A grammar of Gaagudju / Mark Harvey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harvey, Mark, 1958-

Series:

Mouton Grammar Library [MGL]

Mouton grammar library ; 24

Mouton Grammar Library [MGL] , 0933-7636 ; 24

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gagadu language--Grammar.

Gagadu language.

Aboriginal Australians--Languages--Grammar.

Aboriginal Australians.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (516 pages) : maps

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Gaagudju is a previously undescribed and now nearly extinct language of northern Australia. This grammar provides an overall description of the language. Australian languages generally show a high degree of structural similarity to one another. Gaagudju conforms to some of the common Australian patterns, yet diverges significantly from others. Thus while it has a standard Australian phonological inventory, its prosodic systems differ from those of most Australian languages, with stressed and unstressed syllables showing marked differences in realisation. Like many northern languages, it has complex systems of both prefixation and suffixation to nominals and verbs. Prefixation provides information about nominal classification (4 classes), mood, and pronominal cross-reference (Subjects, Objects, and Indirect Objects). Suffixation provides information about case, tense, and aspect. As in many languages, there is a clear distinction between productive and unproductive morphology. Gaagudju differs from most Australian languages in that a considerable amount of its morphology is unproductive, showing complex and irregular allomorphic variation. Gaagudju is like most Australian languages in that it may be described as a free word order language. However, word order is not totally free and strictly ordered phrasal compounding structures are significant (e.g. in the formation of denominal verbs).

Contents:

Frontmatter

Chapter 1 Language owners and speakers

Chapter 2 Segmental phonology

Chapter 3 Phonotactics and morphophonology

Chapter 4 Nominals

Chapter 5 Verbs

Chapter 6 Clitics and phrasal compounds

Chapter 7 Syntax

Appendices

References

Author index

Land and language index

Subject index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [486]-489) and indexes.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9783110871289

3110871289

OCLC:

979635644