WARLPIRI MORPHO-SYNTAX Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory

VOLUME 23

Managing Editors Joan Maling, Brandeis University James McCloskey, University o/California, Santa Cruz Ian Roberts, University o/Wales, Bangor

Editorial Board Guglielmo Cinque, University o/Venice Jane Grimshaw, Brandeis University Michael Kenstowicz, M.lT., Cambridge Hilda Koopman, University o/California, Los Angeles Howard Lasnik, University 0/ Connecticut at Storrs Alec Marantz, Ml.T., Cambridge John J. McCarthy, University o/Massachusetts, Amherst

The titles published in this series are listed at the end ofthis volume. IANE SIMPSON Department ofLinguistics, University of Sydney, Australia

WARLPIRI MORPHO-SYNT AX

A Lexicalist Approach

SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Simpson. Jane Helen. Warlp1r1 morpho-syntax : a lexicalist approach I Jane Simpson. p. CII. -- (Studies in natural language and 11nguist1c theery v. 23) Includes b;bl1egraphical references and 1ndex. ISBN 978-94-010-5413-3 ISBN 978-94-011-3204-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-3204-6 1. Walb1r1 language--Merphelegy. 2. Walb1r1 language--Syntax. 1. Series. PL7101.W3S56 1991 499' .15--dc20 91-17008

ISBN 978-94-010-5413-3

Printed on acid:free paper

AII Rights Reserved © 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1991 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover lst edition 1991 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. In memory

J.R.T. TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Xlll

PREFACE xv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Preamble 1 1.2. Events and participants 6 1.3. The model 17 1.3.1. The lexicon 18 1.3.2. Word -formation 31 1.3.3. Constituent structure trees 40 1.3.4. Functional structure 43 1.3.5. Semantic interpretation 43 1.4. Interactions 44 1.4.1. Insertion of words, not phrases 47 1.4.2. Changes in argument-structure 50 1.4.3. Transferral of information 51 1.4.4. Gapping and coordination 51 1.4.5. Anaphoric islands 55 1.4.6. Derivational cases 57 1.4.7. Anaphoric islandhood revisited 60

PART I: NON-CONFIGURATIONALITY 63

CHAPTER 2: SIMPLE SENTENCES 65 2.1. Introduction 65 2.2. Constituent structure of sentences 68 2.2.l. Phrase structure rules 68 2.2.2. Interpreting X Theory 72 2.2.3. Functional heads of Warlpiri sentences 80 2.2.4. Other functions 81 Vlll TABLE OF CONTENTS

2.2.5. Morphological information 84 2.2.6. Semantic information 86 2.2.7. Information from the AUX 88 2.2.8. Building an f-structure 89 2.2.9. General well-formedness conditions on f-structures 92 2.2.10. Transitive sentences 99 2.2.11. Selection of case by verbs 103 2.3. Projection of VP 105 2.3.1. Against V 106 2.3.2. The V constituent 111 2.3.3. Infinitive plus verb 112 2.3.4. Nominal plus verb-forming suffix 114 2.3.5. Preverb-verb structures 115 2.3.6. Lexical V 118 2.4. Nominals 120 2.4.1. Uses of nominals 120 2.4.2. Projection of N 129 2.4.3. Heads of nominal constituents 132 2.5. Conclusion 135

CHAPTER 3: PRONOMINALS 137 3.1. Introduction 137 3.2. Null pronominals 138 3.2.1. Introduction of PRO 138 3.2.2. -doubling 148 3.2.3. Jelinek 152 3.3. Default values 154 3.3.1. Introduction 154 3.3.2. Unregistered subject 155 3.3.3. Unregistered object/ Ethical Dative 157 3.3.4. Paradigmatic gaps and the Null Element Constraint 160 3.3.5. Conclusion 162 3.4. Reflexives and pronominal reference 162 3.4.1. Reflexives and reciprocals 163 3.4.2. C-command or f-command? 176 3.4.3. -kariyinyanu 183 3.5. Conclusion 189 TABLE OF CONTENTS IX

CHAPTER 4: CASE 191 4.1. Introduction 191 4.2. Uses of case in Warlpiri 194 4.2.1. ARG: Argument-relaters 194 4.2.2. ATP: Argument-taking predicates 196 4.2.3. ATT: Attribute use of case-markers 197 4.3. ATT: Case as an agreement marker 199 4.3.l. Case on Nominals selecting SUBJECTs 199 4.3.2. Nominals that do not select SUBJECTs 202 4.3.3. Agreement of ADJUNCTs 210 4.4. Case as argument-taking predicate 214 4.4.1. Matrix predicates 215 4.4.2. Adjuncts 219 4.5. Representing case-marked nominals 220 4.5.l. Functionally complex words 220 4.5.2. Morphological assignment of functions 228 4.5.3. Double case-marking 238 4.6. Grammatical case-suffixes 246 4.6.1. Ergative as argument-taking predicate 246 4.6.2. Dative 250 4.6.3. Absolutive 251 4.7. Summary of case representation 254

CHAPTER 5: DISCONTINUOUS EXPRESSIONS 257 5.l. Introduction 257 5.2. Adjuncts in nominal constituents 263 5.2.l. Adjuncts within REL nominals 263 5.2.2. Adjuncts within ATP nominals 265 5.2.3. Summary 277 5.3. Discontinuous expressions 277 5.3.l. The REL use 277 5.3.2. ATP discontinuous expressions 284 5.4. Derivational case-suffixes 289 5.5. Summary 294 x TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART II: GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS IN WARLPIRI 295 CHAPTER 6: SELECTED FUNCTIONS 297 6.1. Introduction 297 6.1.1. Arguments and Adjuncts 298 6.1.2. Lexical Mapping Theory 305 6.2. Selected grammatical functions 307 6.2.I. SUBJECT in Warlpiri 309 6.2.2. OBJECT in Warlpiri 311 6.2.3. OBJECT(} in Warlpiri 337 6.3. Linking rules 349 6.3.1. Semantic role hierarchy 350 6.3.2. Linking of semantic roles to case 351 6.3.3. Linking of semantic roles to grammatical functions 353 6.4. Preverbs that add Dative OBJECTs 358 6.4. I. Preverbs which require a Dative argument 359 6.4.2. Preverbs which add a Dative argument 360 6.5. OBLIQUE 369 6.5.I. Features of OBLIQUEs 371 6.6. Dative ADJUNCTs 372 6.6.I. Features of ADJUNCTs 375 6.7. Conclusion 375

CHAPTER 7: EXTERNAL PARTICIPANTS 379 7.I. Introduction 379 7.2. EXTERNAL OBJECTs 381 7.2.1. EXTERNAL OBJECTs in isolation 381 7.2.2. EXTERNAL OBJECT preverbs 385 7.2.3. The -rlarni complementiser suffix 391 7.2.4. EXTERNAL OBJECTs - selected or not? 396 7.2.5. Two registered Dative arguments 401 7.2.6. Double registration and pleonastic 414 EXTERNAL OBJECTs 7.2.7. Analysis of the EXTERNAL OBJECT 415 7.3. Revised feature matrix 417 7.4. Uses of underspecified GFs 421 7.4.1. Controllers of complementisers 421 7.4.2. Agreement with the AUX 422 TABLE OF CONTENTS Xl

704.3. Grammatical functions and clitic position 425 7.5. Conclusion 432

APPENDICES 435

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 435

SOURCES OF WARLPIRI DATA 438

BIBLIOGRAPHY 441

INDEX 463 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank, first, the people who have generously helped me to understand Warlpiri a little better, Napururla and Napangarti from Kunayungku, Napururla from Tennant Creek, Nangala/Napururla from Alekarenge, and tJupururla from Kalampurlpa, Jeannie Nungarrayi Egan, Charlotte Napanangka Langdon, June Napanangka Walker and Kurt Japanangka Gran• ites from Yuendumu, Peggy Napaljarri Rockman and Paddy Patrick Jangala from Lajamanu, Ken Hale, Mary Laughren, and David Nash. I thank Carol Neidle, Boris and Natasha Katz for Russian data, and Chen-teh James Huang for Chinese data. I am very grateful to the people who read and commented on drafts of the book: an anonymous reviewer, Joan Bresnan, Jane Grimshaw, "Ken Hale, Frank Heny, Paul Kiparsky, Lori Levin, Beth Levin, K.P. Mohanan, and especially Mary Laughren. Without the many thousands of hours that have been spent on the Warlpiri Dictionary Project in collecting, typing, and analysing material, and making it machine-readable, this book would never have been possible. In the production of the camera-ready copy I have been as• sisted by Avery Andrews, Joan Bresnan, Michael Kashket, David Nash, Carol Neidle and Nick Piper. I would like to thank Joan Maling and Martin Scrivener for their patience and help. I received support from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, the Australian National University, the Centre for the Study of the Language and Information (Stanford University), the Lexicon Project at the Center for Cognitive Science (MIT), the National Science Foundation (Grant No. BNS-7913950, Prin• cipal Investigator, Kenneth Hale); the Sloan Foundation, the University of Sydney and Xerox PARCo Any royalties from this book will go to the Bilingual Re• sources Development Unit, Yuendumu. Jane Simpson Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney New South Wales, Australia 2006

Xlll PREFACE

Warlpiri is a Pama-Nyungan language (Ngarrka group) spo• ken by over 3,000 people in Central Australia. Neighbour• ing languages (all Pama-Nyungan) include its closest relatives, and Ngardily, to the north-east and west respec• tively, (Warumungic) and the Arandic languages, Kaytetye and Alyawarr, to the east, the Western Desert lan• guages, and Kukatja, to the south and west respectively, the Ngumbin language Jaru to the north-west, the Arandic lan• guage, Anmatyerre, to the south-east, and the Ngumbin lan• guages, Gurindji and Mudburra, to the north. Warlpiri country encompasses a huge area of semi-desert stretching west of Tennant Creek to the Western Australian border. For the Warlpiri, this country is filled with meaning. Jukurrpa (often translated as 'Dreaming') beings travel across it, creating and changing the landscape in their passing. Songs, dances, painting, stories and journeys celebrate the jukurrpa and the country. The Warlpiri language is also from the jukurrpa; it is the language spoken by the jukurrpa beings on their travels through Warlpiri country. But, from early this century, the Warlpiri were gradually robbed of their country and settled on reserves and mission sta• tions (Yuendumu, Lajamanu, Alekarenge). Some took up work on cattle stations (Willowra, Mount Allan, and others). Warlpiri society has undergone rapid and large-scale change as a result of the loss of the country, and the great pressure exerted by the invading society. The language is also changing, from contact with Aboriginal English and standard English, from present-day contact with other Aboriginal languages, and from the need to express new concepts. However, the introduction of bilingual education programs in the schools at Yuendumu, Lajamanu and Willowra has resulted in the production of vernacular literacy materials, and has helped the resistance to the onslaught of En• glish. Since the passing of the Aboriginal Land Rights () Act in 1976, some of the Warlpiri country has been

xv XVI PREFACE handed back, and many families have moved away from the old reserves to outstations on Warlpiri country. The majority of Warlpiri speakers still live at Yuendumu, Lajamanu, Alekarenge and Willowra, and in the towns of Tennant Creek, and Katherine. The language differs a little in these centres. The four main dialect groups are: • Yuendumu Warlpiri, spoken in the south-western part of Warlpiri country. • Willowra Warlpiri, spoken on the Lander River in the cen• tral part of Warlpiri country. • Lajamanu Warlpiri, spoken in the northern part of Warlpiri country. • Wakirti Warlpiri, spoken in the eastern part of Warlpiri country, traditionally along the Hanson River. This is the most divergent of the dialects. Warlpiri has attracted the interest of theoretical linguists as a result of Kenneth Hale's identification of the significance for syn• tactic theory of its free word-order, syntactically discontinuous constituents and widespread use of null anaphora (Hale 1981a, 1983). He suggested that these should be accounted for by a "non-configurationality parameter". This sparked off a wide• ranging debate on non-configurationality in several frameworks. I shall argue that these three properties depend on the inter• action of different components of Warlpiri grammar, and hence that there is no one configurationality parameter. Theoretical linguistics encompasses phenomena, such as non• configurationality, in two main ways. The first involves working out the consequences of theories, and seeking evidence of these predicted consequences in different languages. The other ap• proach is to describe part of the grammar of a language in terms of a particular theory, and to find out where problems for that theory arise. The latter approach is adopted in this book, which is an account within a Lexical-Functional Grammar framework of important characteristics of Warlpiri morphology and syntax (or morpho-syntax). PREFACE XVll

The book is divided into two parts. The first part is an intro• duction to the basic morpho-syntax of Warlpiri. I show how an approach which takes grammatical functions as primitives, such as Lexical-Functional Grammar, can account for case-marking and for the properties of simple sentences which set Hale look• ing for a configurationality parameter. In the second part of the book, I outline the evidence for grammatical functions in Warlpiri that represent semantically simple arguments, as well as for a new grammatical function, EXTERNAL OBJECT, which represents a semantically com• plex argument denoting the relation of an external participant to an event, or to a participant in the event. Lexical Mapping Theory, which involves decomposition of grammatical functions into features, is shown to be a useful tool for expressing the properties of natural classes of grammatical functions. The book is a substantially revised version of my doctoral dissertation, Aspects of Warlpiri morphology and syntax. Chap• ters applying Lexical Mapping Theory to Warlpiri have been added. The chapters treating phrase structures and anaphora have been rewritten, as has the introductory chapter. Chapters treating nominal predication and nominalised verb constructions have been omitted. The data for this book is mostly drawn from the standard reference grammar for Warlpiri (Nash 1986), from the articles in Swartz ed. (1982a) and from the machine-readable corpus of Warlpiri texts and sentences in Yuendumu Warlpiri collected by Kenneth Hale from 1959 to 1966, and, more recently, by Mary Laughren. These are deposited in the Australian Insti• tute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Library. New data has been included from elicitation work carried out by Mary Laughren and me (including some Lajamanu and Wakirti Warlpiri data). The sources are listed in Appendix 2. Wherever possible I have used examples from the machine-readable corpus, rather than the regularised examples from the Warlpiri Dictio• nary that I used in the dissertation. Although the complexity of some of the examples means more work for the reader, I believe it is worth the gain in accuracy.