Non-Subject Arguments in Indonesian in the Theoretical Framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar
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NonNon---SubjectSubject Arguments in Indonesian Simon Musgrave Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2001 Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics The University of Melbourne i Abstract The grammatical function subject can be identified reliably in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian), but the same is not true of other clause-level nominal constituents in the language. The tests proposed in previous studies for identifying an object grammatical function turn out to be unreliable and inconsistent when the full range of data is considered. This thesis attempts to clarify the problem by examining non-subject arguments in Indonesian in the theoretical framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar. Both the properties associated with the various types of argument and the means by which they are licensed in clauses turn out to be problematic. Two argument verbs appear in a range of clause types which are related in interesting ways. I argue that it is possible to give a coherent analysis of the system as a whole, treating it as the basic transitive system of the language, when certain relationships are recognised as morphological rather than syntactic. This analysis also reveals similarities between Indonesian and more conservative Austronesian languages such as those of the Philippines. Another type of clause, sometimes referred to as the 'adversative verb' clause type shares an important property with one of the types of transitive clause, that of allowing an oblique argument to appear without a licensing preposition if it is adjoined to the verb which governs it. Another class of verbs, emotion and cognition verbs, has a non-subject argument which can be either a prepositional phrase or a bare nominal, but in this case the bare nominal is not an oblique argument, adjunction is not the relevant syntactic relation. The only possible analysis of these verbs, maintaining the assumption that the transitive system has been identified, is that they have a subject and a secondary object as their arguments. I argue that this analysis is implausible, and that the assumption regarding the transitive system must be reconsidered. When this is done, I claim that Indonesian is best analysed as having two distinct types of clausal organisation, one in which the major constitutents are subject and verb phrase, and one in which they are subject and predicate. Most verbs can head the predicate constituent in the second type of clause, with morphology playing a crucial derivational role. Evidence from nominalised clauses and from intransitive verbs supports this analysis, but crucial aspects of the analysis resist statement in the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar, suggesting that the theory is overly-constrained in important areas. ii Declaration This is to certify that: i. the thesis comprises only my original work except where indicated in the preface, ii. due acknowledgment has been made in the text to all other material used, iii. the thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. Simon Musgrave Date: iii Preface This thesis reports the results of research carried out between 1997 and 2001. The empirical basis of this research consists of a survey of texts carried out by me (the sources used are listed immediately before the other bibliographic references at the end of the thesis), example sentences elicited from speakers of the languages studied, and published material as acknowledged in the body of the thesis. Data on the Sasak language was collected as part of the collaborative Lombok and Sumbawa Research Project (Australian Research Council Large Grant A59803558, Principal researcher: Prof. Peter K. Austin); the other work reported here was my own independent research. iv Acknowledgments My greatest debt is to the speakers of Indonesian, and of the other languages discussed in this thesis, who generously shared their time and knowledge with me. In particular, Umar Muslim was an endlessly patient teacher of both Indonesian and Javanese, and was always willing to share his own insights as a linguist. Katarina Sukamto, Eli Riharti, and Lalu Dasmara all also were very helpful and Waruno Mahdi always answered my e-mails. Lalu Dasmara also helped me with Sasak data, as did Herman Suheri, Syahdan and Yon Mahyuni. I am grateful to Bukhari Daud and Samadi for assisting me with Acehnese data. I am also grateful to Helen McKay for allowing me access to her corpus of Indonesian text (and for employing me). My supervisor throughout this research has been Peter Austin, and he has made the experience enjoyable by his adroit balance of formal and informal guidance, his enthusiasm for linguistics, and his deep knowledge which he is always willing to share. During my probationary candidature, Lesley Stirling and Dominique Estival were members of my supervisory committee, and I am grateful to them both for helpful comments. The Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at the University of Melbourne is a stimulating and friendly place to work. I am especially grateful to Nick Evans, who always has time (how?) to discuss problems, and always has a suggestion as to how to tackle them; to Rachel Nordlinger for her LFG library; to Anna Margetts for incisive comments; and to Rob Schmittat for technical help (and coffee). I was fortunate to do this research while the department was something of a centre of Austronesian research, and I thank my fellow students Katarina Sukamto, Anthony Jukes, Nick Thieberger and Yusuf Eades for their friendship and support. Beyond the department, the wider circle of Austronesian scholars were wonderfully welcoming to a novice. I am grateful to all of the following people for many different kinds of assistance: Sander Adelaar, Wayan Arka, Barry Blake, John Bowden, Peter Cole, Susanna Cumming, Novi Djenar, Mark Durie, Michael Ewing, Dan Finer, Margaret Florey, Bill Foley, David Gil, Gabriella Hermon, Nikolaus Himmelmann, Arthur Holmer, Marian Klamer, Waruno Mahdi, Bernd Nothofer, Bill Palmer, Andy Pawley, Stan Starosta, (and a special mention for Mary Ellen Jordan, Austronesianist rtd.),. The LFG community were also very generous; thank you to Avery Andrews, Kersti Borjars, Joan Bresnan, Chris Manning, Jane Simpson and Nigel Vincent. I am enormously grateful to the government of Australia, through the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs, for financial support in the form of an Australian Post-graduate Award which allowed me to work full- time on this thesis. I am also grateful to the Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne for a travel grant which enabled me to attend the 8th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics (Taipei 1997); to the Melbourne Scholarships Office for a Melbourne Abroad Scholarship and to the Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics for a travel grant which together enabled me to attend the 7th Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association meeting (Amsterdam 2000) and to visit the University of Manchester. I am also grateful for support from the Lombok and Sumbawa v Research Project (Australian Research Council Large Grant A59803558) which assisted me in attending the 2nd International LFG conference and the 4th Australian Linguistic Institute (Brisbane 1998). Portions of this work have previously been presented to the following meetings: Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (Amsterdam 2000); Department of Linguistics Seminar, University of Manchester; the workshop on Voice in Austronesian, 2nd International LFG Conference (Brisbane 1998); the 2nd and 3rd Victorian South East Asian Languages Symposia (1998, 1999); the University of Melbourne Linguistics and Applied Linguistics Post-Graduate Conference (1999, 2000); the Victorian Austronesian Circle; and the Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics Austronesian Informal Seminar. Finally, I could never have completed this thesis without the love and support of my wife, Deborah - thank you for that, and for our two beautiful daughters, Anna and Olivia. vi Table of Contents Abstract.......................................................................................................... i Declaration................................................................................................... ii Preface..........................................................................................................iii Acknowledgments .....................................................................................iv Table of Contents .......................................................................................vi Abbreviations ............................................................................................... x Glossing Practice ........................................................................................ xi 1 Introduction ...............................................................................................1 1.1 Basic assumptions ............................................................................... 1 1.2 Indonesian syntax................................................................................ 4 1.2.1 General issues............................................................................................................4 1.2.2 Tests of subjecthood .................................................................................................7 1.2.3 Tests of objecthood ................................................................................................10