2008/01/01 by Michinori Shimoji · 2 citations
Computer Science · #Natural Language Processing Techniques #Linguistics #Grammar #Computer science #Philosophy
paper · pdf · doi:10.25911/5d5fc82596df5
openalex publication_date 2008/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/14
This thesis is a descriptive grammar of Irabu Ryukyuan (Irabu henceforth), a Southern Ryukyuan language spoken on Irabu, which is one of the Miyako Islands, Okinawa, Japan. Irabu is an endangered Japonic language, with approximately 2,000 to 2,500 native speakers. This thesis serves as the first descriptive grammar of this language and of any particular Miyako Ryukyuan language. The grammar attempts to describe all major areas of this language, covering the phonological system to the complex clause structures. It clarifies a number of phonological and morphosyntactic features that have been little known but are highly noteworthy typologically. Among these are foot-based alternating rhythm of tone features, non-canonical object marking that helps distinguish between narrative and non-narrative uses of non-finite clauses of clause chaining, and word class assignment of property concept words, where a given property concept stem is transformed into a nominal, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb, thus demonstrating a ‘switch-adjectival’ system in the sense of Wetzer’s (1996) typology. / Chapter 1 introduces the Irabu language and its speakers, providing such information as geographical and genealogical classification, socio-linguistic situations, and typological features. Chapter 2 treats the phonological system. Chapter 3 introduces basic descriptive units and categories employed in subsequent chapters. Chapter 4 describes nominal phrase structure. Chapter 5 examines nominal morphology. Chapter 6 deals with the verb morphology. Chapter 7 describes the predicate phrase, treating both nominal and verbal predicates. Chapter 8 investigates property concepts and related issues, and includes a description of the adjective word class. Chapter 9 describes clitics. Chapter 10 addresses various functional-typological issues that crosscut several morphosyntactic structures. Chapter 11 describes complex clause structure. These chapters are followed by Appendix, which lists two text materials.