A Grammar of Nzadi [B865]

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Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520098862
Total Pages : 311 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis A Grammar of Nzadi [B865] by : Thera Marie Crane

Download or read book A Grammar of Nzadi [B865] written by Thera Marie Crane and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2011-11 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication presents the first documentation of Nzadi, a Bantu language spoken by fishermen along the Kasai River in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It is the product of extensive study by the authors and participants in field methods and group study courses at the University of California, Berkeley, and consists of ten chapters covering the segmental phonology, tone system, morphology, and sentence structure, followed by appendices on the Nzadi people and history and on Proto-Bantu to Nzadi sound changes. Also included are three texts and a lexicon of over 1100 entries, including a number of fish species. Prior to this work, Nzadi had not even been mentioned in the literature, and at this time still has no entry as a language or dialect in the Ethnologue. Of particular interest in the study of Nzadi is its considerable grammatical simplification, resulting in structures quite different from those of canonical Bantu languages. Although Nzadi has lost most of the inherited agglutinative morphology, there are still recognizable class prefixes on nouns and a reflex of noun class agreement in genitive constructions. Other areas of particular interest are human/number agreement, tense-aspect-mood marking, non-subject relative clause constructions, and WH question formation. This succinct, but comprehensive grammar provides broad coverage of the phonological, grammatical and semantic properties that will be of potential interest not only to Bantuists, Africanists and those interested in this area of the DRC, but also to typologists, general linguists, and students of linguistics.

The Bantu Languages

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317628683
Total Pages : 871 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (176 download)

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Book Synopsis The Bantu Languages by : Mark Van de Velde

Download or read book The Bantu Languages written by Mark Van de Velde and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-01-30 with total page 871 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by an international team of experts, this comprehensive volume presents grammatical analyses of individual Bantu languages, comparative studies of their main phonetic, phonological and grammatical characteristics and overview chapters on their history and classification. It is estimated that some 300 to 350 million people, or one in three Africans, are Bantu speakers. Van de Velde and Bostoen bring together their linguistic expertise to produce a volume that builds on Nurse and Philippson’s first edition. The Bantu Languages, 2nd edition is divided into two parts; Part 1 contains 11 comparative chapters, and Part 2 provides grammar sketches of 12 individual Bantu languages, some of which were previously undescribed. The grammar sketches follow a general template that allows for easy comparison. Thoroughly revised and updated to include more language descriptions and the latest comparative insights. New to this edition: • new chapters on syntax, tone, reconstruction and language contact • 12 new sketch grammars • thoroughly updated chapters on phonetics, aspect-tense-mood and classification • exhaustive catalogue of known languages with essential references This unique resource remains the ideal reference for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of Bantu linguistics and languages. It will be of interest to researchers and anyone with an interest in historical linguistics, linguistic typology and grammatical analysis.

Language Dispersal Beyond Farming

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Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN 13 : 9027264643
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (272 download)

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Book Synopsis Language Dispersal Beyond Farming by : Martine Robbeets

Download or read book Language Dispersal Beyond Farming written by Martine Robbeets and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2017-12-21 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do some languages wither and die, while others prosper and spread? Around the turn of the millennium a number of archaeologists such as Colin Renfrew and Peter Bellwood made the controversial claim that many of the world’s major language families owe their dispersal to the adoption of agriculture by their early speakers. In this volume, their proposal is reassessed by linguists, investigating to what extent the economic dependence on plant cultivation really impacted language spread in various parts of the world. Special attention is paid to "tricky" language families such as Eskimo-Aleut, Quechua, Aymara, Bantu, Indo-European, Transeurasian, Turkic, Japano-Koreanic, Hmong-Mien and Trans-New Guinea, that cannot unequivocally be regarded as instances of Farming/Language Dispersal, even if subsistence played a role in their expansion.

On reconstructing Proto-Bantu grammar

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Author :
Publisher : Language Science Press
ISBN 13 : 3961104069
Total Pages : 862 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (611 download)

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Book Synopsis On reconstructing Proto-Bantu grammar by : Koen Bostoen

Download or read book On reconstructing Proto-Bantu grammar written by Koen Bostoen and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on 2023-03-15 with total page 862 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about reconstructing the grammar of Proto-Bantu, the ancestral language at the origin of current-day Bantu languages. While Bantu is a low-level branch of Niger-Congo, the world’s biggest phylum, it is still Africa’s biggest language family. This edited volume attempts to retrieve the phonology, morphology and syntax used by the earliest Bantu speakers to communicate with each other, discusses methods to do so, and looks at issues raised by these academic endeavours. It is a collective effort involving a fine mix of junior and senior scholars representing several generations of expert historical-comparative Bantu research. It is the first systematic approach to Proto-Bantu grammar since Meeussen’s Bantu Grammatical Reconstructions (1967). Based on new bodies of evidence from the last five decades, most notably from northwestern Bantu languages, this book considerably transforms our understanding of Proto-Bantu grammar and offers new methodological approaches to Bantu grammatical reconstruction.

Lexicalization patterns in color naming

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Author :
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN 13 : 9027262128
Total Pages : 437 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (272 download)

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Book Synopsis Lexicalization patterns in color naming by : Ida Raffaelli

Download or read book Lexicalization patterns in color naming written by Ida Raffaelli and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2019-10-09 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume presents sixteen chapters focused on lexicalization patterns used in color naming in a variety of languages. Although previous studies have dealt with categorization and perceptual salience of color terms, few studies have been consistently conducted in order to investigate phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic devices languages use to form color terms. The aim of this volume is to approach color data from a relativist and typological perspective and to address some novel viewpoints in the research of color terms, such as: (a) the focus on language structure per se in the study of lexicalization data; (b) investigation of inter- and intra-language structural variation; (c) culture and language contact as reflected in language structure. Topics of this book have a broad appeal to researchers working in the fields of linguistics, anthropology, sociology, and psychology.

Applicative Constructions in the World’s Languages

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Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110731096
Total Pages : 1297 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Applicative Constructions in the World’s Languages by : Fernando Zuniga

Download or read book Applicative Constructions in the World’s Languages written by Fernando Zuniga and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2024-01-29 with total page 1297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a state-of-the-art cross-linguistic survey of applicative constructions in the functional-typological tradition. An introductory section sets the terminological and analytical stage, presents the methodology used by the different chapters, and provides a typological outlook. The individual contributions address the morphological, syntactic and semantic variation of applicatives, as well as their discourse-pragmatic function. They cover all major language families and some isolates that feature some illuminating version of the phenomenon, paying special attention to language-internal variation and unity. The phenomena surveyed range from those instances usually considered canonical (valency-increasing, syntactically and semantically predictable, productive, dedicated, and optional) to those occasionally understudied in descriptive works and frequently neglected in comparative studies (valency-neutral, rather unpredictable, lexicalized, syncretic, and/or obligatory).

Cyclical Change Continued

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Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN 13 : 902726743X
Total Pages : 439 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (272 download)

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Book Synopsis Cyclical Change Continued by : Elly van Gelderen

Download or read book Cyclical Change Continued written by Elly van Gelderen and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2016-03-09 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents new data and additional questions regarding the linguistic cycle. The topics discussed are the pronoun, negative, negative existential, analytic-synthetic, distributive, determiner, degree, and future/modal cycles. The papers raise questions about the length of time that cycles take, the interactions between different cycles, the typical stages and their stability, and the areal factors influencing cycles. The languages and language families that are considered in depth are Central Pomo, Cherokee, Chinese, English, French, Gbe, German, Hmong-Mien, Maipurean, Mayan, Mohawk, Mon-Khmer, Niger-Congo, Nupod, Quechuan, Sino-Tibetan, Tai-Kadai , Tuscarora, Ute, and Yoruboid. One paper covers several of the world’s language families. Cyclical change connects linguists working in various frameworks because it is exciting to find a reason behind this fascinating phenomenon.

Similative and Equative Constructions

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Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN 13 : 9027265976
Total Pages : 445 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (272 download)

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Book Synopsis Similative and Equative Constructions by : Yvonne Treis

Download or read book Similative and Equative Constructions written by Yvonne Treis and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2017-05-31 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While comparative constructions have been extensively studied in the past decades, the expression of equality and similarity has so far attracted little attention in the typological literature. The fifteen contributions assembled in this volume study similative and equative constructions in typologically and genetically distant languages, albeit with a focus on Africa, and from a range of perspectives. Purely synchronically oriented case studies are supplemented by contributions that also shed light on the diachronic development of similative and equative constructions in language contact situations. Sources of similative morphemes and lexically expressed concepts of likeness are examined, and little-known multifunctionality patterns and grammaticalisation targets of similative morphemes – such as purpose clause markers, modality morphemes and markers of glottonyms – are discussed. Based on a sample of 119 languages worldwide, a new typology of equative constructions is proposed. The book should be of interest to typologists, semanticists, specialists of grammaticalization, historical linguistics and syntax.

Phonological Typology

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Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110449927
Total Pages : 444 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis Phonological Typology by : Larry M. Hyman

Download or read book Phonological Typology written by Larry M. Hyman and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-04-09 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite earlier work by Trubetzkoy, Jakobson and Greenberg, phonological typology is often underrepresented in typology textbooks. At the same time, most phonologists do not see a difference between phonological typology and cross-linguistic (formal) phonology. The purpose of this book is to bring together leading scholars to address the issue of phonological typology, both in terms of the unity and the diversity of phonological systems.

The Languages and Linguistics of Africa

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Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110421755
Total Pages : 1085 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis The Languages and Linguistics of Africa by : Tom Güldemann

Download or read book The Languages and Linguistics of Africa written by Tom Güldemann and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-09-10 with total page 1085 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This innovative handbook takes a fresh look at the currently underestimated linguistic diversity of Africa, the continent with the largest number of languages in the world. It covers the major domains of linguistics, offering both a representative picture of Africa’s linguistic landscape as well as new and at times unconventional perspectives. The focus is not so much on exhaustiveness as on the fruitful relationship between African and general linguistics and the contributions the two domains can make to each other. This volume is thus intended for readers with a specific interest in African languages and also for students and scholars within the greater discipline of linguistics.

Spatial Interrogatives in Europe and Beyond

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Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110539519
Total Pages : 778 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (15 download)

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Book Synopsis Spatial Interrogatives in Europe and Beyond by : Thomas Stolz

Download or read book Spatial Interrogatives in Europe and Beyond written by Thomas Stolz and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2017-08-07 with total page 778 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The extant generalizations about the grammar of space rely heavily on the analyses of declarative sentences. There is a need to check whether these generalizations also hold in the domain of interrogation. To this end this book analyzes data from some 450 languages (including non-standard varieties). The focus is on paradigms of spatial interrogatives such as English where, whither and whence and their internal organization. These paradigms are checked for recurrent patterns of morphological mismatches (such as syncretism) and different degrees of complexity (e.g. the number of segments). The data-base consists of a large parallel literary corpus (Le petit prince and translations thereof) which is complemented by further sources of information such as descriptive grammars. The data are analyzed from a synchronic perspective. However, diachronic issues are addressed unsystematically, too. It is shown that the distribution of phenomena which characterize paradigms of spatial interrogatives are subject to areal-linguistic factors. This is the first typological study of spatial interrogatives. It provides new insights for students of the grammar of space, morphological paradigms, and language typology.

Aspects of Linguistic Variation

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Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110609878
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (16 download)

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Book Synopsis Aspects of Linguistic Variation by : Daniël Olmen

Download or read book Aspects of Linguistic Variation written by Daniël Olmen and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-12-03 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Linguistic variation is a topic of ongoing interest to the field. Its description and its explanations continue to intrigue scholars from many different backgrounds. By taking a deliberately broad perspective on the matter, covering not only crosslinguistic and diachronic but also intralinguistic and interspeaker variation and examining phenomena ranging from negation over connectives to definite articles in well- and lesser-known languages, the volume furthers our understanding of variation in general. The papers offer new insights into, among other things, the theoretical notion of comparative concepts, the social or mental nature of language structure, the areal factor in lexical typology and the diachronic implications of semantic maps. The collection will thus be of relevance to typologists and historical linguists, as well as to people studying variation within the areas of cognitive and functional linguistics.

The Syntax of Relative Clauses

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108479707
Total Pages : 415 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis The Syntax of Relative Clauses by : Guglielmo Cinque

Download or read book The Syntax of Relative Clauses written by Guglielmo Cinque and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-24 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on a wide range of languages, Cinque argues that all relative clause types derive from a single, double-headed, structure.

African linguistics across the disciplines

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Publisher : Language Science Press
ISBN 13 : 3961102120
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (611 download)

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Book Synopsis African linguistics across the disciplines by : Samuel Gyasi Obeng

Download or read book African linguistics across the disciplines written by Samuel Gyasi Obeng and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the hiring of its first Africanist linguist Carleton Hodge in 1964, Indiana University’s Department of Linguistics has had a strong and continuing presence in the study of African languages and linguistics through the work of its faculty and of its graduates on the faculties of many other universities. Research on African linguistics at IU has covered some of the major language groups spoken on the African continent. Carleton Hodge’s work on Ancient Egyptian and Hausa, Paul Newman’s work on Hausa and Chadic languages, and Roxanna Ma Newman’s work on Hausa language structure and pedagogy have been some of the most important studies on Afro-Asiatic linguistics. With respect to Niger-Congo languages, the work of Charles Bird on Bambara and the Mande languages, Robert Botne’s work on Bantu structure (especially tense and aspect), Samuel Obeng and Colin Painter’s work on Ghanaian Languages (phonetics, phonology, and pragmatics), Robert Port’s studies on Swahili, and Erhard Voeltz's studies on Bantu linguistics are considered some of the most influential studies in the sub-field. On Nilo Saharan languages, the work of Tim Shopen on Songhay stands out. IU Linguistics has also forwarded theoretical work on African languages, such as John Goldsmith’s seminal research on tone in African languages. The African linguistics faculty at IU have either founded or edited important journals in African Studies, African languages, and African linguistics, including Africa Today, Studies in African Linguistics, and Journal of African Languages and Linguistics. In 1972, the Indiana University Department of Linguistics hosted the Third Annual Conference of African Linguistics. Proceedings of that conference were published by Indiana University Publications (African Series, vol. 7). In 1986, IU hosted the Seventeenth Annual Conference of African Linguistics with Paul Newman and Robert Botne editing the proceedings in a volume entitled Current Approaches to African Linguistics, vol. 5. In 2016, Indiana University hosted the 48th Annual Conference on African Linguistics with the theme African Linguistics Across the Disciplines. Proceedings of that meeting are published in this volume. The papers presented in this volume reflect the diversity of opportunities for language study in Africa. This collection of descriptive and theoretical work is the fruit of data gathering both in-country and abroad by researchers of languages spoken across the continent, from Sereer-sin in the west to Somali in the northeast to Ikalanga in the south. The range of topics in this volume is also broad, representative of the varied field work in country and abroad that inspires research in African linguistics. This collection of papers spans the disciplines of phonology (both segmental and suprasegmental), morphology (both morphophonological and morphosyntactic), syntax, semantics, and language policy. The data and analyses presented in this volume offer a cross-disciplinary view of linguistic topics from the many under-resourced languages of Africa.

The numeral system of Proto-Niger-Congo

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Publisher : Language Science Press
ISBN 13 : 3961100985
Total Pages : 438 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (611 download)

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Book Synopsis The numeral system of Proto-Niger-Congo by : Konstantin Pozdniakov

Download or read book The numeral system of Proto-Niger-Congo written by Konstantin Pozdniakov and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on 2018-08-31 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book proposes the reconstruction of the Proto-Niger-Congo numeral system. The emphasis is placed on providing an exhaustive account of the distribution of forms by families, groups, and branches. The big data bases used for this purpose open prospects for both working with the distribution of words that do exist and with the distribution of gaps in postulated cognates. The distribution of filled cells and gaps is a useful tool for reconstruction. Following an introduction in the first chapter, the second chapter of this book is devoted to the study of various uses of noun class markers in numeral terms. The third chapter deals with the alignment by analogy in numeral systems. Chapter 4 offers a step-by-step reconstruction of number systems of the proto-languages underlying each of the twelve major NC families, on the basis of the step-by-step-reconstruction of numerals within each family. Chapter 5 deals with the reconstruction of the Proto-Niger-Congo numeral system on the basis of the step-by-step-reconstructions offered in Chapter 4. Chapter 6 traces the history of the numerals of Proto-Niger-Congo, reconstructed in Chapter 5, in each individual family of languages.

Beyond Aspectual Semantics

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192666002
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (926 download)

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Book Synopsis Beyond Aspectual Semantics by : Astrid De Wit

Download or read book Beyond Aspectual Semantics written by Astrid De Wit and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-03-08 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together insights from leading scholars in the field of grammatical aspect to examine the multifaceted nature of this pivotal linguistic resource used to express temporal meaning. The contributors explore the many ways in which linguistic research can move beyond canonical semantic analyses of aspect, which still focus to a great extent on objective temporal features of what can be called 'situation models', i.e. integrated cognitive representations of designated states of affairs. The chapters in this volume widen this outlook by concentrating on less typical contexts in which aspectual constructions are used, e.g. for affective purposes, to mark the epistemic status of situations, or to shape narrative structures. This focus on non-prototypicality is also reflected in the languages investigated, many of which are understudied with respect to their aspectual constructions, including several African languages and the sign language Kata Kolok. The volume adopts a multidisciplinary methodological approach, and introduces possible directions for future research based on experimental studies, fieldwork research, and translation mining.

Phonological Typology

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0191646350
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

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Book Synopsis Phonological Typology by : Matthew K. Gordon

Download or read book Phonological Typology written by Matthew K. Gordon and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an overview of phonological typology: the study of how sounds are distributed across the languages of the world and why they display these distributions and patterns. It examines major phonological phenomena such as phoneme inventories, syllable structure, phonological alternations, stress, tone, intonation, and prosodic morphology, and investigates issues including how common certain types of sounds are cross-linguistically and why; how many languages differentiate questions and statements using intonation; which areas of the world tend to be associated with more complex tone distinctions; and the relationship between cross-linguistic and language-internal frequency. Data are drawn from existing typologies, from the results of a survey of various phonological patterns in the 100-language sample from the World Atlas of Language Structures, and from corpora of individual languages. Matthew Gordon analyses these data and explores the correlations between different - often superficially unrelated - phonological properties to gain insight into the driving forces behind these phenomena. He provides an overview of synchronic and diachronic explanations for the patterns observed and discusses how formal phonological theory has attempted to model the typological data. One of relatively few typological works devoted to phonology, this book will be a valuable resource for phonologists and phoneticians from advanced undergraduate level upwards, as well all those with an interest in language typology.