Overview

Most of the languages of Papua New Guinea are still poorly documented. This first grammar of Nalik provides one of the most accessible and detailed descriptions of a New Ireland language, even while English and Tok Pisin are becoming increasingly dominant among the four thousand Nalik speakers. Rejecting the idea of an artificial standard form of the language, this volume is unusual in its description of the grammatical variation caused by such a fluid linguistic ecology.

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9780820436739

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In praise and gratitude we acknowledge the efforts of Craig Volker and his learned university colleagues for their service and dedication in bringing to light the intricacies of the grammar of the Nalik language. (Michael a Xomerang Silamangas on behalf of the Association of East Coast Kara Nalik Chiefs and Elders) Craig Volker's study of Nalik offers the first ever grammatical description of this Austronesian language spoken by four thousand people in central New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. Drawing on a corpus of data collected during his own field work, the author uses a simple version of relational grammar to explore the morphological and syntactic properties of verbs, nouns, prepositions, and the elements with which they combine to form sentences of various sorts. Written in a lucid style and full of fascinating insights, this book constitutes a valuable contribution to the field. (William O'Grady, Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai'i)

Author Information

The Author: Craig Volker is Associate Professor in the School of Languages at the Gifu University for Education and Languages in Japan. He studied at the East-West Center and received his Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Hawai'i. He has written a number of articles on the pidgin and Austronesian languages of Papua New Guinea and has edited translations into Nalik and Tok Pisin.

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