Descriptive Grammars
About the Book Series
The rise of language typology and and increasing interest in the study of language universals have produced a large number of theoreticians who require accurate, well-formulated descriptive data from a wide range of languages. The Descriptive Grammars series provides the required framework, making cross-language comparisons possible and enabling a really fruitful interaction between theoretical and descriptive linguistics. A wide variety of well-known and lesser-known languages are covered and the information is arranged to be readily accessable to linguists working on language universals, language typology, comparative syntax, morphology, or phonology.
Tuvaluan: A Polynesian Language of the Central Pacific.
1st Edition
By Niko Besnier
August 03, 2016
Tuvaluan is a Polynesian language spoken by the 9,000 inhabitants of the nine atolls of Tuvalu in the Central Pacific, as well as small and growing Tuvaluan communities in Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia. This grammar is the first detailed description of the structure of Tuvaluan, one of the least...
Koromfe
1st Edition
By John Rennison
October 23, 2013
Strong linguistic and ecological pressures are gradually pushing Koromfe, the local language spoken in the north of Burkina Faso, West Africa, towards extinction. Spoken by, at the most, 10,000 people, Koromfe has defied political and cultural domination by other local languages. Few other ...
Ndyuka
1st Edition
By George L. Huttar, Mary L. Huttar
October 23, 2013
This volume constitutes what is perhaps the most thorough description of a creole language to date. Following the Descriptive Grammar Series outline, it provides detailed coverage of a full range of grammatical, phonological and lexical information, written with the interests of formalists and ...
Nigerian Pidgin
1st Edition
By Nick Faraclas
October 23, 2013
This is the first comprehensive grammar of Nigerian Pidgin. This book provides basic descriptive and analytical treatment of the syntax, morphology and phonology of a language which may soon become the most widely spoken in all of Africa....
Wari
1st Edition
By Daniel L. Everett, Barbara Kern
October 23, 2013
This is the first major study of any Chapakuran language and makes an important contribution to linguistic theory. This study is especially timely as the Chapakuran languages of Western Brazil and Eastern Bolivia are endangered, and less than 2,000 known speakers of Wari and its related dialects ...
Finnish
1st Edition
By Merja Karalainen, Helena Sulkala
February 05, 2013
Finnish is one of the Finno-Ugrian family of languages, and being historically linked with Swedish, can be compared with that language, particularly in its vocabulary. There are about five million native speakers of the language and large Finnish-speaking minorities in Norway, Sweden, the USA and ...
Maltese
1st Edition
By Marie Azzopardi-Alexander, Albert Borg
November 14, 2012
Focusing primarily on Standard Maltese, the authors clarify many areas which, until now, remain undefined, with emphasis on syntax and intonation. English loanwords continue to find their way into Standard Maltese, especially as the Maltese inhabitants become increasingly bilingual, and the ...
Malayalam
1st Edition
By R. E. Asher
July 26, 2012
Malayalam is one of the four major Dravidian languages spoken principally in the southern part of India. It has a recorded history of eight centuries and is spoken by more than thirty million people on the Malabar coast of southern IndiaThis is the first detailed description of Malayalam, providing...
Gulf Arabic
1st Edition
By Clive Holes
January 11, 2011
Gulf Arabic is the term used to refer to a number of related dialects which are spoken along the Gulf littoral from northern Kuwait to Oman. The people who live in this area are linked to each other by trading and seafaring traditions which go back many centuries, as well as by the complex tribal ...
Evenki
1st Edition
By Igor Nedjalkov
October 11, 2010
Evenki is one of nine Tungusic languages spoken in Siberia and Northern China. This book gives the first ever complete description of all this language's linguistic domain. Evenki is remarkable both for the vast area where it is spoken - from Western Siberia through the Amur region to the shores ...
Hungarian
1st Edition
By Istvan Kenesei, Robert M. Vago, Anna Fenyvesi
October 11, 2010
Hungarian is spoken by 14-15 million people worldwide. A unique language, completely unrelated to the languages of its neighbouring countries, it boasts a grammar full of complex features and vocabulary of basically Uralic (Finno-Ugric) origin. Hungarian addresses current issues in the description ...
Kashmiri: A Cognitive-Descriptive Grammar
1st Edition
By Omkar N. Koul, Kashi Wali
October 11, 2010
Kashmir boasts a language which challenges every field of linguistics. Kashmiri is spoken by approximately 3,000,000 people. Its syntax, similar to Germanic and other verb second languages, has raised many significant issues within current generative theories proposed by Chomsky and other prominent...