Classificatory Particles in Kilivila

ISBN-13: 9780195092110 / Angielski / Twarda / 1996 / 400 str.

Gunter Senft

Opis

Common among the world's languages is the phenomenon of classification, a partly or fully grammatical division of the noun lexicon into distinct classes that ultimately derives from the human need to classify and filter data on various levels while communicating. In this book, Senft describes and develops a grammar of classificatory particles in Kilivila, an Austronesian language of the Trobriand Islanders in Papua New Guinea. Drawing largely on his anthropological and linguistic fieldwork in the islands, and emphasizing the use of classifiers in a social context, Senft provides quantitative data and a statistical profile of the status and use of these particles, and the classifier system that employs them.

Recenzje

Senft's account of classificatory particles is by far the most comprehensive available on any comparable system. It addresses essential questions relating to this issue and provides new insights that are relevant to an understanding of noun classification.