Space and time in Mmen
Author
Summary, in English
This thesis provides an analysis of the linguistic expression of spatial and temporal relations in Mmen, a Niger-Congo language spoken in Bafumen, in the North West Region of Cameroon.
Linguistic means of expressing spatial relations are surveyed in usage and in grammatical structure, and categorized according to the patterns found. Locative prepositions and usages are compared with directional and temporal expressions, and the use of spatial motion words and constructions to express motion and relations in time is described and discussed.
The data was elicited in the field, using both pictorial stimuli (Bowerman & Pederson 1992) and translation tasks.
Amongst the salient results was that tonal patterns can be the only distinction in realization of a preposition, and that the conceptualization of “front” and “back” can show the reverse pattern from that in English.
Linguistic means of expressing spatial relations are surveyed in usage and in grammatical structure, and categorized according to the patterns found. Locative prepositions and usages are compared with directional and temporal expressions, and the use of spatial motion words and constructions to express motion and relations in time is described and discussed.
The data was elicited in the field, using both pictorial stimuli (Bowerman & Pederson 1992) and translation tasks.
Amongst the salient results was that tonal patterns can be the only distinction in realization of a preposition, and that the conceptualization of “front” and “back” can show the reverse pattern from that in English.
Department/s
Publishing year
2013
Language
English
Full text
Document type
Student publication for Bachelor's degree
Topic
- Languages and Literatures
Keywords
- semantics
- temporal relations
- prepositions
- spatial relations
- bantu languages
Supervisor
- Arthur Holmer (docent)
- Chris Sinha