Rodzina w języku i kulturze hausa

The paper attempts to define the notion of family in Hausa, an African language which is very distant, both geographically and culturally, from the European context. With reference to the universal features of the notion family, the culture-specific concept of family is discussed, focusing on traditional model of the Hausa family and relations between family members. The main features of the concept are identified through the analysis of the lexicon, phraseology, and structural features. The discussion includes some specific profiles of the concept of family in Hausa, manifested in religious discourse and in the language of popular culture.Autorka podejmuje próbę zdefiniowania konceptu rodziny w języku odległym geograficznie i w kulturze istotnie odmiennej od kultury europejskiej. Powołując się na uniwersalne cechy definicyjne pojęcia rodzina, przedstawia obraz rodziny na podstawie danych afrykańskiego języka hausa. Źródła językowe dostarczają wiedzy na temat stereotypu rodziny tradycyjnej, wewnętrznej struktury rodziny i relacji między członkami, przedmiotem uwagi są też społecznie regulowane zasady zawierania małżeństwa i relacji mąż-żona. Podstawą językowego obrazu rodziny jest treść wyspecjalizowanego leksykonu odnoszącego się do konceptu rodziny, a ponadto cechy strukturalne i frazeologia języka hausa. Podstawowy stereotyp rodziny hausańskiej, zrekonstruowany na podstawie danych językowych, jest konfrontowany z odmiennym profilowaniem konceptu rodziny w dyskursie religijnym i dyskursie świeckim kultury masowej

Morphological Coding of Verb-Object Agreement in African Languages

The aim of the paper is to demonstrate the structures of some African languages that mark agreement between the verb and the object. The means of coding agreement are rich and differentiated and include pronominal affixes on verbs for objects but not for subjects, verb endings and tonal contrast as well as some other modifications of verb when used with object. Morphological devices tend to code for the grammatical properties of the object, such as gender and number, or – in languages with class systems – the noun class attributed to the object. Some other languages mark the agreement with either nominal or pronominal form of the object. The languages may also denote a semantic distinction between ‘single’ and ‘many’. With reference to marking properties of semantic Patient rather than syntactic object, it is postulated to relate the presented system of marking verb-object agreement as traces of an ergative concord system in African languages

Roland Kieβling, Maarten Mous, The Lexical Reconstruction of West-Rift Southern Cushitic, Köln, Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2003, 358 pp.

Review of "Roland Kieβling, Maarten Mous, The Lexical Reconstruction of West-Rift Southern Cushitic, Köln, Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2003, 358 pp.

Non-verbal sentences in Chadic

The non-verbal sentences are sentences in which there is no explicit aspect marking and no verb. The predicate position of such sentences is usually filled by nouns, noun phrases, prepositional phrases or adverbials. The non-verbal sentences constitute one of the main types of sentence structures in Chadic languages. The predicate in such sentences may be indicated by word order alone, but in a way characteristic of a given language

The verbal bases of compound words in Hausa

In all languages' compound words play a significant role in extending the communicative potential of the language's lexical resources. We shall use the term compound word /compound/ to refer to constructions which function in utterances as lexical units and express meanings which are not the sum of the meanings of their parts. Compounds in this sense of the word are also known as idioms. In Hausa idiomatic constructions may take the form of sentence forming phrases

Characterisation of age and polarity at onset in bipolar disorder

Background Studying phenotypic and genetic characteristics of age at onset (AAO) and polarity at onset (PAO) in bipolar disorder can provide new insights into disease pathology and facilitate the development of screening tools. Aims To examine the genetic architecture of AAO and PAO and their association with bipolar disorder disease characteristics. Method Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) and polygenic score (PGS) analyses of AAO (n = 12 977) and PAO (n = 6773) were conducted in patients with bipolar disorder from 34 cohorts and a replication sample (n = 2237). The association of onset with disease characteristics was investigated in two of these cohorts. Results Earlier AAO was associated with a higher probability of psychotic symptoms, suicidality, lower educational attainment, not living together and fewer episodes. Depressive onset correlated with suicidality and manic onset correlated with delusions and manic episodes. Systematic differences in AAO between cohorts and continents of origin were observed. This was also reflected in single-nucleotide variant-based heritability estimates, with higher heritabilities for stricter onset definitions. Increased PGS for autism spectrum disorder (β = −0.34 years, s.e. = 0.08), major depression (β = −0.34 years, s.e. = 0.08), schizophrenia (β = −0.39 years, s.e. = 0.08), and educational attainment (β = −0.31 years, s.e. = 0.08) were associated with an earlier AAO. The AAO GWAS identified one significant locus, but this finding did not replicate. Neither GWAS nor PGS analyses yielded significant associations with PAO. Conclusions AAO and PAO are associated with indicators of bipolar disorder severity. Individuals with an earlier onset show an increased polygenic liability for a broad spectrum of psychiatric traits. Systematic differences in AAO across cohorts, continents and phenotype definitions introduce significant heterogeneity, affecting analyses

Gian Claudio Batic "A Grammatical Sketch of Bure – a Chadic Language of Nigeria", Chadic Linguistics /Linguistique Tchadique/Tschadistik (ed. by Dymitr Ibriszimow, Henry Tourneux, H. Ekkehard Wolff), vol. 9, Rüdiger Kӧppe Verlag, Kӧln 2014, 178 pp.

Recenzja książki Gian Claudio Batic "A Grammatical Sketch of Bure – a Chadic Language of Nigeria"