17.331, Books: Language Description, Mbay: Keegan

Tue Jan 31 19:20:52 UTC 2006

LINGUIST List: Vol-17-331. Tue Jan 31 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.331, Books: Language Description, Mbay: Keegan

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>

Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org) 
        Sheila Dooley, U of Arizona  
        Terry Langendoen, U of Arizona  

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

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

Editor for this issue: Megan Zdrojkowski <megan at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

Links to the websites of all LINGUIST's supporting publishers
are available at the end of this issue. 

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

1)
Date: 25-Jan-2006
From: Ulrich Lueders < lincom.europa at t-online.de >
Subject: A Reference Grammar of Mbay: Keegan 

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 14:18:16
From: Ulrich Lueders < lincom.europa at t-online.de >
Subject: A Reference Grammar of Mbay: Keegan 

Title: A Reference Grammar of Mbay 
Series Title: LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 14  

Publication Year: 2006 
Publisher: Lincom GmbH
	   http://www.lincom.at

Author: John M Keegan

Paperback: ISBN: 3895861731 Pages: 240 Price: Europe EURO 74
Paperback: ISBN: 3895861731 Pages: 240 Price: U.S. $ 97.68
Paperback: ISBN: 3895861731 Pages: 249 Price: U.K. £ 51.04

Abstract:

A Reference Grammar of Mbay provides a solid introduction to the grammar of
Mbay, a Central-Sudanic language of the Sara family described in a
Dictionary of Mbay by the same author. It is based on extensive field
research among the Mbay in Chad during the period data for the dictionary
was collected. The grammar is divided into eight sections.

The first five describe the phonology and morphology. First, segmental
phonology is described, and a thorough explanation and justification of the
writing system is provided, followed by a description of tone and vowel
length. The second section treats morpheme structure, with emphasis on the
canonical and harmonic constraints which limit the shape of Mbay morphemes.
The inflectional paradigms are described in the third section, and this is
followed in the fourth by an explanation of the phonological change
associated with inflection, with emphasis on a description of the different
types of tonal change. Section five treats the limited word formation
processes found in the language.

Section six through eight treat Mbay syntax. Section six describes the
structure and uses of the different categories and subcategories, and
includes descriptions of alienable/inalienable nouns, verb aspect, serial
verbs, adjectival uses of verbs and nouns, and the various uses of
ideophones, specifiers and compleentizers. 

Section seven deals with word order, describing sentence order as well as
the structure of the noun, verb and prepositional phrase. Included in this
section are a number of special structures and expressions. In general, the
description contained in these sections attempts to be broad in scope, and
includes explanations of how to express common concepts (e.g. existence,
impersonal expression, comparison, superlative, etx.) as well as
interesting aspects of Mbay syntax which transcend individual categories
(eg. the notion of 'standing/sitting/lying'). 

Section eight deals with the rules governing the mandatory subject and
object reference affices. The grammatical descriptions are accompanied by
abundant examples, and in many cases word for word translation are given in
addition to a more conventional translation. 

Linguistic Field(s): Language Description

Subject Language(s): Mbay (myb)

Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=18028

MAJOR SUPPORTERS

	Blackwell Publishing          
		http://www.blackwellpublishing.com	

	Cambridge University Press          
		http://us.cambridge.org	

	Cascadilla Press          
		http://www.cascadilla.com/	

	Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd          
		http://www.continuumbooks.com	

	Edinburgh University Press          
		http://www.eup.ed.ac.uk/	

	Elsevier Ltd.          
		http://www.elsevier.com/linguistics	

	Equinox Publishing Ltd.          
		http://www.equinoxpub.com/	

	European Language Resources Association          
		http://www.elda.org/sommaire.php	

	Georgetown University Press          
		http://www.press.georgetown.edu	

	Hodder Arnold          
		http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk	

	John Benjamins          
		http://www.benjamins.com/	

	Lawrence Erlbaum Associates          
		http://www.erlbaum.com/	

	Lincom GmbH          
		http://www.lincom.at	

	MIT Press          
		http://mitpress.mit.edu/	

	Mouton de Gruyter          
		http://www.mouton-publishers.com	

	Multilingual Matters          
		http://www.multilingual-matters.com/	

	Oxford University Press          
		http://www.oup.com/us	

	Rodopi          
		http://www.rodopi.nl/	

	Routledge (Taylor and Francis)          
		http://www.routledge.com/	

	Springer          
		http://www.springeronline.com	

OTHER SUPPORTING PUBLISHERS	

	Anthropological Linguistics
		http://www.indiana.edu/~anthling/ 

	CSLI Publications
		http://cslipublications.stanford.edu/ 

	Graduate Linguistic Students' Assoc.   Umass
		http://glsa.hypermart.net/ 

	International Pragmatics Assoc.
		http://ipra-www.uia.ac.be/ipra/ 

	Kingston Press Ltd
		http://www.kingstonpress.com/ 

	Linguistic Assoc. of Finland
		http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/sky/ 

	MIT Working Papers in Linguistics
		http://web.mit.edu/mitwpl/ 

	Pacific Linguistics
		http://pacling.anu.edu.au/ 

	Palgrave Macmillan
		http://www.palgrave.com 

	SIL International
		http://www.ethnologue.com/bookstore.asp 

	St. Jerome Publishing Ltd.
		http://www.stjerome.co.uk 

	Utrecht Institute of Linguistics / LOT Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistic
		http://www-uilots.let.uu.nl/ 

-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-17-331	