Discourse reporting in African storytelling

Discourse reporting in African storytelling is a collaborative project hosted at CNRS-LLACAN, Villejuif, France. With 20 project team members and collaborators, we are interested in traditional oral storytelling practices across West Africa. Specifically, we are investigating the relationship between specific discourse patterns and the linguistic strategies they rely on in quoted speech and other reported speech environments.

In my current role as part of the project Discourse reporting in African storytelling, I investigate reported speech constructions within U̠t‑Ma’in and Ipulo (Tivoid) narrative texts. The project involves collaboration with team members working on primary data from across West Africa, including Mande, Dogon, Adamawa, Atlantic, Bantoid, Senufo, and Bangime (an isolate). I also draw on my previous study of Hausa (Chadic), Pipero (Chadic), and Mòòré (Gur).