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Kanijo

Name
Ponsiano Sawaka Kanijo

Academic Rank
Senior Lecturer

Department
Languages and Literature

Biography

Biography

In the realm of linguistics, I stand as a Senior Lecturer with a rich tapestry of experience woven through extensive exploration of Bantu verbal morphology and immersive fieldwork in Bantu languages. My linguistic journey finds its focus in Nyamwezi and East Ruvu Bantu languages, encompassing Kwere, Zaramo, Luguru, Kagulu, and Kutu, where I delve deep into the intricate nuances of tense, aspect, mood, actionality, and verbal morphology.

Contacts

Email:

Email Address
ponsiano.kanijo@muce.ac.tz

Phone:

Research Interest

Research Interest
Tense, aspect, mood, actionality, and verbal morphology

Google Scholar

Google Scholar Profile

Projects

Projects

At present, I am deeply immersed in three groundbreaking mega-projects, each a testament to my dedication to advancing linguistic scholarship. Collaborating with esteemed institutions and funded by the University of Dar es Salaam and the Swedish Government, these projects traverse diverse linguistic landscapes. They include the development of an Open and Distance Learning (ODL) course for Swahili as a foreign language – funded by UDSM, MUCE; the exploration of valency-increasing alternations in East Ruvu Bantu languages – funded by the Swedish Research Council, and a profound investigation into modality in Swahili – funded by RJ - Riksbanken jubileumsfond.

Publications

Publications

PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLE

  • 2018 - Code-Switching and code-mixing errors among Swahili-Bilinguals in Tanzania. Kiswahili: Journal of the Institute of Kiswahili Studies, Vol. 80, 90-99. DSM: UDSM. 

  • 2019 - The interactions of -ø-…-íle with aspectual classes in Nyamwezi. Selected papers from the 47th Annual Conference on African Linguistics. 281–308.

  • 2020 - Evidential strategies in Nyamwezi. The semantics of verbal morphology in under-described languages, ed. by Malin Petzell, Leora Bar-el, & Aunio Lotta (Eds.), Studia Orientalia Electronica.

  • 2020 - Kanijo, Ponsiano Sawaka & Mreta, Abel. The adaptation of Swahili-borrowed nouns into Nyamwezi. Kiswahili: Journal of the Institute of Kiswahili Studies, vol. 83, no. 1, pp. 147–174.

  • 2021 - The robustness of Botne and Kershner aspectual classes in Nyamwezi: STUF - Language Typology and Universals, vol. 74, no. 3-4, pp. 507-532.

  • 2021 - Limits of standard diagnostic tests for aspectual classes in Nyamwezi. Kiswahili: Journal of the Institute of Kiswahili Studies, vol. 84, no. 2, pp. 287–308.

  • 2021 - Dom, Sebastian; Kanijo, Ponsiano Sawaka; Bar-el, Leora; & Petzell, Malin. Questionnaire on the noncausal-causal alternation. (Unpublished manuscript). doi:https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5217242.

  • 2022 - Dom, Sebastian; Bar-el, Leora; Kanijo, Ponsiano Sawaka & Petzell, Malin. Variation in the coding of the noncausal/causal alternation: Causative*-i in East Bantu languages. Linguistique et langues africaines.

  • 2023 - Dom, Sebastian; Bar-el, Leora; Kanijo, Ponsiano Sawaka & Petzell, Malin. Middle voice in Bantu: In-and detransitivizing morphology in Kagulu: STUF-Language Typology and Universals, 2023.

  • 2024 - Crane, Thera Marie; Roth, Tim; Gunnink, Hilde & Kanijo, Ponsiano Sawaka. Aspect and Evidentiality in Four Bantu Languages. Beyond Time.

  •  Forthc. Dom, Sebastian; Bar-el, Leora; Kanijo, Ponsiano Sawaka & Petzell, Malin. The noncausal/causal alternation in Luguru. Accepted in the Proceedings of the 24th Afrikanist*innentag organized by the Institute for African Studies, George Washington University.

MANUSCRIPT (SUBMITTED AND IN PREPARATION)

  • In prep. Kanijo, Ponsiano & Petzell, Malin. The morpheme -ag- in colloqual Swahili (Tentative title)

  • In prep. Kanijo, Ponsiano, Petzell, Malin & Bar-el Leora. A comparison of tense and aspect system of Nyamwezi and East Ruvu Bantu languages.