A Grammar of Sikuani
Francesc Queixalós
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris
This is a new descriptive grammar of Sikuani, a language of the Guahibo family spoken in the mid Orinoco grasslands of Colombia and the jungle-covered ridges of Venezuela. The book, written in English, condenses down to one third a two-volume 950-page grammar published in French between 1998 and 2000. The analyses sometimes diverge from the previous version given that in the meantime the author's understanding of languages and linguistics has in someway changed - hopefully for better. Ten chapters cover the different topics in morphology, syntax and the discourse manipulation of both for the sake of communicative strategies. A final chapter deals with phonology and morphophonology.
Illustrative examples are generously supplied, with non abbreviated glosses as often as possible to ease the reader's processing. Follow a list of grammatical morphemes and glosses, a bibliography, as well as a 10-page traditional text translated and broadly segmented. On typology grounds, the language - polysynthetic to a high degree - is noteworthy for the productivity of its nominalising devices. It also shines a light on how a verb lexicon, along with morphology and clause syntax, can embody complex and refined spatial notions.
ISBN 9783969392003 (Hardbound). LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 92. 348pp. 2024.
