Browsing by Author "Yimam, Baye (Prof.)"

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    Amharic DBpedia Extraction
    (Addis Ababa University, 2015-03) Getahun, Biniyam; Yimam, Baye (Prof.)
    Knowledge base is a technology used to store complex structured and unstructured data used by computer. Today, most knowledge bases cover just particular domain that is created by a small group of knowledge engineers because building general domain base knowledge is cost ly and time taking to cover a ll domains. Wikipedia has developed into one of the focal knowledge so urces for everyone and is kept up by a large number of contributors but its structure has some issue to use as knowledge source. The DBpedia project goes for extracting in formation based on semi-structured information by presenting Wikipedia articles, interlinking it with other knowledge bases, and publishing it as RDF triples openly on the Web. So far, the DBpedia project has succeeded in creatin g one of the largest knowledge bases on the web data, which is used in many applications and research prototypes. DBpedia extraction is extracts structured data (RDF) from Wikipedia. This study describes the effort to extract Amharic DBpedia. During the extraction process, the extraction design present by considering Amharic language. The tool used to extract Amharic DBpedia is 118n extract ion framework. The result shows more than quarter million Amharic RDF trip les extracted. In addition to this achievement, the improvement of Amharic Wikipedia infoboxes could increase the quality of extracting RDF triples. The result also shows extracting Amharic DBpedia is applicable and the language can be a part of the internationalized DBpedia chapter. Even if the study shows encouraging results, there are some remaining work needs to be done to get full Amharic DBpedia chapter. Abstract and homepage extractions must include having a full version of Amharic DBpedia chapter. Live base DBped ia extraction can be a considerable in the future work because it can get dynamic knowledge from Wikipedia and has a capability to deliver in stant RDF triples. Building Amharic knowledge bases, including Amharic DBpedia RDF store helps in order to facilitate access and querying structured data. Furthermore, the Amharic triple store can be knowledge source for NLP tasks and web applications. Keywords: DBpedia, 118n Extraction fram ework, RDF, Semantic Web, Wikiped ia.
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    Discourse Analysis of wəddi mən, Oral Game of Honeymoon in the Eastern Tigrai
    (AAU, 2020-08) Gebre-Egziabher, Hagos; Yimam, Baye (Prof.)
    In the rural areas of the Eastern Tigrai, when people visit the honeymooners, they often prefer to play an oral game called wəddi mən, which means 'whose son is...', and functionally, 'whose bridegroom/ bride is..., fiancé/ fiancée is...', as an entertainment and socio-linguistic event. This paper investigates on the Discourses that are used in wəddi mən. The main objective of this research is to thematically describe the Discourses of wəddi mən and their functions. wəddi mən is an event that has currently been replaced by some modern entertaining games such as play cards and modern music. Because this socio-linguistic practice is still oral, it has seriously been endangered. Therefore, it needs to be researched and transformed into written status. Thus, this work may be playing its role in documenting this oral language use for the first time. Conceptually, this research considered Osisanwo's (2005) Discourse features cited in Osoba & Sobola (2014: 203). These features are: conversation, Discourse participants, opening and closing of Discourse, holding floor, turn-taking, overlapping, speech errors, repair mechanism, role sharing, elicitation in talk, and adjacency pairs. Halliday's theory of systematic functional linguistics (SFL), an approach and theory that views languages as a social phenomenon which is more concerned with the functions and meanings than with the structural aspects of languages, is theoretically framed to this research. This research is designed based on the descriptive approach of qualitative research design. The data for this research are gathered from the remote rural areas of purposely selected six Weredas of the Eastern Tigrai. The main tools for gathering the data for this research have mainly been ethnographic observation and semi-structured interviews. This study found out different sociolinguistic and cultural practices reflected by the Discourses used in wəddi mən. It has thematized the Discourses based on their functions and meanings. The participants portray the issues of power assignment, power hierarchy, power exercise and power transfer in their interactional communications using the Discourses. This research also found out the Discourses of naming and addressing in wəddi mən in reflection to the cultures of naming and addressing of their community. It has iii also analyzed how the participants use the Discourses that show how people make and fix appointments with other interlocutors thereby reflecting the culture of division of labor among the masculine and feminine genders in their society. Moreover, this study has found out some Discourses that reflect the attitude and the feeling of the bridegroom and the bride towards each other. Besides, it has come up with findings of taboo Discourses that are used by the participants as taboo as they are for entertainment and life skill training in their interaction. Furthermore, this research has also analyzed gendered Discourses; for example, Discourse of sex preference at first birth in their interaction as a reflection of the culture of the society. The other concept which this research has come up with is the Discourses of politeness during the interactional communications of the participants. In their communications, the participants address each other using honorific terms not to belittle their interlocutors. Finally, the participants conclude the game using the Discourses of blessing as illustrated in the Discourses in 4.17. In the game of wəddi mən, it is the bride who blesses the end of the game.
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    Noun Phrase Structure in Harari
    (Addis Ababa University, 2004-07) Mitiku, Beniam; Yimam, Baye (Prof.)
    This study reports on the noun phrase of Harari. It gives a descriptive account of the structure of the noun phrase in the language. Harari is among the Ethioc Semitic languages on which so far little linguistic studies have been made and documented. The descriptive works on the language are not comp lete and most except a chosen few are sketchy. This proves a cons id erable research gap and lack of descriptive work s pertaining to the language in general and its syntax in particular. This has led to the present thesis which would be the first detailed syntactic study on the language presented after a decade since Teshome (1992) . . Its pertinacity would therefore be to some extenttei address the lack of descriptive works on the language. This study, based on syntactic-semantic grounds, describes certai n grammatical or lexical formatives - articles and quantifiers - as specifiers; and other phrasal structures - adjectival and nominal phrasal structures - and clausal structures - relative clauses - as complements. Both of these are optional and position ally pronominal structural constituent s that may occur with an obligatory simple nominal head in noun phrases. It also discloses that the two hold independent structural positions when both occur in the same noun phrase structure. The specifiers always precede the phrasal and clausal categories described as complements . Th e study also claims that, in Harari, there is no morphological affix for definiteness, and argues that the forms z and z are distribution ally distinct markers introducing relative clauses co institutionalize and imperfection verb forms respective In general, this stud y provides empirical evidence for classifying Harari as a head-final language.
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    The Socio-Cultural Milieu, Language Use, Language Attitude, And Ethno linguistic Identity in Mesqan
    (Addis Ababa University, 2012-06) Shikur, Getu; Yimam, Baye (Prof.)
    Various sociolinguistic studies highlight the intrinsic bond between culture and language. However, variations exist in line with the angles from which the studies explain the link. This thesis approaches the issue from a different perspective, with a focus on the reciprocal influence between the socio-cultural context and language as reflected in language use, language attitude, and ethnolinguistic identity. Addressing this issue in the context of the Gurage cluster, which comprises linguistically heterogeneous groups, makes it interesting to discern the interface. Mesqan is an ethnolinguistic group within the Gurage cluster. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques were employed to obtain information in rural and urban areas, namely, Mesqan Woreda, Butajira town, and Yirgalem town. Mesqan is generally used in informal domains of day-to-day interaction, and Amharic is the language of education and administration. Highly valued cultural and social events impose norms of interaction and interpretation on language users, and strict adherence to the rules is sanctified by the exclusive use of their ethnic language, i.e. Mesqan. Language attitude and language use mutually influence each other; however, high level of attitude towards the in-group language neither necessarily points to high degree of use in various domains, nor essentially shows high level of proficiency. Hence, the relationship between language attitude and language use is not necessarily reciprocal. Similarly, there is an inherent link between language and ethnic identity; nonetheless, the bond is stronger in a situation where the ethnic language is dominantly used as a mother tongue in various domains, and serves as a key index of ethnic identity; and, it is weaker in a context the ethnic language holds a symbolic role in the identity construction. The extent to which the speakers have positive attitude towards their in-group language also determines the place language holds in the construction of ethnic identity. The complexity and fluidity of ethnic identity within the Gurage cluster and the role language plays in the identity construction, and a sociolinguistic and grammatical description of the secret language of the Moyat 'a group of people who follow a traditional belief call for a comprehensive study in the future .
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    The Structure of Determiner Phrases in Saho
    (Addis Ababa University, 2008-06) Safisa, Selamawit; Yimam, Baye (Prof.)
    The study deals with the syntax of determiner phrases in Saho in light of the Minimalist Program. It tries Lo show the internal constituents and derivations of Saho determiner phrases. It attempts to describe noun inflections such as number gender, singulative and case markers of Saho. The order of constituents within each type of DP and the morphological properties has been examined. All elements of DP precede the head noun. The study identifies that Saho does not have visible affIx to show indefiniteness. However, definiteness is expressed by the definite article / amay / 'the'. The definite article, demonstratives and adjectives do not agree with the head noun in number, gender and case. The possessorpossessed relationship in this language is not morphologically marked. The study idenlifies four types of relalivi2ations. These are subjecL, direct object, indirect object and possessive relativizations. In all cases, the head noun appears in final position. Finally, the derivations of determiner phrases with vanous internal constituents have been shown. The derivation involves head movement.