Formal Issues in Austronesian Linguistics

by Paul, Ileana; Phillips, Vivianne; Travis, Lisa

• ISBN13: 9780792360681
• ISBN10: 0792360680
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-12-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

Austronesian languages have long raised interesting questions for generative theories of syntax and morphology. The papers in this volume encompass some of these traditional questions and place them in newer theoretical contexts. Some of the papers also address new issues which add to our understanding of members of this language family on one side and the nature of linguistic theories on the other. There are three broad issues that re-occur throughout the volume - the role and analysis of verbal morphology, the nature of the subject or the topic in these languages, and the interaction of syntax and specificity. The papers in this volume show that as formal theories become more precise, a wider range of language data can be captured, and as the inventory of language data grows, the accuracy of formal linguistic theories improves.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Introduction	ix
The Structure of Inflection in Palauan	1	(26)
Mark Campana
Morphology is Structure: A Malagasy Test Case	27	(22)
Edward L. Keenan
Continuative Aspect and the Dative Clitic in Kambera	49	(16)
Marian Klamer
Malagasy Existentials: A Syntactic Account Of Specificity	65	(20)
Ileana Paul
The Interaction between Prefix and Root: The Case of Maha-in Malagasy	85	(20)
Vivianne Phillips
Another Look at Tagalog Subjects	105	(12)
Norvin Richards
Raising and the Order of Clausal Constituents in the Philippine Languages	117	(28)
Peter Sells
The Topic and Y Indefinite in Cebuano	145	(22)
Emily Sityar
The L-syntax/S-syntax boundary: Evidence from Austronesian	167	(28)
Lisa Travis
Indonesian Voice and A-bar Movement	195	(20)
Jan Voskuil
Object Agreement in Palauan: Specificity, Humanness, Economy and Optimality	215	(32)
Ellen Woolford
List of Contributors	247	(2)
Subject Index	249	(6)
Author Index	255	(4)
Language Index	259