Proceeding of the 4th Symposium on West African Languages (Naples, 21-23 September 2022)

This volume brings together thirteen papers presented at the 4th Symposium on West African Languages, held in Naples on 21-23 September 2022. Spanning phonology, morphosyntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, and oral literature, the contributions offer descriptive and typological perspectives on the linguistic diversity of West Africa. Several chapters examine grammatical gender, nominal classification, and reference, while others address vowel systems, verbal aspect, serial verb constructions, focus marking, and polar questions. The collection also explores lexical borrowing from Nupe and Yoruba into Hausa, the adaptation of Hausa proverbs in social media, and female musical performance within the Hausa gurmi tradition. Drawing on languages belonging to the Afroasiatic and Niger-Congo families, the studies combine empirical analysis with discussion of broader theoretical questions concerning linguistic categories, grammatical relations, and communicative functions. Together, they illustrate the contribution of West African language research to linguistic theory and to the understanding of verbal expression as a social and cultural practice.