Full Description
Athapaskan languages are well known for their intricate morphology, in particular the complexity of their verbs. The significance of these languages for linguistic theory is widely acknowledged. In this book, Keren Rice offers a rich typological survey of morpheme ordering in Athapaskan verbs, with implications for both synchronic grammar and language change. She shows that verb structure is in fact widely predictable across Athapaskan languages if appropriate syntactic factors and an overarching principle of semantic scope are taken into account. The presentation also includes a detailed study of argument and aspectual systems. This landmark volume was the first major comparative study of its type for the Athapaskan language family, combining descriptive depth with a contemporary theoretical perspective. Clear and insightful, it will interest Athapaskanists, typologists, historical and theoretical linguists alike.
Contents
1. Introduction: beginning the journey; Part I. First Steps: 2. Introducing the problem; 3. Global uniformity and local variability: a possible account; Part II. The Lexical Terms: 4. First stop: introducing the lexical items; 5. A brief side trip: the position of the verb stem; 6. Ordering of the lexical items; 7. Voice/valence; 8. Summary: lexical items; Part III. The Functional Items: 9. An introduction to the functional elements; 10. Pronominals; 11. The aspect system; 12. Qualifiers and their ordering; 13. On the ordering of functional items; Part IV. A View of the Lexicon: 14. The scopal hypothesis and simplifying the lexicon; 15. Evidence from the lexicon; Part V. The End of the Journey: 16. Looking back, looking ahead; Part VI. Appendices: Appendix 1. Templates and affix ordering; Appendix 2. The languages; Appendix 3. Summary of constraints and language differences; Notes; References; Indexes.
