2011
243 pp.
5 colour maps, 1 map, 33 sonagrams, 3 dendrograms, 10 colour figures, numerous tables
Text language: French
The present volume is a study on linguistic and sociolinguistic variation and structuring in Berber, approached from four main themes:
1. the non-verbal predication for which a formal and functional typology is established through comparative analyses;
2. the central role of intonation in the structuring of speech, focusing on topics such as the syntactic and pragmatic functions of intonation and their relation to the structuring of information;
3. the construction of meaning in oral discourse, attributing a central position to the ‘interactants’, rather than disembodied language, who jointly construct and reconstruct meaning, and produce and reproduce cultural values;
4. and the linguistic geography analyses which show how research on linguistic variation can benefit both dialectology – integrated into a geolinguistic perspective – and dialectometry.
The considerable amount of data and detailed linguistic and sociolinguistic analyses from a Berber as well as from a general theoretical perspective makes this book an interesting tool for any scholar studying linguistic and sociolinguistic variation and structuring.
The detailed description of the results is enriched by numerous coloured and black-and-white figures, among them maps, sonagrams, coloured dendrograms and illustrations.