This thesis presents a comprehensive description and analysis of Gã coordinate systems. Gã is spoken primarily in Accra, the capital of Ghana, and no previous research on Gã has addressed the specific type of locative language described as coordinate systems (Lewis, Simmons, & Fennig, 2013). The current study is based on a corpus of Gã locative descriptions collected through interview-style elicitation sessions with a Gã speaker. Analysis of this corpus has revealed coordinate system morphemes ŋwɛ͂ı͂ up, shĩshĩ down, hı͂ɛ͂ front, sɛ̀ɛ̀ back, nı͂nè-jwurɔ͂ right, and àbɛ̀kú left. In describing the use of these morphemes I use Levinsons (2003) framework of locative language and coordinate systems. I propose that Gã uses the Intrinsic and Relative Frame of Reference types of coordinate systems. Additional characteristics of Gã coordinate systems include the use of intrinsic systems based on an entitys functional characteristics and occasionally on fixed armatures, and the use of left and right in conceptual areas, an extension from the names of hands to relative space in a visual field. My analysis of the Gã data also reveals weaknesses in parts of Levinsons frameworki.e., subtypes of the Relative Frame of Reference cannot be disambiguated, and deictic locative descriptions cannot be considered entirely separate from the Relative Frame of Reference. This analysis contributes to theories of locative language and also contributes to documentation of Gã.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-06232014-105708 |
| Date | 26 June 2014 |
| Creators | Erbach, Kurt |
| Contributors | Irene Appelbaum |
| Publisher | The University of Montana |
| Source Sets | University of Montana Missoula |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-06232014-105708/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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