Arguments in Abawiri (Foau) Does Abawiri have subjects?
BRENDON YODER SIL International and University of California Santa Barbara WLP5, 17 JULY 2019 Outline
➢Grammatical relations
➢Structures related to grammatical relations in Abawiri
➢Conclusion
2 The Lakes Plain Languages
3 https://www.ethnologue.com/map/ID_pnz The Lakes Plain languages
❑Reconstruction by Duane Clouse (1997)
5 Lakes Plain typological features
❑Phonology ➢ Very small consonant inventories, no nasals
➢ Extra-high “fricativized” vowels
➢ Complex tone, e.g. Iau (Bateman 1990), Doutai (Donohue et al. 2006), Edopi (Kim 1996), Sikaritai (Liem 2007), Abawiri (Yoder 2018)
❑Verbal morphology ➢ No person marking on the verb
➢ TAM marking via suffixes (tone in Iau)
6 Lakes Plain typological features
❑Syntax ➢ Verb-final
❑Discourse ➢ Topic-comment structure predominates
7 Grammatical relations
8 Grammatical relations
❑The syntactic relation between an argument and the clause it is in (Comrie 1989; Bickel 2010; inter alia)
❑Evidence found in alignment patterns
Nominative/Accusative Ergative/Absolutive Semantic Alignment S S A P A P A P
9 Where evidence is found
❑Coding properties ➢ Flagging on nominals (case and adpositions)
➢ Indexing on verbs (bound pronominal forms, switch-reference)
➢ Word order
❑Behavioral properties ➢ Relativization
➢ Ellipsis in coordinated clauses
➢ Valency changing devices (applicatives, causatives, etc.)
➢ Etc.
10 Coding: Ergative case marking in Enga
S a) akáli dóko p-é-á man DET go-PST -3SG ‘The man went.’ A P b) akáli dokó-mé mená dóko p-i-́á man DET-ERG pig DET hit-PST -3SG ‘The man hit (killed) the pig.’
❑(from Li & Lang 1979: 314)
11 Behavior: Relativization on subjects in Indonesian c) orang yang ∅ duduk dekat jendela S person REL sit near window ‘The person who is sitting near the window’ d) orang yang ∅ me-lihat Umar itu A girl REL AF-see Umar that ‘The person who saw Umar’ e) *gadis yang Umar me-lihat ∅ itu *P girl REL Umar AF-see that ‘The girl that Umar saw’ f) gadis yang ∅ di-lihat Umar itu P → A girl REL PF-see Umar that ‘The girl that was seen by Umar’
(adapted from Sneddon 1996) 12 Arguments in Abawiri
GRAMMAR, SEMANTICS, DISCOURSE
13 Arguments in Abawiri
❑Coding properties ➢ Word order
➢ Nominal marking
➢ (no person markers on the verb)
❑Behavioral properties ➢ Relative clauses
➢ Clause chaining
➢ Reflexives and reciprocals
➢ Complement clauses
14 Arguments in Abawiri
❑Coding properties ➢ Word order
➢ Nominal marking
❑Behavioral properties ➢ Relative clauses
➢ Clause chaining
➢ Reflexives and reciprocals
➢ Complement clauses
15 Word order
❑Strongly verb-final
16 Word order
❑Antitopic constructions (Chafe 1976; Lambrecht 1994)
17 Word order
❑Ubiquitous zero anaphora
18 19 Word order
❑The relative ordering of A and P arguments is determined by a variety of semantic and pragmatic factors ➢ Semantic factors • Person/animacy • Semantic integration of an argument (usually P) with verb
➢ Pragmatic (information structure) factors • Topicality • Activation status
20 Word order: frequency
❑229 examples where A and P were both overtly expressed in the same (simple) clause
Order Number Percent APV 139 61% PAV 84 37% AVP 4 2% PVA 2 1%
21 Word order
❑Multiple reference ➢ More than one overt referential device
➢ Pointing to the same discourse referent
➢ With the same semantic relationship to the verb
➢ In the same clause
❑Usually because a long clausal element intervenes between first mention of the referent and the verb ➢ (e.g. A – long P – A – V)
22 Word order
❑Multiple reference
23 Word order
❑Both A and P can be repeated if things get too long
24 Arguments in Abawiri
❑Coding properties ➢ Word order
➢ Nominal marking
❑Behavioral properties ➢ Reflexives and reciprocals
➢ Relative clauses
➢ Complement clauses
➢ Clause chaining
25 Nominal marking: topics
❑Topics nearly obligatorily marked ➢ Subject-prominent vs. topic-prominent languages (Li & Thompson 1976)
➢ “Thematization” in Papuan languages (Heeschen 1998, de Vries 2006)
➢ Iau analyzed as primarily “topic-comment” (Bateman 1982)
26 Nominal marking: topics
❑NP topics: S, A, P
27 Nominal marking: topics
❑Clausal topics and Tail-Head Linkage
28 Nominal marking: topics
❑Multiple topics: NPs
29 Nominal marking: topics
❑Multiple topics: clauses
30 Nominal marking: topics
❑Both A and P can be marked with bo
31 Nominal marking: ɡi
❑Intransitive S
❑Transitive A
32 Nominal marking: ɡi
❑Transitive P
❑Instrument
33 Nominal marking: ɡi ❑Both A and P can be marked with ɡi
34 35 Nominal marking: ɡi
36 Nominal marking: ɡi ❑ɡi occurs more frequently: ➢ With discourse-new referents
➢ When there is high referential density leading to higher probability of referential conflict
➢ With instruments
➢ With A in second position because of an inverse animacy relationship between A and P
37 Arguments in Abawiri
❑Coding properties ➢ Word order
➢ Nominal marking
❑Behavioral properties ➢ Relative clauses
➢ Clause chaining
➢ Reflexives and reciprocals
➢ Complement clauses
38 Relative clauses
39 Relative clauses
❑Intransitive S
❑Transitive A
40 Relative clauses
❑Transitive P
41 Relative clauses
❑Location
42 Arguments in Abawiri
❑Coding properties ➢ Word order
➢ Nominal marking
❑Behavioral properties ➢ Relative clauses
➢ Clause chaining
➢ Reflexives and reciprocals
➢ Complement clauses
43 Clause chaining
❑No switch-reference marking
❑Zero anaphora between chained clauses based on activation status (Chafe 1976; 1994; Givón 2001) ➢ Higher activation → greater chance of zero • Main protagonist most commonly gets zero • Speech with low referential density has more zeros • Semantic agents and pragmatic topics are more frequently zero
44 45 Conclusion
FORMAL CATEGORY VARIATION BASED ON
❑Coding properties ➢ Word order ➢ Animacy and information structure ➢ Nominal marking ➢ Topic-comment
❑Behavioral properties ➢ Relative clauses ➢ Complex, not correlated with GRs ➢ Clause chaining ➢ Activation status ➢ Complement clauses ➢ Valency of individual verbs (cognition) ➢ Reflexives and reciprocals ➢ Coreferential with A or S: Subject
46 Conclusion
❑How relevant are grammatical relations among Papuan languages more generally? ➢ No discernible grammatical relations • Abawiri • Iau
➢ Minimal grammatical relations • Haruai (Comrie 1991)
This research was funded in part by grants from the Endangered Language Fundand the UCSB Graduate Division. 48 References Bateman, Janet. 1982. The topic-comment construction in Iau. In Marit Kana (ed.), Workpapers in Indonesian Linguistics, vol. 1, 28–49. Irian Jaya, Indonesian: Universitas Cenderawasih. Bateman, Janet. 1990. Iau segmental and tone phonology. NUSA: Linguistic Studies of Indonesian and Other Languages in Indonesia 32. 29–42. Bateman, Janet. 2018. Grammatical overview of Iau. Unpublished ms. SIL Papua Archives. Chafe, Wallace. 1976. Givenness, contrastiveness, definiteness, subjects, topics, and point of view. In Charles N. Li (ed.), Subject and topic, 25–55. Academic Press. Chafe, Wallace. 1994. Discourse, consciousness, and time: The flow and displacement of conscious experience in speaking and writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Comrie, Bernard. 1991. How much pragmatics and how much grammar: the case of Haruai. In Jef Verschueren (ed.), Pragmatics at issue: selected papers of the International Pragmatics Conference, Antwerp, August 17-22, 1987, 81–92. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Donohue, Mark, Rismawaty L. Gaol, Lenice Harms & Philina Ng. 2006. Doutai Phonology. (July). 30. Givón, T. 2001. Syntax: An introduction (Vol I). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Kim, Eui-Jung. 1996. Edopi phonology. Jayapura, Indonesia: SIL International. Lambrecht, Knud. 1994. Information structure and sentence form: Topic, focus, and the mental representation of discourse referents. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Li, Charles N. & Sandra A. Thompson. 1976. Subject and topic: A new typology of language. In Charles N. Li (ed.), Subject and topic, 458–489. New York: Academic Press. Liem, Joseph Kristianto. 2007. Phonological Sketch of Sikaritai. Unpublished ms. Jayapura, Indonesia, ms. Yoder, Brendon. 2018. The Abawiri tone system in typological perspective. Language (Phonological Analysis) 94(4). e266– e292. doi:10.1353/lan.2018.0067.
49 Arguments in Abawiri
❑Coding properties ➢ Word order
➢ Nominal marking
❑Behavioral properties ➢ Relative clauses
➢ Clause chaining
➢ Reflexives and reciprocals
➢ Complement clauses
50 Reflexives
❑Two-argument clause with reflexive-suffixed pronoun ➢ A and coreferential P
➢ A and coreferential possessor of P
51 Reciprocals
❑Two-argument clauses with lexical reciprocal are ➢ A and coreferential P
➢ A and coreferential benefactive
52 Arguments in Abawiri
❑Coding properties ➢ Word order
➢ Nominal marking
❑Behavioral properties ➢ Relative clauses
➢ Clause chaining
➢ Reflexives and reciprocals
➢ Complement clauses
53 Complement clauses
❑Verbs of cognition and perception
54 Complement clauses
❑Rarely, verbs of speaking also have clausal complements
55 Complementation: other strategies
❑More commonly, the topic construction can have a complementation-like function:
56