Serial verb constructions in Austronesian and Papuan languages Pacific Linguistics 594 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 Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies 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: John Bowden and I Wayan Arka (Managing Editors), Nicolas Evans, David Nash, Andrew Pawley, Malcolm Ross, Paul Sidwell, Jane Simpson, and Darrell Tryon EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Karen Adams, Arizona State University Bambang Kaswanti Purwo, Universitas Atma Alexander Adelaar, University of Melbourne Jaya Peter Austin, School of Oriental and African Marian Klamer, Universiteit Leiden Studies Harold Koch, The Australian National Byron Bender, University of Hawai‘i University Walter Bisang, Johannes Gutenberg- Frantisek Lichtenberk, University of Universität Mainz Auckland Robert Blust, University of Hawai‘i John Lynch, University of the South Pacific David Bradley, La Trobe University Patrick McConvell, Australian Institute of Lyle Campbell, University of Utah Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander James Collins, Universiti Kebangsaan Studies Malaysia William McGregor, Aarhus Universitet Bernard Comrie, Max Planck Institute for Ulrike Mosel, Christian-Albrechts- Evolutionary Anthropology Universität zu Kiel Soenjono Dardjowidjojo, Universitas Atma Claire Moyse-Faurie, Centre National de la Jaya 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 Ger Reesink, Universiteit Leiden at 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, Ruhr-Universität Tasaku Tsunoda, University of Tokyo Bochum John Wolff, Cornell University Lillian Huang, National Taiwan Normal Elizabeth Zeitoun, Academica Sinica University Serial verb constructions in Austronesian and Papuan languages edited by Gunter Senft 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 in this edition is vested with Pacific Linguistics First published 2008 National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Title: Serial verb constructions in Austronesian and Papuan languages / Editor: Gunter Senft. ISBN: 9780858835917 (pbk.) Notes: Bibliography. Subjects: Austronesian languages—Verb phrase. Papuan languages—Verb phrase. Austronesian languages—Syntax. Papuan languages—Syntax. Typology (Linguistics) Other authors/ contributors: Senft, Gunter, 1952– The Australian National University. Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. Pacific Linguistics. Typeset by Jeanette Coombes and Julie Manley Cover design by Julie Manley Printed and bound by Addcolour Digital Pty Ltd, Fyshwick, Canberra Table of contents List of contributors vi 1 Introduction 1 GUNTER SENFT 2 Serial verb constructions in a linguistic area 17 MIRIAM VAN STADEN AND GER REESINK 3 Motion serialisation in Kéo 55 LOUISE BAIRD 4 Verb serialisation in Taba 75 JOHN BOWDEN 5 Boundaries of serialisation: non-serialised verb sequences in Tetun Dili 99 CATHARINA WILLIAMS-VAN KLINKEN 6 Verb serialisation in Tolaki 113 DAVID MEAD AND SCOTT YOUNGMAN 7 Verb serialisation in Eipo and Yale (especially in children’s narratives) 141 VOLKER HEESCHEN 8 Compact versus narrative serial verb constructions in Kalam 171 ANDREW PAWLEY 9 Event conceptualisation and event report in serial verb constructions in Kilivila: towards a new approach to research an old phenomenon 203 GUNTER SENFT v List of contributors Louise Baird Department of Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia and Oceania Leiden University Postbus 9515 2300 RA Leiden The Netherlands E-mail: [email protected] John Bowden Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University P.O. Box 4 Canberra ACT 0200 Australia E-mail: [email protected] David Mead SIL P.O. Box 81439 8000 Davao City Philippines E-mail: [email protected] Volker Heeschen Institute of Ethnology and African Studies University of Munich Oettingenstr. 67 D-80538 Munich Germany E-mail: [email protected] vi vii Andrew Pawley Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University P.O. Box 4 Canberra ACT 0200 Australia E-mail: [email protected] Ger Reesink Department of Linguistics Radboud University Nijmegen PO Box 9103 NL-6500 HD Nijmegen The Netherlands E-mail: [email protected] Gunter Senft Max-Planck-Institute for Psycholinguistics PB 310 NL-6500 AH Nijmegen The Netherlands E-mail: [email protected] Miriam van Staden Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication University of Amsterdam Taalwetenschap Spuistraat 210 1012 VT Amsterdam The Netherlands E-mail: [email protected] Catharina Williams-van Klinken Dili Institute of Technology P.O. Box 293 Dili, Timor Leste E-mail: [email protected] Scott Youngman SIL International 7500 W. Camp Wisdom Road Dallas TX 75236 USA E-mail: [email protected] 1 Introduction GUNTER SENFT During my first fieldtrip to the Trobriand Islands in 1982/83 Weyei, the weather magician of Tauwema, gave me five formulae of his weather magic as a sign of his friendship (see Senft 1985, 1997). He also provided me with much information with respect to how he prepares and performs his magic. During one of our first discussions about these matters he mentioned ginger which plays a prominent role for a number of weather magical (and other magical) spells. The weather magician goes to the bush and collects ginger; he chews this ginger and then spits it out before, sometimes also during, and after he whispers his various magical formulae. Ginger is believed to increase the power of the spoken words. During this conversation Weyei produced the following sentence:1 (1) nubyeya ba-la o laodila ba-ne’i ba-kau neya – tomorrow 1.FUT-go Loc bush 1.FUT-look.for 1.FUT-take ginger ‘Tomorrow I will go to the bush – I will look for and take ginger – ba-ka’ita ba-ka’ui ba-migai e 1.FUT-return 1.FUT-chew 1.FUT-whisper eh I will return I will chew (it) I will whisper – eh – ba-ka’ita ba-ka’ui ba-puli ba-migai megwa 1.FUT-return 1.FUT-chew 1.FUT-spit 1.FUT-whisper magic I will come back I will chew (it) I will spit (it) I will whisper magic.’ In this sentence we notice three interesting things: First of all this is one of the rather rare instances where a speaker of Kilivila, the Austronesian language of the Trobriand Islanders, self-repairs his utterance (see Schegloff et al. 1977) — the fact that the utterance needs a repair is indicated by the editing term ‘e’. Second, Weyei does not start his repair by repeating just the verb that preceeded the part of the clause that needed to be repaired (‘baka’ui’); on the contrary, he goes back to where the last clause of this sentence begins and repeats the two verbs (‘baka’ita baka’ui’) that preceeded the instance to be repaired, inserts the verb he forgot to produce (i.e. ‘bapuli’) and then finishes the sentence. 1 Abbreviations used are: A - subject of a transitive verb; excl - exclusive; DEP - dependent; FUT - future; HAB - habitual; CP - classificatory particle (see Senft 1996); O - object of a transitive verb; obj - object; Perf - perfective; Pl/pl - plural; R/real - realis; S - subject; Seq - sequential; Sg/sg/s - singular; V – verb. 1 2 Gunter Senft Obviously he considers the last clause of the sentence as one construction, as one unit, and if this unit needs to be repaired he has to start with this repair at where the unit begins (see Levelt 1983a, b; 1984). Finally, we note that this sentence consists of a number of verbs that are realised so that one follows the other, in a series-like way; and we also realise that Weyei uses these serialised verbs to describe his planned actions in great detail from the beginning to the end. However, this last observation is far from being exciting or new. The phenomenon of so-called ‘serial verbs’ was first described for African languages as early as the 19th century! In 1875, Christaller (1875:69–73, 143ff.) discussed this phenomenon in his grammar of Twi, and 32 years later Westermann, in his grammar of Ewe (which was published in German in 1907), pointed out: ... a peculiarity of Ewe is that we often find a row of verbs one after the other. The chief features of this are that all the verbs stand next to each other without being connected .… In English these consecutive verbs are partly rendered by composite sentences. But very often several Ewe verbs may be expressed by a single verb in English. The explanation for this is that the Ewe people describe every detail of action or happening