A Grammar of Mian

Sebastian Fedden

Published by De Gruyter Mouton 2011

A Grammar of Mian

Sebastian Fedden

Volume 55 in the series Mouton Grammar Library [MGL]

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110264197

Overview
Contents

About this book

Winner of the 2013 ALT Gabelentz Award

Mian is a non-Austronesian ('Papuan') language of the Ok family spoken in the Highlands fringe in western Papua New Guinea. Mian has approximately 1,400 speakers and is highly endangered. This grammar is the first comprehensive description of the language. It is based on primary field data consisting of a text corpus that covers different genres of the oral tradition, namely myths and ancestor stories, historical accounts, accounts of the initiation ritual, conversations, and procedural texts. The corpus was recorded by the author during a total of eleven months of field work from 2004 to 2008. The book provides a thorough description of all areas of Mian grammar and gives an in-depth analysis of many points of typological interest, such as the complex system of lexical tone, the interaction between a gender system and a system of classificatory prefixes on verbs of object movement, manipulation or handling, which allows the highlighting of certain characteristics of a referent in a given situation, the complex verbal morphology which allows fine-grained tense-aspect-mood distinctions, and a switch-reference system in which switch-reference suffixes on medial verbs are homophonous with and derived from suffixes functioning as tense and aspect markers in final verbs. The book is rounded off by a collection of traditional and contemporary texts (fully glossed and translated) and a word list comprising some 1,600 items, giving lexical tone, word class and meaning.

Author / Editor information

Sebastian Fedden, University of Surrey, Great Britain.

Topics

Frontmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	V
Table of contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	IX
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	XXIII
Chapter 1. The language and its speakers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 2. Phonology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
Chapter 3. Word classes and grammatical relations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
Chapter 4. Gender Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
Chapter 5. Classificatory verb prefixes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Chapter 6. The noun phrase Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Chapter 7. The postpositional phrase Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Chapter 8. Verb morphology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Chapter 9. Argument structure and the syntax of the clause Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	331
Chapter 10. Question formation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	385
Chapter 11. Chaining constructions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	405
Chapter 12. Operator scope in clause chaining constructions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	471
Chapter 13. Embedding Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	485
Appendix I. Texts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	515
Appendix II. Mian-English wordlist Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	545
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	579
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	585
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	597

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Audience: Descriptive and Theoretical Linguists of all Persuasions, Seasoned Researchers and Students Interested in the Typology of Papuan Languages
Pages
- Front matter: 21
- Main content: 604
Keywords: Endangered Languages / Fieldwork; Non-Indo-European Languages

eBook

Published: October 27, 2011
ISBN: 9783110264197

Hardcover

Published: October 17, 2011
ISBN: 9783110264180