"A Grammar of Responsibility is an interesting, provocative, and careful study of the way to speak about responsibility. The term is everywhere these days but is seldom examined in any detail. And yet, responsibility is a complicated idea with a peculiar history." "The book starts from the way people speak, using hundreds of examples from contemporary discussions. It explains the need for a grammar, that is, a consistent and comprehensive way to use the term. It goes on to analyze a host of ethical dilemmas. In each case, a "grammar of responsibility" provides a fresh look at seemingly intractable problems. The result is a book of clear ideas to help us deal intelligently with the sense of moral crisis that is widespread today."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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.

This is a comprehensive descriptive grammar of Trio, a Cariban language, spoken in the remote rainforest of Suriname and along the border in Brazil. Typologically interesting features of Trio include a basic word order Object-Verb-Subject and a system of evidentiality that expresses whether or not the speaker was eye-witness to an event. Trio has several grammatical morphemes that mirror the group's conceptualization of the world of the visible and the invisible in which they live; one is a facsimile marker that expresses that the denotee of a noun is manifestly but not intrinsically that denotee; the role of the individual in contributing to a harmonious collective, recognized by anthropologists as a salient aspect of Amazonian life, is expressed by two responsibility clitics. This grammar will be a valuable source-book for linguists, anthropologists, and everyone interested in the finer points of Guianan-Amazonian languages.

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.

Laski’s magnum opus, this volume outlines the history and functions of state institutions which (in the author’s view) are desirable for the effective functioning of a democracy. Topics discussed include: The necessity of government; state and society; rights and power; liberty and equality; property as a theory of industrial organisation; the nature of nationalism; law as a source of authority; the functions of international organisations.

The distinguished linguist and controversial political critic combines both aspects of his life and work in this wide-ranging and informative discussion that presents his political, moral, and linguistic views on current issues.

This book is a grammar of Mangghuer, a Mongolic language spoken by approximately 25,000 people in China's northwestern Qinghai Province. Mangghuer is virtually unknown outside China, and no grammar of Mangghuer has ever been published in any language. The book's primary importance is thus as a systematic grammatical description of a little-known language. The book also makes a significant contribution to comparative Mongolic studies. In addition to the synchronic description of Mangghuer, extensive comparison with other Mongolic languages is included, demonstrating the genetic relationship of Mangghuer within that family. In the course of describing Mangghuer linguistic structures, the book also examines issues of interest to linguistic typologists.

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.

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.

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.