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Araki: a Disappearing Language of Vanuatu

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Araki: a Disappearing Language of Vanuatu Araki : A disappearing language of Vanuatu Alexandre François To cite this version: Alexandre François. Araki : A disappearing language of Vanuatu. Australian National University, 522, 2002, Pacific Linguistics, 9780858834934. halshs-03166543 HAL Id: halshs-03166543 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-03166543 Submitted on 11 Mar 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Araki Ad~appearinglanguage of Vanuatu Also in Pacific Linguistics Terry Crowley, 2000, An Erromangan (Sye) dictionary. John Lynch, 2000, A grammar of Anejoiii. John Bowden, 2001, Taba: Description of a South Halmahera Austronesian language. Catriona Hyslop, 2001, The Lolovoli dialect of the North-East Ambae language, Vanuatu. John Lynch, 2001, The linguistic history of Southern Vanuatu. John Lynch and Terry Crowley, 2001, Languages of Vanuatu: A new survey and bibliography. Catharina Williams-van Klinken, John Hajek and Rachel Nordlinger, 2002, A grammar of Tetun Dili. Pacific Linguistics is a publisher specialising in grammars and linguistic descriptions, dictionaries and other materials on languages of the Pacific, the Philippines, Indonesia, Southeast and South Asia, and Australia. Pacific Linguistics, established in 1963 through an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund, is associated with the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at The Australian National University. The Editorial Board of Pacific Linguistics is made up of the academic staff of the School's Department of Linguistics. 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. The 470 publications before Publication 501 were numbered in four series, A, B, C and D, but the series were merged from the beginning of the year 2000 because the rationale for them had gradually disappeared. FOUNDING EDITOR: Stephen A. Wurm EDITORIAL BOARD: John Bowden, Malcolm D. Ross and Darrell T. Tryon (Managing Editors), I Wayan Arka, Andrew Pawley, Paul Sidwell. Pacific Linguistics 522 Araki A disappearing language of Vanuatu Alexander Fran~ois Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University \ Published by Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia Copyright @ The author First published 2002 National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Bibliography. ISBN 0 85883 493 6. 1. Araki language. 2. Vanuatu - Languages. I. Title. 1. The Australian National University. Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. H. Title (Pacific Linguistics) 499.4 Cover design by Emily Brissenden Typeset by Margaret Forster Printed and bound by Union Offset Printers, Fyshwick, Canberra to the late Lele Mali, in memory of his kindness and knowledge Om mece lapa, Lele, mara posim mo holoho kamam kesi kam coiiliko roo Contents overview Table of contents List of tables and maps Foreword 1. Introduction 2. Phonology 3. Syntactic categories and their relations 4. Nouns and noun phrases 5. Verbs and verb phrases 6. Clause structure 7. Complex sentences 8. Texts from the oral tradition 9. Araki - English dictionary 10. English - Araki finderlist References List of abbreviations Index Table of contents 1. Introduction 1 1.1. The geographic and social context of Araki 1 1.1.1. Vanuatu 1 1.1.2. Araki 4 1.2. The sociolinguistic situation on Araki 5 1.2.1. Araki, a dying language 5 1.2.2. The influence of Tangoa 6 1.2.3. Language use on Araki: a polyglossic situation 8 1.3. Our research on the language of Araki 9 1.3.1. Existing documentation 9 1.3.2. Methodology 10 1.4. The present study 11 1.5. Typological overview 12 2. Phonology 14 2.1. Phonemes 14 2.1.1. Consonants 14 2.1.2. Vowels 19 2.2. Orthography 20 2.3. Stress 21 2.3.1. General rule for stress .assignment 21 2.3.2. The case of final high vowels 21 2.3.3. Stress-rules for consonant-ending words 23 2.3.4. Exceptional vowel-final words, and emergence of a distinctive accent 24 2.3.5. Other processes of final deletion 25 2.4. Phonotactics 26 2.5. Morphophonemic rules 27 2.5.1. Lexical vowel assimilation 28 2.5.2. Morphological vowel assimilation 28 2.5.3. Morphology of reduplication 30 x Grammar of Araki 3. Syntactic categories and their relations 33 3.1. Word classes 33 3.1.1. Nouns 33 3.1.2. Adjectives 34 3.1.3. Verbs 35 3.1.4. Numerals 35 3.1.5. Adjuncts 35 3.1.6. Adverbs 36 3.1.7. Demonstratives 36' 3.2. Reduplication and derivation 37 3.2.1. From noun to noun 37 3.2.2. From noun to verb or adjective 38 3.2.3. From verb to verb 38 3.2.4. From verb to noun 40 4. Nouns and noun phrases 41 4.1. Pronouns and personal markers 41 4.1.1. Independent pronouns 42 4.1.2. Subject clitic personal markers 44 4.1.3. Object suffix markers 45 4.1.4. Possessive suffix markers 46 4.2. Nouns 47 4.2.1. Inalienable v. alienable nouns 47 4.2.2. Noun-modifying nouns and composition 48 4.2.3. Derivation patterns 50 4.3. Articles and reference-tracking devices 51 4.3.1. The pro-clitic va 'the' 51 4.3.2. The anaphoric post-clitic di 52 4.3.3. The personal nominaliser mada 53 4.3.4. The plural marker dai 54 4.3.5. The specific indefinite rno hese 54 4.3.6. The partitive-indefinite re 59 4.3.7. Reference-tracking devices: summary 68 4.4. Demonstratives 69 4.4.1. Paradigm of Demonstrative markers 69 4.4.2. Semantics of each Demonstrative 71 4.4.3. Syntactic issues 75 4.5. Number-marking and numerals in the Noun Phrase 78 4.5.1. Under-specified number and the context 78 4.5.2. Ambiguities and inconsistencies in number-assigning 79 4.5.3. Overt number-marking on NPs 79 Table of contents xi 4.5.4. Numerals 80 4.5.5. Other quantifiers 89 4.6. Adjectives 91 4.6.1. Syntax of adjectives 91 4.6.2. The intensive suffix -ha 92 4.6.3. The resultative clitic ra - raha 93 4.6.4. Suffix able adjectives 94 4.7. Possession 96 4.7.1. Syntax of inalienable possession 96 4.7.2. Syntax of possessive classifiers inside NPs 97 4.7.3. Semantics of possessive classifiers 98 4.7.4. Syntactic functions of possessive classifiers 100 4.8. Basic NP structure 101 5. Verbs and verb phrases 103 5.1. Basic syntax of subject clitics 103 5.1.1. Subject clitics and parts of speech 103 5.1.2. Syntax of subject clitics 104 5.2. Modality and time 105 5.2.1. Modality in main clauses 105 5.2.2. Modality and interclausal relationships 109 5.3. Aspect 114 5.3.1. General presentation of aspect markers 114 5.3.2. The aspect clitic Ie 'again' 116 5.3.3. The aspect clitic fuisi 'still' 117 5.3.4. The aspect clitic pele 'Alternative' 118 5.3.5. The aspect clitic pa 'Sequential' 118 5.3.6. The aspect clitic re 'Perfect' 122 5.3.7. The aspect auxiliary iso 'Complete' 124 5.3.8. The aspect post-clitic ro 'Progressive' 126 5.4. Transitivity and object marking 130 5.4.1. Presentation of transitivity issues 131 5.4.2. Morphological allomorphisms 132 5.4.3. Syntactic influence on transitivity marking 135 5.4.4. Valency-changing processes 145 5.5. Verb serialisation 147 5.6. Basic VP structure 149 6. Clause structure 151 6.1. Verbless clauses 151 xii Grammar of Araki 6.1.1. NP predicates 151 6.1.2. Other direct predicates 153 6.1.3. Parts of speech and direct predicativeness 155 6.2. Verbal clauses: peripheral complements 156 6.2.1. Adverbs and prepositional phrases 156 6.2.2. Oblique transitivity 160 6.2.3. Ditransitivity and three-argument verbs 161 6.3. Negation 162 6.3.1. Basic syntax of negation 162 6.3.2. Negative complex morphemes 163 6.3.3. Negative existential and grammaticisation 164 6.3.4. Independent negation 165 6.3.5. Negation and modality 166 6.4. Sentence types 168 6.4.1. General remarks 168 6.4.2. Imperative sentences 168 6.4.3. Interrogative sentences 169 7. Complex sentences 172 7.1. Coordination 172 7.2. Subordination 173 7.2.1. Relative clauses 173 7.2.2. Conditional systems 177 7.2.3. Time clauses 181 7.2.4. Sentential objects 183 7.2.5. The verb-conjunction de 184 7.3. Clause chaining 189 7.3.1. Definition of clause chaining 189 7.3.2. Typology of interclausal relations in clause chaining 190 7.3.3. Clause chaining and the building of discourse 198 7.3.4. The architectural complexity of sentences 199 8. Texts from the oral tradition 201 8.1. Legends and true stories 202 8.1.1. Myth of Araki 202 8.1.2. How Pastor Sope released the spell of a Devil 205 8.2. Tales of devils and animals 208 8.2.1.
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