West African languages. Linguistic theory and communication

The monograph covers the main aspects of studies on West African languages related to the diversity of structural patterns and complexity of their linguistic assignment. It includes various topics ranging from linguistic description and conceptualization patterns to the sociolinguistics of contemporary refugee camps. Typological diversity is enriched with the presentation of pidgin structures and sign languages. Structural differences between languages are seen from a comparative perspective, which also indicates the areal dimension of linguistic processes. The presentations of linguists from both Europe and Africa develop the idea of convergence area in West Africa, which is motivated by the contact between languages of different affiliations to language families and common cultural basis of language development.