Effects of phonological phrasing on syntactic structure

Bantu languages are renowned as tone languages that utilize this suprasegmental feature not only on the lexical level to distinguish lexical items, but also on the grammatical level to distinguish clause types. This article investigates one such use of grammatical tone in relative clauses in Bemba where a low tone can be used in place of a segmental relative marker. This low tone relative morpheme functions in conjunction with phrase boundary tone indicated on the head noun and which entails either restrictive or non-restrictive interpretations of relatives. Considering a mapping of XPs to major phonological phrases in the syntax-prosody interface, the resultant phonological phrasing in relatives influences the choice of syntactic structure. In the case at hand, a head-raising analysis provides an optimal mapping between syntax and prosody for restrictives. Further, a more direct influence of phonology on syntax can be seen in a perception-based model like Dynamic Syntax where the on-line building of syntactic trees can gain import from phonological information. © Walter de Gruyter 2007

Phonological and syntactic phrasing in Bemba relatives

Tone as a distinctive feature used to differentiate not only words but also clause types, is a characteristic feature of Bantu languages. In this paper we show that Bemba relatives can be marked with a low tone in place of a segmental relative marker. We treat this low tone as a morpheme rather than as just triggering a change in tone pattern that can then be related to relativization. The low tone strategy of relativization, which imposes a restrictive reading of relatives, manifests a phonological phrasing that requires the head noun to be phrased together with the relative clause that it modifies as opposed to non-restrictives where this is not the case. The paper shows that the resultant phonological phrasing favours a head-raising analysis of relativization where the head noun is considered to be inside CP. Despite the syntactic use of the relative tonal morpheme we see that it is also subject to purely phonological constraints that results in its being unable to be used to mark headless relatives. This paper therefore highlights the phonology-syntax connection and shows that phonology can directly inform syntactic analyses. © Walter de Gruyter

Success or failure of primary second/foreign language programmes in Asia: What do the data tell us?

Primary school second/foreign language (SL/FL) programmes in Asia, as well as in other parts of the world, are becoming more common, with many targeting English as the SL or FL. The pressures for such English language programmes come from top-down notions that in a globalised world English is required for societies to be competitive, especially with Asian neighbours, and bottom-up pressures from parents who see English as the key to educational success for their children. In many polities, these forces have resulted in support for policies that introduce early primary school English teaching curricula for all students and have led to parents spending large sums of money on private tutoring or out-of-school tuition. This study reviews the results of nine language planning studies from the Asian region that set out to examine questions such as 'Is this trend towards early primary SL or FL education (mainly English) realistic or is it unattainable and a waste of resources? Do children really benefit from these programmes? What needs to be done to foster learners' success?' These issues are viewed from a language planning and policy perspective through an examination of the language-in-education policy types required for the development of successful programmes. The policies of a number of Asian countries are used as case studies to illustrate this issue

Advancement in some Asian and African languages

published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

EDITORIAL COMMENTSA Note from the Editor -- Nkonko M Kamwangamalu

(S/ern Af Linguistics & Applied Language Stud: 2000 18(1-4): iii

Book ReviewMultilingualism, the Judiciary and Security Services: Belgium, Europe, South Africa, Southern AfricaEdited by K Deprez, T du Plessis and L Teck

Van Schalk Publishers, Pretoria (2001) 193 Pages (S/ern Af Linguistics & Applied Language Stud: 2002 20(1&2): 123-126

The state of codeswitching research at the dawn of the new millennium (2): focus on Africa

This is the second article aimed at reviewing the state of codeswitching research at the dawn of the new millennium. The first article (Kamwangamalu, 1999) focused on the state of codeswitching research in the global context. In the present article I focus on the state of codeswitching research in Africa. More specifically, I highlight the contribution of codeswitching research in Africa to codeswitching research in the global context; discuss some of the theoretical frameworks which have informed this research over the years; and conclude by pointing to some of the many untapped areas for codeswitching research in the new millennium. (S/ern Af Linguistics & Applied Language Stud: 2000 18(1-4): 59-71