Free (the) Reference Grammars: Formosan mini-Edition

Hmmm, (Blows virtual dust off blog) I guess it has been a while since I updated here. The good news is that several new projects have arisen which may redefine Bad Grammar the blog's role. More on those in the coming months.

With that in mind, I realize that Toward a Grammar of Takivatan Bunun is not on most people's casual reading list. But as a linguist with a interest in the world's less celebrated languages, Rik De Busser's Ph.D. thesis (available on his webpage) is a fascinating peek into a language not previously well documented. Based upon De Busser's own field work, this provisional grammar goes along way towards providing a concise English language description of the Takivatan dialect of Bunun.

De Busser's work is firmly in the Functional Typological tradition. Bunun has a remarkable number of verbal affixes, mostly derivational and many of the most important get a thorough treatment. There is also a chapter devoted to the role of reduplication (a common feature of Austronesian languages).

To anyone interested in verbal morphology, reduplication or Formosan languages, De Busser's thesis is a wonderful resource to read. Even non-linguists, I believe, will benefit from his overview of the history of Taiwan's aboriginal people and their experience with Chinese, Europeans and Japanese colonial enterprises.