This book presents a wealth of information on some of the most interesting languages in the world, most of them little-known in the linguistics literature. The distinguished team of authors have each examined "valency-changing mechanisms" (phenomena including passives and causatives) in languages ranging from Amazonian Tariana to Alaskan Eskimo, from Australian Ngan'gityemerri to Tsez from the Caucasus. R. M. W. Dixon has also contributed a comprehensive chapter on causatives across the languages of the world. The volume will provide valuable insights both for formal theoreticians and for...

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.

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 presents the first comprehensive description of the Manambu language of Papua New Guinea. Manambu belongs to the Ndu language family, and is spoken by about 2,500 people in five villages: Avatip, Yawabak, Malu, Apa: n, and Yambon (Yuanab) in East Sepik Province, Ambunti district. About 200-400 speakers live in the cities of Port Moresby, Wewak, Lae, and Madang; and a few live in Kokopo and Mount Hagen. The book is based entirely on the author's fieldwork.
After an introductory account of the language and its speakers, Professor Aikhenvald devotes chapters to phonology,...

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.

This book is a cross-linguistic examination of the different grammatical means languages employ to represent a general set of semantic relations between clauses. The investigations focus on ways of combining clauses other than through relative and complement clause constructions. These span a number of types of semantic linking. Three, for example, describe varieties of consequence - cause, result, and purpose - which may be illustrated in English by, respectively: Because John has been studying German for years, he speaks it well; John has been studying German for years, thus he speaks it...

This book presents a wealth of information on some of the most interesting languages in the world, most of them little-known in the linguistics literature. The distinguished team of authors have each examined "valency-changing mechanisms" (phenomena including passives and causatives) in languages ranging from Amazonian Tariana to Alaskan Eskimo, from Australian Ngan'gityemerri to Tsez from the Caucasus. R. M. W. Dixon has also contributed a comprehensive chapter on causatives across the languages of the world. The volume will provide valuable insights both for formal theoreticians and for...

This book is a cross-linguistic examination of the different grammatical means languages employ to represent a general set of semantic relations between clauses. The investigations focus on ways of combining clauses other than through relative and complement clause constructions. These span a number of types of semantic linking. Three, for example, describe varieties of consequence -- cause, result, and purpose -- which may be illustrated in English by, respectively: Because John has been studying German for years, he speaks it well; John has been studying German for years, thus he speaks it...

This book focuses on the form and the function of commands-directive speech acts such as pleas, entreaties, and orders-from a typological perspective. A team of internationally-renowned experts in the field examine the interrelationship of these speech acts with cultural stereotypes and practices, as well as their origins and development, especially in the light of language contact.

The volume begins with an introduction outlining the marking and the meaning of imperatives and other ways of expressing commands and directives. Each of the chapters that follow then offers an in-depth...

This is the first cross-linguistic study of imperatives, and commands of other kinds, across the world's languages. It makes a significant and original contribution to the understanding of their morphological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic characteristics. The author discusses the role imperatives and commands play in human cognition and how they are deployed in different cultures, and in doing so offers fresh insights on patterns of human interaction and communication.
Alexandra Aikhenvald examines the ways of framing commands, or command strategies, in languages that do not have...