Papers by Dorothea Hoffmann
Australian Journal of Linguistics, 2018
Spatial Frames of Reference (FoR) have been discussed from different angles including cross-lingu... more Spatial Frames of Reference (FoR) have been discussed from different angles including cross-linguistic variety, detailed individual language descriptions, considering the impact of landscape and cognition, and regional overviews. Little attention, however, has been paid to their usage patterns. Consequently, this paper analyses a curious restriction on the use of different types of absolute terms. The analysis is based on a previous observation for Jaminjung that the use of absolute FoR is conditioned by whether or not the ground is overtly specified. The paper expands on this finding for two languages spoken in the same region, MalakMalak and the Roper variety of Kriol. It particularly focuses on the influence of morphosyntactic features and takes cognitive approaches as well as cultural salience into consideration.
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Australian Aboriginal creation myths - Dreamtime stories - allow us insight into the continent's ... more Australian Aboriginal creation myths - Dreamtime stories - allow us insight into the continent's most precious knowledge and teach us, once again, to expect the unexpected.
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This is a blogpost on Frames of Reference in Australia (and beyond) for a general audience.
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Ghil'ad Zuckermann, Julia Miller and Jasmin Morley (eds). Endangered Words, Signs of Revival, AustraLex 2013, Sep 7, 2014
This paper is concerned with documenting critically endangered and culturally significant aspects... more This paper is concerned with documenting critically endangered and culturally significant aspects of spatial language in MalakMalak, a non Pama-Nyungan Northern Daly language with eleven identified remaining speakers based in the Daly River Region in Australia. This documentation combines current speaker knowledge collected in fieldwork settings between 2012 and 2013 with historical recordings (Birk, 1971-1973) to identify such areas of knowledge that have been lost over time. As a result, this paper focuses on the intricate relationship between language, culture, landscape and tradition in the absence of customary community life and asks whether or not aspects of language may ever be fully documented when speakers no longer live within traditional areas practicing traditional cultural life.
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Narratives from the South Pacific: Sociocultural explorations. edited by Farzana Gounder. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
"This chapter is concerned with an analysis of narrative structure in
the endangered non-Pama-Ny... more "This chapter is concerned with an analysis of narrative structure in
the endangered non-Pama-Nyungan language Jaminjung and Australian Kriol. Previous analyses of Aboriginal narratives and story-telling techniques focused on the significance of place in plot and content (McGregor, 2005; Klapproth, 2004; Bavin, 2004). This study aims to extend these observations to include expressions of motion as a major structuring device in narratives. There are a number of similarities and differences observed for the two languages under consideration revealing a type of areal pattern in northern Australia irrespective of typological
language kind. I argue that spatial narrative structuring is deeply rooted in cultural and environmental features creating a connection of unique identity for every owner and audience of a story."
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Proceedings to the 39th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society, Jun 2013
This paper presents an analysis of ‘Frames of Reference’ (FoR) in MalakMalak, an endangered non-P... more This paper presents an analysis of ‘Frames of Reference’ (FoR) in MalakMalak, an endangered non-Pama-Nyungan Northern Daly language of Australia.
Studies into FoR systems provide insight into the relationship between language and cognition, and highlight how landscape features are reflected in language use and vice versa. Data collected in fieldwork settings suggest that MalakMalak uses strategies for encoding spatial relationships and settings that are intricately bound to the traditional land and its features.
There are cardinal-type systems based on the directions of prevailing winds and the sun. Furthermore, the Daly River is used as a focal point in spatial descriptions. It provides a reference center from which angles of direction are projected for macro- and abstracted micro-scale descriptions in lexemes for the respective riverbanks.
Generally, toponyms, landmark- as well as person-based ground-descriptions are extensively used in combination with terms of ‘orientation’ and ‘body’-parts. Furthermore, intrinsic terms are utilized on occasion, while the use of relative FoR appears to be restricted.
My paper discusses MalakMalak’s FoR system in detail addressing functions and structures of the spatial system in the intricate relationship between language, culture, landscape, and cognition described by one speaker as ‘The language is like a map.’
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Hoffmann, Dorothea. 2012. "Path Salience in Motion Descriptions in Jaminjung." In Space and Time in Languages and Cultures I: Linguistic Diversity, edited by Luna Filipovic and Kasia M. Jaszczolt, 459-480. Amsterdam: Benjamins , 2012
This paper aims to position Jaminjung, a non-Pama-Nyungan language of northern Australia within a... more This paper aims to position Jaminjung, a non-Pama-Nyungan language of northern Australia within a typology of Path salience, building on Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2009). Path is an obligatory conceptual part of any motion event description; however, regardless of their lexicalisation patterns, languages differ concerning the degree of Path detail in discourse (Slobin 1996). My analysis is concerned with narrative preferences in spoken communication using two different motion datasets of Frog Stories as well as natural discourse and narratives. Ultimately, it describes the effects of language-specific structural and granular prerequisites on discourse strategies within motion event descriptions. Jaminjung occupies a place towards the middle-section of the proposed Path salience cline. Additionally, cultural conditions suggest that event granularity might best be viewed separately from structural features
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cilr.cam.ac.uk
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Talks by Dorothea Hoffmann
This paper presents the results of a preliminary survey on absolute directional systems across Au... more This paper presents the results of a preliminary survey on absolute directional systems across Australia using published and unpublished material as well as fieldwork data. It aims to provide the first systematic overview of such systems in Australia and forms the basis for a larger-scale project to investigate cultural and geographic salience of absolute systems across the continent. My sample currently includes 112 languages and varieties covering diverse landscapes. The systems show variation within and across languages. For example, many languages make use of more than one absolute system; e.g. in Bilinarra (Meakins and Nordlinger, 2014) a river drainage exists alongside a compass system. Consequently, this paper sets out to create a systematic typological overview of absolute directionals in Australia taking into account cultural (Hoffmann, under review) and geographic salience (Palmer, 2015) and revisiting existing classifications of absolute systems.
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In this talk I provide a description of the role of body-part terms in expressions of emotion and... more In this talk I provide a description of the role of body-part terms in expressions of emotion and elsewhere in MalakMalak, a non-Pama-Nyungan language of the Daly River area. Body-part-derived compounds denote events, items and people of personal and cultural importance including emotions, personality traits, places and persons of significance, and times and number. Particularly central in the language are men 'stomach', pundu 'head' and tjewer 'ear' associated respectively with basic emotions, states of mind and reason. Noun incorporation is a central part of forming predicates with body-parts, but uncommon in any other semantic domain of the language and only lexemes denoting basic emotions may also incorporate closed-class adjectives.
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This paper uses original fieldwork (Ho↵mann, 2016) and annotated historical recordings to explore... more This paper uses original fieldwork (Ho↵mann, 2016) and annotated historical recordings to explore functions, discourse, and semantic constraints of optional nominal classification in MalakMalak, a Northern Australian language. Its small set of classifiers is semantically transparent and limited to concrete objects and categories of high cultural salience. Classifiers firstly function to mark a noun as being of a type or kind. Secondly, discourse functions include marking indefiniteness and discourse organization in single and multiple speaker contexts.
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Multi-verb constructions are a cross-linguistically widespread phenomenon. They share features, b... more Multi-verb constructions are a cross-linguistically widespread phenomenon. They share features, but also display systematic differences, the natures of which have been discussed widely (Amberber et al., 2007; Aikhenvald, 2006; Bowern, 2014; Crowley, 2002; Durie, 1997; Foley and Olsen, 1985,?; Schultze-Berndt, 2000). MalakMalak and Matngele, two head-marking, polysynthetic non-Pama-Nyungan Daly languages of Northern Australia provide an opportunity to investigate several multi-verb constructions, specifically, complex predi- cates (CPs), serial coverb constructions (SCCs), and compound coverbs (CCs), within a single language. In this paper I systematically test for negation, prosodic word status, subordination, semantic compositionality, and syntactic constituency to reveal distinguishing and combining features of these multiverb constructions.
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Many Australian languages form complex predicate (CP) constructions where one (or more) uninflect... more Many Australian languages form complex predicate (CP) constructions where one (or more) uninflecting open-classed coverb combines with an inflecting verb (IV) belonging to a closed class. It has been argued that these types of CPs constitute an areal feature structurally distinct from other CP constructions such as light verb constructions (McGregor, 2002; Schultze-Berndt, 2000).
Recently, some authors (Bowern, 2014; Hoffmann, 2014; Nordlinger, 2014; Reid, 2002) have focused their at- tention on an additional type of multi-verb construction, namely serial verb constructions in Ngan’gityemerri, Wambaya, and Jingulu and serial coverb constructions in MalakMalak, Wagiman, Kamu, and Matngele. This paper aims to provide a systematic overview of the types of serial verb constructions that occur in the Daly River region of Australia (and beyond). I explore how the nexus between the coverb and the IV, a language’s ability to form semi-independent predicates without IVs, and the number of IVs in a language are related to the type of serialization a language allows.
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A common distinction concerning the usage of different Frames of Reference within one language is... more A common distinction concerning the usage of different Frames of Reference within one language is based on scale, where large-scale descriptions might utilize absolute terms, e.g. go two blocks east, then head north, but not for small-scale (table-top) descriptions, e.g. \textit{the cup is east of the saucer}. However, differences in usage within orientation (I am facing the house) and FoR settings (I am in front of the house) have, to my knowledge, not been described so far. Thus, the aim of this paper is to describe and analyze a curious restriction on the use of different types of absolute terms within FoR and orientation settings in three Australian languages MalakMalak, Jaminjung, and Kriol. All three employ landmark-based `un-fixed' absolute terms based on river-flow or prevailing winds restricted to orientation settings and those where the the speaker is also the deictic center (ground) from which angles are projected. If a language also utilizes cardinal directions based on the direction of the rising and setting sun, no such restrictions are observed.
This paper thus aims to provide a thorough usage-based analysis of Frames of Reference and Orientation in two indigenous and one creole language of traditionally highly settled, non-nomadic hunter-gatherer societies.
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This paper illustrates how efforts of language documentation may be applied in linguistic analysi... more This paper illustrates how efforts of language documentation may be applied in linguistic analysis. We present a case study on complex predicate formation in MalakMalak discourse collected in fieldwork settings. We consider narrative structure, information structure, and word order to examine how complex predicates reflect cross-speaker interaction and narrative flow.
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In this paper, I undertake a systematic survey of the nature of complex predicate constructions i... more In this paper, I undertake a systematic survey of the nature of complex predicate constructions in the Daly languages of Northern Australia with regards to the nexus between the coverb and the IV and its relationship to the type of serialization a language allows. I argue that when two multi-verb constructions combine in a single language, its ability to form fused CP constructions is greatly diminished. At the same time, serial coverb constructions are directly linked to the occurrence of semi-independent predicates, however, the majority of serialized expressions are within complex predicates. As a result, this paper will present a typological overview of the different types of complex predication in these languages and make predictions for future developments.
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This paper aims to provide a systematic analysis of the semantic constraints and discourse enviro... more This paper aims to provide a systematic analysis of the semantic constraints and discourse environments of Kriol asymmetrical serial verb constructions in motion event descriptions such as:
(1) imin go stap deya langa det tri
3SG:AUX.PST go stop there LOC that tree
‘it stopped there at the tree’
Kriol is an English-lexified Creole spoken by approximately 20.000 people in different varieties across northern Australia. Today it is the major means of communication among Aboriginal Australians. The basis of this study is a corpus of communicative discourse as well as personal and traditional narratives from published and unpublished fieldwork-based sources.
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This paper provides an analysis of the unique complex predicate system in MalakMalak, a non-Pama-... more This paper provides an analysis of the unique complex predicate system in MalakMalak, a non-Pama- Nyungan Daly language spoken Northern Australia. While complex verbs are well attested in Australian languages and elsewhere, in MalakMalak two systems of multi-verb constructions combine in a typologically rare setup: First, complex predicates consist of an uninflecting open-classed coverb and an inflecting verb (IV) belonging to a closed class of only six verbs. Second, coverbs combine in serial constructions as part of a complex predicate with up to four coverbs encoding multiple or single events. This overlap provides a unique opportunity to examine shared and distinctive features. I argue for an analysis of MalakMalak’s complex predicates’ argument structure in terms of argument unification (Bowern 2010) of coverb and IV jointly contributing to the semantic and syntactic properties of the complex predicate. Similar observations have been made for other Australian languages such as Jaminjung (Schultze-Berndt 2000), Wagiman (Wilkins 1999), Wambaya (Nordlinger 2010) and Bardi (Bowern 2010).
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Papers by Dorothea Hoffmann
the endangered non-Pama-Nyungan language Jaminjung and Australian Kriol. Previous analyses of Aboriginal narratives and story-telling techniques focused on the significance of place in plot and content (McGregor, 2005; Klapproth, 2004; Bavin, 2004). This study aims to extend these observations to include expressions of motion as a major structuring device in narratives. There are a number of similarities and differences observed for the two languages under consideration revealing a type of areal pattern in northern Australia irrespective of typological
language kind. I argue that spatial narrative structuring is deeply rooted in cultural and environmental features creating a connection of unique identity for every owner and audience of a story."
Studies into FoR systems provide insight into the relationship between language and cognition, and highlight how landscape features are reflected in language use and vice versa. Data collected in fieldwork settings suggest that MalakMalak uses strategies for encoding spatial relationships and settings that are intricately bound to the traditional land and its features.
There are cardinal-type systems based on the directions of prevailing winds and the sun. Furthermore, the Daly River is used as a focal point in spatial descriptions. It provides a reference center from which angles of direction are projected for macro- and abstracted micro-scale descriptions in lexemes for the respective riverbanks.
Generally, toponyms, landmark- as well as person-based ground-descriptions are extensively used in combination with terms of ‘orientation’ and ‘body’-parts. Furthermore, intrinsic terms are utilized on occasion, while the use of relative FoR appears to be restricted.
My paper discusses MalakMalak’s FoR system in detail addressing functions and structures of the spatial system in the intricate relationship between language, culture, landscape, and cognition described by one speaker as ‘The language is like a map.’
Talks by Dorothea Hoffmann
Recently, some authors (Bowern, 2014; Hoffmann, 2014; Nordlinger, 2014; Reid, 2002) have focused their at- tention on an additional type of multi-verb construction, namely serial verb constructions in Ngan’gityemerri, Wambaya, and Jingulu and serial coverb constructions in MalakMalak, Wagiman, Kamu, and Matngele. This paper aims to provide a systematic overview of the types of serial verb constructions that occur in the Daly River region of Australia (and beyond). I explore how the nexus between the coverb and the IV, a language’s ability to form semi-independent predicates without IVs, and the number of IVs in a language are related to the type of serialization a language allows.
This paper thus aims to provide a thorough usage-based analysis of Frames of Reference and Orientation in two indigenous and one creole language of traditionally highly settled, non-nomadic hunter-gatherer societies.
(1) imin go stap deya langa det tri
3SG:AUX.PST go stop there LOC that tree
‘it stopped there at the tree’
Kriol is an English-lexified Creole spoken by approximately 20.000 people in different varieties across northern Australia. Today it is the major means of communication among Aboriginal Australians. The basis of this study is a corpus of communicative discourse as well as personal and traditional narratives from published and unpublished fieldwork-based sources.
the endangered non-Pama-Nyungan language Jaminjung and Australian Kriol. Previous analyses of Aboriginal narratives and story-telling techniques focused on the significance of place in plot and content (McGregor, 2005; Klapproth, 2004; Bavin, 2004). This study aims to extend these observations to include expressions of motion as a major structuring device in narratives. There are a number of similarities and differences observed for the two languages under consideration revealing a type of areal pattern in northern Australia irrespective of typological
language kind. I argue that spatial narrative structuring is deeply rooted in cultural and environmental features creating a connection of unique identity for every owner and audience of a story."
Studies into FoR systems provide insight into the relationship between language and cognition, and highlight how landscape features are reflected in language use and vice versa. Data collected in fieldwork settings suggest that MalakMalak uses strategies for encoding spatial relationships and settings that are intricately bound to the traditional land and its features.
There are cardinal-type systems based on the directions of prevailing winds and the sun. Furthermore, the Daly River is used as a focal point in spatial descriptions. It provides a reference center from which angles of direction are projected for macro- and abstracted micro-scale descriptions in lexemes for the respective riverbanks.
Generally, toponyms, landmark- as well as person-based ground-descriptions are extensively used in combination with terms of ‘orientation’ and ‘body’-parts. Furthermore, intrinsic terms are utilized on occasion, while the use of relative FoR appears to be restricted.
My paper discusses MalakMalak’s FoR system in detail addressing functions and structures of the spatial system in the intricate relationship between language, culture, landscape, and cognition described by one speaker as ‘The language is like a map.’
Recently, some authors (Bowern, 2014; Hoffmann, 2014; Nordlinger, 2014; Reid, 2002) have focused their at- tention on an additional type of multi-verb construction, namely serial verb constructions in Ngan’gityemerri, Wambaya, and Jingulu and serial coverb constructions in MalakMalak, Wagiman, Kamu, and Matngele. This paper aims to provide a systematic overview of the types of serial verb constructions that occur in the Daly River region of Australia (and beyond). I explore how the nexus between the coverb and the IV, a language’s ability to form semi-independent predicates without IVs, and the number of IVs in a language are related to the type of serialization a language allows.
This paper thus aims to provide a thorough usage-based analysis of Frames of Reference and Orientation in two indigenous and one creole language of traditionally highly settled, non-nomadic hunter-gatherer societies.
(1) imin go stap deya langa det tri
3SG:AUX.PST go stop there LOC that tree
‘it stopped there at the tree’
Kriol is an English-lexified Creole spoken by approximately 20.000 people in different varieties across northern Australia. Today it is the major means of communication among Aboriginal Australians. The basis of this study is a corpus of communicative discourse as well as personal and traditional narratives from published and unpublished fieldwork-based sources.
(1) kubuk karrarr dat tyed yuyu
swim move.up look stand 3sg.masc.stand.pst
yanak, ka yida=ke
one come 3sg.masc.go.pst=foc
‘he swam up and looked for the river once, then he came here’
In serial coverb constructions, the constituents may encode a single (kubuk karrarr ‘swim up’) or a series of events (kubuk karrarr - dat tyed ‘swim up THEN look for’). They are usually iconically ordered and the IV’s pronominal and tense properties match the entire expression. Semantically, however, the IV contributes only to the coverb(s) directly preceding it. If a coverb attaches the aspectual continuous suffix -ma, or the participial suffix -eli, it is always the last part of the serial coverb construction. This has been observed for serial verb constructions in the Papuan Language Kalam (Lane & Pawley 1992).
(2) waya derret-eli wutu fix-im-ap
go.still mess.up-part 3pl.sit.pst fix-tr-up
‘they are already messed up, they need fixing’ (Birk 1974)
The vast majority of verbal predicates in MalakMalak are complex predicates (58%) and coverbs often occur without IVs (22%). A correlation between the ability of coverbs to do that and serialization (25% of serial constructions are without IVs) has been observed by Bowern (2010). Furthermore, types of complex predicates in Australia range from independent and phrasal (Warlpiri, Jaminjung) to languages where the two components are entirely fused and the IV has become unanalyzable (Gooniyandi)(McGregor 1990). MalakMalak is situated between the two types - as has been observed for Ngan’gityemerri (Reid 2003) with many phrasal-type constructions as in (2), but also fused complex predicates such as pengudung = pi + engudung ‘move.1SG.incl.go.PRS’ and tightly compounded coverbs (tity-pi ‘go.out-move’). This suggests that lexicalization and grammaticalization processes observed for serial verb as well as complex predicate languages are currently taking place in MalakMalak. I argue that the system is developing into a serial verb language with either tightly fused IVs or no IVs at all.
All data for this investigation come from original fieldwork and annotated recordings (Birk 1974, Crocombe 2010).
This talk, taking original material from MalakMalak, a highly endangered language of Northern Australia, and Kriol, an English-lexified Creole into ac- count, asks what happens when a language slowly disappears. How much is lost and what is maintained of the unique culturally-determining essence in a translated narrative?
The historical data was collected between 1972 and 1974 by David Birk. Cur- rent data comes from Mark Crocombe and original fieldwork between 2012 and 2014 by the author.
The historical data suggests certain uses of deictic demonstratives which are recognized by today’s speakers, but rarely produced spontaneously. For example, a four-way distinction between ngun- ‘there’ kaduk - ‘over there’ keen - ‘over here’, and ki - ‘here’ as in example (1):
(1) kaduk wuyu keen wuyu yawug wunelli DIST 3SG.neu.stand.PST PROX 3SG.neu.stand.PST another big.neu ki wuyu
PROX 3SG.neu.stand.PST
‘there’s one over there, one over here and another big one here (talking about groups of people sitting spread out during a meeting)’ (Histori- cal source)
Furthermore, kaduk used to be used as a marker of ‘otherness’ or taboo as in examples (2) and (3) while keen was a familiarity marker as in (4) :
(2) kaduk yide, dek yuwaya DIST 3SG.masc.go.PRS camp 2SG.go.PRS
‘this other one (that person over there - brother that cannot be named) - he goes away with his brother’ (historical)
(3) kaduk wudyu
DIST 3PL.stand.PST
‘another mob is there’ (historical)
1
(4) mity nga keen wurrka-ma nuende Denisibal sister 1SG.excl PROX work-CONT 3SG.fem.go.PRS nt op
‘my sister works in Belyuen’ (historical)
Proximal -nggi or distal directional suffixes -ngga may attach to all word classes as in (5), (6) and 7). Their distribution, however, has grown much more restricted in today’s speech where they mainly occur in lexicalised form attaching to coverbs (9) , inflecting verbs (8) and demonstratives (11), or in direct opposition to one another as in (10) and (12).
(5) kanjuk-man-nggi kanggi nuendung on.top-ABL-DIR.PROX come.DIR.PROX 2SG.go.PURP
‘you come from up there to here’ (historical)
(6) ngurra tyid pi enung-ngga
some/other take move 1SG.excl.go.FUT-DIST.DIR
‘I’m gonna take some beef back’ (historical)
(7) karrk-wat wa-nggi move.up-send pick.up-PROX.DIR
‘bring it up here!’ (historical)
(8) Jigbala-nen nuenue-yen wuta-ngga name-DIR 3SG.fem.sit.PRS-DIR 3PL.go.PST-DIST.DIR
‘they are going towards where Jigbala is sitting’ (current source)
(9) dek kadurruk-en wa-ngga wirrminy=ye
camp DIST.EXT-DIR pick.up-DIST.DIR 3PL.do.PUNCT=FOC
‘they took him to another country’ (current)
(10) pungaty-man-nggi nunda pungaty-man-ngga smoke-ABL-PROX.DIR 3SG.fem.go.PST smoke-ABL-DIST.DIR nunda
3SG.fem.go.PST
‘She came over here/there smoking’(current)
(11) ngunanggi pi yida western.riverbank/DIST.PROX.DIR move 3SG.masc.go.PST
‘he went to the other side?’ (current)
(12) titykanggi kinangga come.out.come.PROX.DIR eastern.riverbank/PROX.DIST.DIR
‘they come out on the eastern bank’ (current) 2
I argue that some of the spatial system’s former complexity among the dimin- ishing speakers and especially among those having left the traditional home- lands has been lost over time. Therefore, this suggests a direct correlation between language use and geographic and cultural environment that is under threat alongside the language itself in a case of language endangerment.
Some early observations of MalakMalak’s previously undocumented spatial language result from five months of fieldwork in 2012. This paper suggests that the language uses a variety of strategies for encoding spatial relationships and settings that are intricately bound to the traditional land and its features. Today, these concepts and meanings are highly endangered or already extinct due to speakers’ resettlement and a massive decline in language use.
At present, only six of the eleven remaining speakers occupy the traditional lands around the Daly River surrounded by different language groups. Consequently, a number of issues and problems arise. These are related to language (and culture) documentation efforts in an environment that, to a large part, has lost its communal life and traditional reference frame with regards to landscape and landmarks.
A cardinal-type reference system based on the directions of prevailing winds blowing from the sea and inland is used frequently by the Daly-based speakers, but has not been recorded for those that moved away. The Daly River as a focal point of orientation is invariably lost in environments other than the traditional country and cannot seem to be replaced by other watercourses. Most importantly, the dominant choice of reference points in spatial descriptions are landmarks such as billabongs, hunting grounds or sites of significance within traditional MalakMalak country. As they cannot be used by speakers based outside the Daly-region, knowledge of their meaning and location is in stark decline. Already, even the Daly-based speakers cannot remember place names and locations of certain sites when the traditional owners of these lands have been absent for long.
One of the aims of my documentation is to combine current speaker knowledge with former anthropological (Stanner 1933) and linguistic (Sutton and Palmer 1980; Birk 1976) research results to identify such areas of knowledge that have been lost over time. As a result, this paper focuses on the intricate relationship between language, culture, landscape and tradition in the absence of customary community life.
References
Birk, D.B.W. 1976. The Malakmalak Language of Daly river (Western Arnhem Land). Vol. 45, Pacific Linguistics Series B. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Levinson, Stephen C. 2003. Space in Language and Cognition. Explorations in Cognitive Diversity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pederson, Eric, Eve Danziger, David Wilkins, Stephen C. Levinson, Kita Sotaro, and Gunter Senft. 1998. "Semantic Typology and Spatial Conceptualisation." Language no. 74 (3):557-589.
Stanner, W.E.H. 1933. "The Daly River tribes. A report on fieldwork in North Australia." Oceania no. III and IV (4 and 1).
Sutton, Peter, and A.B. Palmer. 1980. Daly River (MalakMalak) land claim. Darwin: Northern Land Council (Australia).
This paper presents a functionalist-typological analysis of inflective marking on complex predicates found in the Eastern Daly languages with particular focus on MalakMalak, a highly endangered non-Pama-Nyungan Daly language with eleven identified remaining speakers mainly based in the Daly River Region. Within the group of Australian languages exhibiting complex verb structures, MalakMalak constitutes a special case in displaying a group of only six inflecting verbs (IV) within a closed class that may combine with open-classed coverbs in complex verb constructions (CVC). The Daly language family is renowned for its almost exclusive use of CVCs as opposed to simple ones (SVC) (Cahir, 2006; Tryon, 1976). Consequently, it has been argued that its complex predicate system represents a highly grammaticalized version of what is found in other Daly Languages such as Marrithiyel and Ngan’kityemerri, Matngele and Kamu (McGregor, 2002: 136-137; Harvey, 2003: 171; Harvey, 1989; Reid, 2011).
The –ma suffix attaching to the coverb, changes the interpretation from perfective (unmarked) to imperfective in all three Eastern Daly languages MalakMalak, Kamu, and Matngele (Harvey, 1989: 52). In MalakMalak, the suffix cannot occur with the ‘do’ IV. Example (1), denotes a punctual non-continuous event in a narrative. The snake is looking for the blue-tongue lizard only briefly glimpsing towards the hole where it is buried in the ground. Example (2) on the other hand encodes a continuous event of looking in one direction. The blue-tongue lizard has become a dreaming place by the river always looking in the direction of the current location of the speaker. Furthermore, the suffix has an inchoative effect to the word class it is suffixed on (Birk, 1976: 90; Cahir, 2006: 46).
(1) dae-ngunytyul pana dat
NC_food_animal- black.whip.snake again/IT look
yiminy-nu=na
3SG.masc.do.PUNCT -3SG.masc.OBJ =FOC
‘the snake came looking for him again’ (Dh12_A47_01.136)
(2) nana karrarra dat-ma yida dek
always up look-CONT 3SG.masc.go.PST camp
ki-nen =de
PROX -DIR =FOC
‚he's sitting up always looking towards here, this place’ (Dh12_A47_01.088)
In addition to–ma, the participial suffix ali/ eli also attaches to coverbs (Birk, 1976: 91). While –ma can be described as having a transitivising force, ali/ eli suffixed coverbs never occur with the (mostly) transitive ‘do’ IV and denote intransitive events only as in (3).
(3) karrarra tyedali wuyu
up stand.PART 3SG.neu.stand.PST
‘it is standing up on top’ (DH12_V44_03.162)
My paper discusses form and function of inflecting markers on the MalakMalak coverbs. The special status of the ‘do’ IV with regards to these inflections is taken into consideration. I will suggest that MalakMalak coverbs are best analysed as ‘auxiliary’ type words not contributing to argument structure. Instead, the coverbs form semantic and grammatical classes that allow and disallow for combinations with certain IVs and inflectional suffixes. I propose therefore that the complex predicate system in MalakMalak, and possibly the other Eastern Daly languages as well, functions differently from others described in Northern Australia such as the Jaminjung or Murrinh-Patha systems.
(Alsina, 1997; Bhat, 2000; Bowern, 2010; Butt, 1997; Durie, 1997; Evans, 1997; Goldberg, 1997; Harvey and Baker, 2010; Stanner, 1933)
References
Alsina A. (1997) Causatives in Bantu and Romance. In: Alsina A, Bresnan J and Sells P (eds) Complex Predicates. Stanford: CSLI Publications, 203-246.
Bhat DNS. (2000) Word classes and sentential functions. In: Vogel PM and Comrie B (eds) Approaches to the Typology of Word Classes. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 47-64.
Birk DBW. (1976) The Malakmalak Language of Daly River (Western Arnhem Land (sic!)), Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Bowern C. (2010) The typological implications of Bardi complex predicates. Linguistic Typology 14: 39-70.
Butt M. (1997) Complex Predicates in Urdu. In: Alsina A, Bresnan J and Sells P (eds) Complex Predicates. Stanford: CSLI Publications, 107-150.
Cahir P. (2006) Verb composites in MalakMalak. Melbourne: Melbourne University.
Durie M. (1997) Grammatical Structures in Verb Serialization In: Alsina A, Bresnan J and Sells P (eds) Complex Predicates. Stanford: CSLI Publications, 289-354.
Evans N. (1997) Role or Cast? Noun incorporation and complex predicates in Mayali. In: Alsina A, Bresnan J and Sells P (eds) Complex Predicates. Stanford: CSLI Publications, 397-430.
Goldberg A. (1997) Making one's way through the data. In: Alsina A, Bresnan J and Sells P (eds) Complex Predicates. Stanford: CSLI Publications, 151-174.
Harvey M. (1989) A sketch Grammar of Kamu.
Harvey M. (2003) The evolution of verb systems in the Eastern Daly language family. In: Evans N (ed) The non-Pama-Nyungan languages of northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 159-184.
Harvey M and Baker B. (2010) Complex predicate formation. In: Amberber M, Baker B and Harvey M (eds) Complex Predicates: cross-linguistic perspectives on event structure. New York: Cambridge University Press, 13-47.
McGregor WB. (2002) Verb Classification in Australian Languages, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Reid NJ. (2011) Ngan'gityemerri: a language of the Daly River region, Northern Territory of Australia, Muenchen Lincom Europa.
Stanner WEH. (1933) The Daly River tribes. A report on fieldwork in North Australia. Oceania III and IV.
Tryon DT. (1976) The Daly Family. In: Dixon RMW (ed) Grammatical categories in Australian languages. New Jersey: Humanities Press.
This paper presents an analysis of spatial language, in particular, ‘Frames of Reference’ (FoR) utilizing elicitation, stimuli and natural discourse in fieldwork settings. The language in question is MalakMalak, a non-Pama-Nyungan Northern Daly language with eleven identified remaining speakers mainly based in the Daly River Region in Australia.
Studies into FoR systems provide insight into the relationship between language and cognition, and highlight how landscape features are reflected in language use and vice versa. They have been widely discussed from a cross-linguistic perspective. This includes the ‘classic’ three-part distinction between intrinsic, relative and absolute FoR (Levinson, 1996, Levinson, 2003, Pederson et al., 1998) and additions such as the notion of Direct FoR (Danziger, 2010), anchoring-types (Bohnemeyer and O'Meara, 2012), and ‘Orientation’ (Terrill and Burenhult, 2008). This paper makes suggestions for an analysis taking into account deixis and speaker-anchored situations to a much greater extent than previously done. Furthermore, it proposes to treat landmark- and cardinal-type notions of “absolute” FoR separately to account for semantic distinctions in discourse.
Preliminary observations of MalakMalak’s previously undocumented FoR system result from four months of fieldwork in 2012. The collected data suggests that the language uses a variety of strategies for encoding spatial relationships and settings that are intricately bound to the traditional land and its features.
There is a cardinal-type system based on the directions of prevailing winds blowing from the sea and inland as well as a solar-system utilizing directions of the setting and rising sun. Furthermore, the Daly River is used as a focal point in spatial descriptions. It provides a reference center from which angles of direction are projected for macro-scale descriptions in lexemes for the respective riverbanks. The same terms may also be used in micro-scale spatial descriptions when referring to a border such as a table. Additionally, two contrasting terms keen-en and kaduk-en are used deictically, with the former encoding a fixed point from which a spatial description is projected, and the latter denoting the point the angle is projected towards in relation to a speaker as paralleled in the riverbank system.
Only used in large-scale descriptions, there are terms encoding areas of the river within and outside tidal influences that reflect ground elevation from the flatter land towards the sea to the hills further inland. In smaller-scale descriptions, landmark- as well as person-based ground-descriptions are extensively used in combination with terms of ‘orientation’ such as payagang (‘face away’) and ‘body’-parts with animate and inanimate objects as in example (1). Intrinsic terms such as elimirri (‘in front’) and kanjuk (‘on top’) are also used on occasion, while the use of relative FoR appears to be highly restricted.
(1) keen pud Wuliana-nen yuyu
PROX? chest place.name–DIR 3SG.masc.stand.PRS
‘that way, he is standing with his chest towards Wuliana billabong’ (DH12_A15_03.049)
My paper discusses MalakMalak’s FoR system in detail addressing functions and structures of the spatial system in the intricate relationship between language, culture, landscape, and cognition described by one speaker as ‘The language is like a map.’
Words: 497
References
Bohnemeyer, Juergen, and O'Meara, Carolyn. 2012. Vectors and frames of reference: Evidence from Seri and Yucatec. In Space and Time across Languages and Cultures, eds. Luna Filipovic and Kasia M. Jaszczolt: John Benjamins Ltd. .
Danziger, Eve. 2010. Deixis, Gesture and Cognition in spatial Frame of Reference Typology. Studies in Language 34:167-185.
Levinson, Stephen C. 1996. Frames of Reference and Molyneux's question: crosslinguistic evidence. In Language and Space, eds. Paul Bloom, Mary A. Peterson, Lynn Nadel and Merrill F. Garrett. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Levinson, Stephen C. 2003. Space in Language and Cognition. Explorations in Cognitive Diversity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Levinson, Stephen C., and Wilkins, David. 2006. Grammars of space: explorations in cognitive diversity: Language, culture, and cognition ; 6. Cambridge, UK ; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Pederson, Eric, Danziger, Eve, Wilkins, David, Levinson, Stephen C., Sotaro, Kita, and Senft, Gunter. 1998. Semantic Typology and Spatial Conceptualisation. Language 74:557-589.
Terrill, Angela, and Burenhult, Niclas. 2008. Orientation as a strategy of spatial reference. Studies in Language 32:93-136.
As for many other Creole languages (McWhorter, 1998), it has been observed that Kriol’s serial verb constructions are asymmetrical (Meakins, 2010). A limited number of ‘minor’ verbs belonging to a semantically and grammatically restricted class can form SVCs together with unrestricted ‘major’ verbs (Aikhenvald, 2006). In example (1) the most common minor verb go marks a path of motion, and in a construction with the locative verb stap encodes a motion event that comes to a standstill at the endpoint of motion.
(1) imin go stap deya langa det tri
3SG:AUX.PST go stop there LOC that tree
‘it stopped there at the tree’ (DH10_A15_20_0029, MA)
There are also a number of other types of minor verbs in SVCs that have not been previously described such as ran galimap in example (2) which combines two manner of motion verbs to denote a particularly fast climbing event.
(2) imin ran galimap la big -wan ston
3SG:AUX.PST run climb LOC big -NR stone
‘he ran and climbed up a big stone’ (DH10_A15_12_0061, IA)
Additionally, it appears as if the types of major verbs that combine with the limited number of minor verbs in motion event descriptions are also subject to certain constraints. The most general motion verbs kam ‘come’ and go can form SVCs with an unlimited number of major verbs. However, other minor verbs such as ran in example (2) only combine with a semantically restricted set of major verbs, namely motion verbs. This behaviour sets them apart from the unconstrained minor verbs which can also encode directed action (3) and location after motion (1).
(3) imin go sing –at-sing-at bla det frog
3SG:AUX.PST go RDP call-out for that frog
from det windou
ABL:from that window
‘he called out for the frog from the window’ (DH10_A15_12_0022, IA)
Furthermore, certain types of discourse environments such as communicative discourse of giving directions appear to generally trigger the use of SVCs in motion event encodings which are generally rather rare expressions in Kriol.
Therefore, this paper aims to provide a systematic analysis of the semantic constraints and discourse environments of Kriol serial verb constructions in motion event descriptions. The basis of this study is a corpus of communicative discourse as well as personal and traditional narratives from published (e.g. (Sandefur, 1982) and unpublished fieldwork-based sources.
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2006. Serial Verb Constructions in Typological Perspective. In Serial Verb Constructions: A Cross-Linguistic Typology eds. Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald and Robert M. W. Dixon, 1-68. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McWhorter, John H. 1998. Identifying the Creole Prototype: Vindicating a Typological Class. Language 74.
Meakins, Felicity. 2010. The development of asymmetrical serial verb constructions in an Australian mixed language. Linguistic Typology 14:1-38.
Sandefur, John. 1982. An Introduction to conversational Kriol: Working Papers of SIL-AAIB Series B. Darwin: SIL.
McWhorter, John H. 1998. Identifying the Creole Prototype: Vindicating a Typological Class. Language 74.
Meakins, Felicity. 2010. The development of asymmetrical serial verb constructions in an Australian mixed language. Linguistic Typology 14:1-38.
Sandefur, John. 1982. An Introduction to conversational Kriol: Working Papers of SIL-AAIB Series B. Darwin: SIL.
The encoding of path is obligatory in any motion event (Slobin, 1996), however, languages differ regarding the degree of detail with which the path component is expressed in discourse (Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 2009). Jaminjung employs a variety of strategies to encode path in a motion description. Restricted path information is encoded in a closed-class inflecting (IV) verb (-ruma in example (1)), additionally in an open–classed uninflecting coverb (burl) and in any ground encodings specifying source (ngiyi jarriny), route or goal of motion. Furthermore, path can be expressed in a ground-denoting IV and/or a ground-denoting coverb.
(1) ngiyi-ngunyi majani burl-burl
PROX-ABL maybe RDP-emerge
burru-ruma-ny jarriny-ngunyi
3PL-come-PST hole-ABL
‘from here they maybe came out, out of the hole’ (ES97_A03_01.294)
Kriol also encodes some path information in the verb phrase (kam in example (2)) and additionally employs directional suffixes (–at) and ground encodings (det woda) to specify path.
(2) dei bin kam -at brom det woda
3PL:SUBJ AUX.PST come -out ABL:from that water
‘they came out from the water’ (DH10_A15_05_0123)
The distribution of these different strategies of path encoding in discourse individually and in combination shows how path salience on a structural level differs highly between the two languages. However, the frequency of path complements in discourse independent of the availability of complex path expressions shows great similarities suggesting a culture- rather than language-specific pattern.
For my analysis I employed two different types of corpora, one consisting of frog-stories only for cross-linguistic comparison and one including narratives, route-descriptions and natural discourse for a narrower view on the two languages alone. My findings show that for example the combination of more than one path element in Kriol places the language on the extreme end of a continuum of languages when comparing strategies of encoding path in one or more elements in discourse. Jaminjung on the other hand takes a middle position here.
Whereas structurally path salience accounts for major differences between Jaminjung and Kriol, the elaboration of segments in a given motion event appears to be very similar for the two languages. Considering that they are spoken within the same cultural area, this suggests a culture-specific pattern. My analysis raises doubts on Ibarretxe-Antuñano’s (2009) study of path salience combining structural elements and elaboration patterns and suggests keeping the measurements apart.
References
Ibarretxe-Antuñano, Iraide. 2009. Path Salience in Motion Events. In Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Psychology of Language: Research in the Tradition of Dan Isaac Slobin eds. Elena Lieven et al., 403-414. New York: Psychology Press.
Slobin, Dan I. 1996. Two ways to travel: Verbs of motion in English and Spanish. . In Grammatical Constructions. Their Form and Meaning eds. M Shibatani and S.A. Thompson, 195-219 Oxford: Clarendon Press.
In March 1992 the Department of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures at The University of Manchester hosted its first Postgraduate Linguistics Conference (PLC). Since then this annual event has grown, now drawing participants from across the world to exchange ideas in a relaxed but stimulating environment. This makes PLC the longest continuously running event of its kind in the UK.
The proceedings consist of an introduction by the editors and eight chapters on various linguistic topics.
We will examine a wide variety of languages from across the globe and take interfaces with language change and language documentation into consideration. Against the background of a corpus of data, we will examine the limits of linguistic variation and the explanations proposed for typological patterns, including information management, cognitive processing, and interactional language use and examine the relationship of typology to genetic and areal linguistics.
At the end of the course, students will have a comprehensive understanding of cross-linguistic variation, theoretical approaches, and contemporary issues and debates within the field of linguistic typology.
Jaminjung is a highly endangered non Pama-Nyungan language with approximately 50 remaining speakers. Kriol, an English-lexified Creole, is spoken by about 20.000 people in different varieties across northern Australia. While the languages are typologically very different, occupancy of the same linguistic and cultural area provides an intriguing opportunity to investigate the effects of culture and language contact on conceptual components and distribution patterns in discourse. This investigation also applies and tests a number of existing frameworks and typologies regarding the linguistic encoding of motion and space in general.
The thesis first provides an overview of the encoding of motion event descriptions in Jaminjung and Kriol. It becomes clear that, concerning overt marking of case, ground-encodings follow a systematic semantic pattern with no or rare case-marking for deictic terms, optional marking for toponyms and mandatory marking for all other types of landmarks. Furthermore, the structure and semantics of the motion verb phrase is investigated. Particularly noteworthy here is a study of asymmetrical serial verb constructions in Kriol which revealed a number of previously not described types.
Following this, various proposals for a typology of Frames of Reference are applied. The notion of ‘anchor’ is at the centre of the analysis. The investigation shows that contextual restrictions for the use of Jaminjung’s absolute terms can be accounted for by a restriction on egocentric anchoring and ‘Orientation’ settings only. Furthermore, absolute Frame of Reference is realised differently in Roper and Westside Kriol respectively, suggesting an ongoing influence of the traditional languages spoken by the respective communities rather than the lexifier English. Jaminjung and Kriol, additionally, prefer the use of absolute over relative Frame of Reference.
The following chapter investigates how lexicalisation patterns influence the distribution of path and manner encodings in discourse. After concluding that Jaminjung might best be described as following an equipollently-framed pattern and Kriol as satellite-framed, path and manner salience is investigated in different types of discourse using a dataset of motion event encodings in a Frog Story collection and a general corpus of various discourse environments. It is concluded that while the two languages behave very differently with regards to frequency patterns of ground- and other path-encodings, they show remarkable similarities in distributing path and manner over larger chunks of discourse. These findings suggest that cultural influences may sometimes override structural typological constraints.
Finally, motion event encodings in specific types of discourse are analysed. Regarding route descriptions, speakers show a clear preference for dynamic over static modes of presentation. This includes encoding ‘fictive motion’ events for which a figure- and ground-based distinction is introduced. Additionally, concerning the use of deictics in a comparative analysis of different types of corpora for both languages, it was shown that the distribution of absolute terms remains stable across discourse environments while deictic usage differs drastically. Lastly, the concept of ‘motion’ is abstracted and described as a kind of structuring device in narratives. It is shown that the ‘journey’ within the story world is used by speakers of both languages to bridge episodes sometimes even overriding a temporal in favour of a spatial order of events.
The aims of this paper are twofold. Firstly, I will describe the use of Frames of Reference and Orientation in Jaminjung, MalakMalak and Kriol in detail with particular emphasis on absolute directionals. Secondly, I provide a usage-based analysis of the types of absolute FoR used in orientation and deictic as well as non-deictic FoR settings considering cognitive, morphosyntactic, semantic, and culturally specific approaches. This highlights how language-external features are reflected in language-use and vice versa.