A Grammar of Chalcatongo Mixtec

A Grammar of Chalcatongo Mixtec
Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Total Pages : 324
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0520098072
ISBN-13 : 9780520098077
Rating : 4/5 (72 Downloads)

Synopsis A Grammar of Chalcatongo Mixtec by : Monica Ann Macaulay

This is the first comprehensive grammar of any variety of Mixtec written for linguists. It provides theoretically informed (generative) description and analysis of the phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexical semantics of this dialect, situated in the broader context of Mixtecan and Otomanguean languages. Texts and a lexicon (Mixtec-English/English-Mixtec, 1,500 words) are included as well.

A Grammar of Shaowu

A Grammar of Shaowu
Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages : 773
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781501512308
ISBN-13 : 1501512307
Rating : 4/5 (08 Downloads)

Synopsis A Grammar of Shaowu by : Sing Sing Ngai

This is the first comprehensive grammar of Shaowu, a Min language spoken in Shaowu city and its environs in northwestern Fujian province, China. The book offers first-hand linguistic data collected over four years in the field, now placed at the disposal of researchers and students working in language documentation, comparative linguistics and Sinitic typology. It can serve as a reference grammar for those interested in learning the Shaowu language, thereby helping to preserve it. In addition, the book provides insights into Shaowu's classification which has been widely debated, thus elucidating its genetic affiliation. The book first presents Shaowu's geography, demography and history. It then profiles the language's phonology and lexicon, before providing a detailed description of its syntax, notably on its nominal, predicate, clausal and complex sentence structures, which are the focus of the book. The typological profile of Shaowu is also treated with the conclusion that the language has Gan, Hakka, Mandarin and even some Wu overlays on its Min base. The Shaowu language serves an excellent example to illustrate the degree of hybridity a language can attain due to intensive language contact over time.

The Art of Grammar

The Art of Grammar
Author :
Publisher :
Total Pages : 405
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780199683215
ISBN-13 : 0199683212
Rating : 4/5 (15 Downloads)

Synopsis The Art of Grammar by : Aleksandr Aĭkhenvalʹd

This book introduces the principles and practice of writing a comprehensive reference grammar. Several thousand distinct languages are currently spoken across the globe, each with its own grammatical system and its own selection of diverse grammatical structures. Comprehensive reference grammars offer a basis for understanding linguistic diversity and can provide a unique perspective into the structure and social and cognitive underpinnings of different languages. Alexandra Aikhenvald describes the means of collecting, analysing, and organizing data for use in this type of grammar, and discusses the typological parameters that can be used to explore relationships with other languages. She considers how a grammar can made to reflect and bring to life the society of its speakers through background explanation and the judicious choice of examples, as well as by showing how its language, history, and culture are intertwined. She ends with a full glossary of terms and guidance for those wanting to explore a particular linguistic phenomenon or language family. The Art of Grammar is the ideal resource for students and teachers of linguistics, language studies, and inductively-oriented linguistic, cultural, and social anthropology.

The Genesis of Grammar

The Genesis of Grammar
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages : 437
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780199227761
ISBN-13 : 0199227764
Rating : 4/5 (61 Downloads)

Synopsis The Genesis of Grammar by : Bernd Heine

This book reconstructs what the earliest grammars might have been and shows how they could have led to the languages of modern humankind. It considers whether these languages derive from a single ancestral language; what the structure of language was when it first evolved; and how the properties associated with modern human languages first arose.

The Mixtec Pictorial Manuscripts

The Mixtec Pictorial Manuscripts
Author :
Publisher : BRILL
Total Pages : 598
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9789004193581
ISBN-13 : 9004193588
Rating : 4/5 (81 Downloads)

Synopsis The Mixtec Pictorial Manuscripts by : Maarten Jansen

This handbook surveys and describes the illustrated Mixtec manuscripts that survive in Europe, the United States and Mexico.

The Grammar of Space

The Grammar of Space
Author :
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages : 305
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9789027229113
ISBN-13 : 9027229112
Rating : 4/5 (13 Downloads)

Synopsis The Grammar of Space by : Soteria Svorou

A cross-linguistic study of grammatical morphemes expressing spatial relationships that discusses the relationship between the way human beings experience space and the way it is encoded grammatically in language. The discussion of the similarities and differences among languages in the encoding and expression of spatial relations centers around the emergence and evolution of spatial grams, and the semantic and morphosyntactic characteristics of two types of spatial grams. The author bases her observations on the study of data from 26 genetically unrelated and randomly selected languages. It is shown that languages are similar in the way spatial grams emerge and evolve, and also in the way specific types of spatial grams are used to express not only spatial but also temporal and other non-spatial relations. Motivation for these similarities may lie in the way we, as human beings, experience the world, which is constrained by our physical configuration and neurophysiological apparatus, as well as our individual cultures.

Linking Constructions into Functional Linguistics

Linking Constructions into Functional Linguistics
Author :
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages : 357
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9789027271082
ISBN-13 : 9027271089
Rating : 4/5 (82 Downloads)

Synopsis Linking Constructions into Functional Linguistics by : Brian Nolan

There is a growing awareness of the significance of constructions in grammar in the world’s languages. To date there has not been a single volume that addresses the issues of constructions within a functional Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) account. The book is a collection of articles that will serve the scholarly community as a reference work on the role, place and significance of constructions within this functional model of grammar. As a result, this volume represents the first instance of cross-linguistic comparison of these important discourse and syntax-related phenomena. The articles cover a variety of typologically different languages including German, Irish, Spanish, French, Japanese, Yaqui, Tepehua (Totonacan), Persian, and English, and they offer new data on the role of constructions, within the RRG theory, in these languages. Further, this volume contributes towards providing a comprehensive overview of grammatical constructions which are central to our understanding of how human languages function, in a functional linguistics perspective. This scholarly work is grounded in a functionally oriented model that makes strong claims of descriptive and typological adequacy. The book will represent a valuable step forward in linguistics research as it applies the RRG theoretical framework to the analyses of constructions.

Multiple Exponence

Multiple Exponence
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 313
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780190464356
ISBN-13 : 0190464356
Rating : 4/5 (56 Downloads)

Synopsis Multiple Exponence by : Alice C. Harris

Multiple (or extended) exponence is the occurrence of multiple realizations of a single morphosemantic feature, bundle of features, or derivational category within a word. This book provides data and direction to the discussion of ME, which has gone in a variety of directions and suffers from lack of evidence. Alice Harris addresses the question of why ME is of interest to linguists and traces the discussion of this concept in the linguistic literature. The four most commonly encountered types of ME are characterized, with copious examples from a broad variety of languages; these types form the basis for discussion of the processing of ME, the acquisition of ME, the historical development of ME, and analysis of ME. The book addresses some of the most important questions involving ME, including why it exists at all.

Standard Negation

Standard Negation
Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages : 505
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9783110197631
ISBN-13 : 3110197634
Rating : 4/5 (31 Downloads)

Synopsis Standard Negation by : Matti Miestamo

This book is the first cross-linguistic study of clausal negation based on an extensive and systematic language sample. Methodological issues, especially sampling, are discussed at length. Standard negation – the basic structural means languages have for negating declarative verbal main clauses – is typologized from a new perspective, paying attention to structural differences between affirmatives and negatives. In symmetric negation affirmative and negative structures show no differences except for the presence of the negative marker(s), whereas in asymmetric negation there are further structural differences, i.e. asymmetries. A distinction is made between constructional and paradigmatic asymmetry; in the former the addition of the negative marker(s) is accompanied by further structural differences in comparison to the corresponding affirmative, and in the latter the correspondences between the members of (verbal etc.) paradigms used in affirmatives and negatives are not one-to-one. Cross-cutting the constructional-paradigmatic distinction, asymmetric negation can be further divided into subtypes according to the nature of the asymmetry. Standard negation structures found in the 297 sample languages are exemplified and discussed in detail. The frequencies of the different types and some typological correlations are also examined. Functional motivations are proposed for the structural types – symmetric negatives are language-internally analogous to the linguistic structure of the affirmative and asymmetric negatives are language-externally analogous to different asymmetries between affirmation and negation on the functional level. Relevant diachronic issues are also discussed. The book is of interest to language typologists, descriptive linguists and to all linguists interested in negation.

Adverbial Clauses in Cross-Linguistic Perspective

Adverbial Clauses in Cross-Linguistic Perspective
Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages : 353
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9783110409963
ISBN-13 : 3110409968
Rating : 4/5 (63 Downloads)

Synopsis Adverbial Clauses in Cross-Linguistic Perspective by : Katja Hetterle

This study investigates adverbial clauses from a cross-linguistic perspective. In line with other recent typological research in the context of complex sentences and clause-linkage, it proceeds from a detailed, multivariate analysis of the morphosyntactic characteristics of the phenomenon under scrutiny.