Incantation in Hausa culture: an example of syntactic reduplication

• Authors: Yakasai Hafizu Miko
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

FR

L’article porte sur la reduplication dans la langue haoussa, suivant une approche pragmatique. Il y est question de la reduplication de mots et de phrases dans les formules incantatoires magiques. Du point de vue linguistique, ce genre de reduplication est considéré comme un procédé syntactique. Or, les énoncés à caractère magique, dans lesquels on a souvent recours à la reduplication, ont un pouvoir performatif et doivent augmenter l'effectivité des procédés visant p.ex. à se protéger contre les moustiques, à rendre quelqu'un invisible, ou à faciliter l'accouchement. La répétition des mots et des phrases a généralement pour but d'augmenter l’effectivité de l’action ou la rendre immédiate, mais elle peut simplement exprimer l’impatience. L’article contient des exemples d’incantations en haoussa et en poular, accompagnés d'indications sur les fonctions pragmatiques des reduplications.

Keywords

EN

incantation; Hausa; reduplication; syntax

• Publisher: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
• Journal: Studies in African Languages and Cultures
• Year: 2010
• Issue: 44
• Pages: 67-82

Dates

published

2010-12-10

Contributors

author

Yakasai Hafizu Miko

• Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria

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