Table of Contents
List of tables ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
List of abbreviations xv
Orthographic conventions xvi
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Overview of West Greenlandic grammar 2
1.2 The Inuit language in syntactic theory 8
1.3 Approaches to the study of discourse 18
1.4 Theoretical approach to discourse structure in West Greenlandic 28
2 Topic (and Theme) as Discourse Roles 31
2.1 Issues in the definition of topic 34
2.2 Issues in the definition of theme 47
2.3 Introduction and identification of topics and themes 59
2.4 Discourse roles 77
3 Ergativity as a Reflection of Topic Status 89
3.1 Ergativity in West Greenlandic 89
3.2 Treatment of ergativity in modern syntactic theories of West Greenlandic 99
3.3 Subjecthood, agency, and topic 103
3.4 Role of topic in the use and distribution of ergative structures in West Greenlandic 110
3.5 Data analysis 113
3.6 Chapter conclusion 165
4 Switch-Reference or Thematic Coherence and Topic Continuity? 171
4.1 Switch-reference in West Greenlandic 171
4.2 Switch-reference as a system of subject or topic/thematic coherence 184
4.3 Role of topic in the use and distribution of switch-reference marking in West Greenlandic 190
4.4 Data analysis 191
4.4.1 Subordinate pronominal inflection 191
4.4.2 Contemporatives and participials 207
4.4.2.1 The contemporative 230
4.4.2.2 The participial 254
4.5 Chapter conclusion 268
5 Conclusion 273
5.1 Findings 273
5.2 Some comments on the role of discourse in linguistic descriptions 276
Appendix 282
A1 Notes on data collection 282
A2 Notes on transcription and intonation 283
Notes 411
References 425
Index 433
