Full Description
This book focuses on the form and the function of commands--directive speech acts such as pleas, entreaties, and orders--from a typological perspective. A team of internationally-renowned experts in the field examine the interrelationship of these speech acts with cultural stereotypes and practices, as well as their origins and development, especially in the light of language contact.
The volume begins with an introduction outlining the marking and the meaning of imperatives and other ways of expressing commands and directives. Each of the chapters that follow offers an in-depth analysis of commands in a particular language. These analyses are cast in terms of 'basic linguistic theory'--a cumulative typological functional framework--and the chapters are arranged and structured in a way that allows useful comparison between them. The languages investigated include Quechua, Japanese, Lao, Aguaruna and Ashaninka Satipo (both from Peru), Dyirbal (from Australia), Zenzontepec Chatino (from Mexico), Nungon, Tayatuk, and Karawari (from Papua New Guinea), Korowai (from West Papua), Wolaitta (from Ethiopia), and Northern Paiute (a native language of the United States).
Contents
Preface
Notes on the contributors
Abbreviations
1: Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald: Imperatives and commands: A cross-linguistic view
2: Willem F. H. Adelaar: Imperatives and commands in Quechua
3: Simon E. Overall: The grammatical representation of commands and prohibitions in Aguaruna
4: Elena Mihas: Imperatives in Ashaninka Satipo (Kampa Arawak) of Peru
5: Eric W. Campbell: Commands in Zenzontepec Chatino (Otomanguean)
6: R. M. W. Dixon: What Dyirbal uses instead of commands
7: Tim Thornes: On the heterogeneity of Northern Paiute directives
8: Nerida Jarkey: Imperatives and commands in Japanese
9: N. J. Enfield: Linguistic expression of commands in Lao
10: Valérie Guérin: Imperatives and command strategies in Tayatuk (Morobe, PNG)
11: Hannah S. Sarvasy: Imperatives and commands in Nungon
12: Lourens de Vries: The imperative paradigm of Korowai, a Greater Awyu language of West Papua
13: Borut Telban: Commands as a form of intimacy among the Karawari of Papua New Guinea
14: Azeb Amha: Commands in Wolaitta
15: Rosita Henry: Veiled commands: Anthropological perspectives on directives
Index of authors
Index of languages, peoples, language families and areas
Index of subjects
