LINGUIST List 11.2730
Sat Dec 16 2000
Books: Polynesian/Bislama (Vanuatu)/Anejom~ Languages
Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomilinguistlist.org>
Links to the websites of all LINGUIST's supporting publishers are
available at the end of this issue.
Directory
Malcolm Ross, Polynesian Language, Bislama (Vanuatu), A grammar of Anejom~
Message 1: Polynesian Language, Bislama (Vanuatu), A grammar of Anejom~
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 18:16:21 +1100
From: Malcolm Ross <Malcolm.Rossanu.edu.au>
Subject: Polynesian Language, Bislama (Vanuatu), A grammar of Anejom~
PACIFIC LINGUISTICS is happy to announce the publication of the three
works described below.
Prices are in Australian dollars (one Australian dollar is currently
equivalent to about US$ 0,55.).
Orders may be placed by mail, e-mail or telephone with:
The Publications Administrator
Pacific Linguistics
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200 Australia
Tel: +61 (0)2 6249 2742
Fax: +61 (0)2 6249 4896
mailto://jmanleycoombs.anu.edu.au
Credit card orders are accepted.
For our catalogue and other materials, see:
http://pacling.anu.edu.au (under construction)
_______________________________________________________________
Topics in Polynesian Language and Culture History
Jeff Marck
PL 504
The present volume first reexamines Polynesian language subgrouping
from the point of view of shared sporadic sound changes. The main
conclusion of those chapters is to support Bill Wilson's idea that
East Polynesian languages might be most closely related to the
languages of Tuvalu northwest of Samoa, along with the "Ellicean"
Outliers. Later chapters cover cosmogony and kin terms for the various
Polynesian subgroups, traditional interests of culture historians that
were not much investigated prior to the work of this thesis. The
volume ends with a discussion of how language and ethnicity
transformed over time in early Western Polynesia, both becoming more
focused on particular island groups at about the time population
pressures were first being felt in the larger island groups (Samoa and
Tonga).
2000 ISBN 0 85883 468 5 281 + xxi pp.
AUS $59.95 ($54.50 international) Weight 600g
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Constraints on null subjects in Bislama (Vanuatu):
Social and linguistic factors
Miriam Meyerhoff
PL 506
How can developments in a contact language inform the inquiry into the
structural nature of language? How do they help us better understand
the nature of language change and the processes of grammaticisation?
Using data from everyday conversations in Bislama (the national
language of Vanuatu), this book focuses on one variable, the
alternation between overt pronominal and phonetically null
subjects. It shows how an emergent system of subject-verb agreement in
Bislama interacts with functional constraints on the interpretability
of a subject; this interaction accounts for much of the alternation
between the two forms of subject. The rich array of social functions
that Bislama serves in the communities studied is examined in some
detail, and yet it is shown that as Bislama becomes increasingly
elaborate morphosyntactically, this kind of structural innovation
takes place largely independently of social factors. By adopting the
methods of sociolinguistics grounded in participant observation, and
being grounded in theoretical treatments of subject agreement, this
volume shows how the study of change in a contact language helps to
bridge issues in different subfields of linguistics.
2000 ISBN 0 85883 522 3 206 + xi pp.
AUS $41.80 ($38.00 international) Weight 500g
_______________________________________________________________
A grammar of Anejom~
John Lynch
PL 507
Anejom~ is spoken on the island of Aneityum and is a member of the Southern
Vanuatu subgroup of Oceanic Austronesian languages. It is unusual
among Vanuatu languages in having VOS as its normal phrase order.
Its phonology is somewhat different from the phonologies of other
members of the subgroup, and it is also in the process of making a
number of morphosyntactic changes. This grammar provides a thorough
treatment of the phonology and morphology of the
language, as well as a solid outline of its syntax, and includes three texts.
2000 ISBN 0 85883 484 7 xiii +180 pp.
AUS $41.80 ($38.00 international) Weight 500g
Pubs-postscript-html
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