. Hemos llegado a las conclusiones que la expresión «en pisse» ha sufrido modificaciones a nivel fonético y morfológico para adaptarse al nouchi. Además, los locutores utilizan esta expresión dentro de construcciones híbridas como lo señala esta frase «Il faut djôh en pisse».

qui apprennent le français commettent des fautes, en utilisant les déterminants ou les adjectifs possessifs provenant de l'influence de leur langue officielle (langue anglaise); celles-ci sont d'ordre morphosyntaxique. Cette communication est destinée à mettre en évidence certaines de ces fautes d'une part et à suggérer quelques mesures qui permettront à les résoudre d'autre part. Ceci dans l'espoir de contribuer à faciliter, et à progresser l'enseignement et l'apprentissage du français non seulement au Département de Langues Modernes et d'Etudes de Traduction mais aussi dans d'autres universités et des pays anglophones.

Documentary linguists aspiring to conduct socially responsible research find themselves immersed in a literature on ‘collaborative methods’ that does not address some of the most pressing interpersonal challenges that fieldworkers experience in their community relationships. As recent controversies about the nature of collaboration indicate, collaborative models embed assumptions about reciprocity, negotiation, and the meaning and moral valence of categories like ‘research,’ ‘language,’ and ‘documentation,’ which do not translate equally well across all communities. There is thus a need for a method flexible enough to respond to the complexity and diversity of what goes on in particular cross-cultural researchercommunity relationships. In this article, we encourage documentary linguists to consider the benefits of participant observation, a research method that is designed specifically to deal with the interpersonal nature of fieldwork in the human sciences. Because it ties knowledg...

La description des langues en danger est cruciale pour la typologie linguistique, comme source possible d'information sur des types de structures non attestés dans les langues préalablement décrites. Inversement, une bonne information sur l'état des connaissances en typologie est particulièrement utile aux linguistes qui décrivent des langues jusque là peu décrites, ce qui est le cas de la plupart des langues en danger. Toutefois, les typologues ne doivent pas perdre de vue qu'il y a un problème à mettre sur le même plan, dans la recherche de généralisations typologiques, des langues toujours bien vivantes et largement décrites, et d'autres dont l'unique description est impossible à vérifier ou à compléter. En outre, on ne peut pas travailler sur des langues moribondes comme sur des langues qui sont encore le moyen de communication usuel d'une communauté, et on peut avoir des doutes sur la représentativité des données recueillies dans ces conditions, surtout dans des domaines comme la syntaxe.

La description des langues en danger est cruciale pour la typologie linguistique, comme source possible d'information sur des types de structures non attestés dans les langues préalablement décrites. Inversement, une bonne information sur l'état des connaissances en typologie est particulièrement utile aux linguistes qui décrivent des langues jusque là peu décrites, ce qui est le cas de la plupart des langues en danger. Toutefois, les typologues ne doivent pas perdre de vue qu'il y a un problème à mettre sur le même plan, dans la recherche de généralisations typologiques, des langues toujours bien vivantes et largement décrites, et d'autres dont l'unique description est impossible à vérifier ou à compléter. En outre, on ne peut pas travailler sur des langues moribondes comme sur des langues qui sont encore le moyen de communication usuel d'une communauté, et on peut avoir des doutes sur la représentativité des données recueillies dans ces conditions, surtout dans des domaines comme la syntaxe.

This paper provides the readers with a comprehensive and systematized dataset containing names of healing plants and common plants with medicinal properties from the Abui context in Alor Island, Alor-Pantar Archipelago, Timor area, Southeast Indonesia. Abui is an endangered Papuan language spoken in the central sector of Alor (the name of the language is also the ethnonym of the local population). Our dataset includes the phytonyms in Abui, their scientific names, their English translations, the medicinal properties (actual or as perceived by the natives) of the related plants, and some synthetic notes on their usages and cultural significance among the local indigenous people. The dataset is relevant in that it collects not only a list of terms from a specialized lexicon of an endangered language, but also provides the readers with details on local traditional healing practices, medical properties, and cultural aspects for further analysis. Our operation of data collection and sharing is aimed at ideally associating methods and practices in Language Documentation with Ethno-Botany, History of Culture, History of Traditional Medicine, and Pharmacology. The paper aims also at being an encouragement to scholars working on these disciplines to broaden the horizons of studies in which Language Documentation and Medicine work together for the discovery of new solutions for human healthcare.

Key words: Abui, Healing Plants, Field Linguistics & Language Documentation

Cet article décrit la construction d'un dictionnaire électronique de noms issus de verbes du malgache (DEMA-NVS). Ces noms se composent de noms d'agent, de noms de profession, de noms de manière, de noms d'instrument, de noms d'action et de noms exprimant un état. Les structures morphologiques de ces derniers sont détaillées puis décrites à l'aide de transducteurs afin de construire une ressource destinée à des utilisations informatiquesun dictionnaire électronique. On discute dans cet article de la mise en oeuvre du dictionnaire, du dictionnaire électronique lui-même et de son évaluation en rapport avec sa couverture lexicale.

Nella prima parte di questo breve contributo dodici proverbi saho vengono presentati e tradotti, analizzandone anche i principali elementi grammaticali e la struttura testuale. Come indicato nelle sezioni “Source”, i proverbi sono stati raccolti in varie epoche e da diversi ...

In the present paper the reader will be walked through techniques of fieldwork which a researcher discovered as she was faced with a tone system of an unexpected type. This will be presented largely as a narrative, because in the area of discovery procedures no absolute instructions can be given, only examples and warnings. Here we will provide a few practical and theoretical tools to include in the all purpose toolbox that the fieldworker requires. I will narrate what I did when I encountered an emergent tone system in Nepal, unaware that such systems existed. Two main characteristics of the Tamang 1 language, which will be our topic, posed particular difficulties in description. (1) tone categories in Tamang are defined by bundles of laryngeal features, including pitch but also voice quality and mode of articulation, in particular the voicing of initial stops, with some trade-offs between realizations of these features, even in repetitions by a single speaker. (2) the domain of tone is the word, which commonly has more than one syllable, so that many syllables do not carry a tone of their own, but are part of a polysyllabic word that carries a single tone. For the descriptor, the characteristics mentioned reduce the functional weight of pitch per se in the phonology, so that at first hearing, Tamang may not "sound like" a tone language. More seriously, the trade-offs between elements (pitch, breathiness, and initial voicing) of the feature-bundles mean that we cannot arrive at a consistent phonetic transcription of any one of them from token to token.

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

deixis ad oculos et deixis à l'imaginaire à partir de l'étude des propriétés du champ perceptif des conversations médiatisées par ordinateur, qui n'est que partiellement partagé par les interlocuteurs. Prenant appui sur l'observation des pratiques du chat des locuteurs, nous montrons que la complexité du système locatif malgache permet de mieux caractériser l'orientation des locuteurs dans l'espace perceptif partagé.

Aspirated nasals are fairly common especially in the languages of the subcontinent. Their possibility in Urdu however is very ambiguous. Different authors present conflicting views on this. Lack of any previous acoustic analysis of this phenomenon in Urdu only makes this subject more ambiguous. This study is based on acoustic analysis of recordings made by native Urdu speakers. The results show that the possibility of aspirated nasals is very bleak except for the word medial /m/.

WORDS are the basic units of many subfields of language study, but this often relies on orthographic words in a text corpus or lexicon. Natural speech does not pause between words, and Haspelmath (2011:32) argues in an influential paper that there are "no good criteria for defining such a concept". Is he right? Are words just created when a language is written? This poster identifies several properties as diagnostic of word units: manipulable (in word games), isolable (as sentences on their own), expandable (by affixes or modifying words), can agree with other words (in sentences), and can be in paradigms with other words (in memory). Words are distinguishable from affixes by these properties as STAND-ALONE AFFIX-BEARERS, and sentences can be segmented into these. This implies that orthography developers represent these words, they do not create these words as new objects of a language. The poster concludes with some closing questions: which of the properties might be considered the most convincing, whether oral words are real to native speakers independently of seeing them written down, and the problem of ambivalent words that don't fit well here: particles or polysynthetic words.

This  article  describes  the  translation  process  of  a  game  designed  for  teaching  concepts  of spatial location through sign language, developed for children, and reports observations from its initial application with a group of deaf and hearing students. Named GIM (Inclusive Glossary of Mathematical Terms), the game was created by researchers from Universidade Lusófona (Portugal) in Portuguese Sign Language (Língua Gestual Portuguesa -LGP) and translated into Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) by researchers from UNICAMP. The results indicate that the  translation  process  required  an  in-depth  understanding  of  the  specificities  of  both  the written and sign languages used in the two countries. During the first application of the game, we  observed  that  both deaf  and  hearing  children  showed  interest  in  the  activity  of  locating animals.  However, reproducing  sentences  with  spatial  location  concepts was  engaging  only for the deaf children, suggesting distinct interactions between the two student groups.