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The present auto-ethnographic article examines the compliance of an educational experiment implemented at Stellenbosch University (South Africa) with anarchist pedagogy. After describing this experiment, reflecting on it, and evaluating it within anarchist pedagogical theory, the authors conclude the following: overall, the teaching and learning model implemented approximates the anarchist ideals to a considerable extent. However, this compliance is not uniform but rather instantiates a spectrum of possible enactments of anarchist pedagogy; the enactment of anarchist pedagogy is patent from a macro/maximalist perspective while it is less significant from a micro/minimalist perspective. Since this compliance was not deliberate but emerged unwittingly through practice, the authors ponder whether anarchist pedagogy may be 'natural' or 'intuitive' for more lecturers and students. Lastly, given their own experiences, the authors propose to consider the negative effects of anarchist struggle, such as suffering, alienation, and sacrifice, as inevitable from anarchist pedagogy and the essential elements of this pedagogical model.

The present paper examines a hypothetical correlation between language endangerment and the simplification of nominal and verbal inflections. After contrasting the complexities exhibited by two endangered languages (Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl and Wymysorys) with the complexities of their non-endangered predecessors (Older Nahuatl and Middle High German, respectively), the authors conclude that the endangerment-simplification entanglement cannot be demonstrated. First, although Wymysorys (a more endangered code) is slightly more simplified than Nahuatl (a less endangered code) as far as the nominal domain is concerned, this relationship is reversed in the verbal domain. Second, simplifying tendencies are not radical, with a number of innovative complexifying processes being also present. Third, when attested, simplification constitutes part of a “natural” language evolution rather than a process resulting from the endangerment.

The present article provides the first systematic analysis of the formal (phonetic and morphological) facet of interjections in Hadza. By using a prototype-driven approach to an interjective category and drawing on original evidence, the authors demonstrate that Hadza interjections closely comply with an interjective prototype. Hadza interjections meet most prototypical features and the exceptions attested fully match the exceptions that have previously been observed in other languages. Overall, the study corroborates the validity of the prototype postulated in scholarly literature, although certain refinements are also proposed.

The present article is dedicated to the syntax, morphology, and phonetics of ideophones in Arusa Maasai. After examining the compliance of 69 ideophonic lexemes with the typologically driven prototype of an ideophone, the authors conclude that Arusa ideophones may range from canonical to non-canonical even within a single language module. When syntax, morphology, and phonetics are considered jointly, holophrastic and asyntagmatic ideophones are more canonical than ideophones used as verbal modifiers and parts of complex predicates, which are, in turn, more canonical than predicative ideophones. The extent of canonicity is inversely correlated with the systematicity and integration of ideophones in sentence grammar and their diffusion into other lexical classes: predicative ideophones have been fully incorporated into the category of verbs; for ideophones employed as verbal modifiers, a comparable incorporation into the category of adverbs has not been completed; for all the other types, especially holophrastic and asyntagmatic, ideophones still maintain their categorical individuality. Overall, ideophones constitute an “old” category in Arusa, one that is well advanced on its grammaticalization cline.

This paper demonstrates that Wymysiöeryś – a severely endangered Germanic minority language – exhibits remarkable complexity despite its moribund status. By analyzing twelve phonetic/phonological properties, the author concludes that the complexity of Wymysiöeryś is greater, both locally and globally, than that of two control languages: Middle High German and Modern Standard German. In most cases, the surplus of complexity attested is attributed to contact with the dominant language, Polish.

A Living Grammar Sketch of Arusa,a Nilotic language spoken by a Maasai ethnic group inhabiting the Arusa region in northern Tanzania close to the Mount Kilimanjaro.

The present article is dedicated to conative animal calls (CACs) in a Kalahari Khoe language, Tjwao. By using a prototype approach to categorization, the authors test the Tjwao CACs for their compliance with the prototype of CACs posited recently in scholarly literature. The authors conclude that Tjwao CACs largely conform to the pragma-semantic, phonetic, and morphological properties associated with CACs across languages. In light of the Tjwao data, a few refinements are also proposed. These concern the potential prevalence of whistles as the most common sounds not included in the International Phonetic Alphabet, the correlation of summonses with replication and repetitions as well as front and/or close vowels, the higher frequency of summonses and dispersals among all semantic types of CACs, and the lesser extent of monosemy than previously claimed.

This article analyses Biblical Aramaic (BA) performatives within a prototype approach. The authors demonstrate that BA performatives largely comply with the crosslinguistic prototype and its grammatical and extra-grammatical features. Crucially, although the two ‘tenses’ used, Suffix Conjugation (SC) and Active Participle (AP), exhibit similar frequency in performatives, they differ in distribution: the performative SC is more conventionalised/archaic/typical of Ezra while the performative AP is more productive/innovative/ typical of Daniel. These differences reflect the gradual replacement of SC by AP in performatives due to the profound advancement of the two ‘tenses’ along their respective grammaticalisation paths: the resultative and imperfective paths.

This article offers a typologically-driven and corpus-based analysis of the historical present (HP) “active participle” qātēl in Biblical Aramaic. The authors argue that qātēl instantiates the HP category quite neatly and provide three main arguments. First, qātēl complies with the definition of a progredient/propulsive HP that emerges from crosslinguistic literature: while, in its prototypical use, qātēl expresses some type(s) of present, it may also be employed in narrative to introduce past perfective events. Second, when used as an HP, qātēl exhibits functions that are consistent with tendencies attested across languages: stylistically, the HP qātēl is often associated with expressivity, mirativity, and dramatism, while discourse-pragmatically, it is predominantly related to the progression (rarely, the climax) and atomization of the plot. Third, most other properties exhibited by the HP qātēl also harmonize with the behavior of HPs observed in linguistic typology; these concern types of clauses in which the HP qātēl appears, and subjects and verbs used. Overall, the HP qātēl can be viewed as a highlighting narrative device—subjective although linguistically constrained.

International audience; After decades of political, economic, and scientific efforts, humanity has not gotten any closer to global sustainability. With less than a decade to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) deadline of the 2030 Agenda, we show that global development agendas may be getting lost in translation, from their initial formulation to their final implementation. Sustainability science does not “speak” most of the 2000 languages from Africa, where the lack of indigenous terminology hinders global efforts such as the COVID-19 pandemic fight. Sociolinguistics, social psychology, cognitive ergonomics, geography, environmental sciences, and artificial intelligence (AI) are all relevant disciplinary fields to uncover the “foreign language effect” that hinders the implementation of the SDGs in Africa. We make the case for detecting and addressing language barriers towards multilingual sustainability in Africa by (1) exploring the ”foreign language effect” among African decision-makers and recognising their alternative social representations about sustainability; and (2) detecting Western language stereotypes about sustainability. We propose rethinking SDG-related scientific notions through participatory natural language processing (NLP) and the study of African social representations of sustainability, thus enabling a more inclusive and efficient approach to “sustainability(ies)”.

This study examines the idiolect of Сашко – a hyper-multilingual global nomad whose language repertoire draws on forty languages, ten of which he speaks with native or native-like proficiency. By analyzing grammatical and lexical features typifying Сашко’s translanguaging practices (code-switches, code-borrowings, and code-mixes), as documented in the corpus of reflexive notes that span the last twenty-five years, the author designs Сашко’s translanguaged grammar. Instead of being a passive additive pluralization of separated, autonomous, and static monolects, Сашко’s grammar emerges as a deeply orchestrated, unitary, and dynamic strategy. From Сашко’s perspective, this grammar constitutes a tool to express his rebellious and defiant identity; a tool that – while aiming to combat Western mono-culturalisms, compartmented multilingualisms, and nationalisms – ultimately leads to Сашко’s linguistic and cultural homelessness. This paper – the last in a series of three articles – is dedicated to Сашко’s mixed languages and translanguaged grammar typifying Сашко-lect in its integrity.

This study examines the idiolect of Сашко – a hyper-multilingual global nomad whose language repertoire draws on forty languages, ten of which he speaks with native or native-like proficiency. By analyzing grammatical and lexical features typifying Сашко’s translanguaging practices (code-switches, code-borrowings, and code-mixes), as documented in the corpus of reflexive notes that span the last twenty-five years, the author designs Сашко’s translanguaged grammar. Instead of being a passive additive pluralization of separated, autonomous, and static monolects, Сашко’s grammar emerges as a deeply orchestrated, unitary, and dynamic strategy. From Сашко’s perspective, this grammar constitutes a tool to express his rebellious and defiant identity; a tool that – while aiming to combat Western mono-culturalisms, compartmented multilingualisms, and nationalisms – ultimately leads to Сашко’s linguistic and cultural homelessness. This paper – the second in a series of three – is dedicated to language-contact mechanisms operating in Сашко-lect: code-switching and borrowing.

The present paper discusses the issue of Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs) in Biblical Aramaic within the dynamic grammaticalization-based model of verbal serialization – a recent modification of a prototype-driven approach to SVCs used in linguistic typology. Having analyzed the entire corpus of Biblical Aramaic, the authors conclude the following: (a) verbal serialization constitutes an integral part of the verbal system of Biblical Aramaic; (b) pre-canonical SVCs are more common that canonical SVCs, and no cases of post-canonicity are attested; (c) Biblical Aramaic is a semi-advanced serializing language. Overall, the research corroborates the tendency of Semitic languages to gradually increase their serializing profile; a tendency that is often – albeit not without exception – correlated with the languages’ relative chronology.

The present paper analyzes the category of interjections in Xhosa within a prototype approach. The evidence demonstrates the robustness and internal complexity of the interjectional category. Interjections ranges from canonical and asystematic to non-canonical and (relatively) systematic, with emotive primary interjections entertaining the highest extent of interjectionality and asystematicity.

The present paper provides a systematic description of interjections in a moribund Eastern Kalahari Khoe language – Tjwao. After analysing original evidence within a prototype-driven approach, the authors conclude the following: (a) in Tjwao, the interjectional lexical class constitutes an internally diverse category confined between the canonical centre and a non-prototypical periphery; and (b) primary emotive interjections exhibit the highest degree of canonicity and extra-systematicity, while the canonicity and extra-systematicity of secondary phatic interjections is lowest.

This article examines the lexical class of interjections in Biblical Aramaic through the framework of an interjectional prototype and its functional (semantic and pragmatic) and formal (phonetic, morphological, and syntactic) characteristics. The authors analyse eight interjectional lexemes or constructional patterns, attested in twenty-four uses, for their compliance to the canonical prototype. The evidence reveals significant variation in the interjections’ canonicity: high canonicity in primary interjections, semi-canonicity in nearly primary interjections, and low canonicity in secondary interjections.

The present article expands our empirical and theoretical knowledge of conative animal calls (CACs) in the languages of the world. By drawing on canonical typology and prototype theory – and by contrasting the original evidence related to the category of CACs in Arusa Maasai with the evidence concerning CACs in other languages that is currently available in scholarship – the authors design a cross-linguistic prototype of a CAC and enumerate its 18 prototypical non-formal (semantic-pragmatic) and formal (phonetic, morphological, and syntactic) features., Note: This talk has not gone through a process of peer review, and findings should therefore be treated as preliminary and subject to change. Acknowledgement and citation: Karani, Michael and Alexander Andrason. 2021. Conative calls to animals: From Arusa Maasai to a cross-linguistic prototype. Talk given at the Rift Valley Network Webinar Series. 25/08/2021.

This study examines the idiolect of Сашко – a hyper-multilingual global nomad whose language repertoire draws on forty languages, ten of which he speaks with native or native-like proficiency. By analyzing grammatical and lexical features typifying Сашко’s translanguaging practices (code-switches, code-borrowings, and code-mixes), as docu­mented in the corpus of reflexive notes that span the last twenty-five years, the author designs Сашко’s translanguaged grammar. Instead of being a passive additive plurali­zation of separated, autonomous, and static monolects, Сашко’s grammar emerges as a deeply orchestrated, unitary, and dynamic strategy. From Сашко’s perspective, this grammar constitutes a tool to express his rebellious and defiant identity; a tool that – while aiming to combat Western mono-culturalisms, compartmented multilingualisms, and nationalisms – ultimately leads to Сашко’s linguistic and cultural homelessness. This paper – the first in the series of three articles – is dedicated to methodological is­sues: the frameworks that are adopted in the different parts of the study, the method with which the description and analysis of Сашко’s idiolect is developed, and the corpus that underlies the empirical research of Сашко-lect.

Developed within the cross-linguistic framework of meteorological constructions formulated by Eriksen, Kittilä and Kolehmainen, the present article reviews and analyses manners of the encoding of precipitation events in isiXhosa (S 41). These include expressions of rain, hail, sleet, and snow. Overall, the evidence provided corroborates various synchronic and diachronic aspects of the framework posited by Eriksen et al. Furthermore, the study reveals several properties of precipitation constructions in isiXhosa that may have implications for a broader typological theory: greater complexity in the encoding of the event of rain in comparison to the other types of precipitation; lack of uniformity with respect to the morphosyntactic encoding of precipitation phenomena; onomatopoeic sources of precipitation verbs and nouns, and their relation to ideophones; presence of the expletive predicate type in non-Indo-European languages; and certain regularities concerning the argument structure of precipitation verbs, their (in)transitivity and valency changing processes.

This article studies the compliance of Biblical Hebrew (BH) interjections with the formal prototype of interjections formulated in linguistic typology. The authors demonstrate that, globally, the lexical class of interjections in Biblical Hebrew exhibits a semi-canonical and thus semi-extra-systematic profile as far as its form is concerned. Locally, the levels of canonicity and extra-systematicity of BH interjections are uneven—high in morphology and moderate in phonology and syntax.

Wymysorys is a minority language spoken in the town of Wilamowice in southern Poland. Even though Wymysorys is classified as a West-Germanic language, its phonetics, lexicon, and core grammar—morphology or syntax—exhibit various Slavonic characteristics. This chapter discusses phenomena related to V2 word order in Wymysorys. It is argued that Wymysorys enables its speakers to operate between two word order systems that represent two forces driving the grammar of this language: Germanic and Slavonic. The Germanic system is relatively rigid and allows for the V2 order to exist in its canonical form. The Slavonic system, in contrast, is relatively free, albeit less so than in canonical free-word-order languages. In that system, which has probably emerged due to contact with Polish, the V2 rule does not operate. Wymysorys speakers may draw on the Germanic and Slavonic systems, mixing them by increasing or decreasing the features that are characteristic of one of the two.

This article analyzes the categorial status of thewziąćgram – a construction that is composed of two consecutive inflected verbs: the minor verbwziąć‘lit. take’ (V1) and a major verb (V2) – within the radial network of serial verb constructions (SVC). After comparing thewziąćgram with properties associated with the prototype of a SVC and its cross-linguistic instantiations, the author concludes that the construction can be regarded as a relatively canonical member of the SVC category. The gram complies with all the primary characteristics of the prototype of a SVC, and exhibits various secondary properties and phenomena that are associated with or accompany SVCs across languages. The position of thewziąćgram is canonical even though the Polish language utilizes verbal serialization only minimally and belongs to a geographic area that is scarce for systems with productive serialization. In this manner, Polish proves that verbal serialization is a grammatical device that is not unknown to Indo-European languages of Europe.

The present paper offers a comprehensive description of M[eteorological] constructions in Polish and their analysis within a typological framework formulated by Eriksen, Kittila and Kolehmainen. The article demonstrates the utility of that framework (both with respect to its morpho‐syntactic and semantic distinctions) and corroborates various of its synchronic and diachronic hypotheses. The author also introduces original data that further advance the typology of M constructions. Overall, the evidence reveals great complexity of M constructions, much greater than presented in grammar books on which crosslinguistic studies tend to be subsequently based.

The present paper studies the PÓJŚĆ gram in Polish – a construction composed of the verb pójść ‘walk’ and another inflected verb. The author demonstrates that the PÓJŚĆ can be represented as a set of stages on the path linking bi-clausality/bi-verbiness and monoclausal/mono-verbiness. Specifically, it spans the section ranging from a non-canonical, less cohesive instantiation of a serial verb construction (SVC) (in which it overlaps with asyndetic coordination) to a canonical instantiation of SVC (in which it complies with the SVC prototype to a large extent). Accordingly, the study corroborates the view that SVCs may derive from asyndetic coordination and, by accumulating properties associated with different parts of the clausality/verbiness continuum, gradually develop towards SVC. This gradualness is not only diachronic, but may also be observed synchronically.

The present paper analyzes the exoticness of Khoekhoe-sourced ideophones as a possible factor that stimulated the introduction of certain phonological novelties to the sound system of Xhosa. Having analyzed Khoekhoe-sourced ideophones of Xhosa for five exotic features postulated crosslinguistically (aberrant sounds and configurations of sounds, length, tones and harmony), the author concludes the following: due to their intense phonological exoticness and the crosslinguistic propensity for unaltered borrowing, Khoekhoe-sourced ideophones may have played a relevant role in the Khoekhoe-Xhosa transfer. The efficiency of this transfer seems to be correlated with the frequency of a given exotic feature in the donor Khoekhoe lexemes.Keywords: Khoekhoe; Xhosa; Ideophones; language contact

Developed within the frame of cognitive and typological linguistics, the present study examines the taxonomical status of the lexemes i and z in Polish. To achieve this aim, the author analyzes the compliance of the two forms with the prototype of coordinate-hood and the structure of their maps of polyfunctionality. The evidence demonstrates that i is a canonical instantiation of the category of coordinate-hood while z is less canonical. Additionally, the two lexemes yield different maps of polyfunctionality (with distinct prototypicality nuclei), which reflects their distinct diachronic and conceptual origin. The map of i radiates from the value of ‘also’ while the map of z radiates from a comitative sense. This article – the last in a series of two – completes the presentation of the empirical evidence and interprets it within the adopted framework. The degrees of canonicity of i and z are determined and the semantic-functional maps of the two lexemes are compared.

Developed within the frames of cognitive linguistics and grammaticalisation theory, the present study analyses the relationship between the performative function in isiXhosa and its grammatical encoding in terms of tense and aspect. The evidence demonstrates that isiXhosa conforms to the cross-linguistically pervasive pattern relating performatives with determined types of temporal-aspectual grams. The compatibility with the performative function increases with the advancement of grams along the imperfective path, but decreases with their advancement along the anterior path. This relation further suggests a temporal-aspectual foundation underlying performatives, namely their completive essence (i.e. the idea of being completed).

This paper examines the syntactic properties of interjections in isiXhosa and their compliance with the interjectional prototype and its extra-systematicity as postulated in linguistic typology. By reviewing nearly two thousand uses of interjections in the comic genre, the authors conclude the following: in its integrity, the category of interjections is internally complex and diversified, containing members with varying degrees of canonicity and extra-systematicity. Although in various uses interjections comply with the interjectional prototype, being thus extra-systematic, in many others, their canonicity and extra-systematicity are significantly lower.