Title: Grammatical Reconstruction
Subtitle: The Sogeram Languages of New Guinea
Series Title: Studies in Language Change [SLC]
Published: 2020
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
http://www.degruyter.com/mouton

Book URL: https://bit.ly/3cIEI4q

Author: Don Daniels
Hardback: ISBN: 9783110615142 Pages: 344 Price: U.S. $ 114.99
Abstract:

There is still widespread disagreement among historical linguists about how, or whether, syntactic reconstruction can be done. This book presents a comprehensive methodology for syntactic reconstruction, grounded in a constructional understanding of language. The author then uses that methodology to reconstruct Proto-Sogeram, the ancestor to ten languages in Papua New Guinea. Chapters are devoted to phonology, lexicon, verbal morphosyntax, nominal morphosyntax, and syntactic constructions. The work culminates in a sketch of Proto-Sogeram grammar. Based largely on the author’s original fieldwork, this is an innovative application of a novel methodology to new data, and the most complete reconstruction of a Papuan proto-language to date. It will be of interest to scholars of language change, language reconstruction, typology, and Papuan languages.