Case in Africa
Price:
$150.00 (06)Description
This book provides a typological overview of the different manifestations of grammaticalized case systems in African languages. After defining and distinguishing case systems, Christa Konig begins a thorough analysis of case in roughly 100 African languages and reveals several features, such as tone as a marker for case and the marked-nominative system, which are rare phenomena in other languages of the world. Wherever possible, the author takes into account data from her own substantial and highly regarded field research. The book provides answers to questions such as the following: What is the relationship between definiteness and case. Are case phenomena areally or genetically motivated? Why are case distinctions neutralized in nearly all case languages with verb initial or verb medial word order? Which grammaticalizations appear with case? What is the relationship between topics and nominative cases, or focus and accusative cases?Features
- The first general treatment of case structures in African languages
- Author defines all terms and consistently applies her given framework
- Includes clear and accessible maps of the languages discussed
Reviews
"Case in Africa is an essential reference for researchers of African languages and case studies. It is impossible for any linguist to have in-depth linguistic knowledge of more than only a few languages spoken in the world and yet this book makes it possible for researchers to gain access to languages which have been unknown to them before, and also to compare such languages in a valid manner with the languages with which they are well acquainted. The implication of a publication such as this is therefore enormous, because it has a ripple effect in a variety of other areas of comparative language studies.--Journal of Word Structure
About the Author(s)
Christa Konig is a Lecturer in African cultures and languages at the Centre for African Studies, University of Frankfurt. She has taught at the universities of Cologne, Zurich, and Gwangjuk (Korea), and has carried out field research in East Africa and Namibia; she is presently working on the Khoisan language !Xun. Her book publications include Aspekt in Maa (1994) and Kasus im Ik (2002).
