Grammatical Analysis: Morphology, Syntax and Semantics: Studies in Honor of Stanley Starosta

This volume focuses on problems in the morphological and syntactic analysis of certain Asian and Pacific languages, bringing to bear alternative theories of grammar, including relational, categorial, and lexicase dependency grammar, and a whole-word approach to morphology. Among the languages treated are Thai, Tagalog, and a number of aboriginal languages of Taiwan (thought to be the homeland of the Austronesian [Malayo-Polynesian] family of languages). Several of the studies have a historical dimension, offering explanations for such disparate phenomena as the puzzling origins of prenasalized consonants in the Oceanic subfamily of Austronesian, the origins and staying-power of morphological classes in languages generally, the seemingly contradictory nature of a certain Thai personal pronoun, and the emergence of a new case-marker in Korean. Semantics prevails in the examination of bodily and mental process expressions in the Kalam language of New Guinea.

Contributors: Byron W. Bender; Marybeth Clark; Videa P. De Guzman; Simon Peter Gi; Kitima Indrambarya; John Kias; Pranee Kullavanijaya; Paul Jen-kuei Li; Francis Lindsey, Jr.; Ian Saem Majnep; William O'Grady; Andrew Pawley; Amara Prasithrathsint; Lawrence A. Reid; Saranya Savetmalya; Shigeru Tsuchida; Supriya Wilawan; In-Seok Yang; Marie Meili Yeh; Elizabeth Zeitoun.