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Chapter 20. A-prefixing in the ex-slave narratives

  • Janie Rees-Miller
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All Things Morphology
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch All Things Morphology

Abstract

The speech of elderly African-Americans collected in the ex-slave narratives during the 1930s can enhance our understanding of both form and meaning of a-prefixing. Drawing on a selection of interviews that includes approximately 400 tokens of a-prefixing from over 100 individuals, this study will examine the types of words on which a-prefixing occurs, the phonological constraints on it, and the morpho-syntactic patterns in which it is more likely. From these interviews we can infer a semantic meaning of intensification for a-prefixing, especially in narrative contexts involving emotionally-charged events. This semantic meaning of a-prefixing may be related to the development of the progressive.

Abstract

The speech of elderly African-Americans collected in the ex-slave narratives during the 1930s can enhance our understanding of both form and meaning of a-prefixing. Drawing on a selection of interviews that includes approximately 400 tokens of a-prefixing from over 100 individuals, this study will examine the types of words on which a-prefixing occurs, the phonological constraints on it, and the morpho-syntactic patterns in which it is more likely. From these interviews we can infer a semantic meaning of intensification for a-prefixing, especially in narrative contexts involving emotionally-charged events. This semantic meaning of a-prefixing may be related to the development of the progressive.

Heruntergeladen am 9.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/cilt.353.20ree/pdf
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