Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia: The State of the Art

N.J. Enfield, Bernard Comrie

Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, Mar 30, 2015 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 668 pages

The studies in this book represent the rich, diverse and substantial research being conducted today in the linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia. The chapters cover a broad scope. Several studies address questions of language relatedness, often challenging conventional assumptions about the status of language contact as an explanatory factor in accounting for linguistic similarities. Several address the question of Mainland Southeast Asia as a linguistic area, exploring new ways to imagine and define the boundaries, and indeed the boundedness, of a Mainland Southeast Asia area. Two contributions rethink the received notion of the 'sesquisyllable' with new empirical and theoretical angles. And a set of chapters explores topics in the morphology and syntax of the region's languages, sometimes challenging orthodox assumptions and claims about what a typical language of Mainland Southeast Asia is like. Written by leading researchers in the field, and with a substantial overview of current knowledge and new directions by the volume editors N. J. Enfield and Bernard Comrie, this book will serve as an authoritative source on where the linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia is at, and where it is heading.

Contents

• Mainland Southeast Asian languagesState of the art and new directions: 1
• Language relatedness in MSEA: 29
• Boundaries of the MSEA area: 153
• Defining the sesquisyllable: 441
• Subject index: 633
• Author index: 641
• Place index: 643
• Language index: 646

About the author

N.J. Enfield, University of Sydney; B. Comrie, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Bibliographic information

• Title: Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia: The State of the Art; Volume 649 of Pacific Linguistics [PL]
• Editors: N.J. Enfield, Bernard Comrie
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2015
• ISBN: 1501501682, 9781501501685
• Length: 668 pages
• Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / General; Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General; Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / Historical & Comparative; Literary Criticism / Asian / General; Social Science / Regional Studies