32.425, FYI: Call for Book Chapters A Multidimensional Analysis of Reinforcers in African Languages

Thu Feb 4 09:10:11 UTC 2021

LINGUIST List: Vol-32-425. Thu Feb 04 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.425, FYI: Call for Book Chapters A Multidimensional Analysis of Reinforcers in African Languages

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Date: Thu, 04 Feb 2021 04:09:22
From: Gabriel Djomeni [djogadel at yahoo.fr]
Subject: Call for Book Chapters A Multidimensional Analysis of Reinforcers in African Languages

Editors : 
Djomeni Gabriel D, Faculty of Letters Social Sciences, University of Dschang
Kouankem Constantine, Higher Teacher Training College Bertoua, University of
Ngaoundéré

Dear colleagues, we are attempting to pull together an edited collection of
scholarly, academic, well-searched and profoundly-analysed chapters under a
book titled ‘A Multidimensional Analysis of Reinforcers in African Languages’.
We would therefore like to invite you to consider submitting a chapter.

Description:
The morpho-syntactic interplay in some African languages has so far helped to
capture most of the features those languages exhibit at the level of their
word forms and their internal distribution. However, we have noticed that
there is a morpheme in some of these languages that has not yet been examined
or has not yet attracted a large scholarly curiosity. In fact, what we call
Reinforcers (REINF) is very present in some of these languages, but has not
received a full academic attention yet. Hence, we have decided to focus on the
issue through a collection of chapters under the topic ‘A Multidimensional
Analysis of Reinforcers in African Languages’. 
Reinforcers have been addressed in some Romance and Germanic languages such as
Dutch, German, Catalan, Spanish, French, Italian and Icelandic (see Bernstein,
1997 for further details), where it is pointed out as an element that
strengthens the nature of an adverb or a demonstrative as the following data
(with the reinforcers in bold) exhibit:
a. den bar mannen
   the here man-the
“This man” [Swedish]
b. den dar bilen
   the there car-the
   “That car”
4) a. cette femme-ci
this woman- here [French]
“This woman”
b. questo libro qui [Italian]
       this book here
        “This book”

However, as pointed out above, though Kouankem (2012) has slightly covered the
issue in her Ph.D. thesis, we still believe that the topic should benefit a
fine grained analysis with regards to African languages. It might also seem
difficult for some linguists, who face some data in the said languages to get
a real picture of what we are expecting. This is why we provide the following
data with the reinforcers (REINF) in bold to guide them in their thinking. 
The analysis should be able to help capture how close and distant are
reinforcers in the languages in which they occur.

Mə̀dʉ̂mbὰ (Kouankem, 2012)     
a. bún      cə̂n   lì         
children these REINF      
“These children”  
b. kə̀ná       nə́nɛ́  yə̂n lì       
groundnuts cook this REINF     
“These boiled groundnuts”

Feʼéfeʼê (Djomeni)
   a. mōō    bě   lè
        child this REN
        ‘cet enfant-ci’
    b. ghen nsī   síì   li.
        go   sit   there  REN
    “ces arachides bouillies-ci”

We propose in this book to approach the use of reinforcers in African
languages from any linguistic background. We invite any researcher working on
African languages who will be interested in the topic to prepare an abstract
either in English or French and submit for the collection.
The analysis should be based on real and natural data and could also take a
comparative or typological approach. The discussion should also point out
where the reinforcer is compulsory and where it is not and why if it is the
case. Furthermore, it must account for the predictability of occurrence of
reinforcers in specific contexts. 
The chapters could address any of the following points which are not
exhaustive.
- The syntactic distribution of reinforcers 
- Reinforcers and the structure of a specific phrase
- Mophological properties of reinforcers
- Correlation betweenVowel Harmony and reinforcers 
- The syntax-pragmatic interrelations of reinforcers in African languages
- A semantic appraisal of reinforcers in African languages
- Reinforcers and grammaticalisation in African language, etc

Submission procedure
The languages of contributions are English and French.

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics
                     Morphology
                     Phonology
                     Semantics
                     Syntax

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LINGUIST List: Vol-32-425	
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