Table of contents
Prefacexi
Abbreviations and spelling conventionsxiii
Learning Usanxv
Mapsxvi
1 The Usan people and their language1
1.0 Introduction1
1.1 The Usan as speech community4
1.2 Theoretical principles20
2 Phonology25
2.1 The phonemes25
2.2 Syllable and word structure36
2.3 Stress39
2.4 Intonation41
3 Morphology43
3.0 Introduction43
3.1 Verbs43
3.2 Nouns48
3.3 Pronouns52
3.4 Question words58
3.5 Nominal modifiers60
3.6 Adverbs69
3.7 Deictics76
3.8 Connectives81
3.9. Affixation86
4 Predication120
4.1 Order of constituents120
4.2 Classes of predicates127
4.3 Verb serialization143
4.4 Terms150
4.5 Sentence types170
5 Coordination and switch-reference174
5.0 Introduction174
5.1 Coordination of terms176
5.2 Coordination of predicates189
5.3 Switch-reference198
6 Subordination207
6.0 Introduction207
6.1 Topic208
6.2 Relative clause216
6.3 Conditionals235
6.4 Temporals and Peak information244
6.5 Cause and reason248
6.6 Purpose254
6.7 Subordination compared with coordination261
6.8 Beyond the sentence266
7 Sentential modes271
7.0 Introduction271
7.1 Negation271
7.2 Interrogation290
7.3 Imperatives303
7.4 Conclusion309
8 Organization of information310
8.0 Introduction310
8.1 In conversation311
8.2 In a ‘travelogue’317
8.3 In an edited folktale326
8.4 Conclusion337
Appendix: Text material338
The story about the moon338
The story about the sky354
References360
Index of names367
Index of languages369
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