Transcript sketchgrammars_essegbey

Sketch Grammars
Types (Mosel 2006)
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1. Preliminary grammar
2. Introductory grammar for a specific research topic
3. The summary of a large reference grammar
4. Dictionary grammar
5. Language documentation grammar
• NB. The author of a grammar needs to identify the
kind of information that a reader needs in order to
understand a specialized investigation.
Preliminary grammar
• You begin working on this grammar as soon as the
first analyses of preliminary paradigms and
constructions are put into words.
Reference grammar summary
• Contains a selection of an already existing analysis of
the language based on what one considers as
essential features of the language from a more
general perspective.
Dictionary grammar
• “Brings together elements of the grammar that are
separated by the alphabetical order of the
headwords” (Mugdan 1989: 732, in Mosel 2006:
302)
• E.g. numerals
• Derivational means of expression (reduplication)
• Tsyina –titsyitsina ‘turning’;
• wlakɛ̃ - tɛwãwlãkɛ́ ‘struggle’
• what does it mean to be a noun, verb, adjective,
etc.?
Documentation dictionary
• This is related to the corpus of annotated recordings
and a lexical database. Enhances the accessibility of
the work for a more general readership.
Specific topic grammar
• This is written after the research on the specialized
area in question has been concluded.
• E.g. “The grammatical coding of postural semantics
in Goemai (a West Chadic language of Nigeria)”
(Hellwig 2003)
• Inherent complement verbs revisited: towards an
understanding of argument structure constructions
in Ewe (Essegbey 1999)
Sketch grammar for postural semantics
Birgit Hellwig (2003)
2.1 Phonology and tonology
2.2 Nominals and the noun phrase
2.3 Other word classes
2.3.1 Adverbs
2.3.2 Prepositions and spatial nominals
2.3.3 Particles and clitic
2.3.4 Question words
Sketch grammar for postural semantics
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2.4 Verbs and verbal clauses
2.5 Complex clauses
2.6 Non-verbal clauses
2.7 Summary
Inherent complement verbs (Essegbey 1999)
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2. The Ewe language
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Typological overview
2.2 Tones
2.3 Reduplication
2.4 Syntax
2.4.1 The basic clause
2.4.2 The verb and the verb phrase
2.4.3 The noun phrase
2.4.4 The postpositional phrase
2.4.5 The prepositional phrase
2.5 Conclusion
Aims
• Main aim is to facilitate access to the documentation. As
such, the grammar should:
• -contain all the grammatical information that the reader
needs to make use of the lexical database and
understand how in the corpus of annotated recordings
the translations relate to the transcriptions.
• -at any stage accurately reflect the author’s current
knowledge of the language
• -be user friendly
Comprehensiveness-Teop
• Bona
• ART
moon
woman
• Bona
• ART:A-CLASS.SPEC.SG.OBJ
moon
woman:A-CLASS
• Which one would you choose for your dictionary and
why?
• -analysis has already been done
• -the paradigm represents grammatical features of all
articles in a systematic way
• - long glosses are not user friendly
Accuracy
• A sketch grammar should aim should aim to account
for all the assumptions that underlie grammatical
annotations in the corpus.
User-friendliness
• Must help the user get a quick overview of the
essential features of the language and all the
information necessary for using the annotated
recordings in further linguistic and related research.
• It should, for example, include all terms whose
meaning is vague or variable in the linguistic
literature (e.g. adverb, particles), or which is
presumably known to specialists only (e.g.
logophoric pronoun, serial verb construction).
Content
• Question
• What would be included in the content of your
reference grammar?
• Charts of the consonant and vowel system
Tutrugbu vowel inventory
High
Mid
Low
Front
[+ATR]
i, ĩ
[-ATR]
e, ẽ
ɛ, ɛ̃
Central
[-ATR]
Back
[+ATR]
u, ũ
o
a, ã
[-ATR]
ɔ, ɔ̃
• A note on syllable structure and most important
phonological processes
• CV = ki-wi ‘day’, bɔ-pã ‘house’, tɛ-wá ‘herb’
• CCV = plɛnɔ ‘help’, ɔwlago ‘evening’
• CVC = kam.pɛ ‘side’, kan.tse ‘calabash’
• A statement on how the orthography and/or
transcription used in the documentation relates to
phonological characteristics
• sh = /ƒ/
• ny= /ɲ/
• tsy = /tƒ/
• Overview of word classes and grammatical categories in order to
facilitate a better understanding of the glosses.
• Inflectional paradigms
• Word and constituent-order rules
salí nɔ́
gɛ
a-nyá
ka-hɔkpɔ - ɔ́ gɛ
thing DEF REL 3SG-tie CM-wrist- DEF REL
e-nú watch ɛ
yɛ
a-á-pɛ̅
3SG-be watch TP
FOC 3SG-PROG-want
‘The thing that is around the wrist which is the watch, that is what she is
looking for’
(Focus1-July-20-2007.039-040)
Sketch grammar and lexical database
• The sketch grammar needs to explain the principles
of word classification and briefly characterize each
class in order to facilitate the understanding of the
abbreviations used in the lexical database and the
annotations.
Goemai Reference grammar
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Chapter 1: Introduction
1. The Goemai language and its speakers
2. The fieldwork setting
3. Language profile
3.1 Typological origins
3.2 Diachronic origins
4. Structure of the grammar
Goemai Reference grammar
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Chapter 2. Phonology and tonology
1. Phonemes, tonemes and orthography
2. Syllables, morphemes and words
3. Clauses
4. Summary
Goemai Reference grammar
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Chapter 3: Nouns and the noun phrase
1. Noun phrase
2. Nouns
3. Conjoining nouns and noun phrases
4. Nominalization
5. Other elements of the noun phrase
6. Summary
Goemai Reference grammar
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Chapter 4: Verbs and the verb phrase
1. Verbs and the verb phrase: an overview
2. Argument structure and lexical aspect
3. Argument structure constructions
4. Detransitivizing strategies
5. Adding participants to an event
6. Changing lexical aspect
Goemai Reference grammar
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Chapter 7. Tense aspect modality (TAM)
1. Intoduction
2. Unmarked verb
3. Tense
4. Aspect
5. Modality and mood
6. Summary
Goemai Reference grammar
• Chapter 8. Clause types
• 1. Simple verbal clauses
• 2. Non verbal clauses: equational and possessive
clauses
• 3. Verb serialization
• 4. Multiverb constructions
• 5. Summary
A brief look at some content in Tutrugbu
grammar
Noun classes in Tutrugbu
• Assimilating pronominal prefixes
a. Focus1-July-20-2007.006
ɛ-mɔ
yofó-ánɛ ́
ba-dzɛ̃
tá- bha
1SG-see white.person-PL CM-woman AM-two
I see white people two women.
b. i-vũ
e-zi ̃̌̃
1SG-catch
CM-thief
‘I caught a thief.’
HEINE’S (1968) NOUN CLASSES
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Class I. a- /baa-/ba- agã, bagã ‘animal’
ɛ/ba- ɛyɛ̃̌, bayɛ̃̌ ‘horse’
e-/be- ebú, bebú ‘dog’
ø-/ba- pampró, bapampró ‘bamboo’
ø-/be- seƒoƒo, beseƒoƒo ‘flower’
• Class II. ɔ-/ɛ• o-/i- ozĩ, izĩ ‘hole’
• ɔ-/ɛ- ɔtsrɛ,́ ɛtsrɛ ́ ‘leg’
• Class III. kɛ-/bɔ
• kɛ-/ɔ- kɛdzyá, bɔdzyá ‘meat’
• ki-/bu- kiplukpá, buplukpá ‘book’
• Class IV. kɛ-/a• ki-/e- kidzǒ, edzǒ ‘road(s)’
• kɛ-/a- kɛpɔtɛ,́ apɔtɛ ́ ‘cloth’
• Class V. bɔ-/ba• Bu-/be- butú, betú ‘mountain
• bɔ-/ba- bɔwá, bawá ‘medicine’
• Class VI. ka-/bɔ• Ke-/bu- kevũ, buvũ ‘building’
• Ka-/bɔ- kazhwɛ, bɔzhwɛ ‘bird’
• Class VII. bɔ-/tɛ
• Bu-/ti
• bɔ-/tɛ• Class VIII. ka-/ba• Ke-/be- kelí, belí ‘day’
Generalizing agreement markers
• a. a-nyɛ-́ ɛ ́
á-lɛ ́
CM-man-DEF AM-be.at
‘The man is at home.
bɔ-pã́ mɛ
CM-house inside
b. o-kutú-ɔ ́
a-kpasɛ
a-gbɛ
CM-orange-DEF AM-be.contained CM-bowl
mɛ
inside
‘The orange is in the bowl.
nɔ ́
DEF
Generalizing agreement markers
• c. ke-he
a-má
CM-struggle
AM-not:be.at
‘There is no problem.’
̃́ ́ tumpá
d. kɛ-vɔbɔ ́ wɔsɔ
CM-frog lie
bottle
‘Frog lay in the bottle.’
nɔ ́
DEF
mɛ
inside
Generalizing agreement markers
d. Ba-nɔ
ba-lɛ
bɔ-pã́-m
CM-person
AM-be.at CM-house-inside
The people are in the house.
e. Bɔ-dzyá be-kpe
CM-meat AM-become.plenty
nɛ ́
a-gbɛ̃̌
PREP CM-bowl
nɔ ́ mɛ
DEFinside
‘(Different kinds of) meat abound in the bowl.’
Marking agreement on the verb
a. ki-tsikpǐ nɔ ́
kɛ-yɔĺ ɔ
bɔ-dɔ̃ tɔ ́
CM-pot DEF AM-stop
CM-thing cook
‘The pot stopped cooking.’ (Spider-and-orphan.050)
b. gɛ o-kotokú
As CM-sack
nɔ ́
DEF
lo-yí
so-ɔ,
AGR-be.full therefore-TP,
gɛ a-á-ba
bɔ-ŋaŋa
túlí bɔ-wɔĺ ɛ
as 3SG-PROG-come CM-food
SPECI AM-fall
‘Because the sack was full, as he went some of the
food fell out.’ (Spider-and-orphan.150-151)
Marking agreement on the verb
a. a-nyɛ ́
a-lɛ
ye-nú m’
á-ka
CM-man AM-this
RP-be 1SG:POSS CM-father
‘This man, he is my father.’
b. o-kútú
ɔ-́ lɛ
CM-orange
AM-this
‘This orange, it is mine.’
o-lo-nu
RP-??-be
mɔ-yɛ ́
1SG-POSS