The pragmatic particle ’áda in Kambaata (Cushitic)

This study investigates the morphological makeup, syntactic features and pragmatic functions of ’áda, a pragmatic marker (pm) in Kambaata (Cushitic). The data were drawn from a corpus of two hours of recorded, transcribed and annotated spontaneous speech. The pragmatic marker is a freestanding word...

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Main Authors: Temesgen Senbeto Wadolo, Shimelis Mazengia
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: UniorPress 2024-07-01
Series:Journal of African Languages and Literatures
Online Access:https://serena.atcult.it/index.php/jalalit/article/view/10879
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author Temesgen Senbeto Wadolo
Shimelis Mazengia
author_facet Temesgen Senbeto Wadolo
Shimelis Mazengia
author_sort Temesgen Senbeto Wadolo
collection DOAJ
description This study investigates the morphological makeup, syntactic features and pragmatic functions of ’áda, a pragmatic marker (pm) in Kambaata (Cushitic). The data were drawn from a corpus of two hours of recorded, transcribed and annotated spontaneous speech. The pragmatic marker is a freestanding word. As a particle, it does not take any affixes except another pragmatically deter-mined suffix ‑be, which is used for negating one’s own or an interlocutor’s intention. The pm appears before or after a simple sentence and a complement clause. It may also come after the matrix clause, which follows the complement clause. An interrogative sentence preceded by the pm changes into a rhetorical one. With a cleft sentence, the pm occurs either preceding or following the first focused (copula) clause. In all cases, it is separated with a pause from the rest of the words and phrases in the syntactic structure. Thus, it is an unintegrated extra-sentential unit. The historical origin and the potential source from which the particle was grammaticalized could not be determined. Its functions include signaling repair, surprise, apology, noticing and turn yielding. In some contexts, more than one of the preceding functions can overlap.
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institution Kabale University
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series Journal of African Languages and Literatures
spelling doaj-art-758aac2d20dd4daa95656372ec5ceca52024-12-18T20:50:38ZengUniorPressJournal of African Languages and Literatures2723-97642024-07-015The pragmatic particle ’áda in Kambaata (Cushitic)Temesgen Senbeto Wadolo0Shimelis Mazengia1Addis Ababa UniversityAddis Ababa University This study investigates the morphological makeup, syntactic features and pragmatic functions of ’áda, a pragmatic marker (pm) in Kambaata (Cushitic). The data were drawn from a corpus of two hours of recorded, transcribed and annotated spontaneous speech. The pragmatic marker is a freestanding word. As a particle, it does not take any affixes except another pragmatically deter-mined suffix ‑be, which is used for negating one’s own or an interlocutor’s intention. The pm appears before or after a simple sentence and a complement clause. It may also come after the matrix clause, which follows the complement clause. An interrogative sentence preceded by the pm changes into a rhetorical one. With a cleft sentence, the pm occurs either preceding or following the first focused (copula) clause. In all cases, it is separated with a pause from the rest of the words and phrases in the syntactic structure. Thus, it is an unintegrated extra-sentential unit. The historical origin and the potential source from which the particle was grammaticalized could not be determined. Its functions include signaling repair, surprise, apology, noticing and turn yielding. In some contexts, more than one of the preceding functions can overlap. https://serena.atcult.it/index.php/jalalit/article/view/10879
spellingShingle Temesgen Senbeto Wadolo
Shimelis Mazengia
The pragmatic particle ’áda in Kambaata (Cushitic)
Journal of African Languages and Literatures
title The pragmatic particle ’áda in Kambaata (Cushitic)
title_full The pragmatic particle ’áda in Kambaata (Cushitic)
title_fullStr The pragmatic particle ’áda in Kambaata (Cushitic)
title_full_unstemmed The pragmatic particle ’áda in Kambaata (Cushitic)
title_short The pragmatic particle ’áda in Kambaata (Cushitic)
title_sort pragmatic particle ada in kambaata cushitic
url https://serena.atcult.it/index.php/jalalit/article/view/10879
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