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Split Intransitivity in Rotokas, a Papuan Language of Bougainville

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Split Intransitivity in Rotokas, a Papuan Language of Bougainville Split Intransitivity in Rotokas, a Papuan Language of Bougainville c 2011, Stuart Robinson Cover design: Harald Pieper, In-Zicht Graphic Design, Nijmegen Typeset with LATEX Printed and bound by Ipskamp Printers, Nijmegen Split Intransitivity in Rotokas, a Papuan Language of Bougainville Een wetenschappelijke proeve op het gebied van de Letteren Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. mr. S.C.J.J. Kortmann, volgens besluit van het college van decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op dinsdag 5 april 2011 om 15.30 uur precies door Stuart Payton Robinson geboren op 28 oktober 1973 Bad Cannstatt (Duitsland) Promotor: Prof. dr. Stephen C. Levinson Copromotor: Dr. Michael Dunn (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen) Manuscriptcommissie: Prof. dr. Leon Stassen Prof. dr. Ulrike Mosel (Christian-Albrechts-Universit¨at zu Kiel) Prof. dr. Robert van Valin (University at Buffalo, The State University of New York) The research reported in this thesis was supported by a grant from the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur F¨orderung der Wissenschaften, M¨unchen, Germany. Acknowledgements This dissertation would never have been realized without the generous support of numerous individuals and organizations. First and foremost, I must acknowledge the the generous funding of the Max Planck Society and the institutional support of the Max Planck Institute for Pyscholinguistics in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. I also should thank Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson for encouraging my return to linguistics after a three-year long hiatus as a software engineer. Although building web sites for business-to-business automative resale and for personal wealth management taught me a great deal about the art and craft of programming, my intellectual life has been more fulfilling since my return to the linguistic sciences. I also wish to thank the various individuals who read drafts of this dissertation (in part or whole) and provided feedback: Michael Dunn, Nick Enfield, Tracy King, Stephen Levinson, Ger Reesink, Gunter Senft, and Angela Terrill. Needless to say, I am solely responsible for its shortcomings. Special thanks go to Saskia van Putten and Annemarie Verkerk, who translated my samenvatting from English, and to Edith Sjoerdsma, whose patient assistance with the final bureaucratic hurdles of dissertation publication was an absolute lifesaver. Hartelijk bedankt. I owe a debt to numerous individuals in Papua New Guinea, without whom the fieldwork underlying this work would have been impossible. First and foremost, I would like to thank Samuel Akoitai for providing accomodations in Togarao and to the rest of his family for their hospitality, especially his brothers, Samson, Paul, and Thomas Akoitai, who made Togarao feel like a home away from home. Second, this work would not have been possible without the assistance of the Rotokas-speaking community. Timothy Taureviri and Sera Mon worked full- time as language consultants, and their assistance in the transcription and analysis of Rotokas was invaluable. Vearovira rutu! Finally, the friendly support of the staff at the National Research Institute in Port Moresby deserves mention, especially that of James Robins. My various officemates over the last few years also deserve acknowledgement for putting up with my ranting and raving (usually directed at my computer when it refused to cooperate but also sometimes over the frustrations of life as an expatriate in Nijmegen): first and foremost, Claudia Wegener, who shared an office with me during the majority of my time at the MPI, but also Sylvia Tufvesson and Clair Hill. I also want thank my family for their support throughout the entire Ph.D. process. It was an eventful few years for my mother, Marsha; my father, Michal; and my sister, Emily. I wish I could have been a less distant presence. My adopted family (Mike, Surinder, Cindy, Annup, and Sanjay) has been incredibly supportive. My wife, Rupe Singh, is the most deserving of vii acknowledgement for her love, support, and forebearance during a hectic four years divided between three continents. But it is my deceased grandfather, George Delbert Middleton, to whom I wish to dedicate this work. His was a virtuous life of a service to family, community, and country, and I am deeply saddened that he did not live to see this work come to fruition. Contents I A Grammatical Sketch of Rotokas 1 1 Introduction 3 1.1 AimsandFocus.................................. 3 1.2 FieldworkandData................................ 3 1.3 Organization.................................... 5 2 Language Background 9 2.1 BougainvilleandIslandMelanesia . ...... 9 2.1.1 HistoryoftheRegion........................... 9 2.2 TheRotokasLanguage .............................. 11 2.2.1 PriorLiterature .............................. 12 2.2.2 TheSpeakersofRotokas. 13 2.2.3 DialectalVariation . 14 2.2.4 TheLanguagesofBougainville . 16 2.2.5 GeneticAffiliation ............................ 17 3 Phonology 25 3.1 SegmentalPhonology(PhonemeInventory) . ....... 25 3.1.1 Vowels .................................. 25 3.1.2 Consonants ................................ 26 3.1.3 APracticalOrthography . 28 3.2 SuprasegmentalPhonology . ... 28 3.2.1 SyllableStructure. 28 3.2.2 WordStress................................ 31 3.2.3 Reduplication............................... 34 4 WordClasses 37 4.1 Root,Stem,andWordClasses . .. 37 4.2 AnInventoryofRotokasWordClasses. ..... 39 ix 4.2.1 Nouns................................... 39 4.2.1.1 GenderandNounSubclasses . 40 4.2.1.1.1 Class1........................ 42 4.2.1.1.2 Class2........................ 45 4.2.1.1.3 Class3........................ 46 4.2.1.1.4 Class4........................ 47 4.2.1.1.5 Class5........................ 48 4.2.2 NounClassifiers ............................. 49 4.2.3 Pronouns ................................. 53 4.2.3.1 PersonalPronouns. 53 4.2.3.1.1 S........................... 55 4.2.3.1.2 A........................... 55 4.2.3.1.3 O........................... 55 4.2.3.1.4 Oblique ....................... 56 4.2.3.2 ResumptivePronouns . 56 4.2.3.3 PossessivePronouns. 58 4.2.3.4 Demonstratives .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 59 4.2.4 Verbs ................................... 61 4.2.5 Adjectives................................. 62 4.2.5.1 Predication........................... 63 4.2.5.1.1 EventPredicate . 63 4.2.5.1.2 PropertyorQualityPredicate . 64 4.2.5.1.3 LocationalPredicate. 64 4.2.5.2 Attribution........................... 64 4.2.6 Adverbs.................................. 65 4.2.7 Postpositions ............................... 69 4.2.8 Interrogatives............................... 72 4.2.9 Conjoiners ................................ 73 4.2.10 Exclamatives ............................... 75 5 Morphology 79 5.1 NominalMorphology............................... 79 5.1.1 Prefixes.................................. 80 5.1.1.1 Order 1 Prefix: Reflexive/Reciprocal Marker . .. 80 5.1.1.1.1 Reflexive ...................... 80 5.1.1.1.2 Reciprocal. .. .. .. .. .. .. 81 5.1.1.1.3 Emphatic/Contrastive . 81 5.1.1.2 Order1Prefix:Specifier. 81 5.1.1.2.1 SpecifierwithNoun . 81 x 5.1.1.2.2 SpecifierwithClassifier . 81 5.1.2 Suffixes.................................. 82 5.1.2.1 Order1Suffixes:Derivational. 82 5.1.2.2 Order2Suffixes:Number/Gender . 84 5.1.2.3 Order3Suffixes:Possession . 84 5.1.2.4 Order4Suffixes:Diminutive . 84 5.1.2.5 Order5Suffixes:Alternative . 85 5.1.2.6 Order6Suffixes:Definite/Indefinite . 89 5.1.2.6.1 IndefiniteSuffix . 89 5.1.2.6.2 DefiniteSuffix. 89 5.1.3 Enclitics ................................. 90 5.1.3.1 PostpositionalEnclitics . 90 5.1.3.1.1 Locative/Instrumental . 90 5.1.3.1.2 Allative ....................... 91 5.1.3.1.3 Benefactive . 91 5.1.3.1.4 Ablative ....................... 91 5.1.3.2 TopicMarker ......................... 91 5.2 VerbalMorphology ................................ 93 5.2.1 Prefixes.................................. 93 5.2.1.1 Order 1 Prefix: Reflexive/Recriprocal . 93 5.2.2 Suffixes.................................. 94 5.2.2.1 Order1Suffixes:Causative . 94 5.2.2.2 Order2Suffixes:Modifiers . 94 5.2.2.2.1 -raga “only/just” .................. 94 5.2.2.2.2 -irao “really” .................... 95 5.2.2.3 Order3Suffixes:Continuous . 96 5.2.2.4 Order4Suffixes:ResultativeSuffix . 97 5.2.2.5 Order5Suffixes: DependentVerbMorphology. 98 5.2.2.6 Order5Suffixes: Person/Number/Gender . 99 5.2.2.6.1 Person/Number/Gender . 99 5.2.2.7 Order6Suffixes:Tense/Mood. 101 5.2.2.7.1 Realis ........................ 102 5.2.2.7.2 Irrealis.. .. .. .. .. .. .. 106 5.2.2.7.3 -peira ........................ 111 5.2.2.7.4 -veira ........................ 111 5.3 Reduplication ................................... 112 5.4 Morphophonemics ................................ 113 5.4.1 IdenticalVowelSequences . 113 xi 5.4.2 DeletionandInsertionRules . 113 5.4.2.1 o-deletion ........................... 114 5.4.2.2 e-deletion ........................... 114 5.4.2.3 i-insertion ........................... 115 6 Syntax 119 6.1 NounPhrases ................................... 119 6.1.1 Nominals ................................. 119 6.1.1.1 Demonstrative-Noun . 120 6.1.1.2 Possessor-Noun . 120 6.1.1.3 Adjective-Noun . 120 6.1.1.4 Numeral-Noun. 120 6.1.1.5 Noun-Classifier . 120 6.1.1.6 Noun-PossessivePronoun . 120 6.1.1.7 Noun-RelativeClause . 120 6.1.2 Possession ................................ 121 6.1.2.1 PossessivePronoun . 121 6.1.2.2 PossessionMarkingonPossessedNoun . 121 6.1.2.3 Ownership........................... 122 6.1.2.4 InalienablePossession(BodyParts).
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