Abbi: A Grammar of the Great Andamanese Language

Abbi, Anvita:
A Grammar of the Great Andamanese Language : an Ethnolinguistic Study / Anvita Abbi. - Leiden : Brill, 2013. - xxvii, 300 S. : Ill., Kt. - (Brill's Studies in South and Southwest Asian Languages ; 4)
ISBN 978-90-04-23527-4 (Print-Ausg.)
ISBN 978-90-04-24612-6 (eBook)
EUR 114,00 / US$ 148,00
DOI: 10.1163/9789004246126
DDC: 495.9

Beschreibung
A Grammar of the Great Andamanese Language is the first-ever detailed and exhaustive account of Great Andamanese, a moribund language spoken on the Andamanese Islands belonging to India in the Bay of Bengal. This important documentation covers all major areas of the grammar of Great Andamanese and gives us a first detailed look at this unique language, which is on the verge of extinction. Of particular interest here is the discussion of the body division class markers which play an important role throughout much of the grammar and which are documented in this volume for the first time. The volume will be of interest for general linguists from the fields of linguistic typology and areal linguistics as well as those interested in South Asian languages in general. [Verlagsinformation]

Inhalt
Acknowledgements. xv
Preface. xvii
List of Maps, Figures and Tables. xxi
Abbreviation and Symbols. xxv
I. THE ANDAMAN AND THE GREAT ANDAMANESE
   Introduction. 1
   1.1 Geography and Topography. 1
   1.2 Population. 3
   1.3 Present-Day Great Andaman and the Great Andamanese. 6
   1.4 History of Language Studies. 9
   1.5 Genealogical Classification. 14
   1.6 Typological Differences. 16
   1.7 The Last Decade. 16
   1.8 A Sociolinguistic Sketch of the Great Andamanese. 18
   1.9 The Great Andamanese Culture: Some Observations. 29
   1.10 The Beliefs of the Great Andamanese. 33
   1.11 The Biological Universe of the Great Andamanese. 35
   1.12 The Present Study. 36
II. PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
   Introduction. 37
   2.1 Vowels. 37
   2.2 Semi-Vowels/Glides. 44
   2.3 Consonants. 46
   2.4 Syllables. 56
   2.5 Morphophonemics. 59
   2.6 Acoustic Study of Problematic Sounds. 62
III. GRAMMAR OVERVIEW
   3.1 The Structure. 65
   3.2 Ambivalence of Verbs, Adjectives and Nouns. 70
   3.3 Inalienability (INA), Body Division Classes and Grammaticalisation. 76
   3.4 The Semantic Role of Body Devision Classes. 81
   3.5 Inalienability and its Representation in Verbs. 82
   3.6 Inalienability and its Representation in Modifiers. 84
   3.7 Process of Grammaticalisation. 85
   3.8 The Status of Inalienability Markers in the Grammar: Proclitics. 87
   3.9 Summary and Conclusions. 94
IV. WORD FORMATION PROCESSES
   Introduction. 97
   4.1 Affixation. 97
   4.2 Attaching Clitics. 100
   4.3 Combination of Affixation and Clitics. 103
   4.4 Compounding. 104
V. NOUNS AND NOUN PHRASES NOUNS
   Nouns. 111
   5.1 Number and Gender. 112
   5.2 Case. 116
   5.3 Noun Phrases. 131
   5.4 Conclusion. 135
VI. POSSESSION
   Introduction. 137
   6.1 Possessive Classification. 137
   6.2 Primary Possession. 138
   6.3 Kinship Terms. 149
   6.4 The Twin Levels. 150
   6.5 Secondary Possession. 151
   6.6 Animate vs. Inanimate Possessor and the Semantics of Inalienability. 156
   6.7 Alienable Nouns. 163
   6.8 Attributive Modification and Possession. 165
   6.9 The "possessive" Relationship: The 'Have' Construction. 166
   6.10 Conclusion. 167
VII. PRONOUNS, PRONOMINAL AND OBJECT CLITICS
   7.1 Personal Pronouns. 169
   7.2 Demonstrative Pronouns. 172
   7.3 Pronomical Clitics. 173
   7.4 Interrogative and Indefinite Pronouns. 180
   7.5 Reflexive Forms. 182
   7.6 Reciprocal Pronouns. 186
   7.7 Locational Adverbial Demonstratives. 187
VIII. MODIFICATION INCLUDING TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL DEIXIS
   Introduction. 189
   8.1 Adjectives. 189
   8.2 Dependency of Modifiers. 193
   8.3 Manner Adverbs. 197
   8.4 Temporal Adverbs and Temporal Deixis. 199
   8.5 Spatial Deixis. 204
   8.6 Body Division Classes and Adverbs. 209
   8.7 Third Person Demonstrative Pronouns and Deixis. 209
IX. THE VERB AND VERB COMPLEX
   Introduction. 213
   9.1 Verbal Proclitics. 214
   9.2 Intransitive Verbs. 215
   9.3 Transitive Verbs. 217
   9.4 Reflexive/Self-Directed. 223
   9.5 The Distancing of the Verbal Proclitic from its Host. 224
   9.6 The Causative/Applicative. 226
   9.7 Formative Affixes. 231
   9.8 Tense, Aspect and Mood (TAM). 233
   9.9 The Copula Be or Jiyo. 240
   9.10 The Verbs 'Come' and 'Go'. 241
X. SYNTACTIC ORGANISATION
   Introduction. 243
   10.1 Word Order. 243
   10.2 Coordination. 251
   10.3 Negation. 254
   10.4 Interrogatives. 256
   10.5 Non-Finite Subordination. 258
   10.6 Clause Chaining. 263
   10.7 Comparative Constructions. 264
   10.8 Relativisation. 267
   10.9 Syntax of the Possessive Construction. 269
Appendix A: Lico’s Genealogical Affiliation and Her Language Profile. 273
Appendix B: An Acoustic Study of Problematic Laterals. 275
Text: The Great Narrative of Phertajido. 279
Bibliography. 291
Index. 297
Photographs of Contact Persons

Vorschau

Autorin
ANVITA ABBI, Ph.D. (1975), Cornell University, is Professor of Linguistics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. She has researched first-hand on all the six language families of India and has published sixteen books including the Dictionary of the Great Andamanese Language (2012). Profile page; Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese.

Quellen: Brill; WorldCat; Bookbutler; Library of Congress; Google Books
Bildquelle: Brill
Bibliographie: [1]

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