Marquesan : a grammar of space / by Gabriele H. Cablitz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cablitz, Gabriele H., 1966-

Series:

Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs ; 169.

Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs ; 169

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Marquesan language--Grammar.

Marquesan language.

Space and time in language.

Marquesan language--Locative constructions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (704 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This volume investigates the linguistic and semantic encodings and conceptions of space in the East-Polynesian language Marquesan by focusing on the great variety of language- and culture-specific ways of referring to space, thus documenting an essential part of human behaviour and everyday communication in a South Pacific island population. On the basis of a large corpus of both natural and elicited spoken language data the morphosyntactic and semantic properties of all relevant lexical and grammatical units and constructions used for spatial reference are analysed in detail. Remarkable for this language is the fact that a particular kind of spatial orientation system based on local landmarks of the environment - a so-called 'absolute system' - is used for spatial description even on a micro-level or so-called 'table-top' space. Marquesan - A Grammar of Space is the first comprehensive description and in-depth study of spatial language to be found in an Austronesian language. Apart from examining the complex sociolinguistic situation, the degree of language endangerment in the bilingual speech community and the resulting rapid linguistic change in spatial language use, the book also offers a detailed description of the theoretical background of 'language and space' research and the linguistic variability to be found across languages. Moreover, the volume contains an extensive grammatical sketch of Marquesan which complements the language description of the specific domain space in a useful way providing the reader with general insights into one of the not well documented Oceanic languages. The volume addresses linguists, psycholinguists, anthropologists, fieldworking linguists, and especially Oceanists and Austronesianists. Moreover, it provides important insights for researchers from other disciplines that are interested in the study of space.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Chapter 1 Motivations for a study of space

Chapter 2 Ethnographic and linguistic background and methodology

Chapter 3 Grammatical Sketch

Chapter 4 Theoretical background of language and space research

Chapter 5 Semantic and morphosyntactic analysis of locative constructions in North Marquesan

Chapter 6 Modifiers in locative constructions

Chapter 7 Usage of locative constructions in large-scale and small-scale reference

Chapter 8 Summary and conclusion

Backmatter

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [652]-671) and index.

ISBN:

9786612194115

9781282194113

1282194119

9783110197754

3110197758

OCLC:

290492499