2nd Edition

Georgian A Learner's Grammar

By George Hewitt Copyright 2005
    496 Pages
    by Routledge

    496 Pages
    by Routledge

    This second edition of Georgian: A Learner's Grammar is a completely revised and updated guide to the fascinating and most widely spoken language of the Caucasus.

    Presenting the language in the form of dialogues and reading passages, full attention is given to script reproduction and recognition, pronunciation, lexis and individual points of grammar.

    Key features include:

    * highlighting of verbal roots throughout
    * new and varied exercises for practice of verb forms
    * use of the new Georgian currency
    * examples of Georgian literature, both poetry and prose, and each with its own self-contained vocabulary                                                                                                            * a reference section providing an answer key, a Georgian-English glossary and an index of grammatical terms.

    With a varied and extensive range of exercise work, this new edition provides a comprehensive and carefully graded grammar of Georgian that has been successful over a number of years of use in the classroom.

    Introduction.

    Lesson 1. Citation form of nouns and adjectives; Locative expressions; Formation of adverbs; Asking questions; Consonant final words; Pronouns, possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns; Formality; The Present tense of ‘to be’; The verbs of motion and similar formations

    Lesson 2. The plural of nouns; The Dative case; The Genitive case; Declensions and Demonstratives; Adjective agreement with Datives and Genitives; Preverbs; Numbers; Telling the time; Days of the week; Months of the year; The Present tense of the verbs 'to stand up’, ‘to lie down’, ‘to sit down'; Names denoting common relationships and possessives

    Lesson 3. Asking about and stating one's age; The comparative and superlative grades of adjectives and adverbs; The Instrumental case; Adjective agreement with the Instrumental; Postpositions; Subject-agreement markers within the verb for intransitive subjects

    Lesson 4. The division of the tense-system; Subject and direct object case marking and verbal agreement for; Series I transitives; Word-order; Transitive verbs in the present indicative; Neutral Version; Verb-agreement with 3rd person plural subjects; Syncope of  -o- in nouns; The Adverbial case of nouns; Adjective agreement with nouns in the Adverbial case; The postposition –mde up to

    Lesson 5. Subjective Version; Indirect Objects; Locative Version; Indefinite Pronouns and Adverbs; Articles

    Lesson 6. The future indicative of transitive verbs; Object agreement affixes; Reflexives; Emphatics Pronouns

    Lesson 7. Objective version; Expressions with too, also, as well;  Emphatic interrogative particle; Relative Clauses; The potential negative; The Vocative case; Adjective agreement with the Vocative

    Lesson 8. The syntax of Series II transitive verbs; The Ergative case; Declension types and agreement patterns; The aorist indicative forms of transitive verbs

    Lesson 9. The formation of colloquial relative clauses; Temporal clauses meaning 'when'; Temporal clauses meaning 'while'; Manner clauses meaning 'as, like'; Temporal clauses meaning 'as soon as'; Temporal clauses meaning 'after'; Noun-clauses; Causal clauses 'because, as, since'; Simple Conditional (if) clauses; The verb ‘to know’ in the Present Indicative

    Lesson 10. The formation of the Present and Future Indicatives of intransitive verbs; Meaning and syntax of intransitive verbs; The marking of intransitive verbs with indirect objects; Some anomalies among the intransitives; The irregular Future indicatives

    Lesson 11. The formation of the Aorist Indicative for intransitive verbs; The syntax required by intransitive verbs in Series II; The Medial Verbs in the present, future and aorist indicatives; The syntax of Medial verbs; Version as a change of tense marker

    Lesson 12. The formation of the Aorist Subjunctive for Transitive; Intransitives and Medials; Some uses of the Aorist Subjunctive; How to issue an instruction in the Imperative; How to construct expressions of Prohibition

    Lesson 13. Stative Verbs; The Indirect Verbs; How to say 'X wants to (VERB)' and 'X can (VERB)'; How to express the notion 'convey'; How to say 'know' in the future indicative; Forms of the more important stative verbs

    Lesson 14. Formation of the imperfect indicative, present subjunctive, conditional and future subjunctive; Expressions of the type ‘if X were to (be) verb(ing), Y would be (verb)’; Constructing imperatives from verbs without an aorist indicative; Constructing expressions of the type ‘X out to be verbing’; Expressions of purpose relating to the future; Some other verbs that take the aorist subjunctive

    Biography

    Born/educated: Doncaster, scholarship in Classics St. John's College Cambridge , Cambridge Linguistics Diploma, MA, Ph.D. (Georgian-Abkhaz syntax). Twice British Council exchange-postgrad (Tbilisi). Linguistics lecturer (Hull); Lecturer (Linguistics/Georgian), Reader & Professor (Caucasian languages) at SOAS (1988-). Fellow of the British Academy (1997). Authored: 'Georgian: A Learner's Grammar' (Routledge), 'Georgian: A Structural Reference Grammar' (Benjamin), 'A Georgian Reader' (SOAS)

    ‘There is no doubt that this book is necessary and unique. It has no serious rival.’ -Donald Rayfield, Queen Mary College, University of London, UK