许国璋高研院学术讲堂 第三十六讲
Swahili in space and time: Morphology and syntax of Old Swahili, Standard Swahili and Eastern Bantu languages
主讲人：Lutz Marten, Professor of General and African Linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
时间：2019年7月3日（周三）下午3:00 – 5:00
地点：北京外国语大学图书馆四层报告厅
主办：北京外国语大学亚非学院
北京外国语大学许国璋语言高等研究院
讲座内容：Comparative-historical studies of language have often focussed on lexical and phonological data, and less on morphosyntactic construction types. Similarly, language classification and reconstruction also relies largely on these data. Focusing on the Bantu language Swahili, the present study develops a novel approach to the study of morphosyntactic variation in Bantu, by including historical data from classical Swahili poetry and by adopting both qualitative and quantitative methods of comparison. I will discuss variation in Old Swahili and compare Old Swahili to Modern Standard Swahili, both in terms of the nature of morphosyntactic differences seen, and as part of a quantitative study comparing Old Swahili with 15 neighbouring East African Bantu languages. The study shows that the relation between Old Swahili and Standard Swahili is characterised by a loss of variability and processes of regularisation. I propose that this is related, at least in part, to processes of language planning and standardisation which Swahili underwent from the 20th century onwards. Results of the study present a new perspective on the study of morphosyntactic variation as they show the effect of standardisation and a particular trajectory of morphosyntactic development. They also show the usefulness of combining qualitative and quantitative methods in the study of morphosyntactic variation.
讲座人简介：Lutz Marten is Professor of General and African Linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, where he served as Dean of the Faculty of Languages and Cultures from 2015 to 2018. He is interested in linguistic theory, comparative and historical linguistics, and questions of language and identity. Most of his work focuses African languages and he has conducted research in Eastern and Southern Africa. He recently completed a 3-year Leverhulme-funded major research project on ‘Morphosyntactic Variation in Bantu: Typology, contact and change’ (2014-18).
His publications include At the Syntax-Pragmatics Interface (OUP 2002), A Grammatical Sketch of Herero (with Wilhelm Möhlig and JekuraKavari, Köppe 2002), The Dynamics of Language (with Ronnie Cann and Ruth Kempson, Elsevier 2005), and Colloquial Swahili (with Donovan McGrath, Routledge 2003/2012). He is also the founding chair of the International Conference on Bantu Languages.
