Static Spatial Expression in Ske: an Oceanic Language Ofvanuatu
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ISSN: 0023-1959 Vol. 34 No. 1, 2016
Language & Linguistics in Melanesia Vol. 34 No. 1, 2016 ISSN: 0023-1959 Journal of the Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea ISSN: 0023-1959 Vol. 34 No. 1, 2016 www.langlxmelanesia.com www.langlxmelanesia.com www.langlxmelanesia.com Language & Linguistics in Melanesia Vol. 34 No. 1, 2016 ISSN: 0023-1959 An Account of Possession in Larevet Julie Barbour University of Waikato [email protected] Abstract This paper presents a first analysis of the Larevet language of central Malakula, Vanuatu, focusing on its possessive system. I locate the analysis within the literature on possession in the Oceanic language family broadly, seeking to understand how the synchronic system re- lates to both typological understandings within the family, and the possessive system recon- structed for Proto Oceanic. Drawing on a corpus of communicative and elicited language as evidence, I demonstrate that Larevet displays many features of a canonical Oceanic language, and that where changes have occurred, these align well with observations of possession in related languages of Malakula. Keywords: Malakula, Larevet, Possession, Oceanic, Alienability 1. Introduction The Larevet language (also referred to as Laravat, Larë vat and Larevat) is spoken in a village of the same name, on the northwestern coast of Malakula Island in Vanuatu. Unpublished data from the 2009 census puts the population of Larevet at 244.1 The village is gradually transitioning to Bislama as the dominant language of communication. The community is in- volved in the early phases of a long-term language documentation project, and I have under- taken brief periods of field work with Larevet speakers from 2013 onwards. -
Acoustic Evidence for Right-Edge Prominence in Nafsana)
...................................ARTICLE Acoustic evidence for right-edge prominence in Nafsana) Rosey Billington,b) Janet Fletcher,c) Nick Thieberger,d) and Ben Volchok ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, School of Languages and Linguistics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3052, Australia ABSTRACT: Oceanic languages are often described as preferring primary stress on penultimate syllables, but detailed surveys show that many different types of prominence patterns have been reported across and within Oceanic language families. In some cases, these interact with segmental and phonotactic factors, such as syllable weight. The range of Oceanic prominence patterns is exemplified across Vanuatu, a linguistically diverse archipelago with over 130 languages. However, both impressionistic and instrumentally-based descriptions of prosodic patterns and their correlates are limited for languages of this region. This paper investigates prominence in Nafsan, an Oceanic language of Vanuatu for which previous observations of prominence differ. Acoustic and durational results for disyl- labic and trisyllabic Nafsan words show a clear pattern of higher fundamental frequency values in final syllables, regardless of vowel length, pointing towards a preference for prominence at the right edge of words. Short vowels also show centralisation in penultimate syllables, providing supporting evidence for right-edge prominence and informing the understanding of vowel deletion processes in Nafsan. VC 2020 Acoustical Society of America. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0000995 (Received 3 May 2019; revised 15 September 2019; accepted 16 October 2019; published online 30 April 2020) [Editor: Benjamin V. Tucker] Pages: 2829–2844 I. INTRODUCTION empirically. The present study is part of a wider project using instrumental phonetic approaches to investigate vari- This paper investigates prominence in Nafsan (South ous aspects of Nafsan phonology. -
Bridging Constructions in Typological Perspective Valérie Guérin James Cook University Grant Aiton James Cook University
Chapter 1 Bridging constructions in typological perspective Valérie Guérin James Cook University Grant Aiton James Cook University In this chapter, we undertake a cross-linguistic examination of bridging construc- tions, which we define as the sequence of two clauses: the first clause (called theref- erence clause) ends a discourse unit, the second clause (called the bridging clause) typically repeats the first clause at the beginning of a new discourse unit. Based on published language data and data from the volume, we identify three differ- ent types of constructions subsumed under the label bridging construction (§2 and §3): recapitulative linkage, summary linkage, and mixed linkage. They differ in the form that the bridging clause takes on: broadly speaking, verbatim lexical recapit- ulation of the reference clause; a light verb summarizing the reference clause; or a mix of these two strategies. Because bridging constructions lie at the interface of discourse and syntax, we dedicate §4 to explaining their discourse functions. Amid the cross-linguistic variation, we found two recurrent discourse functions: empha- sizing sequentiality and cohesively structuring discourse. Finally, we establish a list of questions to guide the documentation of these linguistic patterns. 1 Preliminaries While reference grammars and the typological literature have a long tradition de- scribing syntactic phenomena within a clause, cross-linguistic research beyond the level of the clause, especially the role that clause-level phenomena play in discourse structure, is comparatively scarce. This volume presents a case study Valérie Guérin & Grant Aiton. 2019. Bridging constructions in typological perspective. In Valérie Guérin (ed.), Bridging constructions, 1–44. Berlin: Lan- guage Science Press. -
Reflexives Markers in Oceanic Languages
DGfS-CNRS Summer School: Linguistic Typology (3) Koenig/Moyse-Faurie Reflexives markers in Oceanic Languages Ekkehard König (FU Berlin) & Claire Moyse-Faurie (Lacito-CNRS) 1. Previous views 1.1. A lack of reflexive markers ? “[Oceanic languages] have morphological markers used to encode reciprocal and certain other situations, but not reflexive situations” (Lichtenberk, 2000:31). “Assuming that reflexivity is inherently related to transitivity, we understand why we do not find morphosyntactic reflexivisation in Samoan: Samoan does not have syntactically transitive clauses” (Mosel, 1991: ‘Where have all the Samoan reflexives gone?’) “There is no mark of reflexive, either in the form of a reflexive pronoun or of a reflexive marker on the verb – one simply says I saw me” (Dixon, 1988:9). Out of context, there are indeed many cases of ambiguity with 3rd persons, due to the frequent absence of obligatory grammaticalized constructions to express reflexivity: XÂRÂGURÈ (South of the Mainland, New Caledonia) (1) nyî xati nyî 3SG scold 3SG ‘He is scolding him/himself.’ NUMÈÈ (Far South of the Mainland, New Caledonia) (2) treâ trooke nê kwè nê ART.PL dog 3PL bite 3PL ‘The dogs are biting them/each other.’ MWOTLAP (North Central Vanuatu) (3) Kēy mu-wuh mat kēy 3PL PERF-hit die 3PL ‘They killed each other/themselves.’ (François, 2001:372) TOQABAQITA (South East Solomon) (4) Keero’a keko thathami keero’a 3DU 3DU like 3DU ‘They liked them/each other/themselves.’ (Lichtenberk, 1991:172) 1.2. Confusion between middle markers and reflexive markers “In East Futunan, the reflexive meaning is either lexicalised (i.e. expressed by lexically reflexive verbs) or by transitive verbs, the two arguments of which refer to the same entity. -
The Paamese Language of Vanuatu
PACIFIC LINGUISTICS Series B - No. 87 THE PAAMESE LANGUAGE OF VANUATU by Terry Crowley Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Crowley, T. The Paamese language of Vanuatu. B-87, xii + 280 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1982. DOI:10.15144/PL-B87.cover ©1982 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. PACIFIC LINGUISTICS is issued through the Linguistic Circle of Canberra and consists of four series: SERIES A - Occasional Papers SERIES B - Monographs SERIES C - Books SERIES D - Special Publications EDITOR: S.A. Wurm ASSOCIATE EDITORS: D.C. Laycock, C.L. Voorhoeve, D.T. Tryon, T.E. Dutton EDITORIAL ADVISERS: B.W. Bender John Lynch University of Hawaii University of Papua New Guinea David Bradley K.A. McElhanon La Trobe University University of Texas A. Capell H.P. McKaughan University of Sydney University of Hawaii Michael G. Clyne P. MUhlhliusler Monash University Linacre College, Oxford S.H. Elbert G.N. O'Grady University of Hawaii University of Victoria, B.C. K.J. Franklin A.K. Pawley Summer Institute of Linguistics University of Auckland W.W. Glover K.L. Pike University of Michigan; Summer Institute of Linguistics Summer Institute of Linguistics G.W. Grace E.C. Polome University of Hawaii University of Texas M.A.K. Halliday Gillian Sankoff University of Sydney University of Pennsylvania E. Haugen W.A.L. Stokhof National Center for Harvard University Language Development, Jakarta; A. Healey University of Leiden Summer Institute of Linguistics E. -
UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Phonlab Annual Report
UC Berkeley UC Berkeley PhonLab Annual Report Title Phonetic Sources of Morphological Patterns in Sound Change: Fricative Voicing in Athabascan Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3xm9418n Journal UC Berkeley PhonLab Annual Report, 11(11) ISSN 2768-5047 Author Manker, Jonathan Publication Date 2015 DOI 10.5070/P73xm9418n eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2015) Phonetic Sources of Morphological Patterns in Sound Change: Fricative Voicing in Athabascan Jonathan Manker University of California, Berkeley While most modern Athabascan languages are described as having contrastive voicing in fricatives, the patterns of fricative voicing still follow both transparent and sometimes more complex morphological (as well as phonological) environments. While a synchronic analysis of the language seems to demonstrate a direct connection between phonological patterns and morphology, such an analysis may also suggest the possibility of morphological conditions in sound change, which has been proposed by some (Crowley 1997, Donohue 2005). This paper investigates the development of fricative voicing in two Athabascan languages and demonstrates that purely phonetic conditions can be identified that led to what appears to be a case of a morphologically conditioned sound change, following a similar analysis in Blevins & Lynch (2009). Both class-specific affixation and prominence patterns are shown to provide phonetic environments that may result in synchronic phonological patterns following morphological environments. 1. Introduction Early models of linguistic organization suggest the impossibility that non-phonetic factors (morphosyntax, semantics, etc.) can influence sound change. For example, the Neogrammarians proposed that sound change is a “purely phonetic process,” occurring under “strictly phonetic conditions” (Bloomfield 1933:364, concerning the Neogrammarians). -
Notes on Daakie (Port Vato): Sounds and Modality
Proceedings of the Eighteenth Meeting of the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA) Lauren Eby Clemens Gregory Scontras Maria Polinsky (dir.) AFLA XVIII The Eighteenth Meeting of the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association Harvard University March 4-6, 2011 NOTES ON DAAKIE (PORT VATO): SOUNDS AND MODALITY Manfred Krifka Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin & Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Table of Contents Preface i Byron Ahn Tongan Relative Clauses at the Syntax-Prosody 1-15 Interface Edith Aldridge Event Existentials in Tagalog 16-30 Laura Kalin and TP Serialization in Malagasy 31-45 Edward Keenan Manfred Krifka Notes on Daakie (Port Vato): Sounds and Modality 46-65 Eri Kurniawan Does Sundanese have Prolepsis and/or Raising to 66-79 Object Constructions? Bradley Larson A, B, C, or None of the Above: A C-Command 80-93 Puzzle in Tagalog Anja Latrouite Differential Object Marking in Tagalog 94-109 Dong-yi Lin Interrogative Verb Sequencing Constructions in 110-124 Amis Andreea Nicolae and How Does who Compose? 125-139 Gregory Scontras Eric Potsdam A Direct Analysis of Malagasy Phrasal 140-155 Comparatives Chaokai Shi and A Probe-based Account of Voice Agreement in 156-167 T.-H. Jonah Linl Formosan Languages Doris Ching-jung Yen and Sequences of Pronominal Clitics in Mantauran 168-182 Loren Billings Rukai: V-Deletion and Suppletion The Proceedings of AFLA 18 NOTES ON DAAKIE (PORT VATO): SOUNDS AND MODALITY* Manfred Krifka Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin & Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin [email protected] The paper reports from ongoing field work on Daakie (South Ambrym, Vanuatu), also known as Port Vato. -
Possession in Lelepa, a Language of Central Vanuatu
POSSESSION IN LELEPA, A LANGUAGE OF CENTRAL VANUATU by Sébastien Lacrampe A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics School of Language, Arts and Media Pacific Languages Unit The University of the South Pacific March, 2009 DECLARATION I, Sebastien Lacrampe, declare that this thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge, it contains no material previously published, or substantially overlapping with material submitted for the award of any other degree at any institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the text. The research in this thesis was performed under my supervision and to my knowledge is the sola work of Mr. Sebastien Lacrampe. ABSTRACT This thesis studies possession in Lelepa, a language from the Oceanic subgroup of Austronesian, spoken in Central Vanuatu. Investigating this particular feature of the language was achieved by collecting original data from Lelepa speakers. Language data is presented in the form of interlinearised examples taken from a corpus of texts and elicitation notes. Data was collected between 2006 and 2008 during fieldtrips to Lelepa and Mangaliliu. The core of the study is devoted to the possessive system of Lelepa. Like many other Oceanic languages, Lelepa has direct and indirect possessive constructions. This thesis shows that the direct possessive construction formally consists of a possessed noun to which a possessor suffix attaches. It encodes possession of semantic domains such as body parts, body products, reference kinship terms, items closely associated to the possessor and parts of wholes. Indirect possession is expressed by two distinct subtypes: the free and construct indirect constructions. -
Reconstructing the Geocentric System of Proto Oceanic Alexandre François
Reconstructing the geocentric system of Proto Oceanic Alexandre François To cite this version: Alexandre François. Reconstructing the geocentric system of Proto Oceanic. Oceanic Linguistics, University of Hawai’i Press, 2004, 43 (1), pp.1-32. halshs-00526846 HAL Id: halshs-00526846 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00526846 Submitted on 16 Oct 2010 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. This document is the preprint version of: François, Alexandre. 2004. Reconstructing the geocentric system of Proto Oceanic. Oceanic Linguistics 43-1, juin 2004. University of Hawai'i Press. Pp.1-32. RECONSTRUCTING THE GEOCENTRIC SYSTEM OF PROTO OCEANIC Alexandre FRANÇOIS LACITO-CNRS Summary The comparison of sixteen Austronesian languages, regarding the absolute coordinates they use in space reference, makes it possible to propose a historical hypothesis regarding the geocentric system of Proto Oceanic: on land, one up-down axis defined by the declivity of the ground; at sea, a second up-down axis motivated by the prevailing trade winds. After reconstructing the system of POc, we model the principal paths of evolution which historically derived from it and led to the diverse systems attested in modern Oceanic languages. -
Typology of Partitives Received October 28, 2019; Accepted November 17, 2020; Published Online February 18, 2021
Linguistics 2021; 59(4): 881–947 Ilja A. Seržant* Typology of partitives https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2020-0251 Received October 28, 2019; accepted November 17, 2020; published online February 18, 2021 Abstract: This paper explores the coding patterns of partitives and their functional extensions, based on a convenience sample of 138 languages from 46 families from all macroareas. Partitives are defined as constructions that may express the pro- portional relation of a subset to a superset (the true-partitive relation). First, it is demonstrated that, crosslinguistically, partitive constructions vary as to their syntactic properties and morphological marking. Syntactically, there is a cline from loose – possibly less grammaticalized – structures to partitives with rigid head-dependent relations and, finally, to morphologically integrated one-word partitives. Furthermore, partitives may be encoded NP-internally (mostly via an adposition) or pronominally. Morphologically, partitives primarily involve markers syncretic with separative, locative or possessive meanings. Finally, a number of languages employ no partitive marker at all. Secondly, these different strategies are not evenly distributed in the globe, with, for example, Eurasia being biased for the separative strategy. Thirdly, on the functional side, partitives may have functions in the following domains in addition to the true-partitive relation: plain quantification (pseudo-partitives), hypothetical events, predicate negation and aspectuality. I claim that the ability to encode plain quantification is the prerequisite for the other domains. Finally, it is argued that there is a universal preference towards syncretism of two semantically distinct concepts: the propor- tional, true-partitive relation (some of the books) and plain quantification (some books). -
Review of Thieberger, Nicholas, 2006, a Grammar of South Efate
Vol. 1, No. 1 (June 2007), pp. 112–122 http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/ THIEBERGER, NICHOLAS. 2006. A Grammar of South Efate: An Oceanic Language of Vanuatu. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication No. 33. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. xxviii + 384 pp.: ill., maps ; 23 cm. + 1 DVD-ROM. ISBN: 13 978-0- 8248-3061-8. US$39.00, Paper. Reviewed by ROBERT EARLY, University of the South Pacific Nick Thieberger (T.) was a doctoral student in linguistics at the University of Melbourne and undertook periods of fieldwork on the South Efate (SE) language in Vanuatu over the years 1995–2000. SE is mainly spoken in Erakor, Eratap, and Pango villages, all close to the capital, Port Vila, and despite being used for mission purposes from around 1875 onwards, there is no previous or recent modern linguistic study of the language. T. and his family lived in a picturesque location on the shores of the Erakor lagoon, and the Erakor dialect, the subject of T.’s PhD dissertation, is now described in this Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication. Around 1400 of the 6000 speakers of the language are from Erakor (17). [Note in the following that page numbers are given as numbers only, and sequences like “22:123” mean “example number 22 on page 123.” Glosses below simplify some complex morphological categories and “TAM” covers a range of tense-aspect-mood markings. The equals sign “=” identifies a clitic, instead of a regular morpheme break “-”.] SE is of particular interest as the southernmost language of the central part of Vanuatu, and of the generally accepted Northern and Central Vanuatu subgroup. -
A Reanalysis of *L-Loss in Paamese and Southeast Ambrym
Morphological Conditions on Regular Sound Change? A Reanalysis of *l-loss in Paamese and Southeast Ambrym Juliette Blevins John Lynch Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology University of the South Pacific Northern Paamese and Southeast Ambrym, two languages of Central Vanuatu, share a set of sound changes involving vocalization and loss of *l. One subpart of this sound change results in loss of *l word-initially before non-high vowels. An interesting aspect of this sound change is that it appears to apply in all word classes except verbs. Indeed, Crowley (1997) suggests that Northern Paamese *l-loss is a clear case of sound change with grammatical conditioning. In this paper we suggest that phonological and morphological aspects of verbal inflectional paradigms have given rise to the apparent exceptionality of *l-loss in these two languages. Phonological factors result in continuation of /l/, while the structure of inflectional paradigms has given rise to analogical restoration of initial /l/ in all verbs where it is expected to be lost. Under this analysis, initial *l-loss can be seen to have applied without exception, and without grammatical conditioning. 1. Introduction. Phonetically-based sound change is strongly associated with the Neogrammarian tradition of the late 19th century. In this tradition, sound change was modeled as systematic, exceptionless, proto- typically regular. For the Neogrammarians, the regularity of sound change was definitional and operational: "Those changes that were sweeping and observed after several centuries to be essentially exceptionless qualified for the term Lautgesetz (sound law), while changes that seemed to affect only particular words or groups of words did not so qualify" (Rankin 2003:185).