A Race to the Moon Or a Walk Through a Buhutu Text
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A Race to the Moon or a Walk Through a Buhutu Text. By Russ Cooper Title page for 'A Race to the Moon' © Russ Cooper, October 2013 Page 1 of 95 A Race to the Moon or a Walk Through a Buhutu Text. Being a revision of a staff presentation by Russ Cooper to the Grammar Workshop participants and staff, November 1986 at Ukarumpa, EHP, Papua New Guinea. [This version was revised in 2013 with additional appendices and examples, plus selected references to certain writers whose work is relevant to this paper though published after 1986. The revised paper, therefore, is properly speaking a 'second edition.' ] This study includes the paper itself: "A Race to the Moon, or a Walk Through a Buhutu Text" Plus several versions of the text which is entitled in Buhutu: Kaka-tilotilo and Tolutolu-waga. (The versions are listed in the Forward.) Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1. GENETIC RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER SUAUIC LECTS: ................................................................................ 7 1.2. THE "RACE TO THE MOON" TEXT ......................................................................................................... 7 1.2.1. Précis of the Kakatilotilo and Tolutoluwaga Text. .............................................................................. 8 A Summary of the Story, as Marked for Plot Developments. ........................................................................ 9 1.3. WORD ORDER TYPOLOGY AND OCEANIC STRUCTURAL FEATURES ................................................... 10 1.3.1. S O V Word Order .................................................................................................................... 10 1.3.2. Both Postpositional and Prepositional Order for Obliques. .................................................... 11 1.3.3. Genitive Noun Phrase Word Order & an Oceanic Possession Classifier System.................... 14 1.3.3.1. Possessives in terms of areal features: ......................................................................................................... 15 1.3.4. Word Order within the Noun Phrase ....................................................................................... 20 1.3.4.1. Adjectives ................................................................................................................................................... 21 1.3.4.2. Numbers ..................................................................................................................................................... 23 1.3.4.3. Quantifiers .................................................................................................................................................. 23 1.3.5. Word Order of Constructions Containing Relative Clauses. ................................................... 24 1.3.6. Summary of Buhutu Word Order Typology. ............................................................................. 25 2. GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS BOTH WITHIN CLAUSES, AND ON THE DISCOURSE LEVEL. .............................................................................................................................................................................. 26 2.1. GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS & CLAUSE STRUCTURES IN BUHUTU ............................................................. 26 2.1.1. Verbs Which Are Inflected for Person and Number Agreement ........................................................ 27 2.1.1.1. Conventions for Writing Subject Markers .................................................................................................. 28 2.1.1.2. Implications for Discourse Analysis .......................................................................................................... 29 2.1.2. Non-Active Clauses - Predications Which Are NOT Inflected for Person and Number Agreement. 31 2.1.2.1. Equational Constructions Containing Only Noun Phrases .......................................................................... 31 Title page for 'A Race to the Moon' © Russ Cooper, October 2013 Page 2 of 95 2.1.2.2. Equational Constructions with Noun Phrases and Locationals ................................................................... 32 2.1.2.3. Equationals as a Subset of Topic-Comment Constructions. ........................................................................ 32 Discourse Considerations: .................................................................................................................................. 33 Distribution of Non-Active Predications in the "Race to the Moon" Discourse: ................................................ 33 2.1.3. Structures with Irrealis Mode Subject-Agreement Markers. ............................................................. 34 Discourse consideration for the scope of realis and irrealis predications: ........................................................... 35 2.1.4. Transitive Clauses in Discourse Settings ......................................................................................... 37 2.1.5. Ditransitive Clauses in Buhutu Discourse. ...................................................................................... 41 2.1.6. Intransitive Clauses in Buhutu Discourse. ....................................................................................... 43 2.1.6.1. Intransitive Verbs in Buhutu Which Express Voluntary Actions as Subjects. ........................................... 44 2.1.6.2. Intransitive Verbs in Buhutu Which Express Involuntary Actions. ............................................................. 45 BUHUTU - Cessative-type completive as an upstairs clause ............................................................................. 46 Adjectival or Attributive Verbs .......................................................................................................................... 47 3. DISCOURSE FEATURES WHICH FURTHER INFLUENCE THE FORM OF A NARRATIVE TEXT. .................................................................................................................................................................. 47 1. Backbone ........................................................................................................................................................ 48 2. Trees ............................................................................................................................................................... 48 3. Files ................................................................................................................................................................ 48 4. Focal Content .................................................................................................................................................. 49 Backbone in a Buhutu Text. ............................................................................................................................... 50 4. SOME 'AFTER' WORDS .............................................................................................................................. 53 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF REFERENCES REFERRED TO IN THE "RACE TO THE MOON" TEXTUAL STUDY. ........................................................................................................................................... 55 6. ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE "RACE TO THE MOON" PRESENTATION................................ 57 The verb agrees in person and number with the subject, and also reflects either Realis or Irrealis mode. 59 A noun may agree in person and number with the possessor. .................................................................... 59 The verb agrees in person and number with the direct or indirect object .................................................. 60 APPENDIX A. KAKATILOTILO AND TOLUTOLUWAGA: DIGLOT VERSION ............................... 61 KAKA-TILOTILO YO TOLUTOLU-WAGA ................................................................................................ 61 KAKA-TILOTILO AND TOLUTOLU-WAGA .............................................................................................. 61 APPENDIX B - BHAAKTJJ KAKATILOTILO -INTERLINEAR .............................................................. 65 APPENDIX C - CHARTING VERSION OF KAKATILOTILO YO TOLUTOLUWAGA FROM 1986 ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................................................................... 81 APPENDIX D - BHAAKTJJ-BXH KAKATILOTILO W TEXTUAL TAGGING ..................................... 91 Title page for 'A Race to the Moon' © Russ Cooper, October 2013 Page 3 of 95 FORWARD: In 1968‐69, under the auspices of an East‐West Centre grant from the University of Hawaii, I had spent ten months doing linguistic field work amongst the Suau people in the Samarai District of what was then called "The Mandated Territories of Papua and New Guinea." In 1984 my wife Mary and I arrived in Papua New Guinea along with our two daughters, and were assigned by SIL to work with the Buhutu language in Milne Bay Province in early 1985. Since Buhutu and Suau are neighboring languages and both are part of the Suauic cluster, I had a jump start on the language situation, and was able to plunge right into linguistic analysis rather than learning Buhutu from "scratch." So, In 1986 I was asked to be on staff for the Beginning Grammar Workshop at Ukarumpa.