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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................ ix
Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Introduction to the Marshallese language ........................................................... 2
1.2 A note on speakers .............................................................................................. 4
1.3 Micronesian languages........................................................................................ 5
1.4 Previous works on Marshallese .......................................................................... 7
1.5 Outline of the dissertation ................................................................................... 8
Chapter 2. Grammatical Sketch of Marshallese ......................................................... 10
2.1 Marshallese phoneme inventory and orthography ............................................ 10
2.1.1 Consonants ................................................................................................ 10
2.1.2 Vowels ...................................................................................................... 11
2.1.3 Orthography .............................................................................................. 13
2.2 Morphology....................................................................................................... 15
2.2.1 Nouns ........................................................................................................ 15
2.2.2 Determiners ............................................................................................... 16
2.2.3 Pronouns ................................................................................................... 18
2.2.4 Subject agreement clitics .......................................................................... 21
2.2.5 Adjectives ................................................................................................. 25
2.2.6 Verbal morphology ................................................................................... 26
2.2.6.1 The causative prefix ka- ........................................................................ 26
2.2.6.2 The object marking suffix ..................................................................... 31
2.2.6.3 Directionals ........................................................................................... 35
2.2.6.4 The derivation of transitive and intransitive verbs ............................... 38
2.2.6.4.1 Underlyingly intransitive with no transitive counterpart ................ 39
2.2.6.4.2 Underlyingly transitives with no intransitive counterpart .............. 40
2.2.6.4.3 Suppletive verbs .............................................................................. 41
2.2.6.4.4 Underlyingly intransitive - trans form derived from the intrans ..... 42
2.2.6.4.5 Underlyingly transitive - intrans form derived from the trans ........ 43
2.2.6.4.6 Verbs with identical transitive and intransitive forms .................... 45
2.2.6.4.7 Intransitive verbs with objects ........................................................ 46
2.2.6.5 Deriving verbs from nouns ................................................................... 48
2.2.7 Tense, aspect, modality and adverbs......................................................... 49
2.3 Syntax ............................................................................................................... 57
2.3.1 Determiner phrases ................................................................................... 57
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