Rowicka Grażyna J., Carlin Eithne B. (eds.) What’s in a verb? Studies in the verbal morphology of the languages of the Americas

Utrecht: LOT, 2006. — ii, 252 p. — ISBN13: 978-90-76864-94-5.The purpose of this volume is threefold.First, it recognises the unparalleled impact that the study of indigenous languages of the Americas has had on progress in linguistics, in particular in the area of morphosyntax, since the early 20th century. This book is devoted to verbal morphology, which tends to be the most complex grammatical component in the languages of the Americas and often constitutes the first challenge that a researcher of an undescribed or poorly studied language encounters. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to provide a fully representative picture of the diversity of structural complexity that verbal forms exhibit in the indigenous American languages in one volume. However, the present book offers a synopsis of the morphological categories that play an important role in verbal morphology and that have attracted the attention of linguists active on the American continent.Second, the rich linguistic variety in the Americas has given rise to a number of regionally specialised groups of experts. The present volume overrides regional boundaries and provides an overview of interesting verbal phenomena across North, Central, and South America, hoping to contribute to more interaction in the field of Americanist studies.Last but not least, we wish to take stock of the long-standing tradition of Dutch and the Netherlands-based linguists working in the Americas and give an overview of current Dutch involvement in the study of these languages. The contributors to this volume are therefore either Dutch themselves or have been affiliated with a Dutch research institute while carrying out their research. In recent years the Dutch involvement in the study of indigenous languages of the Americas has been growing rapidly, in particular in South America.This volume is a collection of articles presenting original fieldwork results and/or innovative comparative research, often on little known languages and phenomena, and illustrated with unique data. Each contribution provides a brief outline of the verbal morphology of the language under consideration and an in-depth analysis of a selected topic.North and Central America
Algonquian verb structure: Plains Cree
Typological aspects of Lillooet transitive verb inflection
Athabascan verb stem structure: Tahltan
Transitive linker in Upper Chehalis (Salish)
Valency-changing devices in Metzontla Popoloc
South America
The vicissitudes of directional affixes in Tarma (Northern Junín) Quechua
The verbalizers in Trio (Cariban): a semantic description
Verbal number in Itonama
Object cross-reference in Leko
Stative verbs vs. nouns in Sateré-Mawé and the Tupian family
Verbal morphology in Uchumataqu
The system of evidentiality in Lakondê (Nambikwára)