Similative, equative, and comparative constructions in Beja (North-Cushitic)

Martine Vanhove (1)

1 LLACAN - Langage, LAngues et Cultures d'Afrique Noire

This paper deals with the various syntactic strategies used for the expression of similarity, equality and comparison in Beja in a comparative and typological perspective. It shows that the origin of the comparative marker is related to the universal quantifier, a rare strategy crosslinguistically. It discusses the extensions of various markers to other domains (in role phrases, functive phrases, simulative clauses, similes, accord clauses and pretense clauses), and shows that unlike other Cushitic languages, these are very limited and unfrequent. A final discussion concerns the use of a "phatic" strategy with the 2SG.M bound object pronoun), for the extended similative marker, an unrecorded strategy so far in other languages.

Mots clés: similarity; comparison; equative; deixis; typology

Mots clés: similarité; comparaison; constructions équatives; typologie

Domaines: Linguistique

Martine Vanhove. Similative, equative, and comparative constructions in Beja (North-Cushitic). Treis, Yvonne; Vanhove, Martine. Similative and Equative Constructions. A cross-linguistic perspective, John Benjamins, pp.189-212, 2017, Similative and Equative Constructions. A cross-linguistic perspective. ⟨halshs-00920198⟩