This book presents a grammar description of Dhao, an endangered Austronesian language spoken by about 3000 people on Ndao Island in Eastern Indonesia. It is a member of the Sumba-Hawu subgroup in... Show moreThis book presents a grammar description of Dhao, an endangered Austronesian language spoken by about 3000 people on Ndao Island in Eastern Indonesia. It is a member of the Sumba-Hawu subgroup in the Austronesian family and displays an intensive contact with nearby Kupang Malay and the Rote dialects, which also influences the grammar of the language. This grammar has six chapters which mainly describe the phonology, morphology, and syntax of Dhao. Dhao has an open syllabic system. Word classes are defined only through constructions. The only derivational prefix pa- bears a variety of meanings and interacts with other morphological processes. (C)a- partial reduplication applies to both nominal and verbal categories. Furthermore, verbs and adjectives are only distinguishable through serial verb constructions (SVCs).In order to indicate grammatical relations, only co-indexing system applies. Due to mismatch between verb valencies and constructions, valency is treated as semantic and transitivity is syntactic term. SVCs include at most three verbs whose types are based on the semantics of the verbs. This grammar provides an innovative contribution to the tradition of language research and description in Eastern Indonesia and specifically in the Timor Region. Show less
__Building in Words__ deals with the process of construction in Roman imperial literature from Vergil to the second century AD. The first part of the dissertation treats the ways in which... Show more__Building in Words__ deals with the process of construction in Roman imperial literature from Vergil to the second century AD. The first part of the dissertation treats the ways in which representations of the construction of an edifice can be designed to influence the reader__s evaluation of it. The focus is first on major monuments in the city and strategies of memory-making in different media, and then on water engineering projects, with an emphasis on the moral aspects of human interventions in nature. The second part of the dissertation deals with the meta-literary function of representations of construction. It covers the relation between city building and text-construction in different poetic genres, the specific aesthetic of construction conceived in Statius__ Silvae, and uses of the myth of Amphion. The dissertation concludes with a look at deconstruction, both physical and literary. An epilogue deals with the reception and appropriation of Roman spectacles of engineering in Mussolini__s Rome. Show less
