Longgu Grammar
Deborah Hill
University of Canberra
RMW Dixon (series ed.)
Longgu is an Oceanic language spoken on the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. This grammar is based on fieldwork carried out in the village of Bambasu in 1989 and 1991. The grammar provides a description of the main areas of Longgu grammar. The focus of the grammar is the morphosyntax of the language. Like other Oceanic languages, Longgu exhibits complexity in the areas of transitivity and possession and, while the sections on transitivity and possession provided here could be further elaborated and clarified based on later fieldwork and research on related Oceanic languages, the grammar covers these topics in some detail.
The grammar includes a very brief summary of the phonology of the language, and provides an overview of basic clause structure in Longgu. It provides information about word classes and describes the internal structure of the verb phrase (or verb complex), noun phrase, and prepositional phrase. In addition, it describes dependent clauses, co-ordination, and outlines the structure of interrogative clauses. Longgu Grammar is an introduction to the grammar of the language and reflects an initial understanding of a language about which little had been written before this grammar.
ISBN 9783862880959. Outstanding grammars from Australia 04. 340pp. 2011.
