Description
Book SynopsisMursi is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by a small group of people who live in the Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia, and is one of the most endangered languages of the country. Based on the fieldwork that the author conducted in beautiful villages of the Mursi community, this descriptive grammar is organized into fourteen chapters rich in examples and an appendix containing four transcribed texts. The readers are thus provided with a clear and useful tool, which constitutes and important addition to our knowledge of Mursi and of other related languages spoken in the area. Besides being an empirical data source for linguists interested in typology and endangered language description and documentation, the grammar constitutes an invaluable gift to the speech community.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Tables, Maps, Diagrams, and Figures Abbreviations and Conventions 1 Introduction 1.1 The Mursi People: Historical Background 1.2 Linguistic Profile of Mursi 1.3 Geography and Mursi Neighbours 1.4 Economy and Subsistence 1.5 Traditional Leadership 1.6 Local Groups, Clans, Kinship System and Age Sets 1.7 Major Traditional Practices 1.8 Cattle, Color Terms and Naming 1.9 Linguistic Affiliation 1.10 Sociolinguistic Situation 1.11 Previous Studies; Ethnographic Exploration in the Lower Omo Valley 1.12 Fieldwork Methodology and Language Data 2 Phonology 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Notes on Orthography and Phonetic Transcriptions 2.3 Inventory of Phonemes 2.4 Syllable Structure 2.5 Phonological Processes 2.6 Tone 2.7 Wordhood 2.8 Clitics 2.9 Special Phonology 2.10 Female Register 3 Word Classes 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Open Word Classes 3.3 Closed Word Classes 4 Noun Phrase Structure 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Non-clausal Modifiers of NP 4.3 Clausal Modifiers 4.4 Nominalizers 4.5 Complex Modification 4.6 Summary of Head-Modifier Dependency Relation 5 Possession 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Juxtaposed System 5.3 Possessive Construction with A and B Possessors 5.4 Possessive Construction with C-type (Possessive Pronouns) 5.5 Pertensive 5.6 Noun Modification Constructions 5.7 Predicative Possessive Construction 5.8 Summary 6 Number 6.1 Introduction 6.2 The Realization of Number 6.3 Suffixation 6.4 Suppletion 6.5 Number Marking by Tone 6.6 n/g Alternation 6.7 The Bound Number/Aspect Marking Forms -t/-ɗ 6.8 Additional Suffixes 6.9 Number-Determined Suppletive Verb Forms 6.10 Reduplication 6.11 Number Words 6.12 Number and Agreement 7 The Verb and Predicate Structure 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Phonological Properties of Verb Roots 7.3 Morphological Properties 8 Adjectives 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Phonological Properties of Adjectives 8.3 Morphological Properties of Adjectives 8.4 Syntactic Properties 8.5 Semantic Properties 8.6 Summary 9 Valency Changing Operations 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Valency Decreasing Derivations 9.3 Valency-Increasing Derivations 10 Grammatical Relations 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Constituent Order 10.3 Case Markers 10.4 Adpositions 10.5 Verb-Final Suffix 11 Comparative Constructions 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Mono-clausal Comparative Construction 11.3 Phrasal plus Mono-clausal Construction 11.4 Bi-clausal Construction Type I 11.5 Bi-clausal Construction Type II 11.6 ɓá Construction 11.7 Other Types of Comparative Constructions 11.8 Equality Construction 12 Questions 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Content Questions 12.3 Non-interrogative Particles 12.4 Tag Questions 12.5 Polar Questions 12.6 Other Question Strategies 13 Negation 13.1 Introduction 13.2 Bound Negators 13.3 Negating a Copula Clause 13.4 Negative Existential Verb níŋɛ ‘Not Present’ 13.5 Inherently Negative Verb ímág 13.6 Indefinite-Like Words 13.7 Interjection ɪmm ɪmm ‘no’ 13.8 Tracing and Linking Negators 14 Clause Types, Clause Combining and Coordination 14.1 Introduction 14.2 Clause Types 14.3 Clause Coordination Appendix: Transcribed Texts Bibliography Subject Index
