new: LINCOM Coursebooks in Linguistics 19  
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Introduction to Linguistics from a Global Perspective

An Alternative Approach to Language and Languages

Joachim Grzega
University of Eichstaett

How do languages work? 10 chapters introduce to all major aspects of language and models from theoretical to applied linguistics in an alternative way. Respecting an international university policy for beginner’s courses, this book offers an interactive approach even for large, international and interdisciplinary groups, with majors in linguistics, language teaching, European studies, intercultural communication, journalism, psychology, computer science, lexicography, arts, and marketing. The book connects linguistics to various fields. It enables readers to develop linguistic expertise by first presenting problems for reflection, then answering them in everyday language and finally using linguistic terminology, with examples from English and other languages. Students can acquire knowledge with the book “interactively”, at their own pace.

Each chapter includes anecdotes, “linguistic learning lyricisms” for difficult terms, a checklist of terms, wrap-up riddles, and a further reading section. Preliminary remarks tell readers how to best benefit from the book. Instructors are relieved from finding the right pace and method for each new learner group. Consequently, classroom meetings can be used to just revise the core knowledge and then apply it to concrete problems from various fields. Instructors are given advice for an effective use of the book and offered several activities for each chapter. Thus, the book becomes a Do-It-Yourself-Then-Do-It-in-Class book.

The author, Joachim Grzega, is professor of linguistics and has specialized in Eurolinguistics, language teaching, intercultural communication, expert-layperson communication, and communicative teaching methods.
  
ISBN 9783862880669. LINCOM Coursebooks in Linguistics 19. 251pp. 2011. Students' discounts available, please ask!                                     		  
 
new: Languages of the World/Materials 486. 		 

A Short Grammar of Alorese (Austronesian)

Marian Klamer
Leiden University

Alorese (Bahasa Alor) (25,000 speakers) is the only indigenous Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language spoken amongst the Papuan languages of the Alor-Pantar archipelago in south-eastern Indonesia. Like many of the other minority languages spoken in this part of Indonesia, Alorese has not been previously described. This sketch is based on primary data collected by the author during on-site fieldwork in 2003.

While earlier sources suggest that Alorese is a dialect of Lamaholot, this grammar compares the Alorese basic lexicon with that of three Lamaholot dialects, to suggest that Alorese is a language of its own. Another feature that distinguishes Alorese from any of the Lamaholot dialects is its isolating profile, lacking all productive morphology.

There are significant lexical differences between Alorese dialects spoken on Pantar island and those spoken on Alor. The present sketch notes such variation, but emphasis is on the language as it is spoken in Baranusa, west Pantar. Historical and ethnographic evidence is presented to reconstruct the history of its speakers as migrants from the east Flores Lamaholot-speaking region, who arrived in Pantar before or around 1,300 AD. Alorese phonology and morphology are sketched before presenting the major grammatical constructions used. Serial verb constructions, especially directional ones, are often used. Alorese combines head-initial clausal constituent order with post-predicate negation and a clause-final conjunction. It has accusative alignment, the grammatical relations subject and object are expressed by constituent order. Alorese non-declarative sentence types are structurally very similar to declarative ones. Clauses are linked to each by conjunctive linking words or by complementation; complementation is by juxtaposition. Alorese contains words and grammatical constructions that are non-Austronesian. Details are presented suggesting that these are due to different kinds of contact between Alorese and Papuan languages in historic and prehistoric times.



ISBN 9783862881727. Languages of the World/Materials 486. 142pp. 2011.