Woleaian Reference Grammar

A systematic presentation of the overall grammatical structure of Woleaian, spoken in the Caroline Islands. For those who want to learn the language and for linguists who are interested for theoretical purposes.

This was the first dictionary compiled for the language spoken on Woleai Atoll in the Caroline Islands. The dictionary contains some 6,200 Woleaian entries and an English-Woleaian finder list of about 4,000 entries. The Woleaian entries are based on an alphabetic system of orthography developed by the authors. Each entry also contains, where appropriate, the following parts: loan source, alternant forms, part of speech or word-class, grammatical notes, definitions, phrase examples, sentence examples, synonyms, antonyms, and cross-references.

This is the first attempt to present for native speakers of Mokilese the essential features of the language. Written primarily for a lay audience with no prior knowledge of linguistics, this work will be useful as well to the professional linguist seeking data on a Micronesian language. The grammar covers the phonology, morphology, and syntax of Mokilese. Separate treatment is given to the nominal reference system, quantification and counting, possession, transitivity, modality, direction markers, verbal aspect, complex sentences, derivation, and questions of topicalization and focus. An appendix discusses problems in devising an orthography for Mokilese and the methodology employed.

A Reference Grammar of Mbili explores the major linguistic components of the Mbili language from a primarily descriptive point of view and within the cultural context of this Bantu language spoken in Cameroon. It presents a detailed and accessible account of the roots and history of the language, clearly situated within both the Niger Congo language group in general and the Grassfield Bantu language sub group specifically. The language portion begins with a descriptive introduction to the sound segments of Mbili and the methods of combining them. It then moves into the suprasegments of the language, including tone, stress, and intonation; it investigates the interaction of tone, tense, and mood, as well as the distribution of tone and intonation in Mbili. Segmental and suprasegmental phonemes are related in terms of what they require, tolerate, and exclude. The next presentation deals with the morphology of nouns and verbs. On the one hand it establishes a structural identification of the noun classes and determines a functional and semantic categorization of the classifiers; on the other hand it identifies and relates the temporal, aspectual, and modal categories of Mbili, and also studies the semantics of the verb through a case grammar analysis. Finally, the book approaches syntax through a clause and sentence level of analysis to explain the nature of sentence structure in a manner related to English sentence structure. The appendix contains a lexicon as well as traditional folk stories and their translations to convey aspects of Cameroonian culture and examples of the nature of the Mbili language.

Here is the most comprehensive description to date of the indigenous language of the island of Ponape. Designed as a reference volume for Ponapean educators, particularly those working in bilingual education programs, this work will also be of value to English-speaking students of Ponapean and to scholars of other Pacific languages and cultures. The grammar begins with useful background information on Ponape and Ponapean and then systematically explores the phonology, morphology, and syntax of this language. Separate treatment is given to Ponapean honorific speech styles. Also included are an appendix of current Ponapean spelling conventions and a bibliography of selected books and articles useful in the study of this language. This new work is a companion volume to the Ponapean-English Dictionary by the same authors.

Of the 6000 languages now spoken throughout the world around 3000 may become extinct during the next century. This guide gives linguists the tools to describe them, syntactically and grammatically, for future reference.

Copulas (in English, the verb to be) are conventionally defined functionally as a means of relating elements of clause structure, especially subject and complement, and considered to be semantically empty or meaningless.They have received relatively little attention from linguists. Dr Pustet in this extensive cross-linguistic study goes some way towards correcting this neglect. In doing so she takes issue with both accepted definition and description. She presents an analysis of grammatical descriptions of over 160 languages drawn from the language families of the world. She shows that some languages have a single copula, others several, and some none at all. In a series of statistical analyses she seeks to explain why by linking the distribution of copulas to variations in lexical categorization and syntactic structure. She concludes by advancing a comprehensive theory of copularization which she relates to language classification and to theories of language change, notably grammaticalization.