Oral Tradition Narratives of the Emai People

Oral Tradition Narratives of the Emai People
Author: Ronald P. Schaefer
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
Total Pages: 680
Release: 2000
Genre: History
ISBN: 9783825840303

" This collection of seventy prose of narrative samples represents the only published record of the oral tradition of the Emai people of southern Nigeria. The narratives are presented in both Emai orthography and English translation. They tend to portray everyday cultural practices of the Emai with human characters or their animal personification. As such, they provide an initial glimpse of Emai cosmology, cultural values and social norms as well as a firm impression of how Emai grammatical resources function in spontaneous narrative discourse. Ronald P. Schaefer is Professor at the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of English Language and Literature, at the Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Francis O. Egbokhare teaches at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. "

Oral Literature in the Digital Age

Oral Literature in the Digital Age
Author: Mark Turin
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2013
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1909254304

Thanks to ever-greater digital connectivity, interest in oral traditions has grown beyond that of researcher and research subject to include a widening pool of global users. When new publics consume, manipulate and connect with field recordings and digital cultural archives, their involvement raises important practical and ethical questions. This volume explores the political repercussions of studying marginalised languages; the role of online tools in ensuring responsible access to sensitive cultural materials; and ways of ensuring that when digital documents are created, they are not fossilised as a consequence of being archived. Fieldwork reports by linguists and anthropologists in three continents provide concrete examples of overcoming barriers -- ethical, practical and conceptual -- in digital documentation projects. Oral Literature In The Digital Age is an essential guide and handbook for ethnographers, field linguists, community activists, curators, archivists, librarians, and all who connect with indigenous communities in order to document and preserve oral traditions.

A Grammar of Emai

A Grammar of Emai
Author: Ronald P. Schaefer
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 1019
Release: 2016-12-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110766280

This reference grammar is the first ever description of West Africa’s Edoid language Emai. It incorporates narrative, lexical and grammatical field results over the last three decades. Treated are morphology, syntax and argument structure after an introductory phonology and orthographic overview highlighting grammatical and lexical tone. Individual chapters delineate noun and verb phrase structure as well as clause shape in discourse and clause combination. Noun inflection and derivation are detailed as is verb inflection in the context of tense, aspect and modality. Noun phrase character encompasses remnant noun classes, nominal modification types and pronoun forms followed by conjunction. Verb phrase features include complex predicates, both verbs in series and verb plus postverbal particle, functionally distinct copulas, double objects, and sentence complement types constrained by matrix verb. Also analyzed are preverbal and postverbal adverbials relative to information question types. Multi-clause constructions are profiled as to coding varieties across dependent clauses as well as precedence relations. A concluding chapter presents a sample narrative in orthographic form, interlinear gloss and English free translation.

Mythology For Dummies

Mythology For Dummies
Author: Amy Hackney Blackwell
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 407
Release: 2023-06-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1394187947

Discover (or rediscover!) history’s greatest myths and legends From Grendel and Beowulf to Poseidon, Medusa, and Hercules, the gods, monsters, and heroes of mythology are endlessly weird and fascinating. And if you’re looking for a helpful companion to this wild collection of creatures, humans, and deities, you’ve found it! Mythology For Dummies delivers the straight goods on history’s most popular myths, helping you make sense of even the most complicated ancient stories. You’ll learn about the origins of your favorite myths, their cultural impact, and more. Discover: The coolest mythological characters, including intrepid Odysseus, the volatile gods of Mount Olympus, and Thor and Loki How ancient mythology intersects with our daily lives in pop culture, high culture, and everything in between Mythological destinations, like Atlantis, and famous sites from Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology An engrossing guide to some of the most enduring and interesting tales from throughout history, Mythology For Dummies serves up the inside scoop on almost every myth or legend you’d care to learn more about.

Family Oral History Across the World

Family Oral History Across the World
Author: Mary Louise Contini Gordon
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2023-11-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000986209

Family Oral History Across the World presents a process for memorializing family histories, bringing together established oral history standards, exploratory research, and narrative data analysis. Based on and using a prequestionnaire and over 40 recorded interviews with people from across six continents, the analysis system used in the book presents material from these interviews that brings alive the experience of the family history journey. One of the guiding principles is to encourage readers to interview family members, but also others outside the family unit, and to produce a family history in whatever format works. The book illustrates this through the inclusion of many unusual formats and stories uncovered. The book is divided into a number of themes that emerged through the analysis of numerical questionnaire and narrative interview data. Parts I, II, and III cover changing family demography, case studies, and factors such as memory, emotion, and ethics. Part IV offers a pliable process and practice guide with input and examples from interviews. It also discusses developing approaches to presenting oral histories from both oral historians and other interviewers and writers, such as journalists. With case studies as well as example guidelines and templates, this volume is ideal both for academics interested in family history as well as professional genealogists and families themselves.

Word Order in Discourse

Word Order in Discourse
Author: Pamela A. Downing
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 607
Release: 1995-06-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027284946

This volume brings together a collection of 18 papers dealing with the problem of word order variation in discourse. Word order variation has often been treated as an essentially unpredictable phenomenon, a matter of selecting randomly one of the set of possible orders generated by the grammar. However, as the papers in this collection show, word order variation is not random, but rather governed by principles which can be subjected to scientific investigation and are common to all languages.The papers in this volume discuss word order variation in a diverse collection of languages and from a number of perspectives, including experimental and quantitative text based studies. A number of papers address the problem of deciding which order is 'basic' among the alternatives. The volume will be of interest to typologists, to other linguists interested in problems of word order variation, and to those interested in discourse syntax.

Handbook of Research on Connecting Research Methods for Information Science Research

Handbook of Research on Connecting Research Methods for Information Science Research
Author: Ngulube, Patrick
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 639
Release: 2019-12-13
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1799814726

In today’s globalized world, viable and reliable research is fundamental for the development of information. Innovative methods of research have begun to shed light on notable issues and concerns that affect the advancement of knowledge within information science. Building on previous literature and exploring these new research techniques are necessary to understand the future of information and knowledge. The Handbook of Research on Connecting Research Methods for Information Science Research is a collection of innovative research on the methods and application of study methods within library and information science. While highlighting topics including data management, philosophical foundations, and quantitative methodology, this book is ideally designed for librarians, information science professionals, policymakers, advanced-level students, researchers, and academicians seeking current research on transformative methods of research within information science.

The Oral History Reader

The Oral History Reader
Author: Robert Perks
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 743
Release: 2015-11-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317371321

The Oral History Reader, now in its third edition, is a comprehensive, international anthology combining major, ‘classic’ articles with cutting-edge pieces on the theory, method and use of oral history. Twenty-seven new chapters introduce the most significant developments in oral history in the last decade to bring this invaluable text up to date, with new pieces on emotions and the senses, on crisis oral history, current thinking around traumatic memory, the impact of digital mobile technologies, and how oral history is being used in public contexts, with more international examples to draw in work from North and South America, Britain and Europe, Australasia, Asia and Africa. Arranged in five thematic sections, each with an introduction by the editors to contextualise the selection and review relevant literature, articles in this collection draw upon diverse oral history experiences to examine issues including: Key debates in the development of oral history over the past seventy years First hand reflections on interview practice, and issues posed by the interview relationship The nature of memory and its significance in oral history The practical and ethical issues surrounding the interpretation, presentation and public use of oral testimonies how oral history projects contribute to the study of the past and involve the wider community. The challenges and contributions of oral history projects committed to advocacy and empowerment With a revised and updated bibliography and useful contacts list, as well as a dedicated online resources page, this third edition of The Oral History Reader is the perfect tool for those encountering oral history for the first time, as well as for seasoned practitioners.