Perspectives on Grammar Writing

Editors
Thomas E. Payne | University of Oregon & SIL International
David J. Weber | Summer Institute of Linguistics
HardboundAvailable
ISBN 9789027222411 | EUR 85.00 | USD 128.00
 
e-Book
ISBN 9789027292087 | EUR 85.00 | USD 128.00
 
Google Play logo
With over half the languages of the world currently in danger of extinction within a century, the need for high quality grammatical descriptions is more urgent than ever. Potential grammar writers, however, often find themselves paralyzed by the daunting task of describing a language. The papers in the present volume (originally published in Studies in Language 30:2 (2006)) provide suggestions and encouragement – from experienced grammar writers and users – regarding concrete methods for approaching the task of writing a descriptive grammar of a language. Salient "themes" emerging from the papers in this volume include: The necessity of community involvement in grammatical descriptions; The link between a grammar and the other products of a program of language documentation (a dictionary and collection of texts); The complementary functions of elicited vs. naturally occurring data; and grammatical description as 'art' as well as 'science'.
[Benjamins Current Topics, 11] 2007.  viii, 218 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Table of Contents
“My conclusion from studying this book is that grammar writing (or a good grammar) must be both comprehensive and complete. A grammar must be written in a clear style and include many examples that are relevant and that have been carefully checked. The grammar should be readily accessible and appropriately presented, thereby enhancing the validity of the work and the author. These are also the basic concepts that all of the authors of this book address in differing but absolutely useful ways. ”
“The book provides a good starting point for anyone setting out to describe a language. It also provides a nice reference for what is expected of descriptive grammars as a genre, and I anticipate referring back to it, time and again, in the future as I expand upon my own grammar writing efforts. Although I doubt very much that there exists a description of a language that meets all the expectations presented in Perspectives on Grammar Writing, the volume is very readable and interesting, and the issues addressed are worth serious consideration and effort. ”
Cited by

Cited by 6 other publications

Peter K. Austin & Julia Sallabank
1999. The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages, DOI logo
van den Berg, René
2010. Review of Dixon (2010): Basic Linguistic Theory, Volume 1: Methodology. Studies in Language 34:3  pp. 737 ff. DOI logo
Voelkel, Svenja & Franziska Kretzschmar
2021. Introducing Linguistic Research, DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2009. Publications received. Lingua 119:9  pp. 1366 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Subjects

Main BIC Subject

CFK: Grammar, syntax

Main BISAC Subject

LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General
ONIX Metadata
ONIX 2.1
ONIX 3.0
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  2007024712 | Marc record