Word Formation in South American Languages

Word Formation in South American Languages
Author: Swintha Danielsen
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2014-11-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027269661

This volume focuses on word formation processes in smaller and so far underrepresented indigenous languages of South America. The data for the analyses have been mainly collected in the field by the authors. The several language families described here, among them Arawakan, Takanan, and Guaycuruan, as well as language isolates, such as Yurakaré and Cholón, reflect the linguistic diversity of South America. Equally diverse are the topics addressed, relating to word formation processes like reduplication, nominal and verbal compounding, clitic compounding, and incorporation. The traditional notions of the processes are discussed critically with respect to their implementation in minor indigenous languages. The book is therefore not only of interest to readers with an Amerindian background but also to typologists and historical linguists, and it is a supplement to more theory-driven approaches to language and linguistics.

Word-Formation in the World's Languages

Word-Formation in the World's Languages
Author: Pavol Štekauer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 391
Release: 2012-04-23
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 052176534X

Fills a gap in cross-linguistic research by being the first systematic survey of the word-formation of the world's languages. Data from fifty-five world languages reveals associations between word-formation processes in genetically and geographically distinct languages.

Amazonian Linguistics

Amazonian Linguistics
Author: Doris L. Payne
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 585
Release: 2014-06-23
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0292786115

Lowland South American languages have been among the least studied ln the world. Consequently, their previous contribution to linguistic theory and language universals has been small. However, as this volume demonstrates, tremendous diversity and significance are found in the languages of this region. These nineteen essays, originally presented at a conference on Amazonian languages held at the University of Oregon, offer new information on the Tupian, Cariban, Jivaroan, Nambiquaran, Arawakan, Tucanoan, and Makuan languages and new analyses of previously recalcitrant Tupí-Guaraní verb agreement systems. The studies are descriptive, but typological and theoretical implications are consistently considered. Authors invariably indicate where previous claims must be adjusted based on the new information presented. This is true in the areas of nonlinear phonological theory, verb agreement systems and ergativity, grammatical relations and incorporation, and the uniqueness of Amazonian noun classification systems. The studies also contribute to the now extensive interest in grammatical change.

Language Isolates I: Aikanã to Kandozi-Shapra

Language Isolates I: Aikanã to Kandozi-Shapra
Author: Patience Epps
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 744
Release: 2023-01-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110419408

This handbook provides the first broadly comprehensive, typologically-informed descriptive overview of the languages of Greater Amazonia. Organized by genealogical units, the chapters provide empirically rich descriptions of the phonology and grammar of all Amazonian families and isolates for which data and descriptions exist. Volume 1 focuses on the many isolates of the region – those languages for which no extant sisters can be identified.

Edinburgh Handbook of Evaluative Morphology

Edinburgh Handbook of Evaluative Morphology
Author: Nicola Grandi
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 847
Release: 2015-06-03
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0748681779

Reviews and debates the latest theoretical approaches to evaluative morphology

Genders and Classifiers

Genders and Classifiers
Author: Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
Publisher: Explorations in Linguistic Typ
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2019-08-03
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0198842015

This volume offers a comprehensive account of the typology of noun classification across the world's languages. Every language has some means of categorizing objects into humans, or animates, or by their shape, form, size, and function. The most widespread are linguistic genders - grammatical classes of nouns based on core semantic properties such as sex (female and male), animacy, humanness, and also shape and size. Classifiers of several types also serve to categorize entities. Numeral classifiers occur with number words, possessive classifiers appear in the expressions of possession, and verbal classifiers are used on a verb, categorizing its argument. These varied sorts of genders and classifiers can also occur together. This volume elaborates on the expression, usage, history, and meanings of noun categorization devices, exploring their various facets across the languages of South America and Asia, which are known for the diversity of their noun categorization. The volume begins with a typological introduction that outlines the types of noun categorization devices and their expression, scope, functions, and development, as well as sociocultural aspects of their use. The following nine chapters provide in-depth studies of genders and classifiers of different types in a range of South American and Asian languages and language families, including Arawak languages, Zamucoan, Hmong, and Japanese.

Handbook of Japanese Lexicon and Word Formation

Handbook of Japanese Lexicon and Word Formation
Author: Taro Kageyama
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 748
Release: 2016-01-29
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1614512094

This volume presents a comprehensive survey of the lexicon and word formation processes in contemporary Japanese, with particular emphasis on their typologically characteristic features and their interactions with syntax and semantics. Through contacts with a variety of languages over more than two thousand years of history, Japanese has developed a complex vocabulary system that is composed of four lexical strata: (i) native Japanese, (ii) mimetic, (iii) Sino-Japanese, and (iv) foreign (especially English). This hybrid composition of the lexicon, coupled with the agglutinative character of the language by which morphology is closely associated with syntax, gives rise to theoretically intriguing interactions with word formation processes that are not easily found with inflectional, isolate, or polysynthetic types of languages.

Language Isolates II: Kanoé to Yurakaré

Language Isolates II: Kanoé to Yurakaré
Author: Patience Epps
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 920
Release: 2023-01-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110432846

The series Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science is designed to illuminate a field which not only includes general linguistics and the study of linguistics as applied to specific languages, but also covers those more recent areas which have developed from the increasing body of research into the manifold forms of communicative action and interaction.

Cultures, Ideologies, and the Dictionary

Cultures, Ideologies, and the Dictionary
Author: Braj B. Kachru
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 528
Release: 2013-03-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110957078

A pioneering volume addressing issues related to cultures, ideologies, and the dictionary. A cross-cultural and cross-linguistic study with focus on selected Western and non-Western languages. A number of in-depth case studies illustrates the dominant role ideology and other types of bias play in the making of a dictionary. The volume includes invited papers of 40 internationally recognized scholars.

Word-Formation across Languages

Word-Formation across Languages
Author: Pavol Štekauer
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 435
Release: 2017-01-06
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1443869295

Research into cross-linguistic aspects and typology of word-formation has not been paid relevant and systematic attention by morphologists, and only a few articles dealing with various word-formation issues of this kind appear in journals. The chapters in this volume address this issue by discussing, on contrastive principles, important questions of word-formation in a sample of 26 languages. The focus of the book, as a whole, is on typological features of word-formation in the languages sampled. It is aimed at researchers that have an interest in word-formation in a variety of languages.