A Grammar of Cavineña

This book is a detailed high-quality descriptive grammar of the endangered Cavineña language (less than 1200 speakers), spoken in the Amazonian rainforest of Lowland Bolivia, an area where the indigenous languages are virtually unknown. Cavineña belongs to the Tacanan family, comprising five languages, none of which has been the subject of an adequate descriptive grammar. The grammar is based mostly on the extensive fieldwork conducted by the author in traditional Cavineña communities. Cast in the functional-typological framework, and based on natural discourse data, the grammar presents a detailed and copiously exemplified account of most aspects of the language, building up from basic levels (phonetic and phonological) to higher levels (morphological and syntactic), and from brief descriptions of each level to a more comprehensive description of the same level in specific chapters. The language contains a number of unusual features that will be of interest to typologist linguists, such as an unusual pitch accent system, a morpho-phonological rule that deletes case markers, an intricate predicate structure, a system of verbal suffixes coding associated motion, a specific causative of involvement marker, a peculiar prefix e- that attaches to nouns coding body parts and a complex system of second position clitic pronouns. The grammar will also be of interest to historical-comparative linguists, as for the first time one has sufficiently detailed grammatical information to make possible a reliable comparison with other languages with which Tacanan languages might be related, in particular the Panoan family, and to serve as input into hypotheses regarding the population history of this part of South America.

Auteur

Antoine Guillaume, CNRS & Université Lumière Lyon 2, France.

Contenu
ContentsList of platesList of tables xviiList of abbreviations xxSummary xxiiAcknowledgments xxivMaps xxvi1 The language and its speakers 11.1. Geographic location 11.2. Sociolinguistic situation 31.3. Physical environment, subsistance and culture 41.4. History 61.5. Genetic affiliation 81.6. Bibliographic review 91.7. Fieldwork 121.8. Corpus 151.9. Linguistic type 171.10. Writing systems 19Appendix to chapter 1 - List of example codes 202 Phonology 262.1. Consonants 262.1.1. Inventory 262.1.2. Phonetic realisations 272.1.3. Minimal pairs 302.2. Vowels 312.2.1. Inventory 312.2.2. Phonetic realisations 312.3. Foreign sounds 332.4. Syllable structure 342.5. Phonotactics 352.6. Justifying analytic choices 362.6.1. Complex consonants 362.6.2. Vowel sequences 382.6.3. Glides 392.7. Morpho-phonology 402.7.1. Palatalisation 412.7.2. Vowel deletion 412.7.3. Syllable deletion 412.7.4. Suffix deletion 422.7.5. Clitic deletion 432.7.6. Vowel addition 432.8. Accentual system 442.9. Intonation 452.9.1. Utterance-final contour 452.9.2. Emphatic contour 472.9.3. Intensifier contour 472.10. Previous writing systems 483 Grammatical vs. phonological word 513.1. Criteria for grammatical vs. phonological word 513.1.1. Grammatical word 513.1.2. Phonological word 533.2. Mismatch between grammatical and phonological words 543.2.1. One phonological word = two (or more) grammatical words 543.2.2. One grammatical word = two phonological words 563.3. Mono-syllabic grammatical words 573.4. When a phonological word only consists of clitics 594 Grammatical overview 614.1. Word classes 614.2. Predicate and verbs 624.2.1. Predicate structure 634.2.2. Verbs 664.3. Predicative adjectives 674.4. Noun phrase - nouns and NP modifiers 694.4.1. NP structure 694.4.2. Nouns 714.4.3. Attributive adjectives 734.4.4. Number markers 734.4.5. Quantifiers 744.5. Remaining word classes 754.5.1. Postpositions 754.5.2. Pronouns 764.5.3. Demonstratives 804.5.4. Content question words 814.5.5. Particles 824.5.6. Subordinate clause markers 864.5.7. Interjections 874.5.8. Onomatopoeia 894.6. Main clause structure 914.6.1. Basic clause structure 914.6.2. S, A and O grammatical functions 944.6.3. Copula clauses 964.6.4. Imperative and hortative clauses 1004.6.5. Interrogative clauses 1024.6.6. Negative clauses 1054.7. Dependent clauses 1084.8. Coordination 1104.8.1. Conjunction 1104.8.2. Disjunction 1145 Predicate structure - an overview 1175.1. Structure of the predicate 1185.1.1. Slots A/K: inflectional affixes 1195.1.2. Slot B: preverbal modifiers 1215.1.3. Slot C/G: valency-changing affixes 1215.1.4. Slot D: verb root 1225.1.5. Slot E: auxiliary 1235.1.6. Slot F: postural and directional suffixes 1245.1.7. Slot H: aktionsart suffixes 1255.1.8. Slot I: mode markers 1275.1.9. Slot J: postverbal modifiers 1275.2. Inflecting verbs 1285.2.1. Basic inflecting verbs 1285.2.2. Verbalisation of nouns 1315.2.3. Verbalisation of adjectives 1335.2.4. Verbalisation by reduplication 1405.2.5. Noun incorporation 1435.2.6. Formatives 1465.3. Non-inflecting verbs 1485.3.1. Basic non-inflecting verbs 1485.3.2. Borrowings 1495.3.3. Direct conversion 1515.3.4. Inherent reduplication 1545.3.5. Lexicalisation 1555.3.6. Transitivity 1555.4. Justifying the complex predicate analysis 1575.5. Reduplication 1606 Predicate structure - inflectional morphology 1626.1. TAM inflections 1636.1.1. -kware 'REM.PAST' and -chine 'REC.PAST' 1636.1.2. -buke 'REM.FUT' 1656.1.3. -ya 'IMPFV' 1676.1.4. -wa 'PERF' 1726.1.5. e--u 'POT' 1756.1.6. Verb with no inflectional marking 1766.2. Imperative, hortative and jussive inflections 1796.2.1. Imperative inflections 1796.2.2. Hortative inflections 1846.2.3. Jussive inflection 1866.2.4. Negating verbs with hortative and jussive inflections 1866.2.5. Non-command meanings 1876.2.6. Markedness and historical considerations 1887 Predicate structure - Aktionsart suffixes 1907.1. Aktionsart suffixes of aspect/manner 1917.1.1. -tere / -tirya 'COMP' vs. -bisha 'INCOMP' 1917.1.2. -jaka 'STOP' vs. -tibune 'START' 1947.1.3. -jeri/-neri 'ALMOST' 1967.1.4. -nuka 'REITR' 1987.1.5. -baka 'SHORT' vs. -siri 'LONG' 2007.1.6. -wisha 'FAST' 2027.1.7. -bare 'DISTR' 2037.1.8. -(ne)ni 'RANDOM' 2067.1.9. Last syllable reduplication + causative 2107.1.10. -aje/-be/-etibe 'INCR' 2137.2. Aktionsart suffixes of motion (S/A-oriented) 2177.2.1. System description 2187.2.2. Intended vs. incidental motion 2247.2.3. Foregrounded vs. backgrounded motion 2287.2.4. Corresponding verbs 2327.2.5. 'Leave' and 'arrive' 2337.2.6. S/A-orientation 2347.3. Aktionsart suffixes of motion (O-oriented) 2357.4. Aktionsart suffixes of time of day 2397.5. Aktionsart suffix of emotion 2437.6. Distribution 2487.7. Suffixes vs. compounded/serialised verbs? 2548 Predicate structure - valency-changing mechanisms 2578.1. Passive derivation 2588.2. Reflexive derivation 2708.2.1. Reflexive and reciprocal functions 2728.2.2. Benefactive reflexive 2748.2.3. Patientless reflexive 2778.2.4. Miscellaneous 2798.3. Antipassive derivations 2818.3.1. Full reduplication 2828.3.2. Exchanging auxiliaries 2868.4. Causative derivations 2908.4.1. Causativiser of intransitive verbs -sha 2918.4.2. Causativiser of transitive verbs -mere 2978.4.3. Causative of involvement -kere 3038.5. Distribution 3089 Predicate structure - postural and directional suffixes 3139.1. Postural suffixes 3139.1.1. -ani 'SIT' 3149.1.2. -neti/-nitya 'STAND' 3169.1.3. -jara 'LIE' 3189.1.4. -bade 'HANG' 3199.2. Directional suffixes 3209.2.1. -tsura 'GO UP' 3219.2.2. -bute/-butya 'GO DOWN' 3239.2.3. -sikwa 'GO AWAY' 3259.2.4. S/O-orientation 3279.3. Distribution 3279.4. Suffixes vs. compounded/serialised verbs? 32910 Predicate structure - auxiliary-taking processes 33010.1. Auxiliary-taking suffixes 33110.1.1. -kara/-karama 'DESID' 33110.1.2. -metse 'FIRST' 33410.1.3. -jakama 'CEASELESSLY' 33510.1.4. baw…