Verb Classification in Australian Languages

Verb Classification in Australian Languages
Author: William B. McGregor
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2013-06-10
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110870878

This book deals with systems of verb classification in Australian Aboriginal languages, with particular focus on languages of the north-west. It proposes a typology of the systems according to their main formal and semantic characteristics. It also makes some proposals concerning the historical origins and grammaticisation of these systems, and suggestions regarding the grammatical relations involved. In addition, an attempt is made to situate the phenomenon of verb classification within the context of related verbal phenomena such as serial verb constructions, nominal incorporation, and complex predicates.

Grammatical Categories in Australian Languages

Grammatical Categories in Australian Languages
Author: Robert M. W. Dixon
Publisher:
Total Pages: 776
Release: 1976
Genre: Aboriginal Australians
ISBN: 9780855750541

Papers presented to symposium at Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies 1974; five grammatical topics discussed; The derivational affix having; ergative, locative and instrumental case inflections; the bivalent suffix -ku; are Australian languages syntactically nominativeergative or nominative-accusative; simple and compound verbs; conjugation by auxiliaries in Australian verbal systems; several papers on other grammatical topics also included; All papers are seperately catalogued.

Grammatical Categories in Australian Languages

Grammatical Categories in Australian Languages
Author: Robert M. W. Dixon
Publisher:
Total Pages: 776
Release: 1976
Genre: Aboriginal Australians
ISBN: 9780391006959

Papers presented to symposium at Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies 1974; five grammatical topics discussed; The derivational affix having; ergative, locative and instrumental case inflections; the bivalent suffix -ku; are Australian languages syntactically nominativeergative or nominative-accusative; simple and compound verbs; conjugation by auxiliaries in Australian verbal systems; several papers on other grammatical topics also included; All papers are seperately catalogued.

Grammatical Categories and Cognition

Grammatical Categories and Cognition
Author: John A. Lucy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 1996-04-04
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780521566209

John Lucy uses original, empirical data to examine the Sapir-Whorf linguistic relativity hypothesis: the proposal that the grammar of the particular language that we speak affects the way we think about reality. The author compares the grammar of American English with that of the Yucatec Maya, an indigenous language spoken in Southeastern Mexico, focusing on differences in the number marking patterns of the two languages. He then identifies distinctive patterns of thought relating to these differences by means of a systematic assessment of memory and classification preferences among speakers of both languages.

Discourse and Grammar in Australian Languages

Discourse and Grammar in Australian Languages
Author: Ilana Mushin
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2008
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 902720571X

Discourse and Grammar in Australian Languages is the first major survey to address the issue of the effects of information packaging on Australian languages, widely known for nonconfigurationality. The papers are based on individual fieldwork and describe a wide range of Australian languages of different types, ranging from the polysynthetic languages of Arnhem Land and the Kimberley to the classical types represented by Walpiri. Topics covered include the pragmatics of information exchange, the interaction of noun class marking with polarity and referentiality, the effects of specificity on argument indexing, the discourse uses of the ergative case, the contribution of pronouns to NP reference, the interaction of tense and aspect clitics with information structure, clause-initial position, and discourse and grammar in Australian languages. The volume will appeal to scholars interested in discourse, typology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

The Languages and Linguistics of Australia

The Languages and Linguistics of Australia
Author: Harold Koch
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 473
Release: 2014-08-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110395126

The Languages and Linguistics of Australia: A Comprehensive Guide is part of the multi-volume reference work on the languages and linguistics of the continents of the world. The volume provides a thorough overview of Australian languages, including their linguistic structures, their genetic relationships, and issues of language maintenance and revitalisation. Australian English, Aboriginal English and other contact varieties are also discussed.

Associated Motion

Associated Motion
Author: Antoine Guillaume
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 702
Release: 2021-03-08
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110692120

This volume is the first book-length presentation of the grammatical category of Associated Motion. It provides a framework for understanding a grammatical phenomenon which, though present in many languages, has gone unrecognized until recently. Previously known primarily from languages of Australia and South America, grammatical AM marking has now been identified in languages from most parts of the world (except Europe) and is becoming an important topic in linguistic typology. The chapters provide a thorough introduction to the subject, discussion of the relation between AM and related grammatical concepts, detailed descriptions of AM in a wide range of the world’s languages, and surveys of AM in particular language families and areas.

The Oxford Guide to Australian Languages

The Oxford Guide to Australian Languages
Author: Claire Bowern
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 1179
Release: 2023-03-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0198824971

The Oxford Guide to Australian Languages is a wide-ranging reference work that explores the more than 550 traditional and new Indigenous languages of Australia. Australian languages have long played an important role in diachronic and synchronic linguistics and are a vital testing ground for linguistic theory. Until now, however, there has been no comprehensive and accessible guide to the their vast linguistic diversity. This volume fills that gap, bringing together leading scholars and junior researchers to provide an up-to-date guide to all aspects of the languages of Australia. The chapters in the book explore typology, documentation, and classification; linguistic structures from phonology to pragmatics and discourse; sociolinguistics and language variation; and language in the community. The final part offers grammatical sketches of a selection of languages, sub-groups, and families. At a time when the number of living Australian languages is significantly reduced even compared to twenty year ago, this volume establishes priorities for future linguistic research and contributes to the language expansion and revitalization efforts that are underway.

A Grammar of Jingulu

A Grammar of Jingulu
Author: Rob Pensalfini
Publisher: Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Stu
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2003
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

This book is intended as a thorough description of the Jingulu language as spoken by the handful of speakers remaining in the Northern Territory ding the mid to late 1990s. The description is based on material which the author collected during three field trips from 1995 to late 1998. Chapter 1 focuses on the socio-historical context in which he language is spoken, including estimated of tradition area, number of speakers, and genetic and cultural affiliations. Chapter 2 is devoted to Jingulu phonology, from the phoneme inventory and phonotactics to a spectacular system of vowel harmony and some interesting facts on reduplication. Chapter 3 outlines the parts of speech of Jingulu as understood by the author, and argues for the particular labels and categories that the author assumes in following chapters. Chapter 4 discusses Jingulu syntax, from simple verbal and non-verbal predication to the encoding of dependent and conjoined clauses. Chapters 5 and 6 are expositions of the morphology of Jingulu nominal and verbal words respectively. Chapter 7 contains a few exemplary texts, glossed and translated into English. Through the grammar the author has preferred to provide more sentence examples rather than fewer (particular where the author was less than certain about the accuracy of his own description), to provide readers with a sense of what Jingulu sentences are actually like beyond what can be gleaned from prose description, and to provide future researchers with organised material with which to build their own hypotheses and analyses. This grammar contains no word list or dictionary. A separate Jingulu dictionary by the author is in preparation.

Complex Sentence Constructions in Australian Languages

Complex Sentence Constructions in Australian Languages
Author: Peter Austin
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 297
Release: 1988-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 902727861X

Over the past fifteen years, descriptions of Australian Aboriginal languages have provided important data for the typological study of morpho-syntactic phenomena. The present volume presents descriptions of complex sentence phenomena in ten Australian languages and provides important new material in this area of current concern in linguistics. Complex sentences are described either from a syntactic or from a semantic (discourse-functional) point of view. The papers draw on data from widely distributed and, in some instances, previously undescribed languages. Among others descriptions of the (so-far) poorly known non-Pama-Nyungan languages of northern Australia, as well as Pama-Nyungan languages central and northern Australia are included in this volume.