New Benjamins title- Mahiew/Tewrsis: Variations on Polysynthesis

[Paul Peranteau]

Variations on Polysynthesis
The Eskaleut languages
  Edited by Marc-Antoine Mahieu and Nicole Tersis
University Paris 3 - Sorbonne Nouvelle / CNRS-CELIA

Typological Studies in Language 86
http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_bookview.cgi?bookid=TSL%2086
2009. ix, 312 pp.
Hardbound  978 90 272 0667 1 / EUR 110.00 / USD 165.00
e-Book  978 90 272 8937 7 / EUR 110.00 / USD 165.00

This work is comprised of a set of papers focussing on the extreme 
polysynthetic nature of the Eskaleut languages which are spoken over 
the vast area stretching from Far Eastern Siberia, on through the 
Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and Canada, as far as Greenland. The aim of 
the book is to situate the Eskaleut languages typologically in 
general linguistic terms, particularly with regard to polysynthesis. 
The degree of variation from more to less polysynthesis is evaluated 
within Eskaleut (Inuit-Yupik vs. Aleut), even in previously 
insufficiently explored domains such as pragmatics and use in 
context  including language contact and learning situations  and over 
typologically related language families such as Athabascan, 
Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Iroquoian, Uralic, and Wakashan.

Table of contents

Preface  vivii
Part I. Polysynthesis
Polysynthesis in the Arctic
Marianne Mithun 317
Polysynthesis as a typological feature: An attempt at a 
characterization from Eskimo and Athabaskan perspectives
Willem J. de Reuse 1934
Analytic vs. synthetic verbal constructions in Chukchi and West Greenlandic
Michael Fortescue 3549
Lexical polysynthesis: Should we treat lexical bases and their 
affixes as a continuum?
Nicole Tersis 5164
How synchronic is synchronic analysis? Siberian Yupik agglutinative 
morphology and language history
Nikolai Vakhtin 6580
Comparative constructions in Central Alaskan Yupik
Osahito Miyaoka 8194
Part II. Around the verb
The efficacy of anaphoricity in Aleut
Jerrold M. Sadock 97114
Objective conjugations in Eskaleut and Uralic: Evidence from Inuit and Mansi
Marc-Antoine Mahieu 115134
Complex verb formation revisited: Restructuring in Inuktitut and 
Nuu-chah-nulth
Christine M. Pittman 135147
Determining the semantics of Inuktitut postbases
Conor Cook and Alana Johns 149170
The marking of past time in Kalaallisut, the Greenlandic language
Naja Frederikke Trondhjem 171182
Part III. Discourses and contacts
Tracking topics: A comparison of topic in Aleut and Greenlandic discourse
Anna Berge 185200
Arguments and information management in Inuktitut
Elke Nowak 201214
Space and structure in Greenlandic oral tradition
Arnaq Grove 215230
Grammatical structures in Greenlandic as found in texts written by 
young Greenlanders at the turn of the millennium
Karen Langgård 231247
Chat  New rooms for language contact
Birgitte Jacobsen 249260
Seward Peninsula Inupiaq and language contact around Bering Strait
Lawrence D. Kaplan 261272
Typological constraints on code mixing in InuktitutEnglish bilingual adults
Shanley Allen, Fred Genesee, Sarah Fish and Martha Crago 273306
Index of languages  307308
Index of subjects  309312

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