This work provides a typologically oriented description of clause linkage strategies in Ket, a highly endangered language spoken in Central Siberia. It is now the only surviving member of the... Show moreThis work provides a typologically oriented description of clause linkage strategies in Ket, a highly endangered language spoken in Central Siberia. It is now the only surviving member of the Yeniseian language family with the last remaining speakers residing in the north of Russia’s Krasnoyarsk province. Although Ket can be said to have a rather long history of studies, there are issues that still lack a comprehensive and coherent account in the existing literature on the language, issues of clause linkage being one of them. The present study seeks to change the situation by providing a unified description of strategies used to code various clause-linking relations, including coordinative relations, complement relations, adverbial relations and relative relations. The theoretical background of the present study is based on the general framework developed within the functional-typological approach. It incorporates all the advances made during the last decades with respect to Ketology and the study of clause linkage typology to ensure its descriptive and typological value. Show less
This thesis is a sample-based typological study of formal and semantic patterns in terms for a selection of referring ("nominal") meanings. Languages differ considerably in that in some,... Show moreThis thesis is a sample-based typological study of formal and semantic patterns in terms for a selection of referring ("nominal") meanings. Languages differ considerably in that in some, unanalyzable, monomorphemic terms dominate in the lexicon while in others analyzable items formed by language-specific means of word-formation (which one this is is a typological variable in itself) abound. The thesis attempts to establish the variation and limits in this variable and to explain why languages vary. Another major concern are semantic associations found in analyzable items as well as in the conflation of several meanings into one lexical item, both from an areal as well as a universal point of view. Show less
This dissertation contains a new detailed description of Carib grammar and the most extensive inventory of Carib lexemes and affixes so far. It is based on the work of previous researchers and a... Show moreThis dissertation contains a new detailed description of Carib grammar and the most extensive inventory of Carib lexemes and affixes so far. It is based on the work of previous researchers and a decade of field work carried out by the author, mainly in Galibi, a Carib village in eastern Suriname. The Carib language is spoken by some 7000 people living in Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and Brazil. This book distinguishes four dialects: Venezuelan Carib, Guyanese Carib, western Surinamese Carib, and eastern Surinamese Carib which includes French Guianese and Brazilian Carib. Interesting features of the description are (a) a new phonological analysis, including details on stress and stress patterns, (b) a morphological analysis, including among other things a hitherto undescribed tense/aspect morpheme as well as new explanations of many details, (c) a presentation of five syntactic word units, (d) dozens of pages containing texts with an interlinear morphological analysis and translation, and (e) a dictionary containing information on more than 6500 words. Information about the four dialects has been incorporated in the grammar and dictionary. A new supradialectal orthography is used and suggested as fit for all Carib dialects. Show less
