231127 Question formation and indirect speech acts in the Mabia languages of Ghana (S) (SoSe 2025)

The goal of this seminar is to investigate the existence and structure of indirect speech acts in the Mabia languages. The Mabia languages (formerly Gur) are a language family of about 70 languages spoken in the Sahelian and Savanna regions of West Africa. We concentrate on languages spoken in Northern Ghana.

After a general introduction into the syntax of Mabia languages, we are focusing on question formation in Mabia languages, particularly the ex-situ and in-situ strategies in wh-questions as well as the structure of polar questions.

In the final part of the course, we will plan a questionnaire for eliciting data concerning indirect speech acts (ISAs) in Mabia languages. Indirect speech acts (ISAs) show up when the clause type and the intended speech act mismatch. Concretely, we want to study whether ISAs, such as in (1), exist in the Mabia languages.

(1) Could you pass me the salt?
Clause Type: question
SA: request

Participants are expected to actively work on the study and take on assigned responsibilities after an introduction into the topic of ISAs and an introduction into the methodology of data elicitation.

Teilnahmevoraussetzungen, notwendige Vorkenntnisse

Willingness to actively participate in the discussions and the development of the questionnaire study is expected.

Literaturangaben

A list of literature is provided at the beginning of the course.