Studies in Austronesian Linguistics

Studies in Austronesian Linguistics
Author: Richard McGinn
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Total Pages: 532
Release: 1988
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

This volume consists of seventeen articles by scholars including Robert Blust, Paul Hopper, A. L. Becker, Sarah Bell, J. C. Catford, Talmy Givon, J. W. M. Verharr and John U. Wolff. Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilokano, Chamorro, Malay, Old Malay, Javanese, Old Javanese, Indonesian, Niasese, Loniu, and Niuean are some of the languages discussed in the study. The essays explore the issues of ergativity in Western Austronesian languages, historical morphology, phonology, phonetics and morphophonemics. Book jacket.

Perspectives on Information Structure in Austronesian Languages

Perspectives on Information Structure in Austronesian Languages
Author: Atsuko Utsumi
Publisher:
Total Pages: 436
Release: 2020-10-09
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781013291920

Information structure is a relatively new field to linguistics and has only recently been studied for smaller and less described languages. This book is the first of its kind that brings together contributions on information structure in Austronesian languages. Current approaches from formal semantics, discourse studies, and intonational phonology are brought together with language specific and cross-linguistic expertise of Austronesian languages. The 13 chapters in this volume cover all subgroups of the large Austronesian family, including Formosan, Central Malayo-Polynesian, South Halmahera-West New Guinea, and Oceanic. The major focus, though, lies on Western Malayo-Polynesian languages. Some chapters investigate two of the largest languages in the region (Tagalog and different varieties of Malay), others study information-structural phenomena in small, underdescribed languages. The three overarching topics that are covered in this book are NP marking and reference tracking devices, syntactic structures and information-structural categories, and the interaction of information structure and prosody. Various data types build the basis for the different studies compiled in this book. Some chapters investigate written texts, such as modern novels (cf. Djenar's chapter on modern, standard Indonesian), or compare different text genres, such as, for example, oral narratives and translations of biblical narratives (cf. De Busser's chapter on Bunun). Most contributions, however, study natural spoken speech and make use of spoken corpora which have been compiled by the authors themselves. The volume comprises a number of different methods and theoretical frameworks. Two chapters make use of the Question Under Discussion approach, developed in formal semantics (cf. the chapters by Latrouite & Riester; Shiohara & Riester). Riesberg et al. apply the recently developed method of Rapid Prosody Transcription (RPT) to investigate native speakers' perception of prosodic prominences and boundaries in Papuan Malay. Other papers discuss theoretical consequences of their findings. Thus, for example, Himmelmann takes apart the most widespread framework for intonational phonology (ToBI) and argues that the analysis of Indonesian languages requires much simpler assumptions than the ones underlying the standard model. Arka & Sedeng ask the question how fine-grained information structure space should be conceptualized and modelled, e.g. in LFG. Schnell argues that elements that could be analysed as "topic" and "focus" categories, should better be described in terms of 'packaging' and do not necessarily reflect any pragmatic roles in the first place. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

Comparative Austronesian Dictionary

Comparative Austronesian Dictionary
Author: Darrell T. Tryon
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 3564
Release: 2011-06-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110884011

Volumes in the Trends in Linguistics. Documentation series focus on the presentation of linguistic data. The series addresses the sustained interest in linguistic descriptions, dictionaries, grammars and editions of under-described and hitherto undocumented languages. All world-regions and time periods are represented.

The Austronesian Languages

The Austronesian Languages
Author: R. A. Blust
Publisher: Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Stu
Total Pages: 864
Release: 2009
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

The Austronesians

The Austronesians
Author: Peter Bellwood
Publisher: ANU E Press
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2006-09-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1920942858

The Austronesian-speaking population of the world are estimated to number more than 270 million people, living in a broad swathe around half the globe, from Madagascar to Easter Island and from Taiwan to New Zealand. The seventeen papers in this volume provide a general survey of these diverse populations focusing on their common origins and historical transformations. The papers examine current ideas on the linguistics, prehistory, anthropology and recorded history of the Austronesians.

The Many Faces of Austronesian Voice Systems

The Many Faces of Austronesian Voice Systems
Author: I Wayan Arka
Publisher: Pacific Linguistics
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2005
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

The Ninth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics and the Fifth International Conference on Oceanic Linguistics were both held at The Australian National University in Canberra during January 2002. Rather than publish a single very diverse collection of conference papers, the organisers favoured a series of smaller compilations on specific topics. One such volume, on Austronesian historical phonology, has already been published by Pacific Linguistics as Issues in Austronesian historical phonology by John Lynch. The present volume represents another such compilation. It contains an introduction by the editors and ten papers on voice in Austronesian languages which provide both fresh data and some new perspectives on old problems. The papers touch on the many faces of Austronesian voice systems, ranging geographically from Teng on Puyuma in Taiwan to Otsuka on Tongan, typologically from voice in agglutinative languages in Taiwan and the Philippines to voice in isolating languages (Arka and Kosmas on Manggarai and Donohue on Palu'e), and in approach from Clayre's areal/historical survey of Kelabitic languages in Borneo to single-language studies of voice like Davies on Madurese, Quick on Pendau, and the Andersens on Moronene. Katagiri and Kaufman each take a fresh look at an aspect of Tagalog voice.