Mali (Baining) grammar
Subtitle: a language of the East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea
By: Tonya N. Stebbins
Contributors: Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics
Series: Pacific linguistics -- 623; Pacific linguistics -- 623.
Publisher: Pacific Linguistics, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Canberra
Language: eng
Number of pages: 415
ISBN-13: 9780858836297
Subjects: Languages; Baining language; Baining (Papua New Guinean people); Grammar
Description: Mali (2,200 speakers) is a Papuan language spoken on the Gazelle Peninsula, East New Britain Province Papua New Guinea. It is a member of the Baining language family. The family is comprised of five languages: Kaket, Mali, Simbali, Ura and Kairak. Baining people share a common non-Austronesian ancestral language and similar cultural practices (such as fire dances). An interesting feature of these languages is that they show a great deal of influence from their early Austronesian neighbors. As detailed in the grammar, Mali has characteristics of both the Western Oceanic branch of Austronesian and Trans New Guinea.  This is the first comprehensive grammar for a language from the family and provides a framework for further comparative and descriptive research in the region. The grammar was produced in cooperation with members of the Mali (Baining) community and is being published alongside a dictionary and text collection (also available from Pacific Linguistics).
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 407-410) and index.
Table of contents: title: Ch. 1. Introduction : the language and it's speakers; title: ch. 2. Typological overview; title: ch. 3. Phonetics and phonology; title: ch. 4. Basic syntactic categories and the tense marking system; title: ch. 5. Word classes; title: ch. 6. Derivation and valency changing; title: ch. 7. Prepositions and associated constructions; title: ch. 8. Noun classes and gender in Mali; title: ch. 9. Number; title: ch. 10. The noun phrase; title: ch. 11. Possessive phrases; title: ch. 12. Directionals; title: ch. 13. Structure of the predicate; title: ch. 14. Adverbs and discourse markers; title: ch. 15. Status and illocutionary force; title: ch. 16. Clause linkage; title: ch. 17. Coordination and subordination; title: ch. 18. Discourse organisation I; title: ch. 19. Discourse organisation II; title: ch. 20. Lexical expansion.