Hannah Gibson
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 3640698 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Hannah Gibson |
| NOMBRES | Hannah |
| APELLIDO | Gibson |
| FIRMA | GIBSON H |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Essex |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0752-0968 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 29 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 21 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 29 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2015 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 3 |
Auxiliary verb constructions in Southern Bantu
This article develops the first systematic comparative study of auxiliaries in Southern Bantu, delineating their salient properties. Southern Bantu languages are reported to have large auxiliary inventories, with sixty or more auxiliaries documented for some languages. Auxiliary functions go beyond tense, aspect, mood, and polarity to express a variety of adverbial and other meanings. Auxiliary constructions take three main patterns of complement…
The Doing/Undoing of MRKH and the Doing of Gestational Pregnancy and Gender Through Uterus Transplants
Women with the rare Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome are born without a uterus. Following international interviews with 34 women with MRKH and 15 surgeons and specialists, we explore how the usually invisible condition of MRKH is made visible and "done" through biomedicine. MRKH is highly medicalized, with much work undertaken to make MRKH bodies fit heteronormative standards. Some people with MRKH prefer to define themselves as int…
Verbal extensions in Sheng
This paper investigates verbal extensions in Sheng, a youth language originating in Nairobi, Kenya. Sheng has received scholarly attention since the 1980s, primarily with a focus on its sociolinguistic traits. Our study aims to advance the linguistic description of Sheng and its morphosyntax by investigating verbal extensions in Sheng. Specifically, we look at the causative, applicative, reciprocal, and passive suffixes, as they are applied to co…
Encoding politeness in African urban youth languages
African urban youth languages (AUYLs) often function as languages of resistance and “anti-languages”, establishing alternative semiotic spaces. In this paper, we analyse the encoding of politeness and respect in AUYLs, drawing on examples from Southern Africa, and show that they have complex systems of politeness marking, comparable to the matrix languages on which they draw. This includes different types of address forms, polite reference forms,…
New perspectives on morphosyntactic variation in African youth language practices
Recent years have seen an increase in scholarly attention paid to youth language practices in Africa, with studies examining a range of linguistic phenomena. A parallel development has seen the emergence of work studying morphosyntactic microvariation in Bantu languages, with a view to better understanding structural variation in closely related languages or varieties. This special collection brings together those working in the fields of youth l…
Morphosyntactic retention and innovation in Sheng, a youth language or stylect of Kenya
This paper examines the morphosyntax of the East African Swahili-based urban youth language or stylect Sheng. Research on urban youth languages has often focused on these varieties as sites of rapid change and linguistic creativity. However, we show that many of the structural features which appear to make Sheng stand out when compared to (Standard) Swahili are widespread across East African Bantu languages. We examine nominal and verbal domains,…
The multilingual university
Globalisation is increasingly affecting universities worldwide. In African contexts, language policies exhibit an inheritance situation in which countries continue to implement policies which favour colonial languages in education. This paper investigates the Malawian higher education context and the ways in which staff engage with multilingualism. It examines the implementation of language policies by staff in their classrooms and explores the a…
Mirativity and evidentiality in Bantu
This special issue addresses how evidentiality and mirativity are expressed in various Bantu languages. Both the notions of evidentiality and mirativity remain underexamined for the Bantu languages – the following quote is quite typical: “It appears that expressing evidentiality as a verbal affix or clitic is the most common strategy
Preverbal clitic clusters in the Tanzanian Rift Valley revisited
This paper examines preverbal clitic clusters in the Tanzanian Rift Valley, an area of high linguistic diversity with representatives of the Bantu, Cushitic, and Nilotic families, as well as Sandawe (possibly a distant member of the Khoi-Kwadi family), and the language isolate Hadza. An earlier work (Kießling, Roland, Maarten Mous & Derek Nurse. 2008. The Tanzanian Rift Valley area. In Bernd Heine & Derek Nurse (eds.), A linguistic geography of A…
Bantu negative verbs
This paper investigates the use of verbs in the expression of negation across Bantu. The development of erstwhile lexical verbs into markers of negation is an understudied yet widespread phenomenon across the language family. In this sample of 100 languages, we identify a range of pathways as well as specific functions performed by such verbs. Specifically, we identify the use of both intrinsic negative verbs — i.e. those with inherent negative m…
Migrant identities in multilingual contexts
The study investigates language use and identity navigation among Nigerian migrants with a focus on language use in public and social spaces in Cape Town, South Africa. It reports on ethnographic observation, participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Findings reveal the use of spoken Igbo and isiXhosa in interactions among primarily Igbo, Nigerian migrants, as well as how the migrants draw on their newly acquired (and often relative…
Emerging principles for researching multilingually in linguistic ethnography
This paper discusses collaborative ethnographic work investigating multilingualism within education in Botswana, Tanzania, and Zambia. The paper takes a reflective perspective on how research is conducted and the role that multilingualism and collaboration can play in the research process itself. As a team of thirteen individuals, working across four countries, we bring a range of multilingual repertoires to the project. In this paper we discuss …
Variation in Kimakunduchi and Standard Swahili
This paper explores variation between Kimakunduchi and Standard Swahili with a focus on verbal morphosyntax. With several varieties of Swahili identified and described over the years, here we focus on the Kimakunduchi variety spoken in the south-east of Zanzibar. While Kimakunduchi exhibits a number of features which are similar to those of Standard Swahili, it also has features which are distinct from those of the standard variety. In this paper…
Grambank reveals the importance of genealogical constraints on linguistic diversity and highlights the impact of language loss
While global patterns of human genetic diversity are increasingly well characterized, the diversity of human languages remains less systematically described. Here we outline the Grambank database. With over 400,000 data points and 2,400 languages, Grambank is the largest comparative grammatical database available. The comprehensiveness of Grambank allows us to quantify the relative effects of genealogical inheritance and geographic proximity on t…
Kelly Needs a New Coat
There is little research documenting the experience of surrogate mothers in Aotearoa New Zealand, and no published studies to date have asked surrogates about the significance of financial benefit or compensation for their moral decision-making. In this article, we draw on qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 20 traditional and gestational surrogates, 20 intended parents, and 46 experts in the field of assisted reproduction about their …
The development of the encoding of deictic motion in the Bantu language Rangi
The close cross-linguistic relation between the domains of space and time has been well described. The frequent emergence of Tense-Aspect-Mood (TAM) markers from deictic motion verbs in particular, has also been extensively detailed in the literature. This paper focusses on the less well-known link between associated motion, a category of functional morphemes expressing (deictic) motion events, and TAM, in a language contact situation. Specifical…
"Doing it Our Way" Participation and Kinship in Traditional Surrogacy Narratives in Aotearoa New Zealand
The practice of traditional surrogacy gives rise to multiple discourses around women's autonomy and kinship practices globally. In the Aotearoa New Zealand context, traditional surrogacy (where the surrogate donates her own egg as well as gestating the foetus) is legal only on an altruistic basis. Furthermore, it is subject to neither medical nor state oversight, unlike gestational surrogacy which is heavily regulated. Drawing on three years of e…
Integrated Family Planning and Immunization Service Delivery at Health Facility and Community Sites in Dowa and Ntchisi Districts of Malawi
The Government of Malawi's Health Sector Strategic Plan II highlights the importance of service integration; however, in practice, this has not been fully realized. We conducted a mixed methods evaluation of efforts to systematically implement integrated family planning and immunization services in all health facilities and associated community sites in Ntchisi and Dowa districts during June 2016-September 2017. Methods included secondary analysi…
The grammaticalisation of verb-auxiliary order in East African Bantu
Bantu languages employ a combination of simple and compound verb forms to encode tense-aspect-mood distinctions. Compound constructions typically involve an auxiliary form followed by an inflected main verb. However, the six East African Bantu languages under examination in this paper exhibit a word order in which the auxiliary appears after the verb. This order is typologically unusual for languages with SVO word order and comparatively unusual …
Probing the interaction of language contact and internal innovation
The Bantu language Rangi is spoken at the northern borderlands of Tanzania, where Bantu, Cushitic and Nilotic languages meet. In many regards, Rangi exhibits the morphosyntax typically associated with East African Bantu: SVO word order, an extensive system of agreement and predominantly head-marking morphology. However, the language also exhibits a number of features which are unusual from a comparative and typological perspective, and which may …
Vulnerable articulations
Medical anthropology overwhelmingly reveals vulnerability as a problem of powerlessness. Vulnerable groups and individuals are those exposed to the pernicious effects of inequalities, injustices, and oppressive political realities. This largely pejorative stance, we argue, simplifies the place of vulnerability within human experience and in relation to the body, health and illness. By showcasing a range of interlocking vulnerabilities, this paper…
Living a full life
What might anthropology and fieldwork look like if the anthropologist's body, considered to be one of their 'tools', is not able-bodied? This piece of writing explores the intersection of disability and anthropological fieldwork, within the specific experience of doing anthropology at home. By interrogating the tension between academic advancement and disability, I challenge the expectation that traditional anthropologists must be able-bodied. In…
Swahili and the Bantu Languages
The Bantu languages are spoken across vast areas of Central, Eastern and Southern Africa and dominate the southern half of the African continent. In their geographical extent, they come into contact with representatives of all the other major African language families: Afroasiatic and Nilo-Saharan languages in the north-east, Khoisan in the south (and disputably in the north-east due to the presence of Sandawe in Tanzania) and its closest relativ…
A Dynamic Syntax modelling of Japanese and Rangi clefts
A unified dynamic account of auxiliary placement in Rangi
Emerging principles for researching multilingually in linguistic ethnography
This paper discusses collaborative ethnographic work investigating multilingualism within education in Botswana, Tanzania, and Zambia. The paper takes a reflective perspective on how research is conducted and the role that multilingualism and collaboration can play in the research process itself. As a team of thirteen individuals, working across four countries, we bring a range of multilingual repertoires to the project. In this paper we discuss …
Vulnerable articulations
Medical anthropology overwhelmingly reveals vulnerability as a problem of powerlessness. Vulnerable groups and individuals are those exposed to the pernicious effects of inequalities, injustices, and oppressive political realities. This largely pejorative stance, we argue, simplifies the place of vulnerability within human experience and in relation to the body, health and illness. By showcasing a range of interlocking vulnerabilities, this paper…
Living a full life
What might anthropology and fieldwork look like if the anthropologist's body, considered to be one of their 'tools', is not able-bodied? This piece of writing explores the intersection of disability and anthropological fieldwork, within the specific experience of doing anthropology at home. By interrogating the tension between academic advancement and disability, I challenge the expectation that traditional anthropologists must be able-bodied. In…
Migrant identities in multilingual contexts
The study investigates language use and identity navigation among Nigerian migrants with a focus on language use in public and social spaces in Cape Town, South Africa. It reports on ethnographic observation, participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Findings reveal the use of spoken Igbo and isiXhosa in interactions among primarily Igbo, Nigerian migrants, as well as how the migrants draw on their newly acquired (and often relative…
"Doing it Our Way" Participation and Kinship in Traditional Surrogacy Narratives in Aotearoa New Zealand
The practice of traditional surrogacy gives rise to multiple discourses around women's autonomy and kinship practices globally. In the Aotearoa New Zealand context, traditional surrogacy (where the surrogate donates her own egg as well as gestating the foetus) is legal only on an altruistic basis. Furthermore, it is subject to neither medical nor state oversight, unlike gestational surrogacy which is heavily regulated. Drawing on three years of e…
Structure building and thematic constraints in Bantu inversion constructions
Bantu inversion constructions include locative inversion, patient inversion (also called subject–object reversal), semantic locative inversion and instrument inversion. The constructions show a high level of cross-linguistic variation, but also a core of invariant shared morphosyntactic and information structural properties. These include: that the preverbal position is filled by a non-agent NP triggering verbal agreement, that the agent follows …
The multilingual university
Globalisation is increasingly affecting universities worldwide. In African contexts, language policies exhibit an inheritance situation in which countries continue to implement policies which favour colonial languages in education. This paper investigates the Malawian higher education context and the ways in which staff engage with multilingualism. It examines the implementation of language policies by staff in their classrooms and explores the a…
Cycles of negation in Rangi and Mbugwe
The Tanzanian Bantu languages Rangi and Mbugwe both employ a double negation marking strategy. In Rangi, verbal negation is achieved through the presence of a pre-verbal negative marker and a negative marker which appears either post-verbally or in a clause-final position. In Mbugwe, negation is indicated by a prefix that appears on the verb form and an optional post-verbal negative marker. This paper presents a descriptive account of negation in…
Anthropological Engagement with the Anthropocene
The Anthropocene refers to the planetary scale of anthropogenic influences on the composition and function of Earth ecosystems and life forms. Socio-political and geographic responses frame the uneven topographies of climate change, while efforts to adapt and mitigate its impact extend across social and natural sciences. This review of anthropology's evolving engagement with the Anthropocene contemplates multifarious approaches to research. The e…
Exploring contemporary anthropological theory
Posthumanism is an umbrella term signalling theoretical approaches that endeavour to challenge pervasive human/non-human, normal/abnormal, organic/man-made binaries. To explore the value of posthumanism for disability studies, this piece interrogates Latour’s Actor Network Theory and Haraway’s Cyborg Theory. Both scholars provide innovative ways of reconceptualising how bodies are intimately connected and shaped by technology once we move beyond …
Structure building and thematic constraints in Bantu inversion constructions
Bantu inversion constructions include locative inversion, patient inversion (also called subject–object reversal), semantic locative inversion and instrument inversion. The constructions show a high level of cross-linguistic variation, but also a core of invariant shared morphosyntactic and information structural properties. These include: that the preverbal position is filled by a non-agent NP triggering verbal agreement, that the agent follows …
A Dynamic Syntax modelling of Japanese and Rangi clefts
A unified dynamic account of auxiliary placement in Rangi
Swahili and the Bantu Languages
The Bantu languages are spoken across vast areas of Central, Eastern and Southern Africa and dominate the southern half of the African continent. In their geographical extent, they come into contact with representatives of all the other major African language families: Afroasiatic and Nilo-Saharan languages in the north-east, Khoisan in the south (and disputably in the north-east due to the presence of Sandawe in Tanzania) and its closest relativ…
The grammaticalisation of verb-auxiliary order in East African Bantu
Bantu languages employ a combination of simple and compound verb forms to encode tense-aspect-mood distinctions. Compound constructions typically involve an auxiliary form followed by an inflected main verb. However, the six East African Bantu languages under examination in this paper exhibit a word order in which the auxiliary appears after the verb. This order is typologically unusual for languages with SVO word order and comparatively unusual …
Probing the interaction of language contact and internal innovation
The Bantu language Rangi is spoken at the northern borderlands of Tanzania, where Bantu, Cushitic and Nilotic languages meet. In many regards, Rangi exhibits the morphosyntax typically associated with East African Bantu: SVO word order, an extensive system of agreement and predominantly head-marking morphology. However, the language also exhibits a number of features which are unusual from a comparative and typological perspective, and which may …
Vulnerable articulations
Medical anthropology overwhelmingly reveals vulnerability as a problem of powerlessness. Vulnerable groups and individuals are those exposed to the pernicious effects of inequalities, injustices, and oppressive political realities. This largely pejorative stance, we argue, simplifies the place of vulnerability within human experience and in relation to the body, health and illness. By showcasing a range of interlocking vulnerabilities, this paper…
Living a full life
What might anthropology and fieldwork look like if the anthropologist's body, considered to be one of their 'tools', is not able-bodied? This piece of writing explores the intersection of disability and anthropological fieldwork, within the specific experience of doing anthropology at home. By interrogating the tension between academic advancement and disability, I challenge the expectation that traditional anthropologists must be able-bodied. In…
Integrated Family Planning and Immunization Service Delivery at Health Facility and Community Sites in Dowa and Ntchisi Districts of Malawi
The Government of Malawi's Health Sector Strategic Plan II highlights the importance of service integration; however, in practice, this has not been fully realized. We conducted a mixed methods evaluation of efforts to systematically implement integrated family planning and immunization services in all health facilities and associated community sites in Ntchisi and Dowa districts during June 2016-September 2017. Methods included secondary analysi…
The development of the encoding of deictic motion in the Bantu language Rangi
The close cross-linguistic relation between the domains of space and time has been well described. The frequent emergence of Tense-Aspect-Mood (TAM) markers from deictic motion verbs in particular, has also been extensively detailed in the literature. This paper focusses on the less well-known link between associated motion, a category of functional morphemes expressing (deictic) motion events, and TAM, in a language contact situation. Specifical…
"Doing it Our Way" Participation and Kinship in Traditional Surrogacy Narratives in Aotearoa New Zealand
The practice of traditional surrogacy gives rise to multiple discourses around women's autonomy and kinship practices globally. In the Aotearoa New Zealand context, traditional surrogacy (where the surrogate donates her own egg as well as gestating the foetus) is legal only on an altruistic basis. Furthermore, it is subject to neither medical nor state oversight, unlike gestational surrogacy which is heavily regulated. Drawing on three years of e…
Variation in Kimakunduchi and Standard Swahili
This paper explores variation between Kimakunduchi and Standard Swahili with a focus on verbal morphosyntax. With several varieties of Swahili identified and described over the years, here we focus on the Kimakunduchi variety spoken in the south-east of Zanzibar. While Kimakunduchi exhibits a number of features which are similar to those of Standard Swahili, it also has features which are distinct from those of the standard variety. In this paper…
Grambank reveals the importance of genealogical constraints on linguistic diversity and highlights the impact of language loss
While global patterns of human genetic diversity are increasingly well characterized, the diversity of human languages remains less systematically described. Here we outline the Grambank database. With over 400,000 data points and 2,400 languages, Grambank is the largest comparative grammatical database available. The comprehensiveness of Grambank allows us to quantify the relative effects of genealogical inheritance and geographic proximity on t…
Kelly Needs a New Coat
There is little research documenting the experience of surrogate mothers in Aotearoa New Zealand, and no published studies to date have asked surrogates about the significance of financial benefit or compensation for their moral decision-making. In this article, we draw on qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 20 traditional and gestational surrogates, 20 intended parents, and 46 experts in the field of assisted reproduction about their …
Preverbal clitic clusters in the Tanzanian Rift Valley revisited
This paper examines preverbal clitic clusters in the Tanzanian Rift Valley, an area of high linguistic diversity with representatives of the Bantu, Cushitic, and Nilotic families, as well as Sandawe (possibly a distant member of the Khoi-Kwadi family), and the language isolate Hadza. An earlier work (Kießling, Roland, Maarten Mous & Derek Nurse. 2008. The Tanzanian Rift Valley area. In Bernd Heine & Derek Nurse (eds.), A linguistic geography of A…
Bantu negative verbs
This paper investigates the use of verbs in the expression of negation across Bantu. The development of erstwhile lexical verbs into markers of negation is an understudied yet widespread phenomenon across the language family. In this sample of 100 languages, we identify a range of pathways as well as specific functions performed by such verbs. Specifically, we identify the use of both intrinsic negative verbs — i.e. those with inherent negative m…
Migrant identities in multilingual contexts
The study investigates language use and identity navigation among Nigerian migrants with a focus on language use in public and social spaces in Cape Town, South Africa. It reports on ethnographic observation, participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Findings reveal the use of spoken Igbo and isiXhosa in interactions among primarily Igbo, Nigerian migrants, as well as how the migrants draw on their newly acquired (and often relative…
Emerging principles for researching multilingually in linguistic ethnography
This paper discusses collaborative ethnographic work investigating multilingualism within education in Botswana, Tanzania, and Zambia. The paper takes a reflective perspective on how research is conducted and the role that multilingualism and collaboration can play in the research process itself. As a team of thirteen individuals, working across four countries, we bring a range of multilingual repertoires to the project. In this paper we discuss …
Verbal extensions in Sheng
This paper investigates verbal extensions in Sheng, a youth language originating in Nairobi, Kenya. Sheng has received scholarly attention since the 1980s, primarily with a focus on its sociolinguistic traits. Our study aims to advance the linguistic description of Sheng and its morphosyntax by investigating verbal extensions in Sheng. Specifically, we look at the causative, applicative, reciprocal, and passive suffixes, as they are applied to co…
Encoding politeness in African urban youth languages
African urban youth languages (AUYLs) often function as languages of resistance and “anti-languages”, establishing alternative semiotic spaces. In this paper, we analyse the encoding of politeness and respect in AUYLs, drawing on examples from Southern Africa, and show that they have complex systems of politeness marking, comparable to the matrix languages on which they draw. This includes different types of address forms, polite reference forms,…
New perspectives on morphosyntactic variation in African youth language practices
Recent years have seen an increase in scholarly attention paid to youth language practices in Africa, with studies examining a range of linguistic phenomena. A parallel development has seen the emergence of work studying morphosyntactic microvariation in Bantu languages, with a view to better understanding structural variation in closely related languages or varieties. This special collection brings together those working in the fields of youth l…
Morphosyntactic retention and innovation in Sheng, a youth language or stylect of Kenya
This paper examines the morphosyntax of the East African Swahili-based urban youth language or stylect Sheng. Research on urban youth languages has often focused on these varieties as sites of rapid change and linguistic creativity. However, we show that many of the structural features which appear to make Sheng stand out when compared to (Standard) Swahili are widespread across East African Bantu languages. We examine nominal and verbal domains,…
Linguistics (17 obras) · Computer Science (14 obras) · Sociology (14 obras) · Philosophy (13 obras) · Bantu languages (11 obras) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (11 obras) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (10 obras) · Multilingual Education and Policy (9 obras) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (8 obras) · Verb (8 obras)