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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton October 27, 2008

Hup's typological treasures: Description and explanation in the study of an Amazonian language

  • Patience Epps
From the journal Linguistic Typology

Abstract

This paper presents several of the typologically most intriguing features of Hup, an endangered Nadahup (Makú) language spoken in the northwest Amazonian Vaupés region; these are differential object marking, evidentiality, noun classification, “bound” nouns and inalienable possession, and the multifunctional form teg. Each of these areas of Hup grammar and its typological significance are best understood within an approach that weaves explanation together with description, and in the process takes a view of language as a dynamic, non-autonomous system, which cannot be abstracted away from its own past or the culture and environment of its speakers.


Correspondence address: Department of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station B5100, Austin, Texas 78712-0198, USA; e-mail:

Received: 2008-05-23
Revised: 2008-07-11
Published Online: 2008-10-27
Published in Print: 2008-October

©Walter de Gruyter

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