Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Linguistics, June 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universität Leipzig, 1911. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. [46]).

This study deals with the cross-linguistic interpretation of aspect and tense in natural languages which have superficially disparate morphological structure. It is argued that in Yao, Chea (Bantu languages) and English, where aspect for instance, is not as systematically grarnmaticalized as it is in Slavic, the interpretation of aspect and tense must be one which construes them as theoretical (conceptual) categories. We assume essentially that both aspect and tense are characterized by temporal primitives which are often though riot invariably, denoted by morphological markers. "Verbal aspect" in Slavic for example, is effectively defined by the temporal stretch encoded in (or signalled by) a productive system of afuixal marking. The temporal stretch is characteristically completive, inceptive, resumptive, durative, continuative, punctual, iterative etc. These aspectual time schemata have affinities with those assumed by philosophers and linguists like Vendler (1957), Kenny (1963), Dowty (1977, 1979) and others for the classification of verbs and verb phrases. These in turn are similar to the time schemata encoded by such categories as adverbials and noun phrases. Accordingly, though Yao, Chea and English might not mark aspect morphologically in the manner common in Slavic, the specification of aspect is assured by the semantic content of VPs, ADVs etc., thus facilitating a cross-linguistic treatment of the category. Correspondingly, "tense", which is a deictic category and is largely morphologized in Yao and Chea is also best understood when we examine the temporal structure of whole utterances. We take tense to be a category orthogonal to aspectual concepts like continuity, habituality, inception, completion etc. and which specifies how these are related to each other, in terms of whether or not they are anterior or posterior to or simultaneous with the speech time of utterances in question (Cf. Reichenbach, 19147; and followers). Traditional and model-theoretic treatments of these concepts have inadequacies which manifest themselves in the form of such problems as the "imperfective paradOx" (Cf. Dowty, ibid), the "gaps problem" (Cf. Bennett, 1981), the problem of the lack of difference in truth conditions between the "simple past" and "perfect" utterances when it is clear that some (intuitively semantic) difference between them exists etc. It is suggested that these issues be resolved within pregmatics of the Gricean (1968, 1975 etc) type as recently extended by Sperber & Wilson (1982, forthcoming). On the interpretation of aspect and tense in Yao, Che'a and English then, this study takes the view that two factors are operative: semantic factors exemplified by the knowledge (or identification) of the time schemata encoded in morphological markers, words and constructions and the truth-conditional processing of the propositions thus expressed on the one hand, and pragmatic factors of their use (e.g. the "principle of relevance" of Sperber & Wilson, ibid.) which determine the choice of the appropriate construal of those utterances which are especially temporally indeterminate on the other.

Habilitationsschrift--Marburg. / Summary also in English. Bibliography: p. 179-185.

This study is concerned with the process of linguistic adoption, in particular the setting up of techniques that can be used to identify adopted material (adoptives) within Bantu languages and especially adoptives that result from the mutual interpenetration of Bantu languages. A model of identification has been set up principally by applying Guthrie's comparative techniques and results to Matengo (N13), a Bantu language spoken in Southern Tanzania. After a background description to the languages involved here and a brief treatment of some of the theories generally held on Lexical Borrowing, in which Swahili loans of non-Bantu provenance have mostly been employed, regular and irregular (skewed) reflexes of Common Bantu 'starred' forms in Matengo have been abstracted, and the skewed reflexes examined to determine whether or not the forms involved are loan suspects. When the irregular reflexes contain extraneous phonological features, whether segmental (Chapter 3) or tonal (Chapter 5), and especially if a possible source language for the skewing or extraneousness can be found, then our suspicion regarding loaning is strengthened. The languages employed in this study as examples of those from which Matengo might have adopted part of its Bantu material are Manda (N11) and Ngoni (N12), close linguistic associates of Matengo, and Standard Swahili (here distinguished from Ki-Unguja - G42d) which has had significant contact with Matengo. The identification methodology developed in this study has also been tested on material unrelated to Common Bantu (Chapter 4) and some putative adoptives of intra-Bantu source have been detected in such material. In this connection, only the segmental features have been taken into account, since the tonal typologies of Common Eastern Nyasa (*EN) have not been worked out.

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Ph.D. thesis. Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 1996

Résumé Les populations du nord du Gabon consomment 39 taxons de champignons. Pour mieux connaître les taxons consommés et collecter des informations sur leur écologie, une étude fondée sur les connaissances mycologiques traditionnelles de ces populations et des observations de terrain a été entreprise dans les provinces de l’Ogooué-Ivindo et du Woleu-Ntem situées dans le nord du pays. Au cours de cette étude basée sur une enquête ethnomycologique menée sur les axes routiers Makokou-Mékambo et Oyem-Minvoul, ainsi que dans les villages pygmées des environs, deux cents personnes dont les Pygmées Baka et Bakoya, et les Bantu Fang, Kota et Kwélé ont été interrogées (100 personnes par province visitée). Cette étude a permis non seulement d'établir la correspondance entre les noms scientifiques et les noms vernaculaires attribués aux champignons dans les cinq langues locales étudiées, mais aussi de recueillir d'autres informations liées aux connaissances mycologiques traditionnelles des populations enquêtées. Des descriptions macroscopiques et microscopiques détaillées ont été faites pour tous les taxons inventoriés. L’étude a également révélé qu’il existe des différences significatives tant en ce qui concerne le nombre de taxons que les quantités de champignons consommés par les différents groupes ethniques: les Pygmées vivant uniquement de la chasse et de la cueillette consomment 96% des taxons inventoriés et des quantités élevées de champignons (environ 3 kg / jour / famille). Les Bantu vivant à l’écart de ces derniers consomment également des quantités de champignons assez élevées (environ 2 kg / jour / famille) mais un nombre réduit de taxons (56% des taxons inventoriés pour les Fang; 69% pour les Kota; 39% pour les Kwélé). Par contre, les Bantu vivant à proximité des Pygmées connaissent et consomment un grand nombre de taxons (environ 90% des taxons inventoriés) mais mangent de plus faibles quantités de champignons que leurs congénères éloignés des Pygmées (environ 800 g / jour / famille). Plus généralement, l’étude a montré que les connaissances mycologiques traditionnelles de ces populations varient en fonction de l’activité pratiquée, de l’âge, de l’ethnie et du sexe. Les meilleures connaissances mycologiques sont détenues par les chasseurs et les pêcheurs qui identifient environ 80% des taxons. Chez les Pygmées, les connaissances mycologiques des hommes et des femmes sont très diversifiées et identiques, alors que chez les Bantu, les femmes connaissent mieux les champignons (plus de 50% des taxons identifiés) que les hommes (à peine 30% des taxons identifiés). Cependant, quel que soit le groupe ethnique, les représentants de la population active connaissent mieux les champignons (85% des taxons identifiés) que les jeunes et les personnes du troisième âge (environ 30% des taxons identifiés). Les champignons les plus appréciés par ces populations appartiennent au genre Termitomyces dont les espèces les plus recherchées sont T. fuliginosus, T. robustus et T. microcarpus. Une étude comparative des champignons consommés au Gabon et dans d’autres pays d’Afrique tropicale a montré que les champignons consommés au Gabon le sont également au Bénin, au Burundi, au Cameroun, en République centrafricaine, en RD Congo, au Malawi, en Tanzanie… et que, après la RD Congo (21 taxons inventoriés), le Gabon présente la plus grande diversité de taxons consommés dans le genre Cantharellus (14 taxons inventoriés). Par contre, sur une trentaine de taxons de Termitomyces signalés en Afrique tropicale, le Gabon est le pays qui présente la plus faible diversité (7 taxons inventoriés). Une compilation des données bibliographiques a révélé que le nombre de champignons symbiontes comestibles signalés en Afrique tropicale est de loin plus élevé en forêt claire qu’en forêt dense (12 taxons de chanterelles sur les 28 inventoriés en Afrique tropicale sont propres à la forêt claire contre 2 taxons à la forêt dense; 15 taxons de Termitomyces sur 30 sont propres à la forêt claire contre 5 taxons à la forêt dense). Mots-clés: champignons comestibles, Pygmées, Bantu, ethnomycologie, Gabon

This thesis is an ethnographic account of contemporary religious practice among a Bantu agricultural people in Southern Tanzania, the majority of whom are affiliated to the Roman Catholic Church. It examines the dialectic between Christianity and what the Pogoro consider to be 'traditional' practice as resulting in a locally defined Catholicism and in the separation of formal, official Christianity from 'traditional practice'. The thesis looks at how the existence of an institutional religion, in this case Catholicism, defines some aspects of local practice as traditional in opposition to it, while, at the same time, elements of Christian practice have been adopted by the community in a non institutional way. The thesis describes Pogoro Christianity, the role of the Church and Pogoro perceptions of it and gives an account of that which they consider to belong to the realm of 'tradition'. Traditional practice is not in actuality unchanging, but any changes in traditional practice must be legitimated by the authority of the dead and the spirits. The first part of the thesis provides the historical and geographical background. This is followed by a chapter on the Catholic Church in the area and official Catholic practice. Local Catholic practice and perceptions of the church and Christianity are described and accounted for. The next section looks at what is constituted as belonging to the realm of 'tradition'. The core chapters in this section describe girls puberty rites, funerals and the relationship with the dead. It is here that Catholic practice enters the realm of 'tradition'. A chapter examines the place of witchcraft eradication movements among the Pogoro, and in East and central Africa, to demonstrate how 'tradition' can and does change, and to provide a contrast with the position of Christianity among the Pogoro. This is dealt with in the final chapter in which I argue that there are limits on the 'traditionalisation' of Christianity among the Pogoro, and in other similar societies, and that these limits are to some extent a function of the institutional nature of Christianity.

This dissertation describes and compares the tense-aspect systems found in three southeastern Bantu languages, viz. Chichewa, Citumbuka and Cisena. For each language, an in-depth description of the tense-aspect categories and their use is given based on the analysis of different sources of data: audio recordings of arranged conversations and narratives, questionnaires in which native speakers of Chichewa, Citumbuka and Cisena translated English sentences into their own language, and parallel corpora of Biblical texts as well as direct elicitation and consultation sessions. The description provides evidence of dialectal variation in the tense-aspect systems in each language that has not been described systematically before. Furthermore, it discusses specific diachronic changes, such as the development of the present progressive marker -ku- into a present tense marker in Chichewa. Remoteness distinctions in the past and future tenses, which are common across Bantu, are also found in the three languages under investigation here. The use of these categories is studied in detail and a certain extent of flexibility in their use is observed. For some varieties of Chichewa, a remoteness distinction is even found for past imperfective forms referring to habits or continuous events in the past, a distinction that has not been described previously. Further emphasis is placed on the comparison of tense-aspect markings in negated as opposed to affirmative clauses. In all three languages, the perfect marker -a- is only found in affirmative clauses while a past tense marker or a particular form only found in clauses of this type, a negative perfect marker, occurs in the corresponding negative. The comparison of the three tense-aspect systems shows that the overall design of the systems and the distinctions that are made in the three languages are, despite certain differences, rather similar while the markers that express these distinctions differ across languages in many respects.