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Title:
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Cohesion through contrast: Discourse structure in Shaba Swahili/French conversations
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Author:
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Vincent De Rooij
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Homepage:
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http://users.fmg.uva.nl/vderooij/
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Degree Awarded:
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Universiteit van Amsterdam
, Institute of General Linguistics
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Degree Date:
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1996
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Discourse Analysis
Sociolinguistics
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Subject Language(s):
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French
Swahili
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Director(s):
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Johannes Fabian
Pieter Muysken
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Abstract:
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The dissertation deals with the question of whether and how the use of different linguistic varieties is involved in creating and strengthening cohesion in discourse. The material analyzed consists of Shaba Swahili/French conversations recorded during fieldwork in Shaba Province, Zaire (renamed Katanga Province, DR Congo). A detailed sequential analysis of the use of French discourse markers and nouns demonstrates that the distribution of French material in Shaba Swahili/French discourse is not random, but seems to be motivated by the need for cohesion in discourse. It is argued that the French material in mixed Shaba Swahili/French language use is more salient than the Shaba Swahili material. This heightened contrastive value of French elements leads to codeswitches from Shaba Swahili to French in places where cohesion between units of discourse and lexical items is encoded.
The chapters that deal with the distribution of discourse markers and codeswitched nouns are preceded with a sketch of Shaba Swahili, a partly creolized variety of East Coast Swahili, and by a description of the sociolinguistic situation of the Zairean Copperbelt.
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