The Manambu Language of East Sepik, Papua New Guinea

The Manambu Language of East Sepik, Papua New Guinea PDF Author: Alexandra Aikhenvald
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019161534X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 992

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Book Description
This book is the first comprehensive description of the Manambu language of Papua New Guinea and is based entirely on the author's immersion fieldwork. Manambu belongs to the Ndu language family, and is spoken by about 2,500 people in five villages: Avatip, Yawabak, Malu, Apa:n, and Yambon (Yuanab) in East Sepik Province, Ambunti district. Manambu can be considered an endangered language. The Manambu language has many unusual properties. Every noun is considered masculine or feminine. Feminine gender - which is unmarked - is associated with small size and round shape, and masculine gender with elongated shape, large size, and importance. The Manambu culture is centered on ownership of personal names, and is similar to that of the Iatmul, described by Gregory Bateson. After an introductory account of the language and its speakers, Professor Aikhenvald devotes chapters to phonology, grammatical relations, word classes, gender, semantics, number, case, possession, derivation and compounding, pronouns, morphohology, verbs, mood and modality, negation, clause structure, pragmatics, discourse, semantics, the lexicon, current directions of change, and genetic relationship to other languages. The description is presented in a clear style in a framework that will be comprehensible to all linguists and linguistically oriented anthropologists.

The Manambu Language of East Sepik, Papua New Guinea

The Manambu Language of East Sepik, Papua New Guinea PDF Author: Alexandra Aikhenvald
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019161534X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 992

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is the first comprehensive description of the Manambu language of Papua New Guinea and is based entirely on the author's immersion fieldwork. Manambu belongs to the Ndu language family, and is spoken by about 2,500 people in five villages: Avatip, Yawabak, Malu, Apa:n, and Yambon (Yuanab) in East Sepik Province, Ambunti district. Manambu can be considered an endangered language. The Manambu language has many unusual properties. Every noun is considered masculine or feminine. Feminine gender - which is unmarked - is associated with small size and round shape, and masculine gender with elongated shape, large size, and importance. The Manambu culture is centered on ownership of personal names, and is similar to that of the Iatmul, described by Gregory Bateson. After an introductory account of the language and its speakers, Professor Aikhenvald devotes chapters to phonology, grammatical relations, word classes, gender, semantics, number, case, possession, derivation and compounding, pronouns, morphohology, verbs, mood and modality, negation, clause structure, pragmatics, discourse, semantics, the lexicon, current directions of change, and genetic relationship to other languages. The description is presented in a clear style in a framework that will be comprehensible to all linguists and linguistically oriented anthropologists.

The Manambu Language of East Sepik, Papua New Guinea

The Manambu Language of East Sepik, Papua New Guinea PDF Author: Aleksandra I︠U︡rʹevna Aĭkhenvalʹd
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781383044799
Category : Endangered languages
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Based on the author's fieldwork, this text is a comprehensive description of the Manambu language of Papua New Guinea. Manambu belongs to the Ndu language family, and is spoken by about 2500 people in five villages in East Sepik Province, Ambunti district.

The Alamblak Language of Papua New Guinea (East Sepik)

The Alamblak Language of Papua New Guinea (East Sepik) PDF Author: Les Bruce
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description


How Languages Work

How Languages Work PDF Author: Carol Genetti
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107782570
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 677

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Book Description
A new and exciting introduction to linguistics, this textbook presents language in all its amazing complexity, while guiding students gently through the basics. Students emerge with an appreciation of the diversity of the world's languages, as well as a deeper understanding of the structure of human language, the ways it is used, and its broader social and cultural context. Chapters introducing the nuts and bolts of language study (phonology, syntax, meaning) are combined with those on the 'functions' of language (discourse, prosody, pragmatics, and language contact), helping students gain a better grasp of how language works in the real world. A rich set of language 'profiles' help students explore the world's linguistic diversity, identify similarities and differences between languages, and encourages them to apply concepts from earlier chapter material. A range of carefully designed pedagogical features encourage student engagement, adopting a step-by-step approach and using study questions and case studies.

The Yimas Language of New Guinea

The Yimas Language of New Guinea PDF Author: William A. Foley
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804715829
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
A "study of the Yimas language, its grammar and lexicon, the social and cultural contexts of the use of the language, its history and genetic relations, and its interactions with neighbouring languages." -- Pref.

The Ndu Language Family (Sepik District, New Guinea)

The Ndu Language Family (Sepik District, New Guinea) PDF Author: Donald C. Laycock
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ndu languages
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description


Language at Large

Language at Large PDF Author: Alexandra Aikhenvald
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004207686
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 630

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Book Description
The volume brings together important essays on syntax and semantics by Aikhenvald and Dixon, highlighting their expertise in various fields of linguistics. The first part focusses on linguistic typology, covering case markers used on verbs, argument-determined constructions, unusual meanings of causatives, the semantic basis for a typology, word-class-changing derivations, speech reports and semi-direct speech. The second part concentrates on documentation and analysis of previously undescribed languages, from South America and Indigenous Australia. The third part addresses a variety of issues in grammar and lexicography of English. This includes pronouns with transferred reference, comparative constructions, features of the noun phrase, and the discussion of 'twice'. The treatment of Australian Aboriginal words in dictionaries is discussed in the final chapter.

I Saw the Dog

I Saw the Dog PDF Author: Alexandra Aikhenvald
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1782833218
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 146

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Book Description
Every language in the world shares a few common features: we can ask a question, say something belongs to us, and tell someone what to do. But beyond that, our languages are richly and almost infinitely varied: a French speaker can't conceive of a world that isn't split into un and une, male and female, while Estonians have only one word for both men and women: tema. In Dyirbal, an Australian language, things might be masculine, feminine, neuter - or edible vegetable. Every language tells us something about the people who use it. In I Saw the Dog, linguist Alexandra Aikhenvald takes us from the remote swamplands of Papua New Guinea to the university campuses of North America to illuminate the vital importance of names, the value of being able to say exactly what you mean, what language can tell us about what it means to be human - and what we lose when they disappear forever.

The Papuan Languages of New Guinea

The Papuan Languages of New Guinea PDF Author: William A. Foley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521286213
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
This introduction to the descriptive and historical linguistics of the Papuan languages of New Guinea provide an accessible account of one of the richest and most diverse linguistic situations in the world. The Papuan languages number over 700 (or 20 per cent of the world's total) in more than sixty language families. Less than a quarter of the individual languages have yet been adequately documented, and in this sense William Foley's book might be considered premature. However, in the search for language universals and generalisations in linguistic typology, it would be foolhardy to neglect the information that is available. In this respect alone, the present volume, systematically organised on mainly typology principles, is particularly timely and useful. In addition, the processes of linguistic diffusion are present in New Guinea to an extent probably paralleled elsewhere on the globe. The Papuan Languages of New Guinea will be of interest not only to general and comparative linguists and to typologists, but also to sociolinguists and anthropologists for the information it provides on the social dynamics of language content.

Word Hunters

Word Hunters PDF Author: Hannah Sarvasy
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027264449
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
In Word Hunters, eleven distinguished linguists reflect on their career-spanning linguistic fieldwork. Over decades, each has repeatedly stood up to physical, intellectual, interpersonal, intercultural, and sometimes political challenges in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. These scholar-explorers have enlightened the world to the inner workings of languages in remote communities of Africa (West, East, and South), Amazonia, the Arctic, Australia, the Caucasus, Oceania, Siberia, and East Asia. They report some linguistic eureka moments, but also discuss cultural missteps, illness, and the other challenges of pursuing linguistic data in extreme circumstances. They write passionately about language death and their responsibilities to speech communities. The stories included here—the stuff of departmental and family legends—are published publicly for the first time.