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).
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This grammar provides an overall description of Gaagudju, a now nearly extinct language of northern Australia. There is a clear distinction between productive and unproductive morphology, with a large amount of the morphology being unproductive. While word order is generally free, strictly ordered phrasal compounding structures are important.
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> 1 Language owners and speakers 2 Segmental phonology 3 Phonotactics and morphophonology 4 Nominals 5 Verbs 6 Clitics and phrasal compounds 7 Syntax Appendices

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9783110172485
Publisert
2002-09-24
Utgiver
Vendor
De Gruyter Mouton
Vekt
1002 gr
Høyde
230 mm
Bredde
155 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
507

Forfatter

Om bidragsyterne

Mark Harvey is Lecturer at the University of Newcastle, Australia.