312 pp. December 1998
paper, ISBN 978-0-8248-1935-4, $40.00
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Keywords: |
language
linguistics
Pacific
Melanesia |
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An Erromangan (Sye) Grammar
by Terry Crowley
Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication No. 27
"C[rowley] devotes nearly half of this comprehensive new grammar to morphology.... Proponents of word-and-paradigm models will find much accessible data for reanalysis, including 80 tables of paradigms.... Thanks to C’s thorough documentation, we are [also] now in a better position to sort out the similarities and differences between echo-subject and serial-verb constructions." --Oceanic Linguistics 38 (1999) View complete review.
The languages of southern Vanuatu are structurally different from other Oceanic languages. Sye has an unusually complex morphological system and it offers a number of typological surprises for Oceanic linguists. It differs syntactically from many other Oceanic languages of Melanesia in that it does not have widespread verb serialization, though it, along with the other languages of southern Vanuatu, has developed what can be referred to as a system of "echo verbs." This volume describes Sye's phonology and morphosyntax in terms that are intended to be accessible to followers of a variety of linguistic theories, with considerable exemplification of points to allow linguists to reanalyze data according to their own theoretical interests.
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