UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA A STUDY OF THE LOU VERB PHRASE A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS BY VERNA STUTZMAN WINNIPEG, MANITOBA (c) FEBRUARY, 1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationde du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services seMces bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON KIA ON4 OttawaON KIAON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence ailowing the exclusive permettant a la National Lkqof Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distnbute or seil reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfonn, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic fomats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. 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This reproduction or copy of this thesis has been made available by authorily of the copvright owner solely for the purpose of private shidy and research, and may only be reproduced and copied as permitted by copyright laws or with express written authorization from the copyright owner. Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................... i List of Illustrations ..........................................iv List of Tables .................................................. v Abbreviations .................................................. vi Chapter 1 . Introduction ....................................... 1 1.1. The Setting ............................................. 2 1.2. Linguistic Relationships ................................. 7 1.3. Literature Review ...................................... 11 1.4. Overview of Phonology .................................. 12 1.5. Overview of Morphology ................................. 14 Chapter 2 . Simple Verb Phrase ................................. 20 2.1. Introduction ........................................... 21 2.2. Aspect ................................................. 26 2.2.1. Perfect Aspect ................................... 28 2.2.2. Imperfective Aspect .............................. 35 2.2.3. Aspect Combinations .............................. 42 2.3. Irrealis Status ........................................ 48 2.4. Negative Polarity ...................................... 58 2.5. Directional Aspect ..................................... 63 2.6. Main Verbs ............................................. 72 2.7. Adverbs ................................................ 75 2.8. Chapter Summary ........................................ 78 Chapter 3 . Serial Verb Constructions .......................... 79 3.1. Introduction ........................................... 80 3.1.1. Functions of SVCs ................................ 83 3.1.2. Types of SVCs ................................... 35 3.1.3. Layered Structure of the Clause .................. 88 3.1.4. Juncture and Nexus .............................. 3.1.5. Clause Layers and Serialization .................. 94 3.1.6. Nuclear versus Core Layer Serialization .......... 98 (1) Norninalization ................................... 99 (2) Nuclear adverb test ............................. 100 (3) Syntactic constraints on Undergoer arguments .... 101 (4) Presence vs absence of pause .................... 103 3.2. Nuclear Layer Serialization ........................... 104 3.2.1. Introduction .................................... 104 3.2.2. Same-Subject Nuclear Layer Serialization ........ 109 3.2.3. Switch Subject Nuclear Layer Serialization ...... 111 3.3. Core Layer Serialization .............................. Il4 3.3.1. Introduction .................................... 114 3.3.2. History of Prepositional Verbs .................. 117 3.3.3. Verbal status of Prepositional Verbs ............ 122 (1) Function as main verb ........................... 123 (2) Co-occurs with pre-verbal particles ............. 123 (3) Modified by adverbs ............................. 126 (4) Inflected with detransitivizing suffix .......... 126 (5) Co-occurs with 'truer preposition .............. -127 3.3.4. Mono-clausal nature of Core Layer SVC ........... 129 (1) Peripheral negation ............................. 133 (2) Same-subject and object-subject constraints .....136 (3) Underlying meaning differences .................. 137 3.3.5. Same-Subject Core Layer Serialization ........... 138 3.3.6. Switcn-Subject Core Layer Serialization ......... 139 3.4. Chapter Summary ....................................... 143 Chapter 4 . Sumary ........................................... 146 Appendix A: Sample Text ....................................... 150 Bibliography .................................................. 161 iii List of Illustrations Figure 1 . Map of Papua New Guinea ........................... 4 Figure 2 . Map of Manus Province .............................5 Figure 3 . Map of Lou Island ................................. 6 Figure 4 . Linguistic Classification . ......................... 8 Figure 5 . Genetic Tree of Austronesian Subgroups ...........10 Figure 6. Genetic Tree of Proto Oceanic .................... Il Figure 7 . Non-Existent Gap for 1ë .......................... 31 Figure 8 . Anteriority/Current Relevance for ë .............. 33 Figure 9 . Continuative Aspect .............................. 36 Figure 10 . Layered Structure of the Clause ................. 90 Figure Il . Three Nexus Types ............................... 93 Figure 12 . Nuclear Layer Juncture ......................... 105 Figure 13 . Nuclear Layer Serialization Hierarchy .......... 106 Figure 14 . Core Layer Juncture ............... ............ 115 Figure 15 . Core Layer Serialization Hierarchy ............. 117 List of Tables Table 1 . Phonemic Chart .Consonants ...................... 1S Table 2 . Phonemic Chart - Vowels ........................... 13 Table 3 . Possessive Foms.................................. 15 Table 4 . Noun Class Numbers ................................ 17 Table 5. Noun Phrase ....................................... 18 Table 6 . Verb Phrase ....................................... 24 Table 7 . Co-occurrence of Verbal Particles ................ 24 Table 8 . Perfect-Imperfective Aspect Combinations........ 43 Table 9 . Aspect Combinations with Irrealis ................. 52 Table 10 . Propositional Modality ........................... 58 Table 11 . Combinations of Aspect with Negative ............. 61 Table 12 . Directional Aspect Particles ..................... 64 Table 13 . List of Adverbs .................................. 77 Table 14 . Prepositional Verbs ............................ 122 Abbreviations The Lou examples are presented in orthographic transcription using bold type. In the interlinear examples, lower case type is used for glosses which represent English dictionary entries. Upper case type is used for glosses which represent grammatical classes. Following is the key to the abbreviations used in the interlinear examples and in al1 labeling. GLOSSES Id First person dual Id. in First person dual inclusive 1P First person plural lp. in First person plural inclusive IPC First person paucal lpc. in First person paucal inclusive 1 s First person singular 2d Second person dual 2~ Second person plural ~PC Second person paucal 2s Second person singular 3d Third person dual 3P Third person plural 3pc Third person paucal 3s Third person singular ADV Adverb ALT Alternative COM P Completive CONT Continuative DEF .CONT Definite Continuative DES Desiderative DIM Diminuative DV Directional aspect Verb EMPH Emphatic GOAL De-Transitiviser IND OBJ Indirect Object IRR Irrealis ka, ki MV Main Verb NEG Negative NOM Nominalizer -ia.n, -an, -nan NP Noun Phrase OB J Ob ject OBL Oblique e PERF Perfect e POSS Possessive PP Prepositional Phrase PROG Progressive ën ev Prepositional Verb QUES Question e RCP Recipient SIM Simultaneous le SM Subject Marker SUB Subordinate Clause Marker ta SUBJ Subj ect svc Serial Verb Construction VP Verb Phrase LANGUAGE S AND GEOGRAPICAL ENTITIES AN Austronesian CEMP Central/Eastern Malayo-Polynesian CMP Central Malayo-Polynesian EM P Eastern Malayo-Polynesian PAd Proto Admiralties POC Proto Oceanic SHWNG South Halmahera/West New Guinea vii Chapter 1. Introduction Crystal's dictionary (1991: 372) de£ines the verb as referring "to an element which can display MORPHOLOGICAL contrasts of TENSE, ASPECT, VOICE, MOOD, PERSON and NUMBER". The verb is the element which, by itself or in combination with other verbs is used as the minimal predicate of a sentence, CO-occurring with core arguments like the subject and object. If the predicate