PACIFIC LINGUISTICS Series A - No. 70 PAPERS IN NEW GUINEA LINGUISTICS No.24 D.C. Laycock Walter Seiler Les Bruce M.A. Chlenov R. Daniel Shaw Susanne Holzknecht Graham Scott Otto Nekitel S.A. Wurm L.R. Goldman J.S. Fingleton Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Laycock, D., Seiler, W., Bruce, L., Chlenov, M., Shaw, R.D., Holzknecht, S., Scott, G., Nekitel, O., Wurm, S.A., Goldman, L. and Fingleton, J. editors. Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 24. A-70, iv + 316 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1986. DOI:10.15144/PL-A70.cover ©1986 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 K.A. McElhanon University of Hawaii Summer Institute of Linguistics David Bradley H.P. McKaughan La Trobe University University of Hawaii A. Capell P. MUhlhausler 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. Polome Sum mer 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 Sum mer Institute of Linguistics City Polytechnic of Hong Kong L.A. Hercus E.M. Uhlenbeck Australian National University University of Leiden Nguy�n Bl1ng Liem J. W.M. Verhaar University of Hawaii Divine Word Institute, John Lynch Madang University of Papua New Guinea All correspondence concerning PACIFIC LINGUISTICS, including orders and subscriptions, should be addressed to: The Secretary PACIFIC LINGUISTICS Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies The Australian National University G.P.O. Box 4, Canberra, A.C.T. 2601 Australia Copyright © The Authors First Published 1986 Typeset by Jeanette Coombes Maps drawn by Theo Baumann 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 ISSN 0078-7531, 0078-9135 ISBN 0 85883 350 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTORY NOTE iv D.C. LAYCOCK Papuan languages and the possibility of semantic classification 1-10 WALTER SEILER From verb serialisation to noun classification 11-19 LES BRUCE Serialisation : the interface of syntax and lexicon 21-37 M.A. CHLENOV North Halmahera languages: a problem of internal classification 39-44 R. DANIEL SHAW The Bosavi language family 45-76 SUSANNE HOLZKNECHT A morphology and grammar of Adzera (Amari dialect) , Morobe Province , Papua New Guinea 77-166 GRAHAM SCOTT On ergativity in Fore and other Papuan languages 167-175 OTTO NEKITEL A sketch of nominal concord in Abu ' (an Arapesh language) 177-205 S.A. WURM Grammatical decay in papuan languages 207-211 L.R. GOLDMAN The presentational style of women in Huli disputes 213-289 J.S. FINGLETON Tolai kinship concepts : correspondence between Kuanua and Tok Pisin terminology 291-312 iii INTRODUCTORY NOTE Several of the papers in the volume were presented at the 15th Pacific Science Congress , Dunedin , in February 1983 . They are those by Don Laycock , Les Bruce , Michael Chlenov , Stephen Wurm, Graham Scott and walter Seiler . They have been teamed with others offered recently for publication to form a broad general overview of linguistic work in progress in the New Guinea area. Contributions to this series are always welcome . iv Laycock, D., Seiler, W., Bruce, L., Chlenov, M., Shaw, R.D., Holzknecht, S., Scott, G., Nekitel, O., Wurm, S.A., Goldman, L. and Fingleton, J. editors. Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 24. A-70, iv + 316 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1986. DOI:10.15144/PL-A70.cover ©1986 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. PAPUAN LANGUAGES AND THE POSSIBILITY OF SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION D.C. Laycock Languages may be compared , and hence classified , by any of the features that go to make up a language . Traditionally , genetic classification - or subgrouping - has in recent years been based solely on shared lexicon , with the additional refinement of shared innovative or retentive features in the phonology. Comparison of purely phonological features has been largely confined to discus­ sion of diffusion in areal linguistics (the presence of palatals in Rumanian , for instance , or of tone in south-east Asia) , or else has formed part of 'typological' comparison of languages, which aims at establishing linguistic universals and implicational hierarchies . Typological comparison is usually based on syntactic features . The one element of language that has been almost totally ignored for comparative purposes would therefore seem to be semantics . Semantic 'features ' of a language can be hard to define , for the purposes of comparison . There is a grey area where semantics overlaps into syntax , or even morphology . If a language has a noun-classification system , for instance , do we want to call this a syntactic feature , or a semantic feature? Existential verbs pose the same problem, and even a syntactic category like switch reference is concerned with meaning (or at least with pragmatics) . I think a reasonable approach would be to regard the collective meanings of each of the noun-classes in a language as a semantic feature , but the ex istence of a class-system, and the entire morphosyntactic system of cross-reference , I would call syntactic . Similarly with existential verbs : the presence of ex istential verbs is a syntactic feature , but the specification of which verbs go with which nouns is a semantic feature. Semantic features in the lexicon are however more easily recognised . This paper examines an area of the lexicon that I have called 'semantic conflations ' - that is , the possibility of using the same 'word ' (or lexical item) to refer to two quite distinct concepts. The question of 'distinct concepts ' is, I hope , not too ethnocentrically biased . We tend to recognise distinct concepts only when we have distinct words for them . To us, a 'fish ' is a 'fish' , but to a speaker of the Buin language of south Bougainville , the creature is either a 'freshwater fish ' (topi) or a 'marine fish ' (iiana) . 'Finger ' and 'toe ' are not necessarily distinct concepts just because English happens to distinguish them ; many languages in the wor ld do not . English also conflates 'father 's sister ' and 'mother 's sister ' into 'aunt ', a conflation unthinkable in most , if not all , Pacific languages. The position taken here is that concepts are different if any language distinguishes them. Papers in New Guinea linguistics No .24, 1-10. Pacific Linguistics , A-70, 1986 . © D.C. Laycock . 1 Laycock, D.C. "Papuan languages and the possibility of semantic classification". In Laycock, D., Seiler, W., Bruce, L., Chlenov, M., Shaw, R.D., Holzknecht, S., Scott, G., Nekitel, O., Wurm, S.A., Goldman, L. and Fingleton, J. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 24. A-70:1-10. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1986. DOI:10.15144/PL-A70.1 ©1986 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 D.C. LAYCOCK There is of course no argument about many of the conflations . There is surely a very real difference between 'head hair ' and 'leaf' , or between 'tree ' and 'fire ' - but these are common conflations in Papuan languages. Conflation of two concepts into a single lexical item does not of course mean that speakers of the language are incapable of distinguishing the concepts. Sometimes a modifier may be added , in the way that we distingu ish 'head hair ' from 'body hair' . Or the conflation may exist alongside lexical items that distinguish the concepts. For instance , English may in many instances use the word 'hair ' in speaking of animals ('the cat's hair is falling out' , 'the possum does not have much hair on its tail ') - but there also ex ists the separate lexical item 'fur' , specifically for the 'body hair ' of most mammals . Initially , pr incipal conflations in Papuan - and other Pacific languages were identified from a number of sources. Many derive from the author 's col­ lecting of wordlists in over 200 languages over a period of more than 20 years. Some can be found in dictionaries and grammars, and some were suggested by colleagues. Clues to possible conflations are also provided by examination of semantic shifts between related languages; thUS , in many languages of the Sepik­ Ramu Phylum (SERP) , the word for 'bird ' in some languages is cognate with the word for 'cassowary ' in others. I wou ld argue that this points to the conflation of 'bird' and 'cassowary ' at some stage in the history of the languages involved . Similar shifts have been observed between 'dog ' and 'pig' , and between 'sun ' and 'moon' , although the phenomenon of 'cognacy between opposites ', as discussed by O'Grady (1979) for Australian Aboriginal languages, has not yet been observed to any large extent in the New Guinea area .