: Felix K. Ameka, Alan Dench, Nicholas Evans
: Catching Language The Standing Challenge of Grammar Writing
: De Gruyter Mouton
: 9783110197693
: Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM]ISSN
: 1
: CHF 203.70
:
: Allgemeine und Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft
: English
: 670
: Wasserzeichen/DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: PDF
html> This is the first book to focus on the problem of writing grammars of little-known languages, a task of major urgency as linguists face the challenge of documenting the many endangered languages around the world. The chapters, all written by distinguished specialists, address the many questions the author of a reference grammar must tackle as they destil the regularities of a whole language into a single integrated volume.

Nicholas Evansis Professor of Linguistics at the University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Alan Denchis Professor of Linguistics at the University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia.

Felix K. Amekais Lecturer at Leiden University, The Netherlands, and Editor of theJournal of African Languages and Linguistics(JALL
Frontmatter1
Contents7
Introduction: Catching language9
Grammaticography: The art and craft of writing grammars49
Real descriptions: Reflections on native speaker and non-native speaker descriptions of a language77
Realizing Humboldt’s dream: Cross-linguistic grammatography as data-base creation121
The organization of reference grammars: A typologist user’s point of view145
Calculus of possibilities as a technique in linguistic typology179
Descriptive theories, explanatory theories, and Basic Linguistic Theory215
Let the language tell its story? The role of linguistic theory in writing grammars243
On describing word order277
Heterosemy and the grammar-lexicon trade-off305
Field semantics and grammar-writing: Stimulibased techniques and the study of locative verbs329
Taking a closer look at function verbs: Lexicon, grammar, or both?367
Converbs in an African perspective401
From Eurocentrism to Sinocentrism: The case of disposal constructions in Sinitic languages449
How to miss a paradigm or two: Multifunctional ma- in Tagalog495
The interplay of synchronic and diachronic discovery in Siouan grammar-writing535
The historical and cultural dimensions in grammar formation: The case of Modern Greek557
Polylectal grammar and Royal Thai573
Writing culture in grammar in the Americanist tradition617
Backmatter637