Oxford Academic

Oxford Academic

English

In its totality, it is very satisfying to have the wealth of data present in this book all in one place. The book itself is aesthetically pleasing, with clear writing and a very helpful index. One strength in this domain is the clarity with which Massam handles different terminology throughout the text and across the generative literature. Moreover, the synthesis of prior literature gives this volume the feel of a reference work on generative approaches to several major topics, including verb-initial word order, argument tructure, and ergativity. Reading through this book gave me the impression that Massam wrote it not only as an avenue to advance our understanding of these properties of language, but also as a labor of love for the language itself. I expect that this new work by Massam will have a similarly large impact as her earlier work on this language.