LINGUIST List 14.1261

Mon May 5 2003

Books: Lang Desc, Greenlandic Inuktitut: Sadock

Editor for this issue: Marisa Ferrara <marisalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. LINCOM.EUROPA, A Grammar of Kalaallisut: Sadock

			
Title: A Grammar of Kalaallisut
Subtitle: (West Greenlandic Inuttut)
Series Title: Languages of the World/Materials 162
			
Publication Year: 2003
Publisher: Lincom GmbH
 http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA/
			
Author: Jerrold M. Sadock 

Hardback: ISBN: 3895862347, Pages: 70, Price: USD 35 / EUR 33 / GBP
	 23.50
Comment: Student/Course Discount: 40% 

Abstract:
			
West Greenlandic ("Kalaallisut") is a language of the Inuit branch of
Eskimo spoken by about 45,000 people on the West Coast of
Greenland. There is near hundred percent literacy and there is a
flourishing literary tradition of all genres in the native
language. Grammatically, West Greenlandic is typical of Inuit. Verbs
and nouns are both highly inflected and there is an very unusually
rich system of derivation in both categories. There are about 500
fully productive derivational affixes altogether, all of which are
semantically transparent and some of which are syntactically
transparent. The case marking is ergative and the syntax verb
final. This sketch of the grammar of West Greenlandic is descriptive
and non-technical in tone, but adheres to the principles of
Autolexical Syntax in radically separating syntax, morphology, and
semantics. In each of these components no mention is made of
information belonging to the others. Rather, there is a separate
chapter on matching and mismatching of structures across
components. The aim is both to make the basic structure of West
Greenlandic clear to the general reader and to demonstrate that a
grammar consisting of autonomous modules connected by a lexically
centered interface is both feasible and illuminating.
			
Lingfield(s): Language Description
			 
Subject Language(s): Inuktitut, Greenlandic (Language Code: ESG)

Written In: English (Language Code: English)

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