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Thesis Defence and Trial Lecture: Desalegn Workneh (3-4.09)

We are happy to announce the trial lecture and thesis defence of Desalegn Belaynew Workneh will take place on September 3rd-4th 2020. All proceedings connected to this events will be held digitally. 
 
Desalegn’s thesis The Voice Systems of Amharic was written under the supervision of professor Peter Svenonius (UiT). A short summary of the thesis is provided below. The full text can be be found here
 
The trial lecture entitled The interaction between viewpoint aspect and tense in Amharic morphosyntax will be held on September 3rd at 9.00-9.45.
It can be accessed through this link.
 
The defence is scheduled on the next day, September 4th, from 9.00-13.00
The defence can be accessed via the following link.
 
The committee consist of: 
Dr. Mengistu Amberber, The University of New South Wales, Australia – first opponent 
Dr. Michelle Sheehan, Anglia Ruskin University, England – second opponent 
Prof.Gillian Ramchand, UiT, Tromsø – internal committee member

The proceedings will be lead by  Gustav J. Pedersen, head of the department for language and culture at UIT, the Arctic University of Norway.

All are welcome to join (virtually)! 

 


The Voice System of Amharic

Languages have voice systems–often known as active and passive voices. This dissertation is a study of the voice system Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia. I present how the voice morphemes in Amharic behave. I have argued that Amharic has no grammatical forms for the passive, middle, unaccusative and the like voice forms which are popular in many European languages. The language has only two voice forms, pretty much similar to the ancient Greek, such as the active and the nonactive. The active voice itself appears in different forms–including the unmarked active voice, as well as marked causative forms. The nonactive comes marked with a single morpheme.


 

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