A Study of the Reference Systems of the Chadic Languages: A Preliminary Typology
Alanna Van Antwerp
MA thesis directed by Professor Zygmunt Frajzyngier
ABSTRACT. This thesis examines the reference systems of the Chadic language group, with the goal of providing a preliminary typology of deixis, anaphora and the relationship between subject coding and discourse functions. The scope of this study includes eight Chadic languages: Hausa (Newman 2000), Miya (Schuh 1998) and Ron (Seibert 1997) from West Chadic, Gidar (Frajzyngier forthcoming), Hdi (Frajzyngier and Shay 2002) and Gude (Hoskison 1983) from Central Chadic, and East Dangla (Shay 1999) and Lele (Frajzyngier 2001) from East Chadic. Chapter 2, the typology of deixis, is restricted to Person deixis and the location of an object in space. This chapter examines the deictic function of 3rd person pronouns, the form and function of spatial demonstratives and the observable correlations in gender and number in the pronouns and demonstratives. Chapter 3, the typology of anaphora, is restricted to person and object anaphora. This chapter demonstrates the problem of "definiteness" in Chadic grammars, the varied and imprecise functions attributed to various anaphoric markers, the anaphoric role of pronouns, and the patterns and points of interest that are open to examination in the Chadic languages. Chapter 4, the relationship between subject coding and discourse functions, examines Hausa, Gidar, Lele and East Dangla from the perspective of Systems Interaction (Frajzyngier, forthcoming). This study finds that languages with fewer subject coding means are likely to code fewer functional distinctions in discourse. This chapter demonstrates that languages with fewer subject coding means will do one or more of the following: 1) use one combination of coding means to code more than one function; 2) employ additional non-subject markers to code discourse functions; or 3) code fewer functional distinctions than languages with a greater number of subject coding means.
Alanna Van Antwerp graduated in May 2003 with her MA in Linguistics. She is now in Mongolia serving in the Peace Corps.
Colorado Research in Linguistics - Volume 17, Issue 1 - June 2004
