Papers by Francis Egbokhare
Afrika und Übersee, Dec 15, 2023
We review Kießling's (2011) assessment of the emergence of hybrid adverbials from serial verb con... more We review Kießling's (2011) assessment of the emergence of hybrid adverbials from serial verb constructions in Isu of Bantoid and the Narrow Grassfield group of East Benue Congo. He posits two paths, preverbal and postverbal, that coverb elements follow as they abandon verbal properties pertaining to syntax, morphology, and tone. Our focus rests on whether this impressive array of grammatical change might reflect a particular system of semantic concepts. We contend that one lens through which to view such a system consists of a merger of Dixon's secondary concept types and Nuyts' hierarchy of categories conveying clausal modification. To support our contention, we apply the resulting system of semantic concepts to Isu preverbal hybrid adverbials, finding eight conceptual types oriented toward characterization of grammatical subject. Despite the highly tentative nature of this effort, results align with a similar range of conceptual types that occur as preverbs in West Benue Congo Yoruboid and Edoid, which have also grammaticalized from verbs.
Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America, May 15, 2024
We examine the interaction between viewpoint aspect and imperative mood in an under-described and... more We examine the interaction between viewpoint aspect and imperative mood in an under-described and endangered Edoid language of West Africa. In Emai, tone functions both lexically and grammatically. Verbs in citation form, including bisyllabic stems, are toneless. In declarative mood Emai distinguishes perfective from imperfective, with perfective assigning high tone to a verb and imperfective assigning low. Imperative mood takes perfective aspect, most clearly evident when an auxiliary or preverb precedes the verb or when the imperative is negated. In simpler imperatives, verb tone is low high. The low tone is conditioned by the juxtaposition of a subject phrase that shows a second person pronoun with high tone and a verb phrase whose initial syllable is high. Across phrasal constituents, consecutive high tones, as they would have appeared in simpler imperatives, are prohibited. It is the verb phrase initial high syllable that lowers.
The rise and fall of Serial Verb Constructions: Finale
Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus
This article concludes the special issue of Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics PLUS dedicated to ... more This article concludes the special issue of Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics PLUS dedicated to the diachrony of Serial Verb Constructions. The authors of the ten contributions included in the volume discuss the most important results of their studies and suggest the possible lines for future research.
Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus
We examine verbs in series as they relate to Dixon’s (1991, 2010) notion of secondary concepts. O... more We examine verbs in series as they relate to Dixon’s (1991, 2010) notion of secondary concepts. Our verb samples and their structures derive from an Edoid language of southern Nigeria. Emai shows asymmetrical and symmetrical serial verb constructions. However, our analytic concern is the differential realization of secondary concepts according to form class. Most verbs that realize secondary concepts appear in A-SVCs as a minor component. Some verbs that code secondary concepts shun serialization and generally take complements that are clausal, truncated, or obliquely marked gerundives. Other form classes expressing secondary concepts are preverb and particle. Members reveal a verb heritage that is either lexical or phrasal. Even a few nouns convey secondary concepts. Auxiliaries, while referencing secondary concepts, do not disclose a verb heritage. Secondary concepts in A-SVCs reveal an asymmetry as occupants of positions V1 or V2 in series. V1 manifests event and participant qual...
Introduction: Humanity and Disease Discourse
Springer eBooks, 2023
Chapter 11. Constraints constrained
Neglected Aspects of Motion-Event Description
2. On Emai ditransitive constructions
Studies in Ditransitive Constructions, 2010
17. Grammaticalization in Emai
Grammaticalization Scenarios from Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific, 2020
Aspectual and storyline tension in Emai’s (Edoid) narrative template*
We examine aspect usage in an aetiological narrative of southern Nigeria’s Emai people. This foll... more We examine aspect usage in an aetiological narrative of southern Nigeria’s Emai people. This follows a brief overview of Emai tonal and segmental aspectual categories. A privileged role emerges for the Past Perfect, as it codes the majority of main event line clauses. Nonetheless, a striking feature of main event line later stages is aspectual discontinuity. In the episode prior to story climax, which itself is expressed by Past Perfect, imperfect Continuous and Habitual along with clause repetition each code distinct main line happenings. Their occurrence alters narrative pace (Fleischman 1990), affecting the advance of information in contrasting modes of deceleration and acceleration, respectively. Their selective placement also identifies salient information moments preceding climax, thus shaping narrative peak structure.
La gestión del diseño en la empresa
La gestión del diseño en la empresa está dirigido a los empresarios y gestores de empresas que co... more La gestión del diseño en la empresa está dirigido a los empresarios y gestores de empresas que consideran que gestionar el diseño, utilizarlo de la forma más eficaz y al mÃnimo coste, son habilidades imprescindibles para el gerente que debe de conseguir la competitividad de su empresa en un mercado cada vez más globalizado. El libro es fruto de la experiencia profesional del autor como pionero en la promoción del diseño industrial como instrumento para aumentar la competitividad en la empresa, y como profesor universitario que ha impartido a lo largo de los últimos años cursos dirigidos a empresarios y directivos de empresa orientados a la realización de proyectos concretos de dirección y gestión del diseño.
Globalization and the future of African languages
Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America, Apr 27, 2023
Preverbs are positionally delimited grammatical forms that remain understudied. We examine their ... more Preverbs are positionally delimited grammatical forms that remain understudied. We examine their semantic classes in West Benue Congo (WBC) and its minor language Emai, which until recently was undocumented. Preverb classes in Emai display a subset of semantic categories identified in
Postverbal Qualifiers and Constraints on Contrastive Focus
De Gruyter eBooks, Apr 24, 2023
On the status of DO/SAY verbs with Emai ideophones
Anthropological Linguistics, 2002
Unification and Harmonization of Afenmai Languages: Issues and Challenges
Current Issues in Descriptive Linguistics and Digital Humanities
Deliver Tutorials in a
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A specific direction for typological inquiry is suggested by Talmy's (1991) proposal that languag... more A specific direction for typological inquiry is suggested by Talmy's (1991) proposal that languages fall into two basic types based on where they typically locate the schematic core or "upshot" of events of Motion, Change of State, Temporal Contour, Participant Correlation and Realization. Based on cross-language analyses, he hypothesizes that languages typically encode schematic core, the essential relating function in a clause, in either a main verb or a satellite (grammatical morpheme), as illustrated by prepositions in the satellite-framing language English, e.g. The ball rolled in, and She sang along, and verbs in the verb-framing language Spanish, e.g. salir 'to exit,' terminar 'to finish.' In Emai, a previously undocumented Benue-Congo language of southern Nigeria's Edoid family, schematic core is characteristically expressed across Talmy's (1991) domains by a main verb, e.g. foo 'finish,' chian 'become,' o 'enter, move-into,' or verbs in series, ba kun 'in vain.' However, Emai also expresses schematic core notions through postverbal particles with no obvious derivational relation to synchronic verb forms. In other words, Emai is not exclusively verb-framing; it manifests some properties of a satellite-framing language. In the following sections we take up the functions of Emai particles in Talmy's five domains. In the motion domain, Emai verbs encode the schematic core of an event. In addition to pure motion, they convey the directional path of a translational motion event. Forms like o 'to enter' and shan 'to move through' occur as the sole verb of a clause (la-b).
Emai's Presentational Copula Construction
In recent years, d1scuss1on of language endangennent has reflected a largely quantitative tum The... more In recent years, d1scuss1on of language endangennent has reflected a largely quantitative tum The popular press has fixated on number of remammg native speakers Academic circles have focused on the reduced number of s1tuat10nal contexts m whtch a language 1s spoken These come together ID the V 1tahty Index of the questlonnarre produced by the l.SA Committee on Endangered Languages and Thell" Preservation In a recent electroruc mad message, Nicholas Ostler {1996) identified what might be called the Quantitative Paradox
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Papers by Francis Egbokhare