Serial verbs in Saramaccan: Predication and creole genesis By Tonjes Veenstra (review)

Abstract

442 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 74, NUMBER 2 (1998) pronouns are generated in clitic position adjoined to the verb rather than as agreement markers. Incorporation theory accounts for the different superficial manifestations of the direct object (intraverbal or extraverbal). The diachronic development of alternative direct object forms in Athabaskan languages is studied by Chad Thompson in 'The history and function of the yi-lbi- alternation m Athabaskan' (81-100). In Navajo , for example, the alternation between these pronouns has been related to subject-object inversion or other syntactic phenomena. Thompson provides data from a number of Athabaskan languages and suggests instead a functionally-motivated explanation. Linda Uyechi takes a different approach to the Navajo third person forms in 'The Navajo third person alternation and the pronoun incorporation analysis' (123-35) Building on work by Speas. Uyechi analyzes bi- as an incorporated pronoun, while yi- is seen as a subject marker. Muriel Saville-Troike focuses on the developmental stages of the Navajo verb complex in 'Development of the inflected verb in Navajo child language' ( 137-92). After discussing data from several children with varying degrees of fluency in Navajo and English, Saville-Troike sketches out a multilayered acquisitional process, including the omission of arguments within the verbal complex when relevant information is provided by extraverbal lexical elements. Northern Athabaskan historical reconstruction is the basis for two articles James Kari undertakes a geolinguistic analysis of Athabaskan languages in 'Names as signs. The distribution of "stream" and "mountain" in Alaskan Athabaskan languages' (443-75). A comparison ofnumerous toponyms provides a glimpse into the often controversial realm of Athabaskan prehistory. Jeff Leer's 'The historical evolution of the stem syllable in Gwich'in (Kutchin/Loucheux) Athabaskan (193-234) includes discussions of tonogenesis, rhyme simplification , and palatalization. Phonology is also the object of 'Epenthesis in Navajo' by Joyce McDonough (235-57). Making the case that [i] is the default vowel in Navajo, McDonough analyzes prefixes as having the underlying shape C, at the same time proposing a simpler structure for the Navajo verb, which relies solely on synchronic information. Navajo verbs are often grouped according to 'classifiers ', morphological markers, which Andrei KiBRiK analyzes as functional elements in 'Transitivity decrease in Navajo and Athabaskan. Actor-affecting propositional derivations' (259-303). Examining passive, indefinite, anticausative, and actor depersonalization constructions, the author claims that morphological markers traditionally analyzed as classifiers are reflexes of transitivity decrease. The semantics of the Navajo verb are the object of two articles. Sally Midgette studies 'Lexical aspect in Navajo: The tehc property' (305-30). Midgette refines the categories of verbal aspect acknowledged for the Navajo verb, with special emphasis on the telic aspect, the notion that a verbal situation leads up to a well-defined point past which the process or action cannot continue. Maryann Willie devotes her study 'On the expression of modality in Navajo' (331-47) to an overview of different Navajo modal expressions. Navajo does not have a single system for marking modality (e g. there are no modal auxiliaries ), hence the task ofestablishing modality differences is quite challenging. The remaining three articles deal with Navajo language planning and language politics. In 'Dine bizaad yissohígíí: The past, present, and future of Navajo literacy' (349-89), Martha Austin-Garrison , Bernice Casaus, Daniel McLaughlin, and Clay Slate engage in a roundtable discussion, set in en face translation. The many contributions ofRobert Young and his long-time collaborator Willie Morgan are acknowledged m Wayne Holm's 'On the role of "Younganmorgan" in the development of Navajo literacy' (391-405). Finally, Oswald Werner, Martha Austin-Garrison, and Kenneth Begishe examine Navajo philosophy and its cognitive implications in 'On the importance of "thought" in Navajo philosophy' (407-42). Fittingly weighted in favor of the language to which Robert Young has devoted his career, Athabaskan language studies contains solid scholarship on the Navajo language and valuable contributions to other members of the Athabaskan family. The quality of the studies is consonant with Young's unsurpassed contributions to the Navajo language. [John M. Lipski, University of New Mexico.] Serial verbs in Saramaccan: Predication and creóle genesis. By Tonjes Veenstra . (HIL dissertations, 17.) The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics, 1996. Pp. x, 217. This book, the author' s dissertation...