A grammar of Ngardi

Reference grammars are a long-standing linguistic genre, but the methods and goals of documentary linguistics have not been static. What are the purposes of reference grammars in 2026? Who writes them, who reads them, what types of information do they contain, and what purposes do they serve? Here I use the opportunity of reviewing Tom Ennever’s Ngardi Grammar to explore some of these points as they relate to linguistic typology and language documentation, particularly in the Australian context.