Reconstructing proto austronesian verb classes

Malcolm Ross*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    8 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Although morphological innovations are usually regarded as important in reconstructing the histories of language families, relatively little attention has been paid to the reconstruction of Proto Austronesian (PAn) verbal morphology, and this paper aims to take a step in this direction. Morphological classes of verbs have been reconstructed for several Formosan languages, and this paper offers a preliminary reconstruction of PAn verb classes, examines the challenges inherent in that reconstruction and offers tentative responses to them. The final section takes a brief look at how the reconstruction of PAn verb classes permits the establishment of morphological innovations and casts light on the subgrouping of Austronesian languages.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)279-345
    Number of pages67
    JournalLanguage and Linguistics
    Volume16
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2015

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