1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910777350703321

Autore

Dixon Robert M. W. <1939->

Titolo

Australian languages : their nature and development / / R.M.W. Dixon

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2002

ISBN

1-316-08475-2

1-280-41689-0

0-511-17777-1

0-511-03957-3

0-511-14818-6

0-511-33022-7

0-511-48686-3

0-511-05307-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xlii, 734 pages) : illustrations, maps; digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Cambridge language surveys

Disciplina

499/.15

Soggetti

Australian languages

Australian languages - Grammar

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 700-718) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Half-title; Series-title; Title; Copyright; CONTENTS; MAPS; ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS; PREFACE; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; CONVENTIONS FOLLOWED; LANGUAGES AND LANGUAGE GROUPS; 1 The language situation in Australia; 2 Modelling the language situation; 3 Overview; 4 Vocabulary; 5 Case and other nominal suffixes; 6 Verbs; 7 Pronouns; 8 Bound pronouns; 9 Prefixing and fusion; 10 Generic nouns, classifiers, genders and noun classes; 11 Ergative/accusative morphological and syntactic profiles; 12 Phonology; 13 Genetic subgroups and small linguistic areas; 14 Summary and conclusion; References; INDEX OF LANGUAGES, DIALECTS AND LANGUAGE GROUPS; SUBJECT INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

Aboriginal people have been in Australia for at least 40,000 years, speaking about 250 languages. Through examination of published and unpublished materials on each of the individual languages, Professor



Dixon surveys the ways in which the languages vary typologically and presents a profile of this long-established linguistic area. The areal distribution of most features is illustrated with more than 30 maps, showing that the languages tend to move in cyclic fashion with respect to many of the parameters. There is also an index of languages and language groups. Professor Dixon, a pioneering scholar in the field, brings an interesting perspective to this diverse and complex material.