This monograph is not only the first comprehensive grammar of Papapana (a previously undocumented and under-described endangered language) but the first full reference grammar of any Oceanic language of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, despite this region displaying considerable linguistic innovation and language contact phenomena with numerous typologically significant features. This book describes Papapana on various levels, including phonology, morphology and syntax in noun phrases and the verb complex, and syntax at the clause- and sentence-level. Throughout the grammar, the described phenomena are related to the current research on typological and Oceanic linguistics. Typologically unusual features of Papapana include multiple reduplication, inverse-number marking in the noun phrase and postverbal subject-indexing. The book also describes the sociolinguistic and historical context within which Papapana is spoken and highlights linguistic changes resulting from language contact. The monograph fills an important gap in terms of grammatical descriptions of Bougainville Oceanic languages, and makes a significant contribution to the field of Oceanic linguistics, and to future comparative linguistic and typological research.

Based on analysis of more than 1,000 languages, this volume reconstructs more than 500 processes of grammatical change in the languages of the world.

This is the first comprehensive grammar of Kakataibo (a Panoan language spoken in Peru). It is based upon 7 years of study of the language and a corpus of more than 40 hours of recordings. Considering that there is no such a thing as a theoretically

This work describes the grammar of Kokota, a highly endangered Oceanic language of the Solomon Islands, spoken by about nine hundred people on the island of Santa Isabel. After several long periods among the Kokota, Dr. Palmer has written an unusually detailed and comprehensive description of the language. Kokota has never before been described, so this work makes an important contribution to our knowledge of the Oceanic languages of island Melanesia. Kokota Grammar examines the phonology of the language and includes a lengthy section on stress assignment. It continues with chapters on nouns and noun phrases, minor participant types, possession, argument structure, the verb complex, clause structure, imperative and interrogative constructions, and subordination and coordination (including verb serialization). The typological interest of Kokota, along with its degree of endangerment and the paucity of information on Northwest Solomonic languages in general, combined with the level of detail given in the volume, make this a work of considerable interest to Austronesian linguists, typologists, syntacticians, phonologists, and all who are involved in describing and documenting endangered languages.

Pichi is an Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creole spoken on the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea. It is an offshoot of 19th century Krio (Sierra Leone) and shares many characteristics with West African relatives like Nigerian Pidgin, Cameroon Pidgin, and Ghanaian Pidgin English, as well as with the English-lexifier creoles of the insular and continental Caribbean. This comprehensive description presents a detailed analysis of the grammar and phonology of Pichi. It also includes a collection of texts and wordlists. Pichi features a nominative-accusative alignment, SVO word order, adjective-noun order, prenominal determiners, and prepositions. The language has a seven-vowel system and twenty-two consonant phonemes. Pichi has a two-tone system with tonal minimal pairs, morphological tone, and tonal processes. The morphological structure is largely isolating. Pichi has a rich system of tense-aspect-mood marking, an indicative-subjunctive opposition, and a complex copular system with several suppletive forms. Many features align Pichi with the Atlantic-Congo languages spoken in the West African littoral zone. At the same time, characteristics like the prenominal position of adjectives and determiners show a typological overlap with its lexifier English, while extensive contact with Spanish has left an imprint on the lexicon and grammar as well.

Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations and notational conventions -- 1. Aims and scope of the book -- 2. Theoretical and methodological foundations -- 3. The grammar of purpose -- 4. Purpose clauses in the syntactic and conceptual space of complex sentences -- Summary: the developmental trajectories of purpose clauses -- Conclusion and outlook -- References