Expressive Morphology in the Languages of South Asia explores the intricacies of the grammars of several of the languages of the South Asian subcontinent. It examine grammatical resources for shaping elaborative, rhyming, and alliterative expressions, conveying the emotions, states, conditions, and perceptions of speakers.

Jeffrey P. Williams is Professor of Ethnology and Linguistics in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at Texas Tech University. He is coeditor on three books (excluding the present contribution) and editor of another. His field-based research has been in the West Indies, Australia, Papua New Guinea and with Native American tribes in Oklahoma (USA) and Montagnard refugees in North Carolina and Texas (USA). He is presently writing a monograph entitled Expressives for Cambridge University Press.

Table of Contents

List of Figures & Tables

List of Appendices

List of Contributors

1 Introduction Jeffrey P. Williams

Part I: South Asia in Comparative Perspective

2 Expressives as a Semantically Complex Category in South Asian Languages

Anvita Abbi

Part II: Expressives in the Indo-Aryan Sphere

3 Expressives in Hindi

Annie Motaut

4 Nepali Expressive Morphology

George van Driem

Part III: Expressives in the Dravidian Family

5 Morphosyntax of Expressives in Malayalam

P. Sreekumar & S. Prema

6 Expressive Morphology: A Study of Irä¿aik Kilavi in Tamil

Vridhachalem Pillay Subramaniam

Part IV: Expressive Morphology in Tibeto-Burman

7 Reduplication in Lamkang: Form, Function, Feeling

Shobhana Chelliah, Evaline Blair, Melissa Robinson, Rex Khullar, and Sumshot Khular

8 The Functional Value of Formal Exuberance: Isomorphism and Expressive Intensification in Adi and Milang

Yankee Modi and Mark W. Post

Part V: The Tai Presence in South Asia

9 A Study of the Poetics of Tai Ahom

Stephen Morey

Part VI: The Munda World

10 Expressives in the Munda Languages

Gregory D. S. Anderson and Bikram Jora

Index