A descriptive grammar of Huastec (Potosino dialect)
Description
This descriptive grammar of the Potosino dialect of Huastec is explicitly designed to make information about the language maximally available to other linguists, of whatever theoretical persuasion. It therefore contains many exhaustive tables of verb, noun, adjective, adverb and particle forms and of the various derivations possible in the language. Over a thousand sentence examples are given, with interlinear morpheme-by-morpheme glosses. The introductory chapter discusses the history of linguistic, ethnohistoric, ethnographic and archaeological research on the Huastec in considerable detail The grammar proper covers the phonology and morphology of the language, with a detailed discussion of morphemic co-occurrence phenomena. The pronominal system, with its many homonymous forms, is explicated at length. Verbs are described in terms of their basic morphology and transitivity changing derivations, derivation of semantically complex stems and derivation from other parts of speech. Noun morphology and noun derivation are fully described. Noun compounds are treated extensively, as is the complex problem of noun possession classes. Subsequent chapters deal with clitics, plurality, numbers, and time. Root and derived adjectives are covered at some length. The following chapter deals with particles such as interjections, interrogatives, prepositions, and other minor word classes and with locative, temporal, manner, degree, and modal adverbs The final two chapters are concerned with the syntax of the language, considering phrases and simple sentences and elaborations of these, the problem of word order, and conjoined and complex sentences. Throughout, the discussion is focussed on the ergative morphology and syntax of this Mayan language. A lengthy Huastec text is appended with morpheme-by-morpheme and free translation