A Grammar of Yidin
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Published:8th Apr '10
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Professor Dixon examines the grammar of Yidin, an Australian dying language.
Professor Dixon examines the grammar of Yidin, an Australian dying language, through phonology, syntax and of a 'mixed ergative' type that cannot easily be accommodated in terms of standard syntactic theory.Professor Dixon's book The Dyirbal Language of North Queensland (CUP 1972) is acknowledge to be a classic study. His study of Yidin is directly comparable in importance. Yidin, which is also a dying language, is Dyirbal's northerly neighbour. Yet the two languages have striking and fundamental differences in each area of grammar (while still both belonging to the Australian language family). In the phonology, there is a preference for each word to consist of an even number of syllables, in order to satisfy the stress targets of Yidin. Syntactically, the language is of a 'mixed ergative' type that cannot easily be accommodated in terms of standard syntactic theory. These and a number of other special features of Yidin have a crucial bearing on several theoretical enquiries into linguistic universals.
ISBN: 9780521142427
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 33mm
Weight: 860g
592 pages