Intro -- Contents -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- 1.1 What Are Classifier Languages? -- 1.2 What Are Classifiers? -- 1.3 Structure and Function of Classifier Systems -- 1.4 Methods and Aims of Traditional Classifier Studies-A Brief Survey -- 1.4.1 Studies on Classifier Languages -- 1.4.2 Studies on Kilivila -- Chapter 2 Classificatory Particles in Kilivila: Grammatical and Discourse Functions -- 2.1 Morphological Relevance -- 2.2 Functions of CPs in Kilivila -- 2.2.1 Referential Function-Concord -- 2.2.2 Nominalization, Plural Marking, Numeralization, and Verblike Expressive Functions -- 2.2.3 Redundancy, Ellipsis, and Discourse Coherence -- 2.3 Summary -- Chapter 3 The System of Classificatory Particles in Kilivila -- 3.1 Aims and Methods -- 3.2 The Data -- 3.2.1 Interpretation of the Data by Age Group -- 3.2.2 Complete Lists of Data Used in the Analyses -- 3.3 Results -- 3.3.1 Which Formatives Constitute the Kilivila CP System and What Is the Actual Occurrence of CPs in Recorded Tests? -- 3.3.2 How Is the CP System Acquired by Trobriand Children? -- 3.3.3 What Is the Realization of the Individual CP Types in Actual Speech? -- 3.3.4 What Semantic Domains Are Constituted by the Kilivila CP System? -- Chapter 4 On the Validity of Some of the Presented Results: Six Years Later-A Restudy -- Chapter 5 Excursus: Language, Culture, and Cognition? -- Chapter 6 Closing Remarks: Using Network Models to Describe Classifier Systems -- Appendix A: Consultants: 1982/1983 Study -- Appendix B: Number of CP Tokens Produced for Each CP Type by Text and Word Class for Consultants in Corpus of Kilivila Speech Data -- Appendix C: Consultants: 1989 Restudy -- Appendix D: Some Speculations on the Origin of Classifiers -- References -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.

Common among the world's languages is the phenomenon of classification, a partly or fully grammatical division of the noun lexicon into distinct classes that ultimately derives from the human need to classify and filter data on various levels while communicating. In this book, Senft describes and develops a grammar of classificatory particles in Kilivila, an Austronesian language of the Trobriand Islanders in Papua New Guinea. Drawing largely on his anthropological and linguistic fieldwork in the islands, and emphasizing the use of classifiers in a social context, Senft provides quantitative data and a statistical profile of the status and use of these particles, and the classifier system that employs them.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.