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A Study of Space in Caac, an Oceanic Language Spoken in the North of New Caledonia

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A Study of Space in Caac, an Oceanic Language Spoken in the North of New Caledonia The University of Manchester Research A study of space in Caac, an Oceanic language spoken in the north of New Caledonia Link to publication record in Manchester Research Explorer Citation for published version (APA): Cauchard, A. (2015). A study of space in Caac, an Oceanic language spoken in the north of New Caledonia. University of Manchester. Citing this paper Please note that where the full-text provided on Manchester Research Explorer is the Author Accepted Manuscript or Proof version this may differ from the final Published version. If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version. 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Oct. 2021 A STUDY OF SPACE IN CAAC, AN OCEANIC LANGUAGE SPOKEN IN THE NORTH OF NEW CALEDONIA A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2014 Aurélie Cauchard School of Arts, Languages and Cultures Contents Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................... 6 Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 8 Declaration.............................................................................................................................. 9 Copyright Statement.............................................................................................................. 10 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... 11 Part I: THE CAAC LANGUAGE .................................................................................................. 13 Chapter 1: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 13 1.1 The language and its speakers ............................................................................................... 13 1.1.1 Location ........................................................................................................................... 13 1.1.2 Linguistic affiliation ......................................................................................................... 16 1.1.3 Sociolinguistic background .............................................................................................. 18 1.1.4 Previous work on Caac .................................................................................................... 19 1.1.5 Methods of collection and nature of the data ................................................................ 21 1.1.6 Orthography and conventions used ................................................................................ 22 1.2 The thesis ............................................................................................................................... 23 1.2.1 Aims and theoretical interests of the study .................................................................... 23 1.2.2 Overview ......................................................................................................................... 24 Chapter 2: Sketch Grammar ................................................................................................... 26 2.1 Phonological sketch ................................................................................................................ 26 2.1.1 Caac phonological system ............................................................................................... 26 2.1.2 Realization of aspirated consonants and realization of nasalisation .............................. 28 2.1.3 Sandhi and apocope phenomena.................................................................................... 29 2.2 Grammatical sketch................................................................................................................ 29 2.2.1 Parts of speech ................................................................................................................ 29 2.2.2 Noun phrases .................................................................................................................. 45 2.2.3 Independent basic clauses .............................................................................................. 54 2.2.4 Constituents and structure of the predicate ................................................................... 58 2.2.5 Complex and non-basic clauses ...................................................................................... 65 2.2.6 Concluding remarks ......................................................................................................... 71 2 Part II: LINGUISTIC RESOURCES FOR SPATIAL REFERENCE IN CAAC .......................................... 73 Chapter 3: Overview of Location, Motion and Orientation Constructions ................................ 74 3.1 Basic Locative Constructions (BLCs) ....................................................................................... 74 3.1.1 BLC with the locative verb e ‘be at’ ................................................................................. 74 3.1.2 BLC with mo ‘stay; live’ .................................................................................................... 77 3.1.3 Basic Locative Construction with posture verbs ............................................................. 78 3.1.4 Interrogative sentences expressing location .................................................................. 79 3.2 Basic Motion Constructions ................................................................................................... 80 3.2.1 Expression of Motion, Path and Manner ........................................................................ 81 3.2.2 Encoding of Source .......................................................................................................... 83 3.2.3 Encoding of Goal ............................................................................................................. 83 3.2.4 Where -questions and motion events .............................................................................. 87 3.3 Basic Orientation Constructions ............................................................................................. 87 3.3.1 Basic Orientation Construction ....................................................................................... 87 3.3.2 Interrogative sentence expressing orientation ............................................................... 93 Chapter 4: Spatial Verbs ......................................................................................................... 94 4.1 Posture verbs and posture prefixes ....................................................................................... 94 4.2 Locative verbs ......................................................................................................................... 97 4.3 Motion verbs .......................................................................................................................... 98 4.3.1 Verbs encoding Motion only ........................................................................................... 98 4.3.2 Verbs encoding Motion + Path ........................................................................................ 99 4.3.3 Verbs encoding Motion + Goal ...................................................................................... 102 4.3.4 Verbs encoding Manner of Motion ............................................................................... 103 4.3.5 Transitive Motion verbs with Passed Grounds ............................................................. 104 4.3.6 Reflexive verbs beve ‘turn around’ and bira/bire ‘turn around’ ................................... 106 4.3.7 Verbs of transport and kuri~huri ‘follow, chase’ ........................................................... 107 4.4 Verbs of looking.................................................................................................................... 108 Chapter 5: Nominal, Prepositional and Adverb Phrases encoding Spatial Bearings ................. 110 5.1 Spatial prepositional phrases ............................................................................................... 111 5.1.1 General characteristics .................................................................................................. 111 5.1.2 o ‘at; to’ ......................................................................................................................... 111 3 5.1.3 na ‘from’ ........................................................................................................................ 112 5.1.4 habur e/o ‘in front of’ and pûr e/o ‘behind’ .................................................................. 113 5.1.5 camwa ‘(be/turn) towards’ ..........................................................................................
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