Dr Serge Sagna

Biography

BA in English linguistics (Gaston Berger University; Saint Louis–Senegal)
MA in English Linguistics (Paris 7 University; France)
PhD in Linguistics (School of Oriental and African Studies-University of London; United Kingdom)

Serge Sagna is an ESRC Future Research Leader Postdoctoral Fellow in the Surrey Morphology Group (SMG). His current research project is an investigation of ‘Verb classification in Gújjolaay Eegimaa’, a Jóola/Diola (Atlantic; Niger Congo) language spoken in southern Senegal, West Africa.

Serge received his PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 2008. He then took up an ELDP postdoctoral research fellowship in Language Documentation at the University of Manchester. For the 2011/2012 academic year Serge worked as a Lecturer in Linguistic Typology/Non European Languages at the University of Manchester.

Research Interests

• Nominal and verbal classification (especially semantic categorisation of nouns and verbs)
• Language documentation and description
• Linguistic fieldwork methodology
• African linguistics (especially Atlantic languages)
• Languages of Casamance (Senegal), with particular focus on Jóola/Diola languages

Publications

Articles
Sagna, Serge. 2012. Physical properties and culture-specific factors as principles of semantic categorisation in the Gújjolaay Eegimaa noun class system. Cognitive Linguistics 23 (1): 129-162.
Sagna, Serge. 2011. Semantic categorisations in the Gújjolaay Eegimaa collectives and distributives. In Peter K. Austin, Oliver Bond, David Nathan and Lutz Marten (ed.), Proceedings of Conference on Language Documentation and Linguistic Theory 3. London: Department of Linguistics, SOAS.
Sagna, Serge. 2010. Issues in noun classification and noun class assignment in Gújjolaay Eegimaa (Banjal) and other Jóola languages. Studies in African Linguistics 39 (1), 1 33.

Selected presentations
2011. Serge Sagna. ‘Semantic categorisations in the Gújjolaay Eegimaa collectives and distributives’. Language Documentation and Linguistic Theory 3. School of Oriental and African Studies, London. 20 November.
2010. Serge Sagna. ‘Overt verb classification in Gújjolaay Eegimaa (Banjal)’. Departmental seminar series (Linguistic Colloquium). Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. 7 December.
2010. Serge Sagna. ‘Number and noun class in Gújjolaay Eegimaa’. 40th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics. Leiden University, The Netherlands. 23 25 August.
2010.   Eva Schultze-Berndt & Serge Sagna. ‘Towards a Typology of Overt Verb Classification’.
Categorizing Human Experience: Classification in Languages and Knowledge Systems - COST Action 31 (Stability and Adaptation of Classification Systems in a Cross-Cultural Perspective   Final Conference). EHESS, Paris, France. 15 16 May.
2010. Serge Sagna. ‘The classification of humans in Gújjolaay Eegimaa’. People classifying people - COST Action 31 (Stability and Adaptation of Classification Systems in a Cross-Cultural Perspective): The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. 6-7 March.
2010. Serge Sagna. ‘The semantic bases of noun class 9 ga- in Gújjolaay Eegimaa’. The uses of systems of grammatical classification - COST Action 31 (Stability and Adaptation of Classification Systems in a Cross-Cultural Perspective). Åarhus university, Denmark. 5-7 February.
2009. Serge Sagna. ‘Noun class semantics in Gújjolaay Eegimaa’. LAGB (Linguistic Association of Great Britain) - Fiftieth Anniversary Golden Jubilee Meeting. The University of Edinburgh, Scotland. 6-8 September.
2007. Serge Sagna. ‘Do Noun class markers classify verbs in Gújjolaay Eegimaa?’. 10th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference. Krakow-Poland 15-20 July.
2007. Serge Sagna. 'Noun class semantics in Gújjolaay Eegimaa: Body parts semantics'. Atlantic languages, typological or genetic unit. University of Hamburg, Germany. 17 18 February.
2006. Serge Sagna. ‘The semantics of the use of noun class markers with verb stems in Gújjolaay Eegimaa’. The Representation of Actions, States and Events in Classification Systems, Universals and Typological Diversity. Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. 8-10 December.
2006. Serge Sagna. ‘The semantics of classes 5 bu-/bi- & ba- ; 7 fu-/fi- & fa- and 9 ga-.' 36th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics. Leiden University, The Netherlands. 28-30 August.
2005. Serge Sagna. 'The "postpréfixe" and the noun class assignment in Gújjolaay Eegimaa.' 35th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics. Leiden University, The Netherlands. 29-31 August.