A grammar of Savosavo, a Papuan language of the Solomon Islands © 2008, Claudia Wegener Cover drawing: ‘Mapagha zeva kabughue’, © 2008, Edmond Gagavo Cover design: Ponsen & Looijen bv, Wageningen A Typeset with LTEX Printed and bound by Ponsen & Looijen bv, Wageningen A grammar of Savosavo, a Papuan language of the Solomon Islands Een wetenschappelijke proeve op het gebied van Letteren Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. mr. S.C.J.J. Kortmann, volgens besluit van het College van Decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op maandag 15 december 2008 om 10.30 uur precies door Claudia Ursula Wegener geboren op 6 september 1976 te Detmold (Duitsland) Promotores: Prof. dr. Stephen C. Levinson Prof. dr. Ulrike Mosel (Christian-Albrechts-Universit¨at zu Kiel) Copromotor: Dr. Michael Dunn (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen) Manuscriptcommissie: Prof. dr. Leon Stassen Prof. dr. Bernard Comrie (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig) Prof. dr. Greville G. Corbett (University of Surrey, Guildford) The research reported in this thesis was supported by a grant from the Max-Planck- Gesellschaft zur F¨orderung der Wissenschaften, M¨unchen, Germany. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank the people of Savo Island, who generously allowed me to be part of their lives and shared their language with me. I am very grateful to my Savo family: My parents James Pulusala and Georgina Gelina, my brothers and sisters James Jr., Carol, Anna, Stephanie and Felix, and kukua Rosby, Irine Sinogo and John Itoro Patteson. My father James helped me tremendously, not just by giving me very valuable advice in all kinds of situations, but also by providing some of the data, and convincing other people to contribute data, and by working with me on transcriptions and in elicitation sessions. Unfortunately, he was absent in 2004 and 2005 to work on a fishing boat. My initial fears that I might have to stay somewhere else because of this proved to be totally unfounded - it was a matter of course for Georgina that I would stay with them, and she did a wonderful job in looking after me. Ite sue, none aiva edo sua mamae no na - ngai toa ngoini seranighue! During the time of my father’s absence, Joel Sasapa Viriala took over the task of working with me, and his curiosity, his interest in his own languages and his incredible patience and perseverance in elicitation sessions have made working with him a great pleasure. I would like to thank the Savo Ghizi Kato House of Chiefs for supporting my work, especially the chairman Sir Allan Kemakeza. I also have to thank a number of other families on Savo who I had the chance to stay with for some time over the years: Wilson Sungi and his wife, where I stayed my first two nights ever on Savo Island; Theresa Sipa, Francis Moore and their family, especially Chief Vana; Claudette Vangere, Juvence Selevale and their family, especially their daughter Janet, who became a good friend of mine; Ben Duva, his wife Jennifer and their family, especially their daughter Anna Ghuala and her husband John Selo, who safely led me into the crater and back again; my friend Gloria Pepa with her husband Collin and their family; Raphael Rasa, his wife Jennifer and their family; and Chief Anthony Pisupisu, his wife Madeleine Vinabu and their family. In Honiara, I would like to thank Anne Sade and her family for their friendship, and Hazelyn at the King Solomon Hotel for helping me to find a good doctor. As for my supervisors, I would like to thank Stephen Levinson, for offering me a PhD position at the MPI in Nijmegen although I had never been to a third-world country before, and for providing a stimulating and challenging work environment. Many heartfelt thanks to Ulrike Mosel for her support and understanding in all situations. Her enthusiasm for linguistics and fieldwork, her pragmatic mind and her gift to fully immerse herself in a linguistic text and linguistic data have never ceased to amaze me, and were invaluable in vii keeping me going through hard times. Angela Terrill supervised me during the first year of my PhD, and I am very grateful to her for her guidance during that time, including (but of course not limited to) advice on what to take and not to take on fieldwork (but I still take a scarf with me every time I go). Michael Dunn supervised me during the rest of my PhD time, and provided many a helpful comment and beautiful maps up to the very end. He was also the one who gave me my first Solomon Islands Pijin lessons and helped me set up my field site, together with Robert Foley and Marta Mirazon-Lahr. I really appreciated their support during my first week in Honiara and my first days on Savo. Many thanks also to Ger Reesink, who was always happy to discuss my data and had many helpful comments. In my work, I have benefitted a lot from helpful comments on conference presentations or in discussions, in particular from participants of the COOL 6 in Port Vila, Vanuatu, the ALL 2 in Oxford, UK, the COOL 7 in Noum´ea, New Caledonia, the ALT 7 in Paris, France, and from colleagues attending various talks given at the University of Kiel and the MPI in Nijmegen. I would like to thank Peter Austin, Isabelle Bril, Greville Corbett, Bethwyn Evans, Carol Genetti, Robin Hooper, Edvard Hviding, Eva Lindstr¨om, Pete Lincoln, John Lynch, Claire Moyse-Faurie, Anna Margetts, Andrew Pawley, Fran¸coise Rose, Malcolm Ross and Nick Thieberger, and especially Nick Evans, Alexandre Fran¸cois, Geoffrey Haig, Even Hovdhaugen, Ashild˚ Næss and Bill Palmer. Many thanks to Bernard Comrie for very helpful comments, and to Alex Fran¸cois for the overview map. Finally, I am grateful to Evelyn Todd, for generously sharing some of her data and insights with me, and I am very sorry that I didn’t get the chance to meet her in person. I would also like to thank Prof. Christian Lehmann. My decision to study linguistics and to do fieldwork in remote areas of the world was taken in a flash. Curious about what linguistics was, I had ambled into Prof. Finke’s introduction to linguistics at the University of Bielefeld, and on that very day there was a five-minute talk about linguistic fieldwork in Mexico in the middle of it, given by Prof. Lehmann. I went to enroll right after the course. I am also very grateful to Gunter Senft, who supported and encouraged me during the last years of my studies in Bielefeld, and all through the PhD period. I am also very grateful to Prof. Dieter Metzing, for employing me after my M.A., and especially for letting me go. In Nijmegen, I would like to thank Birgit Hellwig and Friederike L¨upke for putting me up during a number of visits in the early days. Thanks also to Jidong Chen for being a great housemate for my first few months in Nijmegen, and to my other fellow PhDs, then and now. A big thank you goes especially to Gaby Cablitz, Birgit Hellwig, Gertie Hoymann, Loretta O’Connor, Stuart Robinson, and Hulya Sahin, who became really good friends over the years. Stuart and Rupe, thanks for the wonderful pizza-and-CSI-evenings! At the institute, I would also like to thank Edith for her support through occasional emergencies and stressful periods. Jan Achterberg drove me to the airport several times on my way to the field, and picked me up when I came back, and he was always cheerful and viii just really, really nice - Hartelijk bedankt! Thanks also to the administration and to the technical group, in particular to Rick van Viersen, Alex Dukers and Ad Verbunt. Outside of the institute, I am very grateful that I had the chance to be part of the Kendoverein Kevelaer. It was wonderful and tremendously beneficial to my mental health to be able to forget all about my work for a few hours. Many thanks to Herbert and Elke C¨urvers, Norman Tannemann, Sebastian Lasczok, Andreas Krause and Patrick Hilgers - Domo arigato gozaimasu! After my three years in Nijmegen, I found a wonderful home at the Karl-Franzens- Universit¨at Graz. I would like to thank Eva Schultze-Berndt and Bernhard Hurch for giving me the opportunity to work there. Eva, thanks also for helping me to settle in, sharing your apartment and your piano with me, helping me to move into an apartment on the fourth floor (not a small task!), lovely dinners and being a great boss and friend! Thanks also to Felicity Meakins, who was my officemate for a few months, and also became a very good friend. I would like to thank my colleagues in Graz, especially Dieter Hallwachs and Veronika Mattes, and the students who attended my classes, and sometimes challenged me with very tricky questions. That my time in Graz will always be a wonderful memory is also due to my friends Bettina Kluge and Alexandra Slattenschek. Thanks also to Bertrand, Marietta and the other regulars in the university sports group. Bertrand was the first to ever send me a text message in Savosavo - many thanks for that! I would also like to thank my fellow kendoka at the Mumonkan Kendo-Verein Graz, especially Ian and Monika, Klaus, Georg, Franz, Kaori and Daisuke - Domo arigato gozaimasu to you as well! After spending one year and a half in Graz, I came back to Nijmegen for six months.