基本説明
The papers in the present volume (originally published in Studies in Language 30:2 (2006)) provide suggestions and encouragement – from experienced grammar writers and users – regarding concrete methods for approaching the task of writing a descriptive grammar of a language.
Full Description
With over half the languages of the world currently in danger of extinction within a century, the need for high quality grammatical descriptions is more urgent than ever. Potential grammar writers, however, often find themselves paralyzed by the daunting task of describing a language. The papers in the present volume (originally published in Studies in Language 30:2 (2006)) provide suggestions and encouragement - from experienced grammar writers and users - regarding concrete methods for approaching the task of writing a descriptive grammar of a language. Salient "themes" emerging from the papers in this volume include: The necessity of community involvement in grammatical descriptions; The link between a grammar and the other products of a program of language documentation (a dictionary and collection of texts); The complementary functions of elicited vs. naturally occurring data; and grammatical description as 'art' as well as 'science'.
Contents
1. Introduction; 2. Contextualizing a grammar (by Bright, William); 3. Writing grammars for the community (by Kadanya, James Lokuuda); 4. Collective field work: Advantages or disadvantages? (by Kibrik, Aleksandr E.); 5. Grammars and the community (by Mithun, Marianne); 6. From parts of speech to the grammar (by Munro, Pamela); 7. Grammar writing for a grammar-reading audience (by Noonan, Michael); 8. A grammar as a communicative act, or what does a grammatical description really describe? (by Payne, Thomas E.); 9. A typology of good grammars (by Rice, Keren); 10. Thoughts on growing a grammar (by Weber, David J.); 11. The linguistic example (by Weber, David J.); 12. Index
