Ronald P Schaefer
Biographic Data
| ID | 110906 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ronald P Schaefer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ronald P |
| FAMILY NAME | Schaefer |
| SIGNATURE | SCHAEFER R P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Southern Illinois University Edwardsville |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4053-3082 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 23 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Mood
Relative to the under-analyzed West African language Emai, we describe a system of underlying tones and syllabic segments. They surface as co-exponents to characterize mood. At the underlying level we propose a predicative complex in which tones and segmental forms contrast to distinguish categories of mood that identify the reality status of clausal information, i.e. actualized vs. non-actualized. Actualized status is determined by a two-tone pr…
Tonal aberrations signaling contact-induced grammatical change
We examine tonal and non-tonal features involved in the diachronic emergence of a future tense category in Emai, an Edoid language of southern Nigeria. The extant tense system in Emai incorporates values for both temporal distance and the temporal units past, present, and future. We concentrate on linguistic coding of the future and its associated expressions. Initially, we review the set of markers for futurity in the West Benue Congo branch of …
Tone, viewpoint aspect, and imperative mood
We examine the interaction between viewpoint aspect and imperative mood in an under-described and endangered Edoid language of West Africa. In Emai, tone functions both lexically and grammatically. Verbs in citation form, including bisyllabic items, are toneless. In declarative mood Emai distinguishes perfective from imperfective, with perfective assigning high tone to a verb and imperfective assigning low. Imperative mood takes perfective aspect…
Preverbs
Preverbs are positionally-delimited grammatical forms that remain understudied. We examine their semantic classes in West Benue Congo (WBC) and its minor language Emai, which until recently was undocumented. Preverb classes in Emai display a subset of semantic categories identified in Dixon (1991, 2006, 2010) and Nuyts (2001, 2005, 2006, 2016). There are eight semantic classes for 30 odd preverb forms. They are apportioned according to their qual…
Metatony, S-constituent linkage, and cognate objects
We examine metatony and its grammatical conditioning in an under described Edoid language of West Africa. In Emai, metatony on verbs is signaled by perfective suffix -í with underlying high tone. With a following adjunct, tone on this suffix is high and retained. When clause final, -í is retained but with low tone. When followed by a verb argument, the -í suffix is prohibited. Verbs with a following S-constituent exhibit metatonic asymmetry. Clas…
Reassessing gender in Ogbe-Oloma
We re-assess the gender system of Ogbe-Oloma, an Edoid village variety of Nigeria. System exponents are prefixes that define form class and reflect grammatical number. We find that eight agreement classes undergird fourteen genders, while seventeen nominal form classes frame twenty-five number inflections. Prefix mapping from inflection to gender is non-isomorphic. Mapping is however constrained by syllable shape, CV- versus V-, and alliterative …
Emai's Variable Coding of Adjuncts
This paper examines the morphosyntactic character of clauses containing adjuncts in Emai (Edoid and West Benue Congo). In clauses differing as to discourse function, adjunct coding is variable. Some adjunct types are consistently structured as either head of a phrase or complement in a phrase headed by a verb. Other adjuncts are coded more variably. In canonical declarative clauses, they appear in postverbal position unmarked by a verb, but in on…
Observations on Reference Object Geometry in Emai Path Expressions
Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1986), pp. 485-496
Demarcating Emai dative constructions
This paper investigates the formal and functional character of a dative relation and two additional structural relations in Emai, an Edoid language of West Benue Congo stock (Bendor-Samuel 1989, Williamson and Blench 2000). Each relation is grammatically expressed by a common morphophoneme. Postverbal particle li/ni marks Emai dative constituents. In addition, li/ni codes a limited range of subordinate clause types within complex sentences, and w…
On Emai VBI phrases
We examine the distribution of Emai prepositional phrases and their NP complements relative to intransitive verbs. In canonical order constructions, vbi phrases follow a matrix verb as optional or obligatory constituents, or they follow the verb za in series before another matrix verb. In non-canonical order constructions, focused NP complements give rise to the verb za in series with only a subclass of intransitive verbs. Through lexical entry f…
Emai's Aspect-Causative Interaction
On the properties of Emai's khi copula construction
This paper examines the equational identity (El) construction in Nigeria's Edoid language Emai. It weighs this construction's grammatical properties against a complex of equational identity patterns developed in the crosslinguistic investigations of Stassen (1997). Although EI properties reveal its functional heritage, they fail to conform fully to Stassen's findings. While EI noun phrases are sensitive to information structure and definiteness v…
Ideophonic adverbs and manner gaps in Emai
English and the pace of endangerment in Nigeria
This paper examines oral questionnaire data in order to assess the tenability of the prevailing hypothesis that Africa's language endangerment situation is characterized by the replacement of minority vernaculars with indigenous majority languages. Questionnaire items attended to evaluation accorded minority vernacular as well as language choice in home and non-home settings. Data were obtained from adults, teenagers and children in the Emai-spea…
Toward a typology of directional motion for African Languages
This paper examines the syntactic and semantic expression of basic directional motion and its manner counterparts across the four language phyla of Africa. We sample languages from each phylum, concentrating on basic, non-deictic, directional motion and its counterpart in which motion, direction, and manner of motion occur simultaneously. Two primary findings emerge. Across Africa, basic directional motion tends to be verb-framed with respect to …
On the typological character of property concepts in Emai
Vol. 5
Reference-point marking in Emai
Semantic noun classes in Emai, an Edoid language of Nigeria, are examined with respect to a process of Reference Point Marking (RPM) in order to explore the relationship between discourse and lexical semantics.Across pre-and post-verbal positions subcategorized by verbs like "rere" ("to be far"), these classes are shown to attract RPM in a variable manner.To describe this variability, it proves useful to recognize a spatial stability continuum ra…
Observations on Reference Object Geometry in Emai Path Expressions
Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1986), pp. 485-496
Lexicalizing directional and nondirectional motion in Emai
Motion expressions in Emai, an Edoid language of Nigeria, are examined within the lexical typology of Talmy [1985]. Both directional and nondirectional motion structures involving the MANNER verb la 'to run' are analyzed, though only the former, syntactically expressed by verbs in continuous series, poses a particular problem for interpretation. Three hypotheses concerning the semantic composition of these serial verbs are considered and evaluate…
Motion in Tswana and its characteristic lexicalization
Characteristic patterns for the lexicalization of motion in Tswana, a Southeastern Bantu language, are explored. Examination of constraints governing classes of verb roots referring to motion events reveals two of the typological patterns put forward by Talmy [1984] for the lexicalization of motion in natural language. The distinguishing feature of each pattern lies in the particular semantic elements incorporated in a main clause verb root. The …
Toward universal semantic categories for human body space
The synchronic behavior of basic color terms in Tswana and its diachronic implications
The synchronic distributional pattern of potential basic color terms in one dialect of Tswana is examined in a wide range of construction types. From this pattern the non-basic status of the term lephutsi emerges, as well as a constraint requiring the exclusion of animals from the semantic extension of basic terms designating hue. Accepting lephutsi as non-basic, however, leaves a pattern of semantic reference violating a widely assumed universal…
Toward universal semantic categories for human body space
English and the pace of endangerment in Nigeria
This paper examines oral questionnaire data in order to assess the tenability of the prevailing hypothesis that Africa's language endangerment situation is characterized by the replacement of minority vernaculars with indigenous majority languages. Questionnaire items attended to evaluation accorded minority vernacular as well as language choice in home and non-home settings. Data were obtained from adults, teenagers and children in the Emai-spea…
The synchronic behavior of basic color terms in Tswana and its diachronic implications
The synchronic distributional pattern of potential basic color terms in one dialect of Tswana is examined in a wide range of construction types. From this pattern the non-basic status of the term lephutsi emerges, as well as a constraint requiring the exclusion of animals from the semantic extension of basic terms designating hue. Accepting lephutsi as non-basic, however, leaves a pattern of semantic reference violating a widely assumed universal…
Motion in Tswana and its characteristic lexicalization
Characteristic patterns for the lexicalization of motion in Tswana, a Southeastern Bantu language, are explored. Examination of constraints governing classes of verb roots referring to motion events reveals two of the typological patterns put forward by Talmy [1984] for the lexicalization of motion in natural language. The distinguishing feature of each pattern lies in the particular semantic elements incorporated in a main clause verb root. The …
Toward universal semantic categories for human body space
Observations on Reference Object Geometry in Emai Path Expressions
Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1986), pp. 485-496
Lexicalizing directional and nondirectional motion in Emai
Motion expressions in Emai, an Edoid language of Nigeria, are examined within the lexical typology of Talmy [1985]. Both directional and nondirectional motion structures involving the MANNER verb la 'to run' are analyzed, though only the former, syntactically expressed by verbs in continuous series, poses a particular problem for interpretation. Three hypotheses concerning the semantic composition of these serial verbs are considered and evaluate…
Reference-point marking in Emai
Semantic noun classes in Emai, an Edoid language of Nigeria, are examined with respect to a process of Reference Point Marking (RPM) in order to explore the relationship between discourse and lexical semantics.Across pre-and post-verbal positions subcategorized by verbs like "rere" ("to be far"), these classes are shown to attract RPM in a variable manner.To describe this variability, it proves useful to recognize a spatial stability continuum ra…
Vol. 5
On the typological character of property concepts in Emai
Toward a typology of directional motion for African Languages
This paper examines the syntactic and semantic expression of basic directional motion and its manner counterparts across the four language phyla of Africa. We sample languages from each phylum, concentrating on basic, non-deictic, directional motion and its counterpart in which motion, direction, and manner of motion occur simultaneously. Two primary findings emerge. Across Africa, basic directional motion tends to be verb-framed with respect to …
English and the pace of endangerment in Nigeria
This paper examines oral questionnaire data in order to assess the tenability of the prevailing hypothesis that Africa's language endangerment situation is characterized by the replacement of minority vernaculars with indigenous majority languages. Questionnaire items attended to evaluation accorded minority vernacular as well as language choice in home and non-home settings. Data were obtained from adults, teenagers and children in the Emai-spea…
Ideophonic adverbs and manner gaps in Emai
On the properties of Emai's khi copula construction
This paper examines the equational identity (El) construction in Nigeria's Edoid language Emai. It weighs this construction's grammatical properties against a complex of equational identity patterns developed in the crosslinguistic investigations of Stassen (1997). Although EI properties reveal its functional heritage, they fail to conform fully to Stassen's findings. While EI noun phrases are sensitive to information structure and definiteness v…
Emai's Aspect-Causative Interaction
On Emai VBI phrases
We examine the distribution of Emai prepositional phrases and their NP complements relative to intransitive verbs. In canonical order constructions, vbi phrases follow a matrix verb as optional or obligatory constituents, or they follow the verb za in series before another matrix verb. In non-canonical order constructions, focused NP complements give rise to the verb za in series with only a subclass of intransitive verbs. Through lexical entry f…
Demarcating Emai dative constructions
This paper investigates the formal and functional character of a dative relation and two additional structural relations in Emai, an Edoid language of West Benue Congo stock (Bendor-Samuel 1989, Williamson and Blench 2000). Each relation is grammatically expressed by a common morphophoneme. Postverbal particle li/ni marks Emai dative constituents. In addition, li/ni codes a limited range of subordinate clause types within complex sentences, and w…
Emai's Variable Coding of Adjuncts
This paper examines the morphosyntactic character of clauses containing adjuncts in Emai (Edoid and West Benue Congo). In clauses differing as to discourse function, adjunct coding is variable. Some adjunct types are consistently structured as either head of a phrase or complement in a phrase headed by a verb. Other adjuncts are coded more variably. In canonical declarative clauses, they appear in postverbal position unmarked by a verb, but in on…
Observations on Reference Object Geometry in Emai Path Expressions
Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1986), pp. 485-496
Metatony, S-constituent linkage, and cognate objects
We examine metatony and its grammatical conditioning in an under described Edoid language of West Africa. In Emai, metatony on verbs is signaled by perfective suffix -í with underlying high tone. With a following adjunct, tone on this suffix is high and retained. When clause final, -í is retained but with low tone. When followed by a verb argument, the -í suffix is prohibited. Verbs with a following S-constituent exhibit metatonic asymmetry. Clas…
Reassessing gender in Ogbe-Oloma
We re-assess the gender system of Ogbe-Oloma, an Edoid village variety of Nigeria. System exponents are prefixes that define form class and reflect grammatical number. We find that eight agreement classes undergird fourteen genders, while seventeen nominal form classes frame twenty-five number inflections. Prefix mapping from inflection to gender is non-isomorphic. Mapping is however constrained by syllable shape, CV- versus V-, and alliterative …
Preverbs
Preverbs are positionally-delimited grammatical forms that remain understudied. We examine their semantic classes in West Benue Congo (WBC) and its minor language Emai, which until recently was undocumented. Preverb classes in Emai display a subset of semantic categories identified in Dixon (1991, 2006, 2010) and Nuyts (2001, 2005, 2006, 2016). There are eight semantic classes for 30 odd preverb forms. They are apportioned according to their qual…
Tone, viewpoint aspect, and imperative mood
We examine the interaction between viewpoint aspect and imperative mood in an under-described and endangered Edoid language of West Africa. In Emai, tone functions both lexically and grammatically. Verbs in citation form, including bisyllabic items, are toneless. In declarative mood Emai distinguishes perfective from imperfective, with perfective assigning high tone to a verb and imperfective assigning low. Imperative mood takes perfective aspect…
Mood
Relative to the under-analyzed West African language Emai, we describe a system of underlying tones and syllabic segments. They surface as co-exponents to characterize mood. At the underlying level we propose a predicative complex in which tones and segmental forms contrast to distinguish categories of mood that identify the reality status of clausal information, i.e. actualized vs. non-actualized. Actualized status is determined by a two-tone pr…
Tonal aberrations signaling contact-induced grammatical change
We examine tonal and non-tonal features involved in the diachronic emergence of a future tense category in Emai, an Edoid language of southern Nigeria. The extant tense system in Emai incorporates values for both temporal distance and the temporal units past, present, and future. We concentrate on linguistic coding of the future and its associated expressions. Initially, we review the set of markers for futurity in the West Benue Congo branch of …
Computer Science (17 works) · Linguistics (15 works) · Philosophy (15 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (14 works) · Artificial Intelligence (9 works) · Mathematics (8 works) · Verb (7 works) · Categorization, perception, and language (6 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works)