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Aspects of Tok Pisin Grammar PACIFIC LINGUISTICS Senie� B - No. 66 ASPECTS OF TOK PIS IN GRAMMAR by Ellen B. Woolford Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Woodford, E.B. Aspects of Tok Pisin grammar. B-66, vi + 123 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1979. DOI:10.15144/PL-B66.cover ©1979 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 LINGUIS TICS is issued through the Lingui�tie Ci�ete 06 Canbe��a and consists of four series: SERIES A - OCCASIONAL PAPERS SERIES B - MONOGRAPHS SERIES C - BOOKS SERIES V - SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS EDITOR: S.A. Wurrn. ASSOCIATE EDITORS: D.C. Laycock, C.L. Voorhoeve, D.T. Tryon, T.E. Dutton. EDITORIAL ADVISERS: B. Bender, University of Hawaii J. Lynch, University of Papua D. Bradley, University of Melbourne New Guinea A. Capell, University of Sydney K.A. McElhanon, University of Texas S. Elbert, University of Hawaii H. McKaughan, university of Hawaii K. Franklin, Summer Institute of P. MUhlh�usler, Linacre College, Linguistics oxford W.W. Glover, Summer Institute of G.N. O'Grady, University of Linguistics victoria, B.C. G. Grace, University of Hawaii A.K. pawley, University of Hawaii M.A.K. Halliday, university of K. Pike, Univeraity of Michigan; Sydney Summer Institute of Linguistics A. Healey, Summer Institute of E.C. Pol orne, University of Texas Linguistics G. Sankoff, Universite de Montreal L. Hercus, Australian National E. Uhlenbeck, University of Leiden University J.W.M. Verhaar, University of N.D. Liern, University of Hawaii Indonesia, Jakarta ALL CORRESPONDENCE concerning PACI F1 C L1NGUI ST1 CS, including orders and subscriptions, should be addressed to: The Secretary , PACIFIC LINGUISTICS, Department of Linguistics, School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra , A.C.T. 2600 . Australia. Copyright (§) E.B. Woolford. First published 1979 . The editors are indebted to the Australian National University for help in the production of this series. This publication was made possible by an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund. National Library of Australia Card Number and ISBN 0 85883 203 8 TO THE PEOPLE OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA ACKNOWLEVGEMENTS I am indebted to Gillian Sankoff who first introduced me to the fascinating study of Tok Pisin and who has continued to provide in­ valuable support and enthusiasm throughout my researcb. I want to thank my dissertation advisor , Ronald Casson , who awakened my interest in linguistics and who stood up for me when it counted. I also want to express my appreciation to Joan Bresnan, John Ross, Peter Muhlhausler, Naomi Quinn, Mat thew Cartmill, Ronald Butters and Robert Rodman who read portions of this book and provided valuable comment s and advice . In addition , I would like to thank Mark Baltin, David Duncan , Wilson Gray , Judy Kegl, Phil LeSourd, John McCarthy, David Nash and Sorri Yillah for stimulating discussions . Finally , very special thanks go to John McCarthy for his support and help in preparing this manuscript . iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER II: THE PRONOUN SYSTEM OF TOK PISIN 19 CHAPTER III: WH MOVEMENT AND QUESTION FORMATION 4 3 CHAPTER IV: NEGATION IN TOK PISIN 49 CHAPTER V: THE POSSESSIVE CONSTRUCTION AND THE SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS OF BILONG 63 CHAPTER VI: THE SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS OF THE PREPOSITION LONG 77 CHAPTER VII: SERIAL VERB CONSTRUCTIONS 91 CHAPTER VIII: TRANSITIVE/INTRANS ITIVE VERBS: AN ARGUMENT AGAINST PASSIVE IN TOK PISIN 9 7 CONCLUSION 107 BIBLIOGRAPHY 109 v Woodford, E.B. Aspects of Tok Pisin grammar. B-66, vi + 123 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1979. DOI:10.15144/PL-B66.cover ©1979 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. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Tok Pi sin is the mo st widely spoken language in Papua New Guinea. There are five to seven hundred different languages in Papua New Gu inea , and Tok Pisin is a lingua franca that makes communication po ssible across these many language boundaries within the newly independent nat ion . English and Hiri Motu (another pidgin) al so serve this purpose , but to a muc h more limited extent . Tok Pisin has had many other name s: Neo-Melanesian , Melane sian Pidgin English , Melanesian Pidgin , New Guinea Pidgin English, New Guinea Pidgin , Talk Boy , and Tok Pisin . The name Tok Pisin is preferred by the Hiri Motu and Tok Pi sin Research Unit in the Department of Language at the University of Papua New Guinea for several reasons : First , the language is not spoken throughout Melanesia, although there are a few related dialects outside Papua New Guinea . Second , the official name of the country is Papua New Guinea, and although at the present time Tok Pisin is used mostly in the New Guinean part of the island , it is hoped that eventually the language will spread throughout the Papuan side of the island as well . The use of only 'New Guinea ' in the name of the lan­ guage might irritate Papuans and hind er the spread of the language. Finally, the Papua New Guineans themselves call the language Tok Pidgin , Tok Pisin, or just Pidgin , but it was considered de sirable to avoid the word 'pidgin ' because of the great lay prej udice against pidgin languages, and because Tok Pisin may not remain a pidgin language for very much longer. The history of Tok Pisir. is still being debated. It s antecedent s were not considered to be terribly noteworthy at the time and they are thus poorly recorded . The following widely accepted account is taken from Hall (1955a) , Laycock (1970a) and Wurm (197la) . It is generally believed that To k Pisin is a direct descendant of Beach-la-Mar , a 1 Woodford, E.B. Aspects of Tok Pisin grammar. B-66, vi + 123 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1979. DOI:10.15144/PL-B66.1 ©1979 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. 2 pidgin that developed in the South Seas out of a form of Chinese Pidgin English and local languages. In the mid-nineteenth century , Chinese Pidgin English was widely used by traders, and a modified version of this pidgin wa s used in the South Seas in the sandalwood and trepang trade . (Trepang is a sea cucumb er which was highly prized by the Chinese as an ingredient of soup. ) The language came to be known as Sandal-Wood English (Leland 1888) or Beach-la-Mar from the French word beche-de-mer meaning trepang . Between 1847 and 1902 , young men from the coastal regions of Melanesia were tricked , forced , or abducted into periods of service in the sugarcane fields of Queensland , Australia, under what has been called the 'blackbirding ' system . In these plan­ tation communities, the workers had come from diverse linguistic groups and thus had to depend on Beach-la-Mar as a common language . As is usually the case when a pidgin or creole develops in a colonial situ­ ation, 'Beach-la-Mar was far more important as a means of communication between workers than between master and worker . The pidgin undoubtedly changed during this period as the workers expanded and developed it to serve a wider range of communication needs, but the situat ion lacked the sort of stability necessary for creolisat ion to occur . (We shall discuss the conditions necessary for creolisation to take place later on in this chapter .) When the workers were released from the planta­ tions, they took Beach-la-Mar back to their village s. Young boys in the villages at home were anxious to learn the language from their returning older brothers and cousins because to know Beach-la-Mar implied a knowledge of the out side world , giving one status, and it made one more likely to be chosen for an adventure away from the village (Mead 1931) . During this same period , the Germans had begun an extensive trade in the area, and Melanesian crews were used on the ships. Just as on the plantat ions , such mixed crews had only Beach-la­ Mar as a common language among themselves and as a trade language throughout Melanesia. This form of Beach-la-Mar blended with that of the plantat ions, since young men who had worked on plantat ions were the most likely to be chosen as ship's crewmen because they already spoke Beach-la-Mar and because they had some knowledge of the foreigner 's ways. By the mid 1880s, the Germans had established an administrative capital for New Guinea at Rabaul , New Britain . After reali sing that they could not replace the pidgin with German , they beg8n to use it extensively in their rule and especially on their plantat ions (Salisbury 1970). During this period the language took on much new vocabulary from the New Guinean languages, especially from Kuanua , which is spoken by the Tolai people who live in the area around Rabaul . Tok Pisin 3 developed in New Guinea as a language separate from Beach-la-Mar , while a form of Beach-la-Mar is still used in the New Hebrides. Although this version of the history of Tok Pisin is widely accepted , Peter Muhlhausler has recently put forth a somewhat different theory on the basis of his research into the subj ect . He challenges the idea that the Queensland plantations had any great effect on the development of Tok Pisin .
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