Taba: Description of a South Halmahera language (Pacific linguistics 521)

John Bowden

ISBN 10: 0858835177 / ISBN 13: 9780858835177

Published by Australian National University, 2001

About this Item

459 p. Includes: maps, bibliography. Taba is an Austronesian language spoken on the Halmahera region of eastern Indonesia. This book is the only comprehensive modern grammar of any language from the South Halmahera-West New Guinea subgroup that is a sister to the much better documented Oceanic branch. Taba is a mixed split-S and accusative language with a rich variety of phonemic consonant clusters, a complex system of directionals, and many other features of interest to both Austronesianists and general typologists. The analysis of ditransitive clauses is a major innovation: the author contends that ditransitives exhibit a mixed primary object and split-P pattern of argument alignment. The grammar also contains a wealth of information on the sometimes radical changes occurring in contemporary Taba under the impact of Malay. 0.0.

Seller Inventory # ABE.0013229

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Taba: Description of a South Halmahera language (Pacific linguistics 521)
• Publisher: Australian National University
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0858835177
• ISBN 13: 9780858835177
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Fine

About this title

Synopsis

Taba is an Austronesian language spoken on the Halmahera region of eastern Indonesia. This book is the only comprehensive modern grammar of any language from the South Halmahera-West New Guinea subgroup that is a sister to the much better documented Oceanic branch. Taba is a mixed split-S and accusative language with a rich variety of phonemic consonant clusters, a complex system of directionals, and many other features of interest to both Austronesianists and general typologists. The analysis of ditransitive clauses is a major innovation: the author contends that ditransitives exhibit a mixed primary object and ‘split-P’ pattern of argument alignment. The grammar also contains a wealth of information on the sometimes radical changes occurring in contemporary Taba under the impact of Malay.