DOCSLIB.ORG

Bislama Reference Grammar Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication No

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Bislama Reference Grammar Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication No Bislama Reference Grammar Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication No. 31 Bislama Reference Grammar Terry Crowley University of Hawai'i Press Honolulu ? 2004 University of Hawaii Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 09 08 07 06 05 04 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Crowley, Terry. Bislama reference grammar / Terry Crowley. ? p. cm. (Oceanic linguistics special publication ;no. 31) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8248-2880-1 (alk. paper) 1. Bislama language?Grammar. I. Title. II. Series. PM7895.B4C73 2004 42T.99595?dc22 2004044096 Camera-ready copy for this book was prepared under the supervision of the series editor. University of Hawai'i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources. Printed by IBT Global CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES.x PREFACE.xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.xiii MAPS.xiv 1:BACKGROUND TO BISLAMA.1 1.1 Bislama: An Independent Language.1 1.2 Bislama inVanuatu Society.3 1.3 Historical Background.4 1.4 The Vocabulary of Bislama.5 1.5 Varieties of Bislama.7 1.6What Kind of Grammar is This?.9 2: PRONUNCIATIONAND SPELLING.11 2.1 Consonants.11 2.2 Vowels.15 2.3 Expanded Sound Systems.16 2.4 Spelling.18 2.5 Stress.21 2.6 Intonation.22 2.7 Syllables.23 3: PARTS OF SPEECH.24 3.1 Nouns.25 3.2 Pronouns.26 3.3 Prepositions.27 3.4 Verbs.28 3.5 Noun Modifiers.28 3.5.1 Number Markers.29 3.5.2 Adjectives.29 3.6 Adverbs.30 3.7 Other Modifiers.31 3.8 Interrogatives.31 3.9 Complex Sentence Markers.32 3.10 Interjections and Vocatives.32 3.11Words with Several Functions.33 4: NOUNS AND NOUN PHRASES.37 4.1 Nouns.37 4.1.1 Simple and Complex Nouns.37 4.1.2 Compounding.38 4.1.2.1 Adjective + Noun.38 4.1.2.2 Noun 4- Postmodifier.39 4.1.2.3 Verb + Noun.39 4.1.2.4 Noun + Noun.39 4.1.3 Reduplication.40 4.1.4 Affixation.41 v CONTENTS 4.1.4.1 The Suffix -wan.42 4.1.4.2 The Prefix eks-.43 4.1.4.3 Emerging Suffixes?.44 4.2 Pronouns.45 4.3 Noun Phrases.50 4.3.1 Quantifiers + Nouns.50 4.3.2 Pronouns + Quantifiers.56 4.3.3 Adjectives.59 4.3.3.1 Reduplication.59 4.3.3.2 The Suffix -fala.60 4.3.3.3 Compounding.63 4.3.4 Noun Postmodifiers.64 4.3.5 Demonstratives.64 4.3.6 Nouns Modified by Sentences. 65 4.4 Noun Phrases Linked by blong.67 4.4.1 Possession.68 4.4.2 Other Functions of blong.69 4.5 Coordinate Noun Phrases.70 5:VERBS AND VERB PHRASES.72 5.1 Verbs.72 5.1.1 Reduplication.72 5.1.2 Compounds.76 5.1.3 Affixation. 77 5.1.3.1 Transitive Suffix.77 5.1.3.2 Directional Suffixes.82 5.1.3.2.1 -Daon.83 5.1.3.2.2 -Aot. 83 5.1.3.2.3 -Raon. 83 5.1.3.2.4 -Bak.83 5.1.3.2.5 -Ap. 84 5.2 Complex Verbs.85 5.3 Verb Phrases.88 5.3.1 Imperatives, Prohibitives, and Hortatives. 89 5.3.2 The Forms i and oli. 92 5.3.3 Tense.92 5.3.4 Negative Markers.95 5.3.5 Auxiliaries.96 5.3.5.1 Mas.97 5.3.5.2 Bin.97 5.3.5.3 Jos.98 5.3.5.4 Stap.98 5.3.5.5 Save.99 53.5.6 Wantem.100 53.5.7 Sud.:.100 53.5.8 Kanduit.101 5.3.5.9 Kam and Go.101 5.3.5.10 Stil.102 vi CONTENTS 5.3.6 Post-Verbal Modifiers.102 5.3.7 Modifiers of Manner.105 6: SIMPLE SENTENCES.108 6.1 Statements. 108 6.1.1 Predicate Sentences and Predicate Markers.109 6.1.2 Non-Predicate Sentences.113 6.1.2.1 Presentative Sentences.114 6.1.2.2 Equational Sentences.115 6.1.2.3 'Ought to' Constructions.116 6.1.3 Constituent Order.117 6.1.3.1 Transitive and Intransitive Constructions.117 6.1.3.1.1 Meteorological Expressions.118 6.1.3.1.2 General States.118 6.1.3.1.3 The Existential Verb gat.119 6.1.3.1.4 Negation of Incomplete Sentences.120 6.1.3.1.5 Actions without Causers.120 6.1.3.2 Verb + Noun Constructions.122 6.1.4 Double Object Constructions.125 6.1.5 Prepositional Phrases.127 6.1.5.1 Basic Prepositions.127 6.1.5.1.1 Blong.127 6.1.5.1.2From.128 6.1.5.1.3 Wetem.128 6.1.5.1.4 Wetaot(em).129 6.1.5.1.5 Olsem.129 6.1.5.1.6 Long.130 6.1.5.2 Verbal Prepositions.133 6.1.5.2.1 Kasem.133 6.1.5.2.2 Bitim.134 6.1.5.2.3 Ronem.134 6.1.5.2.4 Agensem.135 6.1.5.2.5 Raonem.135 6.1.5.2.6 Folem.135 6.1.5.2.7 Tokbaot.136 6.1.5.2.8 Yusum.136 6.1.5.3 Position of Prepositional Phrases.137 6.1.5.4 Complex Prepositions.137 6.1.6 Adverbs.139 6.1.6.1 Adverbs of Place.139 6.1.6.2 Adverbs of Time.140 6.1.6.3 Adverbs of Manner.141 6.1.6.4 Miscellaneous Adverbs.142 6.1.6.5 Placement of Adverbs and Post-Verbal Modifiers.146 6.2 Questions.147 6.2.1 Yes-No Questions.147 6.2.2 Content Questions.150 6.2.2.1 Wanem.150 vu CONTENTS 6.22.2 Se.151 6.2.2.3 Huia.151 6.2.2.4 Hamas.153 6.2.2.5 Hameni.153 6.2.2.6 Wijwan.154 6.2.2.7 Waswe.154 6.2.2.8 Watfo.155 6.2.2.9 Wataem.155 6.2.2.10 We.155 6.2.2.11 Wehem.156 6.2.2.12 From.157 6.2.2.13 From wanem.157 6.2.2.14 Olsem wanem.158 6.3 Fronted Noun Phrases. 159 7: COMPLEXSENTENCES.166 7.1 Serial Verbs.166 7.1.1 Directional Verbs.167 7.1.2 Manner Constructions. 170 7.1.3 Causative Constructions.171 7.1.4 Sequential Actions.172 7.2 Coordination.172 7.2.1 Mo.172 7.2.2 Be.174 7.2.3 (N)o.175 7.3 Subordination. 175 7.3.1 Juxtaposition.176 7.3.2 Subordinator Constructions.177 7.3.2.1 Simple Subordinators.178 7.3.2.1.1 Blong and Long.178 7.3.2.1.2 Se.182 7.3.2.1.3 We.184 7.3.2.1.4 Nogud.186 7.3.2.2 Complex Subordinators.187 7.3.2.2.1 From.187 13.2.2.2Kasem.187 7.3.2.2.3 Olsem.187 7.3.2.2.4 Taem.188 13.2.2.5 Tetaem.188 13.2.2.6 Sapos.189 7.3.2.2.7 Nomata, Nevamaen, Nating, and/ven.189 7.3.2.2.8 Afta andBifo. 190 7.3.2.2.9 Question Words as Subordinators. 191 7.4 Sentences inDiscourse.192 7.4.1 The Sequencing of Events.192 7.4.2 Cause and Effect.195 7.4.3 Contrary to Expectation.196 7.4.4 The Pragmatic Particle ia.196 viii CONTENTS APPENDIX:PREVIOUS STUDIES OF BISLAMAGRAMMAR.199 REFERENCES.201 INDEX.203 ix LIST OF TABLES 2.1 Consonants. 12 2.2 English and French Consonants in Bislama.12 2.3 Vowels.16 2.4 English and French Vowels in Bislama.17 3.1 Stronger andWeaker Interjections.34 4.1 Pronouns.46 5.1 Reduplicated Intransitive Verbs.75 5.2 Transitive Verbs with -ap.86 5.3 Transitive Main Verbs Used inVerb Complexes.87 5.4 Intransitive Main Verbs Used in Verb Complexes.88 x PREFACE This volume has been more than a quarter of a century in the making. Since I first arrived as a linguistic fieldworker in Vanuatu in 1976?then known as the New Hebrides?Bislama has become a major part of my linguistic repertoire, not only during my periods of residence in Vanuatu (1976-78, 1983-90) but also when interacting with Ni-Vanuatu during my time in Papua New Guinea (1979-83) and New Zealand (1991-2004), as well as during my frequent?and often lengthy? return visits to Vanuatu. It is the language through which I have made many friends from all different parts of the country. I initially had no intention whatsoever of writing a volume such as this. In the beginning, I saw Bislama as just a tool that I was using to gain access to the Paamese language, which was my primary research interest at the time. Later, I used Bislama as a means for investigating other languages in the country, from the islands of Erromango and Malakula. However, as soon as I started establishing friendships through Bislama, the language became rather more than just a tool, and eventually it became a major research interest, along with my interests in other Va? nuatu languages. I produced a dictionary of Bislama to coincide with the tenth an? niversary of Vanuatu's accession to independence (Crowley 1990a).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Bislama Informational Report
    Rhode Island College M.Ed. In TESL Program Language Group Specific Informational Reports Produced by Graduate Students in the M.Ed. In TESL Program In the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development Language Group: Bislama Author: Melissa Schuessler Program Contact Person: Nancy Cloud ([email protected]) By: Melissa Schuessler TESL 539 Spring 2011 Where is Bislama Spoken? Bislama is widely spoken in Vanuatu, which is an independent republic located in the southwest Pacific, between Fiji and Australia, with a population of about 170,000. http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/oceania/vu.htm Bislama Language Facts With more than 100 local languages in Vanuatu, along with English and French, Bislama (Pidgin English) is used as a vital communication tool. It allows the 40% who were educated in French to talk to the 60% who were educated in English. There are about 6,200 native speakers of Bislama, and 200,000 people who speak it as a second language. The language exists with only 2500 words (English and French each have more than 35,000 words). Source: http://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/bislama.html Bislama is a Dialect of: Melanesian Pidgin Some other dialects of Melanesian Pidgin are: . Tok Pisin, spoken in Papua New Guinea . Pijin, spoken in the Solomon Islands Only in Vanuatu is the language of Bislama declared by the constitution to be the national language. Source: http://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/bislama.html Vocabulary: The major lexifier for Bislama is English, with words such as brij for ‘bridge’ and buluk for ‘cow’ (from bullock).
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • Bislama Into Kwamera: Code-Mixing and Language Change on Tanna (Vanuatu)
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarSpace at University of Hawai'i at Manoa Vol. 1, No. 2 (December 2007), pp. 216–239 http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/ Bislama into Kwamera: Code-mixing and Language Change on Tanna (Vanuatu) Lamont Lindstrom University of Tulsa People throughout Vanuatu frequently mix Bislama (that country’s national Pidgin) into their vernaculars. Extensive code-mixing is an obvious indicator, and sometime cause, of language change or even language replacement. This paper discusses several sorts of Bislama code-mixing on Tanna among speakers of that island’s Kwamera language. It assesses levels and kinds of Bislama use in four village debates, tape-recorded in 1982 and 1983. Among other uses, Kwamera speakers mix Bislama when interjecting, reiterating, reporting speech, neutralizing marked vernacular terms, and qualifying what they say. The paper concludes with some remarks on the phonological, morphological/syntactic, and lexical/semantic consequences of recurrent language mixing—on how Islanders’ insertions of Bislama into their oratorical and everyday talk may or may not be effecting linguistic change in Kwamera. Bislama, so far at least, has enriched more than it has impoverished Tanna’s linguistic ecology. Speakers’ frequent Bislama mixes have not yet seriously undermined their vernacular. 1. INTRODUCTION. On the island of Tanna, Vanuatu, many people say that they don’t speak their language the way they used to. This language is Kwamera—or, to give it its local name, Nɨninɨfe1 or Nɨfe (Lindstrom 1986; Lindstrom and Lynch 1994). Around 3,500 people living along Tanna’s southeastern coasts speak Kwamera.
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • Ura: a Disappearing Language of Southern Vanuatu
    Ura: A disappearing language ofsouthern Vanuatu Crowley, T. Ura: A Disappearing Language of Southern Vanuatu. C-156, x + 226 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1999. DOI:10.15144/PL-C156.cover ©1999 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 FOUNDlNG EDITOR: Stephen A. Wurm EDITORIAL BOARD: Malcolm D. Ross and Darrell T. Tryon (Managing Editors), John Bowden, Thomas E. Dutton, Andrew K. Pawley Pacific Linguistics is a publisher specialising in linguistic descriptions, dictionaries, atlases and other material on languages of the Pacific, the Philippines, Indonesia and Southeast Asia. The authors and editors of Pacific Linguistics publications are drawn from a wide range of institutions around the world. Pacific Linguistics is associated with the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at The Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics was established in 1963 through an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund. It is a non-profit-making body financed largely from the sales of its books to libraries and individuals throughout the world, with some assistance fromthe School. The Editorial Board of Pacific Linguistics is made up of the academic staff of the School's Department of Linguistics. The Board also appoints a body of editorial advisors drawn from the international community of linguists. Publications in Series A, B and C and textbooks in Series D are refereed by scholars with relevant expertise who are normally not members of the editorial board. To date Pacific Linguistics has published over 400 volumes in four series: • Series A: Occasional Papers; collections of shorter papers, usually on a single topic or area.
    [Show full text]
  • 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).
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • The Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity Alexandre François, Sébastien Lacrampe, Michael Franjieh, Stefan Schnell
    The Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity Alexandre François, Sébastien Lacrampe, Michael Franjieh, Stefan Schnell To cite this version: Alexandre François, Sébastien Lacrampe, Michael Franjieh, Stefan Schnell. The Languages of Vanu- atu: Unity and Diversity. Alexandre François; Sébastien Lacrampe; Michael Franjieh; Stefan Schnell. France. 5, Asia Pacific Linguistics Open Access, 2015, Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia, 9781922185235. halshs-01186004 HAL Id: halshs-01186004 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01186004 Submitted on 23 Aug 2015 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. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives| 4.0 International License THE LANGUAGES OF VANUATU UNITY AND DIVERSITY Edited by Alexandre François Sébastien Lacrampe Michael Franjieh Stefan Schnell uages o ang f Is L la e nd h t M in e l a Asia-Pacific Linguistics s e n i e ng ge of I d a u a s l L s and the M ni e l a s e s n i e d i u s t a S ~ ~ A s es ia- c P A c u acfi n i i c O pe L n s i g ius itc a
    [Show full text]
  • Tanna Island - Wikipedia
    Tanna Island - Wikipedia Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Article Talk Read Edit View history Tanna Island From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Coordinates : 19°30′S 169°20′E Tanna (also spelled Tana) is an island in Tafea Main page Tanna Contents Province of Vanuatu. Current events Random article Contents [hide] About Wikipedia 1 Geography Contact us 2 History Donate 3 Culture and economy 3.1 Population Contribute 3.2 John Frum movement Help 3.3 Language Learn to edit 3.4 Economy Community portal 4 Cultural references Recent changes Upload file 5 Transportation 6 References Tools 7 Filmography Tanna and the nearby island of Aniwa What links here 8 External links Related changes Special pages Permanent link Geography [ edit ] Page information It is 40 kilometres (25 miles) long and 19 Cite this page Wikidata item kilometres (12 miles) wide, with a total area of 550 square kilometres (212 square miles). Its Print/export highest point is the 1,084-metre (3,556-foot) Download as PDF summit of Mount Tukosmera in the south of the Geography Printable version island. Location South Pacific Ocean Coordinates 19°30′S 169°20′E In other projects Siwi Lake was located in the east, northeast of Archipelago Vanuatu Wikimedia Commons the peak, close to the coast until mid-April 2000 2 Wikivoyage when following unusually heavy rain, the lake Area 550 km (210 sq mi) burst down the valley into Sulphur Bay, Length 40 km (25 mi) Languages destroying the village with no loss of life. Mount Width 19 km (11.8 mi) Bislama Yasur is an accessible active volcano which is Highest elevation 1,084 m (3,556 ft) Български located on the southeast coast.
    [Show full text]
  • 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).
    [Show full text]
  • 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).
    [Show full text]