Buch, Englisch, Band 58, 48 Seiten
Buch, Englisch, Band 58, 48 Seiten
Reihe: Languages of the World, Materials
ISBN: 978-3-929075-41-0
Verlag: LINCOM
In most studies of Polynesian languages, the smallest convenient unit of analysis is taken to be the phrase, and this convention is followed here. Sections on the structure of the noun phrase and the verb phrase are followed by a description of clause structure. All clauses contain a predicate, of which there are several different types: verbal, locative, existential, possessive, and nominal. Noun phrase relations in the clause are indicated by prepositions, and verbal clauses have the ergative case-marking typical of Western Polynesian languages. Nominalisation, complementation, and kinds of clause combination are briefly described. Although Tokelauan is typologically verb initial, noun phrase initial clauses are common owing to pragmatic and discourse factors such as topicalization and focussing.