PACIFIC LINGUISTICS Series B - No. 94 A GRAMMAR OF AWTUW by Harry Feldman Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY 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 K.A. McElhanon University of Hawaii Summer Institute of Linguistics David Bradley H.P. McKaughan La Trobe University University of Hawaii A. Capell P. MiihlhZusler University of Sydney Linacre College, Oxford Michael G. Clyne G.N. O'Grady Monash University University of Victoria, B.C. S.H. Elbert A.K. Pawley University of Hawaii University of Auckland K. J. Franklin K.L. Pike Summer Institute of Linguistics Summer Institute of Linguistics W.W. Glover E.C. Polom4 Summer Institute of Linguistics University of Texas G.W. Grace Malcolm Ross University of Hawaii Australian National University M.A.K. Halliday Gillian Sankoff University of Sydney University of Pennsylvania E. Haugen W.A.L. Stokhof Harvard University University of Leiden A. Healey B.K. T'sou Summer Institute of Linguistics City Polytechnic of Hong- Kong L.A. Hercus E.M. Uhlenbeck Australian National University University of Leiden Nguygn Bang Liem J.W.M. Verhaar University of Hawaii Divine Word Institute, John Lynch Alexishafen University of Papua New Guinea All correspondence concerning PACIFIC LINGUISTICS, including orders and subscriptions, should be addressed to: The Secretary PACIFIC LINGUISTICS Department of Lin uistics Research School o F Pacific Studies The Australian National University G.P.O. Box 4, Canberra, A.C.T. 2601 Australia. Copyright 0 The Author First Published 1986 Typeset by Dianne Stacey Printed by A.N.U. Printing Service Bound by Adriatic Bookbinders Pty Ltd The editors are indebted to the Australian National University for assistance 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 342 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABBREVIATIONS Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Chapter 2 PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOPHONOLOGY Chapter 3 LEXICAL MORPHOSYNTAX Chapter 4 VERBAL MORPHOSYNTAX Chapter 5 GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS AND VERB CLASSES Chapter 6 CASE MARKING Chapter 7 STRUCTURE OF THE NOUN PHRASE Chapter 8 VERBLESS PREDICATIONS Chapter 9 CLAUSE TYPES Chapter 10 INTERPREDICATE AND INTERCLAUSAL RELATIONS Chapter 11 LEXICAL FIELDS Chapter 12 PARALANGUAGE APPENDIX A: TEXTS Yawkil Tapwokil Yantelalekil APPENDIX B: LIST OF VERB ROOTS APPENDIX C: BASIC VOCABULARY - ENGLISH-AWTUW REFERENCES INDEX MAP 1: THE AWTUW LANGUAGE AREA iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS While I am responsible for the analysis presented here and its organisation, the data it is based upon belong to the Awtuw speaking people of Kamlakwlape, Wutlakwlape, Wiyuplape, Tupumlape, and Kalaktuwlape. I am most deeply indebted to the people of Meleylape, who allowed me to live in their hamlet for fifteen months, who helped me in many ways, and who patiently taught me their language. Among those who were most forthcoming were Yowmen, Takiy, Poliw, Altiy, Awkay, Awtiy, Eykiy, Kampo, Keriy, Mimpel, Momoy, Naytow, Osiy, Ruwmay, Wawpey, Yinow, Napeyre, Nimpiy. I am particularly grateful to Kewmaey, Yawur, Yakop, and Napeyre, who allowed me to tape their narratives and to Peyaw, Mimpel, and Ruwrnay, who dictated stories to me. There is no way that I can ever repay my debt to Yawur and Yakop, who helped me to transcribe texts and provided virtually all of the elicited material I have used. I am also grateful to the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, the Department of Language at the University of Papua New Guinea, the Sandaun Provincial Government, the Lumi District Office, and Kewmaey, Councillor for the Awtuw- speaking area, for their permission to study Awtuw. A large number of people deserve my thanks for the accommodation they so graciously provided. Wietze Baron accommodated me at Ukarumpa. Paul of the Lumi Police Detachment, Ian Bagley and other staff at Lumi High School, Father Terry and others at St Mary's Catholic Mission, and Kewmaey allowed me to stay in their houses in Lumi. And Brian McClintock put me up in Port Moresby. Leo Yimiten and Lumi District Office Staff helped me in a variety of ways and made the 1980 census data available to me. Val Lyon of the Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts at the Australian National University was kind enough to draw the map. Ger Reesink, Wietze Baron, Ken McElhanon, Les Bruce, and Dave Scorza of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (PNG Branch) discussed my proposed fieldwork with me and provided me with access to some unpublished material in their library. Don Laycock, Cecil Brown, Bill Mitchell, and Keith Thomas corresponded with me and encouraged me while I was in the field. I would also like to thank Avery Andrews, Cliff Goddard, Ian Green, Walter Seller, Tim Shopen and David Wilkins for discussing my work with me, and Cliff and David in particular for their valuable comments on draft chapters. The Australian National University provided me with a generous scholarship which made it possible to undertake this project at all. Finally, my gratitude to Tanya and Adam McConvell for their support and encouragement is unbounded. ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS 1 First person FA Factive OBL Obliviative 2 Second person FU Future P Past 3 Third person GEN Generic marker PCL Particle A Adjective HR Hortative PF Perfect AB Absent I Instrumental/Commitative P IN Place name ADV Adverb I Intensifier PL Plural AGN Again IM Imperative POS Possessive NP AP Adjective Phrase IP Imperfective PPR Personal pronoun BEN Benefactive KT Kinship term PrN Personal name CDL Conditional L Locative/Directional PR Prohibitive CM Case marker MT Motion PRO Pronoun cm Comparative M Non-female PS Possessive marker CN Common noun MS Non-female singular PT Potential DB Debitive N Noun Q Quantifier DEM Demonstrative NDB Negative Debitive RC Reciprocal DES Desiderative NF Non-factive REFL Reflexive DET Determiner NG Negative S Clause constituent DH Downhill NM Number marker SG Singular DS Downstream NOM Nominal constituent TP Tok Pisin DU Dual NP Noun Phrase UH Uphill F Female NPR Non-present US Upstream FS Female singular 0 Object V Vocative Notational conventions enclose phonemes enclose phonetic transcriptions and feature specifications enclose optional elements enclose optional specifications and expansions enclose keyed feature specifications (see page 17) 'becomes' or 'is rewritten as' 'in the environment of' (also used to separate allomorphs and options in examples) 'is higher on a hierarchy than' inflectional or derivational morpheme boundary boundary between compounded elements word boundary unacceptable of marginal or dubious acceptability precedes a stressed syllable or indicates an elided vowel The canonical forms of verb roots are underlined with a broken line. CHAPTER 2 INTRODUCTION l. l Preface The data upon which I base the description presented here was collected in the course of a field trip of 15 months' duration (November 1979 -February 1981) in the village of Kamnuml the largest of the'five Awtuw-speaking villages. Insofar as possible I have gleaned examples from a small corpus of narrative text. But I have also used elicited examples to illustrate points where necessary. The content and structure of this description rest on a number of assumptions which I will attempt to make explicit. 1.1.1 Language is a singularly prominent facet of culture in that it serves as the main repository and channel of communication of culture. But there are areas of linguistic structure that may in most cultures be described conveniently and without significant distortion as discrete from other aspects of culture. Within the domain that is nuclear to languagel there are a number of structural components that mediate between meanings to be conveyed and the acoustic code through which they are transmitted. These components are the proper subject of linguistic description. 1.1.2 The physical properties of the acoustic code are marginal to linguistic description. Similarlyl the nature of the relations between expressible meanings and cognitive processes on the one hand and external reality on the otherl are marginal to the description of linquistic structure. Within this periphery are three main structural components. The phonological component mediates between meaningful forms and the acoustic code through which they are transmitted. The lexical component mediates between lexical forms and expressible meanings. And the grammatical component organises the composition and combination of lexical formsr mediating! as it werer between the other two components. Viewed in this wayl the grammatical component is central to linguistic structure. 1 intend here to present a comprehensivel even if not exhaustive, description of the morphologyr syntaxl and morphosyntax of Awtuw. Because Awtuw is a previously undescribed language! I include information on aspects of the lanquage peripheral to my main concerns. Specificallyl Chapter l places the lanquage in its social and sociolinguistic context, Chapter 2 provides an overview of Awtuw's rich phonological and morphophonological systeml Chapter l1 examines the structure of a few lexical fields of general interestl and Chapter 12 describes some paralinguistic phenomena. 1.1.3 The aims and methodology of linquistic theory and of linguistic description are fundamentally different. The aim of theory is to delimit and explain the functions of language in human society and human cognition. Its methodology must therefore be to establish a set of explanatory principles that will generate hypotheses about linguistic functions and the ways that languages can express them. These hypotheses can then be tested against empirical data about languages- The aim of linguistic description is to identify the formal classesl categoriesl and structures of a language on empirical, language-internal evidence.