The Clause-Typing System of Plains Cree

The Clause-Typing System of Plains Cree
Author: Clare Cook
Publisher: Oxford Studies of Endangered L
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2014
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 0199654530

This book examines sentence structure in Plains Cree, an Algonquian language of western Canada. Its detailed discussion of the typologically significant syntactic and semantic properties of Plains Cree makes it a valuable resource for those already familiar with this language family and to the wider field of language typology.

The Clause-Typing System of Plains Cree

The Clause-Typing System of Plains Cree
Author: Clare Cook
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2014-02-20
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0191625914

This book offers detailed empirical coverage of the syntax and semantics of Plains Cree, an Algonquian language of western Canada. It combines careful elicitation with corpus studies to provide the first systematic investigation of the two distinct verbal inflectional paradigms - independent and conjunct - in the language. The book argues that the independent order denotes an indexical clause type with familiar deictic properties, while the conjunct order is an anaphoric clause type whose reference is determined by rules of anaphoric dependence. Both syntactic and semantic considerations are examined: on the syntactic side, indexical clauses are shown to be restricted to a subset of matrix environments, and to exclude proforms that have clause-external antecedents or induce cross-clausal dependencies. Anaphoric clauses have an elsewhere distribution: they occur in both matrix and dependent contexts, and freely host and participate in cross-clausal dependencies. The semantic discussion focusses primarily on the context in which a proposition is evaluated: it shows that indexical clauses have absolute tense and a speaker origo, consistent with deixis on a speech act; anaphoric clauses, by contrast, use anaphoric dependencies to establish the evaluation context. Data from Plains Cree is compared to the matrix/subordinate system found in English, to the clause-chaining system of the Amele language of Papua New Guinea, and to Romance subjunctive clauses. The book also provides the first micro-typology of pronominal marking and initial change in Algonquian languages.

Papers of the Forty-Second Algonquian Conference

Papers of the Forty-Second Algonquian Conference
Author: J. Randolph Valentine
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2014-04-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1438456867

Papers of the forty-second Algonquian Conference held at Memorial University of Newfoundland in October 2010. The papers of the Algonquian Conference have long served as the primary source of peer-reviewed scholarship addressing topics related to the languages and societies of Algonquian peoples. Contributions, which are peer-reviewed submissions presented at the annual conference, represent an assortment of humanities and social science disciplines, including archeology, cultural anthropology, history, ethnohistory, linguistics, literary studies, Native studies, social work, film, and countless others. Both theoretical and descriptive approaches are welcomed, and submissions often provide previously unpublished data from historical and contemporary sources, or novel theoretical insights based on firsthand research. The research is commonly interdisciplinary in scope and the papers are filled with contributions presenting fresh research from a broad array of researchers and writers. These papers are essential reading for those interested in Algonquian world views, cultures, history, and languages. They build bridges among a large international group of people who write in different disciplines. Scholars in linguistics, anthropology, history, education, and other fields are brought together in one vital community, thanks to these publications.

The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America

The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America
Author: Carmen Dagostino
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 769
Release: 2023-09-04
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110600927

This handbook provides broad coverage of the languages indigenous to North America, with special focus on typologically interesting features and areal characteristics, surveys of current work, and topics of particular importance to communities. The volume is divided into two major parts: subfields of linguistics and family sketches. The subfields include those that are customarily addressed in discussions of North American languages (sounds and sound structure, words, sentences), as well as many that have received somewhat less attention until recently (tone, prosody, sociolinguistic variation, directives, information structure, discourse, meaning, language over space and time, conversation structure, evidentiality, pragmatics, verbal art, first and second language acquisition, archives, evolving notions of fieldwork). Family sketches cover major language families and isolates and highlight topics of special value to communities engaged in work on language maintenance, documentation, and revitalization.

The Algonquian Inverse

The Algonquian Inverse
Author: Will Oxford
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2023-11-28
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0192871803

This book serves as a definitive reference for inverse morphology across all documented Algonquian languages. It considers not only the morphology of the inverse construction but also its syntax and pragmatics, giving equal weight to diachronic, typological, functional, and formal perspectives.

The Routledge Handbook of North American Languages

The Routledge Handbook of North American Languages
Author: Daniel Siddiqi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 598
Release: 2019-09-25
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1351810278

The Routledge Handbook of North American Languages is a one-stop reference for linguists on those topics that come up the most frequently in the study of the languages of North America (including Mexico). This handbook compiles a list of contributors from across many different theories and at different stages of their careers, all of whom are well-known experts in North American languages. The volume comprises two distinct parts: the first surveys some of the phenomena most frequently discussed in the study of North American languages, and the second surveys some of the most frequently discussed language families of North America. The consistent goal of each contribution is to couch the content of the chapter in contemporary theory so that the information is maximally relevant and accessible for a wide range of audiences, including graduate students and young new scholars, and even senior scholars who are looking for a crash course in the topics. Empirically driven chapters provide fundamental knowledge needed to participate in contemporary theoretical discussions of these languages, making this handbook an indispensable resource for linguistics scholars.