Classificatory Particles in Kilivila (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780195092110)

Common among the world's languages is the phenomenon of classification, a partly or fully grammatical division of the noun lexicon into distinct classes that ultimately derives from the human need to classify and filter data on various levels while communicating. In this book, Senft describes and develops a grammar of classificatory particles in Kilivila, an Austronesian language of the Trobriand Islanders in Papua New Guinea. Drawing largely on his anthropological and linguistic fieldwork in the islands, and emphasizing the use of classifiers in a social context, Senft provides quantitative data and a statistical profile of the status and use of these particles, and the classifier system that employs them.

Author: Gunter Senft
ISBN-10: 0195092112
ISBN-13: 9780195092110
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Language: English
Published: 03/14/1996
Pages: 400
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 9.93lbs
Size: 9.96h x 5.84w x 1.22d