Tigrinya is one of the Afro Semitic languages, traditionally classified as North Ethiopic, and spoken in Eritrean and Northern Ethiopia. In this work Tigrinya negation particles were investigated and analyzed. with the main aim to emphasise distribution of negation particles in different word classes in the language. It is designed to provide some analysis of how the North Afro Semitic languages are related, with some descriptions about how they have different distribution of negation forms. Some linguistic ideas in using Tigrinya negation by comparing it with its sister languages are also given.
This volume brings together six case studies of an adult multilingual speaker who acquires a new language through social interaction. The book deals especially with the multilingual situation, the learner’s acquisitional activities, and the involvement of her background languages in the process of speaking. It offers a coherent study of various linguistic phenomena in one individual, including patterns and functions of language switching, word search in interaction, hypothetical construction of words, and articulatory settings in speaking. The main languages involved are English (L1), German (L2) and Swedish (L3). The activation of these languages in the learner’s speech is examined in a cognitive perspective in relation to current models of the speaking process. A longitudinal corpus of NNS–NS conversations covering 21 months from the beginner stage provides the main data for these studies.
Data from four little-studied varieties of Indo-Aryan (Southern Palula, Northern Palula, Sawi and Kalkoti) spoken in the Hindu Kush is analyzed and discussed from a historical-comparative perspective. Evidence is presented showing that Kalkoti, until recently only tentatively classified, is part of this particular cluster of closely-related Shina varieties. An attempt is made at reconstructing some phonological and grammatical features of a common source speech, here named Proto-Dangari, and the order in which the present-day varieties may have split off. An important conclusion drawn is that Southern and Northern Palula probably are more distantly related than present-day similarities seem to indicate, the high degree of synchronic similarity instead being due to relatively recent convergence taking place in southern Chitral. It is hypothesized that the present speech communities are the result of two different westward routes of migration, one geographically linking Southern Palula (Ashreti) and Sawi with Chilas, the other linking Northern Palula (Biori) and Kalkoti with Tangir, both located in the same general area of the main Indus Valley.
Denna uppsats behandlar förekomsten av den optionella subjunktionen som i svenska objektsrelativsatser. Sökningar gjordes i en svenskspråkig korpus för att hitta objektsrelativsatser med och utan som. Resultaten undersöktes mot bakgrund av två hypoteser gällande processningseffektivitet och tillgänglighet hos referenter. I båda fallen styrktes dessa hypoteser. Som tycks vara mer frekvent i relativsatser där många ord skiljer matrissatsens korrelat från relativsatsens finita verb vilket stödjer principen Maximize On-line Processing som formulerats av Hawkins och som grundar sig i teorier kring processningseffektivitet. Som tycktes också vara mer frekvent i relativsatser där det inbäddade subjektet var i hög grad tillgängligt, i fråga om pronominell och animat status hos referenten.
ATR, advanced tongue root, is a phonological feature among vowels. As vowels assimilate to share the same value of that feature, they display ATR harmony. This is a common phenomenon among many African languages. ATR harmony is examined in this paper as manifested across morpheme boundaries wihin nouns in a Surmic language of Ethiopia called Bale. The data presented was collected at a workshop on ATR harmony held by SIL International in Mizan Teferi, Ethiopia, 2009. The vowel system in Bale displays a nine vowel inventory with a feature dominance of [+ATR] vowels which spread their feature both leftward and rightward to recessive [–ATR] vowels. The [+ATR] dominance is also present as a floating feature without any phonological material. The vowel /a/ is analysed as a neutral vowel, co-occuring with both [+ATR] and [–ATR] vowels within roots.
I en studie som kan vara den första i Sverige i sitt slag har vuxna testpersoner med och utan synnedsättning fått lyssna till texter som lästs upp med antingen unit selection-syntesen Folke eller en mänsklig röst. Genom förståelsefrågor till varje text har det undersökts om en syntetisk uppläsning av sammanhängande text ger en sämre förståelse än en mänsklig uppläsning. Genom testet har också faktorer som ansträngning samt korrelation med längd, svårighetsgrad och vana av syntetiskt tal undersökts. Testet visar att för relativt enkla texter som inte är längre än ca 700 ord eller inte har en uppläsningstid på mer än ca fem minuter så ger en syntetisk uppläsning inte någon påvisbar försämring i förståelse. Resultat och analys visar dock att det vid längre texter än så kan finnas en skillnad i förståelse mellan de två uppläsningssätten samt att det kan finnas en korrelation med textens längd och svårighetsgrad. Testpersonernas subjektiva uppfattning och det kvantitativa resultatet visar också delvis att syntetiska uppläsningar är mer ansträngande än mänskliga. Dock behöver ytterligare studier genomföras för att bekräfta en försämrad förståelse och större ansträngning.
This paper argues that there is a finiteness distinction in Hdi and that the notion is of value for a description of the language. The definition of finiteness suitable for the language has been suggested to be the one given by Anderson (2007) combined with Bisang (2007). The finite clauses are argued to be the pragmatically independent ones while the non-finite clauses are argued to be the pragmatically dependent. However, no morphological reductions were found in the non-finite clauses relative to the finite ones. What is more, negation in Hdi shows a nontypical behaviour regarding finiteness properties as there are aspectual distinctions made for dependent clauses that are not made for independent. Verbless clauses and imperatives may be viewed as finite and non-finite depending on their capacity to licence independent predication or, alternatively, they may be viewed as not displaying finiteness properties at all. The latter is argued to be preferred in order to avoid a redundant definition of finiteness.