Article
Licensed
Unlicensed
Requires Authentication
The enclitic -mm in Amharic: reassessment of a multifunctional morpheme
-
Published/Copyright:
May 13, 2008
Abstract
In this article we examine the enclitic -mm in Amharic and its claimed functions as topic marker and coordinative conjunction. The enclitic -mm has multiple translations into English, and would thus seem to constitute a multifunctional morpheme. In contrast to previous analyses, we argue that the several interpretations of enclitic -mm in discourse are due to different context-dependent readings of its single function, namely as contrastive focus marker.
Received: 2004-01-07
Revised: 2005-01-20
Published Online: 2008-05-13
Published in Print: 2008-May
© 2008 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin
You are currently not able to access this content.
You are currently not able to access this content.
Articles in the same Issue
- The semantics of particles: advantages of a contrastive and panchronic approach: a study of the polysemy of French déjà and Italian già
- Word length and the location of primary word stress in Dutch, German, and English
- What about a (really) minimalist theory of language acquisition?
- A constructionist approach to complementation: evidence from Ancient Greek
- The enclitic -mm in Amharic: reassessment of a multifunctional morpheme
- The later development of an early-emerging system: the curious case of the Polish genitive
- Book reviews
Articles in the same Issue
- The semantics of particles: advantages of a contrastive and panchronic approach: a study of the polysemy of French déjà and Italian già
- Word length and the location of primary word stress in Dutch, German, and English
- What about a (really) minimalist theory of language acquisition?
- A constructionist approach to complementation: evidence from Ancient Greek
- The enclitic -mm in Amharic: reassessment of a multifunctional morpheme
- The later development of an early-emerging system: the curious case of the Polish genitive
- Book reviews
