Overview
This book describes the diversity of serial verb constructions within Oceanic languages. Serial verb constructions are sequences of verbs placed one after another to express meanings which in other languages are typically expressed by means of single verbs. It has long been established that West African, Southeast Asian and Papuan languages are serializing languages, but the construction has only comparatively recently been recognized in Oceanic languages, which belong to a very large sub-group of the Austronesian family.Terry Crowley demonstrates that patterns of serial verbs can exhibit structural diversity even within a single language. He examines how serial verbs originate, investigating issues such as language contact and functional issues in language change. Serial verbs are often subject to reanalysis and this book investigates how they have developed new grammatical functions in different languages.Serial Verbs in Oceanic will interest typologists, those concerned with Austronesian languages in particular, and syntactic change in general, as well as linguists interested in Austronesian, language contact, linguistic typology, and syntactic change.
Full Product Details
Author: The late Terry Crowley (, formerly University of Waikato)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 16.20cm
, Height: 2.10cm
, Length: 24.20cm
Weight: 0.572kg
ISBN: 9780198241355
ISBN 10: 0198241356
Pages: 300
Publication Date: 21 November 2002
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
It is the breadth of coverage of topics in this book that is one of its biggest strengths, and what makes it so useful, particularly for those who are not primarily specialists in Oceanic or Austronesian languages ... Serial Verbs in Oceanic is a very rewarding book to read. LINGUIST List ... excellent book ... Crowley has a lucid and easy style, provides abundant illustrative examples and presents his arguments with clarity. I found the book immediately enjoyable, which is not true of many linguistic works. The Journal of the Polynesian Society
It is the breadth of coverage of topics in this book that is one of its biggest strengths, and what makes it so useful, particularly for those who are not primarily specialists in Oceanic or Austronesian languages ... Serial Verbs in Oceanic is a very rewarding book to read. LINGUIST List ... excellent book ... Crowley has a lucid and easy style, provides abundant illustrative examples and presents his arguments with clarity. I found the book immediately enjoyable, which is not true of many linguistic works. The Journal of the Polynesian Society
Author Information
Terry Crowley was Associate Professor in the Department of General and Applied Linguistics at the University of Waikato. He has researched languages in Vanuatu for 25 years, and has written about the Paamese and Erromangan languages. He has produced a dictionary of Bislama, and a detailed account of its historical development.
