Deixis and Alignment

Inverse systems in indigenous languages of the Americas

Fernando Zúñiga | Centro de Estudios Públicos, Santiago Chile

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027229823 | EUR 120.00 | USD 180.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027293046 | EUR 120.00 | USD 180.00

This book proposes a notion of inverse that differs from two widespread positions found in descriptive and typological studies (one of them restrictive and structure-oriented, the other broad and function-centered). This third stance put forward here takes both grammar and pragmatic functions into account, but it also relates the opposition between direct and inverse verbs and clauses to an opposition between deictic values, thereby achieving two advantageous goals: it meaningfully circumvents one of the usual analytic dilemmas, namely whether a given construction is passive or inverse, and it refines our understanding of the cross-linguistic typology of inversion. This framework is applied to the description of the morphosyntax of eleven Amerindian languages (Algonquian: Plains Cree, Miami-Illinois, Ojibwa; Kutenai; Sahaptian: Sahaptin, Nez Perce; Kiowa-Tanoan: Arizona Tewa, PicurÃs, Southern Tiwa, Kiowa; Mapudungun).

[Typological Studies in Language, 70] 2006. xii, 309 pp.

Publishing status: Available
Published online on 1 July 2008

https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.70

Table of Contents

Foreword | p. ix

List of abbreviations | pp. xi–xii

Introduction | pp. 1–4

I. Alignment and direction | pp. 5–28

II. A theory of direction | pp. 29–68

III. Algonquian languages | pp. 69–128

IV. Kutenai | pp. 129–144

V. Sahaptian languages | pp. 145–172

VI. Kiowa-Tanoan languages | pp. 173–210

VII. Mapudungun | pp. 211–244

VIII. Conclusions | pp. 245–264

Appendix 1: Algonquian paradigms | pp. 265–272

Appendix 2: Analysis of Kiowa personal prefixes | pp. 273–274

Appendix 3: Optimality-theoretic syntax of inverses | pp. 275–285

References | pp. 287–300

Language index | p. 301

Author index | pp. 303–305

Subject index | pp. 307–309

“This book constitutes a major contribution to the study of an extremely complex linguistic phenomenon. It can be recommended to anyone interested in typology in general, and in hierarchically based language systems in particular.”

Denis Creissels, University of Lyon, in Language 85.2, 2009

“The strongest part of the book is the description of the alignment systems of the individual languages (chapters III-VII). The accuracy with which the author presents and analyzes the data and the accounts given by other linguists is simply impressive. Zúñiga does not oversimplify anything, and he never jumps to conclusions. When the data do not allow a clear-cut conclusion, he leaves the question open for further discussion or for the eventual future availability of more data (which, as he stresses, is problematic in view of the fact that most of the languages under study are in danger of extinction). The same holds for Zúñiga's treatment of the different theoretical approaches to hierarchical or inverse systems, which he discusses and weighs carefully. In this way, the book presents an excellent comparative overview of the different ways in which inverse or hierarchical systems are dealt with. ...this book is a very important contribution to the study of an extremely complex linguistic phenomenon. It will be indispensable for anyone interested in indexability hierarchies and inverse systems.”

Katharina Haude, University of Cologne, on Linguist List 18.2887, 2007

“This well-written and thoughtful book is valuable as a one-stop source for information about direct-inverse and related hierachical-asymmetric transitive morphosyntax in native languages of the Western Hemisphere. [...] We owe the author our gratitude for undertaking the arduous philological task of gleaning the relevant facts from the often forbidding primary literature, for his presentation and intelligent commentary on it, and not least for writing with unpretentious clarity and with the occasional much welcomed outcropping of dry wit.”

Jeffrey Heath, University of Michigan, in Studies in Language Vol. 33:4: 991-994 (2009)

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