Article

Particles of concatenation and of reference in Amharic

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the author.

Abstract

Stimulated by Z. Harris's ‘Discourse analysis’ which raised the problem of continuing linguistic analysis in a particular connected discourse beyond the limits of a single sentence and by K. L. Pike's hints at the existence of a formal and semantic supra-sentence unit, such as the paragraph, American linguists produced some systematic and coherent descriptions of larger stretches of discourse, pointing towards certain grammatical, lexical, and stylistic relations reaching across sentence boundaries. Although most of these works deal with Amerindian languages, the method of analysis and the terminology they use can readily be applied to other languages, as was done, for instance in English, by V. Waterhouse in ‘Independent and dependent sentences’. This author draws a parallel between independent and dependent morphemes, phrases, and clauses on the one hand, and independent and dependent sentences, on the other, pointing out that ‘not all sentences are independent’ and that ‘there are in fact grammatical constructions which indicate that some sentences are dependent and therefore to be included in some larger linguistic form such as paragraph or discourse’.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.

... Cependant, ce travail ne sera pas le premier à s'intéresser à -mm et dämmo. En effet, -mm a été analysé comme marqueur d'insistance (Cohen, 1936 ;Leslau, 1995), de topique (Hetzron, 1973), de concaténation (Kapeliuk, 1978), de changement du topique dans le discours (Gasser 1983(Gasser , 1985, et encore de focus constrastif (Demeke & Meyer, 2007. Par contre la locution dämmo n'a pas attiré l'attention de beaucoup d'auteurs, certainement parce que les fonctions de celle-ci sont moindres et peut-être aussi plus facilement interprétables par rapport à -mm. ...
... L'originalité de ce travail est avant tout de mettre en parallèle deux éléments de la langue qui semblent être en concurrence dans certains contextes, au point où ils apparaissent comme interchangeables quand ils marquent le thème/topique ou focus de la phrase. Ainsi, sont-ils considérés comme marqueurs de topique contrastif, « topic shift » (Hertzon, 1973 ;Gasser, 1983Gasser, , 1985 ; ou encore comme coordonnateurs de phrase « concatenation » (Kapeliuk, 1978), « conjunctive coodinator » Metzing & Amsalu, 2009). ...
... La complexité de -mm, ne relève pas de sa présence ou son absence au sein de la négation grammaticale, mais parce qu'il peut être activé sur tout autre élément de la phrase, à tel (Cohen, 1936 ;Blejer, 1986 ;Leslau, 1995) avec les pronoms relatifs tels que man (qui), men (quoi), yet (où) etc..., n'est pas dû à -mm lui même, mais plutôt par le temps et l'aspect qui gouverne le verbe comme illustré dans le Tableau 18, ci-dessous : Une autre fonction de -mm est celle de marquer le changement de topique dans le discours (Hertzon, 1973 ;Michael Gasser, 1983Blejer, 1986 ;Bliese, 1988). L'exemple (46) est tiré de Gasser (1983 : 115) : Kapeliuk (1978Kapeliuk ( , 2001 : 75) pour sa part, pense que la fonction principale de -mm relève de la concaténation. Elle admet cependant que, de par son positionnement (suffixé au mot en début de phrase), le clitique peut être interpréter comme marqueur de topique. ...
Thesis
Full-text available
Les langues offrent une multitude d’éléments linguistiques pour organiser et délivrer les informations (Jisa, Reilly, Verhoeven, Baruch & Rosado, 2002). Il y a plusieurs manières d’exprimer en mot la représentation mentale des événements. Le locuteur, en fonction des outils linguistiques dont il dispose, choisit les formes qui lui apportent le plus de valeur communicative pour transmettre son message.Notre étude est centrée sur deux connecteurs de l’amharique, -mm et dämmo, qui sont abondants dans la langue, et dans la narration en particulier. Nous avons pour objectif d’examiner, dans une perspective développementale, comment les locuteurs les utilisent, et les fonctions que ces particules ont dans leurs narrations. Nous cherchons à distinguer les fonctions communicatives ou pragmatiques qui sont signalées dans l’énoncé au moyen de ces marques. Pour ce faire, nous avons constitué un corpus de soixante productions narratives d’enfants de groupes d’âges différents (5-6, 7-8 et 10-12 ans) et d’adultes locuteurs d’amharique. Nous avons utilisé le support imagé sans texte « Frog, where are you? » (Mayer, 1969) pour recueillir nos données. Ce matériel expérimental a déjà servi à de nombreuses études développementales dans plusieurs langues (Bamberg, 1987 ; Kail & Hickmann, 1992 ; Berman & Slobin, 1994 ; Kern 1997 ; Akinci, 1999 ; Strömqvist &Verhoeven 2003 ; Jisa, Chenu, Fekete & Omar, 2010 ; Fekete, 2011, Saïdi 2014 entre autres).Les résultats montrent que le clitique -mm et la locution dämmo, bien qu’ils soient tous les deux employés par tous les locuteurs, n’ont pas toujours la même portée selon le locuteur et varient en fonction de l’âge. dämmo, marque principalement le thème contrasté pour montrer la concomitance des événements. Il s’avère être plus maniable pour les enfants par rapport à –mm qui est beaucoup plus complexe, non seulement de par sa structure synthétique mais surtout parce qu’il est multiusage. –mm ancre l’information dans le contexte, il met en exergue le constituant sur lequel il opère.
... The morphemes -mma, -ss, and -mm in Amharic have been ascribed a function as topic markers (cf. Blejer 1986, Gasser 1983, Hetzron 1973, Kapeliuk 1978, Leslau 1995. From a synchronic point of view we disagree with Leslau's (1995) analysis of -mma as a combination of -mm 'TOP:N' and -a(a) 'TOP:E' 2 . ...
... In fact, these morphemes are referred to variously. Kapeliuk (1978) considers them to be particles of concatenation and reference. Hetzron (1973) refers to the morpheme -mm as a topic marker while Blejer (1986) refers to the same morpheme as a marker of both topic and focus. ...
Article
The paper examines the information structure of Amharic sentences with regard to topicalization. The morphemes -mma, -ss, and -mm in Amharic have been ascribed a function as topic markers (cf. Blejer 1986, Gasser 1983, Hetzron 1973, Kapeliuk 1978, Leslau 1995, etc.). From a synchronic point of view we disagree with Leslau's (1995) analysis of -mma as a combination of -mm 'TOP:N' and -a(a) 'TOP:E'(2). Further, we argue that only the morphemes mma and -ss can be considered topic markers while -mm is rather a focus marker Topics in Amharic are generally marked by fronting the constituent in question to the sentence-initial position. Those which are additionally marked by the morphemes -mma and -ss are contrastive, i.e., 'as for'-topics, while topics only marked by fronting are non-contrastive.
Article
Full-text available
This paper describes the meanings and use of utterance particle ʔɨnde in Amharic, in relation to the relevance theory of communication (Wilson & Sperber 1995). Relevance theory attempts to capture the notion of relevance in communicative situations through contextual effects. As Dobson (1974: 4) has defined the word "particle" is frequently used to describe different kinds of morphemes, otherwise it is hard to level words in various languages. The particle ʔɨnde is used to express surprise and a feeling of discontent, to ask confirmation, to oppose or warn somebody doing something wrong. Paralinguistic features such as intonation of the particle also plays an important role in conveying the attitude of the speaker. The particle ʔɨnde is frequently used interrogatively, but also used in declarative construction.
Article
Full-text available
ውስጥ ጥቂቶቹ ላይ ማለትም ለካ፣ እንዴ፣ እኮ እና ኧረ ላይ ትኩረት ያደረገ ሲሆን ዓላማውም ዘወትሯዊ (አውዳዊ) አጠቃቀማቸውን መግለጽና መተንተን ይሆናል 2 ። ቀደም ብለው የተጠኑ ጥናቶችን ትኵረት ስንመለከት በቋንቋ መዋቅሮችና ልዩ ልዩ ክፍሎች ላይ ያተኮረ በመሆኑና በንግግር ቅንጣች ዙሪያ ያሉ ሥራዎች በጣም ውስን በመሆናቸው በዚህ ጥናት የተወሰኑ የአማርኛ የንግግር ቅንጣቶችን ፕራግማቲካዊ ተግባራት ትንታኔ ለማየትና ለመተንተን ተሞክሯል። ምክንያቱም የንግግር ቅንጣቶች በንግግር ውስጥ ያላቸው ጠቀሜታ ከፍተኛ ሲሆን ካላቸው ቦታ መውጣታቸው ተናጋሪው በንግግሩ ሊያስተላልፍ ያሰበውን ቁልፍ ሃሳብ ለአድማጩ በተገቢው የመተላለፉን ተግባር ያስተጓጉላል። እነዚህን የንግግር ቅንጣቶች የምንተነትነው "የሪለቫንስ" ንድፈ ሐሳብን በመውሰድ ነው (ሰረበር እና ዊልሰን 1995)። በዚህ ንድፈ ሓሳብ መሠረት በንግግር ውስጥ ትክክለኛው የሃሳብ ልውውጥና ተግባቦት ተከናወነ የምንለው አድማጩ የተናጋሪውን ሥነ-ልሳናዊ ትርጉም መረዳቱን ብቻ ሳይሆን ከተናጋሪው የንግግር ሁኔታ በመነሳት ሃሳቡንና ሊያስተላልፍ የፈለገውን መልዕክት በትክክል ሲረዳው ነው። ጥናቱ የዲስኩር ትንተና ዘዴን የተከተለ ነው። መረጃዎች በቀጥታ ከተመራማሪው የእለት ተእለት ምልከታዎችና ከሁለተኛ ምንጮች ደግሞ ከመጽሐፍ ቅዱስ፣ ከተለያዩ መጽሐፎችና የጽሑፍ መረጃዎች፣ ከማኅበራዊ ሚዲያዎች፣ የመረጃ መረብ ወዘተ ለማሰባሰብ ተሞክሯል። እንደ ዶብሰን (1974) ሃሳብ የንግግር ቅንጣቶችን የዚህ የቃላት ክፍል ናቸው ለማለት ባይቻልም በተገኙበት የንግግር ሃሳብ አንፃር የንግግር ቅንጣት የሚያስተላልፉት ተግባዊ አጠቃቀም አላቸው። ለምሳሌ እንዴ በንግግር ውስጥ ሲገኝ አድናቆትን፣ ቅሬታን፣ ጥያቄን፣ ማረጋገጥን፣ ማስጠንቀቅን ለመግለጽ ይጠቅማል። በሌላ በኩል እኮ የሚለው ንዑስ ቃል ደግሞ በንግግር ውስጥ በመጠቀም የሃሳብን ማረጋገጫና ወይም ማፍረሻ፣ አጽንዖት ወይም ትኩረት መስጫ፣ ለማድነቅ ወይም ለማጣጣያ፣ ስውር መልዕክት ለማስተላለፊያና አጠይቆያዊ ሃሳብ ለማንፀባረቅ ይጠቅማል። ለካና ኧረ ደግሞ በአብዛኛው ንግግርን በአጽንዖት ለመግለጽ ይጠቅማሉ። በአጠቃላይ እነዚህ የንግግር ቅንጣቶች በአማርኛ ንግግር ውስጥ በተናጠል ወይም በቅንጅት በመጠቀም የተናጋሪውን የተለያዩ ስሜቶችን ፍላጎቶችን ለመግለጽ ይጠቅማሉ። ቁልፍ ቃላት [የንግግር ቅንጣቶች፣ እኮ ፣ እንዴ፣ ለካ፣ ኧረ]
Article
Full-text available
This paper describes the meanings and use of utterance particle ʔɨnde in Amharic, in relation to the relevance theory of communication (Wilson & Sperber 1995). Relevance theory attempts to capture the notion of relevance in communicative situations through contextual effects. As Dobson (1974: 4) has defined the word "particle" is frequently used to describe different kinds of morphemes, otherwise it is hard to level words in various languages. The particle ʔɨnde is used to express surprise and a feeling of discontent, to ask confirmation, to oppose or warn somebody doing something wrong. Paralinguistic features such as intonation of the particle also plays an important role in conveying the attitude of the speaker. The particle ʔɨnde is frequently used interrogatively, but also used in declarative construction.
Article
In this article we examine the enclitic -mm in Amharic and its claimed functions as topic marker and coordinative conjunction. The enclitic -mm has multiple translations into English, and would thus seem to constitute a multifunctional morpheme. In contrast to previous analyses, we argue that the several interpretations of enclitic -mm in discourse are due to different context-dependent readings of its single function, namely as contrastive focus marker.
Article
This paper presents a method for the analysis of connected speech (or writing).1 The method is formal, depending only on the occurrence of morphemes as distinguishable elements; it does not depend upon the analyst’s knowledge of the particular meaning of each morpheme. By the same token, the method does not give us any new information about the individual morphemic meanings that are being communicated in the discourse under investigation. But the fact that such new information is not obtained does not mean that we can discover nothing about the discourse but how the grammar of the language is exemplified within it. For even though we use formal procedures akin to those of descriptive linguistics, we can obtain new information about the particular text we are studying, information that goes beyond descriptive linguistics.
Article
In addition to the familiar outline organization of discourse in terms of coördination and subordination, some languages of Brazil and New Guinea (including Pidgin) have an overlay organization. It involves the near repetition of substantial stretches of speech in such a way that the repeated elements are placed in prominence. These languages also use repetition in ways that are distinguishable from overlay organization. The nature of overlays puts into a new context the question of reference in linguistic theory.
Tautological infinitive
  • Goldenberg
Signaux démarcatifs dans “La fillegazelle” conte berbère du Tazerwalt (Maroc)
  • P Galand-Pernet
The element -mm in the Amharic verbal system
  • Hetzron