A Grammar of Urarina

Knut J. Olawsky

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9783110190205
• eBook ISBN: 9783110892932
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Urarina is an endangered isolate spoken by less than 3,000 people in the rainforests of North-western Peru. This book aims at providing a comprehensive description of Urarina grammar covering all areas of the language.

From a linguistic point of view, Urarina is particularly interesting because of a range of unusual grammatical characteristics that are rarely or not at all found in other languages. One remarkable property is the constituent order OVA/VS, which was classified as "non-existing" by Greenberg (1966). However, this atypical syntactic structure is a surprisingly consistent feature of Urarina, which discerns it from the majority of languages which are assumed to follow this syntactic pattern. Another feature probably unique to Urarina is the existence of a three-way distinction for person marking on all verbs. The choice of the respective paradigm depends on a complex set of syntactic and pragmatic conditions, which are investigated in detail. Scholars whose main interest is in morphology will also be intrigued by the polysynthetic verbal morphology of Urarina, which fits well into the Amazonian context.

A Grammar of Urarina is based on the framework of basic linguistic theory, which will be accessible to scholars from a wide range of backgrounds. The straightforward presentation of linguistic structures is accompanied by in-depth discussion of the most interesting and unusual features, illustrated by examples for all grammatical phenomena and often summarised by tables or diagrams. This book fills a gap not only for studies in Amazonian languages but also from a typological perspective.

Table of contents

• Abbreviations
• Map of Peru and Urarina territory
• 1 Introduction
• 1.1 Linguistic profile
• 1.2 Geographical location
• 1.3 Genetic affiliation
• 1.4 The current state of the language and its endangerment
• 1.5 Summary of social organisation
• 1.6 Database and language resources
• 1.7 Terminology and conventions
• 1.8 Acknowledgements and personal notes
• 2 Phonology
• 2.1 Consonants
• 2.2 Phonotactics
• 2.3 Vowels
• 2.4 Vowel length
• 2.5 Vowel sequences
• 2.6 Diphthongs
• 2.7 Nasalised vowels
• 2.8 Automatic phonological alternations
• 2.9 Syllable structure
• 2.10 The notion of “Phonological Word”
• 2.11 Clitics
• 3 Morpho-phonology
• 3.1 Alternations involving /k/ versus no onset on suffixes
• 3.2 Palatalisation of /r/ after /i/
• 3.3 Vowel lengthening
• 3.4 Merging between final root vowels and vowel-initial suffixes
• 3.5 Alternations with pre-root elements
• 3.6 Various rules of shortening or simplification
• 4 Tone
• 4.1 Tonal structure of nouns
• 4.2 Verb Phrase: effects of nouns on the tonal structure of the verb
• 4.3 Suffixes that cause deviations from the predicted tone patterns
• 4.4 Noun Phrase: Noun + Adjective
• 4.5 Postpositional Phrase: Noun + Postposition
• 4.6 Overriding patterns
• 4.7 Sentences: More than one tone
• 4.8 Summary of tonal types
• 5 Word classes
• 5.1 Nouns
• 5.2 Verbs
• 5.3 Adverbs
• 5.4 Adjectives
• 5.5 Pronouns
• 5.6 Demonstratives
• 5.7 Postpositions
• 5.8 Conjunctions
• 5.9 Interrogatives
• 5.10 Clause introducers
• 5.11 Quantifiers
• 5.12 Numerals
• 5.13 Interjections
• 5.14 Ideophones
• 5.15 Particles
• 5.16 Word classes and inflection
• 5.17 Summary
• 6 Noun Phrase structure
• 6.1 Demonstratives
• 6.2 Numerals
• 6.3 Possessives
• 6.4 Quantifiers
• 6.5 Nominal and noun-like modifiers within the NP
• 6.6 Relativisation
• 6.7 Involvement of other word classes as modifiers
• 6.8 Summary
• 7 Possession
• 7.1 Possession in the NP
• 7.2 Possession with verbs
• 7.3 Possessive derivation
• 7.4 Inalienable possession
• 8 Number marking
• 8.1 Verb plural for 2ps
• 8.2 Plural marker for 3pl
• 8.3 Plural objects
• 8.4 Plural “-ana” on stative verbs
• 8.5 Distributive plural
• 8.6 Dual and 1pl forms
• 8.7 Number agreement
• 8.8 Plural agreement in the NP
• 8.9 Plural marking on other categories
• 9 Verb classes
• 9.1 Transitive verbs
• 9.2 Intransitive verbs
• 9.3 Reflexivity
• 9.4 Ambitransitivity
• 9.5 Ditransitivity
• 9.6 Copula
• 9.7 Auxiliary “aja”
• 9.8 Verbless clauses
• 9.9 “Special” verbs
• 10 Word formation
• 10.1 Word-class changing derivation
• 10.2 Other types of verbal derivation
• 10.3 Reduplication
• 10.4 Compounding
• 11 Person inflection classes
• 11.1 D-form
• 11.2 E-form
• 11.3 A-form
• 11.4 Discussion
• 11.5 Conclusion
• 12 Verbal morphology
• 12.1 Prefixal positions
• 12.2 Suffixal positions
• 12.3 Enclitic positions
• 12.4 Other morphemes in postverbal position
• 12.5 Discussion
• 13 Politeness
• 13.1 Kinship terms
• 13.2 Politeness with honorific enclitic
• 13.3 Politeness with in-law marker “-ana”
• 13.4 Alternative morphological politeness strategies
• 13.5 Alternative lexical politeness strategies
• 13.6 Summary
• 14 Negation
• 14.1 Clause negation
• 14.2 Adverbial function of negative copula
• 14.3 Interrogative pronouns and negation
• 14.4 Negation and the lexicon
• 14.5 Negative questions
• 14.6 Multiple marking of negation
• 15 Imperative
• 15.1 Positive imperative
• 15.2 Prohibitive
• 15.3 Consecutive function of imperative
• 15.4 Imperative and future reference
• 15.5 Suggestive form
• 15.6 Other aspects regarding imperatives
• 15.7 Differences between imperative and declarative mood
• 16 Valency changing mechanisms
• 16.1 Passive
• 16.2 Intransitiviser “ne-”
• 16.3 Reciprocal form with “ita”
• 16.4 Causative
• 16.5 Valency increase with “ke”
• 17 Serial verb constructions
• 17.1 Properties of V1
• 17.2 Properties of V2
• 17.3 Semantic structure of SVCs
• 17.4 Further properties of SVCs
• 17.5 Discussion and summary
• 18 Constituent order
• 18.1 Transitive clause
• 18.2 Intransitive clause
• 18.3 Deviating order types
• 18.4 Adjuncts
• 18.5 Position of dependent clauses
• 19 Focus
• 19.1 Functions of focus markers
• 19.2 Focus marking and clause types
• 19.3 Scope of focus
• 19.4 More than one constituent preceding the focus marker
• 19.5 More than one focus marker in a sentence
• 19.6 Summary
• 20 Multi-clause constructions
• 20.1 Subordination
• 20.2 Complement clauses
• 20.3 Participle clauses
• 20.4 Other non-finite verbal suffixes
• 20.5 Clause coordination
• 20.6 Other strategies of coordination
• 20.7 Multi-clause constructions in comparison
• 21 Questions
• 21.1 Content questions
• 21.2 Polar questions
• 21.3 Negative questions
• 21.4 Rhetorical questions
• 21.5 Indirect questions
• 21.6 Interrogative verbs
• 21.7 Summary
• 22 Discourse strategies and expressive elements
• 22.1 Phonological peculiarities
• 22.2 Morphological features
• 22.3 Syntactic structures and discourse
• 22.4 Reference tracking
• 22.5 Other features
• 22.6 Observations on non-narrative genres
• 23 Variation
• 23.1 Dialectal differences
• 23.2 Traditional and innovative language
• 23.3 Language endangerment and Hispanicisation
• Appendix A: Texts
• Appendix B: List of scientific names
• Appendix C: Plates
• References
• Index