A grammar of Bella Coola

This grammar describes the major syntactic and morphological patterns of Bella Coola (NuXalk), a Salishan language of British Columbia. The approach is a functional one, which details the grammatical resources of the language as they implement the coherent semantic organization of propositions. Chapter One introduces background on the Bella Coola language and presents some of the tools needed for the following description. Chapter Two is concerned with the major syntactic configuration of Bella Coola sentences, and introduces relevant verbal morphology. Chapter Three treats the variety found in the expression of the syntactic arguments of a sentence. The deictic affixes are described as are the patterns of modification and naming. Chapter Four treats syntactic complexity. The chapter emphasizes a scale of semantic integration between two propositions and includes a description of co-reference patterns.

Language 1999. Vol. 75, No. 2. pp. 382-383. Reviewed by Michael Darnell, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

American Indian Culture and Research Journal 1999. Vol. 23, No. 1. pp. 232-234. Reviewed by Joseph F. Eska, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University.

International Journal of American Linguistics 2001. Vol. 67, No. 1. pp. 88-92. Reviewed by David Beck, University of Alberta.