Papers on six languages of Papua New Guinea
Pacific Linguistics 616
Pacific Linguistics is a publisher specialising in grammars and linguistic descriptions, dictionaries and other materials on languages of the Pacific, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, East Timor, southeast and south Asia, and Australia. Pacific Linguistics, established in 1963 through an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund, is associated with the School of Culture, History and Language in the College of Asia and the Pacific at The Australian National University. The authors and editors of Pacific Linguistics publications are drawn from a wide range of institutions around the world. Publications are refereed by scholars with relevant expertise, who are usually not members of the editorial board.
FOUNDING EDITOR: Stephen A. Wurm EDITORIAL BOARD: I Wayan Arka and Malcolm Ross (Managing Editors), Mark Donohue, Nicholas Evans, David Nash, Andrew Pawley, Paul Sidwell, Jane Simpson, and Darrell Tryon
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Karen Adams, Arizona State University Marian Klamer, Universiteit Leiden Alexander Adelaar, University of Melbourne Harold Koch, The Australian National Peter Austin, School of Oriental and African University Studies Frantisek Lichtenberk, University of Byron Bender, University of Hawai‘i Auckland Walter Bisang, Johannes Gutenberg- John Lynch, University of the South Pacific Universität Mainz Patrick McConvell, Australian Institute of Robert Blust, University of Hawai‘i Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander David Bradley, La Trobe University Studies Lyle Campbell, University of Utah William McGregor, Aarhus Universitet James Collins, Universiti Kebangsaan Ulrike Mosel, Christian-Albrechts- Malaysia Universität zu Kiel Bernard Comrie, Max Planck Institute for Claire Moyse-Faurie, Centre National de la Evolutionary Anthropology Recherche Scientifique Matthew Dryer, State University of New York Bernd Nothofer, Johann Wolfgang Goethe- at Buffalo Universität Frankfurt am Main Jerold A. Edmondson, University of Texas at Ger Reesink, Universiteit Leiden Arlington Lawrence Reid, University of Hawai‘i Margaret Florey, Monash University Jean-Claude Rivierre, Centre National de la William Foley, University of Sydney Recherche Scientifique Karl Franklin, SIL International Melenaite Taumoefolau, University of Charles Grimes, SIL International Auckland Nikolaus Himmelmann, Universität zu Köln Tasaku Tsunoda, University of Tokyo Lillian Huang, National Taiwan Normal John Wolff, Cornell University University Elizabeth Zeitoun, Academica Sinica Bambang Kaswanti Purwo, Universitas Atma Jaya
Papers on six languages of Papua New Guinea
edited by Joan Hooley
Pacific Linguistics College of Asia and the Pacific The Australian National University Published by Pacific Linguistics School of Culture, History and Language College of Asia and the Pacific The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia
Copyright in this edition is vested with Pacific Linguistics
First published 2010
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Title: Papers on six languages of Papua New Guinea / Joan Hooley (editor).
ISBN: 9780858836211 (pbk.)
Series: Pacific Linguistics 617.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Subjects: Papuan languages ― Grammar. Austronesian languages ― Grammar.
Other authors/ contributors: Hooley, Joan.
Dewey Number: 499.12
Cover photo: Looking down over more than a dozen houses to the valleys and mountains beyond, the photographer was Kirk Franklin, who took it on behalf of SIL. The photo is of Mangga Village in Morobe province.
Copyedited by Melissa Crowther Typeset by Jeanette Coombes Cover design by Julie Manley Printed and bound by Addcolour Digital Pty Ltd, Fyshwick, Canberra
Table of contents
Preface vi Map: Location of language areas referred to by the authors vii
1 Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic STEVE CHRISTENSEN 1
2 Participant reference in Namia BECKY FELDPAUSCH 41
3 Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing CAROLYN FINAMOR 73
4 Tense and mood pairs in Umbu-Ungu JUNE HEAD 103
5 Can verbs be cohesive? The multiple roles of wiing ‘do’ in Mangga Buang discourse JOAN HOOLEY 113
6 Ergative in Numanggang DAVID HYNUM 129
v
Preface
All of the authors whose articles appear in this volume are, or have been, members of the Summer Institute of Linguistics working in Papua New Guinea. Each of their papers included here describes features of morphology and/or syntax in a language in which the author has worked and, where relevant, something of the impact that these features have within discourse. Four of the languages discussed are Papuan languages, two are Austronesian. This volume has been several years in the making. As editor, I am greatly indebted to Marie Keilah, now deceased, for all her work in the earlier stages of preparing the papers for publication. Marie served in the Academic Publishing section at Ukarumpa PNG for many years. I am also most grateful to all of the authors for their hard work and patience, and to my husband Bruce for his encouragement and extensive help in the final stages of proof reading and correcting the manuscripts.
Joan Hooley Brisbane 2010
vi vii
Location of language areas referred to by the authors
1 Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic
STEVE CHRISTENSEN
1 Introduction 1.1 The Yongkom language and people Yongkom is a Papuan language of the Trans New Guinea phylum, Central and South New Guinea stock, Ok family, Lowland Ok sub-family (Voorhoeve 1975). The name of the language Yongkom [jo.om] is a self-referent name which has no inherent meaning. The Yongkom people live in the north-western part of Western Province in Papua New Guinea. They are mostly subsistence farmers, although some have jobs in town, either in the trades or services. They live west of the lower reaches of the Ok Tedi (Alice River) from its mouth at the Fly River to the foothills at the junction of the Ok Birim. From there their land extends north-west into West Papua to the Ok Kao (Kowo River). They also live in the area south of Kiunga as far as the northern shores of Lake Murray and over into the northern part of where the Fly River bulges into Papua. There are roughly 20,000 Yongkom, of which approximately 6000 live in Papua New Guinea. The author lived off and on with the Yongkom people between 1991 and 2004 working under the auspices of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). Ukin Kerem, Akope Katupon, Kanin Amyap, Dayop Omet and Jude Dagi have been most helpful in teaching me the language. The data in this paper represents the Kabom/Kagaip dialect which is spoken in the Yongkom villages along the Ok Tedi.
1.2 Phonology The language has contrastive vowel length, which is represented orthographically by writing the vowel twice. There is loss of voicing in the syllable coda for the plosives. Plosives following nasals tend to be voiced. The orthograph
1 2 Steve Christensen
‘with’ is realised as bakuyiib. Finally, when a stem or a suffix ends in a /b/, and the following suffix starts with a vowel, the /b/ becomes /w/: bereeb ‘fat’ plus -iib ‘with’ is realised as bereewiib.
1.3 Morphology and syntax Li and Lang (1979:308–309) state that ‘the general structural characteristics of the Papuan languages [are]: (i) The basic word order is SOV. (ii) The Papuan languages are overwhelmingly postpositional. (iii) Modifiers (i.e. adjectives, numerals, demonstratives) generally follow the head noun. (iv) The genitive construction typically has the order genitive + head. (v) Verb morphology tends to be complex. (vi) The relation between two clauses within a complex sentence is normally indicated by an affix on the subordinate verb. (vii) There are no relation-changing rules such as passive, raising, dative movement. (viii) Those Papuan languages which have case systems are mostly ergative … Almost all the languages with case marking systems are members of the Trans-New Guinea phylum.’ Yongkom has all of these characteristics. The SOV word order mentioned in (i) is the most common word order for Yongkom, with 75 per cent of the clauses which have both subject and object noun phrases being in that order. Relation changing rules, item (vii), are briefly discussed prior to example (35) below. (In summary, there are no morphological processes for passive, raising, and dative movement, but the semantics of these processes can be attained in other ways.) Characteristic (viii), that the case system is ergative, is part of what I hope to demonstrate in this paper.1 The remaining characteristics, listed (ii)–(vi) above, can all be seen illustrated in example (1), which is a typical Yongkom sentence.2
1 Among the other Ok languages, Ninggirum has an ergative marker (H. Oates pers. comm.); Faiwol, Telefol, Bimin and Mianmin do not (F. Mecklenburg pers. comm.; P.M. Healey 1965b; T. Weber pers. comm.; Smith 1977). 2 Abbreviations used in examples in this paper are: 1 first person HAB habitual aspect PA past tense 2 second person IMP imperative PERF perfective aspect 3 third person INDEF indefinite PL plural ADVR adverbialiser INST instrument PROHIB prohibitive CAUS causative INT intensifier PROM prominence COMP completive IO indirect object RCP recipient DESIR desiderative IRR irrealis REFL reflexive DUR durative LOC locative S singular ERG ergative M male SM sentence medial EXCL exclamatory NEG negation SWR switch reference F female NOM nominaliser TOP topic FUT future O object Ø zero form or zero anaphora Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 3
(1) Karub kuu ye okad yaa wen-e ambib embeng yenb-ekor-e, man TOP his land to go-SM house small tie-PERF-SM kuyaa dober-embir-imam-een. there stay-DUR-HAB-3M The man went to his land and built a small house, and then stayed there a very long time. Notice that example (1) illustrates the characteristics (ii)–(vi) above in the following ways: (ii) yaa is a postposition; (iii) the modifier follows the head noun: ambib embeng is ‘house small’; (iv) the genitive precedes the head noun: ye okad is ‘his land’; (v) the final verb dober-embir-imam-een gives a taste of the complex verbal morphology; (vi) the two subordinate verbs, wen-e and yenb-ekor-e, indicate by means of their suffixes the relationship between clauses. The suffix on wen ‘go’ indicates same subject and continuity of action with the next clause, where the suffixes on yenb ‘tie’ indicate same subject and the completion of the action before the action of the next clause takes place. Other features of Yongkom morphology include subject agreement markers on the verbs. These are based on a nominative/accusative pattern. The paradigm is the same for both transitive and intransitive clauses, as illustrated in examples (2a) and (2b) respectively. (2) a. Wedm-uun-ka yu-ka yu karub-mo ay-een. see-3F-PROM she-REFL her man-only hit.him-3F.PA She saw that she had only ended up killing her own husband. b. Kwan-oon-e nengkan kuu ika mun-een. 3 do.like.that-3M.PA-SWR sister.younger TOP back come-3F.PA After he did that, the younger sister came back. There are six distinctions of person and number, and there are different sets of these subject affixes for present tense and past tense: First person singular -iin (present) -aan (past) Second person singular -eeb -ewen Third person male singular -een -oon Third person female singular -uun -(u) … een First person plural -uub -uwen Second/third person plural -iib -iwen
3 There are three suffixes, sentence medial (SM), switch reference (SWR), and second person singular imperative (2S.IMP), that share the same form -e. The sentence medial form takes the place of the subject agreement as in example (1). The switch reference form occurs after the subject agreement as here. The imperative takes the place of the subject agreement, but is sentence final as in example (6c). 4 Steve Christensen
The present tense forms of the subject agreement affixes are illustrated in examples (3a–f), and two of the past tense forms occur in (3g). In the interlinear examples in this paper the glosses for the present tense subject agreement affixes list only the subject agreement (i.e. 1S). The past tense subject agreement affixes list the subject agreement and the past tense abbreviation (i.e. 1S.PA). (3) a. B-e men-iin. get.PL-SM come-1S I am bringing them. b. Eb kuu komo-yiib om-iib an-eeb? 4 you.M.S TOP what-and sago-and eat-2S What are you eating with the sago? c. Komod ye kuu ambiw-oom dib-een. Komod he TOP house-in sit-3M Komod, he is sitting in the house. d. Dura angka bad yar-uun. bush at hunt walk-3F She is hunting in the bush. e. Ka-bd-uub kii! 5 give -RCP.2S-1PL EXCL We are giving it to you! f. Ye id kuu yoman didban-e kan-men-iib. 6 his body TOP following make.stretcher-SM get -come-2/3PL They/you (pl) are coming after (his spirit came) (and they are) bearing his body on a stretcher. g. Mon-oon-e yu kangkon mun-een. come-3M.PA-SWR she also come-3F.PA After he came, she also came. The past tense third person singular female affix, illustrated in the final verb of (3g), is discontinuous, with the -u appearing in place of the last vowel of verb stems that exhibit vowel harmony. To mark a verb with future tense, the future tense morpheme -an is put before the present tense affix, as shown in (4). (4) Amnoom-bed an-an-een-e wedm-an-iin-oo! night-LOC eat-FUT-3M-SWR see-FUT-1S-EXCL Tonight he will eat it and I will see (whether he was the one who stole it)!
4 When not in a list, the suffix -iib (or -yiib when following a vowel) means ‘with’. In a list it more generally means ‘and’. See also examples (20b), (32e) and (34c). 5 Ditransitive verb stems unmarked for number of the object in the gloss default to a singular object. Otherwise the gloss is marked with a ‘PL’ to indicate that the semantics of ‘plural object’ are incorporated into the verb stem, as seen in the first verb in example (7a). 6 The singular/plural object distinction is also made amongst transitive verb stems. The gloss is marked with a ‘PL’ to indicate that the semantics of ‘plural object’ are incorporated into the verb stem, as seen in the first verb in example (3a). Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 5
Many clauses in Yongkom, such as those in (3a, d–f) and (4) above, have no overt subject, but the person and number of the subject is known from the verb morphology. Once a subject has been used to refer to a particular participant, the following clauses will track the participant with only verbal morphology without using an overt subject, until another participant is introduced. Switch reference is common in Yongkom, and is used to track the interplay between two or more participants. The switch reference marker in Yongkom is -e or -a, and is placed on the end of a fully inflected (non-medial) verb, as on the first verb of (4). It signals that the subject of the following clause will refer to a different participant than does the current subject. If the marker signals a change of subject reference to another already introduced participant, again there is often no overt subject, as in the second clause in (4) above. It is also true that, in transitive clauses, there is often no overt object if the participant has already been introduced, as in (3a) and (3e) above. However, object agreement is often indicated in the transitive verb, either in the verb stem or in a suffix. Some transitive verbs indicate the number of the object in the verb stem, as with the ‘get’ verbs in examples (3a) and (3f), and a few indicate the person of the object as well, as examples in (5) show. (5) a. N-aab. hit.me-2S.PROHIB Don’t hit me.
b. Ø-andam-aan. hit.you.S-DESIR-1S.PA I want to hit you. (zero stem) c. Anon-bed ay-e an-iwen. dog-ERG hit.him-SM eat-2/3PL.PA The dogs killed him and ate him. d. Ye awaan kuu bon-dan-bed men-e kuman ween-ekor-iib … his mother TOP enemy-people-ERG come-SM weapons hit.her-PERF-2/3PL As for his mother, enemies came and killed her with weapons and then … e. Awad ayoob kuu y-iwen kumbedmo … bush.spirit two TOP hit.PL-2/3PL.PA only.that The two bush spirits, (the people) killed them and only them … There is a verb suffix paradigm that marks the object of the clause. The object suffix appears immediately after the verb stem. First person singular -ew7 Second person singular -ebd Third person male singular -en Plural/third person female singular -end When the object marker does appear, the object is more affected by the action. In (6a), the verb yedm-e ‘say to (someone)’ becomes a stronger ‘tell (someone)’, as it is important in this example that the person cutting the pig follow instructions and thus ensure the ritual was performed correctly. Some transitive verbs require an object marker. Examples of
7 The object suffix drops its vowel when attached to a verb stem ending in a vowel, i.e. -ew shortens to -w when attached to oga- ‘wash’. 6 Steve Christensen these verbs are shown in (6b–d) below. For several intransitive verbs, adding one of the object agreement suffixes increases the valence of the verb. For instance, the intransitive verb stem kub-e ‘rejoice’ becomes ‘greet’, a transitive verb stem when the object paradigm is applied, as seen in (6e). (6) a. … yem-bad yedm-en-oon-e, awon kuu bung-oon. his-cross.cousin say-O.3M-3M.PA-SWR pig TOP cut.up-3M.PA … and his cousin told him (how to do it), and he cut up the pig (correctly). b. Oon baru-w-oon. fish touch-O.1S-3M.PA The fish brushed by me. c. Nub awa-nd-e. us help-O.3F/O.PL-2S.IMP Help us. d. Niin dang-en-ewen-oo?8 snake hold.down-O.3M-2S.PA-yes? Did you hold down the snake? e. Kub-ebd-iib-ka, anon kuu wangm-aab. greet-O.2S-2/3PL-PROM dog TOP shoo.away-2S.PROHIB If the dogs greet you, don’t shoo them away. The object suffixes are also used to mark recipient in ditransitive verbs as in the ‘give’ and ‘send’ verbs in example (7a). The first verb in the example, bangka ‘give some things’, encodes plurality of the object in the verb stem, and encodes the recipient with the requisite object marker. The last verb ke ‘send one thing’ also requires an object marker to indicate the recipient, but encodes the meaning of singular object in the verb stem. In (7b), the object ‘the aram greens and such’ is viewed as a single object. (7) a. Animan bangka-w-iiw-e, kub-i weng ke-end-aan. food give.PL-RCP.1S-2/3PL-SWR rejoice-NOM talk send-RCP.PL-1S.PA They gave food to me, and (so) I sent a word of thanks to them. b. Ena, arub aram kuyawene ke-ew-ewen-oo? mother greens plant.species and.such send-RCP.1S-2S.PA-yes? Mother, did you send to me the (bundle of) aram greens and such? The counterpart to bangka ‘give some things’ in (7a) is ka/ko ‘give one thing’, which is exemplified in (3e) and (20a), and it also requires the object suffix to indicate the recipient. There are only a few ditransitive verbs that do not require marking of the recipient with the object paradigm; owor ‘share.PL’ and bambor ‘cut.and.give’ are among these. Since Yongkom has these strategies of tracking the subject with subject agreement on the verb, tracking the object with object agreement, and tracking the recipient in ditransitive clauses also with the object paradigm, the number of overt noun phrases in narrative is small.
8 The -oo ‘yes?’ suffix has rising intonation. The exclamation -oo in (4) has falling intonation and extra loudness at the beginning. Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 7
1.4 Aim of the paper In this paper I will show that Yongkom is a split-ergative language, with -bed as its ergative marker (§2); and that kuu is a topic marker9 (§3). The ‘functional bind’ (to quote Givón’s oft-used phrase) of these two strategies and how they interact will also be explored (§4). Word counts in tables in this paper are based on a 10,000 word corpus of mostly traditional stories, a few personal experience stories, and two short procedural texts. The procedural texts differ from narrative texts in that procedural texts use the habitual aspect suffix on all final verbs, and frame the story in third person plural. This will not affect the discussion at hand, except where noted. The terms S, A, and O will be used as defined by Corston’s (1996:8) prototype theory. He defines the sole argument in a prototypical intransitive kernel clause as S, and within a prototypical transitive kernel clause, the agent is identified with A, and the patient with O. A kernel clause is defined by him as ‘syntactically independent (at least potentially), structurally complete, declarative, positive, and “communicatively unmarked”’.
2 The clitic -bed, ergativity, control and intent 2.1 The use of -bed as ergative Looking at clauses in the corpus with prototypical transitive verbs ay-e ‘hit him’ and yenband-e ‘hit (plural)’, the A noun phrases of these clauses are nearly always marked with -bed. Table 1 summarises the markers used in the corpus on all the A and O noun phrases which occur with ay-e ‘hit him’ and yenband-e ‘hit (plural)’, and for comparison shows the markers used on all the S noun phrases of two prototypical intransitive verbs, bobn-e ‘die’, and dang-e ‘sleep’. It is plain that there is an ergative pattern here with -bed. In the corpus, the two most common usages of -bed are to mark the A noun phrase and to mark the locative phrase (each have 25 per cent of the occurrences of -bed marking phrases). But it is common in languages for the ergative marker to also be used for marking locative, as discussed in §2.2 below. So when -bed occurs marking A noun phrases it is glossed as ‘ergative’, and the absolutive case is unmarked. The function of kuu will be discussed later.
Table 1: Ergative patterning of -bed on noun phrases of verbs ‘hit’, ‘die’ and ‘sleep’ S A O -bed 1 26 0 no marker 13 2 20 kuu 26 2 26
9 These forms also occur in Northern and Southern Kati, but the informal work I have done with speakers of those languages suggests that N. Kati, S. Kati and Yongkom may be dialects of a single language. In Ninggirum the ergative marker is -ben, and the topic marker ko (H. Oates pers. comm.). The only other topic marker I am aware of in an Ok language is the marker isé in Telefol (P.M. Healey 1965a). In Folopa, a more distant Papuan language, but the closest for which I was able to find details of an ergative system, the ergative marker is -né and there is a set of ergative pronouns (Anderson and Wade 1988). 8 Steve Christensen
As Table 1 shows, the marker -bed typically marks the ergative case (the light shaded area), and the absolutive case is typically either unmarked or marked with kuu (the dark shaded area). It is instructive to look into why some A noun phrases are not marked with -bed with the verbs ay-e and yenband-e. Two instances can be seen in examples (8a, b). (8) a. … eb kuu dingkan ma ay-aabban. you.M.S TOP game any hit.him-FUT.NEG.2S … you will never kill any game. b. … nub yoom10 ker-e ambodang-an-uub kowe, wen-e us and be-SM betray-FUT-1PL so go-SM nub yenband-em. us hit.PL-IMP.1PL … and we will join up with you and betray them, so let us go and kill them. In example (8a), the legendary figure who rules the hunt has prevented this man, addressed as eb ‘you (male, sg.)’, from having success in hunting, and tells him so when they finally meet. Since ergativity reflects on the transitivity of the event, and this man has never killed anything, marking eb with the ergative marker -bed would be inappropriate. In example (8b), there is no marking on nub ‘us’ in the last clause, as all A noun phrases in imperative clauses are unmarked in the corpus. The non-use of -bed on A noun phrases is discussed further in §4.5, and the use of -bed on S noun phrases (the one instance in Table 1) is discussed further in §2.4. Addressing A, S and O noun phrases in general rather than with just the four verbs discussed in relation to Table 1, the ergative pattern still holds, although not quite as clearly. Table 2 shows percentages based on Table 1 and compares it to percentages based on a count of noun phrases in all transitive and intransitive clauses in the corpus. Considering all transitive clauses, nearly two-thirds of all A noun phrases are marked with -bed, and S and O noun phrases are overwhelmingly marked with kuu or not at all.
Table 2: Most common marking on noun phrases of prototypical transitive and intransitive clauses versus all transitive and intransitive clauses
S A O Clauses containing either with kuu or with with kuu or S or both A and O no marking -bed no marking Prototypical transitive or 98% 87% 100% intransitive clauses All transitive or intransitive clauses 84% 64% 99%
It is also clear from Table 2 that sometimes an A noun phrase is not marked with -bed. If however, standard word order (SOV) is violated within a clause, the ergative marker must be used. For instance, in example (9), the man is the one they had been looking for and now saw, therefore karub ‘man’ is topical and fronted in the first clause, and awon
10 The word yoom ‘and’ is used for lists of animate beings. The suffix -iib is used for lists of inanimate things (3b) and also for mixed lists including both animate beings and inanimate items. Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 9
‘pig’ receives the ergative marker -bed. Since O is fronted, the ergative marker is required on A. This is obviously a strategy to keep the sentence unambiguous. (9) Karub awon-bed ay-oon kuu wedm-iib-ka wad kowe … man pig-ERG hit.him-3M.PA TOP see-2/3PL-PROM alive so They saw that the man who had been attacked by the pig was alive, so … When standard word order is not violated, the use of the ergative marker depends on whether the speaker feels the participant in the A noun phrase is intending to act and is in control. This topic will be discussed further below. Is -bed then only marking intent and control and not ergativity? I would say no because: (1) -bed usually marks A noun phrases; (2) it always marks them when O is fronted in the clause; (3) it is also used to mark instrument and locative (see §2.2 below) which is a common extension of the ergative marker. Therefore I regard it as an ergative marker. In addition, the use of the ergative marker to indicate control and intent, and the absence of the ergative marker to indicate lack of control or intent, are described by Foley (1986:108), Anderson and Wade (1988:12) and Givón (1984:153).11 This is exemplified in (8a) above where the man being addressed as eb ‘you (male, sg.)’ had the intent to kill game, but lacked control over killing any (which was in the hands of the legendary person who is speaking), and so even though there is intent eb is not marked with -bed.
2.2 The use of -bed as instrument and locative The suffix -bed is also used to mark instrument, as in (10a), as well as locative (source) case, as in (10b). The suffix is required in these usages. (10) a. Ye-mbed at-bed w-oon. he-ERG stick-INST hit.her-3M.PA He hit her with a stick. b. Ok Tedi-mbed man-aan. river Tedi-LOC come-1S.PA I came from the Tedi River. The extension of ergative as instrument is as Foley (1986:107), discussing case marking in Dani, states: ‘a common feature of languages, including other Papuan languages’. For example, in Enga, -me/-mi is used for both ergative and instrument (Li and Lang 1979). The extension of ergative as locative is perhaps not as common, as Foley does not mention it, but Trask (1979:385–386) includes it in his list of common characteristics of ergative languages: ‘the ergative case is often identical with another case, most often the genitive or instrumental, sometimes the locative or dative.’ I believe the logical connection between these uses of the ergative marker for agent, instrument, and locative can be seen by using ‘from’ in each case: the action came from the agent; the action came from the instrument; the action came from that location.
11 Also Scott (1986:174) says that the referent of a Fore noun phrase marked with the ergative marker -ma ‘actually is the controller’. However, since he regards the ergative morphology as ‘derivational (a semantic notion) rather than as a pure case inflection’, and also shows an example of -ma occurring on an O noun phrase, it does not seem like an ergative marker to me. 10 Steve Christensen
This marker is also used on time phrases such as those in (11a, b), but is optional, just a nuance that does not carry much semantic weight. Thus this use of -bed looks to be an extension of the locative case. (11) a. Mande12 ari(-mbed) man-an-iin. Monday later(-LOC) come-FUT-1S I will come (on) next Monday. b. Kinon(-bed) kombar-aan. yesterday(-LOC) fall-1S.PA I fell yesterday.
2.3 Syntactic ergativity Dixon (1979:64) defines syntactic ergativity as: ‘where certain types of syntactic rule identify S and O’. This is different from morphological ergativity, which is marked by -bed in Yongkom, as the discussion above shows. Syntactic ergativity would be evident in areas such as: (1) noun incorporation into the verb (Trask 1979:389), for example, S and O nouns may be incorporated but A nouns not; (2) verb agreement (Trask 1979:388), for example, a set of verb affixes that agree with S and O but not a set that agree with S and A; (3) deletion strategies related to ergativity (Dixon 1987:4), where coreferential deletion associates S and O but does not associate A with either S or O. Yongkom does not appear to have any syntactic ergativity. As mentioned earlier in §1.3, final verbs are obligatorily marked for subject, with the same marking for both S and A. In addition there is a separate object marking paradigm, also discussed in the same section, thus the person marking system on the verb follows a nominative/accusative pattern. The switch reference system, while it tracks participants that have S, A, and O roles, is not concerned with the issue of ergativity. For instance, in example (12a), a bush spirit has carried off a woman to his house. The woman who is in the O role for the ‘put’ verb is in the S role for the ‘sit’ verb after the first switch reference, thus perhaps implying an ergative/absolutive relationship. However, in example (12b), the man who is in the O role of the ‘shoot’ verb is in the A role of the ‘throw’ verb after the switch reference. So, the switch reference indicates only that the participant in the A or S role of the clause with the switch reference marker will not be the one referred to in the A or S role of the next clause. (12) a. Nen-wen-e kow-oon-e dibur-uun-e ambongko keb-en-ekor-e … take-go-SM put-3M.PA-SWR sit-3F-SWR door close-O.3M-PERF-SM He brought (her) and put (her) down, and (she) sat down, and (he) closed the door, and then … b. … yu karub-bed Omyere kuu kanad-iib monb-en-oon-a, her man-ERG Omyere TOP spear-with shoot-O.3M-3M.PA-SWR wonong kuu kuri koraru-nd-e … woman TOP down.there throw-O.3F-SM … her husband shot Omyere with a spear, and (Omyere) threw the woman down …
12 The particular Monday must be specified in (11a) with either the postposition ari ‘up/upstream’ which would put the time phrase in the future or anuk ‘downstream’ which would put the time phrase in the past. This applies to all days of the week, dates (such as the fifteenth), and months. Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 11
Dixon (1987:4), in discussing syntactic ergativity, mentions deletion strategies may be based on ergative patterns. The Australian language Dyirbal operates with an S/O pivot … (2) Marri Jani-ŋga bura-n nyina-nyu Mary+ABS(O) John-ERG(A) see-NONFUTURE sit down-NONFUTURE But this can only mean “John saw Mary and Mary sat down.” So, the O rather than the A of the first verb becomes the S of the second verb in this deletion strategy. But in Yongkom, topicality (who the most important participant is at that point in the narrative) and switch reference control deletion as demonstrated in examples (12a, b) above. In example (12a), the woman (as O but already deleted) in the first clause is deleted (as S) in the second clause, with switch reference appearing on the verb in the first clause. Both she and the man are topical, and there is no noun phrase reference to either regardless of whether they are in the S, A or O role. This is similar to Dixon’s example above, except that neither the man nor the woman is mentioned with a noun phrase in the first clause, and it is the switch reference marker that indicates a change in role for the woman in the second clause. In example (12b), Omyere (as O) is marked as topic in the first clause and deleted (as A) in the second clause, with switch reference again appearing on the first verb. So deletion is governed by topicality and switch reference and is not constrained by any concerns for ergativity. Therefore I conclude that Yongkom does not exhibit syntactic ergativity. Dixon (1987:5) also discusses ergativity at the discourse level. He lists three possibilities: S and O behave the same and different from A; topic may be introduced in S and O rather than A; a topic that is introduced in S or O is more likely to continue than a topic introduced in A. Addressing the second point in reference to Yongkom discourse, that topic may be introduced in S and O rather than A, Table 3 compares types of new participants as to how they were introduced, either in a verbless topic/comment construction, or as S, A, O, indirect object, or in some other way. Groups and lists of participants were counted as one instance.
Table 3: Introduction of participants based on animacy
Topic Comment S A O IO Other Total Human 6 ‒ 66 43 27 11 9 162 Animate ‒ ‒ 11 5 24 ‒ 2 42 Inanimate 5 3 17 5 220 ‒ 111 361 Body Parts 4 3 6 ‒ 8 4 9 34
In Table 3, looking at the numbers for human participants, S and A are the most common, showing that the introduction of human participants is organised along nominative lines rather than ergative ones. If Yongkom discourse were organised along ergative lines, this tendency should register among human participants, which it does not. Regarding the animate and inanimate participants, the corpus does not contain any stories where animals are the primary participants; rather these are all stories about people and their doings. So to conclude from Table 3 that references of animate and inanimate participants show an ergative pattern would be confusing cause with effect, since these 12 Steve Christensen participants are generally the object of the people’s attention rather than the motivators of the story, thus more likely to be an O, and less likely to be an A. What was noticed during the counting was that human participants who were central to the story tended to be introduced as S or A, whereas those who were peripheral to the story are introduced as O almost as frequently as S and A combined, as shown in Table 4. Table 4: Introduction of central versus peripheral participants
Topic S A O IO Other Central 6% 58% 30% 4% ‒ 2% Peripheral 1% 22% 15% 33% 14% 14%
Since central participants are going to persist longer than peripheral ones, Yongkom discourse does not operate along the lines of Dixon’s third point either. He states that a topic that is introduced in S or O is more likely to continue than a topic introduced in A. But in Table 5 there is no ergative patterning.
Table 5: Persistence of participants based on case used to introduce them
Participant introduced as: S A O Persistence after introduction: 2.4 2.7 1.0 (average number of clauses)
In regard to Dixon’s first point: that S and O behave the same and different from A, an S, O, or A behaving the ‘same’ or ‘different’ would have to be language specific. One common feature of Yongkom is noun phrase deletion. Looking at the different functions of the noun phrases which occur in four different types of clauses, we get the groupings in Table 6.
Table 6: Patterning of noun phrases based on clause type
Number of Overt Overt Overt Overt Clause type13 clauses S A O IO
Intransitive 1010 18% NA NA NA Transitive 1074 NA 9% 39% NA Ditransitive 31 NA 19% 45% 19% Quotation introduction 159 NA 58% 99% 14% NA = Not applicable
Table 6 shows that, comparing intransitive and transitive clauses, overt S noun phrases (the dark shaded area) occur twice as often as A noun phrases (the light shaded area), but only half as often as O noun phrases (the medium shaded area). One could argue a nominative patterning, but definitely not an ergative pattern.
13 The procedural texts from the corpus were not used for these counts, as these texts contain almost no S or A noun phrases. Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 13
Quotation introduction clauses are in a class by themselves as the O is the actual speech, and A noun phrases are overt more than half the time. This seems to be a strategy to track the speakers in the dialogue when the quotes get lengthy. Quotation introduction clauses are discussed in some detail in §4.8.
2.4 Split ergativity Now we will look more closely at the ergative marker -bed, specifically why it sometimes marks the S of intransitive clauses. Marking both A and S would be a nominative marking pattern, rather than ergative. In Dixon (1979:80), Trask (1979:385) and others, this phenomenon is referred to as split ergativity. First we will look at how Yongkom behaves, then compare it to various systems described in the literature. In the corpus, 13 per cent of S noun phrases are marked with -bed. 14 Looking specifically at clauses with the verb men-e ‘come’ with an S, 44 per cent used kuu, 43 per cent used no marker, and 11 per cent used -bed. The more common of the S noun phrase marking strategies are the use of kuu as in (13a), or leaving the S noun phrase unmarked as in (13b). When the S noun phrase is marked with -bed, the noun phrase may be referring to an animate participant as in (13c), or an inanimate participant as in (13d). (13) a. Ye kuu men-e wedm-oon-ka bobn-een. he TOP come-SM see-3M.PA-PROM die-3F.PA He came and saw; she was dead(!) b. Dor-een-e, yoknad mon-oon, Komod y-ambiw-oom. exist-3M-SWR dwarf come-3M.PA Komod his-house-in As he was there, the dwarf came, into Komod’s house. c. Omet-bed men-e yedm-oon-a, konoo nand-e wun-uwen Omet-ERG come-SM say-3M.PA-SWR canoe get-SM go-1PL.PA ne yoom. I and Omet came and spoke, and we took the canoe and went, me too. d. Mande amkimo wood-bed men-e aron bidkon-uun-a … Monday morning moon-ERG come-SM sun cover.over-3F-SWR Monday morning, the moon came and covered the sun … It is seen in examples (13a–c), that the S noun phrases can take either -bed, kuu, or neither marker with the ‘come’ verb. In (13a), the man happens upon his mother, who had just died. So he is not in control of the situation, nor intending to see her in that condition. In the dwarf stories, from which (13b) is taken, the dwarves nearly always interact with the legendary figure Komod, and this event therefore has to happen, so yoknad ‘dwarf’ does not receive -bed. In (13c), the man Omet had gone hunting and shot a pig, and comes to get help in carrying it back, so Omet is marked with -bed to show his intent and that he is in control of the situation. This is also true of wood ‘moon’ in (13d); it is asserted that the moon is in control and fully intends to come and cover the sun.
14 The combination marker ku-mbed is not counted as ergative marking here, as it is a special case and will be discussed in §4.1. 14 Steve Christensen
This use of the ergative would be classified as a ‘fluid-S marking system’ which is described by Dixon: The typical situation in such a language ― which I call ‘fluid-S’ ― is for each intransitive verb to have the possibility of two kinds of marking for its core NPs ― one (Sa, the same as on a transitive A) to be used when the referent of the S NP controls the activity, and the other (So, the same as on a transitive O) when control is lacking. (Dixon 1994:78) For example, in ‘I went to Lhasa’ the first person singular pronoun can be marked as Sa, implying that I went there purposely, or as So, perhaps referring to my having been taken there as a child. (Dixon 1994:80) Similarly in Yongkom marking an S with the ergative marker -bed then gives that participant the characteristics of agent, with control and intent. The most common marking (sixteen of twenty-six instances) of an S noun phrase in a clause with bobn-e ‘die’ is kuu ‘topic’, as in example (14a). But there is one instance in the corpus of marking the S with the ergative marker -bed in a clause with bobn-e ‘die’. Example (14b) is the concluding sentence in a fable about why people die. A snake and mouse argue as to how people die, and the snake says it is like the shedding of skin and demonstrates. The mouse believes this explanation and so kills himself, but remains dead. The moral is in the next to last sentence: ‘So today we see that when people die they do not regain life and return.’ But in the last sentence of the fable as seen in example (14b), Ba ‘Mouse’, as the S noun phrase, is marked with the ergative marker -bed, indicating that it was an intentional death. (14) a. Ena, oni kuu bobn-een-oo! mother older.sister TOP die-3F.PA-EXCL Mother, older sister has died! b. Ku-yiib kuu Ba-mbed bobn-e korem kai won-oon kowe. that-with TOP Mouse-ERG die-SM completely very go-3M.PA since Since with that, Mouse purposefully died and has well and truly gone. Thus, the rules for using -bed follow the first of Givón’s (1984:153) split ergativity hierarchies (‘causation’ refers to the event encoded by the verb): a. Degree of agent’s control or intent: controlled causation > uncontrolled causation intended causation > unintended causation The other type of split ergativity is classified as split-S ergativity (Dixon 1979:79–80). He lists three ways the split is made, according to: (1) ‘the semantic nature of the main verb’, (2) ‘the semantic nature of the core NPs’, (3) ‘the tense or aspect of the clause’. Regarding point (1), Dixon further states (1979:81): ‘The semantic nature of intransitive verbs dictates that for some the S NP is ALWAYS agentive, for some it CAN BE, and for others it NEVER is.’ But in Yongkom even clauses with stative verbs were found to have S noun phrases marked with -bed. So, verbs such as: dor-e ‘exist/live’, as in example (15a), meedm-e ‘expect/await’ (15b), and dib-e ‘be sitting’ (15c) are able to take an S marked with -bed. (15) a. … korond-e ye karubkim-bed dor-iib Kunon bid ari won-oon. leave-SM his relatives-ERG live-2/3PL Kunon land up.on go-3M.PA … he left (there) and went up to where his relatives lived in Kunon land. Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 15
b. Yiib-bed ye man-an-een and-e meedm-iiw-oo? you.PL-ERG he come-FUT-3M say-SM await-2/3PL-yes? Are you expecting him to come? c. Aron maa, yoknad-bed dib-onib meen-iwen, ‘Kibikee … day another dwarf-ERG sit-DUR.SM.2/3PL think-2/3PL.PA today One day, the dwarves were sitting and thought, ‘Today is … ’ In the corpus two change-of-state intransitive verbs: kiomn-e ‘grow old’, and yidbobn-e ‘become ashamed’ were found to never have -bed marked on their S noun phrases. But considering that under the right circumstances, even a clause with bobn-e ‘die’ can have an S noun phrase marked with -bed, it may be possible for kiomn-e and yidbobn-e also. In any case, it is clear that considering the semantic content of Yongkom verbs does not throw much light on the use of -bed, since the subject of all Yongkom verbs can be marked as having control and/or intent, except perhaps for a very few, such as the two exceptions noted. Thus the ‘fluid-S’ classification is a better fit than one based on a ‘split-S’ according to the semantic content of verbs. Of Dixon’s (1979:71) three types of split-S ergativity, the second type of split is determined ‘by the semantic nature of the core NP’s’, that is based on a hierarchy such as: first person > second person > third person > animate > inanimate. But since example (16) has the first person pronoun marked with -bed, and example (13d) above has the inanimate moon marked with -bed, it can be seen that the ergative marker is used across the whole animacy spectrum. So the split cannot be typified by the semantic nature of the noun phrases for Yongkom. (16) Eb wan-and-e kam-an-eew-a, ne-mbed keb-ebd-an-iin. you.M.S go-DESIR-SM do-FUT-2S-SWR I-ERG stop-O.2S-FUT-1S Should you try to go, I will stop you. For Dixon’s (1979:95) third type of split, being made according to the tense or aspect of the clause, he states that the ergative marker is found in the past tense, but not normally in the future tense. However, Yongkom does not limit the use of the ergative marker in the future tense, as seen in example (16). From the discussion in this section, we can see that Yongkom has a ‘fluid-S’ case marking system with the ergative marker -bed used to indicate control, intent or both.
2.5 Comparison of the use of -bed to active-inactive typology Lastly, to be complete, a comparison of the Yongkom case marking system to what is variously called an active-inactive or a split intransitive type of system as outlined by Klimov (1974:13–15) is made here, following Danziger’s (1996:381) lead in grouping the various terminologies together. Klimov lists three characteristics: (1) dividing nouns into two classes, active and inactive, based on ‘the presence or absence in them of life activity’ (‘person’ versus ‘stone’); (2) the ‘lexical opposition of verbs … according to the feature of its activity-inactivity’ (an active verb ‘to stand’ versus a stative verb ‘is standing’); (3) existence of ‘verb-pairs with delimited usage spheres’ based on noun class distinctions (that is ‘to be [for animate nouns]’ versus ‘to be [for inanimate objects]’). Regarding the first point about noun classes, Yongkom does have two noun classes, but they are based upon gender, not animacy. The male class includes: men, boys, male animals (the ones where gender can be determined such as dogs, pigs, crocodiles, and 16 Steve Christensen chickens), hornbills (based on their behavior), mosquitoes, most trees, fire, ashes, thunder, lightning, and most tools and weapons. The female class includes: women, girls, female animals (the ones where gender can be determined), cassowaries (both male and female sit on the eggs), the sago tree (sago itself is male), water, rivers, vehicles (canoes, trucks, and ships), and most natural phenomena such as rain, the moon, the sun, and the sky. Thus it is easily seen that there are inanimate and animate things in both classes. Regarding the second point: ‘lexical opposition of verbs … according to the feature of its activity-inactivity’, there is no class of verb stems based upon stative semantics, but there is a distinction when using angk-e ‘lie down’ for animate versus inanimate things. Inanimate things require the use of present tense as in example (17a), but animate things require the use of past tense as in (17b). This one opposition, however, does not qualify the language as an active-stative one. (17) a. Bot angk-een. stone lie-3M (There is a) stone lying (there). b. Ye angk-oon. he lie-3M.PA He lay down./He is sleeping. The third point states: existence of ‘verb-pairs with delimited usage spheres’ based on noun class distinctions. There are many sets of verbs delimited in scope in Yongkom as noted in the discussion in §1.3 above, but their distinct uses are not based on an animacy scale or anything that could be construed to point to an active versus inactive distinction for subject noun phrases. Rather, Yongkom verb sets are either sets of transitive verbs distinguished by the number and sometimes the person of the object, or are sets of ditransitive verb pairs distinguished by the number of the object. For sets of transitive verbs, the most common pattern is a plural/non-plural distinction, as between (18a) and (18b). (18) a. Awodki yoom awaan yoom kee om wiin-e arum-iib. father and mother and this sago chop-SM work-2/3PL This father and mother are chopping down the sago tree and working it. b. Yi-mbed at dengk-imaib kuu daa-mbed dengk-imaib they-ERG tree chop.PL-HAB.2/3PL TOP stone.axe-INST chop.PL-HAB.2/3PL When they used to chop down trees, they chopped them down with stone axes. Verbs which include person and number in the semantics of the stem such as the ‘hit’ verbs in examples (5a–e) above, can also take inanimate subjects as shown in example (19). (19) Dongkino kuu ok-bed ay-e kan-kubun-een. Dongkino TOP water-ERG hit.him-SM take-sink-3F.PA Dongkino was struck by the water and pulled under. As mentioned in §1.3, there are some ditransitive verb pairs where the distinction is based upon the number of the O noun phrase, as seen in (20a) and (20b). The ditransitive verbs do not take inanimate A noun phrases, as inanimate things are not given animate qualities in stories. Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 17
(20) a. Mud ko-n-ime. stone.knife give-RCP.3M-IMP.2PL Give the stone knife to him. b. Nen-wen-e muk-iib animan-iib bangka-n-iib. take-go-SM milk-and food-and give.PL-RCP.3M-2/3PL They take (the child) and give him milk and food. There is only one pair of verbs that show an animacy distinction: nend-e ‘get an animate thing’ versus kand-e ‘get an inanimate thing’, as seen in (21a, b) respectively. This is in addition to the distinction in number, where plural O noun phrases need the verb b-e ‘get many’ as seen in (21c). The animacy distinction does not apply with plural O noun phrases, as seen in (21d), which uses the same verb as (21c) for either ‘children’ or ‘firewood’. (21) a. Dana nen-wen-e.15 child take-go-IMP Take the child and go. b. Bot kan-wen-e. stone take-go-IMP Take the stone and go. c. Ne-mbed dana be-wan-aan. I-ERG child take.PL-go-1S.PA I took the children and went. d. Urok-bed atok be-wun-een. flood-ERG firewood take.PL-go-3F.PA The flood took the firewood and went. So, Yongkom does not exhibit an active-inactive type distinction, but rather -bed is an ergative case marker in a fluid-S case marking system. Use of the ergative marker on either S or A depends on whether the participant is regarded as being in control or having clear intent and therefore agentive.
3 The particle kuu, topic and topicality Up to this point I have been calling kuu a topic marker. ‘Topic’ is defined here as the person, thing, or event ‘about which something is said’ (Crystal 1991:354). Topic in Yongkom is realised as a phrase, clause or sentence about which something is said. These are marked with kuu. A participant who is topic is the most important participant at that point in the narrative. One strategy, noun phrase deletion, indicates a previously mentioned participant which remains topic, and will be further discussed in §3.6 below. Fronting of a noun phrase will also be further discussed in §3.7 below. The topic can expand as in example (22a), where ‘the pig’ expands to ‘the pig that was shot’, and finally to ‘the owner of the pig that was shot’. Each expansion is marked with kuu. In (22b), awon ‘pig’ is marked as topic in the first clause and fronted (doubly marking it),
15 When kand-, nend-, and b- verbs are used as a prefix in serial verb constructions, the /d/ is elided with the verbs kand- and nend-, and an /e/ is epended after the verb b- to satisfy consonant cluster constraints. See (21a), (21b) and (21c). 18 Steve Christensen and then is topical throughout the remaining clauses (as brought out in the free translation with the parentheses) even though there is no overt mention of it after the first instance. (22) a. Awon kuu monb-oon kuu ye yari-wonong kuu Doom. pig TOP shoot-3M.PA TOP his owner-woman TOP Doam The pig that was shot, its owner is Doam. b. Awon kuu Omet-bed bung-oon-a yari-wonong men-e pig TOP Omet-ERG cut.up-3M.PA-SWR owner-woman come-SM od namba nongkob-uun-a berengk-uwen. money amount put.PL-3F-SWR buy.PL-1PL.PA The pig was cut up by Omet, and the owner (of the pig) came (to the pig) and set prices (on the portions of the pig), and we bought (the portions of the pig). However, since kuu is commonly seen on objects of transitive clauses, the possibility of kuu being the absolutive case marker needs to be explored before going on to look at the evidence for calling it ‘topic’. In looking at the instances of S, A, or O noun phrases and their marking by either kuu, -bed, or neither one, I found that kuu occurs on A noun phrases as well as S and O noun phrases, as seen in Table 7. There are also thirteen instances of kuu on recipient noun phrases and eighteen instances on postpositional phrases. So, kuu cannot be an absolutive marker.
Table 7: Marking of S, A or O noun phrases S A O none kuu -bed none kuu -bed none kuu 67 85 24 8 25 57 366 114
3.1 The use of kuu in attributive clauses One type of basic sentence is the attributive clause, where the attribute is the comment on the topic that precedes it, as in (23). An attributive clause is verbless, and must have either a kuu as in (23) or a demonstrative as in (41) below. (23) Ye ana kuu dukmen. his arrows TOP short His arrows are short. In this topic-comment construction, the marker kuu is glossed ‘topic’ rather than ‘comment’ because it goes with the previous word or phrase, based on pause patterns. Also, when kuu appears after a clause, it marks the clause which precedes it as topic, as seen in the examples in (25) below.16 Since no verb or derivational morphology is used to form a topic-comment construction, it is a basic construct of the language.
16 This also patterns with the use of postpositions in the language and the fact that modifiers appear after the head noun. Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 19
3.2 The use of kuu in intransitive and transitive clauses As was seen in Table 7 above, the topic marker kuu occurs on S, A and O noun phrases. Approximately 50 per cent of the S noun phrases in the corpus are followed by kuu, marking them as topic, as in example (24a). It will be shown in Table 8 (p. 28) that 32 per cent of A noun phrases are marked as topic in clauses that have both A and O noun phrases present, as in (24b). But this number drops to 5 per cent when the O noun phrase is absent. Of O noun phrases, 18 per cent are marked as topic (and usually fronted) when an A noun phrase is present, as in (24c), and 25 per cent are marked as topic when the A noun phrase is absent. Indirect objects being marked as topic is rare but possible as seen in the sentence taken from outside the corpus in (24d). (24) a. Kwane, ye angkodmi kuu wim ari dibor-oon-e … 17 then his friend TOP bank on sit-3M.PA-SWR Then his friend sat on the riverbank … b. Karub korem meneb-e, yena kuu bob daad ongm-iiw-e … men all gather-SM some TOP dead.body stretcher make-2/3PL-SWR All the men came together, and some made a stretcher to carrythe dead body … c. … ye angkodmi yoom diab kuu an-iwen. his friend and cassowary TOP eat-2/3PL.PA … he and his friend ate the cassowary. d. Yi ayoob yaa kuu arewa keru-nd-an-uub. them two to TOP bad give-O.PL-FUT-1PL To the two of them, we will do bad things.
3.3 The use of kuu to mark a clause This marker kuu is always used after a clause which is the topic in a topic-comment construction. The topic can be an intransitive clause as in (25a) and (25b), a transitive clause as in (25c), and a ditransitive clause as in (25d). (25) a. Won-oon kuu Dinam menboon yaa yan-oon. go-3M.PA TOP Dinam lake to cross.over-3M.PA About him going, he crossed over to Lake Dinam. b. Ambiwid kari dobur-uwen kuu aron footin-iib dobur-uwen. home.area up.there stay-1PL.PA TOP day fourteen-with stay-1PL.PA About us staying up in our clan land, we stayed fourteen days. c. Yok kam-iwen kuu yaro awari-mbed yok dand-e an-uwen. bark do-2/3PL.PA TOP arise tomorrow-LOC bark remove-SM eat-1PL.PA About the bark (cooking method) that they did, the next day we opened it up and ate.
17 Kwane is a fossilised form of kwan-e ‘do.like.that-SM’. It is used sentence initially as a conjunction to indicate a continuance of the discourse here as well as in (52a, c), where the best English equivalent is ‘then’ or ‘and’. It is also used in the clause to mean ‘like that’ or ‘in that manner’ as in (27a). The kwan-e verb is still used in fully inflected form, most often as tail-head linkage as in (2b). 20 Steve Christensen
d. Andow-e bangka-nd-andam-iin kuu yimin-oo? start-SM give.PL-O.PL-DESIR-1S TOP okay-yes? Is it okay if I start giving them out? The clause which is the comment can feature a different verb from the topic as in (25a) or the same verb as in (25b). The comment can have the same participant as the topic as in (25a) and (25b), or different participants as in (25c). The comment can be a clause that could stand as a sentence by itself as in (25a–c), or be a descriptive word as in (25d). Having the comment as only a descriptive word or phrase is common, especially when making a counterpoint as in (26). (26) Wen-e dor-iib kuu amun kumban, karub kuu wadweng awaan …18 go-SM live-2/3PL TOP good but men TOP quarrelsome mother Them going and living there was good, but the men were very quarrelsome … A clause marked with kuu can be postposed, making it an afterthought as in example (27a). This postclausal use of kuu is also exemplified in conditional statements as in (27b), where it marks the end of the condition clause.19 Condition clauses use future tense. (27) a. Kwan-e yedm-imaub, konoo yeweb kan-men-e ok do.like.that-SM say-HAB.1PL canoe new take-come-SM water kaan-imaub kuu. put.in-HAB.1PL TOP We always say that, when we take a new canoe and put it in the water, that is. b. Karub awad arewa wedm-an-een kuu bobn-an-een. man spirit bad see-FUT-3M TOP die-FUT-3M If a person sees a bad bush spirit, he will die.
3.4 Multiple occurrences of kuu in sentences A clear example of kuu marking topic can be seen in (28). (28) Yi ayoob-mo dor-iib kuy-aom kuu, karub ayi kuu, they two-only stay-2/3PL that-in TOP man oldest.brother TOP ye id yaa kuu, eng bobbob kand-oon. his body to TOP scabies sores get-3M.PA While only the two of them were staying (there), the older brother, about his body, it(/he) got scabies. Multiple occurrences of kuu in a sentence are quite common in Yongkom. In (28), the combination of kui/kuy ‘that’ and aom ‘in’ followed by the first instance of kuu marks the preceding clause as a ‘during that event’ type of time clause. The kuu marks this clause as the time the speaker is wanting to talk about. Further information is going to be given about karub ayi ‘older brother’, so that noun phrase is marked with the second instance of kuu. Although kand-oon ‘got’ in the final clause is a transitive verb, there is no control or
18 Wadweng awaan ‘quarrelsome mother’ is an idiom for being very quarrelsome. 19 All condition clauses are marked in this way. In Hua, another Papuan language, the topic marker -mo is used in conditionals but only in a highly restrictive construction and as only one of the possible ways to form conditionals (Haiman 1980). Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 21 intent associated with it in this case, so karub ayi ‘older brother’ is not marked with -bed. Further specifying that the topic is about the older brother’s body, the phrase ye id yaa ‘about his body’ is marked with kuu as well.
3.5 Reduplication of kuu Another usage that illustrates kuu as ‘topic’ is when it occurs at the beginning of a sentence in reduplicated form kukuu. In this case, kukuu stands at the beginning of the sentence or clause and points to the previous sentence or clause, turning it into the topic for the next assertion, as seen in (29). (29) … ened and-imaub. Ku-kuu Dombanob ye nima dana-mbed cicada say-1PL.HAB TOP-TOP Dombanob his women child-ERG korond-e ened ker-iwen. leave-SM cicada become-2/3PL.PA … (so) we always call them cicadas. It is those cicadas that Dombanop’s family changed into. The reduplicated form kukuu can be split apart and surround the verb in the topic as in (30). When this happens, the first syllable ku- is attached as a prefix to the verb. (30) Ku-mangk-iwen kuu Kiunga angka kounsuro yi ofis TOP-bury-2/3PL.PA TOP Kiunga over.at councilmen their office dor-uun kuri-mbed mangk-iwen kii. be-3F down.there-LOC bury-2/3PL.PA EXCL About burying (him), they buried (him) where the councilmen’s offices are over in Kiunga.
3.6 Topical participants are often deleted Previously mentioned participants are often not mentioned again in subsequent clauses. In the first clause in (30) above, neither A nor O are stated. Participants are either marked with verb morphology, as for those doing the burying in (30) above, or understood from context, as for the one buried in (30) above. This deletion of noun phrases is a common strategy; 80 per cent of clauses with verbs use deletion to mark the participants as topical. These participants are tracked by subject and object agreement suffixes and switch reference suffixes on the verbs.
3.7 Preposing a noun phrase with kuu Fronting or preposing is defined for this paper as moving a phrase before the subject of the clause. Preposed phrases are nearly always marked with kuu. There is no restriction as to what kind of phrase can be preposed, except of course subject noun phrases as they are normally first in the clause.20 Preposing marks the participant referred to as more topical21
20 This is leaving the issue of time phrases aside, as time phrases nearly always appear before all other phrases in the clause. 21 By saying ‘more topical’ it is meant that the preposed element is more salient to the narrative at this point in the story than are the other participants, particularly the S or A, since the preposed elements iconically ‘stand in front of’ the S or A. 22 Steve Christensen than the participant referred to by the subject noun phrase. Object noun phrases, indirect object noun phrases and postpositional phrases can be preposed, as illustrated in examples (31a–c). (31) a. Diab kuu niin ari-mbed ween-e kow-ekor-e … cassowary TOP snake python-ERG hit.her-SM put-COMP-SM As for the cassowary, the python killed it and put it down, and then … b. Ne yaa kuu God-bed butun daa-w-e dabab me to TOP God-ERG proscription say-O.1S-SM heavy kaw-oon. give.to.me-3M.PA To me, God said a proscription and gave me a sentencing. c. Eb okad yiri kuu Korom-bed diab ween-e … your ground down TOP Korom-ERG cassowary hit.her-SM (It was) down on your land (that) Korom killed the cassowary … An object noun phrase is preposed in (31a), because the snake now leaves the scene to get a drink of water before swallowing the cassowary, and a woman comes and finds the cassowary recently dead and apparently unclaimed, and so takes the cassowary and cooks and eats it. This incurs the wrath of the snake who then kills the woman. So it is because of the cassowary that the woman is killed, thus the cassowary is more topical than the snake at this point in the narrative. A Yongkom speaker gave me the sentence in (31b), with a preposed indirect object. He was relating the story of Ruth, and how Naomi was thinking of her many difficulties, and so made herself topical in stating the cause of her woes. In (31c), the speaker preposes a postpositional phrase in order to present as most important the fact that it was on the land of the hearer that the cassowary was taken. Slightly more than 1 per cent of sentences have phrases preposed, making those phrases more topical than the subject noun phrase. There is no instance of an instrument phrase being preposed. This may be to avoid confusion arising from having the instrument marked with the obligatory -bed and an A marked the same way following it.
3.8 Postposing a noun phrase with kuu Postposing is defined for this paper as putting a phrase after the verb of the clause. Postposed noun phrases are usually marked with kuu. Postposing with kuu is a strategy used to make a clarification related to the topical participants. There is no restriction as to what kind of phrase can be postposed and marked with kuu. The subject, whether in an intransitive clause as in (32a) or a transitive clause as in (32b), can be postposed. The object noun phrase can be postposed as in (32c), a postpositional phrase can be postposed as in (32d), and even an instrument phrase can be postposed as in (32e). (32) a. Nima kuu kub-i-yiib-ban ker-e win-iwen, yi korem kuu. women TOP rejoice-NOM-with-NEG become-SM go-2/3PL.PA they all TOP The women became joyless and went, all of them. b. Onam-iib dor-uun kowe, yok wingk-oon, yoknad kuu. blind-with exist-3F so song sing-3M.PA dwarf TOP (He saw) there was a hunting blind, so he sang a song, the dwarf that is. Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 23
c. Kamen-e wedm-oon-e kan-men-iib, ye id kuu. come.down-SM see-3M.PA-SWR take-come-2/3PL his body TOP (The man’s spirit) came down and saw they were bringing it, (bringing) his body that is. d. Aomn-e akm-iib-ka, wonong kuu dowan, yedbon aom kuu. enter-SM see-2/3PL-PROM woman TOP gone shelter in TOP They entered and saw that the woman was gone, from the shelter that is. e. Oon kuu yemoon b-uwen, pating-bed-iiwaa 22 net-bed-iiwaa kuu. fish TOP many get.PL-1PL.PA hook-INST-and net-INST-and TOP We got many fish, with hook and net that is. In (32a), the clarification is that it was ALL the women who were angry with the men folk. In (32b), the dwarf now sees a hunting blind that earlier had been built by another man, so clarification is made as to who is singing the song. In the sentence prior to (32c) the body had been mentioned, so it is hard to say why the postposed noun phrase is used, unless it is to emphasise the internal conflict the man’s spirit felt over the sight of his body. In (32d), the woman is still ‘on scene’, but she is not where they expect her, so a clarification is made that they didn’t find her in the expected place, that is, in the shelter. In (32e), it had been mentioned earlier that they had fished with fishing hooks, but now the speaker clarifies that they used nets as well. Postposed A noun phrases not marked with kuu, as in (33a, b), are also used to make a clarification.23 (There are no postposed S noun phrases not marked with kuu in the corpus.) (33) a. Yoknad ye awung ari mondom yungm-oon, ye angkodmi-mbed. dwarf his hair on stick tie-3S.PA his friend-ERG (He) tied sticks in the dwarf’s hair, that is his friend (did). b. … an-on-e dib-iib, Wuk yoom Komod yoom. eat-DUR-SM sit-2/3PL Wuk and Komod and … they were sitting eating, Wuk and Komod that is. However, a postposed oblique phrase not marked with kuu brings the postposed phrase into focus. The place, thing and participant in the postposed phrases in (34a–c) have been mentioned earlier in their respective stories but are not marked with kuu. So here the phrases are not marked with kuu, rather they are postposed to put the referents into focus as being important in the story. (34) a. Yogi ye karub ye aningko Winem kuu won-oon, Rumginae yaa. Yogi his man his name Winem TOP go-3M.PA Rumginae to A man of Yogi (village) named Winem went, to Rumginae that is. b. Yi kuu eb angkuromkono angka ibn-e yenb-e, komduk-bed. lizard TOP your backbone to join-SM tie-IMP vine.weak-INST Take the lizard, put it on your backbone and tie it on, with the weak vines that is.
22 The suffix -iiwaa is a variant form of -iib ‘and’ in lists. 23 Example (33a) shows a postposed A noun phrase not marked with kuu, but with -bed, which seems to be highlighting ye angkodmi ‘his friend’ as having control and intent. 24 Steve Christensen
c. … kuk-iib om-iib baand-e kon-oon, yoknad yaa. shoots-and sago-and call.out-SM give.to.him-3M.PA dwarf to … he called out and gave the shoots and sago to him, to the dwarf that is. In (34a), the story is about the investigation of a phenomenon which occurred in Rumginae, and so Rumginae yaa is postposed and in focus. In (34b), it is important that the monitor lizard is tied with these weak vines, because the speaker intends that the lizard should later break loose and kill the recipient of these instructions, and so konduk ‘weak vine’ is reiterated at this point in the instructions. In (34c), giving these things to the dwarf will initiate the conflict in the story, so yoknad yaa ‘to (the) dwarf’ is postposed and in focus. Postposing, like preposing, is not very common. Of the sentences in the corpus, less than 1 per cent have postposed phrases marked with kuu, and less than 1 per cent have postposed phrases not marked with kuu.
3.9 Yongkom as a topic prominent language Since the topic marker kuu is in frequent use, it would be good to explore the subject of topic prominence, where the concept of ‘topic’ is more relevant in a language than the concept of ‘subject’. Li and Thompson (1976:466–470) list eight characteristics of a topic- prominent (Tp) language, in opposition to a subject-prominent (Sp) language. In brief they are: (a) ‘In Tp languages, there will be a surface coding for the topic, but not necessarily for the subject.’ (b) ‘The passive construction is common among Sp languages. Among Tp languages, on the other hand, passivisation either does not occur at all (e.g. Lahu, Lisu), or appears as a marginal construction, rarely used in speech (e.g. Mandarin), or carries a special meaning (e.g. the “adversity” passive in Japanese).’ (c) ‘“Dummy” or “empty” subjects … may be found in an Sp language, but not in a Tp language.’ (d) ‘Tp languages are famous for their pervasive so-called “double subject” constructions.’ (e) ‘In a Tp language, the topic, and not the subject, typically controls coreferential constituent deletion.’ (f) ‘Tp languages tend to be verb-final languages.’ (g) ‘In topic-prominent languages … there are no constraints on what may be the topic.’ (h) ‘Basicness of topic-comment sentences … topic-comment structures in Tp languages cannot be viewed as being derived from any other sentence type.’ In comparing Yongkom to these points, for point (a), that topic-prominent languages have surface coding for the topic, it has already been pointed out that kuu appears on noun phrases regardless of their case role as shown in Table 7 above. Also, there is no unified surface coding for subject, a combination of S and A, but there is an ergative marker as described above. Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 25
For point (b), that topic-prominent languages rarely have a passive construction, Yongkom has no passive construction, but a passive-like meaning is conveyed when a clause leaves out the A noun phrase and uses either a third person singular, or a second/third person plural subject agreement marker, whichever does not refer to any other participant mentioned in the text. For instance, in (35a), there are several men referred to with third person male singular verb agreement just prior to this sentence, so to encode a non-specific agent for the last clause of (35a) the second/third person plural marker is used on the verb. But in (35b), there are only the two brothers at this point in the story, so the third person male singular is used to refer to a non-specific agent, as there is no prior participant to whom it could refer. (35) a. Wii aom dor-oon-e, kangdod korok yaa nen-min-iwen. jail in stay-3M.PA-SWR court leader to take-come-2/3PL.PA He was staying in jail, and then he was brought to the court leader (judge). b. ‘Ne ambang kuu ay-oon.’ and-e ameng kam-e meen-oon. my older.brother TOP hit.him-3M.PA say-SM cry do-SM think-3M.PA He cried thinking, ‘My older brother has been killed’. Also, when the O is marked as topic and put in front of the A noun phrase, this is functionally equivalent to a passive; the O is more salient than the A. Examples (31a), (54) and (62) below and the discussion around them bear out this equivalency to passive. For point (c), that dummy subjects are not found in a topic-prominent language, there are no ‘dummy’ subject constructions in Yongkom. Rather other strategies are employed, such as intransitive clauses as in (36a) and topic–comment sentences as in (36b). (36) a. Am mun-een. rain come-3F.PA The rain came./It is raining. b. Dome(-dan) kuu kub-i-yiib-ban. Dome-people TOP rejoice-NOM-with-NEG The Dome people are joyless./There is no joy in Dome. For point (d), that topic-prominent languages have ‘double’ subjects, participants are often introduced in Yongkom by a double or repeated subject in the beginning of narratives with the second reference marked with kuu. In example (37), the story is about a woman who is captured by a sago swamp spirit. The new participant is mentioned twice, with the second mention yu ‘she’ marked with kuu. (37) Aron mamaa, wonong mamaa, yu kuu wen-e … day another woman another she TOP go-SM One day, a woman, she went … Point (e) refers to topic-prominent languages having the topic and not the subject typically controlling coreferential constituent deletion. Although an example of topic controlling coreferential constituent deletion was not found in the corpus, a speaker of the language did offer the sentence in example (38). The speaker, in referring to his land, marks it with kuu ‘topic’. The ‘land’ is also what is referred to in the coreferential constituent deletion, thus the marked topic controls this deletion. 26 Steve Christensen
(38) N-okad kuu, yongbon amun-mo demb-imaun kowe, Ø my-ground TOP garden good-only grow-HAB.3F so amun yeman. good very My land, gardens grow very well there, so (the land) is very good. Yongkom is a verb-final language, so that is in line with point (f) that topic-prominent languages tend to be verb-final. As mentioned at the beginning of this discussion of kuu in §3, S, A, O, and indirect object noun phrases, as well as postpositional phrases and whole clauses, can be marked as topic by kuu, so there are no constraints as to what can be topic in Yongkom, which satisfies point (g) about the absence of topic constraints in topic- prominent languages. It has already been shown in example (23) in the discussion of kuu in topic–comment sentences, that topic-comment sentences are not derived from any other sentence type, and are therefore a basic type of sentence in Yongkom, which tallies with point (h) that topic-comment sentences are a basic form in topic-prominent languages and are not derived from any other sentence type. So, Yongkom satisfies all the criteria for a topic-prominent language, and kuu is its topic marker.
3.10 Possible origin of kuu The origin of kuu diachronically can only be speculated upon, because there is no diachronic data for Yongkom available from earlier texts. Word lists have been taken since the 1920s, even a short grammar by Fr P. Drabbé in the 1950s (Healey 1964:43–44), but no texts for this kind of study. However, consider the opposition of the deictics kee ‘this’ and kui [ki] ‘that’. The two examples (39a, b), exhibit the normal deictic opposition, with kee/kei for ‘this’ and kui for ‘that’. (39) a. murubkob kee clay.rock this this clay rock b. murubkob kui clay.rock that that clay rock Examples (40a, b) demonstrate the negation of one deictic in favour of the other. The negation of kui ‘that’ is phonologically ambiguous with kuu ‘topic’ in this construction, because of the dropping of the second vowel on the end of the word and both becoming /ku/ when the suffix -ban is added. Example (40c) shows the full reduplicated form for ‘that’. (40) a. At ke-mban yakui. tree this-NEG over.there Not this tree, (that one) over there. b. At ku-ku-mban ke-kei. tree that-that-NEG this-this Not that tree, this one. c. At kuu ku-kui. tree TOP that-that Any of those trees. Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 27
Examples (41a) and (41b) show the opposition in deixis in topic-comment sentences. Notice that it is kuu ‘topic’ rather than kui ‘that’ that stands in opposition to kee ‘this’. The appropriate context for (41c), which uses kui instead of kuu, would be as an emphatic statement in an argument. (41) a. Kono kuu awon kono. bone TOP pig bone The bone is a pig bone. b. Kono kee awon kono. bone this pig bone This bone is a pig bone. c. Kono kui awon kono. bone that pig bone That bone, it is a pig bone. Examples (42a, b), illustrate the opposition in deictic locative phrases, and these both contrast with (42c). Examples (42a) and (42c) are phonologically ambiguous as to whether they are ‘that’ or ‘topic’. (42) a. Ku-ye aron ku-mbed yi kuu akm-e meen-i yeman that?-his time TOP-LOC they TOP see-SM think-NOM thing.of ongm-iwen. make-2/3PL.PA From that time, they made a thing for seeing (it) and remembering (the event). b. Ke-ye aron ke-mbed wen-em-aa. this-his time this-LOC go-1PL.IMP-EXCL From this time (i.e. now), let’s go! c. Aron kuu dobur-uwen ku-yaom kuu pating kamber-e … time TOP stay-1PL.PA that?-in TOP fishing.line put.in-SM During the time we stayed, we fished and … In (42c) there is no positional deictic kuyaa ‘there’, which would occur before the verb dober-e ‘live’. Nor is there a time deictic as in ‘that time’, which would be encoded by reduplicating the first kuu: aron ku-kuu ‘that time’. Also ku-yaom, which is comprised of ‘that’ or ‘topic’ with ‘in’, does not carry any deictic load but rather means ‘during’. The free translation of (42c) in English requires a deictic (such as: ‘During the time we stayed there’ or ‘During that time’), but the previous sentence in this narrative carries all the necessary deictic load stating: ‘We stayed up in that area for fourteen days’. The time frame is explicitly mentioned and therefore the first instance of kuu in (42c) is sufficient for the deictic load. So, from these examples in (41) and (42) it seems that kuu and kui share the deictic load for ‘that’, and since they also share a similar phonological shape, the author believes kuu ‘topic’ originates from the deictic kui ‘that’.
4 The interaction of topicality and ergativity One of a speaker’s major goals is to indicate participants who are in control and have intent. To do this the speaker marks the participant with the ergativity marker -bed (as described in §2.1 and §2.4 above). But another goal is to indicate participants which are 28 Steve Christensen topical in the story. This can be achieved by either leaving the participant unmentioned or marking it with the topic marker kuu (as described in §3.2 and §3.6 above). The functional bind is, if there is no mention of the participant, how is the degree of control or intent to be known? Obviously the ergativity marker cannot be applied to a non-existent noun phrase. Also, if the speaker deems it necessary to mention the participant that is both topical and ergative, which marker or combination of markers is used? It is this functional bind between ergativity and topicality which was referred to in §1.4 above. The strategies speakers use to resolve this conflict are explained at various points in the discussion which follows, especially §4.5–4.6. Also, strategies used when a participant is less than a paragon of its type (such as a participant in the A role not being in control or having intent) will be discussed further in §4.5. Table 8 summarises the use and non-use of -bed and kuu on noun phrases in intransitive and transitive clauses. Instances have been grouped according to which noun phrases occur in the clause. Verbs of saying and thinking are not included in the table. They will be discussed in §4.7 below. Table 8: Occurrence and marking of noun phrases in intransitive and transitive clauses
Intransitive clauses with no overt S 829 overt S marked with none kuu -bed ku-mbed Intransitive clauses 67 85 24 4 Transitive clauses with no overt A or O 571 overt A marked with overt O marked with none kuu -bed ku-mbed none kuu -bed ku-mbed Transitive clauses 7 24 41 2 59 13 224 0 with both A and O overt A only marked with overt O only marked with none kuu -bed ku-mbed none kuu -bed ku-mbed Transitive clauses 1 1 17 1 307 101 0 4 with either A or O
Various details shown in Table 8 will be discussed in §4.1–4.4 below, but first some general observations. A noun phrases are most commonly marked with -bed, O noun phrases are usually unmarked, and S noun phrases most commonly with kuu, although unmarked S noun phrases come a close second. Secondly, clauses with no S, A, or O noun phrases outnumber those with such noun phrases. 25 This deletion of noun phrases is certainly one of the more noticeable features of the language. Other aspects of the use of -bed and kuu shown in Table 8 will now be discussed in §4.1–4.7.
24 The two instances of -bed on O are anticipating these participants as instrument with the next verb. 25 There are 829 instances of intransitive clauses with no S as opposed to 180 instances with an S. For transitive clauses there are 571 instances of neither A nor O as opposed to 506 instances with either A or O or both, but of those 506 instances only 74 have both A and O. But 412 transitive clauses have only an O noun phrase. Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 29
4.1 The ku-mbed marking sequence The sequence of kuu followed by -bed restricts -bed to the locative case and is used to point out the logical source of the next verb. It can mark as logical source either the prior phrase as in (43a), or the prior clause as in (43b). This combined form is not dealing with ergativity per se, as it is not the fear of the people in (43a) that is seeing, nor is it the tree with skin like a crocodile in (43b) that is commanded to do the chopping, rather it is to be chopped and the finding of the tree is the logical source for the action taken with the final verb. (43) a. Kumban yi un-i-yiib ku-mbed wedm-iwen. but their afraid-NOM-with TOP-LOC see-2/3PL.PA But it was out of their fear that they were looking at it (implying that was why they misunderstood what it was). b. Wen-e at wedm-e ne kad areb dobar-an-uun ku-mbed wiin-e. go-SM tree see-SM my skin like exist-FUT-3F TOP-LOC chop-IMP Go and find a tree that has bark like my skin, and (having found the tree) chop it down. The example (43a) is about the first encounter with representatives from the national government, who came in an enclosed boat. Since the local men had never seen such a thing before, fear clouded their thinking. In (43b), a crocodile is showing a representative of the people how to make dugout canoes, and the important thing is to use the variety of tree that has bark resembling crocodile skin. This combined form ku-mbed is listed in Table 8 as marking four O noun phrases. This deserves a closer look as ku-mbed in example (43a) is marking an accompaniment and in (43b) it is interclausal; neither of these is counted in the table. In all four instances of O noun phrases marked with ku-mbed, the noun phrase refers to a participant that is crucial to the story, and the extra coding makes the participant more prominent, as in examples (44a, b). (44) a. Nong komduk yenb-ekor-eewa, animari kuu in ku-mbed vine vine.weak tie-PERF-SM.2S on.top TOP honey TOP-LOC animari amb-en-eewa kanawanm-e. on.top paint-O.3M-SM.2S go.around-IMP Build (the house) with weak vines, and (using) the honey, paint them all around. b. Om keem kuum ku-mbed band-ekor-i yabad sago sago.type stem.base TOP-LOC tear.off-PERF-SM.1S tray uun-ekor-i kuum aom yaro dor-aan-kob … string-PERF-SM.1S stem.base in get.up stand-1S.PA-CAUS I tore off the keem sago leaf stem base, and (using it) then I strung it to make a tray, then I stood in the middle of the leaf stem base, and therefore … (it flew) In example (44a), the speaker is deceiving the listener into building a house that will fall apart when the listener has an opening-of-the-house dance inside with his friends. So it is important that honey is used to weaken the vines and make them slick. In (44b), the speaker is explaining how he made a flying tray, on which he would stand and fly around. What it is made of, the base of the leaf stem where it emerges from the trunk of the keem sago palm, is critical to the story, as it enables him to move about the countryside with ease. 30 Steve Christensen
Looking at the use of ku-mbed on A noun phrases, while it is better to gloss the combined markers as TOP-ERG rather than TOP-LOC, this combination of kuu and -bed still acts as a prominence marker. Ergativity of the A is not primary in these instances, otherwise these A noun phrases would only be marked with the ergative marker -bed. Topicality is not primary either. The snake encoded in the A noun phrase in (45a) has recent prior mention yet is again overtly mentioned here and marked with ku-mbed rather than the topic marking strategy of deleting the A noun phrase. (45) a. … anam kuda, niin ari koowad ku-mbed wonong koyu kuu true EXCL snake python large TOP-ERG woman young TOP kan-yobn-oon ku-mbed dib-een. take-swallow-3M.PA TOP-LOC sit-3M … hey it’s true, it is the large python that has swallowed the young woman, and because of that it is lying still. b. Yi embeng kamen-iib-ka awin-aab … Wedm-eeb-ko lizard small come-down-2/3PL-PROM grab-2S.PROHIB see-2S-SWR.IMP yi kedbon ku-mbed kamon-ok-ka awin-en-e. lizard huge TOP-LOC come.down-IMP.3M-PROM grab-O3M-IMP When small lizards come down, don’t grab them … When you see a huge lizard coming down, it is that (one) you grab. In (45a) the first ku-mbed marks an A, and it could be argued to be TOP-ERG as the snake exhibited intent and control in swallowing the woman, but this sentence is a statement of what the woman’s parents found at her camp, so in their eyes the largeness of the python is made prominent by marking ari koowad with ku-mbed, and the fact of the python swallowing the young woman is made prominent by marking the whole clause with a second ku-mbed. In (45b) ku-mbed marks an S noun phrase. It could be labelled TOP-ERG, but intent and control is not being attributed to the lizard, rather this is the first time the lizard is called a ‘huge’ one, and as that is important to the story line, yi kedbon is marked with ku-mbed to make it prominent. The combined form ku-mbed can be used on an A noun phrase where the participant has intent and control as in example (46). But as with the above examples, ku-mbed marks the participant as prominent. (46) … dana monb-oon-e bobn-oon ye awodki ku-mbed kiyub-bed child shoot-3M.PA-SWR die-3M.PA his father TOP-ERG club-INST ay-oon. hit.him-3M.PA … it was the father of the child who was shot and killed that killed him with a club. The father is introduced in this clause. He kills the person who killed his child, which is considered justifiable revenge in the traditional stories of the culture, so ye awodki ‘his father’ is made prominent with ku-mbed. Finally, examples (47a–c) show ku-mbed appearing on phrases which are not noun phrases. It has already been shown that ku-mbed is able to attach to associative (‘with’) Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 31 phrases as seen in example (43a) above. In example (47a), it marks a postpositional phrase, in (47b) it marks an adverbial phrase, in (47c) it marks a time phrase. (47) a. … Yeran-iib yaa ku-mbed yaro men-e ari Yeran-with to TOP-LOC get.up come-SM up ok Mangan dow-een yaa kuu boron-uwen kui. river Mangan branch.off-3F.PA to TOP tie-1PL.PA that … coming up from Yeran to where the river Mangan branches off, that was where we tied it. b. At tumbab areb ku-mbed ok kat ari yeedor-oon. tree log like TOP-LOC river skin up surface-3M.PA He surfaced on the river like a log. c. Amkimo anam ku-mbed karub karakiib … kamin-iwen. morning true TOP-LOC men many come.down-2/3PL.PA In the early morning many men … came down. In the story from which (47a) is taken, the body of a child who had drowned in a boating accident is discovered downstream by others. Since they do not know whose child it is, they tie the body up at the bank and send out word. It is important that the exact location is known, so Yeran-iib yaa ‘at Yeran’ is marked with ku-mbed. In (47b), a crocodile surfaces looking for a meal, so it is crucial that it look like a log rather than a crocodile so it would not scare off any game, thus its appearance as a log is important and at tumbab areb ‘like a log’ is marked with ku-mbed. In (47c), the time of early morning is important, as the women who are then taken by these men later become birds of paradise, and this story is seen as explaining why birds of paradise today display in the early morning. The fact that ku-mbed marks so many different kinds of phrases indicates that it is not marking ergativity. Rather it combines the meaning of topic and locative, but with the extended sense of ‘logical source.’ The ku-mbed marker adds prominence to the prior clause if it appears after a verb, otherwise it adds prominence to the prior phrase.
4.2 The -bed kuu marking sequence The combination of the two markers in the order -bed kuu occurs very infrequently. There are only three instances in the corpus and these are clearly topic-comment structures such as example (48). (48) Ambib embeng-bed kuu yariman-bed nengk-imaan. house small-LOC TOP owner-ERG cook-HAB.3M Regarding a small house, the owner starts (the fire) in it. In this story of building houses, the storyteller is comparing what is done for a large house when it is finished and what is done for a small house when it is done. For the big house, the owner gathers some people and they sing a song and start an inaugural fire. However, for a small house, the owner just starts the fire by himself. In both cases the same syntax is used, the noun phrase encoding ‘big house’ is marked in the same way as Ambib embeng ‘small house’ in example (48). 32 Steve Christensen
The same pattern is used for the time phrase shown in example (49), with -bed marking location and kuu indicating that a comment relating to the particular point in time is to follow. (49) Wood yun aron sewentin ari-mbed kuu motod kuu mun-een. month June day seventeen on-LOC TOP ship TOP come-3F.PA On June 17th, the ship came then.
4.3 Overt mention of A and O or S Table 8 shows that among transitive clauses, the most common, at 571 instances, are clauses which have neither an A nor an O noun phrase. Such clauses occur when both participants have received prior mention and Yongkom usually does not mention them again if no other participants intervene. But if a participant persists for too long, tracked only by verb agreement and switch reference, it will be mentioned again in a noun phrase, either as A, O or S as appropriate. Next most common among transitive clauses, at 412 instances, are clauses with only an O noun phrase. This is usually because a new participant is being introduced in the O noun phrase, and the A participant is topical and not overtly mentioned. Including both A and O noun phrases in a clause occurs far less frequently, with only 74 instances. The three most common reasons for having both A and O noun phrases in a clause are worth addressing. The first is to introduce the agency by which an important event involving an O participant has come to pass. The participant introduced as A, who may be a new participant or a reintroduced participant, is marked with -bed and precedes the O. For instance, in the story in which example (50) occurs, the man has fallen into a nether world and is seeking escape, when he sees a ladder of vines descending. Example (50) introduces his friends as the agency by whom the ladder was made and sent down. (50) Ye angkodmi yena-mbed kuum angk-e kan-mondar-iib-kob kamen-een. his friend some-ERG ladder cut-SM get-push-2/3PL-CAUS come.down-3M (It was) some of his friends (who) made the ladder and pushed it (into the hole), and so it was coming down. Secondly, reiteration of an important point in Yongkom usually involves mentioning all participants, so in transitive clauses both A and O are mentioned. In the story in which example (51) occurs, the dwarf is digging a hole for a pig trap, which then leads him into his misadventures. As this is an important point in the story, the fact of his digging the hole is reiterated. (51) … awon dem nir-een. Yoknad-bed dem nidka-nmo kawen-een. pig hole dig-3M dwarf-ERG hole dig-ADVR go.down-3M … he is digging a pig (trap) hole. The dwarf is going down digging a hole. The third most common reason for including both A and O noun phrases in a clause is to introduce a new participant as O, where the A participant is topical but is not in control and does not intend to act, and is consequently expressed as a noun phrase marked with kuu. This is discussed further in §4.5. The relative frequencies of A and O noun phrases in transitive clauses given in Table 8 show that the least common by far is mention of only the A noun phrase, with only 20 instances out of 1077 transitive clauses. This usually means the O participant is topical and Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 33 therefore not mentioned, and the A noun phrase either introduces a new participant or reintroduces a previous participant. Regarding the overt mention of a participant with an S noun phrase, three observations may be made. First, participants introduced with a simple noun phrase, as opposed to the ‘double-subject’ noun phrases discussed in §3.9, are usually not marked with kuu or -bed. This is illustrated in example (52a) which introduces a lizard as a new participant in the story. Second, if there is a noun phrase in an intransitive imperative clause, the noun phrase is unmarked as in example (52b). Third, if two ongoing participants of the same person and number alternate being in the S noun phrase, both are mentioned and both marked with kuu as in example (52c). This is done because the subject agreement markers cannot differentiate between the two participants. (52) a. Kwane yikabom wen-e bikn-e wedm-en-oon. then lizard go-SM hide-SM see-O.3M-3M.PA Then a lizard went and hid and saw him. b. Eb wen-e eb angkodmi yedm-eeb-ko … you.M.S go-SM your friend tell-2S-SWR.IMP Go and tell your friend … c. Kwane ye angkodmi kuu wim ari dibor-oon-e yoknad kuu then his friend TOP bank on sit-3M.PA-SWR dwarf TOP ok kaba-mbon yiri dokmar-e kawon-oon. river mouth-place down.into dive-SM go.down-3M.PA Then his friend sat on the bank, and the dwarf dived into the mouth of the river and went down. In general, there is no S noun phrase over 80 per cent of the time, no A noun phrase over 90 per cent of the time, and no O noun phrase over 50 per cent of the time. Thus the topicality strategy of deletion usually takes precedence over marking with the ergative marker. The ergative marker is required for those times when other participants are more topical, that is, more important at that point in the narrative than the A participant. The ergative marker is also required when the A participant is in control and has intent, and is referred to in a noun phrase because of discourse constraints such as the need to mention a participant who has not been mentioned for some time, or to introduce a new participant.
4.4 Marking the O noun phrase with kuu From Table 8 it can be seen that O noun phrases are unmarked 75 per cent of the time and marked with kuu 23 per cent of the time. This means that the O is topical roughly one- fourth of the time when it is overt. This ratio is roughly the same regardless of whether A is overt or not. The way in which kuu marks O noun phrases as topic can be seen by comparing the following two examples. Example (53a) is the introductory sentence in a story about raising pigs, and awon ‘pig(s)’ is introduced with kuu. But example (53b) is a story about a flood, so the pigs are ancillary and awon is not marked with kuu in the introductory sentence. (53) a. Awon kuu bangka-nd-e kaindereba-iw-a … pig(s) TOP give.PL-RCP.PL-SM raise-2/3PL-SWR The pigs were given and raised … 34 Steve Christensen
b. Awon ay-e kan-wen-e dura angka ambib arum-ekor-iiwa … pig hit.him-SM take-go-SM bush to house build-PERF-2/3PL They killed a pig and took it and built a house in the bush, and then … In the data there are seven instances of fronted O noun phrases, and six of these are marked with kuu. These six O noun phrases are then indicating that the O participant is more topical than the A, because they are fronted and marked with kuu, as shown in (54). Fronting is also discussed in §2.1 and §3.7. (54) ‘Ee, oni kuu Omyere-mbed kan-won-oon kii!’ and-uun. yes older.sister TOP Omyere-ERG take-go-3M EXCL say-3F She says, ‘Yes, (our) older sister was taken by Omyere!’
4.5 Marking the A noun phrase with kuu Usually, if the A participant is topical, it is not overtly mentioned.26 So, as mentioned in §2.1 and §4.3 the use of kuu on the A noun phrase indicates that the A participant, while topical, is less than prototypically agentive. For instance in (55a), the man, coded here with the pronoun ye ‘he’, would stomp at the river’s edge every time he needed to cross the river and the crocodile would take him across. Since the man is in charge, not the crocodile, yimbeneb ‘crocodile’ is marked with kuu and Ye ‘he’ is marked with -bed. In (55b), the man in this story died while raiding another village and his spirit had returned to his village before his cohorts returned with his body. He was waiting for his mother to cook some greens for him, but was forced into action by the men returning with his body. Thus he is lacking control over the situation and ye kingkin ‘his spirit’ is marked with kuu rather than -bed. In (55c), men had opened up a spring that had been covered by roots, and the water started gushing out. Thus the water had neither control in, nor was intent on, flooding the whole earth. (55) a. Ye-mbed bindom and-oon-e yimbeneb kuu konoo areb he-ERG footfall stomp-3M.PA-SWR crocodile TOP canoe like kan-yar-o wirin-oon-e … take-go-SM.M cross.over.3M-SWR He stomped, and the crocodile would take him across like a canoe … b. Ye id kan-men-iiw-e, ye kingkin kuu wod wangka-an-e … his body take-come-2/3PL-SWR his spirit TOP drum strike-3M.PA-SWR They were bringing his body, and (so) his spirit beat the drum … c. Ok kuu korem bit korem yukn-een. water TOP all ground all cover.over-3F.PA The water completely covered all the ground. There are some clauses where it is not so immediately obvious that the A noun phrase represents a participant that is less than prototypically agentive. For instance, in example (56), because the woman has been captured by the man, she is not seen as in control of the
26 A topical participant is expressed as an A noun phrase to keep the identity of the participant clear when the participant was last mentioned some clauses earlier, or other participants have been introduced since the last mention, or two or more participants are expressed by the same person and number markers in the verb. Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 35 situation and so yu ‘she’ is marked with kuu and not -bed, even though she is in control of whether or not to make a hole in the door and she fully intends to escape. (56) Won-oon-e, yu kuu ambongko dem berekm-e nan-ekor-u … go-3M.PA-SWR she TOP door hole drill-SM get-PERF-SM.F He left, and then she drilled a hole in the door and opened it … In example (57), which immediately follows (56) in the discourse, Ye ‘he’, being an S noun phrase, could be marked with -bed to show intent or control, or left unmentioned to leave unmarked, but is actually marked with kuu because the woman had ordered him to go and get food for her. (57) Ye kuu … men-e ambiw-oom wedm-oon kuu … he TOP come-SM house-in see-3M.PA TOP He … came and saw in the house that … (she was gone) Example (58) is from the middle of another story, where a woman finally meets up with Komod. The speaker then decides to give some additional information on Komod, to help explain later actions taken by the woman. So kuu indicates that Komod is a topic about which background information is given, rather than being on the timeline in the narrative. (58) Angkan-uun-e, Komod kuu ye kuu onabaya ay-e come.upon-3F-SWR Komod TOP he TOP game hit.him-SM kan-men-e an-imaan, ku-kuu ye kuu no ingkobm-imaan … get-come-SM eat-HAB.3M TOP-TOP he TOP only vomit-HAB.3M She came upon him, and Komod, well he, whenever he killed game, brought it and ate it, he would always vomit it back up … This analysis of -bed as marking ‘control’ largely agrees with Anderson and Wade (1988:9) in their analysis of Folopa, a Trans New Guinea phylum language in the Southern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea. However, they state on page eleven: the eating of food is controlled by many social obligations and hence the subject who would normally be controlling an action is viewed as without control … A person in this society is obliged to share food and thus he has no control if he wishes to be socially accepted. If a person uses the ergative and thus states his control, he will be considered stingy. But this extension of meaning does not apply to the ergative marker in Yongkom. The sentence in example (59) describes a normal action for the leader of the feast, and the A noun phrase is marked with -bed. (59) Om arad yariman-bed om yok b-e bangka-nd-aan-a sago feast owner-ERG sago bark get.PL-SM give.PL-RCP.PL-HAB.3M-SWR The owner of the sago feast would take the sago cooked in bark wrapping and give it out.
4.6 Marking the A noun phrase with -bed With highly transitive verbs such as ay-e ‘hit him’, an A noun phrase is nearly always marked with -bed (as §2.1 showed). This is true in twelve out of thirteen instances27 of the
27 The one exception for the A of ay-e is explained in the discussion preceding example (58). 36 Steve Christensen
A noun phrases occurring with ay-e in the data, and is also true in eighteen out of twenty instances of all transitive clauses with only an A noun phrase. In most instances, if there is an A noun phrase but no O noun phrase, it is the O which is topical, not A. This is seen in (60) where the topic, the person, thing, or event about which something is said, is the dead man whom the lizard had killed, not the lizard. Yet the only mention the dead man receives in the second sentence of the example is the reference based in the meaning of the verb stem ay-e ‘hit him’; all O noun phrases that might refer to him have been deleted. (60) Wedm-iib-ka … karub bobn-oon. ‘Komo-mbed kii?!’ and-ekor-iiwa, see-2/3PL-PROM man die-3M.PA what-ERG EXCL say-COMP-2/3PL wedm-iib-ka yi ataa-mbed ay-oon kowe … see-2/3PL-PROM lizard monitor-ERG hit.him-3M.PA so They saw that … the man was dead. ‘What (did it)?’ they said, and saw that it was a monitor lizard that had killed him, so … In another story, a swamp spirit had stolen a woman. After she escaped, he went to the village to demand that she be returned to him, and in the sentence in example (61), he explains that she had killed his son. Since the woman is topical she is not mentioned in the ‘hit’ clause, and the O noun phrase, ne dana ‘my child’, is not marked with the topic marker.28 (61) Kamon-ok, ne wonong kowe, ne dana ay-ekor-u … come.down-IMP.3M my woman since my child hit.him-PERF-SM.3F May she be brought down, since she is my woman, since she killed my child … On the other hand, if the O noun phrase is topical and the speaker feels the need to mention both A and O noun phrases, perhaps to avoid ambiguity, the O noun phrase is marked with kuu and possibly fronted, as in (62). With the fronted O, the A noun phrase must be marked with -bed. (62) Ne daman kuu ok-bed ay-e kan-wun-uun yo. my younger.sibling TOP water-ERG hit.him-SM take-go-3F EXCL My younger brother is being struck and carried away by the water!
4.7 Unmarked A and O noun phrases In a very few cases, both the A and O noun phrases are unmarked. These cases occur in the first clause of a story,29 as in (63a). Case roles are understood from word order. Lack of markers in this first clause seems to be a stylistic issue in Yongkom discourse, as lack of marking is also common on the S noun phrase in intransitive clauses that start a story, as in (63b).
28 Case roles are disambiguated by the ‘hit’ verb stem which indicates that the object is third person male and the final verb stem which indicates that the agent is third person female. 29 Seven of the twelve stories that start with transitive clauses have no marking on the A or O in the first clause. Four of the twelve stories that start with a transitive clause have the A marked with kuu and the O unmarked. Only one of the twelve has the A marked with -bed and the O unmarked. The S is unmarked in a slightly higher ratio (compared to A), 37 of 52, in intransitive clauses that start a story. Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 37
(63) a. Aron mamaa ayi yoom ningki Weainong yoom day a older.brother and younger.brother Weainong and ambib yenb-e dor-iib. house tie-SM live-2/3PL One day, older brother and younger brother Weainong built a house and lived (there). b. Dana ayoob wen-e ok yiri iningbuk kam-iib. child(ren) two go-SM river down.in play do-2/3PL Two children went and were playing down in the river.
4.8 Marking strategies for quotation introduction clauses Quotation introduction clauses, which are first discussed at the end of §2.3, are ditransitive clauses which use the verbs yedm-e ‘say’, kaamon-e ‘ask’, and meen-e ‘think’, with the object being the quote and the recipient of the quote usually marked with yaa ‘to’.30 The actual quotation is placed between one of the opening quote verbs mentioned above and the closing quote verb and-e ‘say’, as in (64). (64) Nima-mbed yedm-end-iwen, ‘Yiib-bed nub yaa yenband-embir-imam-iib women-ERG say-O.PL-2/3PL.PA you.PL-ERG us to strike-DUR-HAB-2/3PL kowe, yiib domond-e korond-e wun-uub kii!’ and-iwen. so you.PL go.away-SM leave-SM go-1PL EXCL say-2/3PL.PA The women told them, ‘You are forever and always beating us, so we are leaving you and going away!’ Quotation introduction clauses also tend to have A noun phrases much more often than other clauses, as was seen in Table 6. A count of yedm-e ‘say’ clauses showed that 69 per cent had A noun phrases, compared to 9 per cent for all other transitive clauses which were not quotation introduction clauses. Mentioning the A participant more often in quotation introduction clauses is most likely a strategy to track the participants who are speaking in dialogue, since the quotation can be quite lengthy. In fact, when the quotations are short, the quotation introduction clauses tend not to have A noun phrases as often as when the quotations are longer, but rather rely on switch reference for tracking, as seen in (65). (65) ‘Wini.’ and-oon-e, ‘Yii, komarewa ker-e kand-ewen?’ and-oon. egg say-3M.PA-SWR no how do-SM get-2S.PA say-3M.PA He said, ‘An egg’, and he (the other) said, ‘No, what did you do to get it?’ As seen in (65), both the A and the quotation introduction verb yedm-e are omitted. However, for short speeches the quotation introduction verb yedm-e can be omitted even while retaining the A. Nearly all of these are in response to an important event that just occurred, most commonly a prior speech, as in (66a), or a climactic event, as in (66b).
30 However, if the object marking paradigm is employed on the quotation introduction verb as it is in example (64), the recipients tend to be unmarked rather than marked with yaa. The recipients are then more affected by the quote. 38 Steve Christensen
(66) a. ‘Komandiwed?’ and-iib-ka, yi-mbed ‘Kee diw-uun how.2/3PL say-2/3PL-PROM they-ERG this sit-3F kand-uwed kii.’ and-iib kowe … get-1PL.first EXCL say-2/3PL so They said ‘How did you do that?’, and they (in reply) said, ‘It is because we first received it from this one sitting (here)’, so … b. … monb-en-oon-a, Omdere-mbed ‘Ena-yii!’ and-e kabang shoot-O3M-3M.PA-SWR Omdere-ERG mother-EXCL say-SM scream darewoob and-and-e … on kabuti ker-oon. big say-DESIR-SM bird bird.species become-3M.PA … he shot (Omdere), and Omdere shouted ‘Mother!’ and wanted to scream loudly … and became a kabuti bird. Over 96 per cent of A noun phrases in quotation introduction clauses are marked with -bed. Motivation for this pattern, similar to the marking of A noun phrases with ay-e ‘hit him’, suggests that speech is regarded as usually being under the control of the speaker, just as hitting is usually under the control of the one who hits. With the verbs of thinking, the A noun phrase is marked with -bed over 86 per cent of the time, as in (67), so thinking is also regarded as usually being under the control of the speaker. (67) Yi-mbed meen-iwen kuu ‘Ba-yiib dib-een dee?’ and-iwen. they-ERG think-2/3PL.PA TOP marsupial-with sit-3M yes/no say-2/3PL.PA They thought that there might be a marsupial sitting (in there).
5 Conclusion We have explored the functioning of topic and ergativity in Yongkom. We have seen that Yongkom has a topic marker kuu, and is structured around the concept of topic, thus making it a ‘topic-prominent’ language. We have seen that Yongkom has a ‘fluid-S’ split system of case marking and the ergative marker -bed has extended meanings of instrument and source. The use of -bed indicates intent and control on the part of the participant marked as agent, whereas the use of kuu instead of -bed on the A noun phrase indicates lack of intent or control. We have also seen that Yongkom is not ergative syntactically or at the discourse level and so is not a so-called ‘deep ergative’ language. We explored the interaction of topic and ergativity, particularly the topic–locative (using the ergative marker) marking sequence which narrowed their combined function to marking the previous noun phrase or clause as logical source of the action in the next clause. We looked at instances of when an O noun phrase is deleted or marked with kuu, indicating that this participant is more topical than the participant encoded as A. We saw that Yongkom stories often start with no marking (neither -bed nor kuu) on S, A or O noun phrases in the first clause. Lastly, we explored the higher frequency of A noun phrases in quotation introduction clauses, as compared to other types of clauses.
References Anderson, Neil and Martha Wade, 1988, Ergativity and control in Folopa. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, vol. 19, no. 1–2, 1–16. Ukarumpa: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea. Yongkom discourse: ergativity and topic 39
Corston, Simon H., 1996, Ergativity in Roviana Solomon Islands. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Crystal, David, 1991, A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Danziger, Eve, 1996, Split intransitivity and active-inactive patterning in Mopan Maya. International Journal of American Linguistics, vol. 62, no. 4, 379–414. Dixon, R.M.W., 1979, Ergativity. Language, vol. 55, no. 1, 59–138. —— 1987, Introduction. In R.M.W. Dixon, ed. Studies in ergativity,1–16. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers. —— 1994, Ergativity. Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 69. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Foley, William A., 1986, The Papuan languages of New Guinea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Givón, Talmy, 1984, Syntax: a functional-typological introduction, vol. 1. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co. Haiman, John, 1980, Hua: a Papuan language of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V. Healey, Alan, 1964, The Ok language family in New Guinea. Unpublished PhD thesis, The Australian National University, Canberra. Healey, Phyllis M., 1965a, Telefol noun phrases. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. —— 1965b, Telefol clause structure. Papers in New Guinea Linguistics, no.3. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Klimov, Georgij A., 1974, On the character of languages of active typology. Linguistics 131, 11–25. The Hague: Mouton. Li, Charles N. and Rainer Lang, 1979, The syntactic irrelevance of an ergative case in Enga and other Papuan languages. In Plank, ed. 1979:307–324. Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson, 1976, Subject and topic: a new typology of language. In Charles N. Li, ed. Subject and topic, 457–489. New York: Academic Press. Plank, Frans, ed., 1979, Ergativity: towards a theory of grammatical relations. London: Academic Press. Scott, Graham, 1986, On ergativity in Fore and other Papuan languages. Papers in New Guinea Linguistics, no. 24, 167–175. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Smith, Jean, 1977, Mianmin sentence structure. Miscellaneous papers in PNG linguistics: Work papers in Papua New Guinea languages, vol. 22. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Trask, Robert L., 1979, On the origins of ergativity. In Plank, ed., 1979:385–404. Voorhoeve, C.L., 1975, Central and Western Trans New Guinea phylum languages. In S.A. Wurm, ed., New Guinea area languages and language study, vol. 1: Papuan languages and the New Guinea linguistic scene, 345–459. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
2 Participant reference in Namia
BECKY FELDPAUSCH
1 Introduction 1.1 Aim of this paper Participant reference is the study of how characters in stories are referred to, and also how the references to those characters change at different points in the story. Characters of a story can be people, animals or things. My goal in this paper is to examine how the Namia language refers to characters, or participants in stories. As part of this goal, I wanted to see if important characters were referred to any differently than less important characters. I also wanted to find out how the Namia people use two less common ways to refer to characters: the subject agreement suffix, and the noun plus copy pronoun. I studied the data using several different models to see which would be the most useful in Namia: distance (Givón 1994; Tomlin 1987), episode change (Tomlin 1987; Staley 1995), clause topic change (Tomlin 1987) and prominence (Tomlin 1987). I learned something from the application of each model, but found that prominence of participants has the most influence on referential forms in the data studied. My analysis is based on twenty oral and written texts. These were collected during 1985–98 while I lived in the Namia area working under the auspices of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. These texts include: ten first person texts, in which eight are narrative and two are argumentative; and ten third person texts, in which nine are narrative and one is a legend. The ten third person texts make up 38 per cent of the total number of clauses. The total number of clauses for all twenty texts is 1402 clauses. I want to thank the Namia people of the villages of Yaru, Norambalip and Yegarapi who have patiently taught us their language, told us stories, and helped us to write and edit them as well. I am also greatly indebted to the late William E. Staley for his time, the sharing of his knowledge, and his frequent guidance as I did this analysis.
1.2 The Namia people and language The people who speak the Namia language number about 5000 and live in the lowlands of the Sandaun Province of Papua New Guinea. The following landmarks are near the borders of the area: the Sepik River on the south, the Lumi mountains on the north, the
41 42 Becky Feldpausch
Yellow River on the east, and the Sand River on the west. The people are traditionally hunters and gatherers, and most still spend a large part of their time doing these activities. Sago is the staple food, and some gardening and raising of coffee and vanilla as cash crops occurs. The Namia language is the largest and most prestigious in the immediate area, being surrounded by a number of smaller language groups. Namia is a Papuan language, and the basic word order of the clause is SOV. (See Feldpausch 1992 for a description of Namia morphology and syntax.) According to Wurm (1982), Namia belongs to the Sepik–Ramu phylum, the Sepik sub-phylum, the Middle Sepik super stock, and the Yellow River stock- level family. The Namia language has six vowels and nine consonants. Two of the vowel phonemes, /ə/ and /a/ are being written as . The /t/ phoneme has an allophone [ˇÉS] which occurs word medially after a high vowel. The letter
2 Referential forms in the Namia language The morphemes, words and phrases used to refer to participants in stories are called referential forms. In this paper, I will show how referential forms in Namia are used to track participants through the text, and also how referential forms are used to distinguish the importance of participants. Givón (1983:17–18) states that referential forms range from zero anaphora, which represents the most continuous or accessible topic, to a noun phrase, which represents the most discontinuous or inaccessible topic. The forms increase in phonological size according to what he calls the iconicity principle: ‘The more disruptive, surprising, discontinuous or hard to process a topic is, the more coding material must be assigned to it.’ In this paper the term ‘longer’ form will be used to refer to the range of referential forms in Namia, with the relative clause as the ‘longest’ and zero anaphora as the ‘shortest’. The referential forms used for this analysis are: zero anaphora, subject agreement suffix, pronoun, noun, noun plus copy pronoun, noun phrase, and relative clause. Descriptions of each follow.
2.1 Zero anaphora Zero anaphora is when no subject or object is mentioned in a clause even though the verb normally requires it. In example (1),1 zero anaphora, represented by a Ø, is used to indicate that the subject of that clause is the same as the subject of the preceding clause.
1 In the Namia examples in this paper, bold print is used to highlight the specific form being discussed, and the following abbreviations are used: DEDCT deductive mood INTER intermediate action NEU neutral tense DUR durative JT joint voice O object F future tense MIN minimiser PCT punctiliar aspect IMP imperative NAR narrative POS possessive Participant reference in Namia 43
(1) … eko p-lawar-e popo, i Ø on-ma po-kokwam-e2 … she NAR-cross-NEU after and I-O NAR-say-NEU … after she crossed (the river), (she) said to me …
2.2 Subject agreement suffix The subject agreement suffix form consists of two third person pronominal forms, -lapli ‘they two’ and -lam ‘they (pl)’. They occur as verb suffixes on many different verbs, but only a few instances occur in my data, and only in third person texts. In clauses, the subject agreement suffix most often occurs when the subject is realised by zero anaphora. In other words, the subject of that clause is only marked as a verbal affix. This is illustrated in example (2). (2) I Ø aya-m emaku pin tea yamo-ur-kike-lam-e. and father-O bird point just here-cut-take-they-NEU And (they) came and cut father with a pointed instrument from a bird in order to get (the arrow). In one instance in the data, shown in example (3), the suffix occurred when the subject was realised as a pronoun. (3) I lapliko Vanimo-ya aro le-lapli-re. and they.two Vanimo-to then go-they.two-NEU And then they both went to Vanimo. Several times -lam is used as in example (2), when the group referred to is fairly general. In this text, the group of people who cut out the arrow is never mentioned in any other way. In another text, the plane crash text, the pilot is the subject of one clause, and in the next clause, -lam occurs, referring to the pilot and his passengers, which have never been referred to as one group before this. In another text, the subject of a verb had a zero anaphora reference to a woman. The -lam in that case refers to the woman, her husband and her children. Compared to -lam, the dual form, -lapli, seems to be more closely tied to specific participants in stories. The subject agreement suffix form did not seem to be a significant grammatical form for participant reference in this study, but it is still included in the analysis.
2.3 Pronouns Pronouns occur for first, second and third person, and have singular, dual and plural forms. First person dual and plural forms can be either inclusive or exclusive. There are two different second person forms for singular, dual and plural. One is used in declarative clauses, and the other is used in question and imperative clauses. Third person singular forms can be either male or female and there are two forms that occur for each. The last column of Table 1 shows the basic form of each pronoun and their English equivalent. These forms are also used as subject pronouns.
2 The narrative prefix pa- has allomorphs pe-, p-, or po-, conditioned by the following vowel or consonant. 44 Becky Feldpausch
Table 1: Namia pronouns Person Number Basic/Subject form first singular on ‘I’ dual exclusive er ‘we two (not you)’ dual inclusive awer ‘we two (you and I)’ plural exclusive em ‘we (not you)’ plural inclusive awem ‘we (you and us)’ second singular declarative amna ‘you’ singular question and imperative ne ‘you’ dual declarative awapli ‘you two’ dual question and imperative wapli ‘you two’ plural declarative awom ‘you plural’ plural question and imperative wom ‘you plural’ third singular male loko/aolo ‘he’ singular female eko/aowe ‘she’ dual lapliko ‘they two’ plural lomko ‘they’
As well as the subject pronouns shown in Table 1, there are also corresponding sets of object pronouns and reflexive pronouns. All forms can also occur with a limiting suffix -ya, as in ererya ‘only we two (and not others)’, which highlights the distinction between that participant and other participants. Reflexive pronouns such as kwal ‘myself’ and aolo ‘himself’ do not normally occur alone, but modify subject nouns or pronouns, as in aujwa aolo ‘grandfather himself’ and on kwal ‘I myself’. Examples of subject pronouns can be seen in (1) and (3) above. Examples (4) and (5) show object pronouns: (4) On emom pe-yak-lam-kra-rr-e … I she.O NAR-first-down-put-INTER-NEU I first left her down (there) … (5) I Luwariya on-ma eno pa-keiyain-e … and Luwariya I-O eye NAR-peer.at-NEU And Luwariya peered at me (with his) eyes …
2.4 Nouns Nouns include common nouns, such as emaku ‘bird’; proper names, such as Luwariya ‘Luwariya’; and kin terms, such as aya ‘father’; all were considered as being the same referential form in this study. Coordinate noun phrases linking nouns only, such as example (6), were considered as a noun reference for each participant mentioned, rather than as a noun phrase. (6) I Aima Tiane lapli-m p-na-laol-e. and Aima Tiane they.two-O NAR-JT-buy/sell-NEU And (we) exchanged Aima and Tiane. Participant reference in Namia 45
2.5 Noun plus copy pronoun The noun plus copy pronoun form is made up of a noun followed by a pronoun agreeing in gender and number with the noun. These forms occur in any place where nouns can be used. In example (7), el eko is the subject of its clause, and in example (8), kinali lomom is the object in its clause. Copy pronouns are obligatory for dual participants, such as in example (6) above. (7) … i el eko kali ao arpe-i-re. and woman she talk not again-say-NEU … and the woman did not speak again. (8) I er kinali lomom-ya-m tea aro naka-l-e. and we.two bandicoot he.O-only-O just then with-take-NEU And then we both just took the bandicoot.
2.6 Noun phrases Noun phrases are made up of a noun followed in order by one or more of the following: one or two adjectives, numeral or quantifier, demonstrative. Two examples of noun phrases can be seen in example (9). The head noun of a noun phrase can also be preceded by a modifying noun such as napa, in example (9), or yao, in example (11), or by a possessive pronoun as in example (12). (9) … eko napa ewae kan tipia tija i pani kan pli she sago leaf small one a and greens small two p-no-we … NAR-give-NEU … she gave (us) one small leaf of sago and two small (packets of) greens … Noun phrases can also occur with a copy pronoun. See examples (10) and (11): (10) I balira lowi loko amu-m m-weijona-e. and plane wing he mountain-O there-run.into-NEU And the wing of the plane there ran into the mountain. (11) I yao lu lomko pijou lu mani lommom aro neik-e. and fight man they steal man three they.O then shoot-NEU And the fighting (police) men then shot the three robbers. A copy pronoun usually occurs at the end of a long noun phrase. In example (12) the noun phrase is ‘the two men’s burnt bones and remains’. The pronoun lommom occurs at the end of the phrase. The noun phrase plus copy pronoun construction was considered the same as a noun phrase for this study.3 (12) … lomko lu pli lapliko-ka mi irl lawolu pei they man two they.two-POS fire burn roast remains al lommom po-nu-re … bone they.O NAR-get-NEU … they got the two men’s burnt bones and remains …
3 There were only a few examples of noun phrases plus copy pronouns, making it difficult to decide whether or not the copy pronoun was obligatory. 46 Becky Feldpausch
2.7 Relative clauses A relative clause is an independent clause functioning as subject or object of a clause. In Namia, the relative clause is followed by a pronoun that agrees with the head noun in gender and number, and uses the pronoun form obligatory for that type of constituent. For example, a subject pronoun form is used if the relative clause is subject of its clause. See examples (13) and (14): (13) Lujel nu-ka tea pa-ni-re em wanowi kokleyau people ground-POS just NAR-live-NEU we work bad tea aro o-pleyae. just then do-all We the people who live on the earth do everything wrong. (14) Lujel Ewalo pira-m pa-m-lol-e lommom nan waolweli people Ewalo fish-O NAR-there-dam-NEU them.O also storm ma-k-o-we. there-PCT-do-NEU The people damming the fish there at Ewalo, the storm also hit them there.
3 Theoretical perspectives on reference 3.1 Prominence The importance of a participant in relation to others in the story can be an important factor in the forms used for reference. Artificial intelligence studies argue that pronouns will be used to refer to a participant who is prominent, and noun phrases will be used to refer to a participant who is less prominent (Tomlin 1987).
3.2 Topic change In this paper, I am defining topic change as a change in grammatical subject from one clause to the next. In Tomlin’s study of English texts, pronouns could be used throughout a story for a participant as long as he or she was the only one realised as a subject. But when another participant came into the story as the subject of a clause, then the first participant must be referred to by a noun, even if his or her last mention was only a clause or two back (Tomlin 1987).
3.3 Distance approach This approach, also called recency, considers the alternation between noun and pronoun to be a function of time, which is shown by the number of clauses or distance between a given noun or pronoun and its antecedent. Givón and others have shown an iconic relationship ‘between referential distance and the amount of coding material used to maintain reference. As referential distance increases, so does the amount of coding material required to maintain reference.’ (Tomlin 1987:455). According to Givón (1994:10): Participant reference in Namia 47
In general, highly topical referents, such as pronouns or zero anaphora, tend to have the referential distance value of one. Emphatic and topicalized noun phrases, or contrastive pronouns, tend to have the referential distance value of two to three clauses. Anaphorically less-accessible referents tend to have the referential distance value of less than three. Givón recognises that the recency model is not the only influence on referential choice.
3.4 Episode model ‘Episode boundaries represent major breaks, or attention shifts, in the flow of information in discourse.’ (Tomlin 1987:460). One way that the episode model can be applied is to consider what happens to the referential forms across the episode boundary. There are two views about this according to Staley (1995). The first view is that reference to all participants after an episode break must involve nouns. The second view is that, after an episode break, a participant who is important throughout the story can continue to be referred to by a pronoun, but a participant who acts mainly within an episode cannot be referred to by a pronoun following the episode break. Another way to apply the episode model is to consider what happens to referential forms within an episode. If a participant is important within an episode, that participant can be referred to by a pronoun within that episode (Staley 1995:93). The weakness of the episode approach is that it is difficult to objectively define the notions needed: paragraph, episode, and focus.
4 Methodology 4.1 General methodology I numbered the clauses in each text. Coordinate clauses were counted as two clauses. Relative clauses were considered part of the main clause and not counted separately. Direct speech clauses were not counted as this was considered embedded discourse and could not easily be dealt with at the same time. I charted each of the twenty texts individually by making a column for each participant and prop. In each column, I listed the number of each clause in which that participant or prop was mentioned and the referential form used in that clause. For each reference, I noted whether the form was used as the subject or object of the clause, or used within a quote, location phrase, or possessive noun phrase. This gave me a visual list for each participant so I could see how many times they were referred to, what forms were used, and in what type of construction each form occurred. I added up the number of occurrences for each referential form for all twenty texts. These totals give an indication of how frequently each form is used. Total occurrences were then divided between forms used to introduce a participant, called initial referential forms, and forms used after the introduction, called post-introduction referential forms. These were separated because theoretical models make different predictions for initial and post- introduction forms. Further divisions of post-introduction forms were made for first person texts, third person texts, and major and minor participants. Mathematical calculations were done throughout the analysis. Tables showing this information appear in §5. I marked and then omitted from the counts the post-introduction references used only for ambiguity resolution, for instance, where two male participants interact and so different forms must be used to distinguish them. Including these would skew results, greatly 48 Becky Feldpausch increasing the number of nouns, for example, since so many are used only for the purpose of ambiguity resolution. Five relative clauses were omitted, eight noun phrases, seven noun plus copy pronoun forms, 59 nouns, and three pronouns. No zero anaphora or subject agreement suffixes were used in ambiguity resolution in any text. In some texts many references were omitted, and in some texts very few were omitted. For instance, the Vanimo text, a short text of 26 clauses, had nine different participants. In that text, 30 per cent of all the referential forms were used for ambiguity resolution, including three relative clauses. I omitted from the counts all references to narrators. All introductions and most post- introduction references to narrators in the data are first person pronouns, whether singular, dual or plural. To add them to this study would have skewed the occurrences towards pronouns and zero anaphora. Pronouns and zero anaphora will occur at all changes of topic to a narrator, and the counting of distance is irrelevant because the identity of the participant is never in doubt.
4.2 Prominence Participants were ranked in each discourse according to the following criteria.4 most number of mentions mentioned from beginning of the text to the end, not just in one or two episodes or sections introduced in a major way given as the subject of the story the native author or listeners say the story is about the participant most mentions are as the subject or agent rather than the object or patient there is emotion, dialogue, or both expressed by or about that participant In Namia, I considered a participant to be a major participant of that story if he or she had several of the above features, and I considered a person to be a minor participant if he or she had none or only one of these features. I defined a prop as a non-human participant and kept references to them separate. Here is one example of how the prominence of participants was determined: In the Arujwaele text, a third person text, the participants are a man named Arujwaele, his wife, his twins, and God. The only non-human participant is the ‘story’. Arujwaele is mentioned twenty times, usually as subject of the clause. He is involved in several dialogues. References about him start in clause 2 and continue until the next-to-last clause. So I considered him as a major participant. Of the other participants, his wife is mentioned five times, three times as object of the clause. God is mentioned four times, the twins twice. Therefore, I considered all of these as minor participants, and the ‘story’ as a prop. The full text of the Arujwaele story is in the appendix. It was difficult to determine the prominence of the characters in some texts, especially when there were many participants with a few mentions of each. So I considered a participant to be a major one if he or she had twenty or more mentions, or if he or she had at least twelve more mentions than the other participants. This means that some participants in five of the texts were omitted from the study of prominence.
4 This information was obtained from William Staley in a personal conversation in July 1997. Participant reference in Namia 49
4.3 Topic change I studied how referential forms change for a given participant (who is clause topic) when the references to that participant are ‘interrupted’ by reference to another who also occurs as a clause topic. On the list of referential forms for each participant, I marked the clauses where that participant is once again the topic, that is, the subject, after another participant has been the subject in the preceding clause. I counted how many of each different referential form occurred as subject in these marked clauses. The results will be shown in Table 5. For this measure, referential forms used as object in the clause were not considered. I also compared the phonological size of the previous referential form used for a participant, even if it was several clauses back, with the form occurring for the same participant at the topic change to see if the latter form would be consistently longer than the former. Then I separated the referential forms used at the topic change into categories based on whether the text was told in the first or third person, and whether the topic changed to a major participant, or to a minor participant. See §5.3.
4.4 Distance
‘Referential distance is calculated by counting the number of clauses which intervene between a given referent and its last antecedent’ (Tomlin 1987:462). On the list of referential forms used for a participant, I counted the distance for each form. For example, for the noun distance, I found every post-introduction occurrence of a noun for one participant, and then counted how many clauses it occurred after the last preceding mention of that participant. The distance was counted no matter what the previous form was, or what type of construction the previous mention employed, for example, quoted material or as object of a clause. The results of this count are shown in Tables 10 and 11 in §5.4.3 and §5.4.5. I examine afterthoughts and how they interact with the distance measure in §5.4.6.
4.5 Episodes To find episode boundaries, I looked for the criteria given by Tomlin (1987): major changes in time, place, or characters. In Namia, changes in time can be noted by mentioning the day of the week, or by words such as ‘tomorrow’ or ‘at dawn’. There are also motion and position verbs that commonly occur to show changes in time and location in travel situations. The most common verbs used are the following: stay, sleep, leave, go, come, and arrive. See examples (15) and (16). Example (15) shows a time expression ‘at dawn’ as well as a verb ‘sleep’ that marks the passage of time. This clause appears in the Awae text, clause 135, at a proposed episode break: (15) I plane-ka em p-arpo-nwa-e. and dawn-at we NAR-again-sleep-NEU And at dawn we again slept. Example (16) shows two locations, Yaka village and Inei lake. And it has two verbs that express movement: ‘stand’ meaning to leave, and ‘go south’. These two clauses appear in the Awae text, clauses 19–20, at a proposed episode break: 50 Becky Feldpausch
(16) Em Yaka po-ko-nak-kanaki-re loko-k, p-la-e we Yaka NAR-PCT-with-stand-NEU it-POS NAR-go.south-NEU loko e, Inei. he until Inei After we left Yaka village, (we) kept going south until (we arrived at) Inei lake. One verb modifier occasionally occurs at episode boundaries, but also occurs elsewhere in stories. It is arkok, and is translated as ‘immediately’ (Feldpausch 1992:88). Example (17) is from clause 54 of the Lumi text, where it appears at a proposed episode boundary: (17) I em arkok po-nwa-e. and we immediately NAR-sleep-NEU And immediately we slept. The analysis of the use of this verb modifier is still underway, but it may have a function in distinguishing events from background information. I attempted to divide all twenty of the Namia texts into episodes, but most of the texts seemed to be one episode, and did not have clear evidence of episode boundaries. Five of the texts showed some evidence of episode boundaries, as will be discussed in the following sections.
4.5.1 Amae text episodes The Amae text is told in the first person and has a total of 67 clauses. A father tells a story about his daughter named Amae who starts thinking about getting married to a certain boy and doesn’t listen to her father’s advice. The passage of time is not important in this text. Instead I have based episodes on the changes in location, and changes in the focus given to different people at different times in the story. There is one occurrence of the verb modifier, arkok, at an episode boundary. The first episode (clauses 1–8) sets the scene. The two men who want to be involved in the marriage exchange start talking about exchanging Amae in marriage. They ask her father (the narrator) about it and he gives them directions about whom to approach. They return and say the girl they planned to exchange for Amae is not available. So the narrator says, ‘Then never mind’. The second episode (clauses 9–21) starts with a focus on the daughter, Amae: ‘When Amae heard about this, immediately (arkok) she started thinking about being married’. She is the subject of nine of these thirteen clauses. This episode includes comments and quotes from the father about the kind of man she should marry, but Amae won’t listen to him. The episode ends her presence in the story as she runs away (in clause 21) to be with the boy she wants to marry. The third episode (clauses 22–47) starts with the narrator’s thoughts, ‘Therefore I was angry with her and with the two men (who started it all)’. There are also new characters and a new location. The narrator finds two friends to support his side of the dispute and goes to the village where the two men live, and also where Amae has run to. Various village people are questioned about whether the two men and Amae are there. The narrator and friends find a girl of the same age who seems to know something but won’t tell. The episode ends with that girl leaving. There is no other evidence of an episode ending. The last episode (clauses 48–67) introduces again the two friends from the previous episode, and starts a new action: ‘And we with Lalwowe and Yawale, we talked and talked Participant reference in Namia 51 and talked’. They talk angrily around the village, but do not find the two men or Amae. It ends with them going back to their own village.
4.5.2 Arujwaele text episodes The Arujwaele text is told in the third person about a man named Arujwaele who had a dream from God that he would die after seven years. It has a total of thirty clauses. I split these thirty clauses into three episodes based on the following: changes of location shown by motion verbs; references to time; and one change in the cast of characters. The first episode (clauses 1–13) introduces Arujwaele, his wife, the place, and the important information that God gives him in a dream about only living seven more years. The second episode (clauses 14–19) starts with a time mention in clause 14, ‘But back at home he lived six years’. God is no longer a participant, and Arujwaele and his wife are at a new location, the village. He gets sick suddenly, and realises it is the seventh year since the dream. The third episode (clauses 20–30) starts with the two coming to their own camp, a change in location from the previous episode. It includes him telling everyone about the dream and that he would soon die. A new group is added in clause 25, the people who carry him to the hospital where he dies. These people, who include the narrator, occur as the subject for four of the next five clauses. In this text, the verb modifier, arkok, did not occur at the proposed episode breaks. See the appendix for the full text.
4.5.3 Awae text episodes The next text is a first person story told by a lady named Awae. It is about many villagers who travel south to a lake to fish. The text has 160 clauses. I divided it into four episodes because of the time mentions, the motion and position verbs, and the change of activities. Episode 1 (clauses 1–34) sets the stage for the whole story. It names some of the people that went, who went first and who went later, on which days people left for the trip, and that everyone arrived at the lake. Evidence for the end of the episode comes from the motion verbs in clauses 19 and 20, which are shown in example (16) in §4.5 above. The clauses after that to the end of the episode are comments and dialogue about the travel and what they saw when they arrived. Episode 2 (clauses 35–59) starts with a restatement in clauses 35 and 36 saying that the group brought their things and stayed. This seems to indicate a new episode, as well as the fact that there are new activities of setting up camp. In this episode they set up camp, and make shelters to sleep under and a rack for smoking the fish. The evidence used for the episode break at the end comes in clauses 58 and 59 with sleeping and staying verbs. Episode 3 (clauses 60–134) starts with a focus on a new activity: the actual fishing at the lake. Another piece of evidence for the new episode is that the day ‘Sunday’ is mentioned three times, in clauses 59, 60 and 61. They fished and smoked fish all day and all night both Sunday and Monday. The evidence for the episode break at the end is a comment about the dawn coming in clause 131 and the statement in clause 132 that they finally slept. Episode 4 (clauses 135–160) starts with three mentions of time: in clauses 136 and 137, Tuesday is mentioned, and in clause 138, Wednesday is mentioned. In this episode they 52 Becky Feldpausch process sago to eat, break camp and return home carrying everything. The story ends with clauses 155–157 about everyone going north and arriving, and who arrived home first. In this text, the verb modifier, arkok, did not occur at the proposed episode breaks.
4.5.4 Lumi text episodes The longest text I studied was the Lumi travelogue, a first person text with a total of 227 clauses. This story is told by a father who takes his daughter to start high school in Lumi. It is a five-day round trip on foot. The group travelling includes another father and several other high school students. They sleep on the way three nights, and encounter various people with whom they interact, usually in a dialogue. I split the story into five scenes corresponding with the five days of travel. At each boundary there are one or more verbs about sleeping or motion. The verb modifier, arkok, also occurs at two of the episode breaks. I noticed that the forms used for many of the minor participants were pronouns for the post-introduction references, but in other texts minor participants use noun references. This is the initial reason I tried splitting the text into episodes, to see if episodes would explain this different pattern of forms. Breaking the Lumi text into episodes changes the status of fourteen minor participants into major participants. Episode 1 (clauses 1–54) sets the scene, and introduces the participants: two fathers start on the trail with several high-school aged children. Then the day ends. The break between episodes is marked by the change in day and arkok in clause 54, which is shown in example (17) above. Episode 2 (clauses 55–105) talks about the rain, crossing the river, being hungry and finding an acquaintance who helps them. The episode break is marked by motion and position verbs, and another arkok in clause 105. Episode 3 (clauses 106–177) contains long speeches to the daughter, interactions with various villages they pass through, and the arrival at the high school. The episode break is marked by motion verbs and sleeping. Episode 4 (clauses 178–213) tells of the two men getting help from someone they know and starting home. The episode break is marked by verbs for sleeping and getting up. In Episode 5 (clauses 214–227) the narrator arrives home.
4.5.5 Ijwo text episodes The Ijwo text is the story of the narrator’s father whose name is Ijwo, and some of his relatives. It is a third person text. I split the 98 clauses into two episodes based on time and location changes, and a change in activities. Episode 1 (clauses 1–34) sets the scene and says, in clause 9, ‘On that day …’ and describes what each group was doing: Ijwo and his relatives were in three different camps. The enemies were checking out each campsite to find a group that was small enough to attack. At the end of the episode, the enemies discuss who they will attack and then sleep. Episode 2 (clauses 35–98) starts out with a new day. The passage of time is shown by the phrase ‘after sleeping, the enemies got up’. The time of day is given in a description: ‘when the birds started singing (dawn)’. A new location is implied by a motion verb. A new activity starts immediately as the enemies surround the narrator’s relatives in clause 37. Then the fight begins. There is no verb modifier, arkok, at the proposed episode break. Participant reference in Namia 53
5 Analysis and results 5.1 Number of occurrences of referential forms The number of times that each referential form occurred was counted and compared in several different ways, as the following tables show. I gave little weight to small numbers of occurrences, such as the one occurrence of a noun plus copy pronoun shown in Table 2. On the other hand, a large percentage of several hundred total occurrences shows a definite tendency, such as the figure shown in Table 3, that pronouns make up 32 per cent of the 622 occurrences of post-introduction referential forms for all human participants.
5.1.1 Initial referential forms The forms used to introduce each participant were counted separately from those used for later mentions. I expected longer forms for the introductions, and found that to be the case. The most common form used to introduce any kind of participant is a noun. Table 2 shows that nouns were used 79 per cent of the time to introduce major participants, 55 per cent of the time to introduce minor ones, and 53 per cent of the time to introduce props. Table 2 also shows that minor participants and props have a more diverse range of initial forms. Two of the longer forms, noun plus copy pronoun and relative clause, are, except for one occurrence, used exclusively for minor participants and props. The noun phrase form is the next most common way to introduce participants. It is used more often for minor participants than for major participants or props. Pronouns are rarely used to introduce participants. In fact, none were used to introduce major participants or props, and only three were used for minor participants. These three exceptions can be explained in this way: a man and woman had been introduced separately early in one of the texts. Then the first time they are referred to as a couple is considered a new participant and this was where a dual pronoun occurred. The second exception was a third person pronoun used for the people in the home village of the man who travelled to Lumi. When he returns home, the next clause says ‘and they said to me’. This is understood as the people from his home village. The third exception is for a group of four men who divide into pairs. The first mention of one of the pairs after the split is with a third person dual pronoun. Table 2 shows the number of times each form occurred as an introduction for major and minor participants and for props. I separated these occurrences because the prominence of the participants was an important factor no matter which model or measure I used. The percentage figure columns in this table, as well as in Tables 3 and 4, show the relationship of how many times each referential form occurred in comparison to the total occurrences for the category in that column. Table 2 shows that no participants are introduced with zero anaphora or subject agreement suffixes. 54 Becky Feldpausch
Table 2: Initial referential forms Number of Number of Number of Total number Referential form occurrences % occurrences % occurrences % of this form for a major for a minor for props found in all participant participant texts zero anaphora ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ subject agreement
suffix ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
pronoun ‒ ‒ 3 2 ‒ ‒ 3 noun 19 79 72 55 42 53 133 noun + copy 1 4 6 5 9 11 16 pronoun noun phrase 4 16 45 34 19 24 68
relative clause ‒ ‒ 5 4 9 11 14 Total occurrences 24 131 79 234
5.1.2 Post-introduction referential forms Table 3 presents the number of occurrences of post-introduction referential forms in all the Namia texts studied. It shows the number of times each different referential form occurs. It separates the number of occurrences into those for human participants, whether major or minor, and those for props. For human participants, zero anaphora, pronouns, and nouns are equally used as post- introduction references. Zero anaphora occurred 187 times or 30 per cent, pronouns occurred 202 times or 32 per cent, and nouns occurred 183 times or 30 per cent. These three forms together occurred 572 times out of a total of 622, or 92 per cent of all forms used. This is shown in the first two columns of figures in Table 3. In contrast to human participants, the most common forms for props are nouns, 47 per cent of the time, and noun plus copy pronoun, 40 per cent of the time, which together made up 87 per cent of the total occurrences. The noun plus copy pronoun form is used almost exclusively to refer to props.
Table 3: Post-introduction referential forms Number of Number of Total number Referential form occurrences for % occurrences for % of this form human participants props found in all texts zero anaphora 187 30 9 7 196 subject agreement suffix 11 2 – – 11 pronoun 202 32 1 0.7 203 noun 183 30 62 47 245 noun + copy pronoun 9 1 53 40 62 noun phrase 26 4 4 3 30 relative clause 4 0.6 2 2 6 Total occurrences 622 131 753 Participant reference in Namia 55
Table 4: Post-introduction referential forms for major and minor participants first person first person third person third person text text text text Number of Number of Number of Number of Total Referential occurrences occurrences % occurrences occurrences number of form for major % for minor for major % for minor % this form participants participants participants participants found in all texts zero 46 28 7 6 75 42 15 16 143 anaphora subject agreement – – – – 10 5 1 2 11 suffix pronoun 84 52 20 17 63 36 33 36 200 noun 26 16 77 64 26 15 30 33 159 noun + copy – – 7 6 – – 2 2 9 pronoun noun 6 4 10 8 3 2 7 8 26 phrase relative – – – – – – 2 2 2 clause Total 162 121 177 90 550 occurrences Note: The total number of forms in Table 4 is lower than those in Table 3. Because of the difficulty in determining the prominence of some participants (see the discussion in §4.2), some participants were omitted in the count for Table 4. This elucidated the differences in forms.
Table 4 expands the data from the first figure column of Table 3, ‘Number of occurrences for human participants’. Because of differences in forms found in first person texts and third person texts, the post-introduction occurrences for these two different types of texts were separated. The differences in references for major and minor participants were noticed at the same time. All of these differences will be discussed in §5.2 below.
5.2 Prominence 5.2.1 Prominence in introductions The prominence of the participant in a text is a major factor in the choice of reference form. A major participant is normally introduced by a noun but a minor participant can be introduced by a noun or a noun phrase. In the data used for this study, the longest referential form in Namia, the relative clause, is never used to introduce a major participant. This is shown in Table 2. Props tend to take similar initial forms to those used to introduce minor participants. But the two least frequent forms used for introductions, the noun plus copy pronoun and the relative clause, are used more often for props than for minor participants. 56 Becky Feldpausch
5.2.2 Post-introduction prominence Table 4 shows that in first person texts, major and minor participants are primarily referred to by one form each, major participants by pronouns, and minor participants by nouns. But in third person texts, two forms are almost equally used. For major participants, zero anaphora references were used slightly more often than pronouns. For minor participants, pronouns and nouns are used equally. Another interesting difference is that zero anaphora is used almost twice as often in third person texts as in first person texts. In both first and third person texts, when the topic of the clause changed, the prominence of the participant had an effect on the referential form used, as §5.3 will show.
5.3 Topic change Tomlin’s work (1987) predicts that when the reference to a participant has been interrupted, that is, when another participant becomes the subject for one or more clauses, in order to reinstate the first participant, the reference must be a noun rather than a pronoun. Table 5 shows that in Namia texts, when the topic changed, nouns occurred half of the time, but pronouns also occurred 30 per cent of the time, and other forms occurred as well.
Table 5: Forms occurring when topic changes Number of % of total Form occurrences occurrences zero anaphora 6 3 subject agreement suffix ‒ ‒ pronoun 64 30 noun 104 50 noun + copy pronoun 20 10 noun phrase 13 6 relative clause 2 1 Total occurrences 209
I also compared the previous referential form used for a participant, even if it was several clauses back, with the form occurring for the same participant at the topic change. I wanted to see if the latter form would be consistently longer than the former, even if it was not a noun. This would still be consistent with the expectation that topic change causes an interruption in participant reference. I found that the occurrences were about evenly split: half of the forms at the topic change were longer than previously used for that participant, and half of the forms were the same or shorter than previously used for that participant. This result indicated that topic change by itself was not predicting the forms accurately. But when topic change was combined with prominence of participants, the forms were more predictable in these Namia texts. In the analysis of topic change, I omitted the legend and another text, called Waino, both of which had a number of irregularities. Participant reference in Namia 57
5.3.1 How topic change affects referential forms in first person texts In first person texts, when the topic changed to a major participant, 87 per cent of the time the form used to refer to that major participant was a pronoun or zero anaphora (see Table 6). This happened regardless of what the topic was before the change to the major participant. The ‘noun+’ forms made up the other 13 per cent. Most of those forms were referring to a participant who had not been mentioned for seven or more clauses. In Tables 6 to 9, the row name ‘noun+’ includes nouns and three other forms. The other forms are noun plus copy pronoun, noun phrase, and relative clause. These forms were combined into one group because few of these forms occur, and the difference looked for in this analysis is between noun and forms shorter than the noun. Only certain texts had topic changes to either a major or minor participant. That is why not all twenty texts are shown in Tables 6 to 9.
Table 6: Forms occurring in first person texts at a topic change to a major participant Total number of Amae text Awae text Court text Naplo text occurrences zero anaphora ‒ ‒ 1 2 3 pronouns 4 12 5 3 24 noun+ ‒ 4 ‒ ‒ 4 Totals 4 16 6 5 31 % pronoun or 100 75 100 100 87 zero anaphora
Topic change to major participants is illustrated in examples (18) and (19). Example (18) shows three clauses from the Court text. A major participant is the subject in the first clause, referred to with zero anaphora. Tom, a minor participant, is the subject in the middle clause. In the third clause, the topic changes back to the major participant and a pronoun occurs there referring to him. This shows a topic change to a major participant and the reference used for him is a pronoun. (18) P-wani-re e, i Tom p-arpa-plak-e … i loko pe-ikam-e … NAR-sit-NEU until and Tom NAR-again-ask-NEU and he NAR-say-NEU (He) sat there until Tom again asked … and he said … Example (19) shows four clauses from the Naplo text. A major participant, a man by the name of Aijwaki, is the subject of the first clause, and is referred to by the pronoun ‘he’. The other participant is also a major participant, the first person narrator, and is the subject in the next two clauses, referred to by the pronoun ‘I’. Then in the last clause, Aijwaki is again the subject and is referred to by a zero anaphor. This example shows a topic change to a major participant using zero anaphora. (19) … loko eno po-nwa-planita-e i on pe-ikam-e … he eye NAR-sleep-dawn-NEU and I NAR-say-NEU on pe-yarar-e i mir tan lwapna loko-ka I NAR-come-NEU and tree with place he-POS 58 Becky Feldpausch
Ø eno aro nwa-e. eye then sleep-NEU … he slept until dawn and I said … I came, and at the place with the trees (he) died. When the topic changed to a minor participant in first person texts, 83 per cent of the time the form used to refer to that minor participant was a ‘noun+’ (see Table 7). The ‘noun+’ form occurred regardless of what the topic was before the minor participant. I was not able to explain the instances where pronouns were used instead.
Table 7: Forms occurring in first person texts at a topic change to a minor participant
Amae Awae Court Fishing Lwaip Lwepan Naplo Tomson Waino Total
zero anaphora ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ 1 ‒ ‒ ‒ 1 pronoun 4 ‒ 2 2 ‒ 1 ‒ 4 2 15 noun+ 7 11 12 5 8 14 6 11 3 77 Totals 11 11 14 7 9 15 6 15 5 93 % noun+ 64 100 80 71 89 93 100 73 60 83
The noun plus copy pronoun form frequently occurs at topic changes to minor participants. To illustrate this, example (20) shows three clauses from the Vanimo text. A minor participant, a woman, is the subject in the first clause. Then two men are the subject in the next clause, and the woman is again the subject in the third, and the reference to her is a noun plus copy pronoun. (20) El tija kali ale-i-ja, arna lu pli lapliko emom pe-ikam-e … woman a talk try-say-F but man two they.two her.O NAR-say-NEU i el eko kali ao arpe-i-re. and woman she talk not again-say-NEU A woman tried to talk, but these two men said to her … and this woman did not talk again. Nouns are the other forms that frequently occur at topic changes to minor participants. To illustrate this, example (21) shows four clauses from the Court text. A minor participant, a man named Tom, is the subject of the first clause. He is referred to by his name, which is considered a noun. The other participant is a major participant, the first person narrator. He is the subject of the second and third clauses, and is referred to both by the pronoun em ‘we’ and the pronoun on ‘I’. In the last clause, Tom becomes the subject, and he is referred to by his name again. (21) I Tom em po-kokwam-e … i em p-wa-e. On kali and Tom we NAR-say-NEU and we NAR-enter-NEU I words yake-i-re. Tom em pa-plak-e … first-say-NEU Tom we NAR-ask-NEU And Tom said to us … and we entered. I talked first. Tom asked us … Participant reference in Namia 59
So in first person texts, the form occurring at topic changes was clearly predictable when the participants were divided into major and minor. In other words, the prominence of the participants was a clear factor in determining what form to expect when the topic changed.
5.3.2 How topic change affects referential forms in third person texts In third person texts, I found no clear difference between referential forms used at topic changes to major and minor participants. Both major and minor participants are usually referred to by nouns, 79 per cent of the time for a major participant, and 91 per cent of the time for a minor participant (see Tables 8 and 9). For a full example of a third person text, see the appendix.
Table 8: Forms occurring in third person texts at a topic change to a major participant Anton Crash Ijwo Kokro Tapo Weipamu Total zero anaphora – – – – – – – pronouns – – – 2 3 2 7 noun+ 5 5 3 5 7 1 26 Total 5 5 3 7 10 3 33 % noun+ 100 100 100 71 70 33 79
Table 9: Forms occurring in third person texts at a topic change to a minor participant
Anton Arujwaele Bird Crash Ijwo Vanimo Weipamu Total zero anaphora – – – – – – – 0 pronoun – 1 1 1 – – – 3 noun+ 7 3 3 3 2 12 2 32 Totals 7 4 4 4 2 12 2 35 % noun+ 100 75 75 67 100 100 100 91
5.3.3 Summary of topic change Topic change shows a strong tendency to influence referential forms in first person texts. When the topic changed to major participants, third person pronouns were used as references most of the time. When the topic changed to minor participants, ‘noun+’ forms were used most of the time. 60 Becky Feldpausch
I expected third person texts to follow that same pattern at topic changes. But instead, ‘noun+’ forms were used frequently in third person texts whether the topic changed to major or to minor participants. The storyteller is not a major participant in the story and is therefore less familiar with the happenings. Perhaps this is what causes a change in the way he or she refers to the characters in the story. First person pronouns were not considered in either type of text and therefore could not be a factor.
5.4 Distance For each different referential form, I counted the number of clauses intervening between each occurrence of the form and the last preceding reference to the same participant. The results are discussed below, starting with the longer forms.
5.4.1 Distance for relative clause and noun phrase Distance was not calculated for the relative clause form because only six post- introduction occurrences of relative clauses were noted, and five of these were afterthoughts. Afterthoughts were considered separately (see discussion in §5.4.6). The sixth relative clause was a reference to the ‘story’. The ‘story’ was introduced in the first clause of the text, and then not mentioned again until the end of the text, where the relative clause occurred. The referential distance for noun phrases was two to three clauses. Thirty post- introduction noun phrases occurred (shown in Table 3). Often the noun phrase occurred in the next clause or two following its antecedent, but some occurred eight or more clauses distant. Most of the noun phrases referred to minor participants or props. The few noun phrases that referred to major participants were used for people as they changed their identities by joining or leaving groups. Example (22) shows two clauses. In the first clause, a noun phrase is used to introduce a prop. In the second clause, another noun phrase occurs for the same prop. (22) … piraena kakna tija p-arp-ra-e. piraena kokro lake small a NAR-again-catch-NEU lake small kakna loko nan pira aol-ya, kelo kelo. small it also fish it-alone many many … (we) again caught (fish) at a small lake. This very small lake also was full of fish, very many (fish).
5.4.2 Distance for noun plus copy pronoun The referential distance for the noun plus copy pronoun form was two clauses, which is very similar to the noun phrase and noun distances. Table 3 shows 62 occurrences of this form, most of them used as references to props. Since nouns are also frequently used as post-introduction references to props, I looked to see if the two forms were used differently. The noun plus copy pronoun form seems to be used to give prominence to minor participants or props. For instance, in a story about a man shooting a cuscus, the cuscus is referred to by this form twice when it is the active subject of the clause. But only a noun is used when the cuscus features in a stative clause or as an object. Participant reference in Namia 61
Another example of the difference in use of the noun and noun plus copy pronoun forms is from the Kokro story. The story mentions an axe that was being used to chop down a tree when the enemies attacked. In example (23) alwa ‘axe’ does not have a copy pronoun following the noun when it is simply used as an instrument to chop down the tree. (23) Aya, alwa e-no-le. On kwain arpe-yak-kaki-re. father axe IMP-give-NEU I some again-first-stand-NEU Father give (me the) axe. I will again stand (and chop) a little. Later in the story, that same axe was thrown in defence, lost and used against them by the enemies. In three clauses, the ‘axe’ occurs with a copy pronoun when it is used as a weapon. Example (24) shows one of these three times: (24) Polwaeyale alwa lomom lu pli lapli-mom tam-kalijap-e loko-k … Polwaeyale axe he.O man two they.two-O down-throw-NEU he-POS When Polwaeyale threw down this axe at the two men … Copy pronouns infrequently occur as post-introduction references to human participants, and then only for minor participants. The nine occurrences for minor participants seem to be used to either emphasise the contrast between that participant and others, or to re-introduce a minor participant after he or she had not been mentioned for a number of clauses. Example (25) shows a copy pronoun form used on ‘enemies’. The enemies were last mentioned four clauses before, and are in contrast to the two men that they shoot and kill. (25) Lapliko al-kanaki-re loko-k, i lunapi lomko Lulujwei-m they.two try-stand-NEU he-POS and enemy they Lulujwei-O aro neik-e … then shoot-NEU When they both tried to stand, then these enemies shot Lulujwei …
5.4.3 Distance for nouns and pronouns The referential distance for nouns was two to three clauses, but some occur at every distance. The distribution of noun references that refer to people tends to cluster at one to two clauses (101 occurrences out of 183) and after eight clauses (43 occurrences out of 183). Example (26) shows nouns occurring in two successive clauses for the same participant. (26) On inein aro-we, ‘Opein, Amae on-ka walkali-m mak I know like.this-NEU really Amae I-POS custom.talk-O ear arm ao kra-e. Amae lu ni-ja … therefore not put-NEU Amae man live-F I was thinking like this, ‘Really, Amae therefore didn’t listen to my advice. Amae will live with a man … Usually a pronoun occurs in the next clause following its antecedent. Table 10 shows that 138 out of 203 pronouns, or 68 per cent, occur at a referential distance of one (RD1 in the table), in other words, in the next clause. Two formulas, the mean (simple average) and median (the number with an equal number of occurrences below it and above it), were calculated for the three categories listed down the left side of Table 10. The mean distance 62 Becky Feldpausch for pronouns is 1.6 clauses, and the median is one clause. See §5.4.6 for a discussion about some of the longer distances for pronouns. References to people seem to be clear even when their noun references are eight or more clauses apart. But noun references to props are almost always closer than that, usually within three clauses.
Table 10: Referential distance (RD) for nouns and pronouns
RD 1 RD 2 RD 3 RD 4 RD 5 RD 6 RD 7 RD 8+ Total forms Mean Median
Nouns-People 69 32 13 15 5 3 3 43 183 3.5 2 Nouns-Props 17 21 13 2 2 4 0 3 62 2.9 3 Pronouns 138 43 11 1 0 4 3 3 203 1.6 1
5.4.4 Distance for subject agreement suffix In ten of the eleven occurrences of the subject agreement suffix, the referential distance was one. In each of these, there was a zero anaphor in the subject position, and the subject was only marked on the verb. As mentioned in §2.2 above, in one instance the subject agreement suffix occurred in the same clause; in other words, the subject was noted both in the subject position and also on the verb as a suffix. This clause is shown in example (3). Out of the nine third person texts used, only four had any occurrences of the subject agreement suffix. I could find no reason why some texts used this suffix and some did not.
5.4.5 Distance for zero anaphora Ninety-two per cent of the time, 180 out of 196 occurrences, the zero anaphora comes in the next clause following its antecedent, a referential distance of one. See Table 11.
Table 11: Referential distance for zero anaphora for participants and props
Distance 1 2 3 4+ Total Mean Median Occurrences 180 13 1 2 196 1 1
Grimes (1975:50) asserts that the manner in which a language uses zero anaphora will shed light on the whole area of identifying participants. I found there to be specific places in texts where zero anaphora is expected. Twenty-five per cent of the occurrences came in a clause where both the subject and the verb were the same as in the immediately preceding clause. A zero anaphora seems to be appropriate here as the same subject continues an action, and the repeated verb extends the action over time. See example (27): (27) Loko tea p-wani-re, Ø p-wani-re, Ø p-wani-re … he just NAR-sit-NEU NAR-sit-NEU NAR-sit-NEU He just sat and (he) sat and (he) sat … Participant reference in Namia 63
In some cases, when the verb is repeated in the second clause, an aspect of the verb is changed. In example (28), the first ‘go’ verb has no duration. But the second ‘go’ verb, occurring with the conjunction lokok, focuses on the process of movement. (28) Aya-lam pijaki aijan-ya p-le. father-they first bush-to NAR-go.NEU Ø Aijan wala-ya p-le loko-k … bush house-to NAR-go.NEU he-POS The fathers first went to the bush. When (they) went to the bush house … Thirty-eight per cent of the time zero anaphors were found in a set of clauses describing a sequence of actions that normally follow one another. The following examples, (29), (30), and (31), each show one person as the subject doing several actions that are linked in a predictable sequence: a fire is made to roast food; a pig is shot, then cut up with a knife; food is taken out of a packet before eating. (29) Jois mi pa-par-e, pira-m p-lawolu-re, Jois fire NAR-make-NEU fish-O NAR-roast-NEU Ø na weri pli p-nak-klora-e. sago bamboo two NAR-with-roast-NEU Jois made a fire, (he) roasted fish, and (he) roasted two bamboos of sago. (30) Loko lwae-m p-elaki-re popo, i Ø weirou he pig-O NAR-shoot-NEU after and knife aro kik-e Ø lomom napan napan-ya pa-ka-marl-e. then get-NEU he.O middle middle-MIN NAR-PCT-cut-NEU He shot the pig, and (he) took the knife, (he) cut him down the middle. (31) Loko ta wapu-m p-lapak-e popo i Ø p-ra-e. he meat dry-O NAR-remove-NEU after and NAR-eat-NEU He removed his dry meat (from a packet) and (he) ate. Several examples of zero anaphora occur when the verb in one clause is a motion verb and the verb in the previous or next clause describes what the person was doing during, or after that movement. In example (32) some enemies leave a fight (movement) and while leaving the scene, they sing a victory chant. The second clause has a zero anaphor as the subject: (32) I alom p-nakal-e i Ø lakli p-nak-kam-ko-nak-e. and they NAR-went-NEU and shouting NAR-with-sing-do-DUR-NEU And they went and (they) were shouting and singing. Twelve per cent of zero anaphora occurrences came in the context of people in dialogue. When people talk to each other, it is acceptable to omit references to the speakers when it is clear from the context who is talking. All but one of the examples of this type are from the Lumi text which has a great deal of dialogue. When the first person narrator and the minor participants speak to each other, references to both speakers are omitted, even at referential distances of two, three or more clauses. This is illustrated below. The narrator of a story has met a girl and already asked her if there is a place to sleep, then the three clauses in example (33) follow. The girl asks him a question, the narrator answers, and the girl responds to that answer. 64 Becky Feldpausch
(33) … eko pe-ikam-e, ‘Ne moro yar-e?’ Ø On wala wal she NAR-say-NEU you where come-NEU I place from yar-e … Ø ‘O, iron pa-ra-maki-re.’ come-NEU oh men’s.house NAR-down-stand-NEU … she said, ‘Where did you come from?’ (he replied) ‘I came from the village …’ (she said) ‘O, the men’s house (to sleep in) is down there.’ Eleven per cent of the occurrences of zero anaphora were in a clause where the subject performs an action and then speaks. The zero anaphor occurs with the speech verb as in example (34): (34) I loko pa-kalirlowein-e popo, i Ø po-kokwam-e … and he NAR-look.up-NEU after and NAR-say-NEU And he looked up and (he) said … Fourteen per cent of zero anaphors did not fit into any of the above categories. Twice a zero anaphor occurred after a referential distance of three or more clauses. This is unusual because zero anaphora almost always occurs in the next clause. Apparently the context makes clear who is being referred to. One example was illustrated previously in §5.3.1, example (19). In that example, the major participant named Aijwaki is dying, and the narrator is interacting with him. The narrator speaks and is active for two clauses, then Aijwaki dies. In the clause where his death is reported, a zero anaphor refers to Aijwaki after a referential distance of three clauses. Since the story is about his death the zero anaphora is evidently unambiguous. In the bird of paradise legend a zero anaphor occurred after seven clauses. In example (35), a woman who has turned into a bird is referred to by a noun in the first clause. Then the husband of the woman becomes the subject of six clauses (which are not shown) as he tries to shoot the bird. In the second clause shown, the bird is again the subject but a zero anaphor occurs. (35) Ewoulo aro lwarpa maniyaole … bird then rooftop move.around.NEU ar Ø anmaoko ki-ja p-am-ko-unanlal-nak-e … but roof.beam high-to NAR-there-PCT-fly-DUR-NEU Then the bird moved around near the rooftop … but (it) was flying up high there in the roof beams …
5.4.6 Afterthoughts and distance I looked at how the referential forms that occur in afterthoughts might affect referential distance. Afterthoughts give information that is tagged onto the end of a clause. In these Namia texts, I found 18 occurrences of referential forms in afterthoughts. Only two of those occurrences seemed to influence referential distance. These two afterthoughts clarified pronouns that occurred at long referential distances, one after six clauses, and one after seven clauses. One afterthought contained a noun, and one contained a noun plus copy pronoun. So in these occurrences, the afterthought could be considered as adjusting from a pronoun to a noun, for which the longer referential distance is more acceptable, since it is not unusual for a noun to occur eight or more clauses after its antecedent. Participant reference in Namia 65
Example (36) shows one of the two afterthoughts that clarified a pronoun. In the first clause of this example a dual pronoun is the subject, referring to two girls. Five clauses follow (not shown) in which someone else is the subject. Then, in the last clause shown, the two girls are again referred to by a dual pronoun, after a referential distance of six clauses. The last clause is followed by an afterthought, which contains a noun plus copy pronoun, and it explains that ‘they two’ is Epiyae and the other girl. (36) Lapliko aro kokwam-e … lapliko on-ma aro kokwam-e, they.two then say-NEU they.two I-O then say-NEU Epiyae lapli … Epiyae they.two Then they both said … then the two of them said to me, Epiyae and the other …
5.4.7 Summary of distance According to Givón (1994), if the pure distance model works, I would expect to only find pronouns or zero anaphora at a referential distance of one, and nouns at a referential distance of two or three. This is true in these Namia texts. Givón also says that pronouns and nouns should never occur at the same distance. But this is not true in Namia, since Table 10 shows that 69 nouns also occur in the next clause, where most pronouns occur. Referential distance is not enough to predict the occurrence of nouns and pronouns.
5.5 Episode boundaries I expected that the start of each new episode would force a change in the form used to refer to participants. So I compared the forms used to refer to each participant before, at, and after the episode boundaries. I also looked at what kind of references would be found for participants who are mainly referred to within an episode, and not throughout the whole text. I discuss the evidence for episodes affecting referential forms below under each of the five texts studied.
5.5.1 Amae text In the Amae text, discussed in §4.5.1, there was little evidence that episode boundaries resulted in changes. The two men who were minor participants were introduced using a noun phrase, and were then referred to using nouns and pronouns. At one episode break, the forms changed from a pronoun to a noun. At the next two episode breaks, no similar changes to a shorter form occurred. There was another minor participant who was important in one episode, but references to him within the episode were nouns, not pronouns.
5.5.2 Arujwaele text A study of episode breaks and reference to participants in the Arujwaele text shows that, in two out of the three episode changes, reference to the main character changed from zero anaphora to a pronoun right at the episode breaks. This text is described in §4.5.2, and is also shown in full in the appendix. 66 Becky Feldpausch
5.5.3 Awae text I found no change in referential forms at the three episode breaks in the Awae text, which is discussed in §4.5.3. The major participant (a group of villagers) was referred to by pronouns throughout the story, and occasionally with zero anaphora. But the zero anaphora forms only occurred when the same verb was repeated, or during a sequence of actions with the same subject. Then the reference returned to a pronoun. So the changes between zero anaphora and pronoun forms did not happen at the episode breaks, but at other places throughout the text. Minor participants were referred to by nouns almost exclusively, regardless of whether or not they were involved in just one episode.
5.5.4 Lumi text In the Lumi travelogue, as I mentioned in §4.5.4, post-introduction references to the fourteen minor participants did not fit into the expected pattern of mostly nouns. Instead, 71 per cent of the mentions of these participants were pronouns or zero anaphora. So I tried analyzing these instead as ‘scenario-dependent characters’ (Garrod and Sanford 1983). A scenario-dependent character is a minor participant that only appears in one episode, but is important within that episode. So within that episode, they should be referred to by pronouns, the same as a major participant. This is what occurred in this text. In moves across episode boundaries, I would expect a major participant to be maintained with a pronoun. The only major participant in this text was the first person narrator, and so pronouns were used for him anyway. I would expect references to minor participants to change from pronouns to nouns across episode boundaries. This was observed one time each for two of the minor participants who appeared in more than one episode in this text. The first mention of them in a new episode was a noun. There were also long distances since their previous mentions which could be a factor in the use of nouns.
5.5.5 Ijwo text In the Ijwo text, explained in §4.5.5, the enemies were a minor participant. Most of their post-introduction mentions were zero anaphors, but at the beginning of the only episode break in this text, a noun was used in clause 35. Then in clauses 37 and 38, zero anaphora was again used for this minor participant.
5.5.6 Summary of episode evidence There are several issues involved with episodes. Determining boundaries is the first task, and I have not yet fully determined how episode boundaries are marked in Namia texts. Perhaps this was because many of the texts I studied were relatively short, and were seen by storytellers as one event. Another issue is whether referential forms change at episode boundaries in Namia. None of these texts, even the longest one, had consistent changes in referential forms at episode boundaries, regardless of whether the participants were major or minor. Participant reference in Namia 67
Even though referential forms did not consistently change at episode boundaries, considering what happened to the forms within episodes was helpful in the longest text, the Lumi text. When a minor participant was important in one part of this story, which could be considered one episode, the referential forms were similar to those of major participants.
6 Conclusion This study shows that, for the Namia people, any participant who plays a major role in a story is introduced by a noun, and later mentions of the participant are by pronoun or zero anaphora. Longer forms would not occur for this person, even when other people entered into the story, or the time or place changed. By contrast, any participant who has a minor role in a story is introduced by longer forms than those used for major participants. Later mentions of the participant continue to be nouns or longer forms throughout the story, even when other people are introduced, or there are changes in time or location. One major exception seems to be that pronouns or zero anaphora could be used for this minor participant if he or she becomes a major participant for just one part of the story. Props are introduced in stories by nouns or longer forms, and their later mentions continue to be the same forms. Props cannot be referred to by pronouns, and not usually by zero anaphora either. One of my goals in this study was to determine the use of the noun plus copy pronoun form. This form is used most often to refer to props, both for initial mentions and for later mentions. The noun plus copy pronoun form also occurs to add emphasis to a prop when that prop has a major part in a story. Keeping track of participants through a text is done according to the same distinctions. Major participants need minimal referential forms. Frequently a zero anaphor or pronoun is enough to sustain their presence in the story. Minor participants need consistent pronouns or nouns to sustain their presence. Props are maintained in the story by nouns. There are several places where a zero anaphor is appropriate, irrespective of major or minor participant status. One place is in back-and-forth dialogue. This is extremely useful in Bible translation in the many instances of Jesus dialoguing with the disciples and others. As long as the context is clear, neither speaker needs to be identified before they speak. Using a zero anaphor as reference to the speaker also tends to highlight the actual words spoken. Another place where occurrences of zero anaphora are appropriate is in clauses where the verb is repeated, and in clauses that describe a sequence of actions done by one participant. I examined referential forms in the Namia language in order to learn how Namia speakers make choices of referents. This study provided a better understanding of the correct use of referential forms in translated materials. I am more aware of which forms to use to communicate the importance of participants, and how to use referential forms to help listeners and readers keep track of participants throughout the story, especially when a story is unfamiliar to them.
Appendix: Sample Namia third person text, Arujwaele as told by Peijwale Malwali The following is a transcribed text of a third person narrative. The narrator of this text was Peijwale Malwali, a male Namia speaker about 50 years old. It was recorded in 1993 in his own village of Yaru. The text was transcribed and then checked with him. Minor editing was done by other Namia speakers such as a few false starts and unclear statements removed. Clauses are numbered to aid analysis. The first line shows the Namia text with morpheme 68 Becky Feldpausch breaks indicated by hyphens. The second line is an English gloss of the words. The free translation follows at the end of each paragraph. This sample text is provided to illustrate some of the points about the participants. Clause 1 On amna-ma kali lomom aro nake-i-jarle. I you-O talk he.O then with-say-DEDCT Clause 2 Yaru lu tija el-ma yaram-k-e Norambalip maem. Yaru man a woman-O north-marry-NEU Norambalip at Clause 3 El tan pli pak war-ka ma-ni-re. woman child two abdomen in-POS there-is-NEU Clause 4 Loko Wewak-ya pa-naka-le loko-ka he Wewak-to NAR-with-go.NEU he-POS Clause 5 i el tan pli lapli-mom pa-mo-mu-re loko-ka and woman child two they-O NAR-there-bear-NEU he-POS Clause 6 i aya God lomom aewao-ma aro no-we. and father God he.O dream-O then give-NEU Clause 7 I po-kokwam-e, and NAR-say-NEU ‘Ne lir-ma tipia aro ke-inaki-re. you coconut-O one then PCT-see-NEU Lir loko aro we, wakiran maem ao lwa-nak-e. coconut he then do.NEU side at not carry-DUR-NEU Wakiran maem miyam napei-ran walpli aro lwa-e. side at only five-with two then carry-NEU I lir loko yaram-kamamaewena-e’. and coconut he north-show-NEU I will now tell you this story. A Yaru village man married a woman north at Norambalip village. The wife was carrying twins. When he took them to Wewak, and the wife gave birth to twins, Father God then gave him a dream. And (he) said, ‘You see this one coconut. This coconut is like this, on one side none are hanging. Only on the other side seven hang. These coconuts are representative’. Clause 8 I God lomom aewao-ka aro kokwam-e, and God he.O dream-POS then say-NEU ‘Ne aro kalirlowein-e lir ar lomom. Maria lwa-e?’ you then look.up-NEU coconut here he.O how.many carry-NEU Clause 9 I loko pa-kalirlowein-e popo and he NAR-look.up-NEU after Clause 10 i po-kokwam-e, and NAR-say-NEU ‘Lir napei-ran walpli aro lwa-e’. coconut five-with seven then carry-NEU Participant reference in Namia 69
Clause 11 I God po-kokwam-e, ‘Amna yar nowae aro ni-jarle and God NAR-say-NEU you year similar.to then is-DEDCT nu ar loko-ka’. land here it-POS Clause 12 I loko ineinein lomom tea aro nak-yar-e and he thinking he.O just then with-come-NEU Clause 13 i el tanaki-m aro kokwam-e, and woman children-O then say-NEU ‘On-ma God yar nowae aro kra-e’. I-O God year similar.to then put-NEU God said to him in the dream, ‘You look up at the coconut here. How many are hanging?’ He looked up and said, ‘Seven coconuts are hanging’. And God said, ‘Your years on this land will be the same’. He just came with this thinking, and said to his wife and children, ‘To me God has given this many years’. Clause 14 Arna loko wala maem yar napei-ran waki lomom pa-ni-re but he place at year five-with six he.O NAR-sit-NEU Clause 15 i walpli loko-k lunapi ilei le Maurom and seven he-POS enemy name there Maurom lomko-ka wala-ya p-wo-rr-e. they-POS house-to NAR-ascend-INTER-NEU Clause 16 I loko ineinein aro kowal-e. and he thinking then remember-NEU Clause 17 Loko yar-ma aro mal-e. he year-O then count-NEU Clause 18 P-mal-e popo e, NAR-count-NEU after then Clause 19 i elole-m aro kokwam-e, and wife-O then say-NEU ‘Anae, on-ma God yar tap-kra-e Anae I-O God year when-put-NEU loko yar walpli ar-e, p-woki-re. he year seven here-NEU NAR-stand-NEU Awem waleija to, i on kwal-meya-m kik to.’ we all maybe and I myself-MIN-O take maybe But back at home he lived six years, and in the seventh, enemies by the name of Maurom came up to the village. Then he remembered. He counted the years. After counting, (he) said to (his) wife, ‘Anae, to me the seven years God gave are here, (they) have arrived. Maybe (God will take) all of us, maybe only me’. 70 Becky Feldpausch
Clause 20 I lapliko pe-yar-e popo e, alapliko-ka and they.two NAR-come-NEU after then they.two-POS manu wala-ya, Yailela. bush house-to Yailela Clause 21 I loko pae kapou aro we. and he sick big then do.NEU Clause 22 I aro kokwam-e, and then say-NEU ‘Wo, on kwal-ka yar yes I myself-POS year tap-kamamaewena-e loko le. On ao ni-re, on-ma when-count-NEU he there I not live-NEU I-O God ari kik-e. On-ma nalwein tap-o. On kwal-ka God already take-NEU I-O sorry forbid-do I myself-POS yar tap-kamamaewena-e loko le’. year when-count-NEU he there Clause 23 I Yaleila wal pe-yar-e and Yaleila from NAR-come-NEU Clause 24 i loko pae kapou-mta aro we, Norambalip maem. and he sick big-very then do.NEU Norambalip at The two came back to their own bush camp, Yailela. And he was very sick. And (he) said, ‘Yes, this is my own years that were represented, they are here. I cannot live, God has already taken me. Don’t be sorry for me. My own years that were represented, they are here.’ From Yailela (they) came, and he was very sick at Norambalip. Clause 25 I em lomom pe-yaram-imra-rr-e. and we he.O NAR-north-carry-INTER-NEU Clause 26 Em pe-yaram-imra-rr-e, we NAR-north-carry-INTER-NEU Clause 27 i em pa-nak-yara-re. and we NAR-with-come-NEU Clause 28 I hausik mae loko pe-yame-ili-re. and hospital at he NAR-here-die-NEU Clause 29 I em lomom ineinein aro we, and we him thinking then do.NEU ‘Loko aolo-ka yar God pa-kamamaewena-e loko tea le. he himself-POS year God NAR-show-NEU he just there God ari kik-e mara-m. God already take-NEU spirit-O Loko apo heven maem pa-ni-re’. he now heaven at NAR-live-NEU Participant reference in Namia 71
Clause 30 Kali loko nowae tea le. talk he finished just there We were carrying him from the north. We were carrying him from the north, and we brought (him) from the north. He came and died at the hospital. And we were thinking of him like this, ‘God showed him that his own years were just here. God took (him), his spirit. Now he is living in heaven.’ This story is finished.
References Feldpausch, Tom and Becky, 1992, Namia grammar essentials. Datapapers 39. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. —— 1993, Phonology essentials of the Namia language. Unpublished MS, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ukarumpa. Garrod, Simon and Anthony Sanford, 1983, Topic dependent effects in language processing. In G.B. Flores d’Arcais and R.J. Jarvella, eds The process of language understanding, 271–296. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Givón, T., 1983, Topic continuity in discourse: an introduction. In T. Givón, ed. Topic continuity in discourse, a quantitative cross-language study. Typological studies in language 3, 1–42. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. —— 1994, The pragmatics of de-transitive voice: functional and typological aspects of inversion. In T. Givón, ed. Voice and Inversion. Typological studies in language 28, 3–46. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Grimes, Joseph E., 1975, The thread of discourse. The Hague: Mouton. Staley, William E., 1995, Referent management in Olo: a cognitive perspective. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Oregon. Tomlin, Russell S., 1987, Linguistic reflections of cognitive events. In Russell Tomlin, ed. Coherence and grounding in discourse. Typological studies in language 11, 455–479. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Wurm, Stephen A., 1982, Papuan languages of Oceania. Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
3 Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing
CAROLYN FINAMOR
Dedicated to the memory of my father, John Lewis Finamor (1927–2001) ‘Children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.’ I John 3:18
1 Introduction The Awad Bing language is an Austronesian language, SOV, and the largest in the East Bel group (Ross 1988:122–123, 161). It is spoken by about 1450 people, most of whom live in six main villages and a few scattered hamlets on the Rai coast, west of Saidor, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. The SOV Bel network also includes Takia and Wab (Ross 1999:3). The language which is the most closely related to Awad Bing is Wab, a language spoken in three villages around Saidor. Often when Awad Bing people from the village of Yamai meet with Wab speakers, they will converse with each other in these mutually intelligible languages (Bennett 1998). Of the other Bel languages, I had access primarily to data on Takia, an Austronesian language spoken on Karkar Island, Madang Province. It also has significant syntactic similarities to Awad Bing. Awad Bing speakers use various conjunctive devices to connect clauses and sentences. Interclausal relations are encoded by conjunctions or by clauses juxtaposed without connecting forms. Sentence connections are indicated by sentential adverbs and conjunctions. Tail-head linkage is indicated by both recapitulated clauses and a clausal pro-form. Some conjunctions which link clauses can also be used to connect sentences. In this paper, using data mainly collected in Yamai village in 2001 and 2002, I will be looking at the basic ingredients of Awad Bing sentences.1 In constructing sentences, simplistically speaking, there are four basic building blocks: independent clauses; dependent clauses (optional); strategies to link a clause to whatever precedes it; and strategies at the end of a clause to link it to what follows. This paper will examine dependent and independent clauses, and particles which conjoin clauses. In addition it will examine a sentential pro-form which stands for a clause or sentence, which Ross (1993)
1 I would like to thank the Awad Bing people, particularly Nus Baran and Kandina Tiniy, for their help and patience in telling and editing stories, which are the basis for this paper. Special thanks to Karalena Tonggi who worked on the transcription of many texts, parts of which are used in this paper. My appreciation is also extended to Bruce Waters, Malcolm Ross and Joan Hooley for their help and suggestions in the analysis and presentation of this paper, and Douglas and Jeanette Bennett for their help in providing additional Awad Bing textual matter and practical support. 73 74 Carolyn Finamor calls the proclausal, and describe its relation to tail-head linkage of sentences. I shall then examine anaphoric and cataphoric semblatives, and the strategies in which they are used in maintaining cohesion in sentences and paragraphs. The forms used are a part of the deictic system, employed secondarily as endophors.
2 Independent clause structures This section illustrates clauses that stand alone or create sentences by juxtaposition. These are the most basic sentences to be dealt with before moving to conjunctions. An Awad Bing sentence consists of a single independent clause with zero or more clauses joined to it, whether dependent or independent, verbal or verbless (clausal units with or without verb phrases). The clauses may be juxtaposed or linked by conjunctions, and a conjunction may occur at the beginning of the sentence to link the sentence to the preceding sentence. An indefinite number of clauses can occur in a sentence, constrainted only by semantic factors.
2.1 Single clause sentence Every Awad Bing clause with its nuclear arguments ends in a predicate, whether that is a verb phrase, a postpositional phrase or a temporal adverbial noun. The following example (1) employs the comitative postpositional phrase mayahay bid ‘with illness’ as a predication and is an instance of an independent clause standing alone.2 (1) Yin mayahay bid. 3SG illness COM He is sick.
2 Abbreviations used in the examples in this paper are: ADD additive LIM limiter ASSOC associative LOC locative COM comitative MED medial distance demonstrative COMPL completive aspect MED.LOC medial distance locational adverb CONTRA contraexpectation NOM nominaliser CONT continuous aspect PL plural DESID desiderative POSS possession DIST far distance demonstrative PRO clausal pro-form DIST.LOC far distance locational adverb PROX proximal distance demonstrative DUAL dual quantifier PROX.LOC proximal distance locational adverb DUR durative aspect PURP purposive EXC exclusive REAL realis FOC focus RFLX reflexive FUT future SG singular HAB habitual SIMUL simultaneous IMPER imperative TEMP.PROX temporal proximity INC inclusive SEQ temporal sequence INDEF indefinite determiner/article TERM terminative INST instrument 1 first person INT intensifier 2 second person INTERR interrogative 3 third person IRR irrealis In the Awad Bing orthography, the graph ‘h’ signifies a glottal plosive. Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing 75
2.2 Juxtaposition Independent clauses can be juxtaposed (placed one after the other without any linking words). In this section a double slash (//) indicates clause junctures. In the following example (2), each clause is juxtaposed without conjunctions. (2) Nahal du-doum-ad nang yin dimad-an// abang fuw-fuw time 3PL-hold-3PL MED 3SG hand-LOC something begin-CONT di-tey// yahaw di-tey// tey di-tey// muat di-tey// 3PL-put fire 3PL-put faeces 3PL-put snake 3PL-put abang wudiy nang di-tey. something all MED 3PL-put While they were holding them in their hands, they turned into different things, they turned into fire, they turned into faeces, they turned into snakes, they turned into a lot of things. In example (3) the first three clauses are joined by juxtaposition. (3) Anging di-toy,// buor di-tahaw,// anging fus, de food 3PL-hold pig 3PL-bind.up food appear ADD.REAL dang-dang de, mar tey du-guob. see-CONT ADD.REAL mourning.time end 3PL-shut They exchanged some food, tied a pig, the feast was ready and they saw it and finished the mourning.
3 Dependency structures Dependency in Awad Bing is rarely formally marked by verbal morphology, but the language uses conjunctions and demonstratives to indicate dependent clauses in the overwhelming majority of cases. Dependency can be marked by demonstratives and conjunctive devices when a clause is a core argument of the main clause (see §3.2), as well as for clauses which act as peripheral modifiers of the main clause (see §3.3). Therefore, the preferred term for these clauses is dependent, rather than subordinate. In this section I will illustrate the formal marking of dependent clauses, and briefly (in example 8) illustrate complementation using verbal morphology. Awad Bing has a three way set of demonstratives: the proximal demonstrative ning ‘this (near)’ (PROX), the medial demonstrative nang ‘that (middle distance)’ (MED), and the far distance demonstrative nung ‘that (far distance)’ (DIST), according to the distance of a referent from the speaker. As Awad Bing does not employ definite determiners, the demonstrative nang is also translated as a determiner in some of the following examples. In addition to its primary purpose as a demonstrative and determiner, the form is used to mark relative clauses and most other dependent clauses.
3.1 Relative clauses Section 3.1 illustrates the marking of relative clauses. Relative clauses are marked by the middle distance demonstrative nang. The relative clause follows the noun or noun phrase which it is modifying, and nang marks the end of the relative clause. Example (4) illustrates nang marking the end of the relative clause ngingiriy ruw taban-iy daseg. 76 Carolyn Finamor
(4) Yiel waag fangey-an doos badeiy gam maley nigieg go canoe top-LOC sit.down be.CONT TERM eye PROX.LOC.CONT maneg nang wadiw ngingiriy ruw taban-iy daseg nang CONTRA MED eel animal.tail two head-3SG.POSS one MED miniy waag tey-an yagahay. 3SG.POSS canoe end-LOC climb He was there sitting on the canoe, he sat there then he turned his eye to another direction: an eel which had two tails and one head climbed onto the back of his canoe. Example (5) illustrates the use of nang as a middle distance demonstrative modifying the noun peen, and secondly marking the end of the relative clause mahasan du-sug-sug di-badey. (5) Peen nalaluw nang mahas-an du-sug-sug woman young MED sea-LOC 3PL-wash-CONT di-badey nang dang-dang-ad. 3PL-be MED see-CONT-3PL He saw those young women who were swimming in the sea.
3.2 Complement clauses Complement clauses are clauses which act as an argument of the main verb. In Awad Bing, complement clauses conclude with the middle distance demonstrative nang. The verb ‘know’ is the only verb found which takes an object complement. No examples to date have been found of subject complements. In the second half of the following example (6), an object complement clause follows the main verb ma-ling-ling ‘know,’ and a pronoun mam ‘we’ is the subject. (6) Mahas mutul badey, ar nahal yiduom mahas ray sarir nang sea high.tide be OK time night sea pull descend MED mam bad ma-ling-ling fufur ruiy yiel mug 1PL.EXC not 1PL.EXC-think-CONT whale dugong go already fangey-an badey nang. top-LOC be MED It was high tide, OK, (it was) at the time that the night tide goes out, we didn’t know that the dugong’s mother had already gone out. The first instance of nang in the following example (7) is as a modifier in a noun phrase, the second marks the end of the relative clause dimiy soy yiel rahan yiyyong badey. The third is marking the end of the object complement clause which follows the main verb ling-an. (7) Ariyo am man buol-mom bi ling-an niek tamuol mug OK who FOC tell-2SG SEQ.IRR think-IRR baby man already wangeey sag rahan tey-an dooy tuwtowbad nang. big LIM water end-LOC tree middle.size.branch MED Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing 77
dim-iy soy yiel rahan yiyyong badey nang tiniiy-an hand-3SG.POSS stab go water hang.down be MED duration-LOC nang. Niek tamuol yagahay yiel di dooy MED baby man climb go SEQ.REAL mangrove.hibiscus dim-iy fangey-an doos. hand-3SG.POSS top-LOC sit.down Who would tell you so that you would know that the young man had been beside the river a long time on the middle-sized branch which hung down over the river. The man climbed up and sat on a branch in the top of a mangrove hibiscus tree. There is no ‘wish + complement’ construction in Awad Bing. The verb ‘to like, desire or want’ does not take an object complement. Rather, as shown in example (8) below, the desire for an action or event is not expressed using nang, but by the desiderative/immanent verbal suffix -aniy. (8) Miniy barnun ya-tey-aniy. 3SG.POSS story 1SG-put-DESID I want to/am about to tell his story.
3.3 Adverbial clauses Adverbial clauses do not act as a core argument of the verb in the main clause, but modify the main clause by adding information. The type of information added can include time, purpose, reason, simultaneous action, condition, negative condition or concession. The following sections examine the formal marking of adverbial clauses in Awad Bing.
3.3.1 Condition As a subset of adverbial clauses, conditional clauses are marked initially by the formatives gieg bad.3 In the same way as relative clauses, conditional clauses conclude with the middle distance demonstrative nang as in examples (9)–(11). (9) Gieg bad du-wuot-mom nang yoy mun what INDEF 3PL-perform.task-2SG MED FUT again ya-siy ya-ab-youm be ta-basul-an. 1SG-come 1SG-get-2SG ADD.IRR 1PL.INC-return-IRR If they do anything to you, I will come back, take you and we will return. (10) Gieg bad buor yin badey nang wun yoy nahay-an. what INDEF pig 3SG be MED 2SG FUT cook-IRR If a pig is there, you can cook it. In example (11), irrealis is marked in the condition clause, which changes it into a contrary-to-fact conditional, or a hypothetical condition, where the condition is known to be untrue, not just uncertain as in (9) and (10).
3 Please note that bad has two functions depending on its position in syntax, as a negator and as an indefinite determiner. 78 Carolyn Finamor
(11) Gieg bad wun bungbongsag-ay siy-an nang, what INDEF 2SG morning-LOC come-IRR MED wun yoy anging wa-ahang-an. 2SG FUT food 2SG-eat-IRR If you had come in the morning, you would have eaten.
3.3.2 Negative condition A clause which begins with the formatives mow lel ‘in case, lest’ expresses a negative condition in relation to the clause which precedes it. Examples (12)–(14) show the negative condition formatives occurring immediately before each negative condition clause. (12) Yid yoy umbrela ta-pil-an mow lel aniyaw bal-id-an. 1PL.INC FUT umbrella 2PL-gather-IRR HAB DUR rain wet-1PL.INC-IRR We will take umbrellas in case we get wet. (13) Wun wuyuw yahaw bid nang tiniy-an bad par-an 2SG mountain fire COM MED side-LOC not walk-IRR tiyaham, mow lel bad moul yiliy-an wa-yiel-an. not HAB DUR INDEF fall inside-LOC 2SG-go-IRR You must not walk on the volcano, in case you fall into it. (14) Wun yiduom bad par-an tiyaham mow lel bad 2SG night not walk-IRR not HAB DUR INDEF raskol tamuol yin du-fung-youm mahat-an. criminal man 3SG 3PL-hit-2SG die-IRR You can’t walk around at night, in case a rascal kills you.
3.3.3 Time The temporal nouns nahal and sen are used at the beginning of an adverbial dependent clause expressing time. The time clause concludes with nang. The following examples (15)–(16) are introduced by nahal ‘time’. (15) Nahal kumbar peen nang yin du-sug time coral.tree woman MED 3SG 3PL-wash margareng-ahay nang mun du-watalahay moving.towards.completion-COMPL MED again 3PL-go.above di-yiel kumbar nang fangey-an bi di-badey. 3PL-go coral.tree MED top-LOC SEQ.IRR 3PL-be When the coral tree women finished swimming, they went up the coral tree again and stayed there. (16) Nahal wun ayang kum-aniy nang ayang wum-an time 2SG cassava roast.over.hot.stones-DESID MED cassava garden-LOC raw siy your di-badey bi wa-yiel retrieve.objects come put.objects 3PL-be SEQ.IRR 2SG-go Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing 79
niuw waham piel siy-an. coconut dry gather come-IRR When you want to roast cassava bread over hot stones, you must go to the garden, gather cassava and go and bring dry coconuts. The following example (17) uses the temporal noun sen, which is associated with habitual or ongoing action or state, rather than the more general temporal noun nahal. (17) Sen wun dagiebi fung-fung bi paan-an nang bad time 2SG cuscus beat-CONT SEQ.IRR shoot-IRR MED not bading-ahay sarir taan-an tiyaham. throw-COMPL descend ground-LOC not When you kill the cuscus and shoot it, don’t throw it down on the ground. In example (18) the temporal noun bongsag with nang as a definite determiner can be used as an adverbial adjunct to a whole sentence. (18) Bongsag nang yid yoy mun ta-yiel bi morning MED 1PL.INC FUT again 1PL.INC-go SEQ.IRR peen barahas nang maley-ad ta-pit-an. woman young.woman MED eye-3PL.POSS 1PL.INC-spy-IRR Tomorrow, we will go again and their eyes will spy on the young women.
3.3.4 Purpose The possessive pronoun miniy is used normally to mark possession as in (19). (19) Niek tamuol foun tubuw miniy moot-an baby man turtle grandparent 3SG.POSS island-LOC nang yin bid darur. MED 3SG COM crawl The baby boy on the grandfather turtle’s island also crawled. In purpose clauses, the form nang marks the beginning and the form miniy marks the end of the clause, as in (20) and (21). It is not clear as to the semantic function of the use of the possessive pronoun in this way, except to mention that in Tok Pisin the possessive word bilong is also used to mark purpose clauses. The purpose clause in example (20) is nang day yoy masar miniy. (20) Nang day margareng-margareng ma-badey yiel MED TEMP.PROX moving.towards.completion-CONT 1PL.EXC-be go waham tey-tey nang day yoy ma-sar miniy. dry do-CONT MED TEMP.PROX FUT 1PL.EXC-dig PURP Ey naag. hey MED.LOC That just having finished, we dry them, then it will be the time for us to dig (them) up. That’s how it’s done. The purpose clause in example (21) is nang batanahay miniy. 80 Carolyn Finamor
(21) Fuf tamuol Daglas buol, girien bad paan grandparent/child man Douglas tell grease INDEF give bi yiel aab yil-iy nang batanahay miniy. SEQ.IRR go house inside-3SG.POSS MED fix PURP Grandpa told Douglas to give him fly spray (lit. grease) from inside the house so he could go to fix (it).
3.3.5 Reason Reason clauses typically precede the clause expressing the result or consequence, and the reason clause concludes with the demonstrative nang and the locative marked possessive pronoun form miniyan. The locative -an and the irrealis suffix -an are homophones, but it seems more likely that it is the locative occurring in this context.4 In example (22), the reason clause is yiliy siysiyoy barnun ditey nang miniyan, and the result is diwey. (22) Tam di-yien di yiduom-an yil-iy siysiyoy DUAL 3PL-sleep SEQ.REAL night-LOC inside-3SG.POSS go.straight.to barnun di-tey nang miniy-an diwey. story 3PL-put MED PURP-IRR laugh The two of them slept and at night, because she thought about (lit. her insides went straight to) the stories they told, she laughed. The reason clause in example (23) is bad ta-ling-ling tiyaham nang miniyan. (23) Di-baleng-ad di-yiel rahan-an di gamey rahan man 3PL-throw.down-3PL 3PL-go water-LOC SEQ.REAL today water FOC raw siy mahas-an di-yiel o tam di-siy muguw retrieve.objects come sea-LOC 3PL-go or DUAL 3PL-come middle bad-an du-suor di-bady di rahan muguw yiel-iy-an INDEF-IRR 3PL-snag 3PL-be SEQ.REAL water middle inside-3SG.POSS-LOC di-badey nang. Bad ta-ling-ling tiyaham nang miniy-an 3PL-be MED not 1PL.INC-think-CONT not MED PURP-IRR yin gahag di-tey-tey di-buol-buol-maham kane, ‘Ar bing 3SG boundary 3PL-do-CONT 3PL-tell-CONT-1PL.EXC saying OK talk ning wit-an at-ey’. PROX outside-LOC chest-3SG.POSS They threw them in the water and the current has taken them out to the middle of the river, they are snagged there and are under the water. Because we didn’t know this they announced a prohibition and told us, ‘OK make this message known’.
4 The irrealis suffix -an most commonly occurs on verbs, but also on the contraexpectation conjunction maneg (§4.8), and on the indefinite determiner bad. Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing 81
4 Connective strategies: conjunctions The following examines some basic conjoining strategies found in Awad Bing, and the temporal and logical relationships that they encode between propositions. Awad Bing uses conjunctions to indicate information about the distribution of events in time and other relationships between events. The modal relationship between propositions takes place over the scope of the whole sentence rather than each of the component clauses, as the modal information (realis/ irrealis, see §4.1) is marked within the conjunctions di/bi and de/be. The semantic relationship between two propositions guides the choice of conjunction. A speaker will wish to indicate a particular relationship between two events, and will choose the appropriate conjunction (or juxtaposition) to accomplish this. The conjunctive relationships between events can be described as follows: di/bi ‘sequence’ Event described in proposition 1 is completed before or at the occurrence or onset of event described in proposition 2 (§4.2). de/be ‘additive’ Events described in propositions 1 and 2 are shown as loosely connected and temporally unordered. The conjunctions de and be are also used to link noun phrases, indicating a loose connection between referents (§4.3). i ‘continuative’ Proposition 1 occurs in a temporal overlap relationship with proposition 2 (§4.4). o ‘alternative’ Proposition 1 is an inclusive or exclusive alternative to proposition 2 (§4.5). gam ‘terminative’ Event described in proposition 1 is often the last in a series of events, and all are terminated before the onset of the event described in proposition 2 (§4.6). nanganang ‘reason-result’ Proposition 1 is presented as a logical reason for proposition 2 (§4.7). maneg or mangeg ‘contraexpectation’ Proposition 1 causes a disjunctive change which results in the consequent proposition 2 (§4.8). In summary, sequential events are marked by di or bi. Events occurring simultaneously, either wholly or partially overlapping in time are marked by i. An event which spells the end of a process or action sequence is linked by gam to the next event. Other conjunctions examined include de/be, indicating a loose connection of events or a listing of events which are not presented as relating temporally, o which indicates exclusive and inclusive alternatives, nanganang indicating logical connections not related to time such as reason- result, and maneg/mangeg marking contraexpectation. 82 Carolyn Finamor
4.1 Realis and irrealis conjunctions Firstly, before explaining the temporal and logical semantics of these conjunctions, I will explain modal information which is also encoded within four of the conjunctions. Mithun (1995:367) states that, as modal information, realis and irrealis can be expressed by multiple markers, such as clitics, particles, and verbal inflection, and carry out functions such as tense or aspect, pronouns or clause linkage. In Awad Bing verbal morphology, irrealis is generally marked using the suffix -an on verb stems. However, in addition to, or instead of, the irrealis verbal suffix, the language uses other forms to indicate irrealis, namely the temporal and additive conjunctions. These conjunctions show a distinction between the realis conjunctions di and de and the irrealis conjunctions bi and be. Irrealis is used for imperatives, future events, habitual events, procedures, potential future events such as conditionals, and events which the speaker has not personally experienced or seen. These can all be described as covering events or properties which are not real at the time of utterance.
4.2 Temporal sequence conjunctions di, bi The temporal sequence conjunctions di and bi between clauses mark temporal sequence of events from one clause to the next. The irrealis form bi covers events which come under the modal categories listed in §4.1. The speaker can view certain events as sequential and others as simultaneous or as one action. More investigation is required to understand the pragmatic nature of the relationship between temporal sequence and simultaneous acts, and also between irrealis and realis propositions. However, for this analysis, the speaker’s communicative purpose is served by viewing the events as sequential or simultaneous for any particular utterance.
4.2.1 Sequence realis conjunction di Temporal sequence of the action of verbs between realis clauses is marked by the conjunction di, as in examples (24)–(26). (24) Tam di-yiel teet-an lib di-sar wuum du-muom DUAL 3PL-go village-LOC hole 3PL-dig hot.stones 3PL-roast margareng di fangargar tamuol yin naluw moving.towards.completion SEQ.REAL spirit man 3SG child tam naan di-badiy nang giriy-ad d-ab di DUAL there 3PL-arise MED smell-3PL.POSS 3PL-get SEQ.REAL teet-an du-fus. village-LOC 3PL-appear The two of them went to the village, dug a hole, finished cooking ground oven stones and the spirit man together with his child arose, got their scent and appeared in the village. (25) Nen Tanuong-an ma-badiy di ma-par teet here Biliau-LOC 1PL.EXC-arise SEQ.REAL 1PL.EXC-walk village Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing 83
daseg daseg-an ma-yien-yien di ma-yiel. one one-LOC 1PL.EXC-sleep-CONT SEQ.REAL 1PL.EXC-go We started at Biliau and set off, walked, stayed the night at each village and went on. (26) Moot-an nan tey badeiy di ar fang doom island-LOC there put be.CONT SEQ.REAL OK adze outrigger.pins doom nang yin mun waag ab di basul siy. outrigger.pins MED 3SG again canoe get SEQ.REAL return come He put her there on the island, and the adze for carving canoes got into the canoe and came back. (Note: fang doom doom nang is a colloquial expression for an adze for carving canoes.) The action of the main verbs in propositions linked by di is always realis based. In the following example (27), which is a linking of speech acts, the conjunction di occurs twice following irrealis verb forms. However, these irrealis verbs are a part of the direct speech which is being quoted, and are not the main verbs of the clauses which di is linking. (27) … di Debra man kas ‘Tam ta-yiel-an’ di SEQ.REAL Debra FOC say DUAL 1PL.INC-go-IRR SEQ.REAL Kerolin man dang nanganang buol-yahaw, ‘Yoy tam a-yiel-an’ Carolyn FOC see therefore tell-3SG FUT DUAL 2PL-go-IRR di nam ya-kas ‘Yow’. SEQ.REAL 1SG 1SG-say yes … and Debra said, ‘Let’s go!’ and looked at Carolyn and so she told her, ‘You two go’, and I said ‘Yes’.
4.2.2 Sequence irrealis conjunction bi The temporal sequence conjunction bi is used when the relationship between propositions is sequential and the propositions are irrealis mode as described in §4.1. When the irrealis conjunction bi is used it is sometimes preceded by the irrealis suffix -an, sometimes not. Conditions governing this occurrence of the irrealis -an before bi are unclear at this stage. In example (28) the conjunction connects future actions or event clauses, marked by yoy, and a potential future event, the condition ‘if Renate comes’. (28) Yoy aad yiel aruwahaw tri kilok abang naag gam, yoy FUT sun go afternoon three o’clock something MED.LOC TERM FUT mun ma-basul ma-yiel mun ma-dang-an bi Renate again 1PL.EXC-return 1PL.EXC-go again 1PL.EXC-see-IRR SEQ.IRR Renate siy nang Tago tam yoy yam du-fuoy-fuoy bi abang come MED Tago DUAL FUT door 3PL-open-CONT SEQ.IRR something samang ma-raw-raw miniid nang yoy what 1PL.EXC-remove.plural.objects-CONT 1PL.INCL.POSS MED FUT ma-raw-raw bi mun Yamay-an 1PL.EXC-remove.plural.objects-CONT SEQ.IRR again Yamai-LOC 84 Carolyn Finamor
ma-siy-an. 1PL.EXC-come-IRR In the afternoon, after about three o’clock we will return again and look and if Renate comes, she and Tago will open the door and we will remove whatever belongs to us and return to Yamai. This example (29) illustrates the use of bi linking hortatory propositions and future propositions. (29) An bad naag a-wuot an tiyaham an peen sibiy 2PL not MED.LOC 2PL-perform.task 2PL not 2PL woman INT a-fus bi mam yoy ma-raw-mim 2PL-become SEQ.IRR 1PL.EXC FUT 1PL.EXC-take.plural.objects-2PL bi ta-yiel-an teet-an. SEQ.IRR 1PL.INC-go-IRR village-LOC You must not do that, you must become real women and we will take you and we will go to the village. Statements of procedure are also linked by bi as in example (30). (30) Niuw nang kuwar margareng-margareng girieng wa-ab coconut MED wring.out moving.towards.completion-CONT fat 2SG-get ayang wood-an sander badey nang bi cassava wooden.plate-LOC cassava.grater be MED SEQ.IRR giminiy-ahay-an. mix-COMPL-IRR Having wrung the coconut, take the oil and mix with the cassava which is on the grater on the wooden bowl. The conjunction bi also joins clauses marked as habitual actions by the habitual particle mow in example (31). (31) Nagaag bi di-siy taan-an minid aab aab mow PRO SEQ.IRR 3PL-come ground-LOC 1PL.INC.POSS house house HAB yahaw di-tey-tey, aning du-nuon-nuon yiy di-yaw-yaw fire 3PL-do-CONT banana 3PL-roast-CONT fish 3PL-smoke-CONT bi gus-an du-gus-gus. SEQ.IRR bamboo.section-LOC 3PL-fill.bamboo.section-CONT Given that, they come ashore (and) they light fires in each of their houses, roast bananas, smoke fish and put them in bamboo sections. Constructions that use imperatives (here in the clause an aluongan) are also linked with bi (example (32)). The reflexive pronoun subow functions here as an emphatic. (32) Ariya yid ta-badeiy ning nam yoy barnun Kunumang kas-kas OK 1PL.INC 1PL.INC-be.CONT PROX 1SG FUT story Kunumang say-CONT ning mun yoy subow ya-kas-kas bi an a-luong-an. PROX again FUT 1SG.RFLX 1SG-say-CONT SEQ.IRR 2PL 2PL-hear-IRR OK we are here, I will say myself again what Kunumang said and you listen. Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing 85
The conjunction bi is used to connect potential future events conditional on previous events as in example (33). Here the high tide is seen by the speaker to be a condition for drinking the water of the river again, because of taboos regarding the presence of dead bodies in the water and the passing of time. (33) Ngatang ta-badeiy gahag tabud maley bad yiel, able 1PL.INC-be.CONT boundary moon eye INDEF go tabud ruw, toul wahalbad naag yiel bi rahan mun moon two three four MED.LOC go SEQ.IRR water again fus-fus bi abang nang wudiy appear-CONT SEQ.IRR something MED all margareng-margareng gam rahan ta-lung miniy moving.towards.completion-CONT TERM water 1PL.INC-drink PURP nang yoy ningiy-an. MED FUT good-IRR We will refrain (from drinking the river water) for some months, like two, three or four months, and when it is a high tide again and this thing is finished, then we can drink the water, it will be good. In example (34) bi links a reported imperative and purpose clause. This is a repetition of example (21). (34) Fuf tamuol Daglas buol, girien bad paan grandparent/child man Douglas tell grease INDEF give bi yiel aab yil-iy nang batanahay miniy. SEQ.IRR go house inside-3SG.POSS MED fix PURP Grandpa told Douglas to give him fly spray (lit. grease) so he could go to fix the inside of the house. The potential future events in example (35) are all linked by bi because the sentence is introduced by a time clause in which nahal is modified by the indefinite bad, referring to some indefinite time. (35) Nahal bad yiliy-youm kas-kas bi Karalena tam time INDEF insides-2SG.POSS say-CONT SEQ.IRR Karalena DUAL a-wud miniy o mahas-an wud-wud bi ninimieng 2PL-dive PURP or sea-LOC swim.in.sea-CONT SEQ.IRR shell nalaluw paniy nang dang-dang nang pil wa-yiel yoy kas-an young some MED see-CONT MED gather 2SG-go FUT say-IRR kane, ‘Ninimieng ning wudiy ningiy-ad sag’, mangeg saying shell PROX all good-3PL LIM CONTRA.CONT bi sup bid di-badey. SEQ.IRR poisonous.shell COM 3PL-be One day, when you and Karalena desire and you go diving or swimming in the sea and you see some small shells that you want to collect, you will think, ‘All of these shells are good ones’, but a dangerous shell might be there with them. 86 Carolyn Finamor
4.3 Additive conjunctions de, be The conjunctions de and be indicate a loose connection between events. In some contexts de and be simply mark temporally unordered events, in others mild contrast in the actions of different participants, but always linking events without indicating anything about their relative timing. Another function of de and be is in linking noun phrases in a list. The semantics of di/bi and de/be are that the former express sequence, the latter a non- temporal or logical connection.
4.3.1 Additive realis conjunction de The following examples (36)–(37) illustrate the realis conjunction de in joining noun phrases. (36) Pita Daglas de Mayaw wilbaiyro sag ma-ab Peter Douglas ADD.REAL Mayaw wheelbarrow LIM 1PL.EXC-get ma-yiel Mey yuw-iy aab miniy aab 1PL.EXC-go May spouse-3SG.POSS house 3SG.POSS house paparum-an ma-tey-tey. underneath-LOC 1PL.EXC-put-CONT Peter, Douglas and Mayaw took just the wheelbarrow to May’s husband’s house (and) put it underneath. (37) Ning minid bisiiy-ad de bisiiy-ad bad PROX 1PL.INC.POSS spirit-3PL.POSS ADD.REAL spirit-3PL.POSS INDEF rahan-an nang. Nam day yoy yuok-wahaw. Nam mun bad water-LOC MED 1SG TEMP.PROX FUT fear-1SG 1SG again not noog ya-yiel-an tiyaham Tanuong-an day ya-badey DIST.LOC 1SG-go-IRR not Biliau-LOC TEMP.PROX 1SG-be sag-an. Sey diw aw-ey yaw! LIM-IRR hey laugh mouth-3SG.POSS not.IMPER Our spirits and (other) spirits are in the river there. I just scared myself, I won’t go over to Biliau again. I’ll just stay. [all laugh] Hey, don’t laugh! These next two examples (38)–(39) illustrate de linking clauses. In the introduction to a narrative shown in (38), the conjunction de is denoting a mild contrast of action from one set of participants (the women) to a different participant (the young man). (38) Kumbar peen nalaluw yin mow di-sarir di-siy mahas coral.tree woman young 3SG HAB 3PL-descend 3PL-come sea du-sug-sug bi di-badey de tamuol makahay 3PL-wash-CONT SEQ.IRR 3PL-be ADD.REAL man youth teet miniy bad nang yin lang sag yiel. village 3SG.POSS INDEF MED 3SG beach LIM go The young coral tree women habitually come down to the sea and swim and one young man from the village went to the beach. Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing 87
The two actions linked by de in (39), the speaker putting on grass skirts and coming to her sister-in-law, are not related here in terms of their timing. The speaker has considered the two events as a thematic unit, and de is used because sequence is irrelevant to the pragmatics of the utterance. (39) Nam dier ruwyoum ya-piram, de ya-siy 1SG grass.skirt two 1SG-put.on.grass.skirt ADD.REAL 1SG-come ibisiy sing-iy-an di, ibisiy man, kalmang sister-in-law near-3SG-LOC SEQ.REAL sister-in-law FOC plant.species paan-wahaw, di dimiy-tahaw-an nin man taw paan-wahaw. give-1SG SEQ.REAL hand-1SG.POSS-LOC mother FOC tie give-1SG I put on two grass skirts and came to my sister-in-law and my sister-in-law gave me some decorative leaves and mother fastened them for me.
4.3.2 Additive irrealis conjunction be For the expression of irrealis (imperatives, future events, habitual events, procedures, potential future events such as conditionals, and events which the speaker has not experienced or seen themselves), the additive conjunction be may be used. This is to connect clauses which in the speaker’s view are not related to each other temporally. The following example (40) from a procedural text, shows the association of the actions of making a yam mound and standing up its trellis occurring in the same step of the procedure. (40) Wil ta-tan-an pabul ta-your-an badiy ta-lim-an yam 1PL.INC-plant-IRR seed 1PL.INC-put-IRR get.up 1PL.INC-plant.yam-IRR maley-ad du-fus-fus gam badiiy ta-toy-an eye-3PL.POSS 3PL-appear-CONT TERM yam.mound 1PL.INC-hold-IRR be sil gun-ing miniy. ADD.IRR bamboo.pole stand/trellis.NOM PURP We plant seed yams, we put them on the (yam) mound, we place them in the hole, their shoots appear then we make up the (yam) mounds so that we can stand up the bamboo pole. The following example (41) shows a potential future event which starts with the speaker exhorting his hearers to do two things, and these two exhortations are linked by the irrealis additive conjunction be. (41) Ar bing ning wit-an at-ey be tamuolpeen OK talk PROX outside-LOC chest-3SG.POSS ADD.IRR people Teteriy-an Yamay-an nang a-buol-ad du-ling yin rahan Teterai-LOC Yamai-LOC MED 2PL-tell-3PL 3PL-think 3SG water bad du-lung-an tiyaham. not 3PL-drink-IRR not OK, make this message known and tell the people of Teterai and Yamai and they will know they can’t drink the water. 88 Carolyn Finamor
4.4 Continuative particle i The continuative particle i, which is always followed by di or bi, encodes overlapping action between events. The particle i occurs at the end of a clause, marking the previous event as unfinished, and overlapping with another event in time. The conjunction di or bi then links that clause with the following clause. The first action goes on for a certain period of time, and the second occurs or begins during that time period. Examples (42)– (44) illustrate this particle and conjunction sequence. (42) Tam-iy palangis ab yiel buwan wangeey koup buwan father-3SG.POSS axe get go ironwood big cut ironwood waham nang koup koup bading sarir. Birwitwitit i dry MED cut cut throw.away descend cut.into.short.pieces SIMUL di suong suong suong suong SEQ.REAL break.firewood break.firewood break.firewood break.firewood suong yiel margareng suong break.firewood go moving.towards.completion break.firewood margareng. moving.towards.completion The father took the axe and went and cut a big ironwood tree, that dried ironwood tree, he chopped it down. As he was cutting it into short pieces, he was splitting the pieces and finished. (43) Sagar-ey-an gun-gun-gun i di tubuw buol, back-3SG.POSS-LOC stand-CONT-CONT SIMUL SEQ.REAL grandparent tell ‘Fuf susum makiesiy bad ta-watalahay ta-yiel grandparent/child slide little INDEF 1PL.INC-go.above 1PL.INC-go fangey-an bi ya-buol-aniy’. top-LOC SEQ.IRR 1SG-tell-DESID As he was standing on its back he said to the old one, ‘Grandfather, let’s move out a little, I want to talk to her’. (44) Peen nang taan batuw fung-fung i di tamuol woman MED ground egg beat-CONT SIMUL SEQ.REAL man nang yin wil taan. MED 3SG yam ground The woman was beating clods and the man planted yams.
4.5 Alternative o The alternative conjunction o (possibly a borrowing from Tok Pisin) joins clauses indicating exclusive alternatives, as in example (45), and inclusive alternatives as in example (46). (45) Wun wil taan-an o tam wun taan ruw-ruw i? 2SG yam ground-LOC or DUAL 2SG ground dig-CONT INTERR Are you planting yams or digging the ground? Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing 89
(46) Wun yoy dang ling-an ning nang damung ‘Ya-toy-an nang 2SG FUT see think-IRR PROX MED bad 1SG-hold-IRR MED yoy ya-mahat-an o dim-wahaw yuw-an’, mangeg bi FUT 1SG-die-IRR or hand-1SG.POSS swell-IRR CONTRA.CONT SEQ.IRR ninimieng nang bad doum-ad-an tiyaham. shell MED INDEF hold-3PL-IRR not You will see and know this is bad, (thinking) ‘If I hold it I will die or it will make my hand swell up’, and so don’t hold these shells. The conjunction also links alternative noun phrases as in examples (47)–(48). (47) Kulow o ahay labniy raw siy wuum black.palm or tree leaf retrieve.objects come hot.stones taunang-ing nang margareng-margareng. spread.out.food-NOM MED moving.towards.completion-CONT Bring black palm or tree leaves, as a final hot stones covering. (48) Am man Mandang-an yiel-yiel, Nus man o Kunumang man? who FOC Madang-LOC go-CONT Nus FOC or Kunumang FOC Who is going to Madang, Nus or Kunumang?
4.6 Terminative conjunction gam The terminative conjunction gam5 (the term borrowed from Ross 1994 and Waters et al. 1993) marks the end of a process or series of events. The clause immediately preceding gam expresses an event which spells the end of a process or action sequence. When a temporal noun immediately precedes gam, the noun specifies the completion time of the preceding event. By indicating the end of the preceding process or series of events, gam also clears the way for the onset of further event(s) which are then stated in the clauses immediately following gam. The terminative conjunction gam cuts off any temporal sequencing of events, so that the hearers realise the speaker wants them to consider the next event as starting sometime after the previous event(s), which can be described as an ‘after that (happened)’ relationship. In examples (49)–(50) there is a second occurrence of gam which marks the termination of the next event or series of events, and is then followed by the final event(s) of the sentence. At specific times, fraide ‘Friday’ (49) and gamey ‘today’ (50), allow a break (of a day or few days) before subsequent events take place. (49) Nanganang Aipen ya-buol nagay sag tar Fraide gam therefore Aipen 1SG-tell disregard LIM leave Friday TERM abang bad ningiy gam ta-yiel ayang-an ta-dang-an. something INDEF good TERM 1PL.INC-go cassava-LOC 1PL.INC-see-IRR And so I told Aipen to leave it till Friday, then if she has success we will go to find some cassava.
5 The concepts in this section are drawn from Waters et al. (1993) and from personal communications from Bruce Waters in 2001–2002. 90 Carolyn Finamor
(50) Buot kafurbad di nuoran Renate tam Tago bad boat full SEQ.REAL yesterday Renate DUAL Tago not di-siy tiyaham Renate bad siy tiyaham Tago man sag 3PL-come not Renate not come not Tago FOC LIM siy di gamey gam mun buot ab basul-basul come SEQ.REAL today TERM again boat get return-CONT yiel-yiel Renate ab gam yoy di-siy-an. go-CONT Renate get TERM FUT 3PL-come-IRR The boat was full and yesterday Renate and Tago did not come, Renate did not come only Tago, and then today the boat returned again to get Renate, then they will come. The series of events in this procedural text extract (51) are divided by gam. (51) Niuw nahaw margareng-margareng gam, niuw coconut scrape moving.towards.completion-CONT TERM coconut nang kuwar-an. MED wring.out-IRR Having finished the grating, then wring out the coconut milk. The first event in (52), the process of ‘remaining’ until the time indicated by the temporal noun aruwahaw ‘afternoon’, is separated by gam from the other actions which follow. (52) Kerolin badey yiel-yiel aruwahaw gam sug di Carolyn be go-CONT afternoon TERM wash SEQ.REAL giram soy margareng-margareng di yiel slit.gong.drum stab moving.towards.completion-CONT SEQ.REAL go aab-an dang-maham. house-LOC see-1PL.EXC Carolyn remained until afternoon then she washed, finished talking on the radio and she went to the house (and) saw us.
4.7 Resultative conjunction nanganang Nanganang is a conjunction which links clauses or sentences in a reason-result relationship. The excerpt from a narrative in example (53) illustrates the reason-result relationship between sentences. The initial behaviour of the young girl results in the axe (man) noticing and then acting. His informing her of the idea of travelling to the island causes the girl to make a decision to go with him. (53) Nahal wudiy yin bad tin-iy tam-iy dung-ad time all 3SG not mother-3SG.POSS father-3SG.POSS follow-3PL wum-an di-yiel tiyaham yin day aab-an sag badey garden-LOC 3PL-go not 3SG TEMP.PROX house-LOC LIM be bi tin-iy tam-iy suboud wum-an di-yiel. SEQ.IRR mother-3SG.POSS father-3SG.POSS 3PL.RFLX garden-LOC 3PL-go Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing 91
Naag naag yiel-yiel. Nanganang fang nang man niek peen MED.LOC MED.LOC go-CONT therefore adze MED FOC baby woman nang naag nahal wudiy dang naag naag yiel-yiel. MED MED.LOC time all see MED.LOC MED.LOC go-CONT Nanganang sarir siy taan-an nan biliyey tamuol. therefore descend come ground-LOC there transform.into man Tey biliyey tamuol tey-tey di niek peen nang put transform.into man do-CONT SEQ.REAL baby woman MED buol, ‘Tam yoy waag wiy ta-yiel-an tam waag wiy tell DUAL FUT canoe INST 1PL.INC-go-IRR DUAL canoe INST ta-yiel moot yiy-an ta-dang-an Yiy-an ta-dang 1PL.INC-go island fish-LOC 1PL.INC-see-IRR fish-LOC 1PL.INC-see bi ta-siy-an teet-an.’ Nanganang niek peen SEQ.IRR 1PL.INC-come-IRR village-LOC therefore baby woman nang yin kas kane, ‘Maluonang’, maneg yiel waag-an yagahay. MED 3SG say saying true CONTRA go canoe-LOC climb All the time she (the girl) did not go to the garden with her parents, she just stayed in the house, her parents would go to the garden themselves. This continued. And so the axe (in the house) noticed that girl always doing the same thing. So the axe came down to the ground and changed into a man. He changed into a man and told the girl, ‘We both will travel by canoe, we will both go by canoe to the island, catching fish. We will catch fish and we will come back home.’ And so the girl thought, ‘This is true’, and climbed onto the canoe. The following example (54), taken from a narrative, tells first that the agent sees something. Then the speaker uses nanganang to indicate the agent’s resulting course of action. (54) Yiy peen dang-ad kat-ad di-sarir nanganang fish woman see-3PL hair-3PL.POSS 3PL-descend therefore yuok mun bing siy waag-an yagahay. fear again swim come canoe-LOC climb He saw the mermaids, with their hair falling down and so he was afraid, swam back (and) climbed into the canoe. In the piece of narrative in (55), nanganang provides the linkage between sentences telling of the girl’s lazy actions and the sentences that report her resulting treatment, and the father’s resulting action. (55) Wun teiy man sag. Ta-maam miniy fang 2SG buttocks FOC LIM 2SG.POSS-father 3SG.POSS adze mumuom. Wun bad ding-maham bid ta-par roast.over.hot.stones 2SG not overhang-1PL.EXC COM 1PL.INC-walk tiyaham wun day balag-balag aab-an sag badey nang not 2SG TEMP.PROX freely-CONT house-LOC LIM be MED 92 Carolyn Finamor
miniy yil-iy doum nahal wudiy dang-mom bi badey PURP inside-3SG.POSS futile time all see-2SG SEQ.IRR be badey. Nanganang ab-youm yiel moot-an tey-mom nanganang be therefore get-2SG go island-LOC put-2SG therefore ta-maam miniy fang mumuom. 2SG.POSS-father 3SG.POSS adze roast.over.hot.stones You are just lazy. Your father burnt his adze. You don’t follow us when we walk (to the garden), because you just stay and do nothing in the house all the time, it (the adze) saw you. And so he took you and went to the island and put you there and so your father burnt his adze.
4.8 Contraexpectation conjunction maneg/mangeg/manegan The conjunction maneg indicates that the next event (or series of events) mentioned is an unexpected sequel to the events of the previous clause or sentence to which it links back. The contraexpectation can be preceded by speech (such as an imperative) or another kind of event. The conjunction maneg often occurs alone as in example (57), but sometimes it occurs with another conjunction, such as gam maneg in (56), maneg nanganang in (58), maneg di in (59), (62). The next two examples, (56)–(57) show speech from one participant followed by an unexpected action by another participant. (56) Di-siy nanganang wag-ad sag, ‘Di-yiel a-siy’, 3PL-come therefore shout-3PL LIM 3PL-go 2PL-come gam maneg tam di-yiel-yiel. TERM CONTRA DUAL 3PL-go-CONT They came and so they shouted, ‘They are going, you come’, but (contrary to expectation) the two of them went. The following example (57) is also part of example (53). (57) ‘Yiy-an ta-dang bi ta-siy-an teet-an’. fish-LOC 1PL.INC-see SEQ.IRR 1PL.INC-come-IRR village-LOC Nanganang niek peen nang yin kas kane, ‘Maluonang’, therefore baby woman MED 3SG say saying true maneg yiel waag-an yagahay. CONTRA go canoe-LOC climb ‘We will catch fish and we will come back home.’ And so the girl thought, ‘This is true’, and (contrary to established expectations) climbed onto the canoe. Often maneg follows a clause containing a verb of perception. In (58) this verb is dang-dang ‘see-CONT’ (referring to the realisation that the character is naked) which is followed by an unexpected event in the action of the mermaid. (58) Abang ey naag dang nanganang waag tar duguw-ahay something hey PROX.LOC see therefore canoe leave leap-COMPL bing sarir miniy gam muguw-an yamer fililiy nanganang swim descend PURP TERM middle-LOC skirt lose therefore Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing 93
maley dang-dang nang yin kawnahaw sag maneg nanganang mun eye see-CONT MED 3SG naked LIM CONTRA therefore again yamer luong wud yiel tar mermeg bad nang yin miniy skirt hear swim go leave mermaid INDEF MED 3SG 3SG.POSS yamer ab yiel tahaw ning doos matiyaw fangey-an badey. skirt get go tie PROX sit.down stone top-LOC be He saw something and so jumped out of the canoe in order to swim down then he lost his laplap and so he looked and saw that he was naked and so he swam to the laplap, but the mermaid took his laplap and sat on it on a stone. The conjunction maneg sometimes joins an anticipated event to an unexpected event which happened (or might happen) instead, as in (59)–(61). (59) Noran, Teteriy ya-yiel-an maneg di rahan fus. yesterday Teterai 1SG-go-IRR CONTRA SEQ.REAL water appear Yesterday I was going to Teterai, but the river was high. (60) Day awul pas nan filiel sarir palul TEMP.PROX fishing.hook lift.object there unroll descend run yiel yiel badangy-ahay maneg nang tyaham. go go throw-COMPL CONTRA MED not He was just about to take a line, unroll it, run and throw out a line but then he decided not to. (61) Dang-dang liel di badiy rahan wud sarir yiel see-CONT DUR SEQ.REAL get.up water swim descend go toy-an maneg di tiyaham. hold-IRR CONTRA SEQ.REAL not She was looking there and dived in to hold him but to no avail. The conjunction mangeg, which is a reduplicated form of maneg, indicates the continuous or simultaneous aspect of the time of the event and the unexpected event. In (62) the event mentioned just before mangeg and the unexpected event are happening at the same time. This example is a repeat of example (35). (62) Nahal bad, yiliy-youm kas-kas bi Karalena tam time INDEF insides-2SG.POSS say-CONT SEQ.IRR Karalena DUAL a-wud miniy o mahas-an wud-wud bi ninimieng 2PL-dive PURP or sea-LOC swim.in.sea-CONT SEQ.IRR shell nalaluw paniy nang dang-dang nang pil wa-yiel yoy young some MED see-CONT MED gather 2SG-go FUT kas-an kane, ‘Ninimieng ning wudiy ningiy-ad sag’, say-IRR saying shell PROX all good-3PL LIM mangeg bi sup bid di-badey. CONTRA.CONT SEQ.IRR poisonous.shell COM 3PL-be One day, when you and Karalena desire and you go diving or swimming in the sea and you see some small shells that you want to collect, you will think, ‘All of these shells are good ones’, but a dangerous shell might be there with them. 94 Carolyn Finamor
The following example (63) is from a narrative concerning a dugong which is trapped in a section of the ocean by a rope, but thinks that it can escape with its parents. (63) Tin-iy tam-iy di-siy d-ab-ab di mother-3SG.POSS father-3SG.POSS 3PL-come 3PL-get-CONT SEQ.REAL di-yiel di-yiel di-yiel war dinging. Mangeg di 3PL-go 3PL-go 3PL-go rope tighten CONTRA.CONT SEQ.REAL tin-iy tam-iy du-palul di-yiel-yiel bi naluw mother-3SG.POSS father-3SG.POSS 3PL-run 3PL-go-CONT SEQ.IRR child yin mun suoy basul bi salngiy bi badey. 3SG again reverse return SEQ.IRR block.from.leaving SEQ.IRR be Its mother and father came, they took it and went a long way and the rope tightened. But the parents kept going and the child came back again and had to stop himself from going, and stayed. The suffixed conjunction manegan in (64) includes the irrealis mode suffix indicating that the events are not real at the time of utterance. (64) Wun yoy songay miniy lam dang kas-an kane, ‘Kar bad 2SG FUT long.way 3SG.POSS lamp see say-IRR saying car INDEF man siy’. Maneg-an wa-yiel-yiel gam, yoy badiy watalahay-an FOC come CONTRA-IRR 2SG-go-CONT TERM FUT get.up rise.up-IRR gabey-an. above-LOC You will see its lamp from far away and you may think, ‘A car is coming’. But as you are going (to see it), it goes up to the sky.
5 Cohesive strategies Apart from the use of conjunctions to link clauses and sentences, Awad Bing has other strategies for providing cohesion in a text. Two of these strategies, the use of the clausal pro-form, and the use of cataphoric and anaphoric semblatives, are discussed in the following sections.
5.1 Clausal pro-form In some text genres a sentence following another often starts with a clause which repeats the information given in the last clause of the preceding sentence. This recapitulated clause backgrounds the information by repeating it, and links in this manner the information of the previous sentence with the new information which follows (Foley 1986:200). In Awad Bing, this recapitulation, or tail-head linkage, is a strategy which is often used to link information between sentences. A single form, or pro-form, can also be used to denote tail-head linkage. The pro-form stands for a clause, and as such it is found in the majority of cases to occur with a conjunction or combination of conjunctions. The pro- form serves as a ‘dummy’ clause (Ross 1994). Certain interclausal relations can be perceived as relations between successive sentences rather than clauses, and the way in Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing 95 which this is done in Awad Bing is to express first the proclausal nagaag and follow it immediately by the expression for the appropriate interclausal relation. Often the most convenient English free translation is ‘(and) that having happened’ or ‘after that’ which relates back to the previous event or state. To illustrate the usage of this pro-form I will refer to the short text shown in examples (65)–(73) below. The text links sentences by a tail-head strategy using the pro-form at the beginning of sentences (69)–(72). The anaphoric semblative naag in examples (67)–(68) (see §5.2.1) is employed with a predicate, differentiating it from the anaphoric function of nagaag which stands for an entire clause.
Fishing text by Nus Baran of Yamai village6 (65) Ariya ning yin yiduom mow mahas mamas-mamas OK PROX 3SG night HAB sea dry-CONT bi mow di-sinin miniy bing. SEQ.IRR HAB 3PL-shine.torch 3SG.POSS talk OK, this is a talk about the (time when) the tide goes out (lit. sea dries) and they (fish by) lighting their lamps. (66) Yiduom mow tamuolpeen mow yiduom mahas mamas-mamas night HAB people HAB night sea dry-CONT bi warmahan bid mow di-yiel du-tut-tut. SEQ.IRR poisonous.roots COM HAB 3PL-go 3PL-poison-CONT At night when the tide goes out people go poison (the fish) with poisonous roots. (67) Yin mow naag du-wuot-wuot bi mow yiy 3SG HAB MED.LOC 3PL-perform.task-CONT SEQ.IRR HAB fish di-pil-pil kief di-pil-pil yiy wangeey-wangeey bid. 3PL-gather-CONT fish.type 3PL-gather-CONT fish big-PL COM They usually do it like that and they gather fish, reef fish, and big fish too. (68) Naag du-wuot-wuot bi mow di-sinin MED.LOC 3PL-perform.task-CONT SEQ.IRR HAB 3PL-shine.torch di-par-par yiel yiel mahas wutut-wutut nang 3PL-walk-CONT go go sea tide.coming.in-CONT MED mow taan-an di-sarir-sarir. HAB ground-LOC 3PL-descend-CONT That’s what they do and they walk around looking for fish with the light until the tide comes in then they will come back (off the reef) to the shore. (69) Nagaag bi di-siy taan-an minid aab aab mow PRO SEQ.IRR 3PL-come ground-LOC 1PL.INC.POSS house house HAB yahaw di-tey-tey, aning du-nuon-nuon yiy di-yaw-yaw fire 3PL-do-CONT banana 3PL-roast-CONT fish 3PL-smoke-CONT
6 This text is included with Nus Baran’s permission. Mr Baran is an elderly member of the Awad Bing people, who related the story to me orally while I recorded it in 2001 in Yamai village during a conversation. It was then transcribed and edited only to remove hesitations. 96 Carolyn Finamor
bi gus-an du-gus-gus. SEQ.IRR bamboo.section-LOC 3PL-fill.bamboo.section-CONT Given that, they come ashore (and) they light fires in each of our houses, roast bananas, smoke fish and put them in bamboo sections. (70) Nagaag wudirahay bi di-pil paniy gim-uong abahay-an PRO sun.rising SEQ.IRR 3PL-gather some sell-NOM place-LOC di-yiel-yiel, paniy mow minid suur du-lung-lung. 3PL-go-CONT some HAB 1PL.INC.POSS soup 3PL-drink-CONT That having happened, at sunrise they gather them, some go to the market, and some eat their boiled food (lit. drink their soup). (71) Nagaag bi paniy nang mow gabiy bid nahal PRO SEQ.IRR some MED HAB mountain.people COM time di-tey-tey bi yiy paniy gabiy di-paan-ad bi 3PL-do-CONT SEQ.IRR fish some mountain.people 3PL-give-3PL SEQ.IRR anging abang bid mow lang peen bid di-paan-ad. food something COM HAB beach woman COM 3PL-give-3PL That having happened some of them make a day with the mountain people and give some fish to the mountain people, and they (mountain people) also give other food to the coastal women. (72) Nagaag bi fow mun nahal di-tey-tey bi di-siy PRO SEQ.IRR new again time 3PL-do-CONT SEQ.IRR 3PL-come yiy naag mow wurat-ang di-tey-tey bi gabiy fish MED.LOC HAB work-ASSOC 3PL-do-CONT SEQ.IRR mountain.people bid anging abang mow naag di-siliyahay. COM food something HAB MED.LOC 3PL-exchange.food Given that, they arrange to meet on a later day and they come with the fish they had processed and exchange them for other food with the mountain people. (73) Day nang sag. TEMP.PROX MED LIM That’s all.
5.2 Anaphoric and cataphoric semblatives nieg, naag Awad Bing uses the semblative forms naag and nieg to perform the cohesive function of tracking events coreferentially. They do not necessarily act coreferentially with a phrase or particular event. Rather, the coreferential scope of these endophoric forms (both anaphoric and cataphoric) may be over a clause or a sentence, or an entire paragraph or discourse. When used as endophors, naag and nieg act as a pro-form standing for the whole of an action, event or speech event and indicate that it is, was, or will be done ‘in this manner.’ The use of i tok olsem ‘said in this manner’ in Tok Pisin, to introduce both direct and indirect quotes (Woolford 1979:118), suggests functional equivalence to the uses of nieg and naag in introducing events in Awad Bing. Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing 97
These forms, naag and nieg, are used elsewhere as locational adverbs. The following three sections describe the locational adverbs, the anaphor naag and the cataphor nieg.
5.2.1 Use of nieg, naag, noog as locational adverbs There is a threeway deictic contrast in Awad Bing, using the deictic demonstratives ning ‘this’, nang ‘that’, and nung ‘that yonder’. Nang has a secondary use as a marker of dependent clauses (see §3.1–§3.3.5). The corresponding set of locational adverbs are nieg ‘here’, naag ‘there’, noog ‘yonder’. The contrast in this set is in the idea that the adverbs refer to a location near the speaker (nieg), near the hearer (naag), and distant from both of them (noog). Example (74) demonstrates the proximal distance adverb nieg. (74) ‘Nieg siy nieg ey doos’ taab yong-an di-tey-tey. PROX.LOC come PROX.LOC hey sit.down mat shade-LOC 3PL-do-CONT ‘Come this way, sit down over here’, and they put the mat in the shade. Naag and noog are used as medial and far distance locational adverbs, as in examples (75) and (76). (75) War gogow wiy a-tahaw-yahaw bi ab-yahaw naag rope strong INST 2PL-bind.up-1SG SEQ.IRR get-1SG MED.LOC teet-an ta-yiel-an. village-LOC 1PL.INC-go-IRR Tie me up with rope and take me there to the village. (76) O Muad taban-iy sibiy-an di sanguma ten nang oh Mod.river head-3SG.POSS INT-LOC SEQ.REAL sorcerer ten MED yin noog di-par di-yiel nang. 3SG DIST.LOC 3PL-walk 3PL-go MED Oh, at the head waters of the Mod river those ten sorcerers walked over to that place.
5.2.2 Anaphoric naag The anaphoric semblative naag ‘like that’ functions adverbially, expressing manner and referring back to the previous procedure. In the text example (67) (repeated here as 77), naag is referring back to the previous action of poisoning fish with poisonous roots (66). (77) Yin mow naag du-wuot-wuot bi mow yiy 3SG HAB MED.LOC 3PL-perform.task-CONT SEQ.IRR HAB fish di-pil-pil kief di-pil-pil yiy wangeey-wangeey bid. 3PL-gather-CONT fish.type 3PL-gather-CONT fish big-PL COM They usually do it like that and they gather fish, reef fish, and big fish too. When the semblative naag occurs modifying a verb of speaking, it expresses an adverbial function ‘like that’. For example, in (78), naag is referring back to the preceding speech yien-yien-an di-badey ‘they are sleeping’. (78) ‘Sey yiduom di-badey du-doos di-badey yiel-yiel nanganang hey night 3PL-be 3PL-sit 3PL-be go-CONT therefore 98 Carolyn Finamor
yien-yien-an di-badey.’ Ariya nam man yin bad naag sleep-CONT-IRR 3PL-be OK 1SG FOC 3SG not MED.LOC kas-kas tiyaham tiyaham di-yien di-badey. say-CONT not not 3PL-sleep 3PL-be ‘Hey, they stayed for the night and are still there so they are sleeping.’ OK, he didn’t tell me that, they were not asleep. Anaphoric naag sometimes refers back to two or more earlier events in the preceding sentence or sentences. In example (79), which can also be seen in (53) above, the first sentence is the antecedent of naag, which is repeated to indicate that the events referred to took place many times. Later in the example naag naag occurs again as a different participant perceives the same repeated actions. (79) Ariya, nahal wudiy yin bad tin-iy tam-iy OK time all 3SG not mother-3SG.POSS father-3SG.POSS dung-ad wum-an di-yiel tiyaham yin day aab-an sag follow-3PL garden-LOC 3PL-go not 3SG TEMP.PROX house-LOC LIM badey bi tin-iy tam-iy suboud wum-an be SEQ.IRR mother-3SG.POSS father-3SG.POSS 3PL.RFLX garden-LOC di-yiel. Naag naag yiel-yiel. Nanganang fang nang man niek 3PL-go MED.LOC MED.LOC go-CONT therefore adze MED FOC baby peen nang naag nahal wudiy dang naag naag yiel-yiel. woman MED MED.LOC time all see MED.LOC MED.LOC go-CONT OK, all the time she did not go to the garden with her parents, she just stayed in the house, her parents would go to the garden themselves. This continued. And so, the axe (in the house) noticed that the girl was doing this same thing all the time. In example (80) naag naag refers to the previous series of events, again indicating that they were carried out repeatedly. (80) Rahan wanwaney nay margareng yiel yes nang water hot cook moving.towards.completion go fill.up MED ab yay-iy pang naluw peen yay-iy pang get chin-3SG.POSS plug.up child woman chin-3SG.POSS plug.up rahan wanwaney dinahay wiy yay-iy nang muom-ad water hot heat.up INST chin-3SG.POSS MED roast-3PL sag peen nang du-sug. Naag naag yiel-yiel yiel. LIM woman MED 3PL-wash MED.LOC MED.LOC go-CONT go Yay-iy nang duwiy-ad pow bad bing ab-ab. chin-3SG.POSS MED yell-3PL open INDEF talk get-CONT She finished boiling the water, went and filled it and plugged up the jaw of the young girl with the hot water that had been boiled, they warmed the jaw of the girl, they washed her. They did that many times. Her jaw opened, she was able to talk. Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing 99
In addition naag can track a previously mentioned referent or participant. In (81) it refers first to different kinds of sup shells and then to different kinds of general shells. (81) Ninimieng dadamey wangey-ad sup. Wawaw wangeey shell bad name-3PL.POSS poisonous.shell cover.term big sup de yiel-iy-an yin sup yin poisonous.shell ADD.REAL inside-3SG.POSS-LOC 3SG poisonous.shell 3SG kubol kubol fuw nein wahalbad o dimadbad naag another another begin here four or five MED.LOC sup. Yin minid kubol naag bid di-badey. poisonous.shell 3SG 1PL.INC.POSS another MED.LOC COM 3PL-be The bad shells are called sup. The reference term is sup, and there are maybe four or five different (ones) of that type. There are different kinds of our shells like that.
5.2.3 Cataphoric nieg The cataphoric semblative nieg ‘like this’ in the following example (82), occurs at the beginning of a discourse and refers to the following discourse. (82) Nam wangey-yahaw Tangday. Ariya waag miniy barnun 1SG name-1SG.POSS Tangdai OK canoe 3SG.POSS story waag nang ey nieg ma-sab-an. canoe MED hey PROX.LOC 1PL.EXC-carve-IRR My name is Tangdai. OK, this is a story about a canoe, we carve canoes like this. The cataphor nieg can also occur within a clause introducing a quote, and nieg then points to the immediately following quote, as in (83). (83) Gam di fuw di-filiy yiel nieg di-buol-maham TERM SEQ.REAL begin 3PL-tell.story go PROX.LOC 3PL-tell-1PL.EXC kane, ‘O fangey-an naan tamuol dadamey o tamlangad saying oh top-LOC there man bad or people.who.perform.action o sanguma tamlangad nang tamuol dimad ruw wudiy or sorcerer people.who.perform.action MED man hand two all gabiy fangey-an di-badey nang man du-fung-ad di mountain.people top-LOC 3PL-be MED FOC 3PL-kill-3PL SEQ.REAL di-rahaw Muad rahan-an di-baleng di-sarir’. 3PL-tie Mod.river water-LOC 3PL-throw.down 3PL-descend Then they told me the story like this, ‘There on the mountain they killed bad men or people who work sorcery, they killed ten people who lived on the mountain and they took them and threw them into the Mod river’. The first occurrence of nieg in (84) points to the quote, and the second nieg is referring to the action of appearing out of the water. 100 Carolyn Finamor
(84) Du-dung-youm di nieg du-buol mam kane, ‘Peen 3PL-follow-3SG SEQ.REAL PROX.LOC 3PL-tell 1PL.EXC saying woman nung singilis sag sir di-bing-bing. Gahal yiel-iy-an DIST singlet LIM fill 3PL-swim-CONT pants inside-3SG.POSS-LOC di singilis fangey-an’. Di maley nang tamuol SEQ.REAL singlet top-LOC SEQ.REAL eye MED man miniid an dang-dang doum nanganang paan ab siy 1PL.INC.POSS 2PL see-CONT futile therefore give get come nieg fus-fus. PROX.LOC appear-CONT They followed her and told us, ‘That girl only wore a singlet to swim. (She had) underpants and a singlet on top.’ She looked around for our men but you all saw nothing, so she swam quickly (lit. give get come) to get out. Again in example (85), nieg nieg functions cataphorically, referring to the immediately following clauses, describing the future actions of two participants. (85) Nam nieg nieg nanganang nam yoy 1SG PROX.LOC PROX.LOC therefore 1SG FUT niek tam ma-yiel-an tamuol ning ya-tar-an. baby DUAL 1PL-go-IRR man PROX 1SG-leave-IRR Both of us will do this, the baby and I will go and I will leave this man. The following direct quote (86) uses nieg to point ahead to the next clause aw-wahaw tahaw buol ‘my mouth tells/copies’. Again, nieg functions cataphorically, anticipating the manner in which the action of telling is to be done. (86) Ariya buwahay peen man kinkindiy buol, ‘Wun yoy sarir OK star woman FOC bird.type tell 2SG FUT descend wa-yiel buol an nieg aw-wahaw tahaw buol-an’. 2SG-go tell 2PL PROX.LOC mouth-1SG.POSS tie tell-IRR OK, the star woman told the little bird, ‘You will go down and tell him exactly what I am going to tell you (lit. like my mouth tells/copies)’. There is no empirical evidence for the usage of the far distance locational adverb, noog, as a cataphor or anaphor, however the proximal and medial distance forms nieg and naag exhibit an endophoric function, and the medial distance demonstrative nang is used to mark the end of most types of dependent clauses. These forms (nang, nieg and naag) occur quite often in discourse, no doubt for underlying pragmatic reasons, which are in need of further research. The varied semantic domains of these conjunctive, dependent, endophoric and pro-forms are worthy of further study because they have important cohesive functions in Awad Bing discourse.
References Bennett, D. and J. Bennett, 1998, Awad Bing grammar essentials. Papers in Austronesian linguistics 5, 149–275. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Elements of sentence construction and cohesion in Awad Bing 101
Foley, William, 1986, The Papuan languages of New Guinea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mithun, Marianne, 1995, On the relativity of irreality. In Joan Bybee and Suzanne Fleischman, eds Modality in grammar and discourse, 367–388. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Ross, Malcolm D., 1988, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of Western Melanesia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. —— 1994, Describing inter-clausal relations in Takia. In Ger P. Reesink, ed. Topics in descriptive Austronesian linguistics, 40–85. Semaian, 11. Leiden: Vakgroep Talen en Culturen van Zuidoost-Azië en Oceanië, Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden. —— 1999, Exploring Metatypy: how does contact-based typological change come about? Keynote talk given at the Australian Linguistic Society annual meeting, Perth, Australia. Waters, Bruce, Salme Tuominen and Judy Rehburg, 1993, Takia: a Western Oceanic language of Papua New Guinea. Unpublished MS, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ukarumpa. PNG. Woolford, Ellen, 1979, The developing complementiser system of Tok Pisin: syntactic change in progress. In Hill, Kenneth, ed. The genesis of language, 108–124. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Karoma Inc.
4 Tense and mood pairs in Umbu–Ungu
JUNE HEAD
1 Introduction1 The aim of this paper is to describe and illustrate the pairing of tense and mood verb suffixes in Umbu–Ungu. Umbu–Ungu is a Papuan language spoken by about 32,000 people in the Western Highlands and Southern Highlands provinces of Papua New Guinea. It is a member of the Eastern Central Trans New Guinea phylum, East New Guinea Highlands stock, Central family, Hagen sub-family of languages (Wurm 1975). Umbu–Ungu is also known as Kaugel or Gawigl, as in Wurm (1975) and Foley (1986). These are variant pronunciations of the name of the river which runs through the area, known locally as Kakoli. The people are happy to be called the Kaugel people, but they insist that the language they speak is Umbu–Ungu. Closely related to Umbu–Ungu are Imbo-Ungu, spoken by some 30,000 people in the Southern Highlands Province, and Bo-Ung, spoken by about 30,000 people in the Western Highlands Province. Each of these three names has the meaning of ‘local language’. The data on which this paper is based was provided by Kaugel people, particularly Sua, Ake, Bereme Molo, and Garu Puli, mainly while the author was living in Palinoli village, working under the auspices of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, during the years 1969– 1979. The author has continued to live and work in the language area to this present day, developing and refining her understanding of the language.
2 Verbs Verbs consist of a stem plus suffixes indicating tense or mood and person–number. Verbs are either dependent or independent. Dependent verbs are obligatorily suffixed for person but do not reflect tense, so will not be discussed further here. Independent verbs,
1 The first version of this paper was presented at the International Conference on Papuan Languages in Madang, Papua New Guinea 1991, and subsequently appeared, slightly revised, in Language and Linguistics in Melanesia (1993). In the initial presentation, several features of the Umbu–Ungu verbs were presented. In this present paper focus is on the pairing of the verbs. The material has been expanded to include the imperative mood pair, and is presented in an easier to read format. The new observation in this current paper is that the first of each of these five tense and mood pairs is closer to the speaker in some way and the other further away. 103 104 June Head which obligatorily occur wherever there is a change of tense/mood or person, take a specific tense or mood suffix followed by a person–number suffix. Independent verbs are the ones in focus in this paper. All verb stems end in a vowel. Most verb stems remain constant, except when followed by a tense or mood suffix which is also a vowel, in which case the final vowel of the stem is replaced by the vowel of the suffix. There is a different set of person–number suffixes for each tense or mood. For example, for the verb mundu ‘to send’, the second person dual suffix is -ngili, -mbili, -ngele, -le, -lio, -mbele or -mbela, depending on the tense or mood marked in the verb.2 This means that person–number suffixes also include some indication of tense or mood.3 All of the tense and mood suffixes, and the full person–number paradigm which accompanies each of them, will be shown in tables throughout the discussion which follows.
3 Tense There are three pairs of tenses: past, present, and future. Each pair could be classified as closer and more distant. Each pair shares the same subject person–number markers, except for some minor differences between the person–number suffix sets of the two future tenses. Tense is marked on the verb by stress placement and, for four of the six tenses, by a suffix. Stress always falls on the tense suffix when one occurs. Near past and expected future tenses have no tense suffix. In the case of near past the stress falls on the final syllable of the stem. For the expected future the stress falls on the final syllable of the word. In the tables below, the stressed syllables will be indicated by an acute over the vowel.4
3.1 Past tense pair The two past tenses are near past and distant past. Near past covers any past time today or yesterday; distant past any past time beyond that. Because of this, near past is usually heard only in conversation, or in the retelling of personal experiences which have only just happened. The distant past is that used in most narrative discourse, and old myths and legends. The distant past tense is marked by the stressed suffix -ri ~ -ru; -ri occurring with stems ending in front vowels, and -ru with stems ending in back vowels,5 except that, where the vowel of the person–number suffix which follows the tense marker is the front vowel i, the -ri form always occurs, as can be seen in Table 1. The near past, as mentioned in §3 above, is marked by stress on the final syllable of the verb stem. The lack of a near past tense suffix is indicated in Table 1 and the following examples, by -Ø. It will be observed from Table 1 that there is no differentiation between the second and third person forms in dual, or between the second and third person forms in plural. This is a feature of Umbu–Ungu verbs; second and third person are only differentiated in the singular.
2 Vowel harmony produces some variation in person–number suffixes and is discussed in Head (1993). 3 In the examples of verbs given throughout the paper, the tense or mood information is glossed only for the tense or mood suffix; it is not repeated in the gloss for the person–number suffix. 4 Stress is not usually written on Umbu–Ungu words, except on a few pairs of words which are differentiated only by stress. 5 There are only five vowels in Umbu–Ungu, a, e, i, o, u. Verb suffix allomorphs tend to be conditioned either by a front-back or a high-low dichotomy. The vowel /a/ does not fit readily into this pattern, so there are no verb stems ending with the /a/ vowel. Tense and mood pairs in Umbu–Ungu 105
Table 1: Past tense suffixes with matching person–number markers using the verb pu ‘to go’ Subject person Near past Distant past 1st singular pú-Ø-ndu pu-rú-ndu 1st dual pú-Ø-mbulu pu-rú-mbulu 1st plural pú-Ø-mulu pu-rú-mulu 2nd singular pú-Ø-nu pu-rú-nu 3rd singular pú-Ø-mu pu-rú-mu 2nd and 3rd dual pú-Ø-ngili pu-rí-ngili 2nd and 3rd plural pú-Ø-ngi pu-rí-ngi
Example (1) illustrates near past tense.6 (1) ‘Lanie te-na mo-le-mo-ye?’ your.father what-LOC be-CUST-3S-QU ‘Yu lama-na pu-Ø-mu.’ he bush-LOC go-NPST-3S ‘Where is your father?’ ‘He has gone to the bush.’ Example (2) illustrates distant past tense. (2) Ou ponie-na lip pu-ru-mbulu. before year-LOC leave go-DPST-1DL We went on leave last year. The near past tense, plus liemo ‘if’, is also used in the factual conditional sentence, as in example (3). (3) Ye awili-mu naa o-Ø-mu liemo maku naa to-Ø-molo. man big-SDA not come-NPST-3S if meet not hit-EXPFUT-1PL If the important man does not come we will not meet.
3.2 Present tense pair The two present tenses are present awareness and present action. They both denote an action going on at the present time, the difference between them being that the present awareness tense denotes an action of which the speaker has only just become aware, even though it may have been going on for some little time.
6 In the examples, the words which illustrate the tense or mood in focus will be shown in bold type. Abbreviations used in the examples are: CUST customary LOC locative S singular DEP dependent NPST near past SDA singular definite article DESFUT desired future PDA plural definite article SUBJ subjunctive DL dual PL plural 1 first person DPST distant past POLIMP polite imperative 2 second person DUB dubitative PRAC present action 3 third person EMIMP emphatic imperative PRAW present awareness EXPFUT expected future QU question 106 June Head
The present awareness tense is marked by the stressed suffix -pa ~ -pe ~ -mba ~ -mbe. The -pa occurs with stems ending in low vowels; -pe with stems ending in high vowels; -mba with stems consisting of only a low vowel, or of one syllable beginning with a nasal consonant followed by a low vowel, -mbe with stems of one syllable beginning with a nasal consonant followed by a high vowel. The present action tense is marked by the stressed suffix -kV, in which V stands for any vowel, which will always match the final vowel of the verb stem.
Table 2: Present tense suffixes with matching person–number markers using the verb o ‘to come’ Subject person Present awareness Present action 1st singular o-mbá-ro o-kó-ro 1st dual o-mbá-mbolo o-kó-mbolo 1st plural o-mbá-molo o-kó-molo 2nd singular o-mbá-no o-kó-no 3rd singular o-mbá-mo o-kó-mo 2nd and 3rd dual o-mbá-mbele o-kó-mbele 2nd and 3rd plural o-mbá-mele o-kó-mele
Examples (4) and (5) illustrate the present awareness tense. (4) Mulu to-pa-mo. sky hit-PRAW-3S It is thundering (and I have only just now become aware of it)./ Oh, it’s thundering. (5) Nu o-mba-no. you come-PRAW-2S You have arrived (and I am just now aware of your presence)./ Oh, you’ve arrived. Example (6) illustrates both present action (in first sentence) and present awareness (in second sentence). (6) ‘Ne unjuna kera kano-ko-no-ye.’ ‘O, kinie kano-pa-ro.’ nearby tree-LOC bird see-PRAC-2S-QU yes now see-PRAW-1S ‘Can you see the bird in that tree just over there?’ ‘Yes, now I see it.’
3.3 Future tense pair The two future tenses are desired future and expected future. This pair hangs together more loosely than the other two tense pairs. The expected future tense, which denotes expected or anticipated events, is marked by stress on the final syllable of the word as mentioned in §3 above. The lack of an expected future tense suffix is indicated, in Table 3 and the following examples, by -Ø. The desired future tense denotes one’s intention or desire. It is marked by the stressed suffix -a ~ -e; -a on stems ending with low vowels, and -e on stems ending with high vowels. Where this marker occurs it replaces the final vowel Tense and mood pairs in Umbu–Ungu 107 of the stem, except in the case of verb stems ending with i, when the i is retained as palatalisation. In third person singular, the desired future tense suffix does not occur and stress falls on the final vowel of the stem. The two future tenses do not have totally identical person–number forms, as each has quite different third person singular forms, and the vowels are different in the dual and plural forms, as can be seen in Table 3.
Table 3: Future tense suffixes with appropriate person–number markers using the verb kano ‘to see’ Subject person Desired future Expected future 1st singular kan-á-mbo kano-Ø-mbó 1st dual kan-á-mbili kano-Ø-mboló 1st plural kan-á-mili kano-Ø-moló 2nd singular kan-á-ni kano-Ø-ní 3rd singular kanó-pili kano-Ø-mbá 2nd and 3rd dual kan-á-ngili kano-Ø-ngelé 2nd and 3rd plural kan-á-ngi kano-Ø-ngé
Examples (7) and (8) illustrate the desired future. (7) Na pea p-a-mbili. I with go-DESFUT-1DL I want to go with you. (8) Kango-ma aye te-p-a-ngi. boy-PDA hunt do-go-DESFUT-3PL Let the boys go and hunt. Example (9) illustrates the expected future. (9) Pe yu o-Ø-mba kano-Ø-nge. later he come-EXPFUT-3S see-EXPFUT-3PL Later on when he comes they will see him. Because the -a ~ -e suffix normally marks imperative mood (see §4.1), and because of the semantic connotations, this desired future ‘tense’ could also be interpreted as hortative imperative mood, and therefore part of the imperative mood system. Originally, this is how we classified it. But the more we have worked with the language over the years, and the more we have heard how people use this form, the more we have come to the conclusion that it is used more in a desired or intended future sense than an imperative sense, especially in the first and third person forms. However this decision is not based entirely on meaning and general impression. Unlike the regular imperative mood forms (see §4.1) which reflect only second, or second and first persons, the desired future has first, second, and third person forms, which makes it more like the expected future. Also, although the person–number markers are different in the two future tenses, they bear more resemblance to each other than they do to the imperative forms. So, while the desired future tense perhaps falls somewhere between future tense and imperative mood, I have chosen to regard it as a future rather than an imperative. 108 June Head
4 Mood There are two pairs of moods: the two imperatives form one pair, and customary and subjunctive moods the other pair.7 Whereas for the tense pairs, the tense markers are different and the person–number markers match, in the mood pairs, the mood markers are identical, and the person–number markers are different.
4.1 Imperative mood pair The two imperative moods are emphatic imperative and polite imperative. The emphatic imperative has both first and second person forms. The second person forms are used to make strong commands, especially to those socially subordinate. The first person forms are used to encode immediate intention or desire as in example (12b) below. The polite imperative, which has only second person forms, is used to equals, or when an instruction being given is not so strong.8 The imperative marker is the stressed suffix -a ~ -e, where -a occurs on stems ending with low vowels, and -e occurs on stems ending with high vowels. Where the imperative marker occurs it replaces the final vowel of the stem, except in the case of stems ending with i when the i is retained as palatalisation. In the polite imperative singular form the imperative suffix does not occur and stress falls on the final syllable of the verb stem. The lack of a marker in this form is indicated in Table 4 and example (11), by -Ø.
Table 4: Imperative verb suffixes, with contrasting person–number markers, using the verb si ‘to give’ Subject person Emphatic imperative Polite imperative 1st singular si-é-mbo 1st dual si-é-mbolo 1st plural si-é-molo 2nd singular si-é sí-Ø-yo 2nd dual si-é-le si-é-lio 2nd plural si-é-me si-é-yo
Example (10) illustrates the emphatic imperative. (10) Kango talo, owa-mo manda t-a-le. boy two dog-SDA enough hit-EMIMP-2DL You two boys, stop hitting the dog! Example (11) illustrates the polite imperative.
7 Customary would normally be classified as an aspect, rather than a mood. However, because all other aspects in Umbu–Ungu are expressed by a combination of verbs, and because the language uses the same marker to indicate both subjunctive and customary, I have chosen to reflect what is emic to the language by calling them both moods. 8 The desired future sometimes functions like a hortative imperative, though only in second person forms, to denote a very polite command, closely equivalent to the word may in English. Tense and mood pairs in Umbu–Ungu 109
(11) Kou pundu si-Ø-yo. money loan give-POLIMP-2S Please give me a loan. Example (12) illustrates the comparative use of the desired future and emphatic imperative forms (see discussion in §3.3). The form in (12a) is used to indicate general intent, whereas the form in (12b) is used where the intention is to be acted on immediately. This comparison is only obvious in first person forms. (12) a. p-a-mili. go-DESFUT-1PL We want to go (sometime soon). b. p-a-molo. go-EMIMP-1PL Let’s go (immediately)! This comparison also comes out in church services where the leader of the service will say, ‘Let’s pray’, using the desired future form, then proceed to ask the congregation for prayer requests. He will say this form again several times over the next few minutes, then finally, when all prayer points have been shared and he is ready for them to get down to the business of praying he will once again say, ‘Let’s pray’, but this time using the emphatic imperative form. These two forms are given in example (13). (13) a. arenga t-a-mili. pray hit-DESFUT-1PL Let’s pray./We want to pray (sometime soon). b. arenga t-a-molo. pray hit-EMIMP-1PL Let’s pray (immediately)!
4.2 The customary and subjunctive moods The customary and subjunctive are also held together as a pair by the occurrence of the same suffix, -le ~ -li, and by stress falling on the final syllable of the word. The -le form occurs on stems ending in low vowels, and the -li on stems ending in high vowels. Except for the first person singular, the person–number markers for the customary mood are the same as for the present tense, which is fitting, as customary is what one could call a continuous present. Also, as can be seen in Table 5, there is a lot of similarity between the person–number forms of the two sets, except for the first and third singular forms. Some Umbu–Ungu morphophonemic rules come into play here. Where any two lV syllables (V = any vowel) occur together the first lV syllable is dropped. So, where a verb stem ending with lV occurs before the -le ~ -li mood marker, the final syllable of the stem is dropped. This rule also results in the -le ~ -li mood marker being dropped before the first person singular customary suffix -lio. In the case of the subjunctive, the mood marker vowel is dropped in first and third person singular forms so that the combination of lV plus -ka ~ -ke becomes -lka ~ -lke. 110 June Head
Table 5: Customary and subjunctive suffixes with somewhat similar person–number markers using the verb no ‘to eat’ Subject person Customary Subjunctive 1st singular no-lió no-l-ká 1st dual no-le-mboló no-le-mbolá 1st plural no-le-moló no-le-molá 2nd singular no-le-nó no-le-ná 3rd singular no-le-mó no-l-ká 2nd and 3rd dual no-le-mbelé no-le-mbelá 2nd and 3rd plural no-le-melé no-le-melá
Examples (14), (15), and (16) illustrate customary mood. (14) ‘Sako mongo no-le-mele-ye?’ ‘No-le-molo.’ choko fruit eat-CUST-2PL-QU eat-CUST-1PL ‘Do you(plural) eat choko fruit?’ ‘(Yes) we eat it.’ (15) ‘Karo me-mba ando-le-mo-ye?’ car carry-3S.DEP travel.about-CUST-3S-QU ‘Me-mba ando-le-mo.’ carry-3S.DEP travel.about-CUST-3S ‘Does he drive?’ ‘(Yes) he drives.’ (16) Ena mulu-na angi-li-mo. sun sky-LOC stand-CUST-3S The sun stands in the sky. Examples (17) and (18) illustrate subjunctive mood. (17) Yu naa9 to-le-mela. him not hit-SUBJ-3PL They wouldn’t have hurt him. (18) Yu kou si-li-na-nje papu. him money give-SUBJ-2S-DUB acceptable It probably would have been more acceptable for you to have given him the money. The subjunctive mood, plus the dubitative suffix, is also used in contrafactual conditional constructions, as in example (19).
9 The verbal negative is considered a proclitic in the related language Narak (Hainsworth and Johnson 1975), and a prefix in Kandawo (Graham 1991). However, Umbu–Ungu has only suffixes, no prefixes, and even though the verbal negator naa is phonologically closely tied to the verb which follows it, it also quite often has the inclusive clitic -la attached to it before the verb, as in yu naa-la pumu ‘He didn’t go either’. For that reason naa is regarded as a free form, as it is also in the related language Ku Waru, a dialect of Bo-Ung (Merlan and Rumsey 1991: Appendix B). Tense and mood pairs in Umbu–Ungu 111
(19) Kou mone le-l-ka-nje nu manda si-l-ke. stone money exist-SUBJ-3S-DUB you enough give-SUBJ-1S nalo te naa le-mo but one not exist-CUST-3S If I had any money I’d be willing to give you some but I don’t have any.
5 Conclusion These, then, are the three tense and two mood pairs in Umbu–Ungu, with some examples of how they occur in natural language. A major feature of the three tense pairs is the matching of the subject person–number markers, while the tense markers are different. In the case of the two mood pairs, the mood markers match and the subject person–number markers are different. These pairs account for all the tenses and moods which occur in Umbu–Ungu. This type of pairing does not occur anywhere else in the language, and, except for two future tenses in the Nii language (Stuckey 1974), I have seen no evidence of similar verb pairing in related languages. As I have worked on this paper, I have also realised that the first of each pair is closer to the speaker in some way, while the second is more distant. The difference may be one of time, as in the near past and distant past tenses, and to some extent the two future tenses. Also, in the two future tenses, the desired future, especially in the first person, always expresses some desired or intended action which is closer to the speaker emotionally than the expected future tense. Or it may be a difference in perception as in the case of the present awareness and present action tenses. As for the imperative mood forms, the emphatic forms are more likely to be used toward those closer to the speaker such as family members, especially spouses and children, while the polite forms would always be used toward those outside one’s immediate circle such as visitors or government officials. The difference between the customary and subjunctive moods is one of reality and irreality, in which the real events will obviously impact one more readily than the irreal. So it can be seen that, in all of these pairs, the first named in each case is either actually or psychologically closer to the speaker than the second.
References Foley, William, 1986, The Papuan languages of New Guinea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Graham, Mack, 1991, Kandawo grammar essentials. Unpublished MS, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ukarumpa, PNG. Hainsworth, Joan and Kay Johnson, 1975, Narak grammar sketch. Unpublished MS, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ukarumpa, PNG. Head, June, 1993, Observations on verb suffixes in Umbu–Ungu. Language and linguistics in Melanesia, vol. 24, no. 1, 63–70. Ukarumpa: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea. Merlan, Francesca and Alan Rumsey, 1991, Ku Waru language and segmentary politics in the western Nebilyer Valley, Papua New Guinea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 112 June Head
Stucky, Alfred, 1974, Nii verbs. Unpublished MS, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ukarumpa, PNG. Wurm, S.A., 1975, Eastern Central Trans New Guinea phylum languages. In S.A. Wurm, ed. New Guinea area languages and language study vol. 1: Papuan languages and the New Guinea linguistic scene, 461–526. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
5 Can verbs be cohesive? The multiple roles of wiing ‘do’ in Mangga Buang discourse
JOAN HOOLEY
1 Introduction 1.1 General In the midst of a study of the grammatical devices which contribute to cohesion in discourse in Mangga Buang, an Austronesian language of Papua New Guinea,1 it was a surprise to find that there are two verbs in the language which have a cohesive role. These verbs are nambe ‘resemble’ and wiing ‘do’. This paper touches only briefly on the cohesive functions of nambe. The paper’s main aim is to show the verb wiing in its various functions, both cohesive and non-cohesive. To this end, after a brief introduction to the language, the structure of Mangga Buang verbs is described, and then each of the functions of wiing ‘do’ is discussed and illustrated. Mangga Buang is spoken in an area of Papua New Guinea south west of Lae in Morobe Province. There are approximately 3000 speakers of the language, most of them living in villages and hamlets in the mountains at the lower end of the Snake River valley upstream from Mumeng, as well as in a couple of settlements near Bulolo. Others live and work elsewhere in the country, especially in Lae and Port Moresby. Those in the home area are subsistence gardeners, and some grow coffee, vegetables and fruit to sell at market. Mangga is the name of the largest village of the language area, and this name became part of the language name in order to distinguish it from the neighbouring Central Buang language, also called Mapos Buang. In Mangga Buang, pronouns, demonstratives and ellipsis all play an important part as cohesive devices in discourse (Healey 1988) while nouns and verbs play a less obvious part. The two verbs which are involved in providing cohesion in discourse, sometimes do so together, and often in company with demonstratives. The verb wiing ‘do’ will be discussed in detail in §3 and §4. The other verb, nambe ‘resemble, thus’, occurs very frequently in its two cohesive roles. The way in which nambe is most often used is to introduce a quotation. In this case, nambe points to the quotation which immediately follows it, but it does so as a connector
1 Mangga Buang belongs to the Huon Gulf family within the North New Guinea cluster of Western Oceanic Austronesian languages (Ross 1988). 113 114 Joan Hooley between the clause introducing the quotation and the quotation itself, so this is a type of cohesion by conjunction, the linking of adjacent parts within a discourse. However, perhaps a more significant contribution nambe makes to cohesion in discourse is by acting as a carrier of the demonstrative clitics as in example (1).2 (Note that nambêê is a form of nambe. See §1.2.) (1) Sa ka-ngg vu nambe ya-me le mando I neck-my she/he/it.gave thus we.PL.INCL-not will will.stay javuh ti jesin naah e. Ke, Môôh ayuuh will.together one will.again will.return not yes first.daughter and Valek yik sa ka-ngg vu nambêê-ja. third.daughter it I neck-my she/he/it.gave like-that I think that we will not be together again. Yes, First Daughter and Third Daughter, that is what I think. Both uses of nambe described above are illustrated in example (1). In the first line, nambe occurs alone linking the clause sa kangg vu ‘I thought’ with the following clause expressing the content of the thought. In its second occurrence, nambe is carrying the demonstrative clitic -ja ‘that near you’ and together they are pointing back to the thought stated at the end of the previous sentence. While nambe does have other functions, the two illustrated here are the only ones in which it makes a contribution to cohesion. At this point we will leave any further consideration of nambe until §4.2, where we will see examples of nambe and wiing ‘do’ working together to help provide cohesion in the text. The verb wiing also has several different functions, as does its English counterpart do (Halliday and Hasan 1976:113ff.). To help provide a more natural setting in which to view the operation of wiing, the next section gives a very brief summary of features of the grammatical structure of this particular Austronesian language and concludes with a brief statement of the sounds and some sound changes which the reader will encounter in the examples of Mangga Buang given throughout the paper.
1.2 Features of the Mangga Buang language In common with many other Oceanic Austronesian languages, Mangga Buang is an SVO language but its equative and attributive clauses are verbless. Some features that Mangga Buang has in common with many Oceanic Austronesian languages are: prepositions rather than postpositions; singular, dual, trial and plural pronouns; and two classes of nouns—those which are inalienably possessed, and those which are not. The noun phrase in Mangga Buang has the possessor first, then the head noun followed by any modifying noun, adjective, numeral, relative clause or deictic in that order, an order which is not uncommon in Oceanic Austronesian and other languages (Greenberg 1966). Noun phrases in my data3 usually have only two or three elements.
2 Abbreviations used in the examples in this paper are: CONT continuous; EXCL exclusive; INCL inclusive; PL plural. 3 Texts used as the data for this study were collected while I lived in Mangga village, working under the auspices of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, during 1963–84. Authors and writers of the texts were all Mangga Buang people of some standing in the community. I am greatly indebted to them for the material, and particularly to the late Lukas Dasilak for all his help in transcribing and discussing many of the texts. Can verbs be cohesive? 115
Most verbs in Mangga Buang distinguish between realis and irrealis mode. Subject person is also indicated in most verbs. Continuous aspect frequently occurs and is marked either in the verb or in the verb phrase, depending on the particular verb. The durative aspect prefix on verbs and the imminent aspect auxiliary in the verb phrase occur less frequently. The only tense marker is a future particle occurring in the verb phrase. Verbs and verb phrases will be considered in greater detail in §2. Clauses are joined together by a variety of conjunctions. Juxtaposed clauses usually indicate either a list of events or some paraphrase or amplification of the first clause. The sound system of Mangga Buang includes twenty consonants, five short vowels and seven long vowels (written as double vowels). Consonants which differ significantly from English sounds having the same orthographic symbol are l which is a lateral varying to a flap, v a voiced bilabial fricative, and h a voiced backed velar fricative. All non-labialised velar consonants are backed. It should be noted that the voiced plosives b, d, j, and g are pronounced and written mb, nd, nj, and ngg respectively when they are not in the initial position in a word or clitic. Two kinds of sound change which result from the juxtaposition of certain words and clitics will be seen in some of the examples of Mangga Buang given below. The first is that the demonstrative clitics -jo, -ja, -ju and the ‘article’ clitic -to cause lengthening of an immediately preceding vowel and the mid vowels e and o are raised to êê and ôô respectively. One instance of this is nambêê-ja in example (1) above. The second kind of sound change is that certain words have alternate forms with an initial a when they follow a word with a final consonant. So for instance -jo follows a final vowel, and -anjo follows a final consonant, but both -jo and -anjo mean ‘this’. The most commonly occurring words with the alternate forms are the demonstrative clitics, monosyllabic body part nouns, -te/- ate ‘belonging to’, me/ame ‘not’, le/ale ‘will (future)’ and several conjunctions. This has been but a brief glimpse into Mangga Buang, noting something of the grammatical structure within which wiing operates The next section will show in more detail how verbs and the verb phrase are structured.
2 Verbs and the verb phrase In their most basic form, a large majority of Mangga Buang verbs indicate either realis or irrealis mode, and subject person. Sometimes another prefix, particle or auxiliary verb may also occur, indicating a particular aspect or future tense, but the primary distinction is between realis and irrealis mode.
2.1 Realis and irrealis Verbs in their realis form are used for actual events, that is past and present actions completed or underway, and in this article are glossed using English past tense. Irrealis forms are used for potential events, that is future, hypothetical or typical actions and also for commands, and are glossed using future tense in English. There are two ways in which Mangga Buang verbs indicate realis versus irrealis: some change their initial consonant, others add an irrealis prefix. A significant number of verbs do not distinguish between realis and irrealis at all. The structure of the verbs, and the 116 Joan Hooley marking of realis and irrealis, suggests a division into four classes. These verb classes are summarised in Table 1.4
Table 1: Verb classes: examples and features
Class 1 verbs: Two or more syllable roots; change initial consonant to show irrealis handu, gandu ‘carry on head’ • Realis verb starts with ha, haa, lasêêh, dasêêh ‘sweep’ la, laa, va, or vaa. laakôôv, jaakôôv ‘scoop out’ • Initial consonant changes (realis, vapuuh, bapuuh ‘break (threads)’ irrealis) are: h,g l,d l,j v,b
Class 2 verbs: Single syllable roots; change initial consonant to show irrealis haav, daav ‘dig’ la, na ‘go’ • Some verbs are compounds. hees, gees ‘shiver’ vaat, baat ‘feed’ • Realis verb starts with h, l, v, hôôvu, dôôvu ‘help’ wiing, biing ‘do’ w or y. luus, duus ‘go down’ ya, ja ‘eat’ • Initial consonant changes are: h,d lop, jop ‘put on’ yiis, nyiis ‘hit’ h,g l,d l,j l,n v,b w,b y,j y,ny
Class 3 verbs: Single syllable roots; take the irrealis prefix naa- jôôy, naa-njôôy ‘knot’ • Some verbs are compounds. kund, naa-kund ‘carry astride shoulders’ • Realis verb has a plosive kweek, naa-kweek ‘tear’ or nasal as initial consonant. muun, naa-muun ‘go ahead of’ • Roots with vowel aa or a do not nêêl, naa-nêêl ‘say’ occur in compounds. ngul, naa-ngul ‘chew sugarcane’ • Irrealis prefix naa- changes to pak, na-pak ‘run away in fright’ na- when next vowel is aa or a.
Class 4 verbs: Two or more syllable roots; do not distinguish irrealis from realis kalêêh ‘break’ pasong ‘leap’ • Class 4 verb roots have 2 or more kava ‘carry on shoulder’ samu ‘fix’ syllables, starting with ka, kaa, mahôôh ‘contradict’ taamu ‘follow’ ma, maa, pa, paa, sa, saa, ta or taa.
The different verb classes are not distinct in the kinds of meanings the verbs encode. For instance, Table 1 shows verbs in different classes with related meanings, including breaking, carrying, speaking and going. However, it is also evident from Table 1 that the
4 Notice that both Class 1 and Class 2 verbs use change of the initial consonant to distinguish irrealis from realis, so they could be combined into a single class. However, they are shown in two separate classes here based on the difference in their structure, and because it will be easier, in §2.2, to see the different ways in which they mark subject person. Can verbs be cohesive? 117 particular consonant a verb starts with, and for some verbs, whether the verb root has one or more syllables, determines how the verb expresses realis and irrealis mode. Changing the initial consonant of the realis verb stem to make the irrealis form is characteristic of verbs which have an initial consonant h, v, l, w or y, that is Class 1 and Class 2 verbs. The particular consonant used for irrealis depends either solely or partly on the point of articulation of the consonant which is used in the realis form of the verb. For example, a verb which has initial w in its realis form, such as wiing ‘do’, has initial b in its irrealis form. By comparison, a verb which has initial l in its realis form will have either d, j or n as the initial consonant for its irrealis form, depending on the particular verb. As Table 1 shows, Class 1 verb roots have two or more syllables, and their realis forms have only h, l, or v as the initial consonant, followed by a central vowel aa or a. One exception is the irregular verb nando, mando ‘stay’ which also belongs to this group. Class 2 verbs have single syllable verb roots.5 Adding the prefix naa- to mark irrealis is characteristic of single syllable verb roots which have an initial stop, sibilant or nasal. These are Class 3 verbs, for example nop ‘laughed’ naanop ‘will laugh’ and kul ‘cleared of weeds’ naakul ‘will clear of weeds’. The irrealis prefix is na- rather than naa- when the following syllable contains the central vowel aa as in paak, napaak ‘shout at’. When the central vowel a occurs in the verb root, some speakers use na-, others naa-, as in pak, napak (or naapak) ‘run away’. No distinction is made between realis and irrealis in Class 4 verbs. Phonologically, however, Class 4 verbs are distinct in having two or more syllables, with the first syllable comprising a voiceless stop or sibilant, k, p, s, t, or nasal m, followed by either a or aa. The irregular verb mando ‘will stay’ looks like a Class 4 verb, but because it is the irrealis form of nando ‘stay’, it is regarded as a Class 1 verb. Although Class 4 verbs do not distinguish irrealis from realis, in my data there is always some supporting grammatical evidence in the context to show whether the action or event is to be understood in realis or irrealis mode,6 as examples (2)–(4) illustrate: (2) Kalov ambe la. jump and she/he/it.went It jumped away. When two clauses are joined by be/ambe, as in example (2), the verbs in the two clauses never differ in modality. So, since la is realis, kalov is also understood as realis.
5 The Class 2 verb hôôvu in Table 1 is an example of a compound verb, which is typically made up of a single syllable verb root and a preposition such as vu ‘to/from’, in ‘because of’, or ak (from lak) ‘up’. Examples are hôôvu, dôôvu ‘help’ (from hôôk ‘go into’); yêêvu, jêêvu ‘waken’ (from yêêy, jêêy ‘shake’); holin, golin ‘choose’ (probably from hôôl, gôôl ‘take out’); tumak, naatumak ‘shine on’ (from tum ‘shine’). In some of the compounds, the identity of the verb root is unclear, and in a few the second part of the compound is is, which is not like any preposition now in use, nor is its meaning clear. 6 Even when verbless clauses are used, the situations they refer to are still shown by context to be either actual or potential, as for example: … ham ahe-m nivasa // naambe ‘O lung’. you.PL stomach-your good will.thus oh enough … you be content and say ‘Oh, all right’. Here the irrealis form naambe initiating the second clause indicates that the verbless first clause is to be understood as potential and a command. 118 Joan Hooley
(3) Hey aa-wiingin o gako vêêh ngaaho inambe sapa hey … we I/we-wanted you will.get woman near so.that follow us We want you to marry a local woman so that she will follow us … One kind of hypothetical action can be seen in the clause introduced by inambe in example (3). Such a clause never uses a realis verb, so sapa is understood as irrealis. (4) Ga-me taalungg kin dôôk vavi le. you-not light fire will.in wind not Don’t light a fire in the wind! In Mangga Buang, several words which have the morphological structure of verbs and function as verbs in appropriate contexts, also function as prepositions, such as the preposition dôôk in example (4). The fact that dôôk is irrealis indicates that the verb taalungg is to be understood as irrealis and the clause represents a command.
2.2 Subject person marking Many verbs are marked to indicate distinctions in subject person (and number), some by change of initial consonant, others by adding subject person prefixes. Verbs which do not mark subject person are Class 1 irrealis verbs, Class 1 realis verbs with initial consonant l, and Class 4 verbs. These verbs remain unchanged whatever the subject, as in muuh bakaas ‘you two talk’, yaal bakaas ‘the three of them will talk’, sa kaavu ‘I wrote/will write’, sil kaavu ‘they wrote/will write’. Table 2 summarises the use of subject person marking on verbs.
Table 2: Subject person marking on verbs
Initial consonant change Person Class 1 realis Class 1 realis Class 3 irrealis 3 non-singular lako ‘they got’ laanggo ‘they bought’ daa-nêêl ‘they will say’ All other persons hako ‘got’ vaanggo ‘bought’ naa-nêêl ‘will say’
Subject person prefixes. Pronouns shown are hey ‘we plural exclusive’ and ham ‘you plural’; new verbs are laah, naah ‘return’ and sap ‘cut’. Person Prefix Class 2 realis Class 2 irrealis Class 3 realis 1 (I, we) aa- hey aa-wiing hey aa-mbiing hey aa-nêêl a-* hey a-laah hey a-naah hey a-sap 2 singular ga- ga-wiing ga-mbiing ga-nêêl 2 non-singular a- ham a-wiing ham a-mbiing ham a-nêêl 3 singular Ø wiing biing nêêl 3 non-singular la- la-wiing la-mbiing la-nêêl
* The first person prefix aa- changes to a- when the next vowel is aa or a. Can verbs be cohesive? 119
Changing the initial consonant to indicate subject person affects Class 1 realis verbs with initial consonant v or h such as vakaas ‘talked’ and hako ‘got’, and Class 3 irrealis verbs such as naa-su ‘will cry’. The change is to indicate third person non-singular subjects. For the realis verbs (Class 1) the change is from v or h to l, for the irrealis prefixed verbs (Class 3) it is from n to d.7 The unchanged verb is used for all other subject persons. Examples are yuuh lakaas ‘the two of them talked’ but waay vakaas ‘we three talked’, hil lako ‘the people got (it)’ but Tom hako ‘Tom got (it)’, sil daasu ‘they will cry’ but gale naasu ‘you will cry’. Subject person prefixes shown in Table 2 are added to all single syllable verb roots, that is Class 2 realis and irrealis verbs, and Class 3 realis verbs. The absence of a person prefix on these verbs indicates a third person singular subject, as in wiing ‘she/he did (it)’. When a pronoun immediately precedes a verb with a subject person prefix, if the pronoun is yiiy ‘we (plural inclusive)’, hoow ‘you and I’, muuh ‘you two’, or sa ‘I’, it may be abbreviated to a single consonant. For example, with the verb wiing, biing: yiiy aa-wiing is often abbreviated to yaawiing ‘we (plural inclusive) did (it)’ hoow aa-mbiing is often abbreviated to waambiing ‘you and I will do (it)’ muuh a-mbiing is often abbreviated to mambiing ‘you two will do (it)’ sa aa-mbiing is always abbreviated to saambiing ‘I will do (it)’, but in other contexts the prefix aa- is still used for ‘I’, for example following the future marker le as in sale aa-mbiing ‘I will do (it)’.8
2.3 Continuous aspect Perhaps the most commonly used aspect, continuous is indicated as realis continuous for all verbs, and only Class 2 verbs also indicate irrealis continuous. Continuous aspect marking, whether by change of consonant, a prefix, or an auxiliary verb, always has two forms: an initial d for third person non-singular, and initial n for all other persons. Concerning translation of examples of realis continuous verbs, usually context determines whether past or present tense should be used in English. The examples in this and the next section are short and all are translated using present continuous in English. Class 1 verbs use a change of initial consonant to show realis continuous. For example vaake, baake ‘kick’ becomes naake and daake, as in sa naake ‘I am kicking’, maal naake ‘you three are kicking’, yuuh daake ‘the two of them are kicking’. Class 2 and Class 3 verbs take a continuous prefix na-/da- which replaces the subject person prefixes on these verbs. (When the following verb root has a front or back vowel, some speakers use naa- for first person subjects.) Thus wiing, biing ‘do’ becomes nawiing
7 It is possible that the initial l and d come from the pronoun sil ‘they (pl.)’, since the final consonants of two other pronouns are sometimes used as abbreviations. In the light of the few instances of coalescence or loss of consonants observed within words in the language, it is not unreasonable to assume that the meeting of l (which is a lateral varying to a flap) with h or v would result in l, and that the l with n in the irrealis (and continuous) prefix(es) could result in d, but that the combination of l with voiced plosives (as in the Class 1 irrealis verb forms) would result in the loss of the l and leave the plosives intact. However, evidence to support this suggestion is very limited. 8 These same pronoun abbreviations, also g ‘you (sg.)’, occur before le/ale ‘will’, me/ame ‘not’, te/ate ‘belonging to’ and monosyllabic body part nouns, e.g. sale ‘I will’, gale ‘you will’. 120 Joan Hooley and dawiing for realis continuous, and nambiing and dambiing for irrealis continuous; while teey, naateey ‘shout’ becomes nateey and dateey for realis continuous. For example, muuh nawiing ‘you two are doing (it)’, yaal dawiing ‘the three of them are doing (it)’, sa nambiing (or naambiing) ‘I will be doing (it)’, sil dambiing ‘they will be doing (it)’, nateey ‘she/he is shouting’, hil dateey ‘the people are shouting’. (In Class 3 verbs, when naa- is used for first person continuous, or when a Class 3 verb contains a central vowel as in paak, napaak ‘shout at’, the irrealis and continuous forms are homophonous.) Class 4 verbs indicate realis continuous aspect by the use of the auxiliary navu, davu before the verb, as in navu kaavu ‘she/he is writing’, unoopasiv davu kaavu ‘the children are writing’. Auxiliaries will be further discussed in §2.5.
2.4 Durative aspect The durative prefix mo- is used on: continuous verbs such as monawiing ‘kept on doing’, monambiing ‘will keep on doing’; irrealis verbs which have no continuous irrealis form, such as gako ‘will get’, monggako ‘will keep on getting’; verbs which do not distinguish irrealis from realis, such as mokaavu ‘keeps on writing’.
2.5 Verb phrase: continuous, imminent, inceptive, future The verb phrase has either the particle le ‘will’ or an auxiliary preceding the verb. The most commonly used auxiliaries are navu which literally means ‘is/was giving’ and nambi, which is thought by some to be a shortening of nambiing ‘will be doing’. The auxiliary navu is davu for third person non-singular and some speakers use naavu for first person. When navu is used before a Class 4 verb it indicates continuous aspect (see §2.3 above). Before an irrealis verb, navu indicates imminent aspect, for example navu gako ‘about to get’, sa naavu gako ‘I am about to get (it)’, davu gako ‘they are about to get (it)’. The inceptive nambi occurs rather infrequently. It is dambi for third person non-singular and is used with all verbs, in their irrealis (continuous) form where this occurs, with the meaning ‘make a start’. Some examples (using the continuous irrealis form of the verb la na ‘go’, and the verb kandi ‘get up’) are sa nambi nana ‘I’ll start going’, sil dambi dana i luk ‘they should start going because of the rain’, o nambi kandi ‘you start getting up’. The future particle le ‘will’ occurs with all verbs, in their irrealis form where this occurs. It particularly occurs when its absence would mean a suggestion or command. Some examples are: sale ana ‘I will go’ (sana ‘I’ll go’), gale ganom ‘you will come back’ (ganom ‘you come back’).9 This brief account of the verb phrase completes the description of the verb system to which wiing belongs. Now we will look at the various functions of wiing and discover how it makes its contribution to cohesion in discourse.
9 The particle le (ale following a consonant) is also used in some verbless attributive clauses such as taavêêt ale niyin ‘the bush will be thorny’. Can verbs be cohesive? 121
3 The verb wiing in its grammatical functions Apart from its use as a lexical verb within the clause, wiing is also used to express cause. A third possible grammatical function of wiing, namely as an auxiliary verb (if in fact the auxiliary nambi is a shortened form of nambiing) has been mentioned in §2.5 above and will not be looked at further here. In these grammatical functions, wiing contributes very little to cohesion in the discourse. The cohesive functions of wiing will be considered in §4. However, we will begin to see here that there are a few significant differences between the uses of wiing and the English word do.
3.1 The lexical verb wiing As a lexical verb, wiing has a range of meanings including ‘perform or carry out, prepare or process, make, raise (crops or animals), participate in, affect, act’. Consequently wiing on its own does not provide much information, and the hearer is heavily dependent on the noun, pronoun, adjective or adverb which immediately follows it to be able to identify the particular meaning of wiing in each instance. Examples (5)–(14) illustrate some of the different meanings of wiing. Like its English counterpart do, the verb wiing as a lexical verb is almost always transitive. (5) Da-wiing kul. they.CONT-did work/garden They are working./They are making a garden. (6) a. Sa mo-naa-wiing kin … I kept.on-I/we.CONT-did firewood I kept on preparing firewood … b. La-mbiing vanôôn … they-will.do food They will prepare a feast … (7) a. ... wiing nindaandun bopaata. she/he/it.did noise big … it made a big noise. b. ... ga-mbiing ngaamong … you-will.do war … you’ll make a fight … (8) a. Wiing hôôndak. she/he/it.did theft He committed theft. b. Wiing baayamb. she/he.did adultery He committed adultery. (9) a. Da-wiing liiy. they.CONT-did play They are playing. 122 Joan Hooley
b. Da-wiing baal. they.CONT-did ball They are playing ball. (10) Wiing vakasin. she/he/it.did talk He went before the court. (11) … vaati na-wiing hong … what you/she/he/it.CONT-did you … what’s the matter with you … In a few instances wiing is intransitive as in examples (12)–(13), and in the idiom shown in example (14). (12) a. Na-wiing nime-meen. you/she/he/it.CONT-did heavy-heavy He is dawdling. b. Wiing nanyendoos. she/he/it.did deaf She turned a deaf ear. (13) Wiing paya. she/he/it.did badly It malfunctioned. (14) ... me le biing gaving hey lava-ngg e … not will she/he/it.will.do will.with we.PL.EXCL speech-my/our not … she will not go along with what we say … In Mangga Buang transitive (and intransitive) clauses there may be ellipsis of any element which is basic to the clause type (Healey 1988:193ff.). So in clauses which have wiing/biing as the verb there may be ellipsis of the object, as in example (15). The ellipsis is shown by Ø. (15) Yiiy mando inaambe kul vaati baale we.PL.INCL will.stay so.that work what will.stand ya-mbaa-ngg ond yaa-mbiing Ø javuh ti. we.PL.INCL-home-my/our then we.PL.INCL-will.do will.together one Let’s stay so that whatever work there will be at our place, then we’ll do (it) together. As a lexical verb, and like other lexical verbs, wiing does not usually contribute to cohesion in the text in which it occurs, except when it is repeated, as in example (16) and thus provides a link back to the earlier clause. (16) … ond tatuhin biing paang. Biing then pretend she/he/it.will.do explosive.noise she/he/it.will.do paang ande … explosive.noise and … then (he)’ll pretend to explode. He’ll explode and … Can verbs be cohesive? 123
Considering the range of meanings encoded by wiing, it is perhaps not surprising that wiing is also used to make a statement of cause, as §3.2 will explain.
3.2 Wiing as cause When wiing is used to express cause, it is usually immediately followed by be/ambe ‘and’ and then the clause stating the effect. The clause following be starts either with its subject as in examples (17)–(18), or with its verb phrase if there is subject ellipsis as in examples (19)–(20). The subject is different from the subject in the wiing clause. (17) ... wiing ambe sa ni(ngg)10 vulak. she/he/it.did and I skin she/he/it.got.bumps … (it) has given me goose pimples. (18) O na-wiing ambe Valek daka you you/she/he/it.CONT-did and third.daughter little natongin taaku. you/she/he/it.CONT.clear place You’re making little Third Daughter clear a place (for you). Occasionally the conjunction is modified to indicate that cause and effect are in sequence, as the conjunctions in bold type in examples (19) and (20) show. (19) Bu-m-aavêêh wiing ambe sim Ø kahe. grandchild-your-woman she/he/it.did and subsequently split Your granddaughter eventually made (it) split. (20) O navu ga-mbiing atombe Ø na balaah you about.to you-will.do and.then will.go will.stand.up vaha yuuh … leg two You’re about to make (him) tumble over … The conjunction is sometimes omitted, giving a stronger connection between the cause and the effect. In this case it is difficult to tell what the object of wiing is. For instance in example (21) it may be that sa nanyengg ‘my ears’ has dual function as object in the wiing clause and subject in the effect clause, or it may be that the whole effect clause sa nanyengg doos is the object of wiing. (21) Baalus wiing sa nanye-ngg doos. plane she/he/it.did I ear-my whole The plane made my ears block. The only exception to having different subjects in the wiing and effect clauses is when their actions are reciprocal, as in example (22). (22) Ham oo na-wiing ham ahekalin … you.PL just you/she/he/it.CONT-did you.PL angry You are just making each other angry …
10 The first person inalienable possession suffix -ngg has been lost in fast speech here. 124 Joan Hooley
When wiing is used for cause, again it is not contributing to cohesion in the text. However, there are two other major uses of wiing, and in these wiing does have a distinctive role in cohesion, as the next section will show.
4 The verb wiing as a cohesive device Many different means are employed by speakers and authors to connect together the parts of a discourse or text (I use the words interchangeably) and make it a cohesive whole. In their classic study of cohesion in English, Halliday and Hasan recognise five types of cohesive relations between parts of a text: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion (1976:13). The first three of these involve grammatical devices used to link parts of messages and thus provide cohesion between the messages. Conjunction, on the other hand, links whole messages. Lexical cohesion includes devices such as repetition of lexical items and the use of synonyms and antonyms. In addition to the cohesion provided by such grammatical and lexical devices, there is also further cohesion achieved by various kinds of structure in discourse, such as the theme-rheme development and the given-new organisation of the text (Hasan 1985:81–82). When cohesion is created in a text through the use of a grammatical or lexical device, the device establishes a particular semantic relationship with its linguistic referent (its antecedent). Three such semantic relationships are described by Hasan (1985:73–74): coreference (when both the device and its linguistic referent refer to exactly the same item); co-classification (when each refers to a different item of exactly the same class); co- extension (when each refers to a different item within the same general field of meaning). These relationships, whether they occur across sentence boundaries, across clause boundaries within sentences, or even occasionally within clauses, always contribute towards cohesion in text (Hasan 1985:75, 86–87; Healey 1988:43). It is as a grammatical device that the verb wiing makes its main contribution to cohesion in Mangga Buang discourse, in the areas of substitution and reference, but the kind of semantic relationship that wiing has with its linguistic referent is not always quite the same as for its English counterpart do.
4.1 Wiing as a substitute for some other verb In English, when do substitutes for another verb used earlier in the text, it is confirming that the meaning of the earlier verb still holds, although typically something else in the context is changing (Halliday and Hasan 1976:122–123). The following exchange provides an example: ‘Have they packed all the boxes?’ ‘They’ve done six.’ Here the substitute verb done is understood as meaning ‘packed’, but the clause mood changes from question to statement, and the object changes from all the boxes to six (with ellipsis of boxes). Similarly, the verb wiing/biing is also sometimes used as a substitute for some other verb occurring in an earlier clause in the text. In substituting for another verb (which in my data is always transitive, and not a verb of saying or sensing), wiing is confirming that the meaning of the earlier verb (its linguistic referent) still holds. In such instances wiing is acting as a cohesive device, linking back to its linguistic referent, as the verbs in bold type in example (23) illustrate. (The Ø indicates ellipsis of the object.) Can verbs be cohesive? 125
(23) … sa samu Ø jeey e ma de sa mo-naa-wiing Ø I fix tomorrow but no and I kept.on-I/we.CONT-did hôôk sonda yaal atombe lung la vasêên. in week three then finished went yesterday … I would have fixed (it) tomorrow except that I’ve been keeping on doing (it) during (the past) three weeks and it (was) finished yesterday. The linguistic referent for the substitute biing in example (24) is the serial verb pair nôôh na rather than a single verb. Again biing and its linguistic referent are in bold type. (24) Waa-nôôh Ø na de yiiy taanggu you.and.I-will.hold she/he/it.will.go and we.PL.INCL build.up kin ambe banyuuh. Ham oo a-mbiing in fire and get.warm.by you.PL self you-will.do so.that ya-mbaav jamandôô-jo. we.PL.INCL-will.make.fire will.up.stay-here Let’s move (it) away and we can build up the fire and get warm by (it). [No response so speaker turns to others.] You do (it) yourselves so that we can make a fire up on here. When wiing is used as a substitute for another verb, some other item in its clause is in contrast to a corresponding item in the earlier clause in which the linguistic referent of wiing is found. For instance in example (23) the time elements and verb aspects contrast, in (24) the subjects are different. So in each case the action indicated by wiing is a different occurrence of the same kind of action that is indicated by the linguistic referent — the two are in a relation of co-classification (§4 above). Now consider example (25). Here the contrasting items are sate taaku pin ‘my whole place’ and ango ‘the other (room)’. In this instance the contrast is not so clear since the place referred to by ango is part of the place sate taaku pin. (25) Sa naa-yiis huv vaha lakala sate taaku pin ambe sate I I/we.CONT-hit pandanus trunk over my place all and my lum ango yimb la. Sa naa-wiing ango. room other she/he/it.died went I I/we.CONT-did other I’m nailing palm trunks (flooring) throughout my whole place and one of my rooms is finished. I’m doing the other one. In text sometimes groups of participants expand, contract, merge, or split (Grimes 1975:46), and example (25) is one instance of this kind of splitting. In (25) sate taaku pin splits into sate lum ango ‘one of my rooms’ and ango ‘the other (room)’. To account for such splitting, Hasan introduced the notion of ‘chain disjunction’ and I have argued elsewhere that it seems best to regard this whole–part kind of relationship as a type of coreference (Hasan 1984:197ff.; Healey 1988:41). In the same way, the relationship between wiing and yiis in (25) could be considered as a type of coreference rather than co- classification. 126 Joan Hooley
4.2 Wiing as a pro-verb Often wiing is used as a pro-verb, a term I am borrowing from Halliday and Hasan to apply to wiing when it is used to ‘stand for any unidentified or unspecified process’ (1976:125). In its use as a pro-verb, wiing is often accompanied by vaati ‘what?’ (lit. what- one) or vaaheey ‘what?’ (lit. what-some) or va ‘thing’, as in examples (26)–(27). In these examples wiing is not cohesive. (26) ‘Wiing vaati?’ ‘Ma, la.’ he/she/it.did what no he/she/it.went ‘What did he do?’ ‘Nothing, he went.’ (27) Kin naale na-tum hôôk lopayo fire you/she/he/it.stood you/she/he/it.CONT-lit in inside ond wiing va osin … well she/he/it.did things by/with A fire was burning inside him and he did things (urged on) by (it) … In other instances, the pro-verb joins with va ‘thing’ or nambe ‘thus’ and together they function as a carrier for a demonstrative. This demonstrative, usually a clitic, refers to one or more actions or events in the context. When the actions or events being referred to are named in the text, the wiing clause is establishing a cohesive relation with its linguistic referent as in examples (28)–(30). It is, of course, the demonstrative which finally establishes the relationship, usually a relationship of coreference, but the demonstrative needs to be carried by wiing va or wiing nambe to enable it to refer to actions or events. The wiing verb itself always has a prefix appropriate to the subject person of the linguistic referent clause(s), so in fact the whole wiing clause is acting cohesively. (28) Sa mo-kawiiy taaku. Naa-wiing vaa-jo de yaal I kept.on-dismantle place I/we.CONT-did thing-this and three lalu(p)11 la-la. they.came.up they-went I kept on dismantling the place. (I) was doing this and the three of them came up and went. In one instance in my data, shown in example (29), daka ‘little’ is used instead of va ‘thing’, apparently to soften the rebuke. (29) … tonde ham na-nêêl ham bopaata lôôt. and.then you.PL you/she/he/it.CONT-scolded you.PL big very Ham na-wiing dakaa-jo me lohvu le. you.PL you/she/he/it.CONT-did little-this not equal not … and then you are having huge arguments with each other. Your doing this little (thing) is not right. In both (28) and (29) the demonstrative, and therefore the wiing clause, is establishing a relationship of coreference with its linguistic referent. In (30), the wiing clause refers back to the two linked clauses which precede it, describing the women weeding and the men
11 The final p of lalup (valup, balup) is typically lost before a consonant initial verb or noun. Can verbs be cohesive? 127 staking. This can also be viewed as an example of a wiing clause in a relationship of coreference with its linguistic referent. (30) … vêêh gako kasek de moow baaku mêêl ame. women will.get weeds and men will.lift.up yam eye Yoo mo-nda-mbiing naambêê-ju lôôt … just keep.on-they.CONT-will.do will.thus-that very … the women will clear the new grass shooting on the yam mounds and the men will stake up the yam vine tips. They will just keep on doing that constantly … It is interesting to note that when the wiing + nambe + demonstrative refers back to a series of events, the speaker sometimes follows on with a summary explanation of some kind as in (31). (31) Omaaho ti me bu bayêên, omaaho ti me bu vanôôn, person one not will.give house person one not will.give food omaaho ti me bu kin e. Naambe omaaho ti person one not will.give firewood not if person one biing naambêê-jo vu sil, dôôvu sil, ond … will.do will.thus-this to them will.help them then No person is to give shelter, no person is to give food, no person is to give firewood. If a person does this for them, helps them, then … The expressions biing naambêê-ju in example (30), biing naambêê-jo in (31) and their realis forms wiing nambêê-ju and wiing nambêê-jo are rather like will do so and do so in English. There are two main differences. The first is that in Mangga Buang one of the three demonstratives (-jo ‘this’, -ja ‘that near you’ and -ju ‘that distant’) always follows nambe and consequently, in almost every case, the expression is clearly establishing a relation of coreference with its linguistic referent. Secondly, wiing nambêê-ju and wiing cannot be used interchangeably as do and do so can in some contexts. Occasionally the action or event to which a wiing + nambe + demonstrative is pointing is found only outside of the text as in example (32). (32) … hey naa-wiing nambe-ng-anjo … we.PL.EXCL I/we.CONT-did thus-here-this … we were acting like this … (demonstrating) One other way in which wiing as a pro-verb is used cohesively is when it is followed by va timu ‘the same thing’ as in example (33). In this instance the expression wiing va timu is referring back to a series of several actions expressed in the preceding sentence in the text, which is not shown here. In the sentence shown here, the first clause introduces a new subject vêêh ango and the wiing clause is establishing a relationship of co-classification with its linguistic referent. (33) Tonde vêêh ango lakalaah ambe and.then woman other she/he/it.went.back.up and wiing va ti-mu. she/he/it.did thing one-only Then another woman went back up and did the same thing. 128 Joan Hooley
5 Conclusion The main contribution which wiing makes towards providing cohesion within text is as a grammatical device. As a verbal substitute it usually establishes a relation of co- classification with the verb for which it is substituting, and as a pro-verb in combination with va or nambe, followed by a demonstrative, it helps to establish a relation of coreference with one or more clauses in the preceding text. The English verb do also works cohesively as a verbal substitute and as a pro-verb followed by so, it, or that. So wiing and do both contribute towards cohesion in discourse in their respective languages in rather similar ways. Probably the main difference between them is that do so and do as a verbal substitute are often used interchangeably, whereas wiing nambe ‘do thus’ is always followed by a demonstrative in its cohesive use and is not used interchangeably with wiing. In their non-cohesive uses, wiing and do show somewhat greater differences, especially in the use of wiing to express cause. It is not uncommon to find studies of pronouns, demonstratives, and ellipsis which at least touch on the endophoric functions of these grammatical items. In Mangga Buang it is these three, more than all other grammatical devices, which are so often used to provide cohesion in discourse. (For a full discussion see Healey 1988.) However, this present paper is a reminder that cohesion can sometimes be found in less expected places, and that even a verb itself, not just its subject-person affix, may have a cohesive function.
References Greenberg, Joseph H., 1966, Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In J. Greenberg, ed. Universals of language, 2nd edition, 73–113. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Grimes, Joseph E., 1975, The thread of discourse. The Hague: Mouton. Halliday, M.A.K. and Ruqaiya Hasan, 1976, Cohesion in English. London: Longman. Hasan, Ruqaiya, 1984, Coherence and cohesive harmony. In J. Flood, ed. Understanding reading comprehension, 181–219. Newark: International Reading Association. ―― 1985, The texture of a text. In M.A.K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan, Language, context, and text: aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective, 70–96. Geelong: Deakin University Press. Healey, Joan, 1988, Coreference in Mangga Buang. Unpublished MA thesis, Macquarie University, Sydney. Ross, Malcolm D., 1988, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of Western Melanesia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. 6 Ergative in Numanggang
DAVID HYNUM
1 Introduction As the title suggests, this paper discusses the ergative marker in Numanggang. More specifically, its purpose is to display and explain apparent anomalies in the use of the ergative marker in discourse. This will be attempted by first explaining ergativity on the clause level (both its presence and its absence), then proceeding to examine exceptions to the basic function of ergativity which occur within narrative and procedural discourse that is longer than just a few sentences. For the purpose of comparison and in the interest of further research, two complete discourses are included with interlinear text and free translation. It is the author’s hope that others will find the information presented here readable and helpful.1 Ergativity in languages of the South Pacific has been discussed in a number of articles in the literature. In particular, articles by Anderson and Wade (1988), Dixon (1979), Foley (1986), Haiman (1980), Potts and James (1998) and Scott (1986), have contributed to my understanding of the way ergativity works in this part of the world. Numanggang is a Papuan language spoken by approximately twenty-five hundred people living in the foothills of the Saruwaged mountain range just north of Nadzab in the Morobe province of Papua New Guinea. The author has spent approximately thirteen years working in the area under the auspices of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Numanggang is a member of the Erap language family of the Finisterre-Huon phylum, as posited by McElhanon (1975). It is an SOV language exhibiting medial verb chaining and switch reference. The language has five vowels and seventeen consonants. The voiced and voiceless labiovelars are represented by /gw/ and /kw/. Both phonemes are relatively infrequent, occurring less than 2 per cent of the time in normal text. There are two languages in the same language family which have been described linguistically, Nek to the east (Linnasalo 1993), and Uri to the north-west (Webb 1980). Both exhibit similarities to Numanggang. Both languages have multifunction markers similar to the ergative clitic -di in Numanggang. All three function to mark the instrument but then the similarities break down. The form in Uri is wari and has been described as a subject marker for both transitive and intransitive clauses. In Nek it is -lÆ and has been described as a focus marker occurring with personal pronouns as well as nouns. Both of
1 I would like to express my appreciation to Cindy Farr, Robert Carlson, and Joan Hooley for taking the time to read and comment on this material, and especially to the many Numanggang speakers, notably Isum Mahambe and Bajuzepac Saleng from Gain Village, who patiently helped me with many questions and stories. 129 130 David Hynum these descriptions contrast with the ergative in Numanggang which cannot occur with pronouns nor with intransitive subjects.
2 Ergativity and the clitic -di within clauses 2.1 Morphological ergativity In the discussion that follows, I have adopted Dixon’s symbols for the ‘three core semantico-syntactic relations’ (Dixon 1979:61): S = intransitive subject A = transitive subject O = transitive object These three relations group into two types of system which will also be referred to extensively. The nominative/accusative system associates A and S and treats them in the same manner, treating O in a different, contrastive manner. Latin and Koine Greek are examples of nominative/accusative systems. An ergative/absolutive system associates S and O, treating them in the same manner, and marking A in a different and contrastive way. The difference between the two systems can be visualised as follows:
A A ergative nominative S S absolutive accusative O O
A morphologically ergative language is one in which the morphology treats the S of an intransitive clause in the same manner as the O of a transitive clause, and treats the A of a transitive clause differently.
2.2 The clitic -di as ergative marker on noun phrases Numanggang is a morphologically ergative language. Noun phrases functioning as A are marked with what I have called the ergative marker -di, as shown in examples (1) and (2).2
2 In the Numanggang examples, bold print is used to show the particular part of an example which is being discussed, and the following abbreviations are used: BEN benefactive IMP imperative REP extended repetition CAUS causative INST instrument RP recent past tense CUST customary INT intensive SPEC specifier DESID desiderative LOC locative SG singular DEST destination NF near future tense SS same subject follows DL dual OBJ object TR transitiviser DP distant past tense PL plural 1 first person DS different subject follows POS possession 2 second person ERG ergative PR present tense 3 third person GEN genitive QM yes-no question Ergative in Numanggang 131
(1) Me kubugoŋ niŋ-di kamo-ŋiŋ nagi-la kale kaliŋ man one SPEC-ERG dog-his bring-SS pig searching.for yau-lu-guk. go-CUST-DP.3SG One man took his dog and went around hunting pigs. (2) Mok miiŋ-di ‘Lae-de noŋgoŋ u-nim’ na-nim-bu … Mok mother-ERG Lae-DEST together go-NF.1PL 1SG.OBJ-tell-DS Mok’s mother told me, ‘We’ll go to Lae together …’ In contrast to the marking of A noun phrases, S and O noun phrases are both unmarked. Two examples of O noun phrases can be seen in (1), kamoŋiŋ ‘his dog’ and kale ‘pig’. Instances of S noun phrases can be seen in examples (3) and (4). (3) Wene tataku-la kwet foloŋ ma-aŋ fo-guk Wene jump-SS earth on fall-SS go.down-DP.3SG Wene jumped and fell down to the ground. (4) Baŋ heki wanaŋ yopmaŋ uŋgoŋ ha-kumun. Dad group together house.in there be-DP.1PL All of Dad’s group, we were there at home together. So the ergative function is marked on noun phrases by the clitic -di and the absolutive function is unmarked. However, pronouns are not marked even when they occur as A, as nu does in example (5). A fuller discussion of pronouns can be found at §2.4. (5) Nu yehi-tubu-kumuŋ-gut I 3PL.OBJ-CAUS-die-DP.1SG I killed them. Numanggang has an obligatory instrument marker that is homophonous with the ergative marker as in (6).3 (6) … kaaŋ Daumeŋ-di kilat kohoŋ-di hati tu-guk. and Daumeng-ERG weed hand-INST live do-DP.3SG … and Daumeng was weeding (the garden) by hand. The examples above give a representative picture of the use of the ergative marker in Numanggang. The clitic -di always occurs as an ergative marker on explicit A noun phrases of transitive clauses (except when demonstratives4 or pronouns occur: see §2.4), and never occurs on O noun phrases. This is true for all of my data. It is also true for over 90 per cent of the occurrences of S noun phrases in my data that -di does not occur on S noun phrases. The remaining instances, in which -di does mark S noun phrases in certain kinds of extended discourse, will be the object of discussion in §3 of this paper.
3 Example (6) is a relatively unusual occurrence of both A and Instrument in the same clause. Numanggang speakers prefer to encode explicit A and Instrument in separate, contiguous clauses. 4 The ergative does not occur when the A noun phrase ends with i ‘this’ or u ‘that’. 132 David Hynum
2.3 Nominative cross referencing on verbs 2.3.1 Final verb morphology In contrast to Numanggang noun phrases, the verb morphology is nominative/ accusative. Both A and S are coreferenced in the verb morphology by the same person number suffixes. These contrast with the object prefixes that coreference O. Examples (7) and (8) show the same noun phrase, mekuyahi, as S in (7) and as A in (8). Note that the same verb suffix -giŋ is used to reference mekuyahi in both clauses. (7) Me-kuyahi u-giŋ. man-young go-DP.3PL The young men went. (8) Me-kuyahi-di yehi-tubuloda-giŋ. man-young-ERG 3PL.OBJ-help-DP.3PL The young men helped them. In examples (9) and (10), the same present tense verb suffix (the difference is a morphophonemic change), refers to Mayu in (9) and Mayu-di in (10). (9) Mayu damo mu dei-tak. Mayu sleep not sleep-PR.3SG Mayu is not sleeping. (10) Mayu-di yabu-lak. Mayu-ERG 3PL.OBJ.see-PR.3SG Mayu sees them. Similarly, it is true of all person-number-tense suffixes on Numanggang verbs that the same form of each suffix is used to refer to both A and S noun phrases. Note in (8) and (10) that the object prefixes have more than one allomorph. Other examples of object prefixes are included in (11) to (13). For a complete description of Numanggang object prefixes and their uses, see Hynum (1995). It should be pointed out that ditransitive verbs utilise the object prefix somewhat differently. Such highly transitive verbs as m- ‘give’, and niŋ- ‘tell’ occur with three core arguments: subject, object and either indirect object or beneficiary. In example (11), ye- refers to the unstated object, the people who are told, ‘Mooŋ’. The third argument in this case is that which is spoken and can be a long discourse. I have referred to this argument as the indirect object because it is not referenced in the verb and, like an object noun phrase, it is unmarked. (11) Isum-di ‘Mooŋ’ yee-niŋ-guk. Isum-ERG no 3PL.OBJ-tell-DP.3SG Isum told them ‘No’. In example (12) ye- refers not to the object dimba, but to the people to whom the timber was given. When this element of the clause is specified in an explicit noun phrase, it is marked by the clitic -dok, as in (13) below. I have chosen to call this argument the beneficiary. The beneficiary is understood but not stated in (12). (12) Dimba agoŋ ye-m-giŋ. lumber already 3PL.OBJ-give-DP.3PL They already gave them the lumber. Ergative in Numanggang 133
In (13) both the non-subject arguments, mihi u and mimbei, have human referents. Again, it is the noun phrase marked with -dok and functioning as beneficiary which is coreferential with the object prefix on the verb. (13) Me wapu-hi-di mihi u mimbei-dok ye-m-ŋit. man big-PL-ERG boy that parents.his-for 3PL.OBJ-give-RP.3PL The leaders gave that boy to his parents.
2.3.2 Medial verb morphology The discussion above has been limited to Numanggang final verbs. Numanggang, like other Papuan languages, has a medial verb system as well. The medial verb system in Numanggang traces subject reference from clause to clause with relatively few explicit A or S noun phrases occurring, then ends with a fully inflected final verb. These medial verbs specify whether the subject of the next clause is the same as (SS) or different from (DS) the current subject, without distinguishing A and S. The examples in (14) and (15) come from narrative texts. (14) Boombooŋ-nik hogohogok agoŋ da-dapma-une things-our every.one already burn-completely-DS hogok hambiek dei-yau-ŋa hati-gumun. only naked sleep-wander-SS live-DP.1PL All our possessions completely burned up and we were living with nothing, sleeping and wandering around just naked. (15) Kaaŋ mewapu-hi-di nihi-tubukiliti-ŋa nipme-une ulu-kumuŋ-gumun. and elder-PL-ERG 1PL.OBJ-encourage-SS 1PL.OBJ.allow-DS hit-die-DP.1PL And the elders encouraged us and gave us permission and we killed him. In (14) all of the verbs are intransitive and the subjects, boombooŋnik hogohogok and the implicit indi ‘first person plural’, are both S. In (15), both of the verbs which occur with mewapu-hi are transitive and mewapu-hi is marked as A by the ergative -di. Then the different subject ending indicates the change of subject from mewapuhi to the first person plural (which is also A) in the final verb ulukumuŋgumun.5 The verb suffix which indicates a change of subject in the next clause is used in (14) where both subjects are S, and in (15) where both subjects are A. The same subject suffix is used in (14) where the continuing subject is S, and in (15) where the continuing subject is A. So, whether the subjects involved are S or A, a single medial ending is used to show that successive subjects are different, and a single medial ending is used to show that successive subjects are the same. Since the identical medial suffixes are used both with transitive and intransitive clause subjects, and since the object is treated differently, being indicated in a verb prefix, it must be concluded that the Numanggang medial verb morphology, like the final verb morphology, is nominative/accusative.
5 For the sake of simplicity, I have chosen these two examples with identical medial endings. In actual fact, both the same subject endings and the different subject endings have more than one form and these are determined by morphophonemic rules. 134 David Hynum
This conclusion, that Numanggang verb morphology, both medial and final, exhibits a nominative/accusative distinction is significant and will prove to be a key factor in explaining the anomalies observed in the use of the clitic -di within discourse.
2.4 Split ergativity Split ergativity has been discussed to varying degrees by Dixon (1979:79–98), Cooreman et al. (1984:3), and several authors in Dixon (1987). Although Numanggang noun phrases are ergative/absolutive and Numanggang verb morphology is nominative/ accusative, this is not the pertinent issue of ‘split ergativity’. Many languages exhibit both nominative/accusative and ergative/absolutive features but the key characteristic of split ergativity is contrast within the same part of the system. This is exemplified in Numanggang noun phrases when we consider pronouns functioning as the sole member of a noun phrase. There are five basic Numanggang pronouns.6 They are as follows: First person singular nu I Second person singular du you (singular) Third person singular/plural adi he/she/it/they7 First person plural indi we Second person plural hidi you (plural) I have already mentioned in §2.2 that pronouns are not marked with the ergative marker -di. The form of each pronoun is the same whether it functions as A, S, or O. For example du is functioning as A in example (16), as S in (17), and O in (18). (16) Du Faifi-walaŋ kamo ulu-kumuŋ-guŋ. you.SG Faifi-POS dog hit-kill-DP.2SG You killed Faifi’s dog. (17) Du wo-oŋ damo dei-kuŋ. you.SG go-SS sleep lie.down-DP.2SG You went and slept. (18) Mayu-di du ga-nin-didime-guk. Mayu-ERG you.SG 2SG.OBJ-tell-straight-DP.3SG Mayu taught you. Since all of the pronouns, first, second, and third person, show no distinction between A, S and O, Numanggang fits nicely into Silverstein’s representation of the hierarchy of case configurations for ergative splits (Silverstein 1976:162–164) but with a small twist. Numanggang has no nominative/accusative split at the top of the hierarchy. According to Silverstein, all ergative languages exhibit a split in their marking system. His special contribution to the discussion of ergativity is to demonstrate that these splits are not random but that in every case, they split according to the semantic nature of the noun phrases.8 He characterises the semantic nature of all noun phrases according to a
6 There are also emphatic pronouns. They are na 1SG, da 2SG, ne 3SG, inde 1PL, hide 2PL, nehi 3PL. 7 Where adi occurs in examples or texts in this paper, the gloss will show only the specific third person English pronoun appropriate for each occurrence according to context. 8 Silverstein claims that this is true even when the noun phrases are not marked with case markers but are referenced for ergative/absolutive in the verb morphology. See Silverstein (1976:162‒164). Ergative in Numanggang 135 hierarchy of features, beginning at the top with second and first person pronouns then proceeding down through proper nouns, human nouns, animate nouns and inanimate nouns (Silverstein 1976:122–123).9 He shows that in split ergative languages, the nominative/ accusative distinction always occurs at the top of the hierarchy and transitions to ergative/ absolutive at some point down the hierarchy, with some languages having a three-way distinction of A, S and O (all marked differently) in the middle, that is between the nominative/accusative and the ergative/absolutive split. What is different about Numanggang is that there is no nominative/accusative distinction at the top. The pronouns (which Silverstein places at the top of the hierarchy) show neither a nominative/accusative distinction, nor a three-way distinction, but no distinction at all. They occur as A, S or O with no change in form.
2.5 Syntactic ergativity Up to this point, the discussion has been restricted to morphological ergativity. Dixon (1979) also defines syntactic ergativity. A syntactically ergative language is one in which ‘certain types of syntactic rule identify S and O’ (1979:64). Specifically, operations such as coordination in successive clauses relate S and O rather than S and A as in English. For instance, in a syntactically ergative language, ‘He hit her and ran away’ would not mean that the one who ran away was the ‘he’ who did the hitting but the ‘her’ who was the object of the first clause. In the next section Numanggang clause coordination will be discussed, with a particular focus on how it relates to syntactic ergativity.
2.5.1 Medial clause coordination in Numanggang By far the most common manner of clause coordination in Numanggang is medial verb suffixation. Although coordinating conjunctions are available, the vast majority of coordinated clauses are coordinated by the use of medial verbs. It has been shown in §2.3.2 above that Numanggang medial verb morphology is nominative/accusative. Since this fundamental method of coordination in Numanggang is nominative/accusative, it must be concluded that Numanggang is not syntactically ergative. However, the medial verb morphology does more than simply track the subject reference. The tracking done by the same subject suffix indicates that the subject remains the same in succeeding clauses, thus allowing the speaker to delete explicit reference to the subject throughout much, if not all, of the clause chain. In (14) and (15) above, this is quite simple. The subject remains either S or A throughout each chain. If the subject were always consistently either A or S throughout a given chain, there would be no problem. But since natural language is not so straightforward, when the subject changes from A to S and back to A again, there is opportunity for creativity. It is just such changes which are the subject of §3. The tracking done by the different subject medial suffix indicates that the subject of the succeeding clause will be different from the current subject, allowing for several options including the current object to become the subject of the next clause. Some of the options involved in different subject medial coordination are the subject of §2.5.2.
9 Silverstein gives the lower part of this hierarchy as + animate, - animate. 136 David Hynum
2.5.2 Different subject clause coordination in Numanggang Numanggang different subject suffixes are the most closely connected to Dixon’s notion of syntactic ergativity. He defines syntactic ergativity with regard to coordination in terms of what he calls an S/O pivot (Dixon 1979:64–65).10 Specifically, his example from Dyirbal shows two coordinated clauses with coreferential noun phrases in S of the first clause and O in the succeeding clause. The key observation is that because Dyirbal is syntactically ergative, the O noun phrase of the second clause can be omitted without ambiguity. Accordingly, it would be permissible to coordinate ‘Father returned’ and ‘Mother saw Father’ to get ‘Father returned and Mother saw’ with the actual meaning being something like ‘Father returned and was seen by Mother’. The coordinated clause with the O omitted from the second clause could not mean ‘Father returned and saw Mother’ because ‘Father’ would then be in A function/role and S cannot be coordinated with A. In the case of S and A referring to the same entity in two clauses to be coordinated, such as ‘Father saw Mother’ and ‘Father returned’, because Dyirbal is syntactically ergative, the only way to coordinate them would be to apply an antipassive transform to the first clause to get a clause in which Father was demoted to S. The meaning of the new clause would still be essentially ‘Father saw Mother’ but with ‘Father’ in the role of S instead of A. This cannot be represented accurately in English but the two clauses are equivalent in the same sense in which a transitive clause and its passive counterpart are ‘equivalent’. The resultant coordinated clauses would mean something like ‘Mother was seen by Father and (he) returned’. The vital point is that a language which is syntactically ergative, readily coordinates S and O in succeeding clauses, and can then omit explicit mention of the O noun phrase in the second clause without ambiguity. Although it is true that Numanggang switch reference tracks S and A without distinction, (that is, it is nominative/accusative at its foundation), in the case of different subject medial coordination, an interesting phenomenon occurs. Observe in (19) that mihi u is the S of the first clause and becomes the unambiguously omitted O of the second clause, very like Dixon’s example from Dyirbal. (19) … mihi u hati tubu yabap moiniŋ-di ka-aŋ nagi-la … boy that live do.DS spirit wild-ERG see-SS take-SS … that boy was (there) and a wild bush spirit saw him and took him … In (20), kumondulum heki is the O of the first clause, then becomes S in the second clause and is unambiguously omitted. (20) Kaaŋ kumondulum heki ya-pme-une wo-oŋ yot kadoko-giŋ. and policeman group 3PL.OBJ-send-DS go-SS house watch-DP.3PL Then (they) [completely unspecified] sent policemen and they went to watch the house. These examples show that Numanggang readily handles unambiguous deletion of coreferential S and O noun phrases (in either order) in coordinated clauses. Although a completely different strategy is active, the result allows precisely the same kind of unambiguous noun phrase deletion which underlies Dixon’s definition of syntactic ergativity.
10 Foley and Van Valin (1984:110) offer the following definition of pivot. ‘The pivot of a syntactic construction is the NP which is crucially involved in it; i.e. it is the NP around which the construction is built.’ Ergative in Numanggang 137
I am not arguing that this is an example of Dixon’s S/O pivot. Even when an O noun phrase and the following S noun phrase (or vice versa) in a medial different subject coordination are coreferential and the second is (unambiguously) deleted, it is still the subject reference which is tracked by the medial verb system in Numanggang. The different subject switches do not reference a change from S to O. As can be seen in (21), the subject can equally easily change to a third party as well. (21) Kotigoŋ Gapman-di nanaŋe pepayot-dok boi-une bu-une again government-ERG food school-for place-DS come-DS na-aŋ nadinadi kwanai tu-gumun. eat-SS knowledge work do-DP.1PL The government again brought food for the school and (we) came and ate and did school work. However, I would like to submit that this facility to unambiguously handle coreferent deletion in coordinated clauses, at least partially explains why a passive or antipassive construction is unnecessary in Numanggang. A language such as English which can only coordinate an S and an S, or an S and an A, but not an S and an O, or an A and an O, requires the passive to promote the O to subject in the sentence in order for coordination to be unambiguous. If the two clauses in (22a) are to be coordinated and the subject of the second made unambiguously implicit, then the object of the first clause, Mary, must be promoted to become subject by a passive strategy first. The result would be (22b). An alternative is to refer to Mary with the feminine pronoun she as in (22c), in which case the reference is no longer implicit and the coordination strategy bypassed. (22) a. Father saw Mary. Mary ran away. b. Mary was seen by Father and ran away. (or: Mary was seen and ran away.) c. Father saw Mary and she ran away.
The point is that since Numanggang different subject coordination can readily shift in either direction without ambiguity, from O to S, or from S to O, as in examples (19) and (20), there is no need for a passive construction to promote O to S in order for the speaker to coordinate the two clauses.11 In a similar way, since Numanggang same subject medial coordination readily handles the shift in either direction from S to A, or from A to S, there is no need for an antipassive construction to demote A to S so that two clauses can be coordinated. Part of the genius of the Numanggang language is this special strategy to handle unambiguously, implicit participant reference in coordination.
2.6 Summary of ergativity in Numanggang In §2.2, it was demonstrated that, except in a small percentage of clauses, the marking of Numanggang noun phrases satisfies Dixon’s definition of morphological ergativity. In §2.3 Numanggang verb morphology was shown to behave in a distinctly nominative/
11 An additional feature of this different subject medial suffix is that a speaker is able to avoid explicit delineation of a participant, focusing only on the action and then moving on, thus effectively backgrounding the participant, as in (20). Such would appear to be one of the reasons for a passive construction. 138 David Hynum accusative manner. Section 2.5 explained syntactic ergativity and discussed how Numanggang coordination does not satisfy the definition of syntactic ergativity, and yet allows the same kind of unambiguous S and O deletion which characterises syntactic ergativity.
3 Functions of the clitic -di in discourse In this section, I will discuss examples found in discourse which deviate from the pattern described in §2. Up to this point, the discussion has been about the approximately 95 per cent of clauses in my data which, as far as the use of -di is concerned, are universally accepted as correct speech in isolation as well as within discourse context. In this section, discussion will be about the other 5 per cent of clauses, clauses which are approved as well formed only within the larger context in which they originally occurred. These examples will show the ergative marker -di occurring on noun phrases in clauses with intransitive verbs, environments where the use of -di is consistently rejected as unacceptable when the clause is removed from the original discourse, and discussed in isolation.12 Because these examples are acceptable only in context, a thorough understanding can only be gained through observations of that larger context. For this reason, I have included examples of complete texts in the appendix, to enable readers to investigate my conclusions carefully. The texts are a record of stories told by two different people, both generally recognised as good storytellers. Whenever possible, I have taken my discussion examples from those complete texts in the appendix. Unless otherwise stated, all the examples are taken from spoken or written material, including narrative and procedural discourse and dialogue, provided by respected and competent speakers within the community.
3.1 The use of -di in close knit structures with intransitive plus transitive verbs In example (23) Maŋ occurs with the ergative marker but is followed by the intransitive verb bu ‘come’ in a chain of two medial verbs, the second of which is transitive. (23) Tumuŋ iŋgoŋ hati-gut kaaŋ Maŋ-di bu-ŋa na-nagi-la Tumung here live-DP.1SG and mother-ERG come-SS 1SG.OBJ-bring-SS Mutu-de u-gumut. Mutu-DEST go-DP.1DL I lived here at Tumung and Mother came and brought me to Mutu. One possible explanation for the occurrence of -di in this example is that Numanggang, like most Papuan languages, exhibits a medial verb system which not only regularly joins multiple verbs into chains but also shows evidence that when verbs appear in these chains, they are perceived by the speakers and hearers as a more or less tight knit unit. A clear instance of a tight knit verb combination can be seen in example (24). Here a question is
12 When these intransitive clauses are taken from their discourse context and submitted to native speakers, the ergative marker is always removed before the clauses are approved, even though the original clauses are accepted as proper within the discourse. However, once the ergative marker has been discussed and removed, when the resulting clause is replaced in the discourse, the native speaker is most reluctant to add the ergative back in again. Ergative in Numanggang 139 addressed to a teenage girl by an aidpost orderly who had been waiting to give her an injection. He was surprised that she had been so long when she needed the injection and had only this one chance of getting it. (24) Daŋgoŋ wo hati bu-laŋ? where go be come-PR.2SG Where have you been? The two verbs wo and hati both occur as roots with no endings at all. There is no possibility that the omitted endings could be any other than the medial same subject endings, which, if included, would separate the events into more clearly discrete events. The sense would be something like, ‘where did you go, and where were you, now (that) you have come?’ Without these endings, the action is perceived as something of a unified event, as the free translation suggests. This kind of verb chain, starting with verb roots and ending with an inflected verb,13 has sometimes been referred to as verb serialisation. It appears to be a step between full medial verbs which tend to be more discrete, and compound verbs which are fully lexicalised as a single action, as in (25). (25) Ulu-kumuŋ-guk. hit-die-DP.3SG He killed (someone). In other words, there appears to be a continuum. At one end are fully lexicalised verbs about which there is no doubt that they represent what is perceived as a single action or event. The continuum proceeds through multiple verbs used medially but without endings such as (24) that are closer to a single action but with some sense of separation. Then at the farther end of the continuum are fully formed medial verbs whose associated actions are clearly understood to be separate, distinct actions or events. Between these last two points of the continuum I am suggesting that there are some chains of verbs, such as in example (23), which are less clearly a separate set of discrete events.14 The question is whether in a clause chain such as (23), an explicit noun phrase occurring with the ergative marker before a medial intransitive verb, is marked with the ergative in anticipation of the transitive verb which will follow. If so, this would account for about a third of the exceptional uses of the ergative marker. In other words, about one third of the exceptions occur with the ergative marker on the noun phrase which is the subject of an intransitive medial verb or two intransitive medial verbs in succession, followed by a transitive verb as in (26).
13 Another example of a tight knit verb chain, somewhat similar in meaning to (23) but lacking the medial endings, is: ti bu na-m-beŋ do come 1SG.OBJ-give-NF.2SG Bring to me. The first two verbs, ti and bu, have no medial endings at all and are clearly close knit. A fuller version of this expression, with medial endings on the first two verbs, is acceptable language but not typical. It would be tiŋa buŋa nambeŋ, and the meaning would be something like ‘Get it and come and give it to me’. 14 This hypothesis, and the whole matter of verb chains, requires further research and will not be pursued further here. 140 David Hynum
(26) Kaaŋ Gatiwin-di-bo pilali bu-ŋa palamus gali-ŋa and Gatiwin-ERG-in.turn rise come-SS primus light-SS palawa he-guk. flour cook-DP.3SG Then in turn, Gatiwin got up and came out, lit the stove and cooked pancakes. In (26) Gatiwin gets up to do two transitive actions, light the stove and cook the pancakes. The S noun phrase is marked with the ergative as A rather than S in anticipation of the transitive verbs which follow, even though there are two intervening intransitive verbs. While the above is a reasonable explanation of about a third of the examples of the exceptional uses of -di in my data, example (27) demonstrates the difficulty that remains. (27) Kaaŋ mihi-yamit-di yopmaŋ ha-lu-une me kweli and son-with.mother-ERG house.in be-CUST-DS man ground waaniŋ-di bu-ŋa ye-niŋ-guk … owner-ERG come-SS 3PL.OBJ-tell-DP.3SG The mother and son were at home and the owner of the area came and said to them … There are two subjects in the example, both marked for ergativity. Based on the previous discussion, the ergative marker on the second, me kweli waaniŋ, can be explained to be in anticipation of the transitive verb ye-niŋ-guk even though an intransitive verb intervenes. However, the first subject, mihiyamit, has no transitive verb in the environment at all. It is exceptional uses of -di such as this which will be discussed in the following section. An attempt will be made to shed some light on them by considering them in their wider context.
3.2 A discourse perspective Even if the explanation is accepted that -di marks a noun phrase in anticipation of a coming transitive verb despite one or two intervening intransitive medial verbs, no such pattern is discernible in a number of other instances of -di. One example was pointed out in (27) above. Further instances can be seen in (28) and (29). (28) Nu kom kuyaniŋ-neŋ mebaŋ-di daŋgoŋ weene tu-lu-une I before small-LOC father-ERG wherever go.DESID do-CUST-DS wen-dok tuwot kele-yau-lu-gut. that-for sufficient follow-go.around-CUST-DP.1SG Long ago when I was little, wherever Dad wanted to go I used to follow him all around. In (28) the ergative marker occurs on mebaŋ ‘father’ even though there is no transitive verb in the chain which follows. The verb tu ‘do’ in (28) frequently occurs as an auxiliary verb, whose transitivity status depends on the verb it occurs with. In (29), both the verbs, it ‘sit’ and wom ‘wait’ are also intransitive, yet noli ‘the other one’ is marked for ergativity. Ergative in Numanggang 141
(29) Kaaŋ noli-di kwet-foloŋ da wom i-kuk, i-kuk, i-kuk. and other-ERG ground-on there wait sit-DP.3SG sit-DP.3SG sit-DP.3SG And the other one sat waiting there on the ground for a long time. In order to understand why the small number of examples such as in (28) and (29) use -di as they do, we need to look at them from a different perspective. Linguistically, ergativity is simply one way of dividing up reality to fit into the framework of a language. It gives the language speaker a way to distinguish the various arguments that occur or might occur in a given clause. It allows the speaker to indicate to the hearer which argument is which. In this case, on the clause level, A is marked with -di, S is not. The ergative marker and the verb morphology together specify all of the arguments of the clause for the hearer and prevent confusion. But since language is not limited to clauses or even sentences, and since language tends to be consistent, it seems appropriate to pursue an explanation of exceptions such as (28) and (29) by examining them within the context of discourse to see if there is the same or a similar kind of ergative distinction. In order to do this, the context of each example must be considered within its discourse. Admittedly, this task is a bit intimidating because the context is so large. The initial five sentences of the story containing (29) are as follows. (For the complete text, see Appendix.) (30) Me kweli waaniŋ-di kwet Nauŋ uŋgoŋ tawa hewe man ground owner-ERG ground Naung there vine vine.type tama-kuk. Tawa tama-li naŋguŋ bahaki ibi-guk. pull.up-DP.3SG vine pull.up-SS banana wrap.down tie-DP.3SG Nai uŋali-degoŋ taam-di mihi kame-eŋ ha-kuk kaaŋ metaam-di time same-for woman-ERG son put-SS be-DP.3SG and people-ERG kap miyemiye u-giŋ kaaŋ mihi-yamit-di yopmaŋ dance dancing go-DP.3PL and son-with.mother-ERG house.in ha-lu-une me kweli waaniŋ-di bu-ŋa ye-niŋ-guk … be-CUST-DS man ground owner-ERG come-SS 3PL.OBJ-tell-DP.3SG The land owner there at Naung pulled out a hewe vine. He pulled out the vine and wrapped and tied down some bananas. At the very same time the woman placed her son there and the people went to dance a ceremonial dance. The mother and son were there in the house and the owner of the ground came and asked them … In establishing the setting for a story, the story teller must introduce characters, times, places and background material. With more characters to juggle than normal, the speaker faces a situation similar to a highly transitive clause. A transitive clause involves two or three nuclear arguments compared with only one in an intransitive clause. The ergative marker allows the speaker to specify A, the dominant argument, the one doing something. This is not necessarily putting emphasis or focus on A, but simply pointing out who A is within the immediate context. It limits the total possible options to one in particular. In (30), the ergative marks each of the participants who will occur throughout the story. The first two, waaniŋ ‘owner’ and taam ‘woman’, are the major participants in the first half of the story, waaniŋ also being a major participant through to the end. Both waaniŋ 142 David Hynum and taam occur with the ergative marker in transitive clauses. The second two occurences of the ergative are in intransitive clauses. The first introduces a major participant of the second half of the story, metaam ‘people’. The ergative notifies the hearers that this is a significant participant, and the fact that it occurs in an intransitive clause may indicate that this participant’s role is minor at this point. With the second occurrence in an intransitive clause the ergative is used to place the woman, this time referred to as a unit along with her son, mihiyamit, into position for action to begin. The woman has already been introduced as a major participant, but she is only referred to as taam ‘woman’ twice in the discourse. As a participant, she is mostly referred to along with her son together as a participant. The advantage of this strategy will be discussed in the next paragraph. The ergative indicates the woman’s status along with her son as high on the scale of participant reference. The intransitive is used, possibly because at this point they are not dominant. Immediately following is the other major participant, the land owner, marked for ergativity in a chain of verbs consisting of an intransitive verb followed by a transitive verb. He is marked as dominant by the ergative in this intransitive transitive progession. At this point, with the participants and setting established, the story teller switches to demonstratives (see end of §2.2 above) and implicit reference for these participants until the very last sentence of the story. There are transitive verbs which would require the ergative but the associated A is not explicit or is conveniently insulated by an intervening switch reference15 or a demonstrative. Part of the reason the story teller is able to avoid explicit noun phrase reference is that the three major participants can easily be distinguished by number. The land owner kweli waani is singular, mihiyamit ‘mother and child’ is dual, and metaam ‘people’ is plural. Notice that the son is too little to do much more than be put into the net bag and carried. Yet the dual morphology on the verb includes him as equal with his mother in such activities as lighting the firewood, and looking to see what the man is doing so that the fire keeps going out. Thus, the verb morphology alone is often sufficient to specify and distinguish the participants, allowing the story teller to avoid explicit noun phrases and focus on the action. This is a particular preference in Numanggang story telling. In the last clause of the story, the speaker ends by remarking dramatically that the Mungkip people, marked with the ergative in a transitive clause, still have the hand drum used by the man in the dance. ‘Mungkip people’ is a new identification of a major participant, metaam ‘people’. In addition, the term occurs in a transitive clause. This is the mark of a particularly good story teller: the ability to craft the story so that the clause and the discourse constraints on the ergative not only do not conflict, they overlap and reinforce each other.
15 A clause ending with a medial switch reference can insulate or completely hide the subject, whether S or A. One example occurs in the third sentence of the second paragraph of the second text included in the appendix. Unduŋ ye-nim-bune loo-gumuk. thus 3PL.OBJ-tell-DS go.up-DP.3DL (He) told them that and the two went up. With the context established, the participants are clear, so there is no explicit reference to who is telling the two something or who the two are who are going up. However, when the speaker wishes to background the subject completely, to hide the S or A, he can avoid any reference to the actor at all. An example is (20) above. There is no indication at all of who sent the kumondulum ‘police’ who are the object of the first clause. With the switch reference, the police become the subject of the next two clauses and the ‘senders’ are effectively hidden in the switch reference, completely backgrounded. Ergative in Numanggang 143
It appears, then, that -di has different but similar functions in the clause and the discourse. In the clause, -di marks the subject noun phrase in the transitive clause to distinguish it from object and indirect object noun phrases. It allows speaker and hearer to identify A, the most active character in the action described in that clause. In discourse, -di has a parallel function. It marks the major participant, allowing speaker and hearer to know where to keep their attention and helping to track the right participant in strings of medial verbs. However, this sometimes conflicts with its clause level function. Occasionally it means that a participant is marked with -di as a major participant in the discourse, even though it occurs as S in an intransitive clause. The rules governing the use of -di in discourse override the rule for its use at clause level which prohibits the ergative on S. This explains why the ergative is rejected from the intransitive clause when it is removed from the discourse context. A second area in which this double level usage of the ergative conflicts is when the ergative is necessary to mark A in a transitive clause but the A is a minor participant in the story. This is especially interesting because the best story tellers avoid this conflict with alternatives such as introducing the minor participant in an intransitive clause with medial same subject ending, then proceeding to the transitive verb with no explicit subject and therefore no need to mark ergativity. In this way, the best story tellers take full advantage of the contrast between ergative marking of noun phrases and the nominative verb morphology. This technique is especially effective when the participants can be distinguished by number, capitalising on the singular, dual, plural contrast in the verb morphology. Another narrative (see Appendix, Text 2) utilises the ergative to indicate the major participants at their first mention, but instead of clustering them at the beginning, spreads the introductions throughout the narrative. In the first line of the story, the main characters, taam yadalit ‘two sisters’, are introduced as a unit with the ergative marker. (31) Taam yadalit niŋ-di ime kaliŋ u-gumuk. woman sisters SPEC-ERG water searching.for go-DP.3DL Two sisters went for water. The next major participant is introduced three sentences (thirteen clauses) later after the two sisters ask, ‘Who are you, what are you doing, where have you been?’ At which point it is revealed to the hearers but not to the sisters that the new character is a spirit, momolok. (32) … me momolok-di yo-guk … man spirit-ERG say-DP.3SG … the bush spirit said … The ergative marker, in the transitive clause in (32), marks momolok as a major participant and then is used to track him as he changes appearance and speaks to them at a different location. The spirit’s pattern of behaviour is then succinctly said to have been repeated four more times. So even though the sisters do not know this is the same person in each situation or that he is a spirit, the hearers are informed and the ergative clearly identifies him each time in his new face as a major participant. All of the clauses which so identify him are speech clauses using the less transitive verb yo ‘say something’ rather than the more highly transitive niŋ ‘tell someone something’. When the spirit then changes into a wild yam, in an intransitive clause, there is no ergative marking.16
16 The fact that the spirit is in control of his change is evidence that the key factor in determining usage of the ergative is not control as in Folopa (Anderson and Wade 1988). 144 David Hynum
At this point there is again a short space, five sentences (nineteen clauses), to the mid point of the story, at which point the spirit (that is the wild yam in the net bag of the sisters) changes into an infant and cries (33). (33) … kaaŋ momolok gamuŋ wele tu-guk wen-di mihi to-guk … and spirit wild.yam image do-DP.3SG that-ERG son cry-DP.3SG … and the spirit that had turned into a wild yam cried (like) a boy … Here, he is again referred to in a noun phrase marked with the ergative in an intransitive clause after which there is no ergative marker until the two clauses shown in (34), which occur near the climax of the story. (34) Kaaŋ dalaŋ-yat-di bu-gumuk kaaŋ ye-niŋ-guk … and sisters-two-ERG come-DP.3DL and 3PL.OBJ-tell-DP.3SG And the two sisters came and she told them … The pair of clauses in (34) is a particularly significant example in that the noun phrase dalaŋyat ‘two sisters’ is marked as ergative, but is followed by a fully inflected intransitive verb, bugumuk ‘they two came’, and then the two sisters are referred to by the object prefix of the succeeding verb, the ones to whom is revealed the identity of the spirit by the little sister. The reason for the ergative appears to be because at this juncture the sisters obtain vital information that transforms them. The new knowledge they now possess changes the sisters from those being tricked by the spirit into the tricksters who settle the score with him.17 Notice once again that the story teller capitalises on the verb morphology’s number distinction to identify the different participants without the necessity of many explicit noun phrases. Moreover, this story teller masterfully utilises the ergative to track the major participants through changes in appearance and even changes in key knowledge.
3.3 Skilled story tellers’ use of -di Not all story tellers use -di as skillfully as in the ways discussed in §3.2. Less skilled story tellers, possibly due to lack of practice or exposure to language,18 are limited to using the ergative to keep track of the various participants in dialogue as in the example (35) which is part of a retelling of a familiar Bible story. (35) Dapma-une Jesu miiŋ Malia-di Jesu indiŋ niŋ-guk, finish-DS Jesus mother.his Maria-ERG Jesus thus 3SG.OBJ.tell-DP.3SG ‘Ime fafaŋeŋ-hik (wain) dapma-lak’. Yo-bune Jesu-di indiŋ water strong-their (wine) finish-PR.3SG say-DS Jesus-ERG thus niŋ-guk, ‘Taam, u indi-niŋ nemek be? Nai-ne 3SG.OBJ.tell-DP.3SG woman that we-GEN something QM time-my
17 It is significant that the sisters are not in control at the point where they are marked with the ergative. It was after they came that they received the crucial information. 18 The author has observed school leavers who handle the language quite well, but have temporarily lost certain phonemic features such as the voiceless allophone of one vowel. Some refuse to speak Numanggang at all for a short time upon their return to the language area. After a brief interval, such speakers regain full proficiency including the voiceless vowel allophone. It is likely that more subtle features of discourse such as use of the future tense for drama at the height of suspense within distant past narrative and the use of the ergative would also be temporarily lost by removal from the home context. Ergative in Numanggang 145
kobuk dula-wek’. Unduŋ yo-bune Malia-di fit wo-oŋ later arrive-NF.3SG thus say-DS Maria-ERG no.reason go-SS tipilapilaye mihi indiŋ ye-niŋ-guk, ‘Jesu-di nemek servant boy thus 3PL.OBJ-tell-DP.3SG Jesus-ERG something niŋ ha-nim-bune ti-neŋ’. SPEC 2PL.OBJ-tell-DS do-IMP.2PL (The wine) ran out and Jesus’ mother Mary told him, ‘Their wine has run out’. She said that and Jesus said this to her, ‘Woman, is this any of our business? My time is arriving later.’ He said that and Mary went to the servant men anyway and told them, ‘Whatever Jesus tells you, do it’. This part of the story in (35) requires no extended usage of the ergative because the verbs for speech acts are ditransitive and require the ergative anyway.19 The ergative serves to clearly delineate each speaker and their speech, switching from Jesu miiŋ Malia ‘Jesus’ mother Mary’, to Jesu, back to Malia, then again to Jesu. Slightly more skill is required in the text shown in example (36) where two members of a group are distinguished from each other by the use of the ergative clitic. (36) Unduŋ ti-ŋa taam-yat noli-di gegep thus do-SS woman-DL other-ERG edible.leaf.type kaliŋ lo-guk, lo-oŋ moŋgo-la lik ginaŋ searching.for go.up-DP.3SG go.up-SS collect-SS net.bag in kidahi-guk. Unduŋ ti-ŋa ne miŋgembet wele ti-ŋa arrange.inside-DP.3SG thus do-SS 3SG.INT snake image do-SS lik ginaŋ fo-oŋ ha-kuk. Kaaŋ taam net.bag in go.down-SS be-DP.3SG and woman noli-di-bo lo-guk. Lo-oŋ … other-ERG-in.turn go.up-DP.3SG go.up-SS They did that and one of the two women went up to gather gegep leaves and collected them and put them in her net bag. She did that and made herself look like a snake and went and stayed inside the net bag. And the other woman went up in her turn. She went up and … Notice that the two girls are identified early in the text in (36) by the dual in taamyat ‘the two women’. Having been previously introduced as major characters, they are now distinguished from each other for a short time, because of separate but related activities which result in the denouement of the narrative. Both taam-yat noli ‘one of the two women’ early in (36), and taam noli ‘the other woman’ near the end of (36), are marked with -di and both occur in intransitive clauses. Each of these two clauses is followed by pause, and recapitulation of the intransitive verb. This strategy seems to handle situations in which two subjects (A or S) with some similarities need to be distinguished. So the ergative marker is used with each in turn to clarify which is which, even though the verbs are intransitive. Another example of this strategy for keeping closely related subjects distinct occurs in (37), from a story about two girls who fell off a bridge into the river. Up to the point of
19 Although Malia is marked with -di before wooŋ, there is a speech act verb following. 146 David Hynum falling the two occurred as one dual subject. But falling into the river precipitated separate action. (37) Wo-oŋ taam noli-di wo-oŋ taam noli kohoŋ hone-guk. do-SS woman other-ERG go-SS woman other hand hold-DP.3SG They went and one of the girls went over and grabbed the other by the hand. Here again in (37), the factors determining use of the ergative are the number of participants and the need to keep the participants distinct. However, example (37) does also fit the pattern discussed in §3.1 above, in that the noun phrase marked with -di and followed by a medial intranstive verb, wooŋ ‘went’, is later followed by the transitive verb honeguk ‘held’.
4 Conclusion From this study I conclude that the ergative marker -di has a discourse function in addition to its obvious function in the clause. In both functions -di serves to distinguish various participants within the immediate context. On the clause level, -di simply functions to indicate A in contrast to S and O. On the discourse level, -di functions to indicate who the major participants are, both when they are introduced and at significant places throughout the story, so that the hearer can follow the actions of the different parties. Although occasionally a speaker’s use of -di in a discourse may override its usual clause function, and this is acceptable to the hearers in context, the best story tellers craft their clauses to take advantage of all the constraints, using -di in ways that fulfil both its clause and discourse functions.
Appendix: Two Numanggang texts The authors of these two stories were both mature, married women who were recognised as good story tellers. The stories were recorded at their homes, with small family audiences, in the village of Tumun in the southern dialect. Later the texts were transcribed and minimally edited to remove pauses and the very few false starts. The texts are shown here divided into numbered sentence units. The sentences have been identified by final verbs, final intonation (usually), and a few by list intonation.
Text 1: The Chase (as told by Dayepe) 1.1 Me kweli waaniŋ-di kwet Nauŋ uŋgoŋ tawa tama-kuk. man ground owner-ERG ground Naung there vine pull.up-DP.3SG 1.2 Tawa hewe tama-li naŋguŋ bahaki ibi-guk. vine vine.species pull.up-SS banana wrap.down tie-DP.3SG 1.3 Nai uŋali-degoŋ taam-di mihi kame-eŋ time same-for woman-ERG son put-SS ha-kuk kaaŋ metaam-di kap miyemiye u-giŋ. be-DP.3SG and people-ERG dance dancing go-DP.3PL The land owner there at Naung pulled out a hewe vine. He pulled out the vine and wrapped and tied down some plantains. At that very moment the woman gave birth to her son and he was there and the people went to the dance. Ergative in Numanggang 147
1.4 Kaaŋ mihi-yamit-di yopmaŋ ha-lu-une me kweli waaniŋ-di and son-with.mother-ERG house.in be-CUST-DS man ground owner-ERG bu-ŋa ye-niŋ-guk, ‘Mihi-yamit kudup neŋ come-SS 3PL.OBJ-tell-DP.3SG son-with.mother fire some ibi-nam-doŋ.’ 20 light-1SG.BEN-?? 1.5 Ye-nim-bune ibi-mi-ya-gumuk kaaŋ adi ti-ŋa wo-oŋ 3PL.OBJ-tell-DS light-3SG.BEN-CUST-DP.3DL and he take-SS go-SS ti-mi-lu-guk. do-3SG.BEN-CUST-DP.3SG 1.6 Ti-mi-ŋa ti-mi-ŋa ti-mi-ŋa tubu-kumu-ŋa do-3SG.BEN-SS do-3SG.BEN-SS do-3SG.BEN-SS TR-die-SS kotigoŋ bu ye-ni-lu-guk, ‘Mihi-yamit, tubutsadi again come 3PL.OBJ-tell-CUST-DP.3SG son-with.mother ?? tumule kudup wa kumu-lak ale kiŋgoŋ ibi-nam-doŋ’. ?? fire this die-PR.3SG so again light-1SG.BEN-?? The mother and son were there in the house and the land owner came and asked them, ‘Mother-and-son, light a bit of firewood for me (to get my own going)’. He said that to them and they lit one for him and he took it and went and did to it. (Note: This ‘did to it’ is a euphemism, understood because the story is well known. It means he urinated on it to put out the fire.) He kept doing to it and extinguished it and came to them again and was telling them, ‘Mother-and-son … this firewood starter went out, so light another for me’. 1.7 Unduŋ ye-nim-bu kotigoŋ ibi-mi-ya-gumuk kaaŋ kotigoŋ thus 3PL.OBJ-tell-DS again light-3SG.BEN-CUST-DP.3DL and again ti-ŋa wo-oŋ ti-mi-ŋa ti-mi-ŋa tubu-kumu-ŋa kotigoŋ take-SS go-SS do-3SG.BEN-SS do-3SG.BEN-SS TR-die-SS again bu ye-niŋ-guk. come 3PL.OBJ-tell-DP.3SG He told them that and they gave him another and again he took it and went and did to it repeatedly and extinguished it and again came and asked them. 1.8 Kaaŋ kudup ibi-mi-ŋa mihi-yamit u pilali-ŋa me u and fire light-3SG.BEN-SS son-with.mother that rise-SS man that ka-gumuk. see-DP.3DL 1.9 Dediŋ ti-lak yo ka-une ti-miŋ tu-lu-guk kaaŋ how do-PR.3SG say see-DS do-3SG.BEN do-CUST-DP.3SG and
20 The speech of the spirit is from a related dialect. The gist of what the spirit says is included in the free translation, but not all the morphemes are known. Additionally, the storyteller seems to include progressively more of the spirit’s own dialect with each new speech, e.g. mihiyamit (1.6) becomes mindiyamit (1.12). 148 David Hynum
adi pilali-ŋa gegep kudup kudiliŋ-neŋ niŋ ha-kuk she rise-SS wood.type fire ceiling-LOC SPEC be-DP.3SG u woo ti-ŋa fo-oŋ suambali yohi-guk. that go take-SS go.down-SS spit light-DP.3SG 1.10 Da-une tubu-udane-eŋ tobo bo yohi-guk. burn-DS TR-turn-SS other.side in.turn light-DP.3SG When they gave it to him, that mother-and-son rose up and looked at that man. Wondering ‘What is he doing?’ she looked and saw him doing to it and reached up and got down a piece of hardwood firewood from the ceiling dry rack and spitting on it she started a good fire in it. When it was burning well she turned it end for end and started the other side too. 1.11 Yohi-u da-lu-ne me u kotigoŋ bu-guk. light-DS burn-CUST-DS man that again come-DP.3SG 1.12 Bu-ŋa ye-niŋ-guk, ‘Mindi-yamit kudup kiŋgoŋ come-SS 3PL.OBJ-tell-DP.3SG son-with.mother fire again ibi-nam-doŋ. Dubutali tumule kudup a kumu-lak’. light-1SG.BEN-?? ?? ?? fire already die-PR.3SG She started it and while it was burning that man came again. He came and told them, ‘Mother-and-son, light another piece of firewood for me … the fire has gone out already’. 1.13 Unduŋ yo-bu gegep kudup ibi-mim-bu u-guk. thus say-DS wood.type fire light-3SG.BEN-DS go-DP.3SG 1.14 Wo-oŋ ya-ti-mi-lu-guk kaaŋ taam i pilali go-SS stand-do-3SG.BEN-CUST-DP.3SG and woman this rise mihi dahimela Efaŋ tuwai loo-guk. son put.inside.carry.in.net.bag Efang ridge go.up-DP.3SG 1.15 Lo-oŋ ya-ka-guk e uŋgoŋ go.up-SS stand-see-DP.3SG unexpectedly there ya-ti-mi-lu-guk kaaŋ lo-oŋ Handambeŋ Biliŋ stand-do-3SG.BEN-CUST-DP.3SG and go.up-SS Handambeng Biling ya-ka-une me i kudup sigi ibi ti-ŋa mindaŋ stand-see-DS man this fire mature light take-SS behind Efaŋ tuwai loo-guk. Efang ridge go.up-DP.3SG He said that and she shared the hardwood fire with him and he went. He went and was standing there doing to it and this woman rose up and put her son in the net bag and carried him and went up Efang Ridge. She went up and stood looking and sure enough, there he was standing doing to it, and she went up to Handambeng Biling and stood looking, and this man took up the hardwood fire and went up after them up Efang Ridge. 1.16 Lo-lu-guk kaaŋ mihi-yamit i fo-oŋ Yaŋkun, go.up-CUST-DP.3SG and son-with.mother this go.down-SS Yangkun Ergative in Numanggang 149
kap miye-giŋ-neŋ, fo-oŋ ye-niŋ-guk, ‘Hidi-ye, indi dance dance-DP.3PL-LOC go.down-SS 3PL.OBJ-tell-DP.3SG you.PL-?? we ba-mut-neŋ-kade uŋgoŋ ya-diwe-neŋ. Me niŋ mindaŋ come-PR.1DL-LOC-side there stand-watch-PR.2PL man SPEC behind bu-lak’. come-PR.3SG 1.17 Unduŋ ye-ni-ŋa mihi-yamit u momo-oŋ thus 3PL.OBJ-tell-SS son-with.mother that run-SS wo-oŋ metaam i-kiŋ-neŋ u-gumuk. go-SS people sit-DP.3PL-LOC go-DP.3DL He was going up and this mother-and-son went down to Yangkun to where the people were dancing and said to them, ‘Attention, everyone, watch there where we two are coming from. A certain man is coming behind.’ She said that to them and that mother-and-son ran to where the people were sitting. 1.18 Kaaŋ me i wagim tagi ti-ŋa mindaŋ u-guk, wo-oŋ and man this drum carry.under.arm do-SS behind go-DP.3SG go-SS ye-niŋ-guk, ‘Hidi nu-niŋ kale-ne iŋgoŋ bu-ŋak 3PL.OBJ-tell-DP.3SG you.PL I-GEN meat-my here come-RP.3SG ka-ŋiŋ be?’ see-RP.2PL QM Then this man, carrying his hand drum under his arm, came afterward and asked them, ‘Have you all seen my pig coming here just now?’ 1.19 Yo-bu yo-giŋ, ‘Indi mu ka-mun’. say-DS say-DP.3PL we not see-RP.1PL 1.20 Unduŋ nim-bune bi-ŋa fo-oŋ kap miye-guk. thus tell-DS leave-SS go.down-SS music dance-DP.3SG 1.21 Kap indiŋ to-ŋa miye-lu-guk. music thus sing-SS dance-CUST-DP.3SG 1.22 ‘Meli waandooŋ Kolo waandooŋ. Ooŋ oee ee Kilindoŋ oo ee.’ [These lines are not translatable. They are the song sung by the spirit.] 1.23 Unduŋ to-ŋa kap miye-eŋ ya-lu hele-guk. thus sing-SS music dance-SS stand-DS dawn-DP.1SG He asked them and they said, ‘We haven’t just seen it’. They told him that and he abandoned it and went down and danced. He sang this song and was dancing. ‘Meli waandooŋ, Kolo waandooŋ. Ooŋ oee ee, Kilindoŋ oo ee.’ He sang that and danced and continued until dawn. 1.24 Hele-une ye-ni-lu-guk, ‘Kumo mo-hinek nadi-lat’, dawn-DS 3PL.OBJ-tell-CUST-DP.3SG faeces good-really know-PR.1SG ye-nim-bune wo-oŋ yali-mi-ya-giŋ. 3PL.OBJ-tell-DS go-SS stand-3SG.BEN-CUST-DP.3PL 150 David Hynum
1.25 ‘Fiyet nadi-lat’, yo-bune u maŋ kamadiyat tu-bune urine know-PR.1SG say-DS that also stand.by do-DS me i kwanai miiŋ tu-lu-guk. man this work mother do-CUST-DP.3SG 1.26 Ti-ŋa bu-giŋ, bu talik-neŋ bu-une sububa fedi-la do-SS come-DP.3PL come road-LOC come-DS wind blow-SS mulukwaŋ ti-ŋa wonim mebe tamat ti-lo-une ginaŋ cloud do-SS tree base pull.up do-go.up-DS hole ya-lune uŋgoŋ wo-oŋ foo-guk. stand-DS there go-SS go.down-DP.3SG It dawned and he was telling them, ‘I really need to defecate’. He told them and they went and were standing beside him. ‘I need to urinate’, he said and at that too, they stood beside him and this man was working hard (trying to get away) (lit. was doing mother work). And they came and as they were coming on the trail the wind blew and it clouded up and plucked up a wonim tree trunk and he stepped in the hole and went down and away. 1.27 Kaaŋ wagim-ŋiŋ hogok lom ti-giŋ. and drum-his only take.away do-DP.3PL 1.28 Wagim u kobuk Muŋkip-hi-di kame-eŋ i-kiiŋ. drum that now Mungkip-PL-ERG put-SS sit-DP.3PL And they were only able to take his drum from him. The Mungkip people still have that drum.
Text 2: Two Sisters (as told by Mutigineng) 2.1 Taam yadalit niŋ-di ime kaliŋ u-gumuk. women two.siblings SPEC-ERG water searching.for go-DP.3DL 2.2 Wo-oŋ ime kubali-neŋ wosuwa-aŋ ka-une me niŋ go-SS water valley-LOC arrive-SS see-DS man SPEC uŋgoŋ ha-kuk. there be-DP.3SG 2.3 Kaaŋ adi wosuwa-aŋ kaaŋ ninadi-gumuk, ‘Du nedigoŋ and he arrive-SS and ask-DP.3DL you.SG who maŋgoŋ kaliŋ daŋ yau-ŋa bu-ha-taŋ?’ what searching.for where wander-SS come-be-PR.2SG Two sisters went to get water and when they arrived at the valley they saw a man there. When he came up to them they asked him, ‘Who are you, what are you looking for, where have you been going around and you’re here?’ 2.4 Nim-bu me momolok-di yo-guk, ‘Nu me Tuwo, hogok ime tell-DS man spirit-ERG say-DP.3SG I man first.born only water kubat iŋoŋ ha-yau-lat’. valley here be-wander-PR.1SG Ergative in Numanggang 151
2.5 Unduŋ ye-ni-ŋa koti ye-niŋ-guk, ‘Ime iŋgoŋ thus 3PL.OBJ-tell-SS again 3PL.OBJ-tell-DP.3SG water here mu gi-temek, ya ime hogoli ale wahiŋ gwaŋ not collect-NF.2DL this water bad so higher up.there lo-oŋ gi-temek’. go.up-SS collect-NF.2DL 2.6 Unduŋ ye-nim-bune loo-gumuk. thus 3PL.OBJ-tell-DS go.up-DP.3DL And the bush spirit said, ‘I’m Tuwo (first born son), I’m just wandering around the streambed here’. He said that and added, ‘Don’t get your water here. This water is bad so go up above there and get it.’ And the two went up. 2.7 Loo-lu me momolok i koŋgoŋ lo-oŋ wahiŋ uŋgoŋ ha-kuk. go.up-DS man spirit this again go.up-SS higher there be-DP.3SG 2.8 Kaaŋ taam yadalit i losuwa-aŋ ka-gumuk, and woman two.siblings this arrive.up-SS see-DP.3DL me nomonda uŋgoniŋ-di-bo wahiŋ uŋgoŋ i-la diwe-guk. man appearance different-ERG-in.turn higher there sit-SS watch-DP.3SG 2.9 Losuwa-une ye-ninadi-guk, ‘Hidi maŋgoŋ kaliŋ arrive.up-DS 3PL.OBJ-ask-DP.3SG you.PL what searching.for laba-muk?’ arrive.up-PR.2DL While they were going up, this bush spirit went up again and was there. And when these two sisters arrived they saw him, a man with a different appearance was sitting up there watching. They arrived up there and he asked them, ‘What are you looking for?’ 2.10 Ye-nim-bune yo-gumuk, ‘Indi ime kaliŋ laba-mut’. 3PL.OBJ-tell-DS say-DP.3DL we water searching.for arrive.up-PR.1DL 2.11 Unduŋ yo yakaleŋ ninadi-gumuk, ‘Ka du nedigoŋ thus say turn.around ask-DP.3DL and you.SG who maŋgoŋ kaliŋ dediŋ yau-ŋa bu it-aŋ?’ what searching.for how wander-SS come sit-PR.2SG And they said, ‘We arrived up here looking for water’. They said that and added asking, ‘And who are you, what are you looking for, why are you going around and now you have come and you’re sitting here?’ 2.12 Yo-bune me momolok-di ye-niŋ-guk, ‘Nu me Mone, say-DS man spirit-ERG 3PL.OBJ-tell-DP.3SG I man second.born hogok ime kubat iŋoŋ ha-yau-lat’. only water valley here be-wander-PR.1SG 2.13 Unduŋ ye-ni-yakale-eŋ koti ye-niŋ-guk, thus 3PL.OBJ-tell-around-SS again 3PL.OBJ-tell-DP.3SG 152 David Hynum
‘Ime ya hogoli ale wahiŋ gwaŋ lo-oŋ gi-temek’. water this bad so higher up.there go.up-SS collect-NF.2DL 2.14 Unduŋ ye-nim-bune wabi-ŋa wahiŋ-de loo-gumuk thus 3PL.OBJ-tell-DS leave-SS higher-DEST go.up-DP.3DL They said that and the bush spirit said to them, ‘I’m Mone (second born son). I’m just wandering around the streambed here.’ Then he added, ‘This water is bad so go up there higher and get it’. He told them that and they left it and went up higher. 2.15 Unduŋ hogok ti-ta-loo-ge loo-ge loo-gee Kanzok thus only do-do.CUST-go.up-REP go.up-REP go.up-REP sixth.born gineŋ dapma-une ye-niŋ-guk, ‘Ime wahiŋ gwaŋ in complete-DS 3PL.OBJ-tell-DP.3SG water higher up.there lo-oŋ gi-temek’. go.up-SS collect-NF.2DL 2.16 Ye-nim-bune ha-lo-ya-gumuk kaaŋ me momolok i kiyane-eŋ 3PL.OBJ-tell-DS be-go.up-CUST-DP.3DL and man spirit this run-SS wo-oŋ taap-meŋ gamuŋ wele yagile-eŋ i-kuk. go-SS trail-LOC wild.yam image change.into-SS sit-DP.3SG Just like that they kept doing and going on until they reached Kanzok (sixth born son) who said to them, ‘Go up higher and get your water up there’. He told them and while the two of them were going up, this bush spirit ran along and at the trail he turned into a wild yam and sat. 2.17 Kaaŋ taam yadalit i lo-oŋ ime gi-la yopmaŋ-de and woman two.siblings this go.up-SS water collect-SS house.in-DEST u-gumuk. go-DP.3DL 2.18 Wo-oŋ taap-meŋ wo-oŋ ka-gumuk kaaŋ gamuŋ niŋ go-SS trail-LOC go-SS see-DP.3DL and wild.yam SPEC mo-hinek kwembuhit ti-ŋa i-kuk. excellent-very swell.breaking.ground do-SS sit-DP.3SG 2.19 Ime uŋoŋ boi-ŋa gamuŋ u wene-gumuk. water there place-SS wild.yam there dig.up-DP.3DL 2.20 Wene-eŋ ti-ŋa Wene-ŋiŋ-dok mim-bune dig.up-SS do-SS second.born.girl-her-for give-SS dahime-la mindaŋ yau-guk. put.inside.carry.in.net.bag-SS after wander-DP.3SG These two sisters went up and got their water and started home. They went to the trail and going along they saw a really excellent wild yam breaking up through the ground sitting there. They put the water down there and dug up that wild yam. They dug it up and the one gave it to her younger sister Wene (second born daughter) who placed it in her string bag and carried it, coming behind. Ergative in Numanggang 153
2.21 Uuye-eŋ gimahaŋ niŋ lo-oŋ tata-kumuk kaaŋ momolok go.CONT-SS fence SPEC go.up-SS jump-DP.2DL and spirit gamuŋ wele tu-guk wen-di mihi to-guk kaaŋ wild.yam image do-DP.3SG that.one-ERG son cry-DP.3SG and wabi-ŋa boombooŋ ugoŋ boi-ŋa ka-gumuk. leave-SS goods there place-SS see-DP.3DL 2.22 Kaaŋ eaŋ lik ginaŋ dah-iguk, kaaŋ wabi-ŋa and infant net.bag in place.inside-DP.3SG and leave-SS mihi-hik uŋakoŋ nagi u-gumuk. son-their that.very.one bring go-DP.3DL They went along for a while and went up to a fence. They both jumped and that bush spirit, that had turned into a wild yam, cried out as a baby boy. They stopped and placed their things there and looked. It was an infant sleeping in the net bag. Right there they took that one as their son and went on. 2.23 Wo-oŋ kadok-oŋ nagi hat-a-gumuk. go-SS watch.over-SS bring live-CUST-DP.3DL 2.24 Hati-ŋa dahime-la kade-de u-nim yo live-SS place.inside.carry.in-SS garden-DEST go-NF.1PL say wa-gumuk adi makahehem to-lu to-lu kotigoŋ go.CUST-DP.3DL he cry.noise cry-CUST cry-CUST again nagi buŋa yopmaŋ kameeŋ wa-gumuk. bring come-SS house.in put-SS go.CUST-DP.3DL They went on, looking after it and nurturing it and they lived. They lived and intending that they (all) would go to the garden, they put him in a string bag and were going, but he cried and cried and they brought him home and put him there and the two of them went. 2.25 Adi bu hali me kakaŋ ti-ŋa fo-oŋ kale makaye he come be man huge do-SS go.down-SS animal pig ut-na-ge ut-na-ge ut-na-gee kotigoŋ lo-oŋ lik gineŋ kill-eat-REP kill-eat-REP kill-eat-REP again go.up-SS net.bag in fo-oŋ kumo kelegai ti-ŋa da-ha-tu-guk. go.down-SS faeces put.squash do-SS sleep-be-CUST-DP.3SG 2.26 Kaaŋ kade gineŋ-niŋ busuwa-aŋ undiniŋ ka-aŋ kumo and garden in-GEN arrive-SS one.like.that see-SS faeces keledadagiye ti-ŋa ha-tu-guk u tutumba-aŋ put.muddily do-SS be-CUST-DP.3SG that fix-SS kame i-ka-gumuk. put sit-CUST-DP.3DL He came back and became a huge man and went down and killed and ate lots of pigs, then went up again into the string bag where he defecated and mashed it all over as he slept. And the two women leaving from the garden arrived and 154 David Hynum
saw what he was like and cleaned up the faeces he’d mashed around like mud, put him there and stayed. 2.27 I-ka-giŋ ala hele-lu-guk kaaŋ kotigoŋ nagi-la sit-CUST-DP.3PL and dawn-CUST-DP.3SG and again bring-SS kade-de u-dim yo ta-gumuk kaaŋ kotigoŋ garden-DEST go-NF.1DL say do.CUST-DP.3DL and again makahehem ya to-lu-guk. cry.noise stand cry-CUST-DP.3SG 2.28 To-lu to-luu kotigoŋ nagi-la bu yopmaŋ cry-DS cry-DS again bring-SS come house.in kame-eŋ wa-gumuk. put-SS go.CUST-DP.3DL They were there and when it dawned, again intending to take him along to the garden, they took him, and again he was crying. He cried and cried and again they brought him home and put him there and the two of them went. 2.29 ‘Unduŋ hogok ti-lak ale du kabup hebi ha-li ka-weŋ.’ thus only do-PR.3SG so you.SG quiet hide be-SS see-NF.2SG 2.30 Unduŋ yo-bune adi uŋgoŋ ha-kuk. thus say-DS she there be-DP.3SG 2.31 Ha-li ka-guk kaaŋ agoŋ fo-oŋ kale makaye ut-naŋ be-SS see-DP.3SG and already go.down-SS animal pig kill-eat ti-ge ti-ge ti-gee koŋgoŋ lo-oŋ lik ginaŋ da-ha-kuk. do-REP do-REP do-REP again go.up-SS net.bag in sleep-be-DP.3SG ‘He just does that, so you hide and quietly stay here and watch him.’ They said that and she stayed there. She stayed and saw him, he again went down and killed and ate and ate pigs, then again went up into the string bag and slept. 2.32 Kaaŋ dalaŋ-yat-di bu-gumuk kaaŋ ye-niŋ-guk, and older.sibling-two-ERG come-DP.3DL and 3PL.OBJ-tell-DP.3SG ‘Y-adi me iŋali negoŋ ha-ti-lak’. this-he man this.one himself be-do-PR.3SG 2.33 Unduŋ yo-bune kaaŋ i-kumuk. thus say-DS and sit-DP.3DL When her two older sisters came she revealed to them, ‘All those things, this man himself is doing it’. She said it and the two of them sat. 2.34 Ala haniŋ dahime-la u-gumuk. and morning put.inside.carry.in-SS go-DP.3DL 2.35 U-u falik tebe u-gumuk. go-go bridge follow.on.foot go-DP.3DL 2.36 U-u ime lekiŋgoŋ wo-yali kati-gumuk, go-go water middle go-stand call.out-DP.3DL Ergative in Numanggang 155
‘Ime, du nadi-weŋ. Gwi, du nadi-weŋ. water you.SG hear-NF.2SG rain you.SG hear-NF.2SG Tawa, du nadi-weŋ. Kawadi, du nadi-weŋ. vine you.SG hear-NF.2SG stone you.SG hear-NF.2SG Nemenemek, hidi nadi-neŋ.’ everything you.PL hear-NF.2PL So the next morning the two of them put him in a net bag. They kept going and going and went out onto a bridge. They went along and stood at the middle of the river and called out, ‘River, you hear and obey. Rain, you hear and obey. Vines, you hear and obey. Stones, you hear and obey. Everything, you all hear and obey.’ 2.37 Unduŋ kati-dapma-aŋ lip-memet dilitele-une eaŋ i thus cry-finish-SS net.bag-head.band shake.off-DS infant this ime-de u-guk. water-DEST go-DP.3SG 2.38 Wo-oŋ ime lekiŋgoŋ wo-oŋ momolok me go-SS water middle go-SS spirit man kakaŋ siyabi-ŋit minta-ŋ tawa hone-it yo tu-guk adi huge beard-with appear-SS vine hold-NF.1SG say do-DP.3SG it tawa doko-oŋ bu ime-de. vine break-SS come water-DEST 2.39 Kilihikit hone-kiliti-bit yo ti-lu-guk, mookoŋ. grass hold-tight-NF.1SG say do-CUST-DP.3SG not 2.40 Kilihikit tiŋeŋ bu ime-de. grass sound.made.by.breaking.grass come water-DEST 2.41 Nemenemek hone-it yo ti-lu-guk adi everything hold-NF.1SG say do-CUST-DP.3SG he unduŋ hogok ti-lu-une, ime maŋ bedi-ŋa gabuŋ gimiŋ thus only do-CUST-DS water also swell-SS flood very ti-ŋa me momolok i u-la haman-ti u-guk. do-SS man spirit this hit-SS pull-do go-DP.3SG They finished calling out and shook the net bag off their head and the infant went into the river. He went along and in the middle of the river becoming a huge man with a beard, he thought to grab a vine and tried but the vine broke and he came down the river. He thought to hold strongly to some grass and was trying but no way! The grass made a sound of breaking and he came down the river. Whatever he tried to hold onto did the same, and the river swelled up and became a big flood and crashed (against) the bush spirit and swept him down. 2.42 Unduŋ hogok. thus only That’s all. 156 David Hynum
References Anderson, Neil and Martha Wade, 1988, Ergativity and control in Folopa. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, vol. 19, no. 1–2, 1–16. Ukarumpa: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea. Cooreman, Anne, Barbara Fox and Talmy Givón, 1984, The discourse definition of ergativity. Studies in Language, vol. 8, no. 1, 1–34. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Dixon, R.M.W., 1979, Ergativity. Language, 55, 59–138. —— 1987, Introduction. In R.M.W. Dixon, ed. Studies in ergativity, 1–16. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Foley, William A., 1986, The Papuan languages of New Guinea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Foley, William A. and Robert D. Van Valin Jr., 1984, Functional syntax and universal grammar. Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 38. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Haiman, John, 1980, Hua: a Papuan language of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea. Washington D.C.: John Benjamins. Hynum, David, 1995, Numanggang grammar notes. Unpublished MS, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ukarumpa, PNG. Linnasalo, Katri, 1993, On Nek grammar, grammar essentials. Unpublished MS, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ukarumpa, PNG. McElhanon, K.A., 1975, North-eastern Trans-New Guinea Phylum languages. In S.A.Wurm, ed. New Guinea area languages and language study, vol. 1: Papuan languages and the New Guinea linguistic scene, 527–567. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Potts, Denise and Dorothy J. James, 1998, Split ergativity in Siane: a study in markedness. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, vol. 18, 71–108. Scott, Graham, 1986, On ergativity in Fore and other Papuan languages. Papers in New Guinea linguistics, no. 24, 167–175. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Silverstein, Michael, 1976, Hierarchy of features and ergativity. In R.M.W. Dixon, ed. Grammatical categories in Australian languages, 112–171. New Jersey, USA: Humanities Press. —— 1981, Case marking and the nature of language. Australian Journal of Linguistics, vol. 1, 227–244. Webb, Tom, 1980, An Uri grammar. Unpublished MS, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ukarumpa, PNG.