The Expression and Conceptualization of Time In
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THE EXPRESSION AND CONCEPTUALIZATION OF TIME IN KAVALAN (AUSTRONESIAN, TAIWAN) Author: Wei-Wei Lee Supervisor: Dr. E.I. Crevels Date of submission: November 9, 2016 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Research Master of Arts in Linguistics ii ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the linguistic expression and conceptualization of lexical temporal concepts in Kavalan, a highly endangered Austronesian (Formosan) language spoken on the east coast of Taiwan. The first part consists of a grammar sketch. The second part is the core component, describing and analyzing lexical time in Kavalan based on fieldwork data. The lexical temporal concepts are taken from Haspelmath’s (1997) typological semantic classification of temporal NP-based adverbials. The conceptualization of these concepts is examined using the Conceptual Metaphor Theory as advanced by Lakoff & Johnson (e.g. 1980, 1999b) and adjusted and expanded by Moore (2000, 2006, 2014). Expressions motivated by various TIME IS SPACE metaphors are found to be fairly frequent in Kavalan. The third and final part contains a small typological study, in which Kavalan’s linguistic behavior in terms of temporal expression and conceptualization is compared to that of four other Formosan languages: Tsou, Saisiyat, Isbukun Bunun, and Paiwan. A general pattern is the different encoding of temporal clauses in past situations as opposed to those in future and generic/habitual situations (Zeitoun 1997). Both Kavalan and Saisiyat are curiously found to deviate from this two-way distinction by being more implicit. Tsou is an obvious outlier in various respects, as expected from its likewise diverging general linguistic properties. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have come about without the huge amount of help, suggestions, and support I received from a number of people. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to them. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Mily Crevels, who has been involved with my ideas about doing fieldwork from the very beginning. What I find most admirable is her unbroken sense of commitment: weekly meetings are surely more than I could have ever hoped for, and it would not rarely happen that Mily sent an email simply to inquire about how everything was going. Thank you so much for all of your genuine support, faith, and encouragement along the way; they have made the long ride considerably more enjoyable. My deep gratitude also goes out to my fieldwork internship supervisor Fuhui Hsieh, who was so friendly to offer help in realizing a field trip for a student on the other side of the world whom she had never met. With enthusiasm, professor Hsieh allowed me to contribute to her research project by carrying out fieldwork. Not only did she partly support my stay in Sinshe financially, but perhaps more importantly, she introduced me to some of her closest informants. I do not doubt the world of difference this has made, and do not take for granted the warm welcome I immediately received from the villagers. Thank you too, for your time and your trust in me. None of this entire work would have been possible, of course, without the people of Sinshe. I cannot thank Raciang (潘金英) and her family enough for welcoming me in their home and daily lives. Entering as a stranger, I left feeling almost as a member of the family. A huge wanay (Kavalan: ‘thank you’) also goes out to buya (謝宗修), timut (黃潘愛美), tuyaw (陳春田) and the rest of the family, 潘清水, and 潘文忠 and his wife, for their warmth, hospitality, and friendship, and some of them for sharing their precious language with me with great dedication and patience. I would also like to express my gratitude to several (mostly) Formosan and Austronesian scholars, whose help is greatly appreciated. First of all, thanks to Elizabeth Zeitoun for your time and your tremendous help with literature and references. Without your help, it would have been a lot more difficult to gain access to some of the valuable works published in Taiwan. Thank you, Haowen Jiang, for sharing some of your experience and knowledge regarding fieldwork and for taking the time to discuss some Kavalan-related issues with me. Furthermore, I am indebted to Shuanfan Huang, Henry Yungli Chang, Hengsyung Jeng, Shuping Huang, and Rint Sybesma, who kindly provided me with digital copies of their (written or edited) work, and Paul Jen-Kuei Li, Marian Klamer, Alexander Adelaar, and Stella Shih-chi Yeh, for providing helpful references. A word of thanks is also in order for Leiden University, without whose LUSTRA+ scholarship and LUF (Leiden University Fund) International Study Fund I would not have been able to undertake this fieldwork. Moreover, thanks to the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics for lending me their recording equipment. Finally, to my dear family and friends: thank you for your constant love and support, for putting up with me in both better and worse times, and for believing in me even when I did not. Thanks for simply always being there. iv CONTENTS Abstract .................................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................. iv Contents ..................................................................................................................................................... v List of figures .......................................................................................................................................... vii List of tables ........................................................................................................................................... viii Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................................ x 1. Preliminaries ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2. Language background ................................................................................................................. 2 1.3. Method and data sources ............................................................................................................. 4 2. A grammar sketch of Kavalan ......................................................................................................... 7 2.1. Typological profile and classification ......................................................................................... 7 2.2. Phonology ................................................................................................................................... 9 2.2.1. Phoneme inventory and orthography ................................................................................... 9 2.2.2. Geminate consonants......................................................................................................... 11 2.2.3. Syllable structure and stress .............................................................................................. 11 2.3. Word classes ............................................................................................................................. 12 2.4. Nominal morphology ................................................................................................................ 14 2.4.1. Nouns ................................................................................................................................ 14 2.4.2. Pronouns ........................................................................................................................... 16 2.5. Verbal morphology ................................................................................................................... 18 2.5.1. Tense, aspect, and mood (TAM) system ........................................................................... 19 2.6. Demonstrative system ............................................................................................................... 23 2.7. Syntax and clause structure ....................................................................................................... 26 2.7.1. Focus system ..................................................................................................................... 26 2.7.2. Case system ....................................................................................................................... 28 2.7.3. Basic clause structure ........................................................................................................ 30 3. Temporal expression and conceptualization in Kavalan.............................................................. 37 3.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 37 3.1.1. Previous research .............................................................................................................. 37 3.1.2. The spatial conceptualization of time ................................................................................ 38 3.1.3. Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and TIME AS SPACE ................................................