Sinhala
Sinhala is one of the official languages of Sri Lanka and the mother tongue of over 70% of the population. Outside Sri Lanka it is used among immigrant populations in the U.K., North America, Australia and some European and Middle Eastern countries. As for the genetic relation, it belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. Although the earliest surviving literature in Sinhala dates from the 8th century A.D. its written tradition has traced a longer path of more than 2000 years.
Among the major topics covered in this volume are the writing system, phonology, morphology, grammatical constructions and discourse and pragmatic aspects of Sinhala. Written in a clear and lucid style, the book presents a rich sampling of the data and serves a useful typological reference. Therefore this is required reading for not only linguists and Sinhala specialists but also to anyone interested in language, thought, and culture.
Table of Contents
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Foreword | p. ix
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Preface | pp. xi–xii
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Romanization and text presentation | pp. xiii–xiv
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Abbreviations | p. xv
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Chapter 1. Introduction | pp. 1–20
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Chapter 2. Writing system | pp. 21–27
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Chapter 3. Sounds | pp. 28–39
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Chapter 4. Words | pp. 40–65
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Chapter 5. Morphology | pp. 66–94
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Chapter 6. Morphology-syntax interface | pp. 95–99
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Chapter 7. Argument structures | pp. 100–128
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Chapter 8. Noun phrase and verb phrase constructions | pp. 129–151
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Chapter 9. Grammatical constructions | pp. 152–180
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Chapter 10. Expanded sentences | pp. 181–206
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Chapter 11. Sentence and information structure | pp. 207–226
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Chapter 12. Discourse and grammar | pp. 227–253
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Chapter 13. Pragmatics and grammar | pp. 254–272
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Chapter 14. Sample texts | pp. 273–282
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Appendixes | pp. 283–285
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References | pp. 286–291
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Index | pp. 292–296