A grammar of Wayana

[摘要] Wayana is a Cariban language spoken in northern Brazil, southern Surinam, and southern French Guyana by a total of around 900 speakers.The previous descriptive works on this language consist of a few vocabulary lists, a short grammar sketch, and a few articles on specific topics. This dissertation contributes to the documentation of the language by providing a more detailed description of most aspects of the Wayana grammar. The chapters range from a description of the language's phonological aspects to the morphology of the speech classes and the basic syntactic patterns. In addition, the appendixes include a collection of texts and a vocabulary list.Patterns discussed in this work include those of syllable reduction, in which words may undergo reduction of entire syllables; differences in the possessibility of nouns, which depend on semantic and cultural considerations; the complex system of spatial postpositions distinguishing features such as the position, path or goal of a trajector vis-a-vis its landmark; and a split ergative system in which no motivation for the split has yet been explained.The data used in this work were obtained through elicitation sessions and from recordings of spoken narratives.

[发布机构] Rice University

[效力级别] Modern