143522 KU Dagaare and the Mabia Languages (2020S)

In this field methods course, course participants will be given the opportunity to learn how to discover and analyze the core grammatical structure (phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics) of an Africa language. The language in question is the Dagaare language of West Africa (Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire), but data from other related Mabia (Gur) languages will also be presented. This is not a proficiency course, though course participants who want to learn how to speak it will have the opportunity to do so.
Methods: Lecture, language consultant appearances.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To get students to be familiar with the basic structures of African languages, and to be able to elicit data directly from speakers and from spoken and textual databases.
2. To get students to critically examine earlier treatments of these structures from a cross-linguistic perspective.
3. To give students an in-depth knowledge of one African language from theoretical, typological, and cross-linguistic perspectives.

Lecture Schedule
Introduction
Part I – Phonetics and Phonology
1. Vocalic and Consonantal Systems in Africa
2. Suprasegmental Features: Tone and Tonal Processes
3. Phonological Processes: Vowel Harmony
4. Syllable: Types and Structure
5. Representation in Orthography form
Part II – Morphology
1. Morphology of Noun
2. The Pronominal System
3. Nominal Processes
Part III – Syntax and Semantics
1. Word Order Parameter and Syntax
2. Syntax of Nominal Phrase
3. Structure of the Verb Phrase
4. The Preverbal Particles
5. The Main Verb
6. The Post-verbal Particle lá
7. Adverbs and Adjuncts
8. Double Object Constructions
9. Major typical African language constructions: SVCs
10. Major typical African language constructions: SVNs and Coordination
11. Other Syntactic Alternations
Student presentations
Summary and Revision
Final Quiz/Assessment
ormat of Class meetings
Class interaction will be in the form of lectures, student presentations, computer-based teaching such as WebCT or blogs, and demonstrations of fundamental African issues through maps, artifacts, testimonies, and photos.