ResearchOnline@JCU This file is part of the following reference: Schokkin, Gerda Hendrike (2014) A grammar of Paluai: the language of Balluan Island, Papua New Guinea. PhD thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/28026/ The author has certified to JCU that they have made a reasonable effort to gain permission and acknowledge the owner of any third party copyright material included in this document. If you believe that this is not the case, please contact [email protected] and quote http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/28026/ A Grammar of Paluai The Language of Baluan Island, Papua New Guinea by Gerda Hendrike Schokkin, MA A thesis submitted to James Cook University, Cairns in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Arts and Social Sciences – James Cook University February 2014 Every reasonable effort has been made to gain permission and acknowledge the owners of copyright material. I would be pleased to hear from any copyright owner who has been omitted or incorrectly acknowledged. The research presented and reported in this thesis was conducted in accordance with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research, 2007. The proposed research study received human research ethics approval from the JCU Human Research Ethics Committee Approval Number H3858. Statement of Authorship Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma. No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis. The thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution. Gerda Hendrike Schokkin ii Acknowledgements Doing a PhD involves a long journey. Already during my first year, I often thought, “I should not forget to mention this or that person in my acknowledgements,” and finishing up seemed so incredibly far away, and I was afraid I would forget all about it. So maybe I will have forgotten someone in this section, and if this is the case, I sincerely apologise for this unintended omission. First of all, I want to thank my supervisory committee: Sasha Aikhenvald, Bob Dixon and Ton Otto. I am incredibly grateful for the support and feedback I received during my PhD. When I still was undecided about which language I wanted to study, Ton suggested I could go to Baluan Island. I have never regretted following his suggestion for a second. It proved immensely valuable to have an anthropologist, who is familiar with the field location and could introduce me to key people, on my supervisory team. Sasha was always on top of things, ready to give feedback on chapters and support with any issue imaginable at all times. I also greatly enjoyed the weekly round table meetings; it is wonderful to have a closely-knit community of linguists so near. I furthermore would like to thank Sasha and Bob for funding part of my fieldwork through their competitive grants. Additional funding was provided by the Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research, James Cook University (based on the JCU Minimum Standard of Resources policy), and a JCU Graduate Research Scheme grant, for which I am also tremendously grateful. Secondly, I wish to thank all the people that have made the logistical and practical side of fieldwork run smoothly. Thanks to Baluan community members Keket Maluan, Sapulai Papi and Lorat Molean who provided the Manus Provincial Government with a letter of invitation, the research visa application proceeded swiftly. I would like to thank the Manus Provincial Government for granting permission to carry out my fieldwork, and Jim Robbins of the National Research Institute of Papua New Guinea for assisting me with the visa application process. Thanks are due to René van den Berg, who arranged my flights to and from Ukarumpa and other things, and made my visit to the Summer Institute of Linguistics in PNG so much more pleasant. I will forever be grateful to Jerome and Judith for always being ready to provide me with a little slice of Holland in the middle of Lorengau. I hardly know where to start with expressing my gratitude to the Baluan community. I cannot list all the people that have come to mean so much to me in the iii past couple of years, but I want to mention the following people by name. For providing texts for recordings, thanks are due to Alup Kaluwin, Bruno Komet, Carolyn Ambou, Kalou Solok, Keket Maluan, Kireng Wari, Lalau Kanau, Lauan Memelam, Lorat Molean, Lynette Touain, Maiau Keket, Martin Salau, Ngat Poraken, Ngi Sokou, Ninou Kireng, Ninou Paromui, Ninou Pokat, Posopat Membup, Sakumai Yêp, Sapulai Papi, and Wendy Lauan. Invaluable assistance with transcription, translation and elicitation was provided by Carolyn Ambou, Keket Maluan, Lorat Molean, Lynette Touain, Pulou Wari, Pwanou Selan, and Wendy Lauan. They would never be put off by my numerous questions, and usually the computer’s (or my) battery would be empty long before their energy had run out! Lorat Molean has been of vital assistance with the collection of fish and plant names. Thanks are also due to Aêwai Salkimut and Soanin Kilangit, for introducing me to several people, and sharing stories. A special thanks goes to Cholai of Mouk village, for providing an opportunity to charge my equipment with his generator, and to Kilangit Bayang and his family, for hosting me and looking after me during my stays in Port Moresby. Last but not least, I want to thank Lorat Molean and Ninou Kireng for my Baluan names, Alup Sauka and Alup Komdal, which I will always carry with pride, and my Baluan family, Keket, Maiau, Maluan, Ngat and little Jema, for sharing their home, their food and their lives with me. Wuro paran menengan, kolung iro sosol ai panu rang a iro yekarê pêng nêmnêmti. My thesis would not have turned out the same, and the whole experience would definitely have been much less enjoyable, without my co-students and colleagues. My great appreciation goes to Sihong, Daniela, Mark, Yankee, Anne, Hannah, Mikko, Juliane, Elena, Christiane, Grant, John, Kasia, Chiara, and other people at the postgrad centre. Many thanks are due to Brigitta Flick for proofreading the draft version of this thesis. Special thanks go to Ton Otto, Steffen Dalsgaard, and Anders Rasmussen, for providing the necessary anthropological background information on Manus cultures and tradition. A big thank you also goes to visiting fellows at the Cairns Institute, and scholars I met during conferences, for the many thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring discussions related to linguistics and many other things. I would have been nowhere without the love of my friends and family. Old friends from back home, new friends that I made at uni or during fieldwork in the last few years: it has been a rough ride at times, and you have all made all the difference at some point. Thanks to my wonderful family who always have been very supportive in everything that I undertake; it was great that you all were there to meet me after I came iv back from the field in 2011. Aêwai Sapulai and Asap Iporil, thank you for visiting me and sharing Baluan with me. Toob, I am happy for the wonderful time that we spent together in Australia; thank you for taking the leap, and for always believing in me. You once said that I could move mountains if I would set my mind to it; I think I finally did it! We may be long distances apart at times, but you are always right here in my heart. v vi Abstract This thesis is a reference grammar of Paluai, an Austronesian language belonging to the Admiralties subgroup of Oceanic. Paluai is spoken on Baluan Island in the Manus Province of Papua New Guinea. It is predominantly isolating, with comparatively little productive morphology. Bound morphology is of the agglutinating type: morpheme boundaries are clear. The language is predominantly head-marking. Basic constituent order is SV for intransitive clauses and AVO for transitive clauses. However, constituents such as Objects, Obliques and Possessors can be fronted to pre-subject position via a topicalisation operation. The two major word classes are noun and verb (with a major subclass of stative verbs), with adjectives and adverbs as minor classes distinguished from both noun and verb and each other. Verb to noun and verb to adjective derivations are very common, but not vice versa. Most predicates are headed by a verb complex, but nouns, adjectives, numerals and some prepositions can also function as predicate head. Only verbs, however, can take bound pronouns and be modified by TAM particles. The pronominal system distinguishes singular, dual, paucal and plural number. There is a distinction between direct and indirect nominal possession based on alienability. The verb complex consists of a main verb and optional preverbal particles and postverbal coverbs to express aspect, modality, directionality and adverbial meanings. Reality status is expressed by a prefix to the verb complex. There is extensive verb serialisation with a variety of types, including cause-effect, valency-changing, adverbial and directional Serial Verb Constructions. S/A arguments are cross-referenced on the verb complex by a bound pronoun proclitic; O arguments are cross-referenced by an enclitic if they refer to animate beings and the full NP is elided. Oblique arguments are never cross-referenced on the verb, and the form of the marker depends on an animacy distinction.