Data Papers on Papua New Guinea Languages Volume 51 Vitu Grammar Sketch René van den Berg and Peter Bachet 2006 Summer Institute of Linguistics Ukarumpa, EHP Papers in the series Data Papers on Papua New Guinea Languages express the authors’ knowledge at the time of writing. They normally do not provide a comprehensive treatment of the topic and may contain analyses which will be modified at a later stage. However, given the large number of undescribed languages in Papua New Guinea, SIL-PNG feels that it is appropriate to make these research results available at this time. René van den Berg, Series Editor Copyright © 2006 Summer Institute of Linguistics Papua New Guinea [email protected] Published 2006 Printed by SIL Printing Press Ukarumpa, EHP Papua New Guinea ISBN 9980-0-3207-3 Table of Contents Abbreviations .......................................................................................................... viii Maps............................................................................................................................ix 1. Introduction.............................................................................................................1 1.1 Location and speakers......................................................................................1 1.2 Language name ................................................................................................1 1.3 Affiliation and earlier studies...........................................................................2 1.4 Dialects ............................................................................................................3 1.5 Language use and bilingualism........................................................................3 1.6 Use of the language in writing.........................................................................4 1.7 Vitu culture ......................................................................................................5 1.8 Main typological features ................................................................................6 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................7 2. Phonology ................................................................................................................8 2.1 Phonemes and allophonic variation .................................................................8 2.2 Orthography...................................................................................................10 2.3 Stress ............................................................................................................10 2.4 Syllable patterns and root structure................................................................12 2.5 Vowel sequences............................................................................................13 2.6 Morphophonemics .........................................................................................15 2.7 Reduplication.................................................................................................17 2.8 Loan phonology .............................................................................................19 3. Nouns and noun phrases ......................................................................................21 3.1 Pronouns ........................................................................................................21 3.2 Noun classes: an overview.............................................................................22 3.2.1 Alienable and inalienable nouns ..................................................... 24 3.2.2 Proper nouns and common nouns .......................................................27 3.3 Complex nouns ..............................................................................................30 3.3.1 Prefixation...........................................................................................30 3.3.2 Suffixation...........................................................................................30 3.3.3 Reduplication ......................................................................................32 3.3.4 Compounding......................................................................................33 3.4 Articles...........................................................................................................33 3.4.1 The proper article a.............................................................................33 3.4.2 The common article na .......................................................................35 iii iv 3.5 Demonstratives ..............................................................................................36 3.5.1 kua.......................................................................................................36 3.5.2 kena.....................................................................................................38 3.5.3 kuari ....................................................................................................40 3.6. Numerals and quantifiers ...............................................................................41 3.6.1 Numerals.............................................................................................41 3.6.2 Quantifiers...........................................................................................44 3.7 Adjectives ......................................................................................................46 3.7.1 Simple adjectives ................................................................................47 3.7.2 Derived adjectives...............................................................................49 3.8 Possession ......................................................................................................52 3.8.1 Direct possession ................................................................................53 3.8.2 Indirect possession: general classifier ka-...........................................57 3.8.3 Indirect possession: food classifier ha-...............................................60 3.8.4 Benefactive possession .......................................................................62 3.9 NP structure...................................................................................................63 3.9.1 NPs with nominal heads......................................................................63 3.9.2 Other heads .........................................................................................65 3.9.3 Apposition and coordination...............................................................66 4. Verbs......................................................................................................................69 4.1 Intransitive verbs............................................................................................69 4.2 Transitive verbs..............................................................................................70 4.2.1 Object inflection..................................................................................70 4.2.2 Classes of transitive verbs...................................................................71 4.2.3 Transitive verb forms and root forms .................................................74 4.3 Experiencer verbs ..........................................................................................77 4.4 Derived verbs.................................................................................................78 4.4.1 Verbs with the prefix va- ....................................................................78 4.4.2 Verbs with the prefix vari-..................................................................80 4.4.3 Verbs with the prefix vai- ...................................................................82 4.4.4 Verbs with the prefix di- .....................................................................83 4.4.5 Passive verbs.......................................................................................84 4.5 Reduplication.................................................................................................86 4.6 Verbal compounds .........................................................................................90 5. Aspect-mood-sequentiality...................................................................................97 5.1 Introduction....................................................................................................97 v 5.2 The realis markers ta, tu, e.............................................................................99 5.3 The irrealis markers na, nu, ni .....................................................................100 5.4 The perfect markers te, tu, ti ........................................................................104 5.5 The continuity markers ka, ku, ki.................................................................108 5.6 The sequentiality markers kene, kunu, kini..................................................112 5.7 The purpose markers kata, koto ~ kutu, kete ~ kiti ......................................115 5.8 The indefinite future markers da, data, datu and dati .................................118 5.9 The imminent future markers katane ~ keteni, kotonu and keteni ~ kitini...122 5.10 Summary......................................................................................................123 6. The prepositional phrase....................................................................................125