Overview

Benefactives are constructions used to express that a state of affairs holds to someone’s advantage. The same construction sometimes also serves as a malefactive, whose meanings are generally not a simple mirror image of the benefactive. Benefactive constructions cover a wide range of phenomena: malefactive passives, general and specialized benefactive cases and adpositions, serial verb constructions and converbal constructions (including e.g. verbs of giving and taking), benefactive applicatives, and other morphosyntactic strategies. The present book is the first collection of its kind to be published on this topic. It includes both typological surveys and in-depth descriptive studies, exploring both the morphosyntactic properties and the semantic nuances of phenomena ranging from the familiar English double-object construction and the Japanese adversative passive to comparable phenomena found in lesser-known languages of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The book will appeal to typologists and linguists interested in linguistic diversity and it will also be a useful reference work for linguists working on language description.

Full Product Details

Author:   Fernando Zúñiga (University of Zurich) ,  Seppo Kittilä (University of Helsinki)
Publisher:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Imprint:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Volume:   92
Weight:   0.950kg
ISBN:  

9789027206732

ISBN 10:   9027206732
Pages:   440
Publication Date:   14 April 2010
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock  
The supplier is currently out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out for you.

Table of Contents

1. Preface; 2. List of contributors; 3. Introduction: Benefaction and malefaction from a cross-linguistic perspective (by Kittila, Seppo); 4. Benefactive applicative periphrases: A typological approach (by Creissels, Denis); 5. Cross-linguistic categorization of benefactives by event structure: A preliminary framework for benefactive typology (by Smith, Tomoko Yamashita); 6. An areal and cross-linguistic study of benefactive and malefactive constructions (by Radetzky, Paula); 7. The role of benefactives and related notions in the typology of purpose clauses (by Schmidtke-Bode, Karsten); 8. Benefactive and malefactive uses of Salish applicatives (by Kiyosawa, Kaoru); 9. Beneficiaries and recipients in Toba (Guaycuru) (by Censabella, Marisa); 10. Benefactive and malefactive applicativization in Mapudungun (by Zuniga, Fernando); 11. The benefactive semantic potential of 'caused reception' constructions: A case study of English, German, French, and Dutch (by Colleman, Timothy); 12. Beneficiary coding in Finnish (by Kittila, Seppo); 13. Benefactives in Laz (by Lacroix, Rene); 14. Benefactive and malefactive verb extensions in the Koalib very system (by Quint, Nicolas); 15. Benefactives and malefactives in Gumer (Gurage) (by Vollmin, Sascha); 16. A reflexive benefactive in Chamba-Daka (Adamawa branch, Niger-Congo family) (by Boyd, Raymond); 17. Beneficiary and other roles of the dative in Tashelhiyt (by Rapold, Christian J.); 18. Benefactive strategies in Thai (by Jenny, Mathias); 19. Korean benefactive particles and their meanings (by Song, Jae Jung); 20. Malefactivity in Japanese (by Tsuboi, Eijiro); 21. Index

Reviews

The best test for a volume of this type - a volume that aims to provide a range of discussions and insights into a particular semantic domain - is whether it helps the reader to learn or think about languages that they are already familiar with. Does it make interesting observations about the semantic domain that could be tested in other languages? Does it raise questions or provide implications about the nature of languages more generally? In my view, this book certainly passes this test. I have drawn from it many useful observations to add to my 'language description toolbox', and I have no doubt other readers will do likewise. -- Rachel Nordlinger, University of Melbourne, in Studies in Language Vol. 35:3 (2011), pag. 927-934

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions