Samoan Reference GrammarSamoan Reference Grammar is the first extensive grammar of Samoan, by number of speakers the largest Polynesian language. The grammar is divided into eighteen chapters which cover phonetics, phonology, and orthography, word classification and morphology, the syntax of various types of phrases, simple clause structure, nominalization, dependent clauses, coordination, and finally, case marking and grammatical relations. The descriptive framework is not tied to a particular linguistic theory, but is based on the empirical findings of linguistic typology during the last two decades. The grammar is descriptive in the sense that it takes the Samoan ways of expression as the starting point of analysis and describes the meanings which are encoded by the various types of construction. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 3 |
PHONOLOGY AND ORTHOGRAPHY | 19 |
A PRELIMINARY VIEW | 49 |
Copyright | |
17 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
action adverbial agent ANAPH Apia argument ART girl ART(nsp.sg combined complement clause CONJ constructions denoting dependent derived EMPH erg.v ergative ergative verbs event examples exist expressed fale fish fronted function GENR girl indicates interrogative introduced language lava LD ART locative-directional look marked Maunu meaning Moana modifying morphemes mother nominalised verbal clauses non-erg.v non-ergative noun phrase nucleus numerals occur particle PAST patient PERF person plural POSS ART possessive preceding predicate preposition PRES ART presentative PROG pronoun reduplication reference relative clause Samoan sentences singular sp.pl specific suffix syllable syntactic tagata tama teine thing transitive types usually verb phrase vowel woman