BARDI VERB MORPHOLOGY IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE A thesis presented by Claire Louise Bowern to The Department of Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Linguistics Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May, 2004 c 2004— Claire Louise Bowern All Rights Reserved Abstract This dissertation is an investigation into the structure of verbal predicates in Bardi, a Nyul- nyulan language from the North-Western Australian coast. I examine possible synchronic analyses and reconstruct the history of the systems between Proto-Nyulnyulan and the modern attested languages. There has been very little previous work on the history of com- plex predicates, and no detailed historical reconstruction for the Nyulnyulan family. The results presented here are a significant contribution to a topic in linguistics that it has only recently become possible to research. My analysis of Nyulnyulan verbal morphology and predicate formation is both syn- chronic and diachronic. I give an analysis of the structure of verbal predicates in the modern languages, and present reconstructions to show how they have changed over time. Synchronically, I address issues in the analysis of predicate structure that rely on funda- mental assumptions about the nature of generative grammar. I also highlight the some of the many intriguing diachronic problems in the Nyulnyulan languages. Why, for example, should so few inflecting verb roots be cognate between Eastern and Western Nyulnyulan when the lexicon as a whole is very similar? I present the first reconstruction of the Proto- Nyulnyulan verbal system and show in detail what changes Bardi has undergone. I place this analysis in the context of current theoretical research on complex predicates. iii Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgments viii Map of the Western Kimberley xi Abbreviations xii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Scope of topic . 1 1.2 The Nyulnyulan family . 4 1.3 Historical linguistics in the Kimberley . 18 2 Bardi Grammar Sketch 22 2.1 Introduction . 22 2.2 Typology of Nyulnyulan languages . 22 2.3 Word Classes . 26 2.4 Morphology . 30 2.5 Pronouns and demonstratives . 38 2.6 Predicate formation . 44 2.7 Clausal syntax . 49 iv 3 Historical and Synchronic (Morpho-)Phonology 59 3.1 Phonemes . 60 3.2 Phonotactics . 72 3.3 Morphophonology — affixal interaction . 77 3.4 Stress . 87 3.5 Historical phonology . 88 3.6 Loan phonology . 96 4 Overview of Predicate Structure 98 4.1 Introduction: Nyulnyulan verbs . 99 4.2 Overview of the Bardi system . 100 4.3 Previous analyses of Bardi verb morphology . 108 4.4 Other Nyulnyulan languages . 116 4.5 Summary . 131 5 Inflecting Root Structure and Etymology 132 5.1 Introduction . 132 5.2 Types of roots . 133 5.3 Irregular roots . 147 5.4 Reduplication . 148 5.5 Inflecting verb roots in the lexicon . 155 5.6 Composition of verb roots . 158 5.7 Reconstructing morphosyntax . 169 5.8 Summary and conclusions . 175 6 Agreement Morphology 177 6.1 Introduction . 177 v 6.2 Subject agreement . 178 6.3 Direct object agreement . 189 6.4 Oblique pronouns and agreement . 201 6.5 Gerunds . 205 7 Tense, Aspect and Mood Marking 210 7.1 The tense marking system . 210 7.2 Tense and mood prefixation . 211 7.3 Tense/aspect suffixation . 216 8 Valency and Transitivity 229 8.1 Reflexives and reciprocals . 230 8.2 Applicatives . 237 9 Preverbs and Complex Predicates 247 9.1 Introduction . 247 9.2 Theoretical analysis . 249 9.3 Previous treatments of Australian languages . 266 9.4 Formal tests for complex predicate status in Bardi . 274 9.5 Syntax of Bardi complex predicates . 285 9.6 Analysis and typology of complex predicates . 296 9.7 The adicity problem . 303 9.8 Bardi complex predicates: semantics of event classification . 307 9.9 Comparison with other Nyulnyulan languages . 332 9.10 Reconstruction of the system . 340 A Prefix Tables 345 vi B Light Verbs 348 C Simplex Roots Reconstructible to Proto-Nyulnyulan 350 D Complex Root Etymologies 357 D.1 *-ga- ‘carry’ . 357 D.2 *-bu- ‘hit’ . 358 D.3 *-ma- ‘put’ . 358 D.4 *-ra- ‘spear’ . 359 D.5 *-nya- ‘catch’ . 359 D.6 Other . 360 E Reconstructions of Preverbs 363 E.1 Reconstructed as Proto-Nyulnyulan preverbs . 363 E.2 Reconstructed as Proto-Eastern Nyulnyulan preverbs . 370 E.3 Reconstructed as Proto-Western Nyulnyulan preverbs . 371 References 375 Index 388 vii Acknowledgments First things first: This dissertation quite literally would not have been written without Nancy Isaac, Jessie Sampi and Bessie Ejai. They (along with the late L.S. and D.W.) pro- vided almost all the data for the published Bardi dictionary, and worked tirelessly checking the supplement, proofing the texts and cheerfully having weird data elicited from them. They also looked after me in the community and were happy to spend time with me when we weren’t working (hence the number of example sentences involving fishing). Jimmy Ejai and Maggie Davey also shared many things with me. A number of other Bardi speakers, now deceased, generously spent time with me. I am very grateful to have had so many won- derful teachers and role models, and I hope that by writing down the words and stories, as well as “making Bardi a real language, just like French” by writing about Bardi grammar, I have repaid some of the enormous debt I owe. Thanks also to the One Arm Point community and the Bardi Aborigines Association (and its Chairs and Administrators) for permission to work on the Bardi language. The Kimberley Language Resource Centre in Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing provided logisti- cal support and administered my grants from AIATSIS. Thanks to Edgar Price in particular. Thanks also to Lucy Marshall, Maudie Lennard, June Oscar, Patsy Bedford, Mona Oscar and the old men from Fitzroy Crossing (now passed away) who welcomed me to their coun- try and showed me around. While in Broome Joyce Hudson and Joe Blythe very kindly let me stay (and even better didn’t mind me leaving at 4am). viii Another person without whom this thesis could not have been written is Gedda Aklif. She very generously provided me with all her field notes, drafts, and dictionary elicitation tapes, which were invaluable and made my own fieldwork much more focused. She also gave me advice while in the field and by her own high standards of ethics in fieldwork made it much easier for me to work there than it would have otherwise been. I am very grateful for the chance to have talked about the many puzzling aspects of Bardi grammar with her. The library and access staff at AIATSIS were helpful in accommodating my schedule and requests; thanks in particular to Grace, Barry, Caroline and Eleanor. My fieldwork was funded from two grants from AIATSIS: G2001/6505 ‘Recording Bardi social history’ and G2003/6761 ‘Bardi grammar research’ and I gratefully acknowledge this assistance. I have relied on unpublished data for many languages. Special thanks to Bill McGregor for access to his data on Warrwa, Nyulnyul and various Worrorran languages; to Heather Jenkins for permission to view her father Howard H.J. Coate’s work on Yawijibaya, Umiida and Unggarrangg; Peter Bindon for access to Anthony Peile’s Jabirr-Jabirr and Nimanburru notes and tapes; Diane Appleby and her mother, Doris Edgar, for an advance copy of the audio CD accompanying Yawuru Ngan-ga. Joe Blythe helped me with the Jaru and Kija data. Thanks also to Bronwyn Stokes (and Andrea) for interesting correspondence and conversations in Broome about Nyikina verb semantics. Naturally, all errors of fact and interpretation are mine, not theirs. I have discussed numerous aspects of this dissertation with various people at various times. In particular I would like to thank Barry Alpher, Avery Andrews, G¨ul¸satAygen, Cedric Boeckx, Miriam Butt, Alan Dench, Alice Harris, Joyce Hudson, Bill McGregor, Toby (C.D.) Metcalfe, David Nash, Gabriel Poliquin, Conor Quinn, Vieri Samek-Lodovici, Eva Schulze-Berndt, Jane Simpson and Jie Zhang. The work of Eva Schulze-Berndt, especially Schultze-Berndt (2000), helped me refine my views of Bardi and gave me many ideas for ix paths of investigation. I owe a special debt to the late Ken Hale, for his encouragement and example of meticulous work in combining theory and field work on Australian languages. I am very grateful to my committee, Jay Jasanoff, Harold Koch and Susumu Kuno, for their time, patience and guidance. Actually, more than grateful, especially to my kinalno ostry advisor Jay. I apologize that my example sentences contain neither marsupials nor tuataras, a defect I hope to rectify in future research. My parents have cheerfully served as the “interface” between me and various aspects of the real world on more occasions than I like to admit, especially when I was 250km down a dirt road with no internet and dodgy power, but also when I was in Boston with neither of the previous excuses! And, in the Bardi discourse position for important topicalized information, thanks (and more) to William, for turning my complex predicates into complex ungulates, and for all the rest. Note At the time of writing this dissertation, a Native Title claim was in progress over Bardi and Jawi country and the surrounding sea (claim number WAG 49/98). I have had no access to material used in the land claim and my work has not formed part of the evidence submitted to the Court. While working on Bardi, particularly on the older materials, I have come across a great deal of materials which involves ceremonial language and which is gender-restricted. None of this material is included here. At the request of Bardi elders, I have written the names of speakers now deceased in citation of examples.