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- Title
Waali plural formation: a preliminary study on variation in noun class realization.
- Authors
Brindle, Jonathan Allen
- Abstract
In this paper I propose a classification of Waali nouns from a variationist perspective. On the basis of a three-speaker dataset, a classification is deduced from the singular-plural forms that are found in all three idiolects. As a result, a noun class is defined as the clustering of the intersection of singular-plural pairs across speakers. The complement of the intersection corresponds to the inter-individual variation. It is defined as any differences between two individuals in the representation of at least one linguistic variable. Thus, the paper provides a perspective of describing stability and variability by both deriving a prototype based on the intersection of multi-speakers' data, and acknowledging and accounting for inter-individual variations. The method is argued to be better suited for urban and lingua franca linguistics.
- Subjects
PROTOTYPE (Linguistics); VARIATION in language; AFRICAN languages; IDIOLECT; LINGUISTIC analysis
- Publication
Journal of African Languages & Linguistics, 2015, Vol 36, Issue 2, p163
- ISSN
0167-6164
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1515/jall-2015-0008