Academic Paper |
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| Title: | Semantic-pragmatic change in Bantu ‑no demonstrative forms |
| Author: | Steve Nicolle |
| Email: | click here to access email |
| Institution: | Africa International University |
| Linguistic Field: | Historical Linguistics; Semantics |
| Subject Language Family: | Narrow Bantu |
| Abstract: | Demonstrative forms consisting of a noun class concord plus a demonstrative root ‑no (or a phonologically very similar form) are found in a number of Bantu languages. The root *‑nó indicating proximity to the speaker has been reconstructed for Proto-Bantu, and in a survey of 99 Bantu languages almost all of the ‑no demonstrative forms indicate a closer degree of proximity to the speaker than any of the other demonstratives attested in each language. In this paper, I consider a range of additional meanings associated with ‑no demonstrative forms in various languages, and the loss (partial or complete) of spatial-deictic meaning. These changes are correlated with differences in semantic-pragmatic scope (from scope over an entity, through scope over a proposition, to scope over a larger discourse unit), and will be analysed as examples of different stages in a diachronic process. |
| Type: | Individual Paper |
| Status: | In Progress |
| Publication Info: | Africana Linguistica |
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