Reference Grammars (was: Doraja (was: Re: TRANS: a haiku)

Matt Pearson wrote:
>A very good recent reference grammar that I've been reading is "A
>Grammar of Lezgian" by Martin Haspelmath, published by Mouton de
>Gruyter (1993).  It's impeccably organised, impressively complete,
>and includes a variety of useful and unusual features, including a
>concordance of example sentences.  Most importantly, every single
>point in the grammar is illustrated with at least one--and in many
>cases several--example sentences, with full morpheme-by-morpheme
>glosses.  Lezgian (a Caucasian language spoken in Daghestan and
>Azerbaijan) is not my cup of tea when it comes to 'aesthetics', but
>the presentation of the material is excellent.
I'd also like to recommend other grammars in Mouten de Gruyter
series. They have something called the 'Handbook of Amazonian
Languages' now on volume 5 (if I'm not mistaken). Each volume
has 2 or 3 grammars in them. All of which are organized in the
same clear way. I just have one caveat, the chapter on phonology
comes near the end of each grammar. But then again, many grammars
seem to do this. IMO, The best grammar in the series is the one
on Yagua in the 2nd volume of the Handbook of Amazonian Languages.

>Another good grammar is Foley's grammar of Yimas (a highland
>Papuan language).  It's a lot denser than Haspelmath's Lezgian grammar,
>but then, Yimas is a very dense language; I couldn't imagine a more
>straightforward presentation.
I have this. Straightforward presentation is exactly how I'd
describe it.

I have also seen the 'Tagalog Reference Grammar' by Schachter and
Otanes. Its also really straightforward, but I could be biased here
since I know the language. ;-)

>R.M.W. Dixon's grammars of Dyirbal, Yidiny, and Boumaa Fijian are
>also classics.  If I'm not as partial to them as to some others, it's
>only because Dixon is a little inconsistent in providing fully glossed
>example sentences.
I have always heard of these 'classics' being fairly good. Maybe its
about time I find 'em.

BTW, in Appendix 2 of 'Describing Morphosyntax' by Thomas Payne, there
is a list of grammars that may serve as models of how a grammatical
description may be organized. The grammars listed have been judged as
'successful' by an informal panel of professional and student linguists
who have actually used reference grammars in their research. I could
post this list of grammars if interested.

-kristian- 8)