INTkODUCTION o. This is a description of the grammar of S1ro1, a Non-Austronesian language spoken by approximately 700 people living on the Rai Coast in five villages between the Guabe and Male Rivers, in the Said or Sub province of the Madang Province of Papua New Guinea. In a language survey completed by (the late) OR Claassen and KA McElhanon in 1970 the Siroi language was tentatively linked with the Kabenau Family, Rai Coast Stock to which its lexicostatistical relationship is 24-27%. It should be noted that the language name previously spelt Suroi has since been changed to spell Siroi.

The Grammar presented in this paper covers all levels in the gram matical hierarchy from Stern to Discourse. The description is based on the tagmemic theory as developed by Robert E. Longacre in GAammaA Vi4 coveAY PAoc eduAe4 and as expounded in his various writings since then, and in particular in HieAaAchy and UniveA4ality 0 6 Vi4COUA4 e Con4tituent4 in New Guinea Languag e4. An attempt is made to state the contrast, variation and distribution for each construction, and a bidimensional array usually accompanies the description. I have chosen to set up a minimal number of types and have endeavoured to avoid using less formal grammatoical features for separating criteria. I have tried, however, not to combine to the point of obscurity. It proved more difficult on paragraph and discourse levels to avoid looking at the les s formal features. Chapter 5 presents both the surface and deep structures of Siroi Sentences. Comparatively few sentence types have been posited but the deep structure encodings are highlighted in this chapter.