Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This handbook offers an extensive crosslinguistic and cross-theoretical survey of polysynthetic languages, in which single multi-morpheme verb forms can express what would be whole sentences in English. These languages and the problems they raise for linguistic analyses have long featured prominently in language descriptions, and yet the essence of polysynthesis remains under discussion, right down to whether it delineates a distinct, coherent type, rather than an assortment of frequently co-occurring traits. Chapters in the first part of the handbook relate polysynthesis to other issues central to linguistics, such as complexity, the definition of the word, the nature of the lexicon, idiomaticity, and to typological features such as argument structure and head marking. Part two contains areal studies of those geographical regions of the world where polysynthesis is particularly common, such as the Arctic and Sub-Arctic and northern Australia. The third part examines diachronic topics such as language contact and language obsolence, while part four looks at acquisition issues in different polysynthetic languages. Finally, part five contains detailed grammatical descriptions of over twenty languages which have been characterized as polysynthetic, with special attention given to the presence or absence of potentially criterial features.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• About the Contributors (p. ix)
• 1 Introduction (p. 1)
• Part I The Nature of Polysynthesis
• 2 Polysynthesis and complexity (p. 19)
• 3 Argument marking in the polysynthetic verb and its implications (p. 30)
• 4 Polysynthesis and head marking (p. 59)
• 5 Sub-types of polysynthesis (p. 70)
• 6 The subjectivity of the notion of polysynthesis (p. 99)
• 7 What are the limits of polysynthesis? (p. 115)
• 8 The lexicon in polysynthetic languages (p. 135)
• 9 The 'word' in polysynthetic languages: phonological and syntactic challenges (p. 158)
• 10 The anthropological setting of polysynthesis (p. 186)
• 11 Phraseology and polysynthesis (p. 203)
• Part II Areal Perspectives
• 12 Polysynthesis in the Arctic/Sub-Arctic (p. 217)
• 13 Polysynthesis in North America (p. 235)
• 14 The Northern Hokan area (p. 260)
• 15 Polysynthetic structures of Lowland Amazonia (p. 284)
• 16 Polysynthesis in Northern Australia (p. 312)
• 17 Polysynthesis in New Guinea (p. 336)
• Part III The Diachronic Perspective
• 18 Patterns of innovation and retention in templatic polysynthesis (p. 363)
• 19 Is polysynthesis a valid theoretical notion?: The diachrony of complex verbs in Ute (p. 392)
• 20 Polysynthesis and language contact (p. 408)
• 21 Language obsolescence in polysynthetic languages (p. 428)
• Part IV Acquisition
• 22 Polysynthesis in the acquisition of Inuit languages (p. 449)
• 23 The acquisition of Murrinhpatha (Northern Australia) (p. 473)
• 24 The Acquisition of Polysynthetic Verb Forms in Chintang (p. 495)
• Part V Grammatical Sketches
• 25 Western Apache, a southern Athabaskan language (p. 517)
• 26 Central Alaskan Yupik (Eskimo-Aleut): A sketch of morphologically orthodox polysynthesis (p. 536)
• 27 Innu (Algonquian) (p. 560)
• 28 Caddo (p. 583)
• 29 Polysynthesis in Nuuchahnulth, a Wakashan language (p. 603)
• 30 The polysynthetic nature of Salish (p. 623)
• 31 Nawatl (Uto-Aztecan) (p. 643)
• 32 Purepecha, a polysynthetic but predominantly dependent-marking language (p. 667)
• 33 Mapudungun (p. 696)
• 34 Tariana, an Arawak language from north-west Amazonia (p. 713)
• 35 Polysynthesis in Lakondê, a northern Nambikwaran language of Brazil (p. 735)
• 36 Polysynthesis in Dalabon (p. 759)
• 37 The languages of the Daly River region (Northern Australia) (p. 782)
• 38 The polysynthetic profile of Yimas, a language of New Guinea (p. 808)
• 39 Koryak (p. 830)
• 40 Nivkh (p. 851)
• 41 Polysynthesis in Ainu (p. 882)
• 42 Polysynthesis in Ket (p. 906)
• 43 Polysynthesis in Sora (Munda) with special reference to noun incorporation (p. 930)
• 44 Adyghe (Northwest Caucasian) (p. 948)
• References (p. 971)
• Index (p. 1035)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Michael Fortescue is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen, now associated with St Hugh's College, Oxford. His special area of interest is Arctic and Sub-Arctic languages, principally Eskimo-Aleut, but also Chukotko-Kamchatkan and Wakashan languages. He has also published extensively in the more general fields of comparative, typological, cognitive, and functional linguistics. Marianne Mithun is Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Much of her work has been in the areas of morphology, syntax, discourse, prosody, and their interrelations; language contact and language change; typology and universals; and language documentation. She has worked with numerous typologically diverse languages including Mohawk, Central Alaskan Yup'ik, Navajo, and Selayarese. Nicholas Evans is ARC Laureate Fellow and Distinguished Professor of Linguistics at the Australian National University, and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. He has carried out wide-ranging fieldwork on traditional languages of northern Australia and southern Papua New Guinea, including Bininj Gun-wok, Dalabon, and Kayardild. He has also worked as a linguist, interpreter, and anthropologist in Native Title claims.