PACIFIC LING UISTICS Series B - No. 92 TOLAI SYNTAX AND ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT by Ulrike Mosel Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Mosel, U. Tolai syntax and its historical development. B-92, iv + 227 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1984. DOI:10.15144/PL-B92.cover ©1984 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. PACIF.IC LINGUISTICS is issued �hrough the Linguistic CIrcle of Canberra and consIsts of four series: SERIES A - Occasional Papers SERIES B - Monographs SERIES C - Books SERIES D - Special Publications EDITOR: S.A. Wurm ASSOCIATE EDITORS: D.C. Laycock, C.L. Voorhoeve, D.T. Tryon, T.E. Dutton EDITORIAL ADVISERS: B.W. Bender K.A. McElhanon University of Hawaii University of Texas David Bradley H.P. McKaughan La Trobe University University of Hawaii A. Capell P. MUhlhausler University of Sydney Linacre College, Oxford Michael G. Clyne G.N. O'Grady Monash University University of Victoria, B.C. S.H. Elbert A.K. Pawley University of Hawaii University of Auckland K.J. Franklin K.L. Pike University of Michigan; Summer Institute of Linguistics Summer Institute of Linguistics W.W. Glover E.C. Polome Sum mer Institute of Linguistics University of Texas G.W. Grace Malcolm Ross University of Hawaii University of Papua New Guinea M.A.K. Halliday Gillian Sankoff University of Sydney University of Pennsylvania E. Haugen W.A.L. Stokhof National Center for Harvard University Language Development, Jakarta; A. Healey University of Leiden Summer Institute of Linguistics B.K. T'sou L.A. Hercus Murdoch University; Australian National University University of Hong Kong Nguy�n f)�ng Liem E.M. Uhlenbeck University of Hawaii University of Leiden John Lynch J.W.M. 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National Library of Australia Card Number and ISBN 0 85883 309 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 The scope of study 1 1.2 The Tolai people 1 1.3 The Tolais ' attitudes towards English and Tok Pisin 3 1.4 The Tolai language 4 1.5 The present description of the Tolai syntax 12 CHAPTER 2: THE NOUN PHRASE 16 2.1 Introduction 16 2.2 Articles 17 2.3 The sequential order of noun phrase constituents 19 2.4 Possessive noun phrases 30 2.5 Compound noun phrases 51 2.6 The expression of number 60 CHAPTER 3: THE VERBAL PHRASE 91 3.1 Introduction: The subject marker and the nucleus 91 3.2 The sequential order of constituents 94 3.3 Aspect, tense and mood 96 3.4 Prenuclear adverbs 119 3.5 Incorporation of nouns 120 3.6 Verb serialisation 122 3.7 The effective particles pa, papa and kapi , kakapi 131 3.8 Innovations in modern Tolai 133 CHAPTER 4: CLAUSE STRUCTURE 137 4.1 Introduction 137 4.2 Verbal clauses 139 4.3 Nominal clauses 156 4.4 Semi-verbal clauses 159 4.5 Locational clauses 162 4.6 Possessive constructions on clause level 163 4.7 Other types of clauses 168 4.8 Conclusion : The continuum from verbal to nominal clauses 168 4.9 Adjuncts on clause level 170 4.10 Innovations in modern Tolai 203 NOTES 212 LIST OF SPEAKERS 214 BIBLIOGRAPHY 215 INDEX 221 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all I wish to express my gratitude to all Tolai people who helped me with their kind hospitality , patience and intelligent cooperation ; foremost to To Vur and Kreten from Rakunai , and Kapi Namaliu, Rachel Nelson , Pipe Oben , Elsie Lakading , Michael To Bilak and Ro nnie To Mago from Raluana . The present study of Tolai was commenced in 1974 at the instigation of Professor Dr M. Scheller of the University of Zurich , to whom I wish to express my thanks for teaching me the first lessons in Tolai and Tok Pisin and for encouraging me to investigate the influence of the substratum on the development of Tok Pisin (Mosel 1980) . The first field research , which was generously supported by my parents, wa s carried out in September and October 1976; the second from March to September 1978 , while I was a member of the research project 'Sprachwandel und Sprachmischung' (Language Change and Language Mixing) of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft , which financed the studies from 1977 to 1979 . I am mo st grateful to Dr Hans-Jurgen Sasse, the supervisor of this project for his guidance throughout my historical and sociolinguistic research . I also would like to acknowledge here the helpful criticism and encouragement I received from all friends , colleagues and the chairman of the Institut fur Allgemeine und Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft, University of Munich , Professor Dr Klaus Strunk . In 1980 I was invited by Professor Dr Hansjakob Seiler to join the Cologne Research group in language universals and typology (UNITYP) financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and continued working on the description of the Tolai syntax under his supervision . I am deeply indebted to my Cologne colleagues who have stimulated my stUdies through commenting on draft sections of this book ; many ideas , particularly those concerning nominal determination , number, possession and clause structure , evolved during our discussions . I especially wish to thank Professor Dr H. Seiler for his constant interest and valuable criticism, and I hope that this work will contribute to the research of language universals and language typology . Further I would like to thank Professor Dr Peter Muhlhausler of Oxford University ; I profited a lot from our discussions on language development in general and that of Tok Pisin in particular . Although I am not a native speaker , I have written this book in English in order to make it accessible to an international readership . I wish to thank Ingrid Hoyer for correcting my English, and to apologise for my style which could not be improved, unless the whole book were rewritten. This book is dedicated to Joachim Mo sel (1928-1982) in remembrance of the time we spent together . iv Mosel, U. Tolai syntax and its historical development. B-92, iv + 227 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1984. DOI:10.15144/PL-B92.cover ©1984 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 THE SCOPE OF STUDY The aim of the present 'Tolai Syntax ' is to provide a thorough description of the noun phrase, the verbal phrase and the clause , and to present it in such a way that information on these subjects is readily accessible to linguists interested in language typology , universals of language or comparative syntax . Due to the immense socio-cultural changes in Papua New Guinea, particularly within the society of the Tolai people who were among the first to come into close contact with Europeans , Tolai is a rapidly changing language and represents an excellent field of study for language contact and language change ; there are still people alive speaking a variety of Tolai that is nearly unaffected by interference phenomena, whereas the language variety spoken by young people almost deserves the classification of a 'mixed language '. The present state of research does not allow the presentation of a theory of linguistic change here , but only the contribution of empirical findings that are certainly significant for. such a theory . Since language change cannot be understood unless it is studied in its social context (Weinreich/Labov/Herzog 1968) , this introduction will give a brief account of the socio-cultural background (for further informa­ tion cf. Mosel 1979 , 1980a , 1982) , the Tolai speakers ' attitudes towards the intrusive languages English and Tok pisin (New Guinea Pidgin English) and the regional, social and functional varieties of present day Tolai . 1.2 THE TOlA! PEOPLE The Tolai people populate a strip of coast about 50 kilometres long and up to 50 kilometres wide , in the north-west of the Gazelle Peninsula, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea . The political and commercial centre of this area is the seaport of Rabaul . The first regular contact the Tolais had with wh ite people was in the years after 1875, when the Methodist Church opened its mission (Mosel 1982) and when, almost simultaneously, the first commercial firms set up business on the Duke of York Islands and the Gazelle Peninsula (Hempenstall 1978:119) . These firms started to enlist workers for Samoa, and established the first plantations. The Catholic Church began missionary work with the Tolai in 1882 (Mosel 1982) . In 1884 the whole Bismarck Archipelago was declared a German protectorate , in 1885 a German colony. 1 Mosel, U. Tolai syntax and its historical development. B-92, iv + 227 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1984. DOI:10.15144/PL-B92.1 ©1984 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. 2 Since the Tolai did not work on the plantations in their own areas , but only enlisted for work on Samoa out of venturesomeness or because of family disordances , workers from other areas of the Bismarck Archipelago (especially from New Ireland) had to be brought in to work on the plantations on the Gazelle Peninsula.