The studies in this book represent the rich diverse and substantial research being conducted
today in the linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia. The chapters cover a broad scope. Several
studies address questions of language relatedness often challenging conventional assumptions
about the status of language contact as an explanatory factor in accounting for linguistic
similarities. Several address the question of Mainland Southeast Asia as a linguistic area
exploring new ways to imagine and define the boundaries and indeed the boundedness of a
Mainland Southeast Asia area. Two contributions rethink the received notion of the
'sesquisyllable' with new empirical and theoretical angles. And a set of chapters explores
topics in the morphology and syntax of the region's languages sometimes challenging orthodox
assumptions and claims about what a typical language of Mainland Southeast Asia is like.
Written by leading researchers in the field and with a substantial overview of current
knowledge and new directions by the volume editors N. J. Enfield and Bernard Comrie this book
will serve as an authoritative source on where the linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia is at
and where it is heading.
