Publisher:
Oxford University Press, Incorporated, Oxford
This book introduces the principles and practice of writing a comprehensive reference grammar. It describes the means of collecting, analysing, and organizing data, and discusses the typological parameters that can be used to explore relationships...
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This book introduces the principles and practice of writing a comprehensive reference grammar. It describes the means of collecting, analysing, and organizing data, and discusses the typological parameters that can be used to explore relationships with other languages. Cover -- Contents -- Preamble: what this book is about -- Acknowledgements -- Conventions -- List of tables, figures, and boxes -- Abbreviations -- 1 Introduction: to write a grammar -- 1.1 The language and its 'genius' -- 1.2 What linguistic diversity is about -- 1.3 The limits of grammar -- 1.4 Serving many masters: a glimpse into the multiplicity of grammars -- 1.4.1 The essence of a reference grammar -- 1.4.2 Grammars of further kinds -- 1.4.3 The place of a linguist -- 1.5 Documenting a language: an open-ended task -- 1.6 The boundaries of a language and the individual voice -- 1.7 Constructing a grammar -- 1.7.1 The building blocks -- 1.7.2 To be precise -- 1.7.3 Labels, categories, and meanings -- 1.7.4 How to structure a grammar: some hints -- 1.8 How this book is organized -- Notes and sources -- Appendix: Excursus-Linguistic fieldwork -- 2 A language and its setting -- 2.1 To launch a grammar: the language and its profile -- 2.2 The language and its speakers -- 2.3 The language, its relatives, and its neighbours -- 2.3.1 Chance similarities and shared structural features -- 2.3.2 Common origins and genetic connections -- 2.3.3 Geographical proximity and language contact -- 2.3.4 The language in its genetic and areal context: what to include -- 2.4 The language in its social setting -- 2.5 How the people used to live: non-linguistic background and social organization -- 2.6 Previous studies of the language -- 2.7 Materials and speakers: basis for the grammar -- Notes and sources -- 3 Basics -- 3.1 Sound systems -- 3.2 The unit 'word' -- 3.3 The building blocks of a grammatical word -- 3.4 Inflection and derivation -- 3.5 Delineating word classes -- 3.6 Categories and strategies -- 3.7 Phrases and clauses -- 3.8 Clauses and speech acts -- 3.9 Clause types and clause structures -- 3.10 Order of words and order of constituents.
