Serial Verbs in Oceanic

Review from other book by this author 'Beach-la-Mar to Bislama': `an outstanding contribution to our knowledge of the pidgin spoken in Vanuatu ... the study presents a comparative perspective from both a present-day and an historical point of view ... There is no doubt that Crowley has provided a detailed and provocative sociolinguistic study of a language which, up until now, has received limited attention.' Discourse and Society 'Crowley's portrait of Bislama history is an important contribution to P/C theoretical debate ... this book provides the most cpomplete synchronic and diachronic description of any P/C to date ... It will be ignored by creolists at their peril.' Chris Corne, Journal of Pacific History, No. 2, 1992 'he lived in Vanuatu for a decade or more, speaking Bislama on a daily basis; and he has published what has become the authoritative dictionary of that language ... The book is well presented, with examples clearly set out and with footnotes at the bottom of each page rather than tucked away at the back ... this is an extremely valuable addition to the literature on Melanesian Pidgin and on pidgin/creole studies generally. But it is more than that: Because of the attention paid to the effects on the language of interethnic contact and social and political developments in Vanuatu, it is also a valuable contribution to the social history of the Pacific.' John lynch, University of the South Pacific, Pacific Studies, Vol. 16, No. 4, December 1993 `C. has to be commended for having put together, in the five historical chapters, linguistic and sociohistorical data on Bislama that tremendously increases our knowledge not only of the pidgin of Vanuatu, but of the other Melanesian pidgins as well. This is a remarkable piece of historical linguistics...one is amazed at the richness of data that the author was able to unearth.' Language, Vol 71 no 1 `Serial Verbs in Oceanic is an invaluable addition to the literature on serial verbs, and Crowley deserves full credit for contributing to a more balanced representation of the distribution of SVCs across the languages of the world.' Linguistic Society of New Zealand