From comparative descriptive linguistic fieldwork to documentary linguistic fieldwork in Ghana

This paper surveys linguistic fieldwork practices in Ghana from the earliest times to the documentary linguistic era. It demonstrates that the most profound effect of the documentary linguistic turn in the language sciences on fieldwork in Ghana is in the rise of "insider" and "insider-outsider" field-working linguists. This goes against the definition of prototypical fieldwork as something done by remote outsiders. The challenges and opportunities of this development are reflected upon. It is argued that relevant fieldwork methodologies should be further developed taking the emerging features of different "insider" practices into account. Moreover, it is hoped that characterizations of documentary linguistic fieldwork would move beyond the outsider and accommodate the different types of "insider" fieldworkers.National Foreign Language Resource Cente

Ewe: its grammatical constructions and illocutionary devices

This thesis primarily provides an overview of Ewe grammar and a detailed investigation of the meanings of specific grammatical constructions and illocutionary devices in the language. The basic idea behind the study is that every grammatical and illocutionary construction or device encodes a certain meaning which can be discovered and stated so that the meanings of different devices can be compared not only within one language but across language boundaries. An attempt is made to explain the usage of grammatical forms from different perspectives. Priority is given to semantic, functional and discourse-pragmatic concerns although formal constraints and diachronic considerations are also invoked in the explanations. A major concern throughout the thesis is to characterize the communicative competence of a native speaker of Ewe. Chapter 1 contains introductory material about the language, the theoretical and methodological assumptions and the aims and organisation of the thesis. The body of the thesis is divided into four parts. Part 1 is a brief overview of the structural grammar of Ewe. It consists of three brief chapters. Chapter 2 describes the phonology while Chapters 3 and 4 provide information on the basic morpho syntax of Ewe. The other three parts are organised on the basis of three (macro) functions (Halliday's semantic metafunctions) of language: propositional, textual and interpersonal. Part II is concerned with the grammatical coding of some cognitive domains: qualities or property concepts as coded by adjectivals (chapter 5); aspectual meanings, specifically the semantics of the ingressive and perfective aspect markers (chapter 6); and possession (chapter 7). Part III examines the grammatical resources available to the Ewe speaker for structuring and packaging information in a clause. The constructions investigated here encode the different perspectives a speaker can assume with respect to how to present the message being conveyed or with respect to how a participant in the situation is conceptualised. Chapter 8 deals with scene-setting topic constructions. Chapter 9 describes "nya­ inverse" constructions and presents them in a typological perspective. Chapter 10 investigates the different ways of conceptualising an 'experiencer' in Ewe through the different grammatical relations such an argument can assume in a clause. Part IV is concerned with the illocutionary devices and constructions used in interpersonal communication. The description of the illocutionary devices is preceded by two chapters that serve as background for the vi understanding of the other chapters. Chapter 11 discusses the ethnography of speaking Ewe. Chapter 12 explores some theoretical issues in the analysis of illocutionary devices. The illocutionary devices are described in the remaining three chapters. Chapter 13 describes the modes of address in Ewe. Chapter 14 analyses various interactional speech formulae. This part and the thesis ends with an investigation of the significance of interjections. Each part is preceded by a short overview about the rationale for its organisation

A checklist of rheophytes of Cameroon

Rivers in Cameroon were surveyed to collect and document rheophytic plants. Rheophytes are the dominant aquatic macrophytes in tropical river systems, where they are adapted to extreme environments of rushing water (e.g., river rapids, waterfalls and flash floods). Rheophytic plants are useful indicators of river health. However, their habitats are threatened by human activities such as agriculture, plantation development, alluvial mining and dam construction, particularly in tropical countries. In this survey we documented 66 rheophytic species in 29 genera and 16 families. Two ferns, 8 monocotyledons and 56 dicotyledons were listed. Apart from the Podostemaceae family in which all species are rheophytic, the other 15 families have few species which are rheophytic. Five of these families have up to four species and the remaining 10 have only one member as a rheophytic species. The conservation status of each species is assessed and discussed. This work urges botanists, conservationists, and policy makers to do more to protect the habitats of rheophytes and put in place strategies and action plans for the conservation of this important biological group

Public access to research data in language documentation: Challenges and possible strategies

The Open Access Movement promotes free and unfettered access to research publications and, increasingly, to the primary data which underly those publications. As the field of documentary linguistics seeks to record and preserve culturally and linguistically relevant materials, the question of how openly accessible these materials should be becomes increasingly important. This paper aims to guide researchers and other stakeholders in finding an appropriate balance between accessibility and confidentiality of data, addressing community questions and legal, institutional, and intellectual issues that pose challenges to accessible dat

Particules énonciatives en Ewe

ABSTRACT : Particles are little words that speakers use to signal the illocutionary force of utterances and/or express their attitude towards elements of the communicative situation, e.g. the addresses. This paper presents an overview of the classification, meaning and use of utterance particles in Ewe. It argues that they constitute a grammatical word class on functional and distributional grounds. The paper calls for a cross-cultural investigation of particles, especially in Africa, where they have been neglected for far too long.RÉSUMÉ : Les particules sont de petits mots employés par le locuteur pour signaler à son interlocuteur la force illocutoire de son discours et/ou son attitude vis- à- vis de certains éléments de la situation de communication. Cet article présente un inventaire des particules énonciatives de l'Ewe : classement, sens et conditions d'utilisation. Il démontre que les particules énonciatives constituent une catégorie grammaticale indépendante compte tenu de leurs fonctions et leur position syntagmatique et recommande de mener des enquêtes sur ce sujet dans des sociétés culturellement différentes, particulièrement en Afrique où leur étude a été trop longtemps négligée.Ameka Felix K. Particules énonciatives en Ewe. In: Faits de langues, n°11-12, Octobre 1998. Les langues d'Afrique subsaharienne, sous la direction de Suzy Platiel et Raphaël Kabore. pp. 179-204