Object and Absolutive in Halkomelem Salish (RLE Linguistics F: World Linguistics)

2014 edition of a book on Halkomelem syntax originally published in 1988. From the introduction in the book: "This study treats aspects of the syntax of Halkomelem, a Salish language spoken in southwestern British Columbia, specifically those construction which involve objects. Working in the theory of Relational Grammar, I find evidence for the following constructions: advancements to object — indirect object, benefactive, causal, and directional to object advancements; object resignations — antipassives, reflexives, reciprocals, and object cancellations; and passives." This book treats aspects of the syntax of Halkomelem, a Salish language spoken in southwestern British Columbia, specifically those constructions which involve objects, and seeks to accomplish two goals. First, it provides natural language fodder for the debate concerning the nature of grammatical relations and their place in syntactic theory. Second, by showing that Halkomelem draws from a familiar class of universal constructions and organizes its syntax around some simple and common parameters, the author has brought the Salish languages, which due to their phonological and morphological complexity seemed particularly fearsome, into cross-linguistic perspective. Cover Acknowledgements Preface Table of Contents List of Abbreviations List of Maps 0 Introduction 1 Introduction to Halkomelem 2 Some Basic Phenomena of Halkomelem 3 Advancements to Object 4 Object Resignations 5 Passives 6 Conclusion References