Chapter 15
Tail-head linkage in Upper Guinea Coast languages
The areal diffusion of pragmatic-syntactic structures (Baïnounk, Joola
and Creoles)
This paper draws attention to a phenomenon at the
intersection of pragmatics, discourse analysis and syntax known as tail-head
linkage (THL) in Baïnounk Gubëeher and other West African languages spoken
in Upper Guinea (Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Cabo Verde). THL is a discourse
feature common in narratives and procedural texts, whereby phrases or parts
of phrases are repeated in consecutive phrases to create discourse cohesion.
Largely absent from European languages, THL is common in languages of Papua,
Australia and the Amazon, but has not yet been described in depth for any
African or so-called Creole languages. However, these structures are well
attested in Atlantic languages spoken in the Casamance area and also in
various of the regional Portuguese based Creoles. As these languages are not
closely genetically related, THL is a good candidate for an areal feature.
Drawing on a corpus of transcribed texts in Baïnounk Gubëeher and Joola
Kujireray and Banjal as well as experimental data in those languages as well
as four varieties of Upper Guinea Creoles (Santo Antão, São Vicente,
Casamance, Bissau), the discursive function, frequency and the syntactic
strategies for the use of these structures are described and compared.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Definitions and hypotheses
- 1.2Multilingualism and language ecology in Casamance
- 1.3The ethnographic picture of the Upper Guinea Coast
- 2.Constructions: THL in Upper Guinea languages
- 2.1Plain tail-head linkage
- 2.2Formally marked tail-head linkage
- 2.3Mixed linkage
- 2.4Summary linkage
- 3.Discussion
- 3.1Distribution and functions of THL
- 3.2THL and speech styles
- 4.Conclusion and future research
-
Notes
-
Abbreviations
-
References
-
Appendix
References (55)
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