A Grammar of Mina / / Zygmunt Frajzyngier, Eric Johnston.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DGBA Backlist Complete English Language 2000-2014 PART1
• VerfasserIn: Frajzyngier, Zygmunt,; Johnston, Eric,
• MitwirkendeR: Edwards, Adrian,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter Mouton, , [2011]; ©2005
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Language: English
• Series: Mouton Grammar Library [MGL] , 36
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (509 p.)
• Other title: I-XX --; Chapter 1. Introduction --; Chapter 2. Phonology --; Chapter 3. The structure of the noun phrase --; Chapter 4. The verb and its forms --; Chapter 5. Argument coding --; Chapter 6. Coding the event from the point of view of subject --; Chapter 7. Locative predication and locative complements --; Chapter 8. Adjuncts --; Chapter 9. Goal-orientation extension --; Chapter 10. Tenses --; Chapter 11. Aspects --; Chapter 12. Modality --; Chapter 13. End-of-event coding --; Chapter 14. Negation --; Chapter 15. Verbless clauses --; Chapter 16. Interrogative clauses --; Chapter 17. Reference system --; Chapter 18. Focus constructions --; Chapter 19. Topicalization --; Chapter 20. Parataxis --; Chapter 21. Complementation --; Chapter 22. Temporal and conditional clauses --; Chapter 23. Purpose, reason, and conclusion clauses --; Chapter 24. Comparative constructions --; Chapter 25. Relative clause --; Chapter 26. Elements of discourse structure --; Texts --; Index --; References
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9783110893908; 9783110238570; 9783110238501; 9783110636246; 9783110742961; 9783110277111; 9783110277173; 9783110277142; 9783110276886
• ISSN: 0933-7636
• DOI: 10.1515/9783110893908
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Zygmunt Frajzyngier, Eric Johnston.

A Grammar of Mina is a reference grammar of a hitherto undescribed and endangered Central Chadic language. The book contains a description of the phonology, morphology, syntax, and all the functional domains encoded by this language. For each hypothesis regarding a form of linguistic expression and its function, ample evidence is given. The description of formal means and of the functions coded by these means is couched in terms accessible to all linguists regardless of their theoretical orientations. The outstanding characteristics of Mina include: vowel harmony; use of phonological means, including vowel deletion and vowel retention, to code phrasal boundaries; two tense and aspectual systems, each system carrying a different pragmatic function; a lexical category ‘locative predicator’ hitherto not observed in other languages; some tense, aspect, and mood markers that occur before the verb, and others that occur after the verb; the markers of interrogative and negative modality that occur in clause-final position; the conjunction used for a conjoined noun phrase in the subject function that differs from the conjunction used for a conjoined noun phrase in all other functions.In addition to the coding of argument structure, adjuncts, tense, aspect, and mood categories, Mina also codes the category point-of-view. The language has a clausal category ‘comment clause’ used in both simple and complex sentences, which overtly marks the speaker’s comment on the proposition. The discourse structure has the principle of unity of place. If one of the participants in a described event changes scene, that is coded by a special syntactic construction in addition to any verb of movement that may be used. Because of these unusual linguistic characteristics, the Grammar of Mina will be of interest to a wide range of linguists.