Prominence in Austronesian

The concept of prominence or salience is a key in how we understand the organization of grammar and patterns of language use. However, it is not itself a phenomenon of language, but of cognition and perception, which makes it difficult to define in a way that is suitable for cross-linguistic analysis. A crucial step in understanding the relevance of prominence for linguistic description and theory is to gain an overview of the different ways in which it is encoded in linguistic structures across languages. The volume tackles this challenge by focusing on the varying roles that prominence plays in the grammars of Austronesian languages. The individual chapters present descriptions of the grammatical encoding of prominence in particular of languages from across the breadth of the family, and thus languages with very different typological profiles. These descriptions form a basis for identifying trends and patterns in the role of prominence from several different perspectives, including its grammatical encoding within and across different levels of linguistic structure, and for discussing implications for our understanding of the role of prominence in grammar more generally.

• | Author: Bethwyn Evans, Åshild Næss, Jozina Vander Klok
• | Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• | Publication Date: Jan 29, 2024
• | Number of Pages: NA pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover
• | ISBN-10: 3110735415
• | ISBN-13: 9783110735413