Michael Tanangkingsing

A Functional Reference Grammar of Cebuano (Volume Two): from a Discourse Perspective Michael Tanangkingsing

Previous grammars of Cebuano have generally described the language in formal terms without much attention paid on actual usage. To fill this gap, this functional reference grammar of Cebuano based on the actual spoken language departs from the traditional emphasis on phonological, morphological, and phrasal description employed in most previous and even in recent reference grammars and conducts analyses at the clausal and discourse levels to better reflect the forms and functions of the language in actual use. It also describes recent research findings on Cebuano grammar, especially repair organization and grammatical constituency, transitivity, reference tracking, and particles and discourse marking, as these constitute a very important part of the grammar of Cebuano. This reference grammar is useful to linguists, as well as to native speakers and students of Cebuano alike. For linguists, the rich data provide material for linguistic comparisons. For native speakers, this reference provides another perspective for appreciating their mother tongue. For students, the examples and explanations provide the situations and contexts for proper use of the language.