Caddo Verb Morphology

“[Caddo Verb Morphology] is sure to gain a reputation as the definitive description of what must be one of the world’s most interesting polysynthetic morphologies. Melnar is to be congratulated on her detailed and insightful analysis, but also on the lucidity with which she presents it.”—Wallace Chafe, author of Meaning and the Structure of Language

“A clear, organized, coherent description of the way meanings are expressed in Caddo verbs. . . . The loss of such languages impoverishes our knowledge of ourselves. We must be grateful to scholars like Melnar and Chafe, however, for providing us with at least a little peek into otherwise unacknowledged ways in which our brains can enable thought and communication.”—David S. Rood, Great Plains Research

“The yield of considerable thought, hard work, and language analysis. . . . We are pleased to note its publication for the benefit of those interested in the history of our region.”—East Texas Historical Journal

“[Melnar's] examination of Caddo is exemplary: thorough, detailed, and methodologically sound. She writes primarily for linguists but is careful to always identify terms and procedures. . . . Caddo Verb Morphology is a good book that will certainly become one of the central documents for the study of Caddo and the Caddo language family and an important text for Native American linguistics. ”—Martin M. Jacobsen, Southwestern American Literature