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Dallas International University Thesis Approval Sheet This Thesis, Entitled Dallas International University Thesis Approval Sheet This thesis, entitled Participant Reference in Edolo, a Trans-New Guinea Language written byy Steven Miller and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with major in Applied Linguistics has been read and approved by the undersigned members of the faculty of Dallas International University Aauak Ervin Starwalt (Supervising Professor) Janet Allen Kenneth McElhanon une 72012 PARTICIPANT REFERENCE IN EDOLO, A TRANS-NEW GUINEA LANGUAGE By Steven Miller Presented to the Faculty of Dallas International University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Master of Arts with major in Applied Linguistics Dallas International University June 2019 © 2019 Steven Miller All Rights Reserved CERTIFICATE I acknowledge that use of copyrighted material in my thesis may place me under an obligation to the copyright owner, especially when use of such material exceeds usual fair use provisions. I hereby certify that I have obtained the written permission of the copyright owner for any and all such occurrences and that no portion of my thesis has been copyrighted previously unless properly referenced. I hereby agree to indemnify and hold harmless Dallas International University from any and all claims that may be asserted or that may arise from any copyright violation. Signature ne Z202 Date THESIS DUPLICATE RELEASE I hereby authorize Dallas International University to duplicate this thesis when needed for research and/or scholarship. Agreed: nlaeAll (student signature) Rejected: (student signature) ABSTRACT PARTICIPANT REFERENCE IN EDOLO, A TRANS-NEW GUINEA LANGUAGE Steven Miller Master of Arts with major in Applied Linguistics Dallas International University, June 2019 Supervising Professor: Ervin Starwalt This thesis describes three “variable factors” or facets of the participant reference system of Edolo narrative discourse. The first factor is the inventory of resources used to refer to participants, such as noun phrases, pronouns, and names. In Edolo, a focus marker also figures prominently in the inventory. The second factor influencing which reference might be used are discourse operations, such as the first mention of the participant in a narrative, or the boundary between two episodes. The third factor is the ranking of participants of a given narrative. Participants might be major, minor, or trivial participants. The three factors are summarized in a matrix. In addition to the three variable factors of participant reference, word order and word selection can influence participant reference. DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to the Edolo people, and to Jan and Debbie Gossner, who spent so many years learning to understand them. xiii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks first go to the members of my committee: Prof. Ervin Starwalt, Dr. Jan Allen, and Dr. Ken McElhanon. I am grateful to each of you for your help. My linguistics mentor, Dr. René van den Berg, encouraged me to work toward being a professional linguist, as well as to continue pursuing this degree, at a time when I was uncertain whether I wanted to do either of them. Jan and Debbie Gossner were not the first expatriates to go to the Edolo people, but they were the only ones who spent many years living with them and working with them. This work would not have been possible without their work. Both Duluba and Pastor Hamaga always ask when I will come back to live with the Edolo people. Duluba has translated a large amount of material for his wantok countrymen, but he also told many of the stories used in this analysis. Hewa and others proved to be gifted storytellers as well. My wife Debbie has traveled with me to the farthest reaches of the world, but still believes in me and loves me anyway. It’s been quite the journey these past thirty years. Thanks to everyone in who believed enough in Debbie and me to send us both near and far. Thanks in particular go to family and friends in my home state of Michigan, as well as to our friends in Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, and the Republic of Texas. Each of these places hold parts of our lives and hearts. xv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. xv LIST OF CHARTS ........................................................................................................ xxiii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... xxiv LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... xxv LIST OF MAPS ............................................................................................................. xxvi ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................... xxvii 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Motivations for Research .......................................................................................... 5 1.2 The Edolo .................................................................................................................. 7 1.3 Literature Review...................................................................................................... 9 1.4 Theoretical Underpinnings...................................................................................... 10 1.4.1 Longacre and Hwang ....................................................................................... 10 1.4.2 Levinsohn and Dooley ..................................................................................... 13 1.4.3 Givón ................................................................................................................ 14 1.4.4 Schaeffer .......................................................................................................... 14 1.5 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 15 2 Segmentation and Charting Texts .................................................................................. 17 xvii 2.1 Segmentation........................................................................................................... 17 2.2 Charting................................................................................................................... 20 2.2.1 Segmentation Chart .......................................................................................... 20 2.2.2 Notional and Surface Structure Chart .............................................................. 21 2.2.3 Participant Reference Chart ............................................................................. 23 3 Resources: Nouns, Pronouns, and Affixes ..................................................................... 27 3.1 Nouns, Including Proper Nouns and Any Qualifiers .............................................. 29 3.2 Nouns without Qualifiers, Except Determiners ...................................................... 31 3.2.1 Bare Noun ........................................................................................................ 31 3.2.2 Determiner amo ............................................................................................... 32 3.2.3 Indefinite afädë ................................................................................................ 33 3.3 Surrogate Nouns...................................................................................................... 34 3.4 Pronouns ................................................................................................................. 34 3.5 Pronoun Copies ....................................................................................................... 35 3.6 Affixes..................................................................................................................... 36 3.6.1 Pronoun Suffixes .............................................................................................. 37 3.6.2 Different Subject and Group Membership ....................................................... 38 3.7 Zero Anaphora ........................................................................................................ 40 4 Resources: Prominence .................................................................................................. 43 xviii 4.1 Focus ....................................................................................................................... 44 4.1.1 Focus Attention: =da ....................................................................................... 45 4.1.2 Unpredictable Information: =melë .................................................................. 47 4.2 Emphasis: hï- and -do ............................................................................................. 48 5 Ranking of Edolo Participants ....................................................................................... 51 5.1 Trivial Participants/Props........................................................................................ 53 5.2 Minor Participants ................................................................................................... 55 5.3 Major Participants ................................................................................................... 56 5.4 VIP Participants .....................................................................................................
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