21.2624, Diss: Lang Doc/Morphology/Syntax: Lanz: 'A Grammar of I ñupiaq ...'

linguist at LINGUISTLIST.ORG linguist at LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Thu Jun 17 11:32:30 UTC 2010


LINGUIST List: Vol-21-2624. Thu Jun 17 2010. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 21.2624, Diss: Lang Doc/Morphology/Syntax: Lanz: 'A Grammar of Iñupiaq ...'

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>
 
Reviews: Monica Macaulay, U of Wisconsin-Madison  
Eric Raimy, U of Wisconsin-Madison  
Joseph Salmons, U of Wisconsin-Madison  
Anja Wanner, U of Wisconsin-Madison  
       <reviews at linguistlist.org> 

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, 
and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Mfon Udoinyang <mfon at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at
http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm.

===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 12-Jun-2010
From: Linda Lanz < lindalanz at gmail.com >
Subject: A Grammar of Iñupiaq Morphosyntax
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 07:30:23
From: Linda Lanz [lindalanz at gmail.com]
Subject: A Grammar of Iñupiaq Morphosyntax

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=21-2624.html&submissionid=2637935&topicid=14&msgnumber=1
  


Institution: Rice University 
Program: Department of Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2010 

Author: Linda Lanz

Dissertation Title: A Grammar of Iñupiaq Morphosyntax 

Linguistic Field(s): Language Documentation
                     Morphology
                     Syntax

Subject Language(s): Inupiatun, Northwest Alaska (esk)


Dissertation Director(s):
Claire Bowern

Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation presents a reference grammar of the Malimiut Coastal
dialect of Iñupiaq (Eskimo-Aleut > Eskimo > Inuit), an Eskimo-Aleut
language spoken in northwestern Alaska (ISO codes ESK, IPK). Also known as
Iñupiatun, it is the language of the Iñupiat people. The dissertation
complements existing documentation of Iñupiaq, filling gaps in our current
understanding of Iñupiaq. The data presented in the dissertation is the
result of five years of research, fieldwork and analysis. The aim is to
contribute to comprehensive documentation of the Iñupiaq language, with
particular focus on morphosyntax.

With approximately 2000 remaining speakers, mainly above 50 years of age,
Iñupiaq is endangered. Within the Iñupiat community there is a strong
commitment to language documentation and revitalization, driven by groups
such as the Alaska Native Language Center and local school districts. The
current work aims to provide a comprehensive description of the
morphosyntax of the language to the Iñupiat and academic communities. It
uses the standard Iñupiaq writing system (a modified Latin script) to make
it accessible to the Iñupiat community, as well as to allow for easier
comparison with existing texts. Examples are also glossed in IPA for ease
of use by linguists and other interested parties.

After providing an introduction to the language and reviewing previous
work, the dissertation describes Malimiut Iñupiaq phonetics and phonology,
nominal and verbal morphology, syntactic categories, wordhood,
constituency, and syntax. A final chapter is devoted to discussing major
findings. These include a previously undocumented phonological change in
progress, the apparent shift of /?/ (Iñupiaq 'r') to the American English
/?/ in younger speakers and heritage learners. I argue that this has
several interrelated causes, including age, Iñupiaq literacy, declining
Iñupiaq usage, and the influence of English. The dissertation also
documents case stacking in Iñupiaq demonstrative adverbs and demonstrative
pronouns, a phenomenon by which these words are marked with grammatical
case twice. Though the process works differently for demonstrative adverbs
and for demonstrative pronouns, both exhibit this double case marking,
which is previously undocumented in Eskimo-Aleut. The existence of case
stacking on adverbs is a particularly exciting discovery, because it
challenges currently accepted theories of case stacking that motivate case
stacking via argument structure. As adverbs are not a part of argument
structure, it suggests another mechanism for multiple case stacking must be
necessary.

Although eastern members of the Inuit dialect chain have been much more
extensively documented, many areas of Iñupiaq grammar remain undocumented.
This dissertation is the first to discuss a number of morphosyntactic
topics specifically for Iñupiaq, including argument status, clause-level
and sentence-level constituency, types of predication, wordhood
(phonological vs. morphological vs. syntactic), and clause combining. What
arises out of exploring many of these topics is that there is a real need
to separate morphology and syntax in Malimiut Iñupiaq. It has often been
assumed that because Inuit languages have so very much morphology - over
400 derivational suffixes alone - that morphology and syntax are one and
the same in these languages. However, clause combining and
constituency - among other phenomena - demonstrate that purely syntactic
phenomena exist in the language. 




-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-21-2624	

	



More information about the LINGUIST mailing list