Some of the most recent articles from open access anthropology journals (beta)
Gĩkũyũ (E.51) exhibits several verbs that can be used both as lexical verbs and as auxiliary verbs. We compare the lexical and auxiliary usages of four verbs and show that all auxiliary verb usages display uniform restrictions concerning val…
Kihehe (G62) has a rich inventory of auxiliary constructions (> 120) grounded in different forms of be: copula -li and -ʋa ‘be’. This paper addresses those constructions in which the auxiliary is marked for one of three pasts – hodiernal,…
This study focuses on the syntactic and pragmatic functions of the isiXhosa auxiliary verbs za ‘come’ and ya ‘go’ when followed by subjunctive or past consecutive lexical verbs. Analysis of the auxiliaries’ occurrence in a 60,000-word databa…
Northwestern Bantu (NWB) languages differ from Eastern/Southwestern Bantu languages in that their verb forms are more often analytic, with pre-stem inflectional material appearing in a complex that may be unbound from the main verb. This has…
In Silozi, High tones are subject to a number of different processes including shift, doubling and deletion. After establishing these on the basis of isolation forms and two-word phrases, this paper examines a range of complex phrases which …
This study examines linguistic manifestations of age-grade status among the Iraqw, a Southern Cushitic ethnic group in northern Tanzania. It identifies how life stages or age grades are conceptually distinguished in Iraqw terminology and the…