An Introduction to African Languages
G. Tucker Childs
[Not in series, 121] 2003. xx, 265 pp. (incl. CD-Rom)
G. Tucker Childs
List of John Benjamins publications for which G. Tucker Childs plays a role.
Title
Subjects Afro-Asiatic languages | Electronic/Multimedia Products | Other African languages | Theoretical linguistics | Typology
Articles
2019 Chapter 12. Ideophones as a measure of multilingualism* Ideophones, Mimetics and Expressives, Akita, Kimi and Prashant Pardeshi (eds.), pp. 303–322 | Chapter
The purpose of the pilot research described here was twofold. The first was to develop a measure for multilingualism, how to characterize what has come to be known in the literature as a linguistic repertoire in a rapid and economical manner. A linguistic repertoire is not a language but the… read more
2018 Chapter 5. Forty-plus years before the mast: My experiences as a field linguist Word Hunters: Field linguists on fieldwork, Sarvasy, Hannah and Diana Forker (eds.), pp. 61–78 | Chapter
2014 Constraints on violating constraints: How languages reconcile the twin dicta of “Be different” and “Be recognizably language” Ideophones: Between Grammar and Poetry, Lahti, Katherine, Rusty Barrett and Anthony K. Webster (eds.), pp. 341–354 | Article
This paper examines the contradictory demands of using language expressively and still qualifying as language, proposing a functional explanation for the form of words in a linguistic word category. Being expressive requires expending more energy, emitting a more robust signal to convey additional… read more
2008 Review of Voeltz (2005): Studies in African Linguistic Typology Studies in Language 32:4, pp. 917–926 | Review
2001 Research on ideophones, whither hence? The need for a social theory of ideophones Ideophones, Voeltz, F.K. Erhard and Christa Kilian-Hatz (eds.), pp. 63–73 | Article
1997 The status of Isicamtho, an Nguni-based urban variety of Soweto The Structure and Status of Pidgins and Creoles: Including selected papers from meetings of the Society for Pidgin and Creole linguistics, Spears, Arthur K. and Donald Winford (eds.), pp. 341 ff. | Article
1994 Expressiveness in Contact Situations: The Fate of African Ideophones Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 9:2, pp. 257–282 | Article
Typically not the focus of linguistic analysis, the expressive function nonetheless represents a core linguistic behavior. Throughout Africa, ideo-phones robustly manifest that function. When adult speakers learn and begin to use a second language, particularly in contact situations with limited L2… read more