I specialize in the documentation and description of Cameroonian languages. I'm also interested in language policy and planning as well as in mother-tongue education, my desire being that the work I do as a linguist should be of benefit to the target communities.
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members of the target community would make language documentation efforts more meaningful and beneficial to all involved, including the funding agencies. From a community linguist’s perspective, I propose that language documentation activities that seek to empower community members should
follow a community-based approach to identify the needs, request and allocate appropriate funds, and execute the project(s).
Papers by Pius W. Akumbu
of the numerous consumption verbs, namely the generic verbs ʒɨ́ ‘eat’
and ɲʉ́ ‘drink’, constitute a major source of metaphorical extensions outside the domain of ingestion. Setting out from a characterisation of the
basic meanings of these two lexical items as they emerge from their paradigmatic relations within the semantic field of alimentation processes, this paper explores the figurative usages of the two verbs and their underlying semantic motivations. Semantic extensions that radiate from eat can be subsumed under two closely related structural metaphors, i.e. appropriation of resources is eating and winning is eating. The first metaphor construes the acquisition and exploitation of non-food
items such as material possession as eating, while the second metaphor
casts the acquisition of immaterial advantage in the mould of eating.
Both metaphors have further entailments, i.e. the derivation of pleasure
from consumption of resources, the depletion of resources via consumption and the deprivation of a third party from access to these resources. Semantic extensions that radiate from drink can be accounted for in two structural metaphors, i.e. inhalation is drinking and absorption is
drinking. Remarkably, some metaphorical extensions of consumption
verbs attested in other African languages, such as extensions of eat for
sexual intercourse and for killing, and the extensions of drink for undergoing trouble and enduring painful experiences are absent in Babanki.
community (Babanki) members tend to be controlled more in a greeting context than the minority pastoral Fulɓe group members who moved only recently into the Babanki community. This leads us to reconsider the traditional understanding that a host group is more likely to dominate and influence new comers in situations of contact both in terms of language and culture. This study provides a new perspective to contact linguistics which has tended to
focus on contact induced change on grammatical systems (Siemund and Kintana 2008) while neglecting socio-cultural changes that might result from language contact. Although this is a classic situation of a study of language in contact, a critical discourse analysis of interactions will give greater insights into language and power relations during such cross ethnic linguistic interactions.
members of the target community would make language documentation efforts more meaningful and beneficial to all involved, including the funding agencies. From a community linguist’s perspective, I propose that language documentation activities that seek to empower community members should
follow a community-based approach to identify the needs, request and allocate appropriate funds, and execute the project(s).
of the numerous consumption verbs, namely the generic verbs ʒɨ́ ‘eat’
and ɲʉ́ ‘drink’, constitute a major source of metaphorical extensions outside the domain of ingestion. Setting out from a characterisation of the
basic meanings of these two lexical items as they emerge from their paradigmatic relations within the semantic field of alimentation processes, this paper explores the figurative usages of the two verbs and their underlying semantic motivations. Semantic extensions that radiate from eat can be subsumed under two closely related structural metaphors, i.e. appropriation of resources is eating and winning is eating. The first metaphor construes the acquisition and exploitation of non-food
items such as material possession as eating, while the second metaphor
casts the acquisition of immaterial advantage in the mould of eating.
Both metaphors have further entailments, i.e. the derivation of pleasure
from consumption of resources, the depletion of resources via consumption and the deprivation of a third party from access to these resources. Semantic extensions that radiate from drink can be accounted for in two structural metaphors, i.e. inhalation is drinking and absorption is
drinking. Remarkably, some metaphorical extensions of consumption
verbs attested in other African languages, such as extensions of eat for
sexual intercourse and for killing, and the extensions of drink for undergoing trouble and enduring painful experiences are absent in Babanki.
community (Babanki) members tend to be controlled more in a greeting context than the minority pastoral Fulɓe group members who moved only recently into the Babanki community. This leads us to reconsider the traditional understanding that a host group is more likely to dominate and influence new comers in situations of contact both in terms of language and culture. This study provides a new perspective to contact linguistics which has tended to
focus on contact induced change on grammatical systems (Siemund and Kintana 2008) while neglecting socio-cultural changes that might result from language contact. Although this is a classic situation of a study of language in contact, a critical discourse analysis of interactions will give greater insights into language and power relations during such cross ethnic linguistic interactions.