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Description:
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Rembarrnga is polysynthetic Aboriginal language of central Arnhem Land in
the Northern Territory of Australia. It is one of the ‘prefixing’ languages of
northern Australia, having both prefixes and suffixes, and has been classified
as a Gunwinyguan language. Verb morphology is complex, with the verb word
able to constitute a sentence on its own and frequently doing so. The
incorporation of nouns and other elements into the verb is a prominent feature
of this verb complexity. The approach taken in this grammar of the language
is primarily descriptive, drawing on a variety of theories of its time for
different aspects of the description, but largely using traditional grammatical
terminology to maximise the work’s usefulness to linguists with various
theoretical backgrounds and to people with practical aims in view such as
school programs, literacy work or language learning.
Areas of particular focus in this description are: medial geminate consonants;
syllabic glottal stops; pronoun categories, including first person inclusive and
its number implications; morphology, including noun incorporation into the
verb; and syntax, especially a generalised subordinate clause construction.
The work features extensive exemplification and some short texts, plus a list
of botanical species names.
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