2023 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Microvariation in Bantu languages of South Africa: building theories from typology data
| Project/Area Number |
21KK0005
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| Research Institution | International Christian University |
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Principal Investigator |
李 勝勲 国際基督教大学, 教養学部, 上級准教授 (20770134)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
古本 真 東京外国語大学, アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所, 研究員 (20796354)
品川 大輔 東京外国語大学, アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所, 准教授 (80513712)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-10-07 – 2027-03-31
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| Keywords | South Africa / Prosody-Syntax Interface / Phonology / Bantu languages / Documentation |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In AY2023, basic data was collected during the two field trips to South Africa and two grant meetings were held with members of the project disseminating their work. Field data collection happened in following languages: Sesotho (Maseru, Lesotho), Northern Sotho (Lenyenye), Tswana (Potchefstrom), Xhosa (Grahamstown), Ndebele (Mbombela), Xitsonga, Tshivenda and Siswati (Thohoyandou). Data processing was held in Tokyo, Japan with undergraduate and graduate research assistants at ICU.
Some research findings are as follows: (a) from Siswati data, we report how tone is realized on nasals and how tone interacts with depressor consonants, (b) tonal data of nominal phrases of Ndebele as well as the interaction between syntax and prosody in Xitsonga nominal phrases are disseminated. Results will be presented at two international conferences on African languages (WOCAL in Kenya and Bantu 10 in Tanzania), in which four presentations will be delivered.The presentations are collaboratively conducted between members in Japan and South Africa. Several research papers are due for publication.
The two workshops (online in September 2023, in-person in March 2024) were venues where progress reports of the project were made, and also future research activities were planned.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The project is progressing rather smoothly. We have amassed large amount of data of 8 Southern Bantu languages. The data has been processed and the results are being disseminated. The only language that has not been fully accessed is isiZulu. In AY2024, we plan to collect comparable Zulu data so that it can be incorporated into the larger data set.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In AY2024, the project will continue to collect data of the Southern Bantu languages with a focus on DP element. DP elements varying in size and tonal patterns will be combined to test the interaction between syntactic structure and prosodic structure. The specific plans are as follows:
First, a questionnaire of DP structure will be created by Lee and Riedel. This questionnaire will be disseminated amongst the project members so that data from all 9 languages can be obtained by November 2024. The results will be analyzed between December 2024 and February 2025.
Second, baseline tone data will be compiled and finalized. Various sources of nominal and verbal tone exist, but this part of the research is creating a database of lexical items that can be used for creating study stimuli. As word size and lexical tone affect the tonal realization of sentences, having the stimuli will benefit researchers so that they can utilize it in other studies as well.
Third, longer DPs and their position in ditransitive sentences will be elicited from the Bantu languages. Analyses of the data are expected to reveal whether languages with different tonal phonology, tone spread versus tone shift, display comparable prosodic phrasing.
Fourth, dissemination of analyzed data is planned for domestic and international conferences as well as domestic and international journals. Both descriptive work and theoretical analyses will be presented. Preparations for this dissemination will be done in weekly meetings in Japan and collaborative meetings with South African members of the project.
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| Causes of Carryover |
A South Africa research trip was conducted at the end of AY 2023 (March 2024). For this reason, the research trip expense reimbursement was not completed in time by the end of AY2023, resulting in a small amount (1,539 yen) remaining.
This remaining amount will be used for research trip reimbursement, and activities in AY 2024.
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