The making of the Kiriwina to English dictionary Ralph Stanley Lawton A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University July 2012 I hereby certify that this thesis “The making of the Kiriwina to English dictionary” is my own work, and that all sources used have been acknowledged. ............................................... (Ralph S. Lawton) 18 July, 2012 Abstract This thesis describes the making of the Kiriwina to English dictionary and its structure and content. The dictionary, which presently exists as a computer file containing some 20,000 entries, was compiled over several decades and is the most comprehensive for Kiriwina yet written. There are seven chapters. In the first chapter, after introducing the Kiriwina people’s land, language and culture, I give an account of past research into their language. Chapter 2 sketches Kiriwina phonology, and sets out the orthography. Chapter 3 provides a fairly detailed grammar sketch, including an account of the various grammatical categories which appear in dictionary entries and which are integral to the organisation of entries and subentries. The balance of the thesis treats theoretical and especially practical problems encountered in the making of the dictionary. Chapter 4 outlines the history of the project, including my personal history and place in the Kiriwina community in the work of Bible translation. Particular attention is paid to the selection of the Kavataria dialect of Kiriwina as the language documented in the dictionary, and to the level of indigenous participation in this dialect choice. Expected main users of the dictionary are identified. The methods of fieldwork and data collection employed in compilation are detailed, together with the reasons for excluding certain classes of words, such as most proper nouns. Various technical problems encountered in making the dictionary are noted; many of these are elaborated on in later chapters. The remaining three chapters deal with the actual content and organisation of the dictionary. Chapter 5 describes the various types of entries and the ordering of data within entries. The concept of a family of lexemes, related by virtue of sharing one particular lexeme as a primary constituent, is an important feature of the organisation of this dictionary. Chapter 6 defines the key notion of ‘lexical unit’ or ‘sense unit’ as opposed to ‘lexeme’ (a headword which may consist of many sense units) and outlines the iv Abstract of thesis criteria used to identify lexicalised multi-morphemic words and multiword expressions. Finally, chapter 7 treats semantic relations between lexical units such as synonymy, antonymy, and inclusion, and the ways these relations are recorded in dictionary entries. Index of CONTENTS Contents of chapters in detail vi Tables, figures and maps xiii Acknowledgements xv List of symbols and abbreviations xvii Ch 1 Introduction 1 Ch 2 Phonology and orthography 24 Ch 3 Grammar 73 Ch 4 Planning and compiling the dictionary 238 Ch 5 Organisation of the dictionary 262 Ch 6 Identifying headwords for the dictionary 311 Ch 7 Lexical relations 358 References 429 CONTENTS of Chapters in detail Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 The aims and organisation of the thesis 1 1.2 Kiriwina - land, language and culture 2 1.2.1 Kiriwina Island 2 1.2.2 Kiriwina language and the Austronesian family 3 1.2.3 The dialects of Kiriwina 4 1.2.4 The Kiriwina community 7 1.3 Research on Kiriwina culture 11 1.3.1 Ethnographic research 11 1.3.2 Linguistic research 13 1.3.3 Survey of existing dictionaries of Kiriwina 19 Chapter 2 Phonology and orthography 2.1 Introduction 24 2.2 The phoneme inventory of Kiriwina 24 2.2.1 The phonemes 24 2.2.2 Phonetic attributes of the phonemes 25 2.2.3 Four allophones 29 2.2.4 Vocalic variations across dialect boundaries 30 2.2.5 Consonantal fluctuation – /l/ and /n/, /l/ and /r/ 30 2.3 The syllable 31 2.3.1 Two types of syllables 31 2.3.2 The syllable (C)V(m) 31 2.3.3 The diphthong examined 32 2.3.4 The syllabic nasal 36 2.4 Phonotactics 37 2.4.1 Phonetic restrictions on syllable structures 37 2.4.2 Dominant /m/ and lenis /v/ 38 2.4.3 Consonantal and syllabic /m/ 38 2.4.4 Two syllable final /m/ forms 39 2.4.5 The /ka/ syllable and epenthesis 40 Contents vii 2.5 The phonological word and its boundaries 41 2.5.1 Word stress rules 42 2.5.2 Secondary stress 46 2.5.3 When is stress placement shown? 47 2.5.4 Vocalic changes further from primary stress 48 2.5.5 Paralinguistic components and stress 49 2.6 On morphophonemics 52 2.6.1 Changes within the verb stem 52 2.6.2 Two verb stem suffixes 54 2.6.3 The verb stem with mood marker or pronominal object 56 2.6.4 Morphophonemics in the noun phrase 58 2.7 Concerns of Kiriwina orthography 61 2.7.1 Syllable devoicing 61 2.7.2 Vowel harmony 62 2.7.3 Vowel clusters and syllable boundaries 63 2.7.4 Other phonetic features 66 2.7.5 A practical orthography 67 Chapter 3 Grammar 3.1 Introduction 73 3.1.1 The parts of speech 74 3.2 Sentences 75 3.2.1 Simple sentences 76 3.2.2 Compound sentences 87 3.2.3 Complex sentences 91 3.2.4 Sentence level components 97 3.3 Verbs . 103 3.3.1 The four verb classes 103 3.3.2 Serial verb constructions 113 3.3.3 Derived verb forms 121 3.3.4 Stative order VS becomes derived SV order 128 viii Contents 3.4 The verbal complex 129 3.4.1 The verb stem and its affixes 129 3.4.2 Verbs with subject and object affixes 130 3.4.3 The verbal mood-aspect markers 135 3.4.4 Ambiguity in verbs with plural markers 137 3.4.5 Two other classes of verbal suffix 139 3.4.6 Verb stems 141 3.5 Verb phrases 146 3.5.1 Composition of verb phrases 146 3.5.2 First type – the declarative verb phrase 146 3.5.3 Second type – the prohibitive verb phrase 155 3.5.4 Third type – the stative verb phrase 156 3.6 Nominal constructions – nouns, pronouns and possessives 159 3.6.1 Nouns a major word type 159 3.6.2 The three possession-based classes of nouns 161 3.6.3 Personal pronoun possessives 169 3.6.4 Formation of nouns derived and compounded 181 3.7 Noun phrases 185 3.7.1 An outline of noun phrase structure 185 3.7.2 Classifiers in the noun phrase 186 3.7.3 How classifiers set up semantic domains 187 3.7.4 Classifiers as core of noun modifiers 195 3.7.5 Other uses of classifiers 205 3.7.6 Classifiers a major word class 209 3.8 Other components of the noun phrase 210 3.8.1 Personal pronouns 210 3.8.2 Adverbs 213 3.8.3 Prepositional phrases 214 3.8.4 Locative phrases 215 3.8.5 Temporal phrases 220 3.8.6 Comitative phrases 222 3.8.7 Reciprocals 226 Contents ix 3.9 SVO and foregrounding 227 3.9.1 Regular SVO constituent order 227 3.9.2 Constituent re-ordering 231 3.9.3 Ellipsis aids foregrounding 236 Chapter 4 Planning and compiling the dictionary 4.1 Introduction 238 4.2 How I came to live and work in Kiriwina 239 4.3 Beginning a dictionary 241 4.4 Bible translation and growth of a lexicon 245 4.4.1 Translation work begins, 1962–1972 246 4.4.2 Translation of New Testament completed, 1973–1981 247 4.4.3 Completion of Old Testament translation, 1982–2004 248 4.5 Choice of a dialect for Bible and dictionary 251 4.6 Headwords for the Kiriwina dictionary 253 4.6.1 Beginning a lexicon 253 4.6.2 The sources of headwords 254 4.6.3 Collecting speech and authenticating words 256 4.6.4 Lexemes not included as headwords 258 4.7 The dictionary produced by these means 260 4.8 Who will use this dictionary 260 Chapter 5 Organisation of the dictionary 5.1 The arrangement of data in the dictionary 262 5.2 Front and back matter of the dictionary 263 5.2.1 The front matter of the dictionary 263 5.2.2 What is appended to the dictionary 264 x Contents 5.3 The central list 267 5.3.1 What the central list contains 267 5.3.2 Alphabetical order of headwords 268 5.3.3 The finder-list 274 5.3.4 The structure of entries 275 5.3.5 The entry types 277 5.3.6 Features shared by all entry types 279 5.4 Main entries 280 5.4.1 An example of a main entry 280 5.4.2 The structure of main entries 282 5.4.3 The comment on form 282 5.4.4 The comment on meaning 288 5.4.5 The lexical family 295 5.5 Cross-reference entries 302 5.5.1 Headwords of cross-reference entries 302 5.5.2 A cross-reference entry for a simple lexeme 302 5.5.3 A cross-reference entry for a complex lexeme 303 5.5.4 Other lexemes in a cross-reference entry 304 5.6 Combining form entries 305 5.6.1 Combining form entries in SOED 305 5.6.2 Headwords of combining form entries 305 5.6.3 An example of a combining form entry 306 5.6.4 Compounds grouped by combining forms 306 5.6.5 The structure of combining form entries 307 5.7 Classifier entries 307 5.7.1 Classifiers and their domains 307 5.7.2 Classifiers function as semantic links 308 Contents xi Chapter 6 Identifying headwords for the dictionary 6.1 Introduction 311 6.1.1 What counts as a lexeme? 311 6.1.2 Grammarians’ lexemes 311 6.1.3 Lexicographers’ lexemes 313 6.1.4 Lexicalisation as a matter of degree 315 6.2 The structural types of headwords 317 6.3 Multimorphemic lexemes 317 6.3.1 Two main types 317 6.3.2 Derived words 318 6.3.3 Compound words 321 6.4 Phrasal idioms as lexemes 331 6.4.1 Introduction 331 6.4.2 Phrasal idioms 332 6.5 Multiword conventional expressions that are not idioms 346 6.5.1 Introduction 346 6.5.2 Examples of speech formulas 347 6.5.3 Fixed word order a feature of speech formulas 350 6.5.4 Place of conventional expressions in dictionary 356 6.6 Formulaic sequences larger than a sentence 356 Chapter 7 Lexical relations 7.1 Introduction 358 7.2 The units of lexical semantics 358 7.2.1 Lexical units and lexemes 358 7.2.2 Lexical units and