Review of: Genetti Carol. A Grammar of Dolakha Newar

Mouton de Gruyter, 2007. - 14 p. A Grammar of Dolakha Newar is a comprehensive descriptive grammar written from a functional-typological perspective, a worthy sequel to Genetti 1994, which was the first major account of Dolakha Newar to be published in English. For more than two decades now, Genetti has been making important contributions to our understanding of Newar as it is spoken both in Kathmandu and in Dolakha. This massive new work excites high expectations. We are not disappointed. Genetti’s aim is to present Dolakhae in its own terms, capturing what she calls the genius of the language. To the extent that the reviewer, as a student of Kathmandu Newar (Hale and Shrestha 2006) can judge, she has succeeded in this, especially in her treatment of clause combining in complex sentences. This book provides a rich source of data, sensitive analyses, and numerous starting points for further research. A Grammar of Dolakha Newar is the first fully comprehensive reference grammar of a Newar variety. Dolakha Newar is of particular interest as it is member of the mutually unintelligible eastern branch of the family, so allows for an important comparative perspective on this significant Tibeto-Burman language. In addition to a chapter on phonetics and phonology, the book contains a separate chapter on prosody. There are also distinct chapters on each word class, with full discussion of the morphological and syntactic properties of each class. The book provides an extensive study of syntax, including complete chapters on constructions, clause structure, constituent order, grammatical relations, nominalization, complementation, the participial construction, and the complex sentence, as well as a detailed chapter on tense and aspect. Brimming with examples from natural discourse, the book couples rigorous description of the language's structures with full discussion of how the structures are used in connected speech. Each analysis is presented with full argumentation and competing analyses are contrasted and discussed. The result is a rich, readable, and beautifully argued portrait of a language and how it works. Acknowledgments -- Lists -- Abbreviations -- 1. Context -- 2. Segmental Phonetics And Phonology -- 3. Prosody -- 4. Nouns And Noun Morphology -- 5. Personal Pronouns, Interrogatives, Indefinites, And Demonstratives -- 6. Verbs And Verb Morphology -- 7. Adjectivals -- 8. Quantifiers -- 9. Adverbials -- 10. Particles And Clitics Of Individuation And Extension -- 11. Noun-phrase Structure -- 12. Clause Types -- 13. Grammatical Relations -- 14. Constituent Order -- 15. Clause-level Syntactic Constructions -- 16. Tense And Aspect -- 17. Nominalization And Related Structures -- 18. Complementation -- 19. The Participial Construction -- 20. Adverbial Clauses -- 21. The Sentence : Prosodic And Syntactic Structuring -- Appendices -- Notes -- References -- Index. By Carol Genetti. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [566]-577) And Index. Main description: A Grammar of Dolakha Newar is a comprehensive description of a Tibeto-Burman language of Nepal. Brimming with examples from naturaldiscourse, the book couples rigorous description of the language's structures with full discussion of how the structures are used by speakers in connected speech. The result is a rich, readable, and beautifully argued portrait of a language and how it works Presents a description of a Tibeto-Burman language of Nepal. This book couples description of the language's structures with discussion of how the structures are used by speakers in connected speech.