Overview

This book documents the interrogative system of Ikpana, an endangered indigenous Ghana-Togo Mountain language of eastern Ghana also known as Logba. The system is notable in several respects. It exhibits features that buck certain typological trends, act as counterexamples to some claims about language universals, and exemplify fascinating patterns that are either rare or unfamiliar in interrogative systems cross-linguistically. Drawing on original fieldwork and a combination of formal/theoretical, experimental, and comparative methodologies, the book provides a theoretically-informed description and analysis of Ikpana interrogative grammar, encompassing both syntactic and phonological aspects of question formation in the language. The chapters explore a range of phenomena including polar question formation, wh- movement, wh- in-situ, interrogative intonation, and prosody, among others. The authors demonstrate that theoretically-guided language documentation does not only contribute to language description, but can also increase understanding of the human Language Faculty and expand the empirical base of language typologies: bringing formal and theoretical concerns to the fore facilitates richer descriptions of the grammar than purely descriptive approaches allow.

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9780192845009

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Reviews

This volume is an excellent example of how bringing together theoretical and descriptive linguistics deepens our understanding of language structures. What's more, it clearly demonstrates how the different components of grammar-phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics-are inextricably linked, and a deep knowledge of each part is crucial for understanding the system as a whole. The diverse team of authors combine their strengths to present a cohesive and detailed description of Ikpana's interrogative system, but in doing so, they also paint a much broader picture of Ikpana and Ghana-Togo Mountain grammar, the phonology-syntax interface, and the importance of language documentation and description for theoretical linguistics. * Dr Laura McPherson, Dartmouth College *

This volume is an excellent example of how bringing together theoretical and descriptive linguistics deepens our understanding of language structures. What's more, it clearly demonstrates how the different components of grammarDLphonology, morphology, syntax, semanticsDLare inextricably linked, and a deep knowledge of each part is crucial for understanding the system as a whole. The diverse team of authors combine their strengths to present a cohesive and detailed description of Ikpana's interrogative system, but in doing so, they also paint a much broader picture of Ikpana and Ghana-Togo Mountain grammar, the phonology-syntax interface, and the importance of language documentation and description for theoretical linguistics. * Dr Laura McPherson, Dartmouth College *

Author Information

Jason Kandybowicz is Professor of Linguistics at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. He specializes in the syntax of West African languages and has published extensively on a variety of topics in formal syntax, field linguistics, and the syntax-phonology interface. He is the author of Anti-contiguity: A Theory of Wh-Prosody (OUP 2020) and The Grammar of Repetition: Nupe Grammar at the Syntax-Phonology Interface (Benjamins, 2008). He is co-editor of Africa's Endangered Languages: Documentary and Theoretical Approaches (OUP 2017) and African Linguistics on the Prairie: Selected Papers from the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (2018). Bertille Baron is a doctoral candidate in theoretical linguistics at Georgetown University. Her research focuses on syntax and phonology and their interaction in spoken languages, as well as language documentation and linguistic fieldwork on West African languages. She has worked on a wide range of research topics including the phonology of Supyire, the morphosyntax of Nafara and the syntax-phonology interface of Ikpana. Philip T. Duncan is Assistant Teaching Professor in Linguistics at the University of Kansas. His research focuses on syntax and its interfaces with semantics and morphology, specifically working with Indigenous languages of the Americas (Me'phaa, Kaqchikel, Kiksht) and West Africa (Ibibio, Ikpana). Hironori Katsuda is a doctoral candidate in linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles (anticipated Ph.D. completion: 2022). Katsuda specializes in theoretical and experimental phonology, prosody, and fieldwork. He has worked on a diverse range of research topics including intonational phonology of Ikpana, loanword phonology of Japanese, phonology of English-Spanish code-switching, perception and processing of speech sounds in Japanese.

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