African linguistics at the crossroads

This collection explores various aspects of African linguistics through six main sections. The first section delves into historical, comparative, and typological perspectives, featuring discussions on grammaticalization theory, mixed languages, and the typology of Bantu noun classes. The second section focuses on phonetics and phonology, examining click phonetics, tone representation, and syllabic genesis in Luganda. The third section addresses syntax and semantics, highlighting contributions of African languages to generative grammar, argument structure constraints, and various aspects of verbal agreement and syntactic traces in languages like Zulu and Xhosa. The fourth section presents interactional sociolinguistics, discussing narrative syntax in urban Luo children, language choices in South Africa, and politeness behaviors in Swahili. The fifth section covers language policy and planning, addressing literacy in Nigeria, the interplay of linguistics and education in Ghana, and language policy issues in Mozambique and Tanzania. Finally, the sixth section focuses on language and cultural studies, exploring Swahili verbs in fiction, pragmatics of verbal abuse, and noun classification in Swahili. This comprehensive anthology offers insights into the diverse linguistic landscape of Africa, reflecting its rich cultural and social contexts.