- Type:
- Book Chapter
- Author:
- Maarten Mous
- Published:
- 2020
- Publisher:
- John Benjamins Publishing Company
Abstract Swahili has transformed the noun mpaka ‘boundary, border’ into a function word ‘until’, which has successfully spread to many other East African languages with locative and temporal readings. The grammaticalisation originated in a N-N construction without an associative ‘of’ interpreted as limiting the action adverbially. The main function is in the time interpretation of ‘until’. I provide an overview of this transfer in East Africa by looking at a large number of languages and argue that parallel independent grammaticalisation is not what is at stake but rather transfer of the function word and the preposition-like function.
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- What is "Transfer of Swahili ‘until’ in contact with East African languages" about?
- Abstract Swahili has transformed the noun mpaka ‘boundary, border’ into a function word ‘until’, which has successfully spread to many other East African languages with locative and temporal readings.
- Who wrote "Transfer of Swahili ‘until’ in contact with East African languages"?
- Maarten Mous