DOCSLIB.ORG

9 Africa's Verb-Final Languages

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
9 Africa's Verb-Final Languages 9 Africa’s verb-final languages Gerrit J. Dimmendaal 9.1 The verb-final type in a crosslinguistic perspective The position of the verb relative to other constituents within a clause has been claimed by a number of authors to be a predictor of an additional set of syntactic features. Thus, according to Greenberg (1966), verb-initial languages tend to be prepositional rather than postpositional, putting inflected auxiliary verbs before rather than after the main verb; with more than chance frequency, verb-final languages tend to use postpositions, with auxiliary verbs following the main verb. Such inductively based generalizations about the nature of language of course require further analyses and explanations, e.g. in terms of preferred parsing or processing structures for the human mind. In more recent correlative studies of this type, e.g. by Dryer (1992), a distinction is drawn between phrasal and non-phrasal elements. Whereas phrasal elements, such as subject and object phrases or adpositions appear to follow a more consistent right-branching or left-branching pattern cross- linguistically, the position of non-phrasal categories such as adjectives, demonstratives, negative particles, or tense–aspect markers does not seem to correlate with constituent order type, as argued by Dryer. Obviously, constituent order is but one of various factors determining the typological portrait of a language, morphological techniques used in expres- sing syntactic and semantic relations being another important parameter. This latter observation of course is not new; Sapir (1921:120–46) already pointed out that languages may differ considerably in the techniques used for the expression of syntactic relations. The Sapirian typology has been elaborated upon by Nichols (1986, 1992), who also shows that languages may mark dependency relations between categories either on the head or on the dependent constituent; alternatively, both elements may be marked or neither of the two. From the extensive survey by Nichols it also follows that dependent marking at the clausal level tends to favor a verb-final syntax, whereas head- marking tends to favor a verb-initial structure. We now know that languages may further differ considerably in the way they organize information structure within a clause as well as beyond the 272 Africa’s verb-final languages 273 clausal or sentential level, e.g. in narrative discourse. In his seminal study of the storyline in a variety of African languages, Longacre (1990) has shown that verb-initial languages in northeastern Africa investigated by him tend to use special subsecutive verb forms in order to enhance the storyline, whereas verb- final languages in the area tend to use converbs (i.e. morphologically reduced verb forms occurring in dependent clauses) for the same purpose. With these more recent advances in our understanding of language vari- ation, it seems a momentous time to reiterate the question of what constituent order typology is going to bring us, when we try to understand typological variation between languages. Below, I will focus on the question of whether verb-final languages on the African continent manifest a degree of typological consistency that would justify classifying them as exponents of a specific language type. The strategy followed here is the so-called “method of dynamic comparison,” as first proposed probably by Greenberg (1969) in one of his ground-breaking articles, involving a combination of intragenetic and inter- genetic processual comparison. In concrete terms, the application of this method below encompasses a comparison between African languages with a presumed verb-final order, first, on an intragenetic basis, in order to arrive at a proper understanding of the synchronic and diachronic variation between languages which are genetically related, followed by an intergenetic comparison, i.e. a comparison between different genetic groupings. To this end, I will investigate so-called verb-final languages belonging to Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan, the Ijoid group within Niger-Congo, and, finally, Central Khoisan languages.1 The somewhat harsh conclusion arrived at below is that, from a typological point of view, “verb- final” languages like the Ijo language Izon and the Omotic language Wolaitta _ _ in fact have very little in common. Typological similarities between African “verb-final languages” compared below appear to be due, first, to genetic inheritance, second, to areal contact, and as further argued below, to so-called “self-organizing principles” in these languages. Consequently, constituent order typology appears to be of relatively little importance if we try to understand where and how languages differ. The main purpose of the present contribution, however, is not to present a nihilistic, deconstructionist picture of constituent order typology. As a kind of alternative, I intend to show what (in my view) the more prominent morpho- syntactic and pragmatic properties of these various genetic groupings are. By presenting a typological portrait of these different genetic units, so to speak, I also intend to show what makes these genetic groupings so different from each other. In addition, I aim to focus on specific analytical issues of particular interest, I believe, for a historical understanding of these various genetic groupings, as well as for language typology in general. 274 Gerrit J. Dimmendaal 9.2 African languages with a presumed verb-final constituent order In his typological survey of constituent order types on the African continent, Heine (1976) arrived at a fourway division. In addition to the Greenbergian division between VSO, SVO, and SOV languages, Heine established a fourth type involving languages manifesting a variation between SAUXOV and SVO. These latter languages also tend to place the nomen rectum (genitive) before the nomen regens, using postpositions rather than prepositions (similar to many verb-final languages). This type is particularly common in West Africa, more specifically in the Mande area and neighboring zones; see, for example, Kastenholz (2003) for a detailed discussion of the so-called “split-predicate case” in Mande languages, where the verb as a functionally complex category is distributed variously over the sentence. Contrary to the more strict verb-final languages (called type D languages by Heine), for example, the verb precedes (rather than follows) the adverbial phrase or oblique constituents in the split- predicate type (referred to as type B by Heine 1976). Greenberg (1966) VSO SVO SOV Heine (1976) CABD In the discussion I will focus on languages for which it has been claimed that the main verb occurs in clause-final or sentence-final position, i.e. on Greenberg’s SOV languages, or Heine’s type D languages. As illustrated below, the actual identification of so-called verb-final languages as a type is already problematic in many cases, given the amount of freedom for constituent order in these languages. In line with more general traditions in typological research, I am taking “surface structures” at face value, i.e. I do not assume that there may be a disparity between “deep structures” and “surface manifestations” of constituent order. Where variation occurs within a language, one constituent order type may be argued to be more basic to the system on the basis of specific criteria such as frequency of occurrence or other criteria, as argued below. I will refrain, how- ever, from claims about one underlying (deep-structure) order in such cases, as is common in current Generative Grammar, where alternative manifestations of constituent order may be derived through movement rules. With respect to so-called verb-final (i.e. type D) languages, Heine (1976) draws a distinction between two subtypes, D1 and D2. In the former, the “consistent SOV type,” heads systematically follow their modifiers. Thus, not only the object, but also the obliques precede the verb; postpositions are used, Africa’s verb-final languages 275 and at the noun phrase level, all kinds of modifiers (including the genitival modifier) precede the head noun. In type D2 on the other hand, one finds the order modifier/head at the clause level, but the order head/modifier in the con- struction of noun phrases: objects and obliques precede the verb, whereas all kinds of noun modifiers follow the noun they modify. As we shall see below, the former (D1) pattern is common in Omotic (Afroasiatic) languages, whereas the latter (D2) is more widespread in Nilo-Saharan languages in the eastern Sahel region, although the two subtypes (modifier–head as against head–modifier) in actual fact are part of a continuum. As pointed out by Dryer (1992), on the basis of a worldwide survey of head/modifier relations at the clausal and phrasal (NP) level, similar discrepancies are found in so-called verb-final languages outside Africa. It is exactly these kinds of disparities between phrases and clauses which motivated Dryer to draw a distinction in his constituent order typology between phrasal and non-phrasal constituents. 9.2.1 Afroasiatic Some sixty years ago, Leslau (1945) pointed towards a set of properties which appeared to be shared between Ethio-Semitic languages and neighboring groups belonging to the Cushitic branch within Afroasiatic. These properties included phonological, but also morphosyntactic features as well as constituent order, such as a verb-final constituent order. Leslau (1945) further argued that substratum influence (or shift-induced interference and imposition from Cushitic, in more modern terms) lead to this convergence area.2 As argued by Tosco (2000), the notion of an “Ethiopian language area” as such is false, given the disparity of typological features found within the country. But the author agrees that SOV constituent order is a good example of an areal feature in fact “attested ...well outside Ethiopia ...” (2000: 344). As already observed by Heine (1976), there are also various Nilo-Saharan lan- guages mainly to the west of the Ethiopian region, and extending into Nigeria and Niger, which manifest a similar constituent order pattern.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Some Notes on Implosive Consonants in Nyangatom
    Studies in Ethiopian Languages, 5 (2016), 11-20 Some Notes on Implosive Consonants in Nyangatom Moges Yigezu (Addis Ababa University) [email protected] Abstract Nyangatom is a member of the Teso-Turkana cluster within the Eastern-Niltoic group of languages (Vossen 1982) and is spoken in Ethiopia, in the lower Omo valley, by approximately 25,000 speakers (CSA 2008). While there is a detailed description on the Turkana variety spoken in Kenya (Heine 1980, Dimmendaal 1983) there are few grammatical sketches on the Nyangatom variety (Dimmendaal (2007) and Kadanya & Schroder (2011)) spoken in Ethiopia. The status of implosives in the Teso-Turkana group in general and in Nyangatom in particular has not been investigated more clearly and different authors have reached different conclusions in the past. Heine (1980), for instance, recorded implosives as having a phonemic status in Turkana while Dimmendaal (1983) has described implosives in Turkana as variants of their voiced counterparts. In Nyangatom the grammatical sketches published so far have not identified implosive consonants as phonemes of the language. The current contribution gives a preliminary phonological analysis of implosives in Nyangatom with some comparative-historical notes and claim that implosives are full-fledged phonemes in Nyangatom and the opposition is between voiceless stops and implosives while the voiced stops are virtually absent from the phonological system. 1 Introduction Nyangatom belongs to the Teso- Turkana dialect cluster that consists of four major groups and spread over four East African countries, namely, the Nyangatom in Ethiopia, the Toposa in Southern Sudan, the Turkana in Kenya, and the Karamojong in North Eastern Uganda.
    [Show full text]
  • Rift Valley Bibliography Version 1.3
    Griscom, Richard, Andrew Harvey, and Anne Kruijt (eds.). 2020. Rift Valley Bibliography Version 1.3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4300224 Rift Valley Bibliography Version 1.3 December 1st, 2020 1 Introduction This document is a bibliography of the languages of the Rift Valley Area of Tanzania, which is home to dozens of distinctive ethnic groups and languages. Uniquely, it is the meeting place of languages from three of the largest language families in Africa—Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo, and Afro-Asiatic—as well as Sandawe, a language with possible affinity with the so-called 'Khoisan' group, and Hadza, a language isolate, which means that it is not known to be related to any other languages currently spoken. The Rift Valley Bibliography is compiled by members of the Rift Valley Network and is hosted on the network website at the Rift Valley Bibliography page. This is a text version of the bibliography, but other formats of the bibliography are available on the website for those who use reference manager software (e.g. Zotero, EndNote, or Mendeley), and a Zotero Group is used to make additions and changes to the bibliography. A PDF Collection of selected entries is available for members of the Rift Valley Network only, and release notes are made available for each release. For comments or questions related to this bibliography, please send an email to [email protected]. 1 2 Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................................1
    [Show full text]
  • M01hjbr 10Ngujb
    CONTENTS Page Feature 1 Linguistic Methodology and Distant Linguistic Comparison M01HJBR Allan R. Bomhard 4 Toward a Defmitive Classification of the World's Languages 10NGUJB Harold C. Fleming 30 Pama-Nyungan II and Tasmanian NJEWSLJETTJER OF Geoff O'Grady and Susan Fitzgerald tHJE ASSOCIAtiON 36 C. C. Uhlenbeck and Dene-Caucasian W. Wi/fried Schuhmacher FOR tHJE StuDY OF 37 Book Review: Language in the Americas (1987) LANGUAGJE IN Reviewed by Stefan Liedtke PREHIStORY 39 In the Public Media: - Late Dates in East Polynesia (Science News) - A Geneticist Maps Ancient Migrations (New York Times) 40 Brief Communication: Seeking the Traces ofthe Indo-European Homeland. Vac/av Blaiek 41 Software: Gamma UniVerse/or Windows 42 Letters to the Editor 43 Editorial 43 ASLIP Business 44 Books for Review AIM &SCOPE The Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory (ASLIP) is a nonprofit organization, incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its purpose is to encourage and support the study of language in prehistory in all fields and by all means, including research on the early evolution of human language, supporting conferences, setting up a databank, and publishing a newsletter and/or journal to report these activities. Annual dues for ASLIP membership and subscription to Mother Tongue are US $15.00 in all countries except those with currency problems. In those countries, annual dues are zero ($0.00). European distribution: All members living in Europe (up to the borders of Asia), and not having currency problems, will pay their annual dues to, and receive Mother Tongue from: Prof. Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Draft of an Article for the Symposium On: Do We Really Need Linguistic
    draft of an article for the symposium on: Language Contact and the Dynamics of Language: Theory and Implications Max Planck Institute (Leipzig), 10-13 May 2007 Theme: Contact, typology and evolution of languages: a perspective to be explored Do we really need linguistic areas? Mauro Tosco Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”, Naples, Italy ([email protected]) Abstract Although the concept of “linguistic area” was originally formulated by N. Trubetzkoy as early as 1923, a viable and theoretically sound definition is still missing. The current resurgence of interest in linguistic areas is all the more remarkable since similar and related concepts (e.g., cultural areas and, even more so, the Kulturkreis theory in anthropology) are generally viewed with suspicion in social sciences (although they have made a comeback in political science; cf. S. Huntington’s influential The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, 1996). Building on my paper on the Ethiopian linguistic area (Tosco 2000) and the reactions/addenda to it (e.g., Bender 2003, Crass 2002, Crass and Bisang 2004, Bisang 2005), and much in line with Stolz (2002), I argue that the concept of “area” is in principle more interesting in linguistics than in social sciences due to the availability in linguistics of two other unrelated, and much more powerful, tools: genetic classification and typology. Ideally, in order for a linguistic area to be “proven” 1. its members will have to be as genetically diverse as possible; and 2. it will not be possible to account for the area-defining features on the basis of typological tendencies and regularities.
    [Show full text]
  • On Numeral Complexity in Hunter-Gatherer Languages
    On numeral complexity in hunter-gatherer languages PATIENCE EPPS, CLAIRE BOWERN, CYNTHIA A. HANSEN, JANE H. HILL, and JASON ZENTZ Abstract Numerals vary extensively across the world’s languages, ranging from no pre- cise numeral terms to practically infinite limits. Particularly of interest is the category of “small” or low-limit numeral systems; these are often associated with hunter-gatherer groups, but this connection has not yet been demonstrated by a systematic study. Here we present the results of a wide-scale survey of hunter-gatherer numerals. We compare these to agriculturalist languages in the same regions, and consider them against the broader typological backdrop of contemporary numeral systems in the world’s languages. We find that cor- relations with subsistence pattern are relatively weak, but that numeral trends are clearly areal. Keywords: borrowing, hunter-gatherers, linguistic area, number systems, nu- merals 1. Introduction Numerals are intriguing as a linguistic category: they are lexical elements on the one hand, but on the other they are effectively grammatical in that they may involve a generative system to derive higher values, and they interact with grammatical systems of quantification. Numeral systems are particularly note- worthy for their considerable crosslinguistic variation, such that languages may range from having no precise numeral terms at all to having systems whose limits are practically infinite. As Andersen (2005: 26) points out, numerals are thus a “liminal” linguistic category that is subject to cultural elaboration. Recent work has called attention to this variation among numeral systems, particularly with reference to systems having very low limits (for example, see Evans & Levinson 2009, D.
    [Show full text]
  • Transparency in Language a Typological Study
    Transparency in language A typological study Published by LOT phone: +31 30 253 6111 Trans 10 3512 JK Utrecht e-mail: [email protected] The Netherlands http://www.lotschool.nl Cover illustration © 2011: Sanne Leufkens – image from the performance ‘Celebration’ ISBN: 978-94-6093-162-8 NUR 616 Copyright © 2015: Sterre Leufkens. All rights reserved. Transparency in language A typological study ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D.C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op vrijdag 23 januari 2015, te 10.00 uur door Sterre Cécile Leufkens geboren te Delft Promotiecommissie Promotor: Prof. dr. P.C. Hengeveld Copromotor: Dr. N.S.H. Smith Overige leden: Prof. dr. E.O. Aboh Dr. J. Audring Prof. dr. Ö. Dahl Prof. dr. M.E. Keizer Prof. dr. F.P. Weerman Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen i Acknowledgments When I speak about my PhD project, it appears to cover a time-span of four years, in which I performed a number of actions that resulted in this book. In fact, the limits of the project are not so clear. It started when I first heard about linguistics, and it will end when we all stop thinking about transparency, which hopefully will not be the case any time soon. Moreover, even though I might have spent most time and effort to ‘complete’ this project, it is definitely not just my work. Many people have contributed directly or indirectly, by thinking about transparency, or thinking about me.
    [Show full text]
  • The Integration of Bantu Loans Into Burunge (Southern Cushitic)*
    ,,-- - I Spraehe und Gesehiehte in Afrika 16/17: 213-238 / THE INTEGRATION OF BANTU LOANS INTO BURUNGE (SOUTHERN CUSHITIC)* Roland Kiessling Universitdt Hamburg 1 Introduction 2 Areal situation: Burunge, its regional status and the neighbouring languages 3 Bantu loans into Burunge 3.1 Phonological adaptation 3.2 Morphological adaptation 3.2.1 Nouns: gender and plural 3.2.2 Verbs 4 Periods of contact 4.1 Transfers from Swahili and Rangi 4.2 Transfers between East African Bantu and West Rift 4.3 Transfers between Sandawe and Burunge 5 Result Notes References 1 Introduction :\ This article deals with Bantu loanwords in Burunge, a Southern Cushitic language in Tanzania, and examines how these loans, taken from a Bantu source, are integrated into the grammatical structure of the receiver language. This is of some typological interest in two ways. First, the principles of assign- ing gender to a Bantu loan and forming its plural in a Southern Cushitic framework gives us some vital information about the way the Burunge noun system works. Second, Burunge uses a somewhat unusual channel to adapt foreign verbs to its structure. Several layers of loans from different sources can be recognized in Burunge. The article closes with an appendix including -----------------~----, 214 ROLAND KIESSLING several comparative word lists as a preliminary outline of lexical transfers in the Rift area of Tanzania. 2 Areal situation Burunge is a Southern Cushitic language spoken in the Burunge hills in the southeastern part of Kondoa district of Dod oma region in central Tanzania. The last decades have seen many Bantu-speaking Rangi immigrants moving into the Burunge country.
    [Show full text]
  • Aree Di Transizione Linguistiche E Culturali in Africa 3 Impaginazione Gabriella Clabot
    ATrA Aree di transizione linguistiche e culturali in Africa 3 Impaginazione Gabriella Clabot © copyright Edizioni Università di Trieste, Trieste 2017. Proprietà letteraria riservata. I diritti di traduzione, memorizzazione elettronica, di riproduzione e di adattamento totale e parziale di questa pubblicazione, con qualsiasi mezzo (compresi i microfilm, le fotocopie e altro) sono riservati per tutti i paesi. ISBN 978-88-8303-821-1 (print) ISBN 978-88-8303-822-8 (online) EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste via Weiss 21 – 34128 Trieste http://eut.units.it https://www.facebook.com/EUTEdizioniUniversitaTrieste Cultural and Linguistic Transition explored Proceedings of the ATrA closing workshop Trieste, May 25-26, 2016 Ilaria Micheli (ed.) EUT EDIZIONI UNIVERSITÀ DI TRIESTE Table of contents Ilaria Micheli Shereen El Kabbani & Essam VII Introduction Elsaeed 46 The Documentation of the Pilgrimage Arts in Upper Egypt – A comparative PART I – ANTHROPOLOGY / Study between Ancient and Islamic Egypt CULTURE STUDIES Signe Lise Howell PART II – ARCHAEOLOGY 2 Cause: a category of the human mind? Some social consequences of Chewong Paul J. Lane (Malaysian rainforest hunter-gatherers) 60 People, Pots, Words and Genes: ontological understanding Multiple sources and recon-structions of the transition to food production Ilaria Micheli in eastern Africa 13 Women's lives: childhood, adolescence, marriage and motherhood among Ilaria Incordino the Ogiek of Mariashoni (Kenya) and 78 The analysis of determinatives the Kulango of Nassian (Ivory Coast) of Egyptian
    [Show full text]
  • Élémentsde Description Du Langi Langue Bantu F.33 De Tanzanie
    ÉLÉMENTS DE DESCRIPTION DU LANGI LANGUE BANTU F.33 DE TANZANIE MARGARET DUNHAM Remerciements Je remercie très chaleureusement tous les Valangi, ce sont eux qui ont fourni la matière sur laquelle se fonde cet ouvrage, et notamment : Saidi Ikaji, Maryfrider Joseph, Mama Luci, Yuda, Pascali et Agnès Daudi, Gaitani et Philomena Paoli, M. Sabasi, et toute la famille Ningah : Ally, Saidi, Amina, Jamila, Nasri, Saada et Mei. Je remercie également mes autres amis de Kondoa : Elly Benson, à qui je dois la liste des noms d’arbres qui se trouve en annexe, et Elise Pinners, qui m’a logée à Kondoa et ailleurs. Je remercie le SNV et le HADO à Kondoa pour avoir mis à ma disposition leurs moyens de transport et leur bibliothèque. Je remercie les membres du LACITO du CNRS, tout le groupe Langue-Culture- Environnement et ceux qui ont dirigé le laboratoire pendant ma thèse : Jean-Claude Rivierre, Martine Mazaudon et Zlatka Guentchéva Je remercie tout le groupe bantu : Gladys Guarisma, Raphaël Kaboré, Jacqueline Leroy, Christiane Paulian, Gérard Philippson, Marie-Françoise Rombi et Serge Sauvageot, pour leurs conseils et pour leurs oreilles. Je remercie Jacqueline Vaissière pour ses conseils et sa disponibilité. Je remercie Sophie Manus pour la traduction du swahili du rapport de l’Officier culturel de Kondoa. Je remercie Ewen Macmillan pour son hospitalité chaleureuse et répétée à Londres. Je remercie mes amis à Paris qui ont tant fait pour me rendre la vie agréable pendant ce travail. Je remercie Eric Agnesina pour son aide précieuse, matérielle et morale. Et enfin, je ne saurais jamais assez remercier Marie-Françoise Rombi, pour son amitié et pour son infinie patience.
    [Show full text]
  • Thesis HUMA 2009
    A Phonetic Study on Implosives in China by Cun Xi A Thesis Submitted to The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Division of Humanities April, 2009, Hong Kong i HKUST Library Reproduction is prohibited without the author’s prior written consent UMI Number: 3365904 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ______________________________________________________________ UMI Microform 3365904 Copyright 2009 by ProQuest LLC All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. _______________________________________________________________ ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 Acknowledgements At this exciting and momentous time, the first person I would like to thank is my supervisor Prof. Zhu Xiaonong. Many years ago, when I was a newcomer to linguistics, he introduced me to the possibilities along that path and encouraged me to explore them. Reading and correcting every detail of my thesis is not his style, but his comments often hit the nail on the head. He likes to talk to students in an open-hearted way, as our friend, and invite us to meals at his home.
    [Show full text]
  • World Bank Document
    Public Disclosure Authorized Refugee Impacts on Turkana Hosts Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized A Social Impact Analysis for Kakuma Town and Refugee Camp Turkana County, Kenya Varalakshmi Vemuru, Rahul Oka, Rieti Gengo, and Lee Gettler Public Disclosure Authorized Refugee Impacts on Turkana Hosts A Social Impact Analysis for Kakuma Town and Refugee Camp Turkana County, Kenya Varalakshmi Vemuru, Rahul Oka, Rieti Gengo, and Lee Gettler NOVEMBER 2016 Copyright © 2016 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/ The World Bank Group 1818 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20433, USA All rights reserved. First printing: November 2016 Manufactured in the United States of America. Cover photo: Entrepreneurial women; Photo credits (cover and text): Rahul Oka, University of Notre Dame The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this report are entirely those of the authors and should not be attributed in any manner to the World Bank, or its affili- ated organizations, or to members of its board of executive directors or the countries they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any consequence of their use. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this volume do not imply on the part of the World Bank Group any judgment on the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Contents Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • THEORY and PRACTICE in LITERACY and DEVELOPMENT Expenditure, a Drop of 40% Between 2010 and 2016/17, Indicate the Lack of Importance Placed on Literacy
    Teory and Practice in Literacy and Development Teory and Practice in Literacy and Development Papers from the BALID Informal Literacy Discussions Edited by Juliet McCafery and Brian Street Uppingham Press on behalf of the British Association for Literacy in Development Uppingham Press Warren House, 68 Whiting Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 1NR [email protected] The British Association for Literacy in Development c/o Feed the Minds, The Foundry, 17 Oval Way, London SE11 5RR United Kingdom http://balid.org.uk ISBN 978-0-9542114-8-6 First published in the United Kingdom 2016 Second edition 2017 Compilation © BALID 2016 Individual chapters © Individual contributors 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means without prior permission from the British Association for Literacy in Development, [email protected] Dedicated to Brian Street Distinguished professor, inspirational scholar, teacher, mentor and friend Brian Street, co-editor of this book, sadly died shortly before the second edition was published. Brian challenged conventional thinking on literacy and championed a social and cultural practice approach. He was the President of BALID for many years and a committed participant in the BALID Informal Literacy Discussions, valuing the opportunity to engage in dialogue on literacy and to bridge the gap between research and practice, as exemplified in this book Contents I Policies Introduction 1 1. International Advocacy on Literacy and Development: 3 Challenges and Opportunities David Archer 2. Adult Literacy: Policies and Structures 13 Lalage Bown 3. Skills Development and Literacy for Adults: a Failed Experiment 20 Alan Rogers 4.
    [Show full text]