Almost all languages have some grammatical means for categorizing nouns. This book provides a comprehensive and original analysis of noun categorization devices all over the world. It will interest typologists, those working in the fields of morphosyntactic variation and lexical semantics, as well as anthropologists and all other scholars interested in the mechanisms of human cognition.

The studies in this volume suggest that every language has an adjective class, but these vary in character and in size. In its grammatical properties, an adjective class may beas similar to nouns, or to verbs, or to both, or to neither.ze. Whereas in some languages the adjective class is large and can be freely added to, in others it is small and closed. with just a dozen or so members. The book will interest scholars and advanced students of language typology and of the syntax and semantics of adjectives.

The present volume examines the ways in which linguistic traits may change in a contact situation. It contains an encyclopaedic introduction, which sets out a general theory of contact-induced change, and twelve subsequent chapters, which analyze the effects of language contact on grammatical systems in a variety of languages belonging to different geographical areas and diverse types.

In a number of languages, scattered across the world, every statement must contain a specification of the type of evidence on which it is based--whether the speaker saw it, or heard it, or inferred it from indirect evidence, or learnt it from somebody else. Of interest to any grammarian, the book discusses evidentiality, and the cognitive and sociolinguistic consequences of evidentiality in a language.

The studies in this volume suggest that every language has an adjective class, but these vary in character and in size. In its grammatical properties, an adjective class may beas similar to nouns, or to verbs, or to both, or to neither.ze. Whereas in some languages the adjective class is large and can be freely added to, in others it is small and closed. with just a dozen or so members. The book will interest scholars and advanced students of language typology and of the syntax and semantics of adjectives.

This volume of new work explores the forms and functions of serial verbs. The introduction sets out the cross-linguistic parameters of variation, and the final chapter draws out a set of conclusions. These frame fourteen explorations of serial verb constructions and similar structures in languages from Asia, Africa, North, Central and South America, and the Pacific. Chapters on well-known languages such as Cantonese and Thai are set alongside the languages of small hunter-gatherer and slash-and-burn agriculturalist groups.

A serial verb construction (sometimes just called serial verb) is...

This book considers how and why forms and meanings of different languages at different times may resemble one another. Its editors and authors aim to explain and identify the relationship between areal diffusion and the genetic development of languages, and to discover the means of distinguishing what may cause one language to share the characteristics of another.

A complement clause is used instead of a noun phrase; for example one can say either I heard the result] or I heard that England beat France]. Languages lacking complement clauses employ complementation strategies to achieve similar semantic results. Detailed studies of particular languages, including Akkadian, Israeli, Jarawara, and Pennsylvania German, are framed by R.M. W. Dixon's introduction, which sets out the range of issues, and his conclusion, which draws together the evidence and the arguments.

The speakers of Tariana, an endangered Arawak language from the northwest Amazonian jungle, traditionally marry someone speaking a different language; therefore, most are fluent in five or six languages. This comprehensive grammar reveals how Tariana combines its own features with those borrowed from neighboring languages because of the rampant multilingualism. The language has many unusual properties, making this grammar a valuable sourcebook for linguists and others interested in natural languages.

A distinguished international group of scholars analyze the concept of "word" and its applicability in a range of typologically diverse languages. The languages include Amazonian, Australian Aboriginal, Eskimo, Native North American, West African, Balkan, Caucasian and Indo-Pakistani Sign Language. They exhibit a great range of phonological, morphological and grammatical characteristics, enabling the contributors to refine the definition of a "word" against this broad linguistic landscape. The book is of interest to scholars of linguistic typology and of morphology.