Morphology, syntax and cohesion in Nabak, Papua New Guinea

Papers on Six Languages of Papua New Guinea, 2010

In this paper, using data mainly collected in Yamai village in 2001 and 2002, I will be looking at the basic ingredients of Awad Bing sentences.1 In constructing sentences, simplistically speaking, there are four basic building blocks: independent clauses; dependent clauses (optional); strategies to link a clause to whatever precedes it; and strategies at the end of a clause to link it to what follows. This paper will examine dependent and independent clauses, and particles which conjoin clauses. In addition it will examine a sentential pro-form which stands for a clause or sentence, which Ross (1993) calls the proclausal, and describe its relation to tail-head linkage of sentences. I shall then examine anaphoric and cataphoric semblatives, and the strategies in which they are used in maintaining cohesion in sentences and paragraphs. The forms used are a part of the deictic system, employed secondarily as endophors.

1999

2. 1.2 Nouns derived with derivational affixes 2.1 .3 Compound nouns 2.1.4 Reduplicated nouns 2.2 Pronouns 2.2.1 Personal pronouns 2.2.2 Isolative pronouns 2.2.3 Emphatic pronouns 19 2.2.4 Possessive pronouns and suffixes 10 2.2.5 Dual and trial forms 2.3 Verbs v vi Ta ble of contents 2.3.1 Verb nucleus 2.3.2 Subject-mode-tense particle 2.3.3 Other verbal clitics, prefixes and suffixes 2.3.4 Compound verbs 2.3.5 The irregular verb 'to say' to, ta, si 2.4 Adjectives 2.4. 1 Qualitative adjectives 2.4.2 Quantitative adjectives 2.5 Adverbs 2.5.1 Adverbs related to the definiteness/indefiniteness of action 2.5.2 Adverbs of manner 2.5.3 Adverbs of time 2.5.4 Adverbs of location 2.6 Intensifiers 2.7 Topicalisers 2.8 Deictics 2.8.1 Demonstrative pronouns 2.8.2 Demonstrative adverbs 2.9 Interrogatives 2.9. 1 The morpheme ai 'LIT ' 2.9.2 Interrogatives consisting of one morpheme 50 2.9.3 The interrogative kara 2.9.4 kara 'what' as second element 2.10 Conjunctions 2. 10.1 Coordinative conjunctions 52 2.10.2 Subordinative conjunctions 2.1 1 Postpositions 2.1 1.1 Postpositions consisting of one morpheme 2. 11.2 Postpositions composed of two morphemes 55 2.1 1.3 Postpositions formed with the possessive pronoun 55 2.1 1.4 Complex locative postpositions 56 2.12 Interjections 56 2. 13 Negation 57 2.13.1 The negation words asi 'not/no' and asigi(na) 'no/not' 57 2.13.2 The negation word dia 'not/no' 57 3 Phrases 59 3.1 Noun phrases 59 3.1.1 Possessives 59 3.1.2 Uses of demonstratives and adjectives 3.1.3 Coordinating the noun phrases 63 3.2 Adverb phrases 64 3.3 Adjective phrases 66 3.4 Verb phrases 67 4 Clauses 69 4.1 Nuclear structure

This paper argues that variation between syntactically accusative and ergative clauses in Balinese results from different mappings between argument structure and syntactic realization. Our version of argument structure, essentially the ARGS feature of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, is the locus of anaphoric binding conditions. We further assume that passive, causative, and applicative are morpholexical operations on argument structure. This set of assumptions allows us to explain: (i) why conditions on Balinese binding are generally `thematic' and independent of `surface' grammatical relations or phrase structure position; and (ii) the specific exceptions to such thematic conditions that arise with raised arguments, direct/oblique alternations, and passive by-phrases.

1979

This study accepts the assumption that the verb is central to the syntax and semantics of the Cebuano l predicational sentence. It aims to investigate exhaustively the morphology of Cebuano verbs using Case Grammar as the mode l of analysis. Although Case Grammar has attempted to handle equat ional sentences by posit ing the Essive case , these sentences are excluded in this analysis since their V nodes are lex ically empty and therefore do not exhibit structure s that are morpho logically interesting. Two types of verbal affixes are ident ified in this study : the case re lated affixes and the extra-case affixes. Case-related affixes mark the verb for the particular actant that the speaker wishes to topic alise. 2 (Actant s refer to nouns , noun phrases , sentences , preposit ional phrases and adverbials that can enter into a case relationship with the verb .) Extra-case affixes include the aspectual affixes and the affixes that allow the verb to restrict or specialise it s semantic range. These latter affixes are called specialisation affixes 3 in this study. The following are the six specific tasks wh ich this study has chosen to tackle. 1) To determine the allowab le cases that occur with each verb. Each verb is provided with a case frame , wh ich is a formalised device to show how the actant s that the grammar allows to occur with the verb may be related to it. The case frame specifies the kinds of cases , both the optional and the obligatory , that a verb may take. It does not , however, specify the maximum numb er of cases that can occur with a particular verb in any part icular simp lex. This is specified by the grammar. For example, in Cebuano , disregarding the Time , the Cause and the Locative , which generally ha v e no co-occurrence restric tions with other cases when they are not chosen Topic , only four other cases at the mo st may be allowed in the same sentence at any time. l Cebuano is one of the major Philippine languages. It had, in 1969 , as recorded in the 1969 census , 6,529 ,882 speakers , the biggest number recorded for any of the major languages. It is the language of the provinces of Cebu , Bohol , Negros Oriental , the western portions of the Leyte provinces , and of many provinces in the island of Mindanao. 2 An ac tant that is topicalised is marked by ang/s i in surface structure. This phenomenon is also reflected in the affixation of the verb. For example , if the actant fulfilling the role of Agent is topicalised, t h e verb will be affixed by mag muor maN-. 3 These affixes are explained in detail in 3.11. and 3.12. 4 This restriction is probably dictated by the limitations on memory ; i.e. the speaker and the list ener cannot cope with remembering more than a few cases at any one time in an ut terance. 2) To categori se verbs according to the nature of their case environ ments. Verbs with the same case frame allow the same kind of cases to co occur with them. This typology is done to find out how and in what ways verbs may be similar or different. 3) To determine the extra-case non-aspectual affixes that are allowed for each verb. 'lawyer ' 'back pack ' 'child' 'meat ' 'yeast plant ' 'mushro om ' 'dampness ' 'tame anima l ' 'diffe rent ' 'scorched ' 'common co ld ' 'hunger ' 'numbness ' 'water in which ri ce 'stirring spoon ' 'plough ' 'temporary fence ' 'leve l trai l ' 26 Benefactive (B) , "the case of the animate being for whose bene fit the action ident ified by the verb is carried out " (Diller 1971:17 9). pa litan ku SIY A ug muny ika sa iyang ad law 'I wi n buy her a do n on her birthday. ' mag lutuq aku ug biku para NIMU ugmaq , I wi l l cook biku for you tomorrow. ' salinan ku SIY A ug pagkaqun 'I wi ll leave him some food. ' Cause (C) , which "provide s the reason why the action or state ident ified by the verb has , is, or will occur" (Diller 1971:187). mi tambuk siva sa BITAM INA 'He became stout because of the vitamins. ' nahubug aku sa TUBAQ , I go t drunk because of the tubaq. ' Experiential (E) , the case of the animate noun that is affected by the psychological state or condition expressed by the verb. nasukuq SIYA na kuq 'She is/wa s angry wi th me. ' gimi ngaw SIYA sa iyang manga anak 'She misses/mi ssed her children. ' Goal (G) , the case of the ac tant "which indic ates either (a) the obj ect , being , or place toward whi ch the ac tion or state is directed , or (b) the ac tual recipient of the action indicated by the verb" (Diller 1971 : 244). gihatag nila sa IRUQ ang pa nqus nga pagkaqun , They gave the spoi led food to the do g. ' nidagan ang bataq ngadtu sa iyang NANAY 'The chi Zd ran to his mo ther. ' gisulatan niya ang iyang TRATU , He wro te to his girlfriend. ' Instrumental (I) "which marks the actant wh ich expresses the object or being which is us ed as an instrument in carrying out the ac t ion or state ident ified by the verb " (Diller 1971 :250). gibunalan niya sa llPAK ang bataq 'He beat the chiZd with the stick. '

Interclausal relations in Papuan languages and in particular their prototyical clause chaining structures have long presented serious descriptive problems. These have been analyzed variously as instances of subordination, coordination, and even a third unique type of relationship, cosubordination. This paper argues that clause chaining structures are actually a type of coordination, but distinguished from familiar types of coordination by the type of constituent coordinated, S versus IP. The parametric variation found in clause chaining constructions across Papuan languages is in turn accounted for in terms of the types of functional heads of verbal inflections, negation, mood, tense, illocutionary force, which head the individual IPs conjoined in clause chains. This paper presents a revision of the theory of clause linkage, in particular the theory of nexus, first developed in Foley and Van Valin (1984) and restated in Van Valin and La Polla (1997) and Van Valin (2005). The original theory proposed three categories of nexus, the traditional ones of subordination and coordination and a new type, cosubordination. Subordination and coordination were distinguished along the traditional lines of embedded versus non-embedded. For our purposes here, we will define an embedded clause as one which functions as a constituent, either core or oblique (Andrews 2007; Foley 2007), of another clause, the main or matrix clause. Conventionally, grammarians have called embedded subordinate clauses which function as core arguments complements, and those which function as oblique constituents, adverbial clauses, but in our view this is not the most perspicacious terminology because it obscures their overall similarity, a similarity clearly brought out in the structure of many Papuan languages. For that reason, in this paper we will refer to both types simply as subordinate clauses and note the level of embedding, core versus oblique. Clauses linked in a coordinate nexus are not in an asymmetrical relationship of embedded versus matrix clause, but rather are joined at the same level, strung along rather like beads on a string. Designating a clause by the exocentric category S (Bresnan 2001), we can represent the contrast between subordinate and coordinate nexus as Figure 1:

2009