Lexicalization of property concepts: Evidence for language contact on the southern Jos Plateau (Central Nigeria)?

✍ Scribed by Hellwig, Birgit

• Book ID: 115473301
• Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 634 KB
• Volume: 33
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-6164
• DOI: 10.1515/jall-2012-0003

✦ Synopsis

This paper discusses issues of language contact within the Jos Plateau sprachbund of Central Nigeria. It is known that the non-related Chadic and Benue-Congo languages of this region share numerous lexical and structural similarities, but it is largely unknown whether they also share similarities in their semantics and lexicalization patterns. This paper explores convergences in one such area: the lexicalization of property -or adjectival -concepts in the Chadic (Angas-Goemai and Ron groups) and Benue-Congo (Jukunoid, Tarok and Fyem) languages of the southern part of this sprachbund. It presents evidence that these non-related languages share a common lexicalization pattern: the predominant coding of property concepts in state-change verbs. This pattern is probably not of Chadic origin, and it is possible that it has entered the Chadic languages of the Jos Plateau through language contact.