This work is the first comprehensive description of Makalero, a language spoken by approximately 6,500 speakers in the Iliomar subdistrict, in the south-east of the Republic of East Timor. Makalero... Show moreThis work is the first comprehensive description of Makalero, a language spoken by approximately 6,500 speakers in the Iliomar subdistrict, in the south-east of the Republic of East Timor. Makalero has been classified as belonging to the Trans-New Guinea family, making it one of the westernmost Papuan languages. While it retains scattered derivational and inflectional processes, it is largely isolating in structure. Underlying the organisation of discourse at a very basic level is the rigid structure of the Makalero clause, which allows for the expression of two verbal arguments at most. A characteristic feature of this clause structure is the presence of two distinct, mutually exclusive argument positions within the verb phrase, the first of which is reserved for undergoers, while the second may express either undergoers, or location and manner information. The description brought forward in this dissertation is not couched in a particular theoretical framework, although insights from several linguistic theories are adduced to support the analysis. The appendices provide transcripts of several Makalero texts as well as a Makalero-English and an English-Makalero word list. Show less
This dissertation presents a comprehensive description of the grammar of Logba, one of the fourteen Ghana-Togo Mountain (GTM) languages spoken by approximately 7,500 speakers on the Southeastern... Show moreThis dissertation presents a comprehensive description of the grammar of Logba, one of the fourteen Ghana-Togo Mountain (GTM) languages spoken by approximately 7,500 speakers on the Southeastern frontier of the Ghana-Togo border. It is the outcome of fifteen months research in Logba speaking communities. The grammar covers phonology, morphology, syntax and aspects of pragmatics such as routine expressions, particles and interjections. The language displays three interconnected systems of nominal classification –prefix classes, singular plural pairings and agreement system. The interaction of external verb agreement and noun phrase internal agreement results in nine different agreement patterns. Other typologically interesting features of Logba accounted for include its two adpositional classes, verb serialisation with features marked only on the first verb, and the coding of topological relations in verbs. The influence of Ewe, the dominant lingua franca, on the grammar and lexicon as well as Logba’s differentiation from its presumed genetic relatives like Likpe and Lelemi are touched upon. A corpus of glossed and translated texts that was used as data sources as well as a trilingual wordlist are also included. The descriptor is of interest to specialists in African linguistics, linguistic typology as well as contact linguistics. Show less
