Coverbs and Complex Predicates in Wagiman - Softcover

Wilson, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1575861720 ISBN 13: 9781575861722

Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Inf, 1999

Synopsis

Wagiman is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by about ten people in the top end of the Northern Territory. It possesses an unusual open class of words which Wilson calls 'coverbs'. Coverbs are responsible for conveying a wide range of mostly verbal and adjectival meanings. They are most frequently paired with an inflecting verb from a closed class to form a complex predicate: the coverb and inflecting verb jointly determine the verbal semantics and argument structure of the clause. This book provides a descriptive and analytical account of the behaviour of coverbs in Wagiman, especially their role in complex predicate formation. The author seeks to discover what governs which pairings of coverbs and inflecting verbs are possible, and how the meaning of the whole can be derived from the meanings of the parts. Wilson pursues a formal account of Wagiman complex predicates within Lexical Functional Grammar, seeing complex predicate formation as the fusion of Lexical Conceptual Structures.

About this title

Book Description

Wagiman is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by about ten people in the top end of the Northern Territory. It possesses an unusual open class of words which Wilson calls 'coverbs'. This book provides a descriptive and analytical account of the behaviour of coverbs in Wagiman.

Edition details

• Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Inf
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1575861720
• ISBN 13: 9781575861722
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 152