32.426, FYI: Call for Book Chapters: A Multidimensional Analysis of Reinforcers in African Languages (updated)

Thu Feb 4 09:21:37 UTC 2021

LINGUIST List: Vol-32-426. Thu Feb 04 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.426, FYI: Call for Book Chapters: A Multidimensional Analysis of Reinforcers in African Languages (updated)

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Date: Thu, 04 Feb 2021 04:19:48
From: Gabriel Djomeni [djogadel at yahoo.fr]
Subject: Call for Book Chapters: A Multidimensional Analysis of Reinforcers in African Languages (updated)

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

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]
4) a. cette femme-ci
this woman- here [French]
“This woman”
b. questo libro qui [Italian]
       this book here
        “This book”

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”                      
Feʼéfeʼê (Djomeni) 
   a. mōō    bě   lè
        child this REINF
        ‘cet enfant-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
- Morphological properties of reinforcers
- Vowel 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.
Contributors are invited to send their abstract to
african.languagereinforcers at gmail.com
The abstract in English or French should not exceed 300 words. It should be
followed by 5 key words
Upon acceptance, contributors will be instructed on how to format the full
version of their proposal.
Important dates: Call for Abstract publication, January 30, 2021
Abstract submission deadline, April 9 2021
Abstract outcome June 9, 2021
Full chapter submission deadline October 9 2021
Return from Peer Review December 28, 2021
Return of proof-red version February 29 2021
Publication: October 2021

Linguistic Field(s): Phonology
                     Semantics
                     Syntax

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