Alexander Andrason

University of Cape Town | UCT · Living Tongues Institutute for Endangered Languages (Salem, Oregon, USA)

This article studies the morpho-phonetic instability of interactives through the example of Gorwaa interjections. The analysis of 91 constructions demonstrates that, in Gorwaa, interjections are highly unstable: the number of idiolectal interjections is much larger than that of shared interjections, and the interjections of both sets form clusters...

Hunting gestures, i.e., gestures used to avoid scaring away prey or raising the attention of predators, are a central part of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle of many foragers. These gestures have been documented for several groups in Southern Africa. This article is dedicated to such gestures, specifically those used by the speakers of a moribund Eas...

The present essay is dedicated to the relationship between extreme multilingualism (or a polyglottal language repertoire) and queerness. The author employs an autoethnographic method and revisits a three-month period when he was fifteen years old, focusing on four languages (i.e., French, Arabic, German, and Polish) and a journey that took him acro...

The present article offers the first systematic scholarly analysis of ConKisses, i.e., a sub-class of conative animal calls (i.e., directives addressed to animals) that draw on speech kisses (i.e., sounds that are made with a kiss-like articulatory mechanism). The author examines the pragma-semantics, phonetics, and morphology of ConKisses in 50 la...

In this article, we studied the contribution of the current South African publishing ecosystem to the hierarchisation, elitism and monopolisation of knowledge production in social-justice studies, taking as an example the research area of gender-based violence (GBV). We examined the Sabinet database of articles published in South African journals o...

The present article studies the structure of the resultative stream (a part of the verbal system that hosts grams diachronically evolving along and synchronically modelled by means of the resultative path: resultative > perfect > perfective/past and resultative > stative > present) in the Fanakalo pidgin as compared to the lexifier Nguni languages...

This article studies the category of conative animal calls (CACs) in a Cushitic variety – Macha Oromo (Ethiopia). The authors analyze the function (pragma-semantics) and form (phonetics and morphology) of 52 CACs collected during fieldwork activities and conclude the following: the category of CACs in Macha Orono largely complies with the prototype...

This article demonstrates that the rule according to which perfective verbs are incompatible with the future auxiliary ‘be’ in West and East Slavonic languages is less strict than has been claimed in scholarship. In colloquial Polish and in less standard varieties of Upper and Lower Sorbian, as well as in Australian Russian, the ‘be’ auxiliary may...

A Living Grammar Sketch of Arusa Version 1.2

a typologically-based and prototype-driven approach to interjectionality, the authors test all emotive interjections previously collected in fieldwork in the Arusha region for their compliance with non-formal (semantic and pragmatic) and formal (phonological, morphological, and syntactic) properties associated with emotive interjections across lang...

The present article analyzes the meaning and form of onomatopoeias in Tjwao, a Khoe-Kwadi (Kalahari Khoe) language. Making use of a prototype approach to categorization, a corpus of 113 onomatopoeic lexemes were tested for their compliance with the semantic, phonetic, and morphological features associated with the prototype of onomatopoeias in scho...

This volume on grammaticalization focuses on new theoretical and methodological challenges underpinning language change. It provides new approaches and insights deepening our understanding of the cognitive, pragmatic, and socio-cultural mechanisms that trigger the formation and the change of grammars. In this volume, grammaticalization is dealt wit...

This article is dedicated to one of the less-researched flaws in the South African subsidy system (SASS), namely, the issue of doubly affiliated appointees. The authors review the case of an undisclosed organisational entity at a South African university, and analyse the role doubly affiliated appointees (specifically, extraordinary professors and...

The present auto-ethnographic article examines the compliance of an educational experiment implemented at Stellenbosch University (South Africa) with anarchist pedagogy. After describing this experiment, reflecting on it, and evaluating it within anarchist pedagogical theory, the authors conclude the following: overall, the teaching and learning mo...

The present article provides the first systematic analysis of the formal (phonetic and morphological) facet of interjections in Hadza. By using a prototype-driven approach to an interjective category and drawing on original evidence, the authors demonstrate that Hadza interjections closely comply with an interjective prototype. Hadza interjections...

The present article shifts the focus and burden of whistleblowing away from an individual to the collective and argues for the necessary incorporation of whistleblowing into an ethical infrastructure in institutions of higher education. The authors argue that institutions of higher learning should be understood as collective agents bestowed with et...

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.

The present article argues that Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs) in North-West Semitic (NWS) languages have emerged from clause fusion. The analysis of the synchronic profiles of SVCs in four of the oldest attested languages of this branch, i.e., Canaano-Akkadian, Ugaritic, Biblical Hebrew, and Biblical Aramaic, reveals an evolutionary path from le...

This is a brief introduction to the special issue of Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus. We present the concept of serial verb constructions (SVCs) conventionally understood as monoclausal sequences of verbs without any overt marker of coordination, subordination, or syntactic dependency. We then focus on the mechanisms at work in the evolutio...

The present study is dedicated to the emergence of an asymmetrical serial verb construction (SVC) with the verb wziąć in Polish. By making use of a dynamic prototype-driven approach to linguistic categorization and by reviewing the historical corpora that range from the first Old Polish texts in the 14th c. until the end of the New Polish period in...

The present article is dedicated to conative animal calls (CACs) in a Kalahari Khoe language, Tjwao. By using a prototype approach to categorization, the authors test the Tjwao CACs for their compliance with the prototype of CACs posited recently in scholarly literature. The authors conclude that Tjwao CACs largely conform to the pragma-semantic, p...

The present article is dedicated to the syntax, morphology, and phonetics of ideophones in Arusa Maasai. After examining the compliance of 69 ideophonic lexemes with the typologically driven prototype of an ideophone, the authors conclude that Arusa ideophones may range from canonical to non-canonical even within a single language module. When synt...

The present article offers the first principled assessment of the argument structure of emotive interjections from a cognitive, constructional, and prototype-driven perspective. The evidence demonstrates that, in Polish, emotive interjections are tied to argument-structure patterns – they form constructions with (experiencer, causer, recipient, pat...

This article offers a typologically-driven and corpus-based analysis of the historical present (HP) “active participle” qātēl in Biblical Aramaic. The authors argue that qātēl instantiates the HP category quite neatly and provide three main arguments. First, qātēl complies with the definition of a progredient/propulsive HP that emerges from crossli...

The present article examines the accuracy of the widespread opinion according to which Polish entirely lacks a word-initial phoneme or (allo)phone /ɨ/~[ɨ]. After reviewing seventeen nominal, adjectival, interjective, and ideophonic lexemes, the author concludes the following: the word-initial /ɨ/~[ɨ] is attested in Polish; however, it is peripheral...

The present paper examines a hypothetical correlation between language endangerment and the simplification of nominal and verbal inflections. After contrasting the complexities exhibited by two endangered languages (Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl and Wymysorys) with the complexities of their non-endangered predecessors (Older Nahuatl and Middle High Germ...

After decades of political, economic, and scientific efforts, humanity has not gotten any closer to global sustainability. With less than a decade to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) deadline of the 2030 Agenda, we show that global development agendas may be getting lost in translation, from their initial formulation to their final...

The rise and fall of serial verb constructions Special issue of Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics (SPIL) PLUS https://spilplus.journals.ac.za/pub Determining the origins of serial verbs is a strenuous task [... since for] no language family in the world do we have enough historical evidence to confidently trace the roots and the development of [...

This article analyses Biblical Aramaic (BA) performatives within a prototype approach. The authors demonstrate that BA performatives largely comply with the crosslinguistic prototype and its grammatical and extra-grammatical features. Crucially, although the two ‘tenses’ used, Suffix Conjugation (SC) and Active Participle (AP), exhibit similar freq...

This study examines the idiolect of Сашко – a hyper-multilingual global nomad whose language repertoire draws on forty languages, ten of which he speaks with native or native-like proficiency. By analyzing grammatical and lexical features typifying Сашко’s translanguaging practices (code-switches, code-borrowings, and code-mixes), as documented in...

Abstracct The present article expands our empirical and theoretical knowledge of conative animal calls (CACs) in the languages of the world. By drawing on canonical typology and prototype theory – and by contrasting the original evidence related to the category of CACs in Arusa Maasai with the evidence concerning CACs in other languages that is cur...

This study examines the idiolect of Сашко – a hyper-multilingual global nomad whose language repertoire draws on forty languages, ten of which he speaks with native or native-like proficiency. By analyzing grammatical and lexical features typifying Сашко’s translanguaging practices (code-switches, code-borrowings, and code-mixes), as documented in...

This article offers a holistic corpus-driven analysis of the lexical class of interjections in Canaano-Akkadian. The authors demonstrate that the interjective category contains at least seven members (ia, alik, amur, šime, annû, allû and šulma) of varying semantic (emotive, conative and phatic) and formal (primary and secondary) properties. The obs...

The present paper analyzes the category of interjections in Xhosa within a prototype approach. The evidence demonstrates the robustness and internal complexity of the interjectional category. Interjections ranges from canonical and asystematic to non-canonical and (relatively) systematic, with emotive primary interjections entertaining the highest...

The present paper discusses the issue of Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs) in Biblical Aramaic within the dynamic grammaticalization-based model of verbal serialization – a recent modification of a prototype-driven approach to SVCs used in linguistic typology. Having analyzed the entire corpus of Biblical Aramaic, the authors conclude the following:...

The present paper provides a systematic description of interjections in a moribund Eastern Kalahari Khoe language – Tjwao. After analysing original evidence within a prototype-driven approach, the authors conclude the following: (a) in Tjwao, the interjectional lexical class constitutes an internally diverse category confined between the canonical...

This article examines the lexical class of interjections in Biblical Aramaic through the framework of an interjectional prototype and its functional (semantic and pragmatic) and formal (phonetic, morphological, and syntactic) characteristics. The authors analyse eight interjectional lexemes or constructional patterns, attested in twenty-four uses,...

This article studies the compliance of Biblical Hebrew (BH) interjections with the formal prototype of interjections formulated in linguistic typology. The authors demonstrate that, globally, the lexical class of interjections in Biblical Hebrew exhibits a semi-canonical and thus semi-extra-systematic profile as far as its form is concerned. Locall...

Wymysorys is a minority language spoken in the town of Wilamowice in southern Poland. Even though Wymysorys is classified as a West-Germanic language, its phonetics, lexicon, and core grammar—morphology or syntax—exhibit various Slavonic characteristics. This chapter discusses phenomena related to V2 word order in Wymysorys. It is argued that Wymys...

This study examines the idiolect of Сашко – a hyper-multilingual global nomad whose language repertoire draws on forty languages, ten of which he speaks with native or native-like proficiency. By analyzing grammatical and lexical features typifying Сашко’s translanguaging practices (code-switches, code-borrowings, and code-mixes), as docu­mented in...

This paper examines the syntactic properties of interjections in isiXhosa and their compliance with the interjectional prototype and its extra-systematicity as postulated in linguistic typology. By reviewing nearly two thousand uses of interjections in the comic genre, the authors conclude the following: in its integrity, the category of interjecti...

The present paper analyzes the degree of the argumenthood or adjuncthood of elements licensed by the dative applicative (DA) construction in Arusa within a canonical approach to the argument-adjunct distinction. After testing DA elements for the various criteria and diagnostics associated with the typologically-driven prototype of arguments and adj...

This paper discusses the contribution of Prof. Marianna W. Visser to African linguistics. I present the academic and professional trajectory of Prof. Visser and her research achievements, focusing on publications in three branches of language science: formal linguistics (morpho-syntax and semantics), applied linguistics (language policy and multili...

The present article analyzes the polysemy of the element ti in Kituba from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, by applying the framework of dynamic semantic maps and waves. The qualitative and quantitative corpus study, enhanced by evidence provided by Kituba native speakers, demonstrates the following: although ti spans most parts of the typ...

The literature on data and economic rights is not vast. This is primarily because rights advocates and researchers have paid more attention to the relationship between data and privacy than between data and economic rights. In this paper we review the literature that is available with an inevitable overreliance of certain contributions because of t...

Czas złożony z formą BE w języku Xhosa (Nguni, Bantu) jako szeregowa konstrukcja czasownikowaW artykule przestawiono kognitywną analizę statusu taksonomicznego konstrukcji BE w języku Xhosa (Nguni, Bantu) w ramach typologicznej teorii czasowników szeregowych (serial verb construction). Porównanie omawianej konstrukcji z prototypem czasowników szere...

Developed within the cross-linguistic framework of meteorological constructions formulated by Eriksen, Kittilä and Kolehmainen, the present article reviews and analyses manners of the encoding of precipitation events in isiXhosa (S 41). These include expressions of rain, hail, sleet, and snow. Overall, the evidence provided corroborates various syn...

This snippet contributes to the study of less canonical Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs) of a multiclausal consecutive origin. The author demonstrates that the BUYA gram in isiXhosa constitutes an example of a pseudo-consecutive non-canonical SVC. Although BUYA complies with most features postulated for the prototype of a SVC, it also exhibits form...

This article analyzes the categorial status of the wziąć gram – a construction that is composed of two consecutive inflected verbs: the minor verb wziąć ‘lit. take’ (V 1 ) and a major verb (V 2 ) – within the radial network of serial verb constructions (SVC). After comparing the wziąć gram with properties associated with the prototype of a SVC and...

This study analyses the complex behavioral profile of Biblical Hebrew constructions that are formally characterized by the schematic sequence: wayhî + temporal expression (T) + a wayyiqtol or qatal clause within the corpus of Genesis-2 Chronicles. More specifically, this schema entails the following construction types: 1) wayhî + T + wayyiqtol, 2)...

The present paper offers a comprehensive description of M[eteorological] constructions in Polish and their analysis within a typological framework formulated by Eriksen, Kittilä and Kolehmainen. The article demonstrates the utility of that framework (both with respect to its morpho‐syntactic and semantic distinctions) and corroborates various of it...

The present paper discusses the problem of the classification of Amorite within the Semitic family. After testing the Amorite corpus of personal names and toponyms for the presence of sixty features that have been proposed as characteristic of the Central, Northwest and East Semitic branches- A nd viewed as necessary conditions for establishing the...

The present paper studies the PÓJŚĆ gram in Polish – a construction composed of the verb pójść ‘walk’ and another inflected verb. The author demonstrates that the PÓJŚĆ can be represented as a set of stages on the path linking bi-clausality/bi-verbiness and mono-clausal/mono-verbiness. Specifically, it spans the section ranging from a non-canonical...

The authors argue that the synchronic variation of cognate objects of weather verbs exhibited in six African languages of South Africa (Sepedi, Sesotho, Tshivenda, isiXhosa, Xitsonga, and isiZulu) has a diachronic explanation, and may be represented as a grammaticalization path. This path gradually leads from prototypical cognate objects that disal...

The present paper analyzes the exoticness of Khoekhoe-sourced ideophones as a possible factor that stimulated the introduction of certain phonological novelties to the sound system of Xhosa. Having analyzed Khoekhoe-sourced ideophones of Xhosa for five exotic features postulated crosslinguistically (aberrant sounds and configurations of sounds, len...

The present paper offers an analysis of the TAM semantics of the HĨ and the HA gram(matical construction)s in Tjwao within the cognitive and grammaticalization-based model of dynamic maps and streams. The authors show that, albeit similar, the ranges of meanings of the two grams differ. The grams share the senses of experiential present perfect, de...

This paper examines the categorial status of applied elements in Xhosa with respect to their argumenthood or adjuncthood. By analyzing the response of nominal and locative applied elements to various criteria and diagnostics and by adopting the hypothesis of a scalar distinction between arguments and adjuncts, the author proposes the following: The...

Developed within the frame of cognitive linguistics, this paper argues that the entire syntactic and semantic profile of the EK gram can be unified and viewed as coherent by modeling it as a map of different but related features. This understanding gives access both to the extreme variability of the EK form and to its internal cohesion, without equ...

Developed within the frame of cognitive and typological linguistics, the present study examines the taxonomical status of the lexemes i and z in Polish. To achieve this aim, the author analyzes the compliance of the two forms with the prototype of coordinate-hood and the structure of their maps of polyfunctionality. The evidence demonstrates that i...

Developed within the frames of cognitive linguistics and grammaticalisation theory, the present study analyses the relationship between the performative function in isiXhosa and its grammatical encoding in terms of tense and aspect. The evidence demonstrates that isiXhosa conforms to the cross-linguistically pervasive pattern relating performatives...

The present note discusses the problem of a paradigmatic present-future form in the Amorite language. By employing the continuum model of language evolution and dialectal classification and using the comparative, typological and empirical evidence, the authors conclude that Amorite must have had a systematic category with the meaning of a dynamic p...

The present paper studies the semantics of the so-called perfective (PFV) form in Arusa (Maasai), using the model of the dynamic (one- and two-dimensional) semantic maps. The analysis demonstrates that PFV is a broad, semi-advanced resultative-path gram. It spans large sections of the two sub-paths of the resultative path: the anterior path (presen...

This paper discusses the phenomenon of L(eft) D(islocation) in Arusa-a southern variety of Maasai-and, in particular, the presence of resumption in LD constructions. With respect to resumption, Arusa allows for two types of LD. In most cases, a non-resumptive type of LD is used. This variant is obligatory if a possible resumptive element refers to...

The present paper studies issues related to the existence (or the absence) of the YQTL-Ø “preterite” form in Ugaritic epic poetry, and determines which of the two well-entrenched positions found currently in scholarship – i.e., the pro YQTL-Ø and the contra YQTL-Ø model – is more plausible. By examining the existing literature and various pieces of...

This paper demonstrates that by applying Chaos Theory to the modelling of the evolution of verbal forms and verbal systems, it is possible to view classical grammaticalization paths as universal, and align this deterministic assumption with the unpredictability of concrete grammatical developments. The author argues that such an explanation is poss...

This paper studies the complexity of L(eft) D(islocation). It demonstrates that the function that is crosslinguistically associated with LD is conveyed in Arabic by a set of LD constructions. In the analyzed corpus, these constructions belong to two main types: Clitic LD and Subject LD. Some LD constructions formally and/or functionally overlap wit...

The present paper analyzes the use of resumption in LD constructions in Polish. The evidence indicates that, in various cases, resumption is not obligatory in Polish. In fact, Polish LD constructions omit resumptive elements more often than they employ them. The absence of resumption is a part of a more a general phenomenon in Polish – the gradient...

This paper demonstrates that the status of Clitic LD in Xhosa is a result of the mosaic evolution of Xhosa grammar. It emerges as an accumulation and combination of two more individual, distinct and, at least, initially separated developments and characteristics – LD sensu stricto and Object Agreement. This view enables the authors to propose a pos...

This article describes and analyzes three situations of linguistic contact in the Ancient Near East, taking as its staring point three theoretical studies on contact languages which have been developed recently: the framework of mixed languages (Bakker and Matras, 2013; Meakins, 2013), the theory of written language contact (Johanson, 2013) and the...

This article designs a method of improving traditional, qualitative semantic maps based on grammaticalisation paths, by including both quantitative data (frequency) and information concerning a gram’s environment (the relation to the other maps). The incorporation of qualitative evidence transforms vectored maps into waves, while the introduction o...

This paper provides a dynamic (i.e. cognitive, typological and grammaticalization driven) analysis of short yiqtol in Biblical Hebrew. The author argues that short yiqtol can be understood as a coherent construction if it is modeled as a wave – a synchronic two-dimensional map whose components are related cognitively (as visualized by the x axis) a...

This paper offers a more socially nuanced approach to open data intermediaries using the theoretical framework of Bourdieu’s social model, particularly his species of capital. Secondary data on intermediaries from Emerging Impacts of Open Data in Developing Countries research was analysed according to a working definition of an open data intermedia...

Developed within the frame of cognitive and typological linguistics, the present study examines the taxonomical status of the lexemes i and z in Polish. To achieve this aim, the author analyzes the compliance of the two forms with the prototype of coordinate-hood and the structure of their maps of polyfunctionality. The evidence demonstrates that i...

The article analyzes synchronic properties and diachronic tendencies that characterize the case system of Vilamovicean (Wymysorys). The author studies the issue of morphological case in five word classes (nouns, pronouns, articles, numerals and adjectives), explains dynamics that couple them (e.g. analogical developments and borrowing from one para...

This article provides a detailed analysis of two innovative verbal tenses currently found in Vilamovicean (a Germanic language spoken in Poland): the so-called "new Future" or "Future III" and "new Conjunctive Perfect" or "Conjunctive Perfect III". The author discusses the morphosyntactic and semantic characteristics of the two grams, explains thei...

This paper demonstrates that by applying Chaos Theory to the modelling of the evolution of verbal forms and verbal systems, it is possible to view classical grammaticalization paths as universal, and align this deterministic assumption with the unpredictability of concrete grammatical developments. The author argues that such an explanation is poss...

This paper demonstrates that by applying Chaos Theory to the modeling of the evolution of verbal forms and verbal systems, it is possible to view classical grammaticalization paths as universal, and conceal this deterministic assumption with the unpredictability of concrete grammatical developments. The author argues that such an explanation is pos...

This article analyzes the relationship that exists between the qatal and wayyiqtol forms in Biblical Hebrew. It provides a twofold approach, based on complexity theory, fuzziology, cognitive linguistics and the theory of dynamic semantic maps, on the one hand, as well as on an original empirical study involving all the instances of the two grams in...

The present paper demonstrates that insights from the affordances perspective can contribute to developing a more comprehensive model of grammaticalization. The authors argue that the grammaticalization process is afforded differently depending on the values of three contributing parameters: the factor (schematized as a qualitative-quantitative map...

This paper demonstrates that by using the anterior path as a template, it is possible to order and elucidate a dominant portion of the semantic domain of the Biblical Hebrew qatal form (i.e., the perfect, perfective, and past senses) as consecutive developmental stages of the anterior path. It is also argued that the perfect values of the qatal sho...

This article analyzes the relationship that exists between the qatal and wayyiqtol forms in Biblical Hebrew. It provides a twofold approach, based on complexity theory, fuzziology, cognitive linguistics and the theory of dynamic semantic maps, on the one hand, as well as on an original empirical study involving all the instances of the two grams in...

The roles of intermediaries in open data is insufficiently explored; open data intermediaries are often presented as single and simple linkages between open data supply and use. This synthesis research paper offers a more socially nuanced approach to open data intermediaries using the theoretical framework of Bourdieu’s social model, in particular,...

Purpose: T he present study, divided into a series of two papers, provides a detailed empirical description and cognitive-grammaticalization analysis of the meaning of a Mandinka verbal expression compounded of the non-verbal predicator be ‘be’, a verbal noun expressing a given action and the postposition kaŋ ‘on, at’ (so-called the Nominal KAŊ for...