Topic and Discourse Structure in West Greenlandic Agreement Constructions

List of tables   

Preface      

Acknowledgments  

List of abbreviations  

Orthographic conventions     

<A>1 Introduction</A>

1.1      Overview of West Greenlandic grammar  

1.2      The Inuit language in syntactic theory

1.3      Approaches to the study of discourse  

1.4      Theoretical approach to discourse structure in West Greenlandic     

<A>2 Topic (and theme) as discourse roles</A>

2.1      Issues in the definition of topic     

2.2      Issues in the definition of theme     

2.3      The introduction and identification of topics and themes

2.4      Discourse roles     

<A>3 Ergativity as a reflection of topic status</A>

3.1      Ergativity in West Greenlandic  

3.2      The treatment of ergativity in modern syntactic theories of West Greenlandic    

3.3      Subjecthood, agency, and topic  

3.4      The role of topic in the use and distribution of ergative structures in West Greenlandic   

3.5      Data analysis 

3.6      Chapter conclusion  

<A>4 Switch-reference or thematic coherence and topic continuity?</A>

4.1      Switch-reference in West Greenlandic  

4.2      Switch-reference as a system of subject or topic/thematic coherence 

4.3      Role of topic in the use and distribution of switch-reference marking in West Greenlandic   

4.4      Data analysis 

4.4.1    Subordinate pronominal inflection     

4.4.2    Contemporatives and participials

4.4.2.1  The contemporative  

4.4.2.2  The participial     

4.5      Chapter conclusion  

<A>5 Conclusion</A>

5.1      Findings

5.2      Some comments on the role of discourse in linguistic descriptions   

<A>Appendix</A>

A1       Notes on data collection  

A2       Notes on transcription and intonation 

Notes        

References   

Index