17.647, Review: African Langs/Morphology:Beaudoin-Lietz etal(2002)

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-17-647. Wed Mar 01 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.647, Review: African Langs/Morphology:Beaudoin-Lietz etal(2002)

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>
 
Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org) 
        Sheila Dooley, U of Arizona  
        Terry Langendoen, U of Arizona  

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Lindsay Butler <lindsay at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

What follows is a review or discussion note contributed to our 
Book Discussion Forum. We expect discussions to be informal and 
interactive; and the author of the book discussed is cordially 
invited to join in. If you are interested in leading a book 
discussion, look for books announced on LINGUIST as "available 
for review." Then contact Sheila Dooley at dooley at linguistlist.org. 

===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 21-Feb-2006
From: Margaret Dunham < madunham at club-internet.fr >
Subject: A Glossary of Terms for Bantu Verabl Categories 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:01:17
From: Margaret Dunham < madunham at club-internet.fr >
Subject: A Glossary of Terms for Bantu Verabl Categories 
 

AUTHORS: Beaudoin-Lietz, Christa; Nurse, Derek; Rose, Sarah
TITLE: A Glossary of Terms for Bantu Verbal Categories
SUBTITLE: With Special Emphasis on Tense and Aspect
SERIES: LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 55
PUBLISHER: Lincom GmbH
YEAR: 2002
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/13/13-2280.html 

Margaret Dunham, Laboratoire de Langues et Civilisations à Tradition 
Orale, CNRS, Villejuif, France

Noting the considerable diversity in the terms used to describe the 
verbal systems of Bantu languages, and given that each school tends 
to use its own vocabulary, the authors of this book set out to gather 
together the major definitions for terms relating to the said verbal 
systems, and when necessary, give their own. The bibliography is 
extensive and lists all the main general works on tense-aspect-mood 
systems as well as a large number of studies devoted to particular 
languages, from Meinhof (1899) to Nurse and Philippson (2003).

The book is organized as a glossary, with over 200 entries. The 
authors define words like tense or aspect, but also for example devote 
three pages to explaining the different elements that can make up the 
verb form. Many of the notions will already be familiar to most readers, 
such as 'clitic', but some are notions that have rarely, as far as I know, 
been applied to Bantu languages, such as the Guillaumian notions of 
ascending and descending time systems.

The definitions are mostly brief and concise, though they can run to 
several pages. All entries are cross-indexed.

Although the book is relatively short, 106 pages, it is remarkably 
complete. A reference book of this type was indeed lacking, and it is 
hoped that it will be used by increasing numbers of scholars of Bantu 
languages, thereby reducing the confusion that makes consulting 
works on varied languages extremely arduous.

There are a few minor typographical errors that I mention in the hopes 
that the authors will one day re-edit the book, including more 
extensive examples.

Page 25: in examples (i) and (ii) the verb root is glossed as 'see' 
instead of 'buy'.

Pages 40-41: there are examples from a language called Tumbuka on 
page 40 but Tumbuku on page 41. In the appendix, page 106, the 
language is referred to as Tumbuka.

On page 88, the authors list several languages which they say are not 
tonal today, ending with S10. They then proceed to give examples of 
lexical and grammatical tones, in S10.

In the bibliography, there are several mistaken references to Nurse 
and Philippson (2003) which was clearly supposed to come out 
earlier, by a different publisher.

REFERENCES

Meinhof, C. (1899-1900) Das Zeitwort in der Benga-Sprache. 
Zeitschrift für Afrikanische und Oceanische Sprachen 3:265-284.

Nurse, D. and G. Philippson (ed.) (2003) The Bantu Languages. 
London: Routledge. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Margaret Dunham carries out research in linguistics at the French 
National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). She recently 
published a monograph on Langi, a hitherto undocumented Bantu 
language spoken in Tanzania. She is currently documenting a closely 
related language, Nyilamba, in order to clarify certain areal typological 
features, certainly due in part to long contact with surrounding 
Cushitic languages.





-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-17-647