Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10397/75465
PIRA download icon_1.1View/Download Full Text
Title: Clausal coordination in Gã : the case of nì †
Authors: Nartey, M 
Issue Date: 2018
Source: Languages, 2018, v. 3, no. 3, p. 1-13
Abstract: This paper analyses the communicative functions of the Gã (Niger–Congo, Kwa branch) clausal connective nì, roughly corresponding to English ‘and’, drawing on Wilson and Sperber’s (1995; 2004) relevance theory. The study demonstrates that nì is a conjunction that achieves optimal relevance when the nì-utterance has cognitive effects that transcend those of the individual conjuncts of nì. Importantly, the use of nì leads the way in providing clues that aid the interlocutor to “work out” the nature of the inferential relation between the conjuncts. These inferential relations, including addition, temporality, causality, contrast and parallelism, ultimately enable the interlocutor to arrive at the desired and/or intended interpretation of the utterance as a whole. This paper is, thus, an attempt to account for the meaning of nì as well as the pragmatic processes that inform the specific inferential relations between the nì-conjuncts. It also illumines the ways in which pragmatic enrichment and context-dependent inference can strengthen the logical form of clausal coordination in Gã.
Keywords: Coordinating connective
Conjunct
Enrichment

Inference
Publisher: MDPI AG
Journal: Languages 
EISSN: 2226-471X
DOI: 10.3390/languages3010003
Rights: © 2018 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Appears in Collections:Journal/Magazine Article

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
Clausal_Coordination_in_Ga.pdf537.97 kBAdobe PDFView/Open
Open Access Information
Status open access
File Version Version of Record
Access
View full-text via PolyU eLinks SFX Query
Show full item record

Page views

113
Last Week
2
Last month
Citations as of Mar 24, 2024

Downloads

104
Citations as of Mar 24, 2024

Google ScholarTM

Check

Altmetric


Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.