The Papuan Languages of New Guinea

The Papuan Languages of New Guinea
Author: William A. Foley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1986-11-20
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9780521286213

This introduction to the descriptive and historical linguistics of the Papuan languages of New Guinea provide an accessible account of one of the richest and most diverse linguistic situations in the world. The Papuan languages number over 700 (or 20 per cent of the world's total) in more than sixty language families. Less than a quarter of the individual languages have yet been adequately documented, and in this sense William Foley's book might be considered premature. However, in the search for language universals and generalisations in linguistic typology, it would be foolhardy to neglect the information that is available. In this respect alone, the present volume, systematically organised on mainly typology principles, is particularly timely and useful. In addition, the processes of linguistic diffusion are present in New Guinea to an extent probably paralleled elsewhere on the globe. The Papuan Languages of New Guinea will be of interest not only to general and comparative linguists and to typologists, but also to sociolinguists and anthropologists for the information it provides on the social dynamics of language content.

Language Endangerment

Language Endangerment
Author: Elisabeth Piirainen
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2015-10-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027268096

Languages and language varieties around the globe have been diminishing at an astonishing rate. Despite great efforts at language documentation, scholarship on metaphors and figurative units – often particularly fragile parts of language – has been largely neglected until recently. This book, like its predecessor Endangered Metaphors (CLSCC 2, 2012), focuses on disappearing metaphors and idioms from languages of diverse continents. Moreover, the book analyzes work from online social interaction, discusses topics such as language maintenance, educational practice and revitalization, as well as future directions for endangered metaphor studies. The book is highly innovative and produces new findings for linguistics and cultural studies: the more languages are examined, especially minority varieties distant from western languages, the more questionable becomes “universality” in the field of metaphor, with unique linguistic data across chapters, evidencing the non-universality of conceptual metaphors and calling for a revision of existing metaphor theories. The book will be of special interest to: linguistics (metaphor and phraseology research, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology), public policy, sociology; community activists and educators of language maintenance and revitalization.

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea
Author: Fraiser McConnell
Publisher: Oxford, England ; Santa Barbara, Calif. : Clio Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 1988
Genre: History
ISBN:

A Descriptive Grammar of the Bukawa Language of the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea

A Descriptive Grammar of the Bukawa Language of the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea
Author: William Eckermann
Publisher: Pacific Linguistics
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2007
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

The Bukawa language is an Austronesian language which is spoken by coastal inhabitants of the Huon Peninsula in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. The Bukawa villages are all situated on the coastal plain of the Huon Peninsula. This book represents an analysis of the grammar of the Bukawa language of Papua New Guinea, based upon data accumulated over a thirteen year period during which the author lived and worked with members of the language group doing Bible translation and literary work.

Book of Peoples of the World

Book of Peoples of the World
Author: Wade Davis
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2007
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781426202384

From the foremost authority on history and civilization comes the definitive guide to world cultures--showcasing human diversity in all its vast and startling richness. 235 color photographs and 37 maps.

Rituals of Manhood

Rituals of Manhood
Author: Gilbert H. Herdt
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Total Pages: 412
Release:
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781412833387

Rituals of Manhood provides some of the most dramatic and richly textured accounts of ritual passages known to anthropologists of the late twentieth century. When in an earlier time anthropologists and sociologists described collective initiation rituals, the political and gender aspects of these practices were seldom underscored. Today, the power relationships of the body and domination, and the social arena of gender politics are widely regarded as critical to the cultural meaning and interpretation. Gilbert H. Herdt is the editor.