Read more
This volume examines the concept of 'word' as a phonological unit and as an item with both meaning and grammatical function. The chapters explore how this concept can be applied to a range of typologically diverse languages, from Lao and Hmong in Southeast Asia to Yidiñ in northern Australia and Murui in the Amazonian jungle.
List of contents
- 1: Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, R. M. W. Dixon, and Nathan M. White: The essence of 'word'
- 2: R. M. W. Dixon: Words within words: Examples from Yidiñ, Jarawara, and Fijian
- 3: Nerida Jarkey: Words in Japanese
- 4: Luca Ciucci: Wordhood in Chamacoco
- 5: Katarzyna I. Wojtylak: The phonological and grammatical status of Murui 'word'
- 6: Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald: Word in Yalaku
- 7: N. J. Enfield: Word in Lao
- 8: Nathan M. White: Word in Hmong
- 9: Sean Allison: The notion of 'word' in Makary Kotoko
- Index of authors
- Index of languages, language families, and linguistic areas
- Index of subjects
About the author
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald is Distinguished Professor, Australian Laureate Fellow, and Director of the Language and Culture Research Centre at James Cook University. She is a major authority on languages of the Arawak family, from northern Amazonia, and has written grammars of Bare (1995) and Warekena (1998), plus A Grammar of Tariana, from Northwest Amazonia (CUP, 2003) and The Manambu Language of East Sepik, Papua New Guinea (OUP, 2008; paperback 2010), in addition to essays on various typological and areal features of South American and Papuan languages and typological issues including evidentials, classifiers, and serial verbs. Her other recent publications with OUP include Imperatives and Commands (2010), Languages of the Amazon (2012; paperback 2015), The Art of Grammar (2015), How Gender Shapes the World (2016; paperback 2018), and Serial Verbs (2018).
R. M. W. Dixon is Adjunct Professor and Deputy Director of the Language and Culture Research Centre at James Cook University. He has published grammars of a number of Australian languages (including Dyirbal and Yidiñ), as well as studies of Boumaa Fijian (University of Chicago Press, 1988) and Jarawara (OUP, 2004). His book The Rise and Fall of Languages (CUP, 1997) expounded a punctuated equilibrium model for language development; this is the basis for his detailed case study Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development (CUP, 2002). His many publications with OUP include the three-volume work Basic Linguistic Theory (2010-12), Making New Words (2014), Edible Gender, Mother-in-Law Style, and Other Grammatical Wonders (2015; paperback 2020), and Are Some Languages Better than Others? (2016). His academic biography, I am a Linguist, was published by Brill in 2011.
Nathan M. White is a PhD student at the Language and Culture Research Centre at James Cook University. He studied Intercultural Studies at Biola University and completed an MA in Linguistics at Trinity Western University in 2014. He has taught courses in Linguistics at Fresno Pacific University and College of the Sequoias. His research interests include language typology and documentation, natural language processing methods for minority languages, East and Southeast Asian languages, Semitic languages, and indigenous languages of California. The topic of his PhD thesis is 'The Hmong Language of North Queensland',
Summary
This volume examines the concept of 'word' as a phonological unit and as an item with both meaning and grammatical function. The chapters explore how this concept can be applied to a range of typologically diverse languages, from Lao and Hmong in Southeast Asia to Yidiñ in northern Australia and Murui in the Amazonian jungle.
