At the time of European contact with Native communities, the Caddos (who call themselves the Hasinai) were accomplished traders living in the southern plains. Their communities occupied parts of present-day Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. It was early Spanish explorers who named a part of this territory "Texas," borrowing the Caddo word for "friend." Today there are approximately thirty-five hundred Caddos, most of whom live in Oklahoma. Their original language, which is related to the Plains languages-Pawnee, ...
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At the time of European contact with Native communities, the Caddos (who call themselves the Hasinai) were accomplished traders living in the southern plains. Their communities occupied parts of present-day Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. It was early Spanish explorers who named a part of this territory "Texas," borrowing the Caddo word for "friend." Today there are approximately thirty-five hundred Caddos, most of whom live in Oklahoma. Their original language, which is related to the Plains languages-Pawnee, Arikara, Kitsai, and Wichita-is rapidly dying and is spoken only by a diminishing number of Caddo elders. Drawing on interviews with Caddo speakers, tapes made by earlier researchers, and written accounts, Lynette R. Melnar provides the first full-length overview and analysis of Caddo grammar. Because Caddo is an extremely complex language, Melnar's clear description will be important to linguists in general as well as to those specializing in Native languages. Caddo Verb Morphology is an essential contribution to our understanding of the Caddos' traditional world in particular and of Native America in general. Lynette R. Melnar has a PhD in linguistics and is a research scientist for Motorola Labs.
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Fine. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 224 p. Studies in the Native Languages of the Americas. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
New. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 224 p. Studies in the Native Languages of the Americas. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
This description of the Caddo verb covers some very interesting and challenging linguistic topics, including polysynthesis, agentive person marking (split intransitivity), absolutive person marking, the specification of an indefinite "defocusing" person, noun incorporation, and realis vs. irrealis modality. Melnar ably demonstrates the wonderful richness of the Caddo verb (e.g. she describes 23 morphological position classes and 26 pronominal forms divided into realis and irrealis sets). However, despite this morphological complexity, Melnar manages to achieve remarkable technical clarity. For example, she identifies 123 Caddo markers of tense, aspect, and mood. Not only are all of the relevant concepts of these markers defined (e.g. andative, cislocative, durative, hortative, prioritive, etc.), at least one example of each marker's use is provided! While this book is primarily geared toward linguists (and would make a great reference book for grammatical description - the index is very complete and there is ample cross-referencing), it also provides an invaluable insight to the logical expression of a conceptional system that is little documented and largely disappearing (and thus is of considerable interest to anthropologists, psychologists, and anyone interested in what it means to be human). If you adhere to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (that there is a systematic relationship between the grammatical categories of the language a person speaks and how that person both understands the world and behaves in it), you will appreciate Melnar's contribution to our understanding of Native American world-views - and humanity in general.
