Reference and Focus in Wangurri Discourse: a survey Hannah E. Harper e
[email protected] A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honours (Linguistics) Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics University of Melbourne, June 2009 I declare that this thesis comprises only my original work, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other materials used. The length of this thesis is _________ words, exclusive of examples, footnotes, references and appendices. __________________ 17th June, 2009 Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank Nick Evans, for encouraging me two years ago to return to linguistic study. Thanks Nick for leading me and my cohort through many fun times in field methods. I also acknowledge the Arts Department at the University of Melbourne, for accepting my application to Honours even as I lay on the outer limit of a five year break since graduation. Since those early days - I have appreciated the academic mentorship of Jean Mulder (Directed Reading), and the supervision and teaching of Lesley Stirling and Rachel Nordlinger... thank you all for your empathy, patience and attention. Your professionalism and expertise have been a good support through some turbulent times. I am grateful to workers in the Northern Territory - for passing on their questions, and their papers - particularly Melanie Wilkinson, Margaret Miller and Mally McLellan. My thanks also to members of the Wangurri community, who affirmed this survey of Wangurri discourse. I pay my respects to the deceased speakers of these texts, and their descendants.