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Nebraska
Press Series 1
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The Salish Language Family: Reconstructing
Syntax
Paul D. Kroeber, Cloth: 1999,
xxxi, 464, CIP.LC 99-18236 ISBN : 0-8032-2740-X
Studies in the Anthropology of North American
Indians Series
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"A significant
contribution to Salishan linguistics and more generally
to the linguistics of Native America. It is, I believe,
the most comprehensive comparative study of a set of
syntactic structures to date for any language family
in the Americas (and perhaps elsewhere as well). . .
. The scholarship is impressive throughout.”—Sarah
G. Thomason, editor of Contact Languages: A Wider
Perspective.
In this pioneering study Paul D. Kroeber
examines the history of an array of important syntactic
constructions in the Salish language family. This group
of some twenty-three languages, centrally located in
the Northwest Coast and Plateau Regions, is noted for
its intriguing differences from European languages,
including the possible irrelevance of a noun/verb distinction
to grammatical structure and the existence of distinctive
systems of articles, which also often function as marks
of subordination.
Kroeber draws on and analyzes data
from a wide range of textual and other sources. Centering
his detailed investigation on patterns of subordination
and focusing, he situates these against the broader
background of Salish syntax, examines their interrelationships,
and reconstructs their historical development. The result
is a study that significantly enhances understanding
of the structure and history of Salish. As important,
Kroeber’s critical command of sources and well-considered
historical proposals are exemplary, setting a methodological
standard for Americanist scholarship.
Paul D. Kroeber has written for International
Journal of American Linguistics and Anthropological
Linguistics. He is a research associate in the
Department of Anthropology at Indiana University, Bloomington.
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