Research

MORPHO-PHONOLOGY

My primary research is concerned with morphology-phonology interaction. Specifically I focus on length alternations, monophthong/diphthong alternations along with related tone and vowel harmony patterns. My dissertation on Dàgáárè - Central (Mabia/Gur; Niger-Congo) will focus on the Aspects of morpho-phonology of Dagaare; involving vowel lengthening, diphthongization , rounding harmony and tone . Three kinds of patterns are involved in these processes: one is purely phonological; one involves combining aspects of morphology and phonology, then there is one with a combination of the morphology and syntax. I also have collaborative projects on ATR harmony with Douglas Pulleyblank and Samuel Akinbo .

LANGUAGE DOCUMENTATION AND CORPUS CREATION

As part of ensuring Dàgáárè is well-documented, my research also involves the collection, annotation and transcription of natural data. To this end, I am working with Douglas Pulleyblank , Samuel Akinbo and other colleagues in the African Vowel Laboratory on creating corpus for Dàgáárè from natural data.

MORPHO-SYNTAX

My other (secondary) research is on morphology syntax interface. Some projects are purely syntactic while others a combination of morphology and syntax. The syntax related areas are: Multi-verb constructions (including serial verbs, multi-aspects, (covert) coordination) and double object constructions. In terms of the morpho-syntactic projects, I work with Rose-Marie Dechaine and Ife Adebara on Dàgáárè and Yorùbá nominal syntax.

Language & Politics

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Language & biodiversity

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