This landmark publication brings together 28 papers on reflexive constructions in languages from all continents, representing very diverse language types. While reflexive constructions have been discussed in the past from a variety of angles, this is the first edited volume of its kind. All the chapters are based on original data, and they are broadly comparable through a common terminological framework. The volume opens with two introductory chapters by the editors that set the stage and lay out the main comparative concepts, and it concludes with a chapter presenting generalizations on the basis of the studies of individual languages.

This volume explores the grammatical properties of body-part expressions across a range of languages and language families in the Americas, including Arawakan, Eastern Tukano, Mataguayan, Panoan, and Takanan. Expressions denoting parts of the body often exhibit specific grammatical properties that are intrinsically related to their semantics, and frequently appear in dedicated constructions, many of which are found exclusively in association with these expressions. Following a detailed introduction and discussion of the foundations of body-part grammar, the chapters in the first part of the book investigate categorialization, lexicalization, and the semantic processes associated with body-part expressions. In the second part of the book, contributors investigate specific grammatical properties of body-part expressions, such as inalienability, incorporation, possessive constructions, prefixation, topicality, and word-formation strategies. The volume draws on data from lesser-known languages that are often under-represented in comparative work, and makes a significant contribution not only to the linguistics of the Americas and the typology of body-part expressions, but also to typological studies more broadly, and to historical, comparative, and anthropological linguistics.

The Indigenous Languages of the Americas is a comprehensive assessment of what is known about their history and classification. It identifies gaps in knowledge and resolves controversial issues while making new contributions of its own. The book deals with the major themes involving these languages: classification and history of the Indigenous languages of the Americas; issues involving language names; origins of the languages of the New World; unclassified and spurious languages; hypotheses of distant linguistic relationships; linguistic areas; contact languages (pidgins, lingua francas, mixed languages); and loanwords and neologisms.

The series Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science is designed to illuminate a field which not only includes general linguistics and the study of linguistics as applied to specific languages, but also covers those more recent areas which have developed from the increasing body of research into the manifold forms of communicative action and interaction.

This monographic study of the Panoan family will serve as an invaluable handbook for both Panoanists seeking a broader perspective and scholars who require an introduction to the family. A new classification encompassing all the extant and extinct Panoan languages and dialects, an evaluation of proposed relations to other language families, a detailed history of Panoan linguistics, a typological overview of the phonology and grammar, and a description of ethnolinguistic features in the family combine to provide a complete picture of Panoan languages and linguistics. An index with the synonyms and spelling variants of all the language names and ethnonyms that are or have been claimed to be Panoan will allow for obscure references in the literature to be quickly resolved.

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