Describing Morphosyntax: A Guide for Field Linguists

by Thomas E. Payne

Overview

This book is a guide for linguistic fieldworkers who wish to write a description of the morphology and syntax of one of the world's many underdocumented languages. It offers readers who work through it one possible outline for a grammatical description, with many questions designed to help them address the key topics. Appendices offer guidance on text and elicited data, and on sample reference grammars that readers might wish to consult. This will be a valuable resource to anyone engaged in linguistic fieldwork.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521588058
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/09/1997
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	430
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.91(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Demographic and ethnographic information; 2. Morphological typology; 3. Grammatical categories; 4. Constituent order typology; 5. Noun and noun-phrase operations; 6. Predicate nominals and related constructions; 7. Grammatical relations; 8. Voice and valence adjusting operations; 9. Other verb and veb-phrase operations; 10. Pragmatically marked structures; 11. Clause combinations; 12. Conclusions: the language in use; Appendices; References; Index of languages, language families, and language areas; Subject index.

Editorial Reviews

"...a comprehensive field researcher's guide to the description of undocumented & near extinct languages." T. Rosenberg, LLBA

"I would rate this book highly as an important part of a practical strategy for writing the description of the morphosyntax of a field language." Austin Hale, Notes on Linguistics

"...Describing Morphosyntax is an excellent guide not only for field linguists but also for all linguists who are interested in fascinating aspects of grammar." Word

From the Publisher