This thesis is a sketch grammar of 'Are'are, a Southeast Solomonic language belonging to the Oceanic family, spoken mainly in the southern part of Malaita by approximately 18 000 speakers. Previous academic works documenting and describing 'Are'are are almost nonexistent. This sketch grammar is based on data collected during consultation sessions with the main language consultant in New Zealand and during six weeks of fieldwork in Hauporo, West 'Are'are and Honiara in the Solomon Islands.
'Are'are is a head marking language with SVO word order whose noteworthy features include: (i) distinction between alienable and inalienable possession marking, (ii) several
valency-increasing devices available to a single verb stem, (iii) verb serialization, (iv) three categories of prepositions distinguished by different patterns of object marking and (v)
remarkably small consonant inventory compared to other languages spoken on Malaita.
After the introduction to the language and its speakers, Chapter 2 lays out the sound system and introduces the major phonological and morphophonemic processes. Chapter 3 introduces the grammatical profile of the language, including a discussion on tense, aspect and mood and lexical categories attested in the language. Nouns and the structure of the noun phrase are discussed in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 is concerned with verbs and the verb phrase. Prepositions are examined in Chapter 6. The structure of verbal and non-verbal clauses is the topic of Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 describes complex constructions such as coordination, subordination and serial verb constructions. The appendices provide a preliminary report on the language vitality, a brief discussion on dialects of 'Are'are and also a sample text.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:canterbury.ac.nz/oai:ir.canterbury.ac.nz:10092/8085 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Naitoro, Kateřina |
| Publisher | University of Canterbury. Social and Political Sciences |
| Source Sets | University of Canterbury |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic thesis or dissertation, Text |
| Rights | Copyright Kateřina Naitoro, http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/thesis/etheses_copyright.shtml |
| Relation | NZCU |
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