Review of 'A Reference Grammar of Thai' by Shoichi Iwasaki and Preeya Ingkaphirom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009 [2005] [Paperback, 392 pp., ISBN 978-0-521-10867-6]

Abstract

The volume under review is a landmark in Tai linguistics. Although exceeded in terms of scope and depth of analysis by Enfield's (2007) 'A Grammar of Lao, A Reference Grammar of Thai' (henceforth RGT)-first published in 2005 and reissued in paperback in 2009-is the first comprehensive grammar of a Tai language written from a functional perspective. It makes extensive and effective use of well-transcribed interactional data, as well as of the manifold insights and decades of experience of its two authors, one of whom is a native speaker of Thai.