series: Mouton Grammar Library [MGL]

Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Mouton Grammar Library [MGL]

Edited by: Georg Bossong, Bernard Comrie, Patience L. Epps and Irina Nikolaeva

ISSN: 0933-7636

Overview
Volumes

The series builds an extensive collection of high quality descriptions of languages around the world. Each volume offers a comprehensive grammatical description of a single language together with fully analyzed sample texts and, if appropriate, a word list and other relevant information which is available on the language in question. There are no restrictions as to language family or area, and although special attention is paid to hitherto undescribed languages, new and valuable treatments of better known languages are also included. No theoretical model is imposed on the authors; the only criterion is a high standard of scientific quality.

To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Birgit Sievert.

Topics

book: A Grammar of Ngardi

Book 2021

A Grammar of Ngardi

As spoken by F. Tjama, M. Yinjuru Bumblebee, D. Mungkirna Rockman, P. Yalurrngali Rockman, Y. Nampijin, D. Yujuyu Nampijin, M. Mandigalli, K. Padoon, P. P. Napangardi, P. Lee, N. Japaljarri, M. Moora, M. Mudgedell and P. Smith

Thomas Ennever

Volume 92 in this series

Ngardi is a highly endangered language with fewer than 10 remaining speakers and is no longer being acquired by children. Despite the limited circulation of a draft dictionary (Cataldi, 2011), there has been no published reference grammar of this language. Upon publication, this work will constitute the most comprehensive grammar of any Ngumpin-Yapa language.

The Ngardi language exhibits many of the same typologically interesting features first identified in the related language Warlpiri—namely phenomena of non-configurational syntax and null anaphora. This grammar also brings to light a number of unique properties which will be of interest to linguistic typologists and formal theorists. The registration of arguments both through case marking on free NPs as well as in pronominal enclitics is similar to Warlpiri but differs in its detail—particularly in the ability to register various non-core cases (e.g. locative and allative) as ‘arguments’ in the pronominal complex. Within the verbal system, Ngardi is notably for a large number of verbal inflections (~20) which mark various distinctions in tense, aspect and mood, as well as associated motion and speaker-centric directionality. Ngardi exhibits a highly articulated system of complex predication, covering both complex verb and serial verb constructions. Other typologically interesting aspects of the language include the presence of dedicated apprehensional constructions and interesting interactions between negation and clausal modality.

The descriptive value of this grammar is enhanced by its sustained regional comparison of the linguistic features of Ngardi with those of neighbouring Ngumpin-Yapa and Western Desert languages. This grammar (and a forthcoming dictionary) of Ngardi will be of great significance to both those few remaining Ngardi speakers as well as the next generation of Ngardi people for whom accessible published materials will be an invaluable resource.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110752434
ISBN:: 9783110752434
ISBN:: 9783110752328
ISBN:: 9783110752526
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Levels of Linguistic Analysis
Subject:: Morphology
Subject:: Syntax
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Documentation
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Gurindji

Book 2021

A Grammar of Gurindji

As spoken by Violet Wadrill, Ronnie Wavehill, Dandy Danbayarri, Biddy Wavehill, Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal, Long Johnny Kijngayarri, Banjo Ryan, Pincher Nyurrmiari and Blanche Bulngari

Felicity Meakins, Patrick McConvell

Volume 91 in this series

Felicity Meakins was awarded the Kenneth L. Hale Award 2021
by the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) for outstanding work on the documentation of endangered languages

Gurindji is a Pama-Nyungan language of north-central Australia. It is a member of the Ngumpin subgroup which forms a part of the Ngumpin-Yapa group. The phonology is typically Pama-Nyungan; the phoneme inventory contains five places of articulation for stops which have corresponding nasals. It also has three laterals, two rhotics and three vowels. There are no fricatives and, among the stops, voicing is not phonemically distinctive. One striking morpho-phonological process is a nasal cluster dissimilation (NCD) rule. Gurindji is morphologically agglutinative and suffixing, exhibiting a mix of dependent-marking and head-marking. Nominals pattern according to an ergative system and bound pronouns show an accusative pattern. Gurindji marks a further 10 cases. Free and bound pronouns distinguish person (1st inclusive and exclusive, 2nd and 3rd) and three numbers (minimal, unit augmented and augmented). The Gurindji verb complex consists of an inflecting verb and coverb. Inflecting verbs belong to a closed class of 34 verbs which are grammatically obligatory. Coverbs form an open class, numbering in the hundreds and carrying the semantic weight of the complex verb

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110746884
ISBN:: 9783110746884
ISBN:: 9783111275949
ISBN:: 9783110746839
ISBN:: 9783110746945
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Languages of Australia
Subject:: Pama–Nyungan Languages
Subject:: Pidgins and Creoles
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Documentation
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Modern Baba Malay

Book 2022

A Grammar of Modern Baba Malay

Nala H. Lee

Volume 90 in this series

This book documents modern Baba Malay, a critically endangered Austronesian-based contact language with a Sinitic substrate. Formed via intermarriage between Hokkien-speaking male traders and indigenous women in the Malay Peninsula, the language has less than 1,000 speakers in Singapore and less than 1,000 speakers in Malacca, Malaysia. This volume fills a gap for reference grammars of contact languages in general. Reference grammars written on contact languages are rare, and much rarer is a reference grammar written about a critically endangered Austronesian-based contact language.

The reference grammar, which aims to be useful to linguists and general readers interested in Baba Malay, describes the language’s sociohistorical background, its circumstances of endangerment, and provides information regarding the phonology, parts of speech, and syntax of Baba Malay as spoken in Singapore. A chapter that differentiates this variety from that spoken in Malacca is also included.

The grammar demonstrates that the nature of Baba Malay is highly systematic, and not altogether simple, providing structural information for those who are interested in the typology of contact languages.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110745061
ISBN:: 9783110745061
ISBN:: 9783110744927
ISBN:: 9783110745153
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Languages of Asia
Subject:: Asian Languages, other
Subject:: Pidgins and Creoles
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Contact
Subject:: Language Documentation
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Kunbarlang

Book 2021

A Grammar of Kunbarlang

Ivan Kapitonov

Volume 89 in this series

This is a comprehensive linguistic description of Kunbarlang (Gunbalang), a highly endangered polysynthetic language of northern Australia. Kunbarlang belongs to the non-Pama-Nyungan Gunwinyguan language family and is currently spoken by nearly 40 people. This work draws on elicitations and analysis of narratives from the author's original field work (2015--2018), as well as those from previous recordings.

The main areas covered are the sound system, morphology, syntax, and aspects of lexical and constructional semantics. Dictated by the polysynthetic structure of the language and the patterns of its use, the principal focus of the work is the analysis of the verbal complex and the interaction between the verb and other constituents of the clause. The analysis strike a balance between taking into consideration the areal and genetic context, being informed by linguistic typology and theory, yet at the same time remaining data-driven and theory-neutral in the way generalisations are stated. Against the Australian and a broader cross-linguistic background, Kunbarlang possesses remarkable features at all levels of its organisation.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110747058
ISBN:: 9783110747058
ISBN:: 9783111274539
ISBN:: 9783110741247
ISBN:: 9783110747119
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Languages of Australia
Subject:: Non Pama–Nyungan Languages
Subject:: Levels of Linguistic Analysis
Subject:: Syntax
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Documentation
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Eyak

Book Ahead of Publication 2024

A Grammar of Eyak

Michael E. Krauss, Gary Holton, Kevin Baetscher

Volume 88 in this series

Eyak (dAXunhyuuga’) is the traditional language of the Copper River Delta region of the Gulf of Alaska. Smallest of the Alaska Native languages, Eyak had nearly been forgotten by the scientific community by the early twentieth century.

In 1963, recognizing both the severely endangered status of the language and its critical importance to the linguistic prehistory of Alaska, Michael Krauss began a systematic effort to document every aspect of the language, working with each of the few remaining speakers. Drawing on more than fifty years of research, this grammar provides the first comprehensive record of Eyak phonology, morphology, and syntax. Adopting a theory-neutral approach, Krauss focuses on detailed description, providing exhaustive exemplification from the now closed corpus.

The grammar includes ample discussion of comparative and conflicting data from the related Tlingit and Dene (Athabaskan) languages, making the work particularly useful for Dene scholars. Non-specialists will find here a window into the structure of a highly synthetic and typologically unusual language. This comprehensive work will also serve as a useful reference for the growing dAXunhyuuga’ reclamation effort.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.0000/9783110756470
ISBN:: 9783110756470
ISBN:: 9783110756555
ISBN:: 9783110739428
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Languages of the Americas
Subject:: Na-Dené Languages
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Anthropological Linguistics and Ethnolinguistics
Subject:: Language Documentation
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Coastal Marind

Book 2021

A Grammar of Coastal Marind

Bruno Olsson

Volume 87 in this series

This grammar provides the first modern, comprehensive description of Coastal Marind. It is a Papuan language spoken by the coastal-dwelling Marind-Anim, formerly expansionistic head-hunters of the Southern New Guinea lowlands. Like the other languages of the poorly known Anim family, Coastal Marind features astonishingly complex verb morphology and a range of unusual phenomena, including indexing of up to four arguments on the verb, verbal marking of focus (the 'Orientation' system), engagement prefixes tracking the attention of the addressee, and a system of four genders realised by intricate agreement patterns. The structure of the language is examined in a detailed but accessible way, and its many complexities are brought to life by contextualised spontaneous data, drawn from a rich audio-visual corpus.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110747065
ISBN:: 9783110747065
ISBN:: 9783110725551
ISBN:: 9783111120775
ISBN:: 9783110747126
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Languages of the Pacific Islands
Subject:: Papuan Languages
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Documentation
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Bunaq

Book 2022

A Grammar of Bunaq

Antoinette Schapper

Volume 86 in this series

This is a comprehensive grammar of the Papuan language Bunaq as spoken in the district of Lamaknen. Bunaq belongs to the Timor-Alor-Pantar language family, which comprises the westernmost Papuan languages. Surrounded on all sides by Austronesian languages, Bunaq has developed in isolation from other members of the family, and as a result shows a range of unique morphosyntactic patterns. This grammar provides a detailed synchronic description of Bunaq based on a functional-typological approach. Following additional fieldwork and containing new material and analyses, this book is a thoroughly revised version of the author’s 2010 PhD thesis, which won the Pāṇini Award of the Association for Linguistic Typology.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110761146
ISBN:: 9783110761146
ISBN:: 9783110714500
ISBN:: 9783110761375
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Languages of the Pacific Islands
Subject:: Papuan Languages
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Documentation
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Xong

Book 2021

A Grammar of Xong

Adam Sposato

Volume 84 in this series

Despite the fact that Miao-Yao (or Hmong-Mien) is one of the major language families of East and Southeast Asia, this work is only the second full-length descriptive grammar of any Miao-Yao language published in English. It focuses on Xong, a language belonging to the Miao branch of the family. Xong has approximately 900,000 speakers, the vast majority lives in Hunan and Guizhou Provinces in South-Central China. In particular, this description concentrates on several fully mutually intelligible Xong varieties spoken in Fenghuang County, located in the Hunan Province. In producing this work, the author primarily relies on the fieldwork data he collected over a period of ten months in Fenghuang County. He also made use of many of the previously published Chinese-language descriptions of Xong. The results are of use to scholars with an interest in the Miao-Yao family in particular or in the languages of East and Southeast Asia more in general.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110764932
ISBN:: 9783110764932
ISBN:: 9783111087627
ISBN:: 9783110587364
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Languages of Asia
Subject:: Sino-Tibetan Languages
Subject:: Chinese
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Documentation
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Seenku

Book 2020

A Grammar of Seenku

Laura McPherson

Volume 83 in this series

Seenku is a Western Mande language of the Samogo group spoken in southwestern Burkina Faso by approximately 17,000 speakers. It has undergone a lot of phonological reduction, leading to a rich segmental and tonal phoneme inventory but mainly mono- and sesquisyllabic roots. The language has four contrastive levels of tone that combine to create over a dozen contours. Tone has a high functional load lexically and grammatically, permeating all aspects of grammar. Most verbs have two stem forms: a realis form and an irrealis form. The realis is derived from the irrealis by infixing a high vowel before the stem vowel, creating a diphthong. The use of a particular stem form is determined by aspect and construction type, but most other morphosyntactic meanings (e.g. progressive aspect or causative) are expressed analytically. Like most Mande languages, Seenku has an S Aux O V X word order in addition to areal clause-final negation. It displays a reduced set of post-subject “predicate markers” compared to other Mande languages, and those that are attested are variably realized only by tone changes and lengthening on the subject itself.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110765021
ISBN:: 9783110765021
ISBN:: 9783110777109
ISBN:: 9783110612950
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Languages of Africa
Subject:: African Languages, other
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Documentation
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Karbi

Book 2020

A Grammar of Karbi

Linda Konnerth

Volume 82 in this series

This is a comprehensive grammar of the Hills Karbi variety spoken predominantly in the Karbi Anglong districts. Karbi belongs to the Trans-Himalayan (Tibeto-Burman) family but its exact phylogenetic status has remained unclear. By providing a diachronically-oriented functional analysis of all structural levels of Karbi, this grammar offers a reference work that provides a thorough account of this language. The data in this grammar come from fieldwork that was primarily carried out in the district capital of Diphu although the corpus includes recordings of speakers from all over the two Karbi Anglong districts. This corpus is freely available both as fully glossed text in Himalayan Linguistics (Konnerth and Tisso 2018) and as original media files in ELAR (SOAS University of London). Now also including a glossary, this grammar is a thoroughly revised version of the 2014 dissertation of the author, which won the 2015 Pāṇini Award of the Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT). In this revised version, a few new sections have been added and numerous other sections have been thoroughly updated.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110765038
ISBN:: 9783110765038
ISBN:: 9783110992076
ISBN:: 9783110648850
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Languages of Asia
Subject:: Sino-Tibetan Languages
Subject:: Sino-Tibetan Languages, other
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Documentation
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Fa d’Ambô

Book 2020

A Grammar of Fa d’Ambô

Tjerk Hagemeijer, Philippe Maurer-Cecchini, Armando Zamora Segorbe

Volume 81 in this series

Previous Fa d’Ambô grammars are all written in Spanish, either in the spirit of Latin grammar models (Vila 1891, Barrena 1957) or in the tradition of Romance philology (Zamora Segorbe 2010). A Grammar of Fa d’Ambô aims to overcome the shortcomings of these grammars by providing a comprehensive description of the language from a creolistic, typological, and general linguistics perspective.

The grammar covers all major domains of grammar and the different types of interactions between them. The book further includes transcribed texts (about 12,000 words), a Fa d’Ambô-English word list (about 1,140 entries) and supplementary audio materials corresponding to the transcribed texts and spectrograms.

Being the first comprehensive Fa d’Ambô grammar written in English, the book aims at a wide readership of scholars who are interested in creoles, language typology, and language documentation in general, but also targets a specialized readership in Portuguese-related creoles. The grammar is further expected to make a substantial contribution to our understanding of the relation between Fa d’Ambô and its better-known sister languages Santome, Angolar, and Lung’Ie (Principense), spoken on the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe.

The supplementary audio materials downloadable below were selected from: Hagemeijer, Tjerk; Agostinho, Ana Lívia; Christofoletti, Alfredo; Généreux, Michel; Hendrickx, Iris; Mendes, Amália; Zamora, Armando. 2014.　Fa d'Ambô corpus. Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa (CLUL).

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110766264
ISBN:: 9783110766264
ISBN:: 9783110438024
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Pidgins and Creoles
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Documentation
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Qaqet

Book 2019

A Grammar of Qaqet

Birgit Hellwig

Volume 79 in this series

This grammar is a first detailed description of Qaqet, a non-Austronesian language spoken in the mountainous interior of East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea. Qaqet belongs to the small Baining language family (comprising six languages), but its wider genetic affiliations remain unclear. It is included among the geographically-defined East Papuan languages.

The grammar presents a synchronic description of the language. From a language family perspective, the Baining languages are structurally fairly similar, but there are considerable differences in detail that point to different language-internal developments and grammaticalization paths. From an East Papuan and areal perspective, Qaqet exhibits both typical East Papuan features (e.g., nominal classification, possessor/possessed order, highly compositional lexicon) as well as areal features (e.g., AVO ~ SV constituent order, articles and determiners, prepositions). The description is based on primary data collected during fieldwork (from 2011 onwards), including both natural and elicited data.

The description thereby provides new analyses and insights that are relevant to our understanding of the genetic and areal relationships in this region.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110765793
ISBN:: 9783110765793
ISBN:: 9783110613346
ISBN:: 9783110735314
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Documentation
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Belep

Book 2019

A Grammar of Belep

Chelsea McCracken

Volume 78 in this series

This reference grammar provides a full grammatical description of the previously-undocumented Austronesian language variety known as Belep. Belep is spoken by approximately 1600 people in New Caledonia, primarily in the Belep Isles. This book is the first full-length English-language description of a Northern New Caledonian language. It fills a gap and provides an important addition to the literature on these languages.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110765786
ISBN:: 9783110765786
ISBN:: 9783110761924
ISBN:: 9783110558432
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Documentation
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Khatso

Book 2019

A Grammar of Khatso

Chris Donlay

Volume 77 in this series

This is the first grammar in English of Khatso, an endangered language spoken in a single farming village in China by descendants of Kublai Khan’s Mongol soldiers. Based on natural language from dozens of speakers, this analysis captures the way Khatso is spoken in daily life. As a result, it is the most comprehensive description of Khatso yet, providing an in-depth look at the features, structures and systems that comprise this unique language.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110765809
ISBN:: 9783110765809
ISBN:: 9783110735291
ISBN:: 9783110576931
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Bangime

Book 2018

A Grammar of Bangime

Jeffrey Heath, Abbie Hantgan

Volume 76 in this series

Spoken only in a cul-de-sac valley in Dogon country in east-central Mali, Bangime is the most enigmatic language isolate in the whole of interior West Africa. It is apparently a Basque-like survival of a formerly widespread language family, now boxed into this small valley by the expansion of Niger-Congo languages (Dogon, Bozo, Mande) on all sides. This book brings out the full glory of its grammar, especially its 3-level tone system.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110765212
ISBN:: 9783110765212
ISBN:: 9783110557497
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Documentation
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Kakataibo

Book 2018

A Grammar of Kakataibo

Roberto Zariquiey

Volume 75 in this series

Kashibo-Kakataibo is the westernmost Panoan language and, therefore, the one closest to the Andes Mountains. In terms of its typological profile, Kashibo-Kakataibo is a (mainly) postpositional and agglutinating language with a highly synthetic verbal morphology, which includes a highly complex tense system with several markers, some of which also express aspectual meanings. Kashibo-Kakataibo presents a mixed prosodic system, which combines stress and tone features. In addition, like with other Pano languages, Kashibo-Kakataibo exhibits a number of transitivity-related issues of high typological interest. First of all, the language shows an extremely complex system of grammatical relations, which includes tripatite, ergative, accusative, neutral and one horizontal alignment types. In addition, the language exhibits a fascinating interaction between syntactic case and pragmatic function. There are two fixed syntactic classes of verbs: transitive and intransitive. A verb root/base can only change its class by means of explicit morphological derivation (with only 4 ambitransitive verbs in the whole language). As in other Panoan languages, the transitivity class of the main verb is morphologically indicated throughout the clause, by means of complex systems of agreement and harmony (some of which are totally new even from a Panoan perspective)

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110765816
ISBN:: 9783110765816
ISBN:: 9783110416350
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Languages of the Americas
Subject:: Languages of the Americas, other
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Documentation
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Kuuk Thaayorre

Book 2017

A Grammar of Kuuk Thaayorre

Alice R. Gaby

Volume 74 in this series

This grammar offers a comprehensive description of Kuuk Thaayorre, a Paman language spoken on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula, Australia. The Paman languages of Cape York have long been recognized for their exhibition of considerable phonological, semantic and morphosyntactic change (e.g. Hale 1964, Dixon 1980). Yet there has until now been no published full reference grammar of a language from this area (some excellent dictionaries, theses and sketch grammars notwithstanding, e.g. Hall 1972, Alpher 1973, 1991, Crowley 1983, Kilham et al. 1986, Sutton 1995, Smith & Johnson 2000).

On the basis of elicited data, narrative and semi-spontaneous conversation recorded between 2002 and 2008, as well as archival materials, this grammar details the phonetics and phonology, morphosyntax, lexical and constructional semantics and pragmatics of one of the few indigenous Australian languages still used as a primary means of communication. Kuuk Thaayorre possesses features of typological interest at each of these levels.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110459067
ISBN:: 9783110459067
ISBN:: 9783110456011
ISBN:: 9783110653304
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Languages of Australia
Subject:: Pama–Nyungan Languages
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Sierra Popoluca

Book 2018

A Grammar of Sierra Popoluca

Lynda Boudreault

Volume 73 in this series

This work is a comprehensive description of the grammar of Sierra Popoluca, a Mixe-Zoquean language spoken by approximately 28,000 people in Veracruz, Mexico. This detailed description and analysis includes an overview of the language and its family, its typological features and its phonology. The grammar also provides an overview of the word classes, including verbs, nouns, relational nouns/postpositions, adjectives, adverbs, numbers, and formative types.

The bulk of this grammar is devoted to the morphosyntax of Sierra Popoluca, including nouns and nominal morphology, verbs and verbal morphology, and the mechanisms for expressing tense, aspect, mood, and modality. An agglutinating, polysynthetic, head-marking language with ergative-absolutive alignment and sensitivity to animacy and saliency hierarchies, Sierra Popoluca has a number of strategies to form complex predicates, which include verb serialization, noun incorporation, and dependent verb constructions. These complex predicate formation strategies and sentence-level syntax are also described here. A compilation of interlinearized texts appears in the appendix. There is no competing work that provides the breadth and depth of coverage of the Sierra Popoluca grammar.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110766271
ISBN:: 9783110766271
ISBN:: 9783110707984
ISBN:: 9783110411676
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Languages of the Americas
Subject:: Languages of the Americas, other
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Documentation
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Emai

Book 2016

A Grammar of Emai

Ronald P. Schaefer, Francis O. Egbokhare

Volume 72 in this series

This reference grammar is the first ever description of West Africa’s Edoid language Emai. It incorporates narrative, lexical and grammatical field results over the last three decades. Treated are morphology, syntax and argument structure after an introductory phonology and orthographic overview highlighting grammatical and lexical tone. Individual chapters delineate noun and verb phrase structure as well as clause shape in discourse and clause combination. Noun inflection and derivation are detailed as is verb inflection in the context of tense, aspect and modality. Noun phrase character encompasses remnant noun classes, nominal modification types and pronoun forms followed by conjunction. Verb phrase features include complex predicates, both verbs in series and verb plus postverbal particle, functionally distinct copulas, double objects, and sentence complement types constrained by matrix verb. Also analyzed are preverbal and postverbal adverbials relative to information question types. Multi-clause constructions are profiled as to coding varieties across dependent clauses as well as precedence relations. A concluding chapter presents a sample narrative in orthographic form, interlinear gloss and English free translation.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110766288
ISBN:: 9783110766288
ISBN:: 9783110489668
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Bunan

Book 2017

A Grammar of Bunan

Manuel Widmer

Volume 71 in this series

This book provides a comprehensive grammatical description of Bunan, a Tibeto-Burman languages that is spoken by approximately 4,000 people in the North Indian Himalayas. The grammar offers a systematic analysis of a wide range of grammatical phenomena, ranging from phonetics and phonology to complex syntactic constructions. Moreover, it contains a wealth of historical annotations, annotated texts, and a Bunan-English glossary.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110766295
ISBN:: 9783110766295
ISBN:: 9783110475258
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Alto Perené (Arawak)

Book 2015

A Grammar of Alto Perené (Arawak)

Elena Mihas

Volume 69 in this series

Ashéninka Perené belongs to the Kampa group of the Arawak family, located in the central Peruvian Amazon in the foothills of the Andes mountains. While limited grammatical studies of Kampa languages exist, this grammar is by far the most comprehensive study of any language of this sub-family, and is one of only two or three comparable studies of Arawak languages more generally.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110766301
ISBN:: 9783110766301
ISBN:: 9783110419320
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Languages of the Americas
Subject:: Languages of the Americas, other
Subject:: Levels of Linguistic Analysis
Subject:: Morphology
Subject:: Syntax
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Aguaruna (Iiniá Chicham)

Book 2017

A Grammar of Aguaruna (Iiniá Chicham)

Simon E. Overall

Volume 68 in this series

This book is a descriptive grammar of Aguaruna, known to its speakers as Iiniá Chicham, a Jivaroan language spoken by some 55,000 people in the northwest Peruvian Amazon. Aguaruna is typologically and historically significant because of its location in the eastern foothills of the Andes, right between the Andean and Amazonian linguistic areas. Some typologically unusual syntactic phenomena, for example in the areas of grammatical relations and case marking, make this description relevant beyond the areal context. This is the first full grammar of a Jivaroan language, covering phonology, morphology and syntax as well as addressing some issues in discourse structure. It is an important work for specialists in South American languages as well as for linguists working in more general typological fields.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110405590
ISBN:: 9783110405590
ISBN:: 9783110634914
ISBN:: 9783110405576
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Levels of Linguistic Analysis
Subject:: Morphology
Subject:: Syntax
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Daakaka

Book 2015

A Grammar of Daakaka

Kilu von Prince

Volume 67 in this series

This reference grammar is the first description of the endangered Oceanic language Daakaka. This language is spoken by about 1000 speakers on the island of Ambrym, Vanuatu. The data on which the analysis is based were collected by the author during a documentation project between 2009 and 2012.

All structural levels of the language are discussed, including discussions of reduplication patterns and orthography design, nominal and verbal subclasses, clause types and information structure and the different types of subordinate clauses.
Particular emphasis is given to the intricate system of nominal possession, the system of TAM- and polarity markers and serial verb constructions.
Literary genres of the region and related art forms such as songs and the symbolic sand drawings are discussed in the final chapter.

The grammar will be especially relevant to readers with an interest in Oceanic languages, general typology and theoretical linguistics as well as those with a broader interest in the region.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110766318
ISBN:: 9783110766318
ISBN:: 9783110342598
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Kulina

Book 2014

A Grammar of Kulina

Stefan Dienst

Volume 66 in this series

This book is a reference grammar of Kulina, an Amazonian language spoken in Brazil and Peru. The dialect described by the author is spoken on the upper Purus River in the Brazilian state of Acre. Kulina belongs to the Arawan language family. It is predominantly head-marking and has a complex verbal morphology which is largely agglutinating with some instances of fusion. The language has two noun classes and two genders. The gender agreement of transitive verbs with their arguments is in part governed by intricate grammatical rules and in part pragmatically driven. There are three types of possession, alienable, inalienable, and kinship. The latter category only applies to some kinship nouns, while others are alienably possessed. Kulina has aspirated and unaspirated obstruents, but different aspirated obstruents do not co-occur in one morpheme due to Grassmann's law, a dissimilation process known from Sanskrit and Ancient Greek. The book contains two Kulina texts and a chapter on the lexicon, which discusses colour terms, generic nouns for plants and animals, pet vocatives, idioms, and the origin of loan words.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110341911
ISBN:: 978-3-11-033968-0
ISBN:: 978-3-11-034191-1
ISBN:: 9783110395372
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Tundra Nenets

Book 2014

A Grammar of Tundra Nenets

Irina Nikolaeva

Volume 65 in this series

The book is the first substantial description of Tundra Nenets, a highly endangered Uralic language spoken in Western Siberia and the north of European Russia, destined for the international linguistic community. Its purpose is to provide a thorough documentation of all of the major grammatical phenomena in the language. The grammar particularly emphasizes the description of syntax, because this has traditionally been a very neglected area of Nenets studies. Many syntactic aspects have not received a systematic treatment in the existing literature or have not been addressed at all. Since the existing works are not easily available, incomplete, or idiosyncratically presented, Tundra Nenets syntax has played little or no role in the considerations of modern linguists, whether more descriptively or theoretically inclined. The book is largely descriptive: it is not intended to address theoretical questions per se and the description is not meant to be formulated within a particular framework. However, it identifies and discusses issues which are of broad typological and theoretical interest. The description is richly exemplified. Most of the cited examples are the result of fieldwork conducted by the in various locations. They are sentences produced by native speakers either spontaneously or elicited in response to questions posed in Russian. Other examples are excerpts from original texts.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110320640
ISBN:: 978-3-11-032047-3
ISBN:: 978-3-11-032064-0
ISBN:: 9783110373295
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Other Languages of Europe
Subject:: European Languages, other
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Nuosu

Book 2013

A Grammar of Nuosu

Matthias Gerner

Volume 64 in this series

This is the first modern grammar of Nuosu written in English. Nuosu belongs to a little known section of Tibeto-Burman. The 2.5 Million ethnic Nuosu are part of the Yi nationality and live in Sichuan (China). This grammar informs Tibeto-Burman linguists, typologists, scholars of language contact and foreign learners of Nuosu.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110308679
ISBN:: 978-3-11-030863-1
ISBN:: 978-3-11-030867-9
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Hinuq

Book 2013

A Grammar of Hinuq

Diana Forker

Volume 63 in this series

This is the first thorough description of the Nakh-Daghestanian language Hinuq. Hinuq has about 600 speakers living primarily in a single village in the Caucasus mountains in southern Russia (Daghestan). During several fieldwork trips, the author collected an extensive corpus of texts. Based on the data, Forker provides a comprehensive analysis of Hinuq grammar with reference to other Nakh-Daghestanian languages, to Caucasian studies and to typological and general linguistic topics.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110303971
ISBN:: 978-3-11-030376-6
ISBN:: 978-3-11-030397-1
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Tommo So

Book 2013

A Grammar of Tommo So

Laura McPherson

Volume 62 in this series

Tommo So is a Dogon language with approximately 60,000 speakers in Mali, West Africa. As only the second full grammatical description of a Dogon language, this volume is a critical resource for solving the mystery of Dogon's genetic affiliation with other languages in Africa. Tommo So is an SOV language with isolating nominal morphology and agglutinative verbal morphology; suffixes on the verb mark tense/aspect/negation as well as subject agreement. The phonology is sensitive to levels of verbal morphology in that variable vowel harmony applies less frequently as one moves to outer layers of the morphology. The tone system of Tommo So is of typological interest in both its phonological and syntactic instantiations. Phonologically, it is a two-tone system of H and L, but these specified tones contrast with a surface-underspecified tone. Grammatically, the lexical tone of a word is often overwritten by syntactically-induced overlays. For example, an inalienable noun's tone will be replaced with L if it is possessed by a non-pronominal possessor, and by either H or HL if the possessor is pronominal. The language has also innovated a series of locative quasi-verbs and focus particles sensitive to pragmatic factors like certainty.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110301076
ISBN:: 978-3-11-030092-5
ISBN:: 978-3-11-030107-6
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Savosavo

Book 2012

A Grammar of Savosavo

Claudia Wegener

Volume 61 in this series

This is the first comprehensive description of Savosavo, a non-Austronesian (Papuan) language spoken by approximately 2,500 speakers on Savo Island, Solomon Islands. Based on primary field data recorded by the author, it provides an overview of all levels of grammar. In addition, a full chapter is dedicated to nominalization of verbs by means of one particular suffix, which occur in a number of constructions ranging from lexical to syntactic nominalization. The appendix provides glossed example texts and a list of lexemes.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110289657
ISBN:: 978-3-11-028947-3
ISBN:: 978-3-11-028965-7
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Neverver

Book 2012

A Grammar of Neverver

Julie Barbour

Volume 60 in this series

Neverver is an Oceanic language spoken by just over 500 people on the high island of Malekula in Vanuatu. Drawing on an extensive corpus of field recordings collected between 2004 and 2008, the analysis reveals a very interesting phonological system with six prenasalized segments, rich systems of possession, tense/aspect/mood marking, valence change, and verb serialization. The grammaris of interest to specialists in Oceanic and Austronesian linguistics, as well as to general linguists, especially those interested in linguistic typology.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110289619
ISBN:: 978-3-11-028945-9
ISBN:: 978-3-11-028961-9
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Domari

Book 2012

A Grammar of Domari

Yaron Matras

Volume 59 in this series

Domari is an Indo-Aryan language that is now highly endangered. Its speakers were traditionally nomadic metalworkers and musicians who lived in tiny, geographically scattered and socially isolated communities throughout the Middle East. The grammar is based on conversational material recorded in Jerusalem in the mid-1990s with some of the last speakers of this particular variety.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110291421
ISBN:: 978-3-11-028914-5
ISBN:: 978-3-11-029142-1
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Central Alaskan Yupik (CAY)

Book 2012

A Grammar of Central Alaskan Yupik (CAY)

Osahito Miyaoka

Volume 58 in this series

The volume is a major grammar of Central Alaskan Yupik (CAY). It is the culmination of the author's linguistic studies done in Alaska and elsewhere since around 1960, with assistance of many native speakers. Central Alaskan Yupik is currently the most vigorous of the nineteen remaining Native Alaskan languages. Descriptive in nature, extensive and deep, this grammar is of typological and of ethnological/anthropological interest. Given the severely endangered state of the language, this much of descriptive linguistic material is without comparison in the field.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110278576
ISBN:: 978-3-11-027820-0
ISBN:: 978-3-11-027857-6
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Bardi

Book 2012

A Grammar of Bardi

Claire Louise Bowern

Volume 57 in this series

The Bardi language is currently spoken by fewer than 10 people. The language is a member of the Nyulnyulan family, a small non-Pama-Nyungan family in northwest Australia. This book is a reference grammar of the language. The 16 chapters include information on phonetics and phonology, nominal and verbal morphology, and syntax, as well as an ethnographic sketch of traditional life. A selection of texts is also included. It is the first published full study of a Nyulnyulan language.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110278187
ISBN:: 978-3-11-027815-6
ISBN:: 978-3-11-027818-7
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Saramaccan Creole

Book 2012

A Grammar of Saramaccan Creole

John H. McWhorter, Jeff Good

Volume 56 in this series

Saramaccan has been central to various debates regarding the origin and nature of creole languages. Being the most removed of all English-based creoles from European language structure in terms of phonology, morphology and syntax, it has been seen as one of the most extreme instantiations of the creolization process. This is the first full-length description of Saramaccan. The grammar documents, in particular, a valence-sensitive system of indicating movement and direction via serial verb constructions, hitherto overlooked amidst the generalized phenomenon of serialization itself.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110278262
ISBN:: 978-3-11-027643-5
ISBN:: 978-3-11-027826-2
ISBN:: 9783110995404
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Mian

Book 2011

A Grammar of Mian

Sebastian Fedden

Volume 55 in this series

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.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110264197
ISBN:: 978-3-11-026418-0
ISBN:: 978-3-11-026419-7
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Other Languages of Europe
Subject:: European Languages, other
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Mani

Book 2011

A Grammar of Mani

G. Tucker Childs

Volume 54 in this series

This book provides a complete grammar of the Mani language spoken in the Samu (alternate French spelling “Samou”) region of Sierra Leone and Guinea. The data come from a short pilot study conducted in 2000, and a larger study taking place over two years 2004-2006. That the Mani language will soon disappear is certain; just as certain is that this grammar will be the only one ever written.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110265019
ISBN:: 978-3-11-026497-5
ISBN:: 978-3-11-026501-9
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Warrongo

Book 2011

A Grammar of Warrongo

Tasaku Tsunoda

Volume 53 in this series

Warrongo is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language that used to be spoken in northeast Australia. This volume is largely based on the rich data recorded from the last fluent speaker. It details the phonology, morphology and syntax of the language. In particular, it provides a truly scrutinizing description of syntactic ergativity - a phenomenon that is rare among the world's language. It also shows that, unlike some other Australian languages, Warrongo has noun phrases that are configurational. Overall this volume shows what can be documented of a language that has only one speaker.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110238778
ISBN:: 978-3-11-023876-1
ISBN:: 978-3-11-023877-8
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Vaeakau-Taumako

Book 2011

A Grammar of Vaeakau-Taumako

Åshild Næss, Even Hovdhaugen

Volume 52 in this series

Vaeakau-Taumako, also known as Pileni, is a Polynesian Outlier language spoken in the Reef and Duff Islands in the Solomon Islands' Temotu Province. This is an area of great linguistic diversity and long-standing language contact which has had far-reaching effects on the linguistic situation.
Historically, speakers of Vaeakau-Taumako were shipbuilders and navigators who made trade voyages throughout the area, bringing them into constant contact with speakers of the Reefs-Santa Cruz, Utupua and Vanikoro languages. The latter languages are only distantly related to Vaeakau-Taumako, making up an only recently identified first-order subgroup of Oceanic. Polynesian speakers first arrived in the area some 700-1000 years ago from the core Polynesian areas to the east. While today most intra-group communication takes place in Solomon Islands Pijin, traditionally the situation was one of extensive multilingualism, and this has left profound traces in the grammar of Vaeakau-Taumako, which shows a number of structural properties not known from other Polynesian languages.
A Grammar of Vaeakau-Taumako is the most comprehensive grammar of any Polynesian Outlier to date, and the first full-length grammar of any language of Temotu Province. Based on extensive fieldwork, it is structured as a reference grammar dealing with all aspects of language structure, from phonology to discourse organization, and including a selection of glossed texts. It will be of interest to typologists, Oceanic linguists, and researchers interested in language contact.
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DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110238273
ISBN:: 978-3-11-023826-6
ISBN:: 978-3-11-023827-3
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Goemai

Book 2011

A Grammar of Goemai

Birgit Hellwig

Volume 51 in this series

This is the first description of Goemai, a West Chadic language of Nigeria. Goemai is spoken in a language contact area, and this contact has shaped Goemai grammar to the extent that it can be considered a fairly untypical Chadic language. The grammar presents the structure of the present-day language, relates it to its diachronic sources, and adds a semantic perspective to the description.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110238297
ISBN:: 978-3-11-023828-0
ISBN:: 978-3-11-023829-7
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Other Languages of Europe
Subject:: European Languages, other
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Madurese

Book 2010

A Grammar of Madurese

William D. Davies

Volume 50 in this series

Madurese is a major regional language of Indonesia, with some 14 million speakers, mainly on the island of Madura and adjacent parts of Java, making it the fourth largest language of Indonesia after Indonesian, Javanese, and Sundanese. There is no existing comprehensive descriptive grammar of the language, with existing studies being either sketches of the whole grammar, or detailed descriptions of phonology and morphology or some particular topics within these components of the grammar. There is no competing work that provides the breadth and depth of coverage of this grammar, in particular (though not exclusively) with regard to syntax.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110224443
ISBN:: 978-3-11-022443-6
ISBN:: 978-3-11-022444-3
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Other Languages of Europe
Subject:: European Languages, other
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Teiwa

Book 2010

A Grammar of Teiwa

Marian Klamer

Volume 49 in this series

Teiwa is a non-Austronesian ('Papuan') language spoken on the island of Pantar, in eastern Indonesia, located just north of Timor island. It has approx. 4,000 speakers and is highly endangered. While the non-Austronesian languages of the Alor-Pantar archipelago are clearly related to each other, as indicated by the many apparent cognates and the very similar pronominal paradigms found across the group, their genetic relationship to other Papuan languages remains controversial. Located some 1,000 km from their putative Papuan neighbors on the New Guinea mainland, the Alor-Pantar languages are the most distant westerly Papuan outliers. A grammar of Teiwa presents a grammatical description of one of these 'outlier' languages.

The book is structured as a reference grammar: after a general introduction on the language, it speakers and the linguistic situation on Alor and Pantar, the grammar builds up from a description of the language's phonology and word classes to its larger grammatical constituents and their mutual relations: nominal phrases, serial verb constructions, clauses, clause combinations, and information structure. While many Papuan languages are morphologically complex, Teiwa is almost analytic: it has only one paradigm of object marking prefixes, and one verbal suffix marking realis status. Other typologically interesting features of the language include: (i) the presence of uvular fricatives and stops, which is atypical for languages of eastern Indonesia; (ii) the absence of trivalent verbs: transitive verbs select a single (animate or inanimate) object, while the additional participant is expressed with a separate predicate; and (iii) the absence of morpho-syntactically encoded embedded clauses. A grammar of Teiwa is based on primary field data, collected by the author in 2003-2007. A selection of glossed and translated Teiwa texts of various genres and word lists (Teiwa-English / English-Teiwa) are included.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110226072
ISBN:: 978-3-11-022606-5
ISBN:: 978-3-11-022607-2
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Other Languages of Europe
Subject:: European Languages, other
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Wandala

Book 2012

A Grammar of Wandala

Zygmunt Frajzyngier

Volume 47 in this series

Wandala is a hitherto undescribed Central Chadic language spoken in Northern Cameroon and Northeastern Nigeria. The Grammar of Wandala describes, in a non-aprioristic approach, phonology, morphology, syntax, and all functional domains grammaticalized in the language. The grammatical structure of Wandala is quite different from the structure of other Chadic languages described thus far in both the formal means and the functions that have been grammaticalized. The grammar provides proofs for the postulated hypotheses concerning forms and functions. The grammar is written in a style accessible to linguists working within different theoretical frameworks.

The phonology is characterized by a rich consonantal system, a three vowel system, and a two tone system. The language has abundant vowel insertion rules and a vowel harmony system. Vowel deletion marks phrase-internal position, and vowel-insertion marks phrase-final position. The two rules allow the parsing of the clause into constituents. The language has three types of reduplication of verbs, two of which code aspectual and modal distinctions. The negative paradigms of verbs differ from affirmative paradigms in the coding of subject.

The pronominal affixes and extensive system of verbal extensions code the grammatical and semantic relations within the clause. Wandala has unusual clausal structure, in that in a pragmatically neutral verbal clause, there is only one nominal argument, either the subject or the object. These arguments can follow a variety of constituents. The grammatical role of that argument is coded by inflectional markers on the verb and most interestingly, on whatever lexical or grammatical morpheme precedes the constituent. The markers of grammatical relations added to verbs are different for different classes of verbs.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110218411
ISBN:: 978-3-11-021840-4
ISBN:: 978-3-11-021841-1
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Other Languages of Europe
Subject:: European Languages, other
Subject:: Levels of Linguistic Analysis
Subject:: Syntax
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Historical Linguistics
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Eton

Book 2008

A Grammar of Eton

Mark L.O. Van de Velde

Volume 46 in this series

A Grammar of Eton is the first description of the Cameroonian Bantu language Eton. It is also one of the few complete descriptions of a North-western Bantu language. The complex tonology of Eton is carefully analysed and presented in a simple and consistent descriptive framework, which permits the reader to keep track of Eton's many tonal morphemes. Phonologists will be especially interested in the analysis of stem initial prominence, which manifests itself in a number of logically independent phenomena, including length of the onset consonant, phonotactic skewing and number of tonal attachment sites. Typologists and Africanists working on morphosyntax will find useful analyses of, among others, gender and agreement; tense, aspect, mood and negation; and verbal derivation. They will encounter many morphosyntactic differences between Eton and the better known Eastern and Southern Bantu languages, often due to evolutions shaped by maximality constraints on stems. The chapters on clause structure and complex constructions provide data hardly found in sources on the languages of the region, including descriptions of non-verbal clauses, focus, quasi-auxiliaries and adverbial clauses.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110207859
ISBN:: 978-3-11-020440-7
ISBN:: 978-3-11-020785-9
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Jamsay

Book 2008

A Grammar of Jamsay

Jeffrey Heath

Volume 45 in this series

Jamsay is the largest-population language among some twenty Dogon languages in Mali, West Africa. This is the first comprehensive grammar of any Dogon language, including a full tonology. The language is verb-final, with subject agreement on the verb and with no other case-marking. Its most striking feature is the morphosyntactically triggered use of stem-wide tone-contour overlays on nouns, verbs, and adjectives. All stems have a lexical tone contour such as H[igh], L[ow]-H, HL, or LHL with at least one H-tone. An exam of tone overlay is tone-dropping to stem-wide all-L. This is used for Perfective verbs (in the presence of a focalized constituent), and for a noun or adjective before an adjective. It is also used to mark the head NP in a relative clause (the head NP is not extracted, so this is the only direct indication of head NP status). The verb in a relative clause is morphologically a participle, agreeing with the head NP in humanness and number, rather than with the subject. "Intonation" is used grammatically. For example, NP conjunction 'X and Y' is expressed as X Y, without a conjunction, but with "dying-quail" intonation on both conjuncts.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110207224
ISBN:: 978-3-11-020113-0
ISBN:: 978-3-11-020722-4
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Cavineña

Book 2008

A Grammar of Cavineña

Antoine Guillaume

Volume 44 in this series

This book is a detailed high-quality descriptive grammar of the endangered Cavineña language (less than 1200 speakers), spoken in the Amazonian rainforest of Lowland Bolivia, an area where the indigenous languages are virtually unknown. Cavineña belongs to the Tacanan family, comprising five languages, none of which has been the subject of an adequate descriptive grammar. The grammar is based mostly on the extensive fieldwork conducted by the author in traditional Cavineña communities. Cast in the functional-typological framework, and based on natural discourse data, the grammar presents a detailed and copiously exemplified account of most aspects of the language, building up from basic levels (phonetic and phonological) to higher levels (morphological and syntactic), and from brief descriptions of each level to a more comprehensive description of the same level in specific chapters. The language contains a number of unusual features that will be of interest to typologist linguists, such as an unusual pitch accent system, a morpho-phonological rule that deletes case markers, an intricate predicate structure, a system of verbal suffixes coding associated motion, a specific causative of involvement marker, a peculiar prefix e- that attaches to nouns coding body parts and a complex system of second position clitic pronouns. The grammar will also be of interest to historical-comparative linguists, as for the first time one has sufficiently detailed grammatical information to make possible a reliable comparison with other languages with which Tacanan languages might be related, in particular the Panoan family, and to serve as input into hypotheses regarding the population history of this part of South America.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110211771
ISBN:: 978-3-11-018842-4
ISBN:: 978-3-11-021177-1
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Other Languages of Europe
Subject:: European Languages, other
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Subject:: Philosophy of Language
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Hup

Book 2008

A Grammar of Hup

Patience Epps

Volume 43 in this series

This work is a reference grammar of Hup, a member of the Nadahup family (also known as Makú or Vaupés-Japura), which is spoken in the fascinatingly multilingual Vaupés region of the northwest Amazon. This detailed description and analysis is informed by a functional-typological perspective, with particular reference to areal contact and grammaticalization. The grammar begins with an introduction to the cultural and linguistic background of Hup speakers, gives an overview of the phonology, and follows this with chapters on morphosyntax (nominal morphology, verbs and verb compounding, tense, aspect, modality, evidentiality, etc.); it concludes with discussions of negation, the simple clause, and clause combining.

A number of features of Hup grammar are typologically significant, such as its strategy of inversion in question formation, its system of Differential Object Marking, and its treatment of possession. Hup also exhibits several highly unusual paths of grammaticalization, such as the development of a verbal future suffix from the noun
‘stick, tree’.

The book also includes a selection of texts and a CD-ROM with audio files.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110199079
ISBN:: 978-3-11-019588-0
ISBN:: 978-3-11-019907-9
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Other Languages of Europe
Subject:: European Languages, other
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Language Documentation
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Toqabaqita

Book 2008

A Grammar of Toqabaqita

Frantisek Lichtenberk

Volume 42 in this series

Toqabaqita is an Austronesian language spoken by approximately 13,000 people on the island of Malaita in the south-eastern Solomon Islands. This two-volume grammar is the first comprehensive description of the language, based on the author's field work. The grammar deals with the phonology, morphology, syntax, and discourse patterns of the language, as well as with its contact with Solomon Islands Pijin. It will be of special interest to typologists and to specialists in Austronesian linguistics.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110199062
ISBN:: 978-3-11-019587-3
ISBN:: 978-3-11-019906-2
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Mapuche

Book 2008

A Grammar of Mapuche

Ineke Smeets

Volume 41 in this series

Mapuche is the language of the Mapuche (or Araucanians), the native inhabitants of central Chile. The Mapuche language, also called Mapudungu, is spoken by about 400,000 people in Chile and 40,000 in Argentina. The Mapuche people, estimated at about one million, constitute the majority of the Chilean indigenous population. The history of the Mapuche is the story of passionate fighters who managed to stop the Inca's but succumbed to the Spanish invaders after two and a half century of warfare.
The relationship of the Mapuche language with other Amerindian languages has not yet been established. Mapuche is a highly agglutinative language with a complex verbal morphology.
This book offers a comprehensive and detailed description of the Mapuche language. It contains a grammar (phonology, morphology and syntax), a collection of texts (stories, conversations and songs) with morphological analyses and free translations, and a Mapuche-English dictionary with a large number of derivations and examples. The grammar is preceded by a socio-historical sketch of the Mapuche people and a brief discussion of previous studies of the Mapuche language. The material for the description was collected by the author with the help of five Mapuche speakers with attention to the dialectal differences between them. The abundance of thoroughly analysed examples makes for a lively decription of the language. The intricacy of the verbal morphology will arouse the interest not only of those who practice Amerindian linguistics but also of those who are interested in language theory and language typology.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110211795
ISBN:: 9783110211795
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Dolakha Newar

Book 2007

A Grammar of Dolakha Newar

Carol Genetti

Volume 40 in this series

A Grammar of Dolakha Newar is the first fully comprehensive reference grammar of a Newar variety. Dolakha Newar is of particular interest as it is member of the mutually unintelligible eastern branch of the family, so allows for an important comparative perspective on this significant Tibeto-Burman language. In addition to a chapter on phonetics and phonology, the book contains a separate chapter on prosody. There are also distinct chapters on each word class, with full discussion of the morphological and syntactic properties of each class. The book provides an extensive study of syntax, including complete chapters on constructions, clause structure, constituent order, grammatical relations, nominalization, complementation, the participial construction, and the complex sentence, as well as a detailed chapter on tense and aspect. Brimming with examples from natural discourse, the book couples rigorous description of the language's structures with full discussion of how the structures are used in connected speech. Each analysis is presented with full argumentation and competing analyses are contrasted and discussed. The result is a rich, readable, and beautifully argued portrait of a language and how it works.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110198812
ISBN:: 978-3-11-019303-9
ISBN:: 978-3-11-019881-2
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Mongsen Ao

Book 2007

A Grammar of Mongsen Ao

A.R. Coupe

Volume 39 in this series

A Grammar of Mongsen Ao, the result of the author’s fieldwork over a ten-year period, presents the first comprehensive grammatical description of a language spoken in Nagaland, north-east India. The languages of this region remain under-documented for a number of historical reasons. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the widespread cultural practice of head-hunting discouraged outsiders from entering the Naga Hills. Shortly after Indian independence in 1947, an armed rebellion by Naga separatists and a government policy of restricting access to the troubled area ensured that Nagaland remained a difficult place to conduct research. In this context, A Grammar of Mongsen Ao offers valuable new insights into the structure of a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in a linguistically little-known region of the world.

The grammatical analysis documents all the functional domains of the language and includes four glossed and translated texts, the latter being of interest to anthropologists studying folklore. Mongsen Ao is a highly agglutinating, mostly suffixing language with predominantly dependent-marking characteristics. Its grammar demonstrates a number of typologically interesting features that are described in detail in the book. Among these is an unusual case marking system in which grammatical marking is motivated by semantic and pragmatic factors, and a rich verbal morphology that produces elaborate sequences of agglutinative suffixes. Grammaticalisation processes are also discussed where relevant, thereby extending the appeal of the book to linguists with interests in grammaticalisation theory.

This book will be of value to any linguist seeking to clarify genetic relationships within the Tibeto-Burman family, and it will serve more broadly as a reference grammar for typologists interested in the typological features of a Tibeto-Burman language of north-east India.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110198522
ISBN:: 978-3-11-019088-5
ISBN:: 978-3-11-019852-2
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Lao

Book 2007

A Grammar of Lao

N.J. Enfield

Volume 38 in this series

Lao is the national language of Laos, and is also spoken widely in Thailand and Cambodia. It is a tone language of the Tai-Kadai family (Southwestern Tai branch). Lao is an extreme example of the isolating, analytic language type. This book is the most comprehensive grammatical description of Lao to date. It describes and analyses the important structures of the language, including classifiers, sentence-final particles, and serial verb constructions. Special attention is paid to grammatical topics from a semantic, pragmatic, and typological perspective.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110207538
ISBN:: 978-3-11-018588-1
ISBN:: 978-3-11-020753-8
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Urarina

Book 2006

A Grammar of Urarina

Knut J. Olawsky

Volume 37 in this series

Urarina is an endangered isolate spoken by less than 3,000 people in the rainforests of North-western Peru. This book aims at providing a comprehensive description of Urarina grammar covering all areas of the language.

From a linguistic point of view, Urarina is particularly interesting because of a range of unusual grammatical characteristics that are rarely or not at all found in other languages. One remarkable property is the constituent order OVA/VS, which was classified as "non-existing" by Greenberg (1966). However, this atypical syntactic structure is a surprisingly consistent feature of Urarina, which discerns it from the majority of languages which are assumed to follow this syntactic pattern. Another feature probably unique to Urarina is the existence of a three-way distinction for person marking on all verbs. The choice of the respective paradigm depends on a complex set of syntactic and pragmatic conditions, which are investigated in detail. Scholars whose main interest is in morphology will also be intrigued by the polysynthetic verbal morphology of Urarina, which fits well into the Amazonian context.

A Grammar of Urarina is based on the framework of basic linguistic theory, which will be accessible to scholars from a wide range of backgrounds. The straightforward presentation of linguistic structures is accompanied by in-depth discussion of the most interesting and unusual features, illustrated by examples for all grammatical phenomena and often summarised by tables or diagrams. This book fills a gap not only for studies in Amazonian languages but also from a typological perspective.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110892932
ISBN:: 978-3-11-019020-5
ISBN:: 978-3-11-089293-2
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Mina

Book 2005

A Grammar of Mina

Zygmunt Frajzyngier, Eric Johnston, Adrian Edwards

Volume 36 in this series

A Grammar of Mina is a reference grammar of a hitherto undescribed and endangered Central Chadic language. The book contains a description of the phonology, morphology, syntax, and all the functional domains encoded by this language. For each hypothesis regarding a form of linguistic expression and its function, ample evidence is given. The description of formal means and of the functions coded by these means is couched in terms accessible to all linguists regardless of their theoretical orientations.

The outstanding characteristics of Mina include: vowel harmony; use of phonological means, including vowel deletion and vowel retention, to code phrasal boundaries; two tense and aspectual systems, each system carrying a different pragmatic function; a lexical category ‘locative predicator’ hitherto not observed in other languages; some tense, aspect, and mood markers that occur before the verb, and others that occur after the verb; the markers of interrogative and negative modality that occur in clause-final position; the conjunction used for a conjoined noun phrase in the subject function that differs from the conjunction used for a conjoined noun phrase in all other functions.In addition to the coding of argument structure, adjuncts, tense, aspect, and mood categories, Mina also codes the category point-of-view. The language has a clausal category ‘comment clause’ used in both simple and complex sentences, which overtly marks the speaker’s comment on the proposition. The discourse structure has the principle of unity of place. If one of the participants in a described event changes scene, that is coded by a special syntactic construction in addition to any verb of movement that may be used. Because of these unusual linguistic characteristics, the Grammar of Mina will be of interest to a wide range of linguists.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110893908
ISBN:: 978-3-11-018565-2
ISBN:: 978-3-11-089390-8
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

Book 2005

A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

Jeffrey Heath

Volume 35 in this series

This is a comprehensive description of Tamashek Tuareg spoken in Mali. The varieties covered in this volume are those of Tamashek in the narrow sense, excluding Tawellemett but including the other Malian varieties (Goundam, Timbuktu, Gao, Ansongo, Kidal, and the Gourma area south of the Niger River including Gosi and the outskirts of Hombori).

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110909586
ISBN:: 978-3-11-018484-6
ISBN:: 978-3-11-090958-6
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Mosetén

Book 2004

A Grammar of Mosetén

Jeanette Sakel

Volume 33 in this series

Mosetén belongs to the small, unclassified language family Mosetenan and is spoken by roughly 800 people in the foothills of the Bolivian Andes and the adjoining lowland region. This book provides a grammatical description of Mosetén in the form of a descriptive reference grammar. It is based on the author's extensive fieldwork in Bolivia and is intended to be comprehensive and aimed at linguists from all backgrounds. Belonging to an unclassified language family, Mosetén is of special interest to typologists, historical linguists, contact linguists and South Americanists.

The grammar is divided into a chapter on phonology (2.) and six chapters on the morphology: morphological processes (3.) the nominal system (4.), pronouns and reference (5.), adjectives and adverbs (6.), quantification (7.) and the verbal system (8.). These chapters are followed by voice (9.), negation (10.) and modality and discourse markers (11.). Finally, there are two syntactically oriented chapters on clause types (12.) and clause combinations (13.). In the appendix, three types of texts, a list of morphemes, a list of references and further bibliographical notes are added. Furthermore, there is an index.

This grammar is the first accessible and comprehensive description of a Mosetenan language.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110915280
ISBN:: 978-3-11-018340-5
ISBN:: 978-3-11-091528-0
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Other Languages of Europe
Subject:: European Languages, other
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Subject:: Philosophy of Language
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Ma'di

Book 2003

A Grammar of Ma'di

Mairi Blackings, Nigel Fabb

Volume 32 in this series

This grammar provides one of the most detailed accounts available of the syntax of a Nilo-Saharan language. It fully describes some of the unusual characteristics of Ma'di, including the different word orders associated with different tenses, the particle-based modal and focus systems, the full range of adverbials, and the structure and meaning of the noun phrase. The grammar also describes the phonetics, phonology, morphology, and aspects of the lexicon of the language.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110894967
ISBN:: 978-3-11-017940-8
ISBN:: 978-3-11-089496-7
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Qiang

Book 2003

A Grammar of Qiang

With annotated texts and glossary

Randy J. LaPolla, Chenglong Huang

Volume 31 in this series

This book is a full reference grammar of Qiang, one of the minority languages of southwest China, spoken by about 70,000 Qiang and Tibetan people in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in northern Sichuan Province. It belongs to the Qiangic branch of Tibeto-Burman (one of the two major branches of Sino-Tibetan). The dialect presented in the book is the Northern Qiang variety spoken in Ronghong Village, Yadu Township, Chibusu District, Mao County. This book, the first book-length description of the Qiang language in English, is the result of many years of work on the language, and is as typologically comprehensive as possible. It includes not only the reference grammar, but also an ethnological overview, several fully analyzed texts (mostly traditional stories), and an annotated glossary.

The language is verb final, agglutinative (prefixing and suffixing), and has both head-marking and dependent marking morphology. The phonology of Qiang is quite complex, with 39 consonants at seven points of articulation, plus complex consonant clusters, both in initial and final position, as well as vowel harmony, vowel length distinctions, and a set of retroflexed vowels. The grammar also is complex, with a paradigm of eight direction marking verbal prefixes, and two paradigms for person marking, one for actor, one for non-actor, and a variety of other verbal prefixes and suffixes, as well as definite and number marking on nouns. Noun phrases take classifiers and relational pospositions as well.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110197273
ISBN:: 978-3-11-017829-6
ISBN:: 978-3-11-019727-3
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Philosophy of Language
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Lavukaleve

Book 2003

A Grammar of Lavukaleve

Angela Terrill

Volume 30 in this series

Lavukaleve is a Papuan Language spoken on the Russell Islands in the Central Province of the Solomon Islands. The phonology and morpho-phonology of Lavukaleve are described, as well as arguments adjuncts, the Lavukaleve predicate structure (including predicate types and core participant marking, the agreement suffix, focus constructions, tense, aspect and mood, word-level derivation, complex predicates), interclausal syntax, and the Lavukaleve discourse organisation. The book includes a list of affixes, a list of lexemes, and an appendix with Lavukaleve texts. The data used in this work was collected by the author during five field trips.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110923964
ISBN:: 978-3-11-017887-6
ISBN:: 978-3-11-092396-4
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Kwaza

Book 2004

A Grammar of Kwaza

Hein van der Voort

Volume 29 in this series

This work contains a comprehensive description of Kwaza, which is an endangered and unclassified indigenous language of Southern Rondônia, Brazil. The Kwaza language, also known in the literature as Koaiá, is spoken by around 25 people today. Until recently, our knowledge of Kwaza was based on only three short word lists, from 1938, 1943 and 1984. Like the language, the culture and the history of its speakers are undocumented. The Kwaza people as an ethnic group have been decimated by increasing ecological, physical, social and cultural pressure from Western civilisation since contact in the past century. This is the situation for many indigenous peoples of Rondônia and of the Amazon region in general. Linguists expect that the majority of these peoples will cease to exist as distinct language communities during the coming decades. The present work is intended as a contribution to the documentation and preservation of the languages of the Amazon basin. In this respect, Kwaza has represents an especially urgent case in view of its undetermined classification, the lack of documentation and its endangered status. This work is based on the author´s personal fieldwork conducted between 1995 and 2002, and it consists of three parts. Part I contains a thorough description of the phonology and morphosyntax of the language and a concise overview of its social, cultural and historical context. Part II contains a diverse selection of transcribed and translated texts with interlinear morphological analyses. Part III is a dictionary of Kwaza, including many examples and an English-Kwaza register. This complete description is of interest to linguists in general, scholars of South American languages in particular, and anthropologists and historians interested in the Guaporé region.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110197280
ISBN:: 978-3-11-017869-2
ISBN:: 978-3-11-019728-0
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Other Languages of Europe
Subject:: European Languages, other
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Generative Linguistics
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Kolyma Yukaghir

Book 2003

A Grammar of Kolyma Yukaghir

Elena Maslova

Volume 27 in this series

Kolyma Yukaghir is a seriously endangered language spoken by about 50 people in the northeast of Asiatic Russia. It is one of the two surviving languages of the Yukaghir family, which is considered by different scholars either as an isolate left over from before the expansion of other languages and language families into Siberia, or as a distant relative of the Uralic family. In many ways, Yukaghir fits the grammatical type widespread among the languages of Siberia, namely that of predominantly verb-final dependent-marking language with relatively rich agglumative morphology and deranking strategies of clause linking. Furthermore, it has a number of typologically remarkably features, which will be of interest to general linguists irrespective of their theoretical orientation. These include Yukaghir focus-marking system, differential object marking based on global effects of person hierarchy, the obligatory use of bound possesive markers to indicate non-coreference of the possessor with the subject, elaborated switch-reference system, initimate interaction between aspect and valence-changing derivation, etc.

The book incorporates all major components of descriptive grammar, from phonology to syntax, with a special chapter on coreference and discourse coherence, annotated and translated sample texts, a Yukaghir-English vocabulary, and a subject index. The description is based on extensive field materials and richly exemplified by non-elicited data. The organization of the book facilitates its use as a reference grammar, with numerous cross-references between sections and concise summaries of interrelated phenomena discussed in various parts of the grammar.

The book is of interest to scholars of Uralic and Siberian languages, linguistic typology, and general linguistics.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110197174
ISBN:: 978-3-11-017527-1
ISBN:: 978-3-11-019717-4
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Basque

Book 2003

A Grammar of Basque

José Ignacio Hualde, Jon Ortiz de Urbina

Volume 26 in this series

As the only surviving pre-Indo-European language of western Europe, Basque has often attracted the interest of linguists. Whereas, traditionally, descriptive work on Basque has primarily focused on morphological features, including its complex system of verb-argument agreement and its strict ergative pattern of inflection, during the last two decades a new generation of Basque linguists has produced very sophisticated, theoretically-informed work on many aspects of the syntax, morphology and phonology of the language, revealing, for instance, a process of focalization with many interesting properties and the existence in some dialects of an accentual system strikingly similar to that of standard Japanese. The book, bringing together this accumulated knowledge on the structure of Basque, is considerably more complete than any other existing grammar of the language. Another interesting feature of this grammar is that the description is illustrated with fully-glossed examples extracted from a great number of written sources. Although the focus is the modern standard language, dialectal features are considered in detail and examples are taken from all dialects and periods.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110895285
ISBN:: 978-3-11-017683-4
ISBN:: 978-3-11-089528-5
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Fongbe

Book 2002

A Grammar of Fongbe

Claire Lefebvre, Anne-Marie Brousseau

Volume 25 in this series

This book is a reference grammar of Fongbe, a language which is part of the Gbe dialect cluster. It is spoken mainly in the former kingdom of Dahomey, which today comprises the southern areas of Benin and Togo. This book has three objectives: First, its main purpose is to provide a thorough description of the grammar of Fongbe. Second, this book provides language-specific syntactic tests which were developed in the course of this research. Finally, we provide the reader with the most exhaustive list possible of references on Fongbe, and on the Gbe languages in general. This book thus attempts to represent a "state of the art" of the language itself, and of the analyses proposed to account for its particular constructions. This book is of particular interest to Africanists, scholars interested in comparative linguistics or in the reconstruction of language families, and creolists who work on the languages spoken in the Caribbean area.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110880182
ISBN:: 978-3-11-017360-4
ISBN:: 978-3-11-088018-2
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Gaagudju

Book 2002

A Grammar of Gaagudju

Mark Harvey

Volume 24 in this series

Gaagudju is a previously undescribed and now nearly extinct language of northern Australia. This grammar provides an overall description of the language. Australian languages generally show a high degree of structural similarity to one another. Gaagudju conforms to some of the common Australian patterns, yet diverges significantly from others. Thus while it has a standard Australian phonological inventory, its prosodic systems differ from those of most Australian languages, with stressed and unstressed syllables showing marked differences in realisation.

Like many northern languages, it has complex systems of both prefixation and suffixation to nominals and verbs. Prefixation provides information about nominal classification (4 classes), mood, and pronominal cross-reference (Subjects, Objects, and Indirect Objects). Suffixation provides information about case, tense, and aspect. As in many languages, there is a clear distinction between productive and unproductive morphology. Gaagudju differs from most Australian languages in that a considerable amount of its morphology is unproductive, showing complex and irregular allomorphic variation.

Gaagudju is like most Australian languages in that it may be described as a free word order language. However, word order is not totally free and strictly ordered phrasal compounding structures are significant (e.g. in the formation of denominal verbs).

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110871289
ISBN:: 978-3-11-017248-5
ISBN:: 978-3-11-087128-9
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Psycholinguistics
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Jamul Tiipay

Book 2001

A Grammar of Jamul Tiipay

Amy Miller

Volume 23 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110864823
ISBN:: 978-3-11-016451-0
ISBN:: 978-3-11-086482-3
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistic Typology
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Udihe

Book 2001

A Grammar of Udihe

Irina Nikolaeva, Maria Tolskaya

Volume 22 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110849035
ISBN:: 978-3-11-016916-4
ISBN:: 978-3-11-084903-5
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Hdi

Book 2002

A Grammar of Hdi

Zygmunt Frajzyngier

Volume 21 in this series

Hdi is a hitherto undescribed language spoken in northern Cameroon. The language belongs to the Central Branch of Chadic. The aim of the book is to provide a fairly complete description of the grammar of this language. Consequently, the grammar describes the phonology, morphology and syntax of Hdi and the semantic and discourse functions coded in this language. Most clauses in Hdi are verb-initial, with the subject directly following the verb. The object is often marked by a preposition. What makes Hdi unusual is that the object-marking preposition is unique and does not function elsewhere as a locative preposition. Another interesting feature of Hdi is that there are two types of clauses, pragmatically independent and pragmatically dependent, and that the difference between these is coded by different tense and aspectual systems. In addition, there are two clausal orders for complex sentences: The order embedded clause-matrix clause codes one type of modality, while the order matrix clause-embedded clause codes another. The language also has a rich system of verbal extensions coding the semantic roles of arguments and adjuncts and the direction of movement.

The grammar is of interest not only to linguists working in African, Chadic and Afroasiatic linguistics, but also to general linguists, since it describes phenomena rarely seen in other languages of the world. The grammar is described in terms accessible to linguists working within various theoretical frameworks.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110885798
ISBN:: 978-3-11-017071-9
ISBN:: 978-3-11-088579-8
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Tukang Besi

Book 1999

A Grammar of Tukang Besi

Mark Donohue

Volume 20 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110805543
ISBN:: 978-3-11-016188-5
ISBN:: 978-3-11-080554-3
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Koyra Chiini

Book 1999

A Grammar of Koyra Chiini

The Songhay of Timbuktu

Jeffrey Heath

Volume 19 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110804850
ISBN:: 978-3-11-016285-1
ISBN:: 978-3-11-080485-0
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Kambera

Book 1998

A Grammar of Kambera

Marian Klamer

Volume 18 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110805536
ISBN:: 978-3-11-016187-8
ISBN:: 978-3-11-080553-6
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Meithei

Book 1997

A Grammar of Meithei

Shobhana Lakshmi Chelliah

Volume 17 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110801118
ISBN:: 978-3-11-014321-8
ISBN:: 978-3-11-080111-8
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Kisi

Book 1995

A Grammar of Kisi

A Southern Atlantic Language

G. Tucker Childs

Volume 16 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110810882
ISBN:: 978-3-11-014356-0
ISBN:: 978-3-11-081088-2
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Kayardild

Book 1995

A Grammar of Kayardild

With Historical-Comparative Notes on Tangkic

Nicholas D. Evans

Volume 15 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110873733
ISBN:: 978-3-11-012795-9
ISBN:: 978-3-11-087373-3
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Supyire

Book 1994

A Grammar of Supyire

Robert Carlson

Volume 14 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110883053
ISBN:: 978-3-11-014057-6
ISBN:: 978-3-11-088305-3
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of the Norman French of the Channel Islands

Book 1994

A Grammar of the Norman French of the Channel Islands

The Dialects of Jersey and Sark

Anthony Liddicoat

Volume 13 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110877281
ISBN:: 978-3-11-012631-0
ISBN:: 978-3-11-087728-1
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Other Languages of Europe
Subject:: European Languages, other
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Subject:: Romance Languages
Subject:: Romance Languages, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Berbice Dutch Creole

Book 1994

A Grammar of Berbice Dutch Creole

Silvia Kouwenberg

Volume 12 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110885705
ISBN:: 978-3-11-013736-1
ISBN:: 978-3-11-088570-5
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Wardaman

Book 1994

A Grammar of Wardaman

A Language of the Northern Territory of Australia

Francesca C. Merlan

Volume 11 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110871371
ISBN:: 978-3-11-012942-7
ISBN:: 978-3-11-087137-1
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Dumi

Book 1993

A Grammar of Dumi

George van Driem

Volume 10 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110880915
ISBN:: 978-3-11-012351-7
ISBN:: 978-3-11-088091-5
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Lezgian

Book 1993

A Grammar of Lezgian

Martin Haspelmath

Volume 9 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110884210
ISBN:: 978-3-11-013735-4
ISBN:: 978-3-11-088421-0
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Afrikaans

Book 1993

A Grammar of Afrikaans

Bruce C. Donaldson

Volume 8 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110863154
ISBN:: 978-3-11-013426-1
ISBN:: 978-3-11-086315-4
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Subject:: Germanic Languages
Subject:: Germanic Languages, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Lango

Book 1992

A Grammar of Lango

Michael Noonan

Volume 7 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110850512
ISBN:: 978-3-11-012992-2
ISBN:: 978-3-11-085051-2
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Tauya

Book 1990

A Grammar of Tauya

Lorna MacDonald

Volume 6 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110846027
ISBN:: 978-3-11-012673-0
ISBN:: 978-3-11-084602-7
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Slave

Book 1989

A Grammar of Slave

Keren Rice

Volume 5 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110861822
ISBN:: 978-3-11-010779-1
ISBN:: 978-3-11-086182-2
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Limbu

Book 1987

A Grammar of Limbu

George van Driem

Volume 4 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110846812
ISBN:: 978-3-11-011282-5
ISBN:: 978-3-11-084681-2
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

Book 1986

Kilivila

The Language of the Trobriand Islanders

Gunter Senft

Volume 3 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110861846
ISBN:: 978-3-11-010781-4
ISBN:: 978-3-11-086184-6
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: A Grammar of Modern Breton

Book 1986

A Grammar of Modern Breton

Ian J. Press

Volume 2 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110884975
ISBN:: 978-3-11-010579-7
ISBN:: 978-3-11-088497-5
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Subject:: Romance Languages
Subject:: Romance Languages, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

book: The Pipil Language of El Salvador

Book 1985

The Pipil Language of El Salvador

Lyle Campbell

Volume 1 in this series

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110881998
ISBN:: 978-3-11-010344-1
ISBN:: 978-3-11-088199-8
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines
Subject:: Linguistics, other
Publisher:: De Gruyter Mouton

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