Linguistics

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Browsing Linguistics by Subject "Amharic"

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    Ethiopian Literature in English
    (Addis Ababa University, 1980-06) Seifu, Debebe; A. K., Sinha (PhD)
    Looked at from the point of view of the hoary Geez and Amharic literature's, creative writing in English is a baby tradition in Ethiopia. However, this baby tradition has, so far, attracted some venerable writers in Amharic like Tsegaye Gebre Medhin and Dan iachew worku and as such it must needs be subjected to some critical app raisal. This, thus, is the main aim and purpose of this dissertation. Before I come to examine in tobQ creative writings in English, I have attempted to make some descriptive assessment s of some of the Amharic works of some of the writers by way of giving a preliminary insight and a background information. Out of the seven writers I have dealt with in this dissertation, I have delineated in chapte r one, though understan dabily cursorily, the Amha ric works of four writers as these are the ones who can be said to have produced some creative works in the vernacular. In chapter two I have given primarily thematic treatments to seven novels. Among these, The Thirteenth Sun, as a matured and intricate work, has taken much more spaoe t han the others. sahle Selass ie's three novels, arranged and tteated chronologically attempt to show his progress in a rtistio deftness and thematic manipulation . The rest have one novel each and their shortcomings notwithstanding , their attempt to use a foreign language in tackling noteworthy issues is brought out to the attention of the reader. In chapter three I have dealt with the poetic works of TsegayeGebre Medhin and EyasuGorfu. Here, I have found out Tsegaye to be a conscientious poet with a strong committment for the cause of the black people and the resuscitation of their cultures. Conversely, Eyasu tackless issues --- that have only a marginal relevance even to his home land.Among the five Engli sh plays we have in chapter four , four of t hem are authored by Tsega y e Gebre Medhin. Two of these are written in prose, whereas the rama ining two a re couched in beaut iful v e rse. The fifth play is Abbie Gubegna ' s a nd it is on e of the shoddiest works to appear in Engl ish. Finally, in a brief conclusion, I have tried to give an overall picture of the present state o f creative "ratting in English . As long as stringent censorship is prevalent in the country and as long a s Ethiopians have some thing to say artistically to t he outside world, Ethiopian literature in English will continue to com e forth, even if in lulls and a t intervals.
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    Lexical Semantics over the History of Amharic
    (Addis Ababa University, 2009-06) Tizazu, Yoseph; Gensler, Orin (Prof.)
    The major purpose of this study is to investigate the semantic development of Amharic words. Attention is given to investigating factors that have triggered the changes, analyzing and clas sifying the findings based on the taxonomies of semantic change, and exploring possible ' laws' that govern the changes. The semantic behavior of the words und er study is compared in the older and the newer dictionaries to achi eve the foregoing objectives. The results of the study show that a multiplicity of factors have led to change in the semantics of Amharic words. Various kinds of meaning changes are identified on the basis ofthe different factors and association mechanisms that underlie the words. Words have changed their meanings pejoratively, askiir ' boy or girl' > 'servant'; amelioratively, . zega 'beggar' > 'citizen'; metaphorically, 8mmdrta ' leaping' > ' progress'; metonymically, c'8nk'8Ilat 'brain' > 'skull'. Meanings have also undergone specialization, 8s ' ' plant' > 'drug '; generalization, wdyzdro 'queen' > 'a title for any married woman' ; and semantic bleachingfit 'face' > temporal (past or future). In addit ion to th ese general tend encies, some specific tendencies are also seen in "person body-parts" anddbdl ' palate' > 'speech-producing organs'. Metaphor is found to be by far the most pervasive force in many of these chan ges. This discussion of semantic change suggests that most of the meaning changes come under the overriding principle : concrete meaning becomes abstract. The study had to confront two basic problems: the acute lack of an etymo logical dictionary of Apillaric, and the absence of a systematic classification of the hi s torical stages of the language. Scholars shou ld give se rious attention to both of these problems .