Books by Yvonne Treis
Kambaata (self-name: Kambaatissata) is a Highland East Cushitic language spoken by several hundre... more Kambaata (self-name: Kambaatissata) is a Highland East Cushitic language spoken by several hundred thousand speakers in the Ethiopian highlands, around the Hambarrichcho massif in the South of Ethiopia.
This book constitutes the first part of an in-depth grammatical description of the hitherto hardly explored language. The first chapters of the book address phonological and morphophonological issues and explain the grammatical importance of accent. The central chapter focuses on nominal morphology and deals, among others, with the elaborate Kambaata case system and the complex functions of number morphemes. The features of the large open word class of adjectives are discussed in detail. Furthermore, recent innovations in the personal pronoun systems and the functions of the various demonstratives are examined. The final chapter describes the intricate distribution of the copulas.
Kambaata is used as a medium of instruction in primary schools. The official orthography is Latin-based.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry has been translated into Kambaata, a Cushitic langu... more The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry has been translated into Kambaata, a Cushitic language of Ethiopia, by Deginet Wotango Doyiso and Yvonne Treis. After Amharic, Kambaata is only the second Ethiopian language into which this popular book is translated. The Kambaata version is published with Tintenfaß (https://www.verlag-tintenfass.de/HTM/259%20Der%20Kleine%20Prinz%20Kambaata.html). The audio version of the book can be requested from the translators.
Edited books and special issues by Yvonne Treis
This volume explores the use of demonstratives in the structuring and management of discourse, an... more This volume explores the use of demonstratives in the structuring and management of discourse, and their role as engagement expressions, from a crosslinguistic perspective. It seeks to establish which types of discourse-related functions are commonly encoded by demonstratives, beyond the well-established reference-tracking and deictic uses, and also investigates which members of demonstrative paradigms typically take on certain functions. Moreover, it looks at the roles of non-deictic demonstratives, that is, members of the paradigm which are dedicated e.g. to contrastive, recognitional, or anaphoric functions and do not express deictic distinctions. Several of the studies also focus on manner demonstratives, which have been little studied from a crosslinguistic perspective. The volume thus broadens the scope of investigation of demonstratives to look at how their core functions interact with a wider range of discourse functions in a number of different languages. The volume covers languages from a range of geographical locations and language families, including Cushitic and Mande languages in Africa, Oceanic and Papuan languages in the Pacific region, Algonquian and Guaykuruan in the Americas, and Germanic, Slavic and Finno-Ugric languages in the Eurasian region. It also includes two papers taking a broader typological approach to specific discourse functions of demonstratives.
![Research paper thumbnail of Treis, Yvonne & Martine Vanhove (eds.) 2017. Similative and Equative Constructions: A cross-linguistic perspective. [Typological Studies in Language, 117.] Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins.](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/53500463/thumbnails/1.jpg)
While comparative constructions have been extensively studied in the past decades, the expression... more While comparative constructions have been extensively studied in the past decades, the expression of equality and similarity has so far attracted little attention in the typological literature. The fifteen contributions assembled in this volume study similative and equative constructions in typologically and genetically distant languages, albeit with a focus on Africa, and from a range of perspectives. Purely synchronically oriented case studies are supplemented by contributions that also shed light on the diachronic development of similative and equative constructions in language contact situations. Sources of similative morphemes and lexically expressed concepts of likeness are examined, and little-known multifunctionality patterns and grammaticalisation targets of similative morphemes – such as purpose clause markers, modality morphemes and markers of glottonyms – are discussed. Based on a sample of 119 languages worldwide, a new typology of equative constructions is proposed. The book should be of interest to typologists, semanticists, specialists of grammaticalization, historical linguistics and syntax.
The present volume is a selection of the papers presented during the 1st International Conference... more The present volume is a selection of the papers presented during the 1st International Conference on Cushitic Languages, Paris, 8-12 September 1975. Some thirty scholars gathered, coming from several African, European and American countries: Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Sudan (where these languages are spoken), Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, United Kingdom, and United States. The conference rested ignored, and the issues have never been announced since now: due to a lack of funds, the contributions are published only now, 40 years after the conference has been held. The papers are grouped thematically, in order to underline the consistency of the debates that took place during the meeting. Moreover, mp3-audio files that contain 24 hours and 6 minutes of the public presentations are presented on the DVD. Furthermore, and original contributions of scholars amounting to 97 minutes are attached to the texts.
The 2009 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society Conference was held at La Trobe Universi... more The 2009 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society Conference was held at La Trobe University from 9 to 11 July 2009 and was co-hosted by the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology and the Linguistics Program.
Thirty-six papers presented at the conference were submitted for these proceedings, of which twenty-one were accepted for publication after an anonymous peer review. Papers were anonymously reviewed by at least two academic referees to DIISR standards and a majority of papers were reviewed by experts at overseas universities. The review process for the proceedings was separate from and in addition to that of the conference abstracts. We are grateful to all referees for their meticulous work and their constructive comments. We are especially indebted to Joanne Taylor for her invaluable expertise in all stages of the editing process.
Articles and book chapters by Yvonne Treis
Treis, Yvonne 2020. Presentatives in Kambaata from a Cushitic perspective. In: Leblic, Isabelle & Lameen Souag (eds.). Du terrain à la théorie : Les 40 ans du LACITO. Actes du colloque international, 15-17 novembre 2016, Villejuif (France). pp. 343-369. Villejuif: LACITO-Publications., 2020
This article is the first study of presentative demonstratives in a Cushitic language. It closes ... more This article is the first study of presentative demonstratives in a Cushitic language. It closes a gap in the grammatical documentation of Kambaata (Highland East Cushitic) and analyzes in detail the morphology and the functions of presentative demonstratives (‘here s/he is!’). In the Cushitic context, the Kambaata presentative system stands out as unique in its morphological complexity: Kambaata presentative demonstratives are marked for three deictic dimensions, and in each deictic dimension two genders and two numbers are distinguished, which amounts to 12 functionally distinct forms, plus 12 free or dialectal variants. The presentatives cannot be morphologically derived from other (adjectival, pronominal) demonstrative types. Kambaata is not the only Cushitic language with presentatives but traces of this demonstrative type are difficult to come by. The article is able to present the first evidence for the existence of presentative demonstratives in Hadiyya, Gedeo, Sidaama and Oromo.
In: Næss, Åshild, Anna Margetts & Yvonne Treis (eds.) 2020. Demonstratives in Discourses, pp. 43–67. Berlin: Language Science Press. Available online: https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/282
This chapter compares manner demonstratives in two unrelated African languages, Kambaata (Cushiti... more This chapter compares manner demonstratives in two unrelated African languages, Kambaata (Cushitic, Ethiopia) and Wan (Mande, Côte d’Ivoire). Both languages have specialised manner demonstratives, yet differ strikingly in their typological profile and in the way the manner demonstratives behave syntactically. Through systematic comparison of data from both languages, similarities, which are likely due to common semantic mechanisms of meaning extension, and differences, which are likely due to structural differences between the languages, are identified. It is argued that, despite the shared core meanings, manner demonstratives belong to different syntactic classes in Kambaata and in Wan. The difference in syntactic category helps account for the striking dissimilarities in the range of attested extended uses.
Studies in African Linguistics, 2019
This paper is an analysis of the basic and extended meanings of temperature lexemes and the gramm... more This paper is an analysis of the basic and extended meanings of temperature lexemes and the grammar of temperature expressions in Kambaata in comparison to related Highland East Cushitic languages of Ethiopia. Globally, Kambaata has a system of two opposing temperature values, 'cold' vs. 'warm/hot'. The lexeme iib-'be(come) warm/hot' contrasts with caal-'be(come) tactile cold' in the tactile frame of temperature evaluation, while it contrasts with gid-'be(come) non-tactile cold' in the domain of ambient (weather) and personal-feeling (inner) temperature. In addition to these central lexemes, Kambaata has a number of terms that are semantically more restricted, are less frequent and/or have an unequivocal positive or negative connotation, including, e.g., sigg-'be(come) comfortably cold or warm, cool' and buss-'burn (tr.); be dangerously, excessively hot'. Irrespective of the temperature value, the expression of personal-feeling temperature is constructionally different from that of ambient temperature and tactile temperature; for the former a transitive, for the latter an intransitive construction is used. As for the extended uses of temperature terms, Kambaata maps warmth/heat onto freshness, busyness, and anger, and links burning heat to anger, spiciness and raging thirst. Unlike many other languages in the world, Kambaata does not relate warmth/heat to affection. Furthermore, Kambaata conceptualizes inactivity, ineptness and fear as tactile cold but the absence of emotional and physical pain as non-tactile cold. Coolness is linked metaphorically to calmness and absence of thirst. In the Highland East Cushitic branch of languages, 'warm/hot' is the most stable term, whereas six seemingly non-cognate roots are used for 'tactile cold' and/or 'non-tactile cold'.
Linguistic Discovery, 2018
This paper is an in-depth study of the expression of comparison in Kambaata, a Highland East Cush... more This paper is an in-depth study of the expression of comparison in Kambaata, a Highland East Cushitic language of Ethiopia. It discusses not only quantitative comparison, i.e. comparison of relative and absolute inequality and comparison of equality, but also analyses the morphology and syntax of expressions of qualitative comparison, i.e. comparison of similarity. Apart from predicative constructions, the analysis takes into account attributive comparative, superlative, equative and similative constructions. In the comparative construction (lit. ‘X is tall from Y’), the standard of comparison is marked by the ablative case, as in most languages spoken in the Horn of Africa. Kambaata distinguishes between two superlative constructions, one of which is based on the comparative construction (‘X is tall from all’), while the other is characterised by a locative standard of comparison (‘X is tall among Y’). Furthermore, Kambaata has two equative constructions. The first is based on the similative construction (‘X is tall like Y’); the second is a periphrastic construction (‘X is tall to the extent Y’). The paper also argues that the enclitic morpheme which marks the standard of comparison in the similative construction originates from a noun meaning ‘manner’. [Downloadable at: https://journals.dartmouth.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Journals.woa/1/xmlpage/1/document/1101]
Linguistic Discovery, 2018
(This paper is the introduction to the special issue "On the expression of comparison: Contributi... more (This paper is the introduction to the special issue "On the expression of comparison: Contributions to the typology of comparative constructions from lesser-known languages")
This article focusses on derivation and compounding processes in Kambaata (Cushitic) that have ca... more This article focusses on derivation and compounding processes in Kambaata (Cushitic) that have cardinal numerals as input. After the formation of cardinal numerals has been summarised, the article describes in detail the ordinal, distributive and multiplicative numeral derivations. Furthermore, one section of the paper is dedicated to adjectival and nominal compounds based on numerals. Finally, I elaborate on the expression of fractions, approximation and mathematical operations. Whenever possible, denumeral formation in Kambaata is compared to that of closely related Highland East Cushitic language. [Pre-publication version can be viewed on HAL: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01294217v2]
In more than 30 languages spoken at the Horn of Africa, a similative morpheme ‘like’ or a noun ‘m... more In more than 30 languages spoken at the Horn of Africa, a similative morpheme ‘like’ or a noun ‘manner’ or ‘type’ is used as a marker of purpose clauses. The paper first elaborates on the many functions of the enclitic morpheme =g ‘manner’ in Kambaata (Highland East Cushitic), which is used, among others, as a marker of the standard in similative and equative comparison (‘like’, ‘as’), of temporal clauses of immediate anteriority (‘as soon as’), of complement clauses (‘that’) and, most notably, of purpose clauses (‘in order to’). The second part of the paper gives a detailed account of the distribution of the use of ‘like’, ‘manner’ or ‘type’ as a purpose clause marker in Afroasiatic and Nilo-Saharan languages of the Horn of Africa. Similative-purpose multifunctionality, which is cross-linguistically rare, concentrates especially in central areas of Ethiopia and can be assumed to be the result of language contact between certain Cushitic, Ethio-Semitic and Omotic languages. [A preliminary version of the paper can be viewed on HAL: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01351924]
Baskeet is a little known Omotic language. After an introduction into the sound system of the lan... more Baskeet is a little known Omotic language. After an introduction into the sound system of the language in section 2, this work presents a list of about 200 Baskeet words in a phonemic and a broad phonetic transcription with tone marking. Each lexical item is linked to a sound file. The aim of this publication is to make verifiable lexical data available to a wider public for the comparison of Ometo languages (and dialects).
The present article analyzes the grammatical means of encoding interrogativity in the Omotic lang... more The present article analyzes the grammatical means of encoding interrogativity in the Omotic language Baskeet. At first, an overview of interrogative marking on verbal and non-verbal predicates is given. Depending on the type of predicate, direct questions are marked by intonation only, or, additionally, by an interrogative morpheme -a, or special interrogative verb forms. Secondly, the forms and functions of the six simplex interrogative pronouns, i.e. PERSON, THING, TIME, QUANTITY, MANNER, PLACE, and SELECTION interrogatives, as well as pronouns derived from them, are discussed. Finally, the article considers the use of interrogatives in non-interrogative contexts. The analysis is primarily based on a corpus of recorded spontaneous speech events.
This paper analyses the expression of number; more precisely, it investigates on which parts of s... more This paper analyses the expression of number; more precisely, it investigates on which parts of speech and by which linguistic means number is grammatically encoded in Kambaata (Cushitic, Ethiopia). Number is marked, to different degrees, on common nouns, proper nouns and pronouns. Traces of number agreement are found on modifiers and verbs. The core of this paper deals with number marking on common nouns, especially the interaction of number marking with the lexical semantics of certain noun classes. A comparison with the grammatical categories of case and gender shows that number is a grammatical category between inflection and derivation.
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Books by Yvonne Treis
This book constitutes the first part of an in-depth grammatical description of the hitherto hardly explored language. The first chapters of the book address phonological and morphophonological issues and explain the grammatical importance of accent. The central chapter focuses on nominal morphology and deals, among others, with the elaborate Kambaata case system and the complex functions of number morphemes. The features of the large open word class of adjectives are discussed in detail. Furthermore, recent innovations in the personal pronoun systems and the functions of the various demonstratives are examined. The final chapter describes the intricate distribution of the copulas.
Kambaata is used as a medium of instruction in primary schools. The official orthography is Latin-based.
Edited books and special issues by Yvonne Treis
Thirty-six papers presented at the conference were submitted for these proceedings, of which twenty-one were accepted for publication after an anonymous peer review. Papers were anonymously reviewed by at least two academic referees to DIISR standards and a majority of papers were reviewed by experts at overseas universities. The review process for the proceedings was separate from and in addition to that of the conference abstracts. We are grateful to all referees for their meticulous work and their constructive comments. We are especially indebted to Joanne Taylor for her invaluable expertise in all stages of the editing process.
Articles and book chapters by Yvonne Treis
This book constitutes the first part of an in-depth grammatical description of the hitherto hardly explored language. The first chapters of the book address phonological and morphophonological issues and explain the grammatical importance of accent. The central chapter focuses on nominal morphology and deals, among others, with the elaborate Kambaata case system and the complex functions of number morphemes. The features of the large open word class of adjectives are discussed in detail. Furthermore, recent innovations in the personal pronoun systems and the functions of the various demonstratives are examined. The final chapter describes the intricate distribution of the copulas.
Kambaata is used as a medium of instruction in primary schools. The official orthography is Latin-based.
Thirty-six papers presented at the conference were submitted for these proceedings, of which twenty-one were accepted for publication after an anonymous peer review. Papers were anonymously reviewed by at least two academic referees to DIISR standards and a majority of papers were reviewed by experts at overseas universities. The review process for the proceedings was separate from and in addition to that of the conference abstracts. We are grateful to all referees for their meticulous work and their constructive comments. We are especially indebted to Joanne Taylor for her invaluable expertise in all stages of the editing process.