Browsing by Author "Yimam, Baye (Professor)"
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Item Analysis of Linguistic Contents in Grades 5-8 English Textbooks of the Curriculum of Oromia Regional State: Focus on Grammar Contents(Addis Ababa University, 2010-09) Teresa, Eba; Yimam, Baye (Professor)The study was designed to evaluate the grammar contents of English textbooks of grades 5-8 in Oromia Regional State. The evaluation includes grammar exercises, explanations of rules, selection, sequencing, repetition of items and difficulty level of the contents. To conduct the study, a purposive sampling technique was used to select the textbooks, the schools and the teachers, and content analysis was also employed. Four English textbooks (grades 5-8), 32 classrooms (from 8 schools) and 143 English teachers were selected for the study. The study revealed that the contents of the textbooks are selected in line with the social and environmental backgrounds of the students. However, the exercises in the books lack clear instructions, contexts and exhaustive questions that are relevant to particular lessons. There are also shortages of explanations about the grammar rules presented in all of the textbooks. The findings also show that the sequencing of the grammar contents is adequate in that there is a single grammar rule presented at a time. However, many grammar items are not repeated in subsequent units and grades. Moreover, there is little attention paid to grammar contents of the whole textbooks, and many grammar items such as tag questions and answers, nominals, phrases and clauses that need to be taught to primary school children are not addressed in the books. Furthermore, the study shows that there are no grammar summaries/reviews, glossaries, and activities in any of the textbooks.Item Baate (Wello) Oromo Phonology: Palatalization of Alveo-dental Consonants and Related Issues(Addis Ababa University, 1994-06) Hordofa, Kebede; Yimam, Baye (Professor); Taddese, TakkeleWello Oromo is one of the least described dialects of the Oromo language. The thesis describes the palatalization process of alveo-dental consonants in respect with Baate (officially "Baati" ) variety ofWello Oromo. Data were collected in two ways; by interviewing and by recording stories, conversations, etc.. The data are described in the framework of auto segmental phonology (see chapter 1.0). A descriptive overview of roots, stems and affixes that are relevant in the discussion of the palatalization process is also given (see chapter 2.0). The process which changes root-final semi-vowel I followed by nasal consonant g to !!!! is described in terms of recursive assimilatory process (see chapter 3.0). In previous work on Ororno, it is usually assumed that consonant! begins the causative morpheme of Oromo. And this! is thought to condition the palatalization of a preceding alveo-dental obstruent or lateral !. In this thesis, evidence is presented that the causative morpheme in Oromo begins with i and not with! at underlying representation (see chapter 4.0). This assumption, could, therefore, well account for the palatalization of the alveo-dental obstruents and lateral! (see chapter 5.0). In general it is established that consonants, !! , ! , !!, 1, l' and ! are palatalized in the environment of an underlying high front vowel ior palatal semivowel I that mayor may not directly appear on the surface. This is also in agreement with universal assumptions about palatalization processes across languages. Also other related issues to the palatalization process are addressed in every chapter of the thesis. It is hoped that the study adds to our knowledge of Oromo and may also provide further material and analysis towards comparative study of Ororno dialectology which is currently not well understood.Item Conditional Constructions in Amhar(Addis Ababa University, 2010-09) Ahmed, Abdu; Yimam, Baye (Professor)This study aims at describing conditional constructions in Amharic. Two secondary sources, Hartmann (1980) and Leslau (1995), have been used, along with the primary intuition of the researcher. Amharic conditionals are constructed from two clauses one of which is an adverbial, the antecedent, and the other of which is a main clause, which is the consequent. Canonical and non-canonical forms of conditionals have been identified. The canonical forms consist of conditional markers in their antecedent clauses. The non-canonical forms are composed of two independent clauses conjoined by such conjunctives like alyam, ɨnǰi and ɨnna. kǝ-, ɨndǝ- and bɨ- are identified as conditional markers. kǝ- occurs with main verbs or with their auxiliaries in the perfective aspect, whereas ɨndǝ- occurs only with the auxiliary hon- and its reduced forms in the same perfective aspect. bɨoccurs with main verbs or their auxiliaries in the imperfective aspect. The semantic-based classification of Amharic conditionals is dealt with in light of Thompson et al.‟s (2007) typology. It is shown that Amharic real conditionals are marked by kǝ- (and sometimes by ɨndǝ-). Except predictives which may take any of the three conditional markers, other types of unreal conditionals are marked by bɨ-. Counterfactuals differ from hypothetical conditionals in that they mostly contain nor-o as a marker of counterfactuality in their antecedent clauses. Concessive conditionals are characterized by the focus suffix -mm and the adverb ɨnkwa(n) „even‟ which mostly co-occur in antecedent clauses. Exceptive conditionals are characterized by bǝk‟ǝr (bǝstǝk‟ǝr) or ɨnǰi in their antecedent clauses and the choice between these is determined by polarity type of the antecedent clause.Item Descriptive Grammar of Saaho(Addis Ababa University, 2015-04) Tajebe, Esayas; Yimam, Baye (Professor); W/Mariam, Hirut (PhD)This study is about the grammatical description of Saaho, a language spoken by the Irob people in the Northern part of Ethiopia. The description includes phonology, morphology and syntax. In the phonology part inventory of phonemes has been made with respect to segmental and supra segmental phonemes. Thus, the language has 22 consonant and 5 vowels segmental phonemes. Gemination of consonants, vowel length and tone constitute meaning distinction and are suprasegmental phonemes. In addition, cooccurence restriction of segments, syllabic structure and morpho phonological processes have been described based on distribution. In the morphology part description and classification of words has been made by considering universal and language specific features. In the language nouns, verbs and adjective have been considered as major word classes, and adverbs, pronouns, determiners, demonstratives, postpositions, and conjunctions are minor word classes. Some specific components of nominal morphology include sub classes of nouns - proper, common; count and mass. Number: (Plural marking and singulative marking), Gender: masculine and feminine where feminine is the default gender. Formal and semantic gender assignment systems have been described. Tone plays an important role in the morphology of the language. Tone distinguishes gender in nouns. It also serves in case assignment as in nominative, accusative and genitive cases. In addition, nominal derivation involve different processes like affixation, compounding, stem modification, tone alternation, reduplication etc that are employed in forming different sub classes of nouns. Verbs are grouped into four sub classes- class I both prefixing and suffixing verbs, class II suffixing verbs, class III reduced-verb form and class IV compound verbs. Class I verbs make use of affixation and ablaut process but other classes involve affixation. In addition description of verbal inflection and derivation has been made. The verbs show inflections for subject agreement, aspect (Perfective, imperfective, and progressive) andmood subjunctive, jussive, imperative and infinitive. In the verb derivation: causative, middle, passive, intensive, attenuative, frequentative and inchoative have been described. Word order the syntax of phrases (NP- Modifier Head N), PP – NP Postposition) and simple sentence has (SOV), and describing different types of clause have been made. In addition, analysis of sentence types as declarative, interrogative, negative has been madeItem Documentation & Description of Amharic Dialects(AAU, 2018-08) Tadesse, Mengistu; Yimam, Baye (Professor)This study attempts to describe and document phonological, morphological and lexical variation of Amharic regional dialects spoken in rural parts of Gojjam, Wollo, Gonder and North Shewa. These research areas were selected by purposive sampling. The preselected criterion for participant selection in this study is the criteria known by the acronyms ―NORMFS‖ (Non- mobile Older Rural Males and Females). The researcher has taken cues from generative and structural linguistic theories under the description methodology and procedure. Elicitation and audio-video recording were used as major data collection instruments to make good documentation and description of Amharic dialects. In phonetic inventory of Amharic dialects, seventy six possible consonant segments including three implosives [], [], [ɗ] and one velar fricative [ɣ] have been identified. Lenition and fortition, palatalization of non-palatal phones, geminating ungeminated segments, vowel harmony and metathesis that involve reordering of sounds within different Amharic dialect areas also have been attested. Regarding morphology, the numbers and verbal clauses can take the plural marker [-oʧʧ] instead of taking definite marker /-u-t/ and few nouns can be pluralized through partial and total reduplication features in the Gojjam dialect. In addition, there are many words which are unique to different Amharic dialect areas, and some of the lexical items that the current researcher has obtained from Gonder and Wollo dialects can be used as a resource for the enrichments of Amharic. It is observed that without any geographical barrier or distance, there would be great phonological, morphological and lexical variations. The case of Debark and Dembiya of Gonder is an example for such incident. On the other hand, areas like Amanuel, Denbecha and Feresbet areas of Gojjam, Debark and its neighboring areas of Gondar and some areas of south Wollo, despite the geographical barriers and inaccessible distance, mostly speak similar varieties. Therefore, the classification of Amharic dialects is not as such simple without marking and drawing dialect continuum and isoglosses of phonological, morphological and lexical varieties. This is a task which awaits further research.Item A Grammar of Haro With Comparative Notes on The Ometo Linguistic Group(Addis Ababa University, 2004-02) Woldemariam, Hirut; Yimam, Baye (Professor)The aim of this study is two-folded. The first one is providing a thorough description of the Haro language, while the second one is offering some comparative and historical notes on the Ometo linguistic group, which Haro belongs to. The two aspects complement each other. The data for the comparative analysis is derived from the description of Haro. Presenting the Haro data within a comparative framework, on the other hand, discloses more facts about the Haro language and the relationship it has with the others. Although it particularly emphasizes on the morphological domain, the description, however, also covers the phonological and syntactic structures of the language. Haro is an interesting language from typological and historical perspectives. For instance, the Haro language shows an intricate system of focus marking that affects the morpho-syntactic properties and categorization of a verb. The language has a three-way number-marking system that distinguishes among the singular, paucal and plural number values. The numeral system of Haro is not attested to anywhere else in the Ometo linguistic group. An elaborated system of mood and modality is also observed in Haro. The second part of the study, dealing with comparative and historical notes on certain morphological aspects of the Ometo languages, adds to our understanding of the Ometo linguistic group. It shows how certain grammatical aspects in the Ometo languages operate. It also reconstructs the archaic systems for the Proto-Ometo language. Issues addressed in the second part include the system of terminal vowels of nominals, the system of number marking of nouns and the system of definite marking vii of nouns. In addition, the pronoun systems across the Ometo languages are investigated, in which the short and long pronoun paradigms in the Ometo languages are particularly explored, properties of the two sets of pronouns are characterized, the relationship between the two sets is described and an etymological interpretation that relates the third person singular pronouns with the remote demonstrative is offered. Furthermore, an investigation into the numeral system of the Ometo languages is made. A historical quinary numeral system is reconstructed and etymological interpretations are provided for the quinary base as well as some of the basic numerals. The quinary base, which stands for the value of ‘five’, is etymologically related to the quantifier expression ‘many’. From the comparative notes, the relationship among the different sub-branches and different members of Ometo is disclosed. Haro, together with a few other members, appears to be conservative, preserving two gender-sensitive archaic definite markers, which have been lost totally or partially from most of the other members of Ometo.Item The Kemantney Language: A Sociolinguistic and Grammatical Study of Language Replacement(Addis Ababa University, 2000-10) Leyew, Zelealem; Yimam, Baye (Professor)This study is about the sociolinguistic and grammatical description of Kemantney, an endangered Ethiopian language on the verge of extinction. To describe the replacement process of Kemantney by Amharic, three vantage points are discussed in some detail. These are: the sociolinguistic analysis of the speech behaviour of the last generation of speakers, the historical analysis of the external setting and, finally the grammatical description of the structural consequences. The sociolinguistic analysis reveals the high functional reduction of Kemantney. It is used only in rituals and secret talks. Amharic is used for other purposes. Kemantney speakers have a native command of in and a positive attitude towards Amharic, the replacing language, for practical reasons. Their proficiency in Kemantney is bound to age, place of birth and residence, and religious affiliation. The young generation has developed a negative attitude towards Kemantney. The denial of knowledge of Kemantney and of their identity as Kemant is commonly observed among adults. In general, there is a shift of linguistic identity accompanied by a shift of social identity. The historical analysis of the external setting reveals the political, economic and cultural factors which have contributed to the obsolescence of Kemantney. Among these, the geographical location, the long-standing history of contact and peaceful co-existence with the Amhara, the derogatory implication of the name Kemant, intermarriage, and the speared of schools and administrative structures, are the major causes. The immediate cause is, however, the mass conversion of the Kemant people to Orthodox Christianity. Diachronically, the language has gone through both radical and gradual death processes and has ended up with a bottom-to-top type of obsolescence. The lexical and grammatical description of Kemantney reveals that the language has still maintained its Agew - Cushitic features. And yet, striking reductions and simplifications are exhibited in its structure which is attributable to either contact-induced change or language decay. There is a good deal of lexical transfer from Amharic to Kemantney through borrowing. Stem borrowing is common in verbs. The hierarchy of borrowing is: Nouns - Adjectives - Verbs - Adverbs - and finally Postpositions. Frequently occurring and structurally less complex words are more remembered. There is a tendency of replacing sounds typical to Kemantney by related sounds from Amharic. Morphemic borrowing and the borrowing of discourse elements are found. The proficiency continuum ranges from fully competent speakers to rememberers of words and isolated phrases.Item Language Use in Aksum Linguistic Landscape(Addis Ababa University, 2013-06) Guesh, Teklay; Yimam, Baye (Professor)The purpose of the study is to examine the language use in Aksum linguistic landscape. In order to meet this purpose the required data are collected through photographing, observation, semi-structured interviews held with business owners and customers. The result of the study has been analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to determine the order of languages, prominence of languages, translation, transliteration, mixing of languages, characteristics of multilingual signs and language choice in the government and private signs. According to the findings, Amharic and Tigrigna are the most prominent languages in the linguistic landscape. The distribution of these languages differs across government and private agencies in the language choice and categories on signs. In the government signs Tigrigna is more visible. This might be due to the language policy practices of the government agencies. Amharic is dominant in private signs. This is due to the objective of business owners to attract customers who come from different parts of Ethiopia. The findings also show that English is visible in the public space due to status as an international language and the fact that Aksum is a tourist destination. The study reveals that Tigrigna signs show structural variations in the position of heads in phrases. There is also code-mixing in translation of texts in signs. There are word for word translations and transliterations of texts in signs.Item A Linguistic Analysis of Amharic Proverbs of Advice(Addis Ababa University, 2014-12) Geremew, Yidnekachew; Yimam, Baye (Professor)The research had the objective of describing Amharic proverbs of advice from the linguistic point of view. The description included syntactic patterns, stylistic features, and pragmatics of the proverbs. A descriptive method was used for the study of the structure of the proverbs. The proverbs were selected and garnered from written sources, namely Mekuriya (1982) ‘Proverbs’, and Birhanu (1995) ‘Amharic proverb collections’. Based on the research objectives, the findings of the analysis of the proverbs are summarized as follows. In terms of syntactic patterns, the study shows that most Amharic proverbs of advice are complex-declarative clauses. Most of the phonetic and stylistic features have been observed. Of these alliteration, rhyme, assonance, ellipsis, parallelism and reduplication are the widely used features that made Amharic proverbs of advice poetic, memorable, and powerful conveyer of message. Furthermore, the study showed that the proverbs are used for advice in relevant contexts, situations, audience and topic that inform and/or advise. Finally, as a concluding remarks, the researcher recommends that other studies be done on the linguistic aspects of other speech acts.Item Overt Argument Noun Phrase Interpretation in Oromo(Addis Ababa University, 2003-07) Beyene, Kalbesa; Yimam, Baye (Professor)In this thesis, the referential properties of Oromo overt argument noun phrases are described. The thesis has four chapters. In the first chapter, introductory issues are discussed. These include a brief description of the language, the statement of the problem, the objective, the significance, the methodology, the scope of the study, theoretical framework, and review of literature. In the second and third chapters, the central objective is dealt with. With regard to this, the principles of binding which deal with pronominal reference are discussed. Accordingly, anaphoric pronominals are bound within their governing categories, in which there is a governor within a c-command domain, an accessible subject, and anaphors should be in agreement with their antecedents. Non-anaphoric pronominals are free in such domain. Since languages behave differently with regard to the way the binding principles operate, and with regard to the level of linguistic representation at which the principles apply, that is, SS or LF, this study attempts to account for the situation in Oromo. In the last chapter, the summary of the whole analyses is presented. The binding principles apply to pronominals predominantly at SS. There are, however, cases, where they apply at LF. Furthermore, there are some movements that take place for the binding relationship to hold between bound pronominals and their antecedents. viii other hand, however, significant number of the comments seems to have met the students' preferences to a certain extent. Based on the finding of the study, some possible recommendations are suggested.Item Pronominal Empty Categories Of Ktstantiiiia: A Minimalist Approach(AAU, 2008-11) Berhe, Tigist; Yimam, Baye (Professor)This is a study describing pronominal empty categories of k+stan+iiiia in light of the Minimalist Approach. The study examines the nature of agreement with respect to head and argument relations and the licensing and recovery of pronominal empty categories. It intends to provide new facts which may help others to describe pronominal empty categories in related languages and to make comparative studies. The study is based on data collected from both primary and secondary sources. It is shown that in the . language, heads agree with their arguments in clauses and DPs. In declarative clauses, verbs agree with subjects, objects, and adjuncts. In jussive and imperative clauses verbs agree with subjects. In nominal clauses, DPs agree with subjects. Regarding the licensing and recovery of pro and PRO, it is shown that subject pros are licensed in the Spec of vP, AP, and nP. Subject pros are recovered in the Spec of ASPP, TP, and AGRSP. Object pros are licensed in the complement of VP in transitive verbs and Spec of VP in three-place predicates. Indirect object and adjunct pros are licensed in the complement of VP and in the v' position, respectively. And object, indirect object, and adjunct preis are recovered in the Spec of the appropriate AGRP. PRO is licensed in the Spec of nP and recovered in the Spec of AGRSP. This study describes the licensing and recovery of pronominal empty categories m limited clauses and DPs only. Therefore, further investigation is needed to find out all the possible positions of the licensing and recovery of the categories within the view of the minimalist approach. Moreover, the distribution of the complementizer 'yii.-' and main verb markers of the language need deeper investigation.Item The Semantics And Pragmatics of Amharic Bəgəna Lyrics(AAU, 2021-01) Weldegebreal Baymot, Tadesse; Yimam, Baye (Professor)The main objective of this dissertation was to analyze the semantics and pragmatics of Amharic bəgəna lyrics. The study was qualitative and empirical in nature and mainly relied on primary linguistic data. Data were obtained from written bəgəna lyrics and audio/video bəgəna song albums. The analysis was made in line with the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), Speech Act Theory (SAT) and Relevance Theory (RT). The analysis of the present study covered several topics including metaphorical conceptualizations of linguistic expressions, methods of unraveling the meaning of k’ɨne „pun‟, deictic expressions, functions of illocutionary acts and conversational implicatures. In so doing, bəgəna lyrics that contained metaphors, deictic words, puns, illocutionary forces and implicatures are identified and transcribed phonemically using IPA. The data were presented in interlinear morpheme-by-morpheme in three lines as suggested by the Leipzig Glossing Rules. The analysis of the conceptual metaphor revealed that metaphorical conceptualizations of the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, hell, heaven/paradise, time, life, bravery, and bounded-space were found to be the most frequent conceptual metaphors in Amharic bəgəna lyrics. Besides, ontological and orientational metaphors were identified and analyzed accordingly. Regarding deictics, spatial deictics (demonstratives, locatives, and deictic motion verbs), temporal deictics, personal deictics and social deictics were identified and analyzed in detail. The result of the study also showed that metaphors, homonymous words, idioms, proverbs, words with double meanings and ambiguous expressions were frequently used to contrive Amharic k’ɨne. To unravel the meanings of the k’ɨne identified in the study, understanding metaphors, merging two distinct words into one, splitting one word into two distinct word forms, and deleting the initial or final sounds or syllables of words when they are said in connected-speech was used. This study also revealed that representatives/assertives, directives, commissives, expressives, declarations, assertive-declarations were the major types of illocutionary acts with different illocutionary forces such as informing, requesting, pleading, promising, pledging, thanking, apologizing, and declaring. Finally, implicatures focusing on scalar/quantity implicatures were also treated somehow. This study calls for in-depth studies on the semantics and pragmatics of Ethiopian languages. Moreover, the applied aspects of linguistics need to be further investigated in an interdisciplinary fashion.Item Structure of Determiner Phrase in Ge’ez(Addis Ababa University, 2014-08) Abawa, Belesti; Yimam, Baye (Professor)This study is devoted to structures of determiner phrase in Ge‟ez in the light of the Minimalist Program. It focuses on descriptions of words, phrases, sentences and their syntactic projections. DP in Ge‟ez is formed by merging a determiner (as head) and a complement (NP). The function of each morpheme in the description is given. Construct state, dative and genitive constructions show possession relation between possessees and possessors. They use different possession markers. For example,-ä and lä- go with construct state and dative respectively, whereas zä-, ʔɨllä-, ʔɨntä- go with possessees and possessors in genitive constructions. Specifiers can be subjects, articles, pronouns and demonstratives.Item The Structures of Nominal Clauses in Afan Oromo A Minimalist Approach(Addis Ababa University, 2007-07) Alemayehu, Hawine; Yimam, Baye (Professor)This thesis explores the structure of nominal clauses in Afan Oromo within the framework of Chomsky’s (1993, 1995) Minimalist Program. In particular, it focuses on two types of nominal clauses: akka clause, which is finite and f -clause, which is non-finite. Attempt is made to identify the functional and lexical categories, the possible movements that drive nominal clause structures and the hierarchical order of functional and lexical projections in the structures. In akka clause, there are six functional projections – CP, TP, AspP, NegP, AgrSP and AgrOP. In xi f -clause, on the other hand, there are CP, TP, NegP, AgrSP and AgrOP. With regard to distribution, akka clause is limited to the position of complement while f -clause can occur in all argument positions. Since the language marks nominative case morphologically, the nominal head of f -clause displays the nominative case suffix /-n/. Concerning case checking, both AgrS and Asp can check nominative case and the possible checking domain for accusative case is the light verb and light noun. It is also shown that nominal clauses have SOV word order where the object may be preposed for purpose of focus. Finally, the syntactic representations of nominal clauses have been discussed. The hierarchy in akka clauses is [DP [ CP [ AgrSP [ TP [AspP [ NegP [AgrOP [ vP [VP ]]]]]]]] while in f -clauses the order is [ DP [CP [ AgrSP [ TP [ NegP [AgrOP [ nP [ NP ]]]]]]]].