Adjective Classes: A Cross-Linguistic Typology (Explorations in Language and Space, 1)

Dixon, R. M. W. [Editor]; Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. [Editor];

ISBN 10: 0199270937 / ISBN 13: 9780199270934

Published by Oxford University Press, 2004

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Bibliographic Details

Title: Adjective Classes: A Cross-Linguistic ...

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Publication Date: 2004

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis:

This book shows that every language has an adjective class and examines how these vary in size and character. The opening chapter considers current generalizations about the nature and classification of adjectives and sets out the cross-linguistic parameters of their variation. Thirteen chapters then explore adjective classes in languages from North, Central and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Studies of well-known languages such as Russian, Japanese, Korean and Lao are juxtaposed with the languages of small hunter-gatherer and slash-and-burn agriculturalist groups. All are based on fine-grained field research. The nature and typology of adjective classes are then reconsidered in the conclusion. This pioneering work shows, among other things, that the grammatical properties of the adjective class may be similar to nouns or verbs or both or neither; that some languages have two kinds of adjectives, one hard to distinguish from nouns and the other from verbs; that the adjective class can sometimes be large and open, and in other cases small and closed. The book will interest scholars and advanced students of language typology and of the syntax and semantics of adjectives. Each book in this series focuses on an aspect of language that is of current theoretical interest and for which there has not previously or recently been any full-scale cross-linguistic study. The series is for typologists, fieldworkers, and theory developers at graduate level and above. The books will be suited for use as the basis for advanced seminars and courses. The subjects of next three volumes will be serial verb constructions, complementation, and grammars in contact.

Review:

A very useful and usable resource (Andrew Spencer, Language, vol. 84, no.2, 2008)

The articles are of consistently high quality and the range of language types represented, like the calibre of the researchers themselves, is impressive ... Dixon and Aikhenveld are to be congratulated on bringing together...a first-rate cast of linguists working on such a diverse set of the world's languages ... a remarkable volume ... This volume and the papers in it represent a major advance in parts of speech typology and will surely frame the debate in the nature of adjectives, and lexical classes, and their role in grammatical and typological theory for years to come. (David Beck, Functions of Language)

...makes a major contribution to the general study of parts of speech across languages... The editors of this book have provided a much-needed analytical framework for typologizing the key distinctions in how the adjective manifests itself as a part of speech. (Edward J Vajda, Western Washington University)