This paper describes and compares comitative constructions across the Reefs-Santa Cruz languages ... more This paper describes and compares comitative constructions across the Reefs-Santa Cruz languages Äiwoo, Engdewu, Nalögo, and Natügu. Each of these languages shows a complex array of constructions, with considerable variation across languages both in the forms used, in which constructions are used for genuine comitative versus depictive constructions (as in I climbed with the basket, where I am climbing but the basket is not), and in which additional functions the different constructions can be extended to. At the same time, there are commonalities across the four languages, as would be expected from a low-level Oceanic subgroup such as Reefs-Santa Cruz; but the commonalities are complex and crosscut constructions and language groupings. Our historical account of this situation takes as its starting point the Proto-Oceanic comitative forms *ma, *ma-i, and *aki[ni] and assumes different grammaticalization paths and functional extensions across the languages, in particular, in Äiwoo, on the one hand, and the Santa Cruz languages, on the other. We thus contribute to disentangling the complex historical relationships within this language group, which has only fairly recently been recognized as Oceanic.
This paper examines the uses of the prefix e- (ve-) in Äiwoo, an Oceanic
language of the Temotu s... more This paper examines the uses of the prefix e- (ve-) in Äiwoo, an Oceanic language of the Temotu subgroup. It argues that the functions of this prefix can be subsumed under the label pluractionality, and that it is a likely reflex of the Proto-Oceanic prefix *paRi-. However, the distribution of the Äiwoo pluractional prefix is unusual in that it most common by far with intransitive position verbs; it can also occur on transitive verbs, but this is infrequent in the available data. This paper argues that this distribution is linked to the fact that Äiwoo has a distinct transitive actor voice which covers many of the typical pluractional functions with transitives. This is particularly clear when one compares Äiwoo (v)e- to its likely cognate (v)ö- in the Santa Cruz languages, which only applies to transitive verbs with detransitivizing functions; many of the functions of SC (v)ö- are covered by the actor voice in Äiwoo. The fact that Äiwoo appears to retain both a reflex of *paRi- and an actor voice/undergoer voice distinction may provide new perspectives on the history of *paRi-, since most Oceanic languages have lost the voice distinction; this may have led to an expansion of the functions of *paRi-, as suggested by the comparison between Äiwoo and the Santa Cruz languages.
This paper describes the function and distribution of the main morphological markers of voice and... more This paper describes the function and distribution of the main morphological markers of voice and valency in the Oceanic language Äiwoo: the undergoer-voice suffixes-i,-nyi(i),-ive,-eâ, and-nâ, and the circumstantial voice clitic =Cä. It compares these functions and distributions to those reconstructed for the Proto Oceanic transitivising morphemes *-i and *akin[i], and suggests pathways of change that can account for many of the present-day Äiwoo forms as being reflexes of these morphemes and of the 3SG object clitic *=a, though some of the formal differentiation remains unexplained. This analysis implies that Äiwoo has a Philippine-type symmetrical voice system with Oceanic morphology, an unusual state of affairs which has implications for our understanding of the transition from Proto Malayo-Polynesian to Proto Oceanic. AV-take.out SPEC woman NPIV rice LOC sack for LOC child 'The woman will take some rice out of a/the sack for a/the child.' b. A-alis-in ng babae ang bigas sa sako para sa bata. DUR-take.out-PV GEN woman SPEC rice LOC sack for LOC child 'A/the woman will take the rice out of a/the sack for a/the child.' c. A-alis-an ng babae ng bigas ang sako para sa bata. DUR-take.out-LV GEN woman NPIV rice SPEC sack for LOC child 'A/the woman will take some rice out of the sack for a/the child.' d. Ipag-alis ng babae ng bigas sa sako ang bata. CV-take.out GEN woman NPIV rice LOC sack SPEC child 'A/the woman will take some rice out of a/the sack for the child.' 2 There has been considerable debate in the literature regarding what, if anything, can be considered the subject in Philippine-type symmetrical voice languages in particular, see e.g.
This paper examines a comparative construction in the Oceanic language Äiwoo and argues that it d... more This paper examines a comparative construction in the Oceanic language Äiwoo and argues that it differs from those known in the typological literature on comparatives on two counts. It is similar to a so-called ‘exceed’ comparative in involving a morpheme meaning ‘go far’; but unlike canonical exceed comparatives, the construction is intransitive, and the standard of comparison is expressed as an oblique. Moreover, the standard is indicated not only by this oblique phrase but also by a directional marker on the verb, in an extension of the frequent use of directionals in Äiwoo to indicate peripheral participants. This construction thus, on the one hand, expands the established typology of comparative constructions; and on the other, shows that the use of directional morphemes to indicate peripheral participants, otherwise attested e.g. for recipients of give verbs, may extend to the standard in comparative constructions, pointing to an avenue for further typological exploration.
This paper describes the range of strategies found in Äiwoo (a language of the Temotu subgroup of... more This paper describes the range of strategies found in Äiwoo (a language of the Temotu subgroup of Oceanic) to mark a noun as having plural reference. Äiwoo lacks an inflectional plural, and most of the strategies typically used in Oceanic languages to indicate plurality, such as articles, reduplication, and number distinctions in demonstratives, are not found in the language. Nevertheless, Äiwoo shows a large number of strategies for marking plurality on nouns. The paper describes these strategies and their affinities with other structural aspects of the language, such as verbal pronominal marking and bound noun roots, and argues that several of their properties appear unusual both from a comparative Oceanic and a general typological perspective. Thus, it expands our understanding of what plural marking in Oceanic languages may look like, as well as adding to the typological picture of plural marking as a linguistic category and of the grammaticalization pathways through which plural forms can arise. 'There were already a lot of fish, then a stingray approached.' 1.
A short dictionary of Äiwoo A short dictionary of Äiwoo Åshild Naess This is a short dictionary o... more A short dictionary of Äiwoo A short dictionary of Äiwoo Åshild Naess This is a short dictionary of the Äiwoo or Reefs language, which belongs to the Reefs-Santa Cruz group spoken in Solomon Islands' Temotu Province. It includes around 3,500 words in the Äiwoo language with English translations and examples of use, as well as an English-Äiwoo reversal list which makes it possible to find Äiwoo words based on their English translation. The dictionary is intended to be useful both for speakers of Äiwoo and for researchers interested in the language. The Reefs-Santa Cruz languages are of interest to research on Oceanic languages because their ancestral language appears to have been spoken by one of the first groups of people to leave the Proto-Oceanic homeland more than 3,000 years ago. Knowing more about these languages will help us understand more about how the Pacific region was settled and of how languages of Temotu Province are related to the rest of the Oceanic language family. The dictionary is also intended as a tool for the people of the Reef Islands to help support and develop the continued use of their language.
This paper discusses the analysis of a particular class of morphemes in the Oceanic language Äiwo... more This paper discusses the analysis of a particular class of morphemes in the Oceanic language Äiwoo, and argues that the difficulties in accounting for them in traditional terms such as nominalisation, compounding, relative clauses, or classifiers is due to their status as bound lexical morphemes, also known as bound roots, an under-discussed category in linguistic literature. It proposes some parameters of variation within bound lexical morphemes as a class and shows that the Äiwoo facts can be best accounted for by reference to these parameters, both in terms of language-internal description and crosslinguistic comparability. It argues that understanding crosslinguistic morphological structure in terms of a dichotomy between “roots” and “affixes” underplays the existing variation in linguistic structure, and that a more detailed examination is necessary of forms which do not fit clearly into this dichotomy; the discussion of the Äiwoo data aims to provide a starting-point for such ...
This paper discusses how verbal directional markers are used to encode stative spatial relations ... more This paper discusses how verbal directional markers are used to encode stative spatial relations in the Oceanic language Äiwoo. It argues that the apparent reversal of directional meaning in stative expressions, where ‘up’ is used in expressions meaning ‘underneath’, ‘down’ in expressions meaning ‘above’, and ‘out’ in expressions meaning ‘inside’, can be explained by a fictive motion analysis where the figure is construed as metaphorically moving towards the ground. It moreover argues that in expressions where motion leads to a resulting spatial configuration, where ‘up’ means ‘on top of’ rather than ‘underneath’, this reading is overridden by the so-called goal bias, whereby the resultant configuration is more cognitively salient than the motion producing it. It suggests that the linguistic construal of stative spatial relations may to some extent be correlated with the formal means of expression, where marking by adpositions favours a ‘search domain’ construal whereas encoding wit...
In this paper we discuss two cases of contact-induced language change where lexical and grammatic... more In this paper we discuss two cases of contact-induced language change where lexical and grammatical borrowing appear to have gone in opposite directions: one language has borrowed large amounts of vocabulary from another while at the same time being the source of structural borrowings into the other language. Furthermore, it appears in both cases that the structural borrowing has come about through bilingualism in L1 speakers of the source language, while L1 speakers of the language undergoing the structural change are largely monolingual. We propose that these two unusual factors are not unrelated, but that the latter is the cause of the former: Under circumstances where the numerically much smaller language in a contact situation is the contact language, the L2 speakers' variety, influenced by their L1, may spread into the monolingual community. e lexical borrowing naturally happens from the bilingual speakers' L2 into their L1, resulting in opposite directions of lexical ...
This article traces the birth of two different pink categories in western Europe and the lexicali... more This article traces the birth of two different pink categories in western Europe and the lexicalization strategies used for these categories in English, German, Bernese, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic with the cognate sets pink, rosa, bleikur, lyserød, ceris. In the 18th century, a particular shade of light red established itself in the cultural life of people in Western Europe, earning its own independent colour term. In the middle of the 20th century, a second pink category began to spread in a subset of the languages. Contemporary experimental data from the Evolution of Semantic Systems colour project (Majid et al., 2011) is analysed in light of the extant historical data on the development of these colour terms. We find that the current pink situation arose through contact-induced lexical and conceptual change. Despite the different lexicalization strategies, the terms' denotation is remarkably similar for the oldest pink category and we investigate the impact of the advent of the younger and more restricted secondary pink category on the colour categorization and colour denotations of the languages.
This paper examines the argument-marking system in the Polynesian language Vaeakau-Taumako, which... more This paper examines the argument-marking system in the Polynesian language Vaeakau-Taumako, which has pragmatically related functions similar to those found e.g. in so-called Differential Object Marking systems, but which does not refer to syntactic relations or semantic roles, the functions normally attributed to case-marking systems. It asks exactly which functions should be taken to define a case-marking system as opposed to a system marking pragmatic functions such as topic-focus-structure, and suggests a distinction between two grammatically relevant types of pragmatic salience: referent-determined salience, which is often relevant to case marking, and speaker-determined salience, which is typically encoded in purely pragmatic marking systems. On this account, referent-determined salience emerges as the property that links case-marking and pragmatic marking systems.
This paper argues that the best way of analyzing the directional morphemes in the Polynesian Outl... more This paper argues that the best way of analyzing the directional morphemes in the Polynesian Outlier Vaeakau-Taumako (Pileni) is as verbs that most frequently, but not exclusively, occur in serialization with another verb. The class of directionals in Polynesian in general is somewhat heterogeneous; most sources classify them as particles or adverbs, while often noting that some items have a limited verbal use, or are homophonous with verbs with similar meanings. The analysis of directionals as verbal in Vaeakau-Taumako suggests that they are less grammaticalized in this language than in most other Polynesian languages, and so raises the question of how this situation has arisen. One possible explanation is that the presence of verb serialization in Vaeakau-Taumako may have preserved the verbal nature of the directionals longer than in other Polynesian languages. This may in turn have been reinforced through contact with the neighboring Äiwoo language of the Reefs-Santa Cruz group, which has several serialization constructions that are structurally and functionally very similar to those found in Vaeakau-Taumako. A second possibility is that the difference between Vaeakau-Taumako and other Polynesian languages is only apparent, and that Polynesian directionals in general may have verbal properties to a greater extent than generally recognized. As Polynesian languages are poor in verbal morphology, distinguishing verb serialization from other types of complex verbal constructions in these languages is problematic, which might explain why directionals have typically not been analyzed as verbal.
This paper examines a set of structural parallels between Vaeakau-Taumako (Pileni), a Polynesian ... more This paper examines a set of structural parallels between Vaeakau-Taumako (Pileni), a Polynesian Outlier spoken in Temotu Province in the Solomon Islands, and the Vanuatu Outliers Emae, Ifira-Mele, and Futuna-Aniwa. It shows that these four languages share a set of structural features that is not, as a whole, shared by other known Polynesian languages; other languages may show one or two of the features under discussion, but not all four. It argues that the parallels are too detailed to be coincidental, and asks why it should be that just these four languages show such detailed similarities in structure. While it is not possible on the basis of the available data to decide whether the similarities should be assumed to result from shared origins or contact (or both), it is proposed that they may be seen as tentative support for the suggestion made by Bayard that the Vanuatu Outliers (and West Uvean) received their primary settlement from the Vaeakau-Taumako area, rather than directly from Triangle Polynesia.
This paper discusses a number of problems associated with the widely accepted analysis of differe... more This paper discusses a number of problems associated with the widely accepted analysis of differential object marking (DOM) as reflecting the semantic markedness of highly individuated (definite and/or animate) direct objects. Firstly, such an account is in conflict with established notions of transitivity which take a typical object to be highly affected, since affectedness can be shown to correlate with a high degree of individuation. Secondly, the notion of markedness reversal, which is employed as a means of providing a unified account of differential marking of subjects and of objects (e.g. Aissen, 2000), cannot unproblematically be applied to the kinds of oppositions typically involved in DOM. Finally, the predictions made for subject marking only partly correspond to attested linguistic data. An alternative analysis is proposed which takes accusative case-marking to be a marker of a high degree of affectedness in objects. By exploiting the association between affectedness and a high degree of individuation (definiteness/animacy), such an analysis can account for the DOM data, while avoiding the difficulties inherent to the approach which takes individuated objects to be semantically marked.
Formal models of syntax typically accord the structural position external to the verb's domai... more Formal models of syntax typically accord the structural position external to the verb's domain a privileged status in the overall syntactic makeup of a language, either by assuming that external arguments are always S or A, or by linking external argument position to syntactic pivothood. This paper demonstrates that the Oceanic language Äiwoo has an ergative verb phrase – i.e. A as the VP-internal argument and S/O as external arguments – but no corresponding S/O pivot. That is, the ergative structure of the verb phrase in Äiwoo does not entail any syntactically privileged status of the VP-external arguments; rather, it is simply a by-product of various diachronic developments. This situation shows that what has traditionally been perceived as fundamental differences in grammatical organisation – the difference between an accusative and an ergative pattern of VP structure – need not in fact be associated with any broader differences in syntactic or pragmatic structure. More impor...
This paper describes and compares comitative constructions across the Reefs-Santa Cruz languages ... more This paper describes and compares comitative constructions across the Reefs-Santa Cruz languages Äiwoo, Engdewu, Nalögo, and Natügu. Each of these languages shows a complex array of constructions, with considerable variation across languages both in the forms used, in which constructions are used for genuine comitative versus depictive constructions (as in I climbed with the basket, where I am climbing but the basket is not), and in which additional functions the different constructions can be extended to. At the same time, there are commonalities across the four languages, as would be expected from a low-level Oceanic subgroup such as Reefs-Santa Cruz; but the commonalities are complex and crosscut constructions and language groupings. Our historical account of this situation takes as its starting point the Proto-Oceanic comitative forms *ma, *ma-i, and *aki[ni] and assumes different grammaticalization paths and functional extensions across the languages, in particular, in Äiwoo, on the one hand, and the Santa Cruz languages, on the other. We thus contribute to disentangling the complex historical relationships within this language group, which has only fairly recently been recognized as Oceanic.
This paper examines the uses of the prefix e- (ve-) in Äiwoo, an Oceanic
language of the Temotu s... more This paper examines the uses of the prefix e- (ve-) in Äiwoo, an Oceanic language of the Temotu subgroup. It argues that the functions of this prefix can be subsumed under the label pluractionality, and that it is a likely reflex of the Proto-Oceanic prefix *paRi-. However, the distribution of the Äiwoo pluractional prefix is unusual in that it most common by far with intransitive position verbs; it can also occur on transitive verbs, but this is infrequent in the available data. This paper argues that this distribution is linked to the fact that Äiwoo has a distinct transitive actor voice which covers many of the typical pluractional functions with transitives. This is particularly clear when one compares Äiwoo (v)e- to its likely cognate (v)ö- in the Santa Cruz languages, which only applies to transitive verbs with detransitivizing functions; many of the functions of SC (v)ö- are covered by the actor voice in Äiwoo. The fact that Äiwoo appears to retain both a reflex of *paRi- and an actor voice/undergoer voice distinction may provide new perspectives on the history of *paRi-, since most Oceanic languages have lost the voice distinction; this may have led to an expansion of the functions of *paRi-, as suggested by the comparison between Äiwoo and the Santa Cruz languages.
This paper describes the function and distribution of the main morphological markers of voice and... more This paper describes the function and distribution of the main morphological markers of voice and valency in the Oceanic language Äiwoo: the undergoer-voice suffixes-i,-nyi(i),-ive,-eâ, and-nâ, and the circumstantial voice clitic =Cä. It compares these functions and distributions to those reconstructed for the Proto Oceanic transitivising morphemes *-i and *akin[i], and suggests pathways of change that can account for many of the present-day Äiwoo forms as being reflexes of these morphemes and of the 3SG object clitic *=a, though some of the formal differentiation remains unexplained. This analysis implies that Äiwoo has a Philippine-type symmetrical voice system with Oceanic morphology, an unusual state of affairs which has implications for our understanding of the transition from Proto Malayo-Polynesian to Proto Oceanic. AV-take.out SPEC woman NPIV rice LOC sack for LOC child 'The woman will take some rice out of a/the sack for a/the child.' b. A-alis-in ng babae ang bigas sa sako para sa bata. DUR-take.out-PV GEN woman SPEC rice LOC sack for LOC child 'A/the woman will take the rice out of a/the sack for a/the child.' c. A-alis-an ng babae ng bigas ang sako para sa bata. DUR-take.out-LV GEN woman NPIV rice SPEC sack for LOC child 'A/the woman will take some rice out of the sack for a/the child.' d. Ipag-alis ng babae ng bigas sa sako ang bata. CV-take.out GEN woman NPIV rice LOC sack SPEC child 'A/the woman will take some rice out of a/the sack for the child.' 2 There has been considerable debate in the literature regarding what, if anything, can be considered the subject in Philippine-type symmetrical voice languages in particular, see e.g.
This paper examines a comparative construction in the Oceanic language Äiwoo and argues that it d... more This paper examines a comparative construction in the Oceanic language Äiwoo and argues that it differs from those known in the typological literature on comparatives on two counts. It is similar to a so-called ‘exceed’ comparative in involving a morpheme meaning ‘go far’; but unlike canonical exceed comparatives, the construction is intransitive, and the standard of comparison is expressed as an oblique. Moreover, the standard is indicated not only by this oblique phrase but also by a directional marker on the verb, in an extension of the frequent use of directionals in Äiwoo to indicate peripheral participants. This construction thus, on the one hand, expands the established typology of comparative constructions; and on the other, shows that the use of directional morphemes to indicate peripheral participants, otherwise attested e.g. for recipients of give verbs, may extend to the standard in comparative constructions, pointing to an avenue for further typological exploration.
This paper describes the range of strategies found in Äiwoo (a language of the Temotu subgroup of... more This paper describes the range of strategies found in Äiwoo (a language of the Temotu subgroup of Oceanic) to mark a noun as having plural reference. Äiwoo lacks an inflectional plural, and most of the strategies typically used in Oceanic languages to indicate plurality, such as articles, reduplication, and number distinctions in demonstratives, are not found in the language. Nevertheless, Äiwoo shows a large number of strategies for marking plurality on nouns. The paper describes these strategies and their affinities with other structural aspects of the language, such as verbal pronominal marking and bound noun roots, and argues that several of their properties appear unusual both from a comparative Oceanic and a general typological perspective. Thus, it expands our understanding of what plural marking in Oceanic languages may look like, as well as adding to the typological picture of plural marking as a linguistic category and of the grammaticalization pathways through which plural forms can arise. 'There were already a lot of fish, then a stingray approached.' 1.
A short dictionary of Äiwoo A short dictionary of Äiwoo Åshild Naess This is a short dictionary o... more A short dictionary of Äiwoo A short dictionary of Äiwoo Åshild Naess This is a short dictionary of the Äiwoo or Reefs language, which belongs to the Reefs-Santa Cruz group spoken in Solomon Islands' Temotu Province. It includes around 3,500 words in the Äiwoo language with English translations and examples of use, as well as an English-Äiwoo reversal list which makes it possible to find Äiwoo words based on their English translation. The dictionary is intended to be useful both for speakers of Äiwoo and for researchers interested in the language. The Reefs-Santa Cruz languages are of interest to research on Oceanic languages because their ancestral language appears to have been spoken by one of the first groups of people to leave the Proto-Oceanic homeland more than 3,000 years ago. Knowing more about these languages will help us understand more about how the Pacific region was settled and of how languages of Temotu Province are related to the rest of the Oceanic language family. The dictionary is also intended as a tool for the people of the Reef Islands to help support and develop the continued use of their language.
This paper discusses the analysis of a particular class of morphemes in the Oceanic language Äiwo... more This paper discusses the analysis of a particular class of morphemes in the Oceanic language Äiwoo, and argues that the difficulties in accounting for them in traditional terms such as nominalisation, compounding, relative clauses, or classifiers is due to their status as bound lexical morphemes, also known as bound roots, an under-discussed category in linguistic literature. It proposes some parameters of variation within bound lexical morphemes as a class and shows that the Äiwoo facts can be best accounted for by reference to these parameters, both in terms of language-internal description and crosslinguistic comparability. It argues that understanding crosslinguistic morphological structure in terms of a dichotomy between “roots” and “affixes” underplays the existing variation in linguistic structure, and that a more detailed examination is necessary of forms which do not fit clearly into this dichotomy; the discussion of the Äiwoo data aims to provide a starting-point for such ...
This paper discusses how verbal directional markers are used to encode stative spatial relations ... more This paper discusses how verbal directional markers are used to encode stative spatial relations in the Oceanic language Äiwoo. It argues that the apparent reversal of directional meaning in stative expressions, where ‘up’ is used in expressions meaning ‘underneath’, ‘down’ in expressions meaning ‘above’, and ‘out’ in expressions meaning ‘inside’, can be explained by a fictive motion analysis where the figure is construed as metaphorically moving towards the ground. It moreover argues that in expressions where motion leads to a resulting spatial configuration, where ‘up’ means ‘on top of’ rather than ‘underneath’, this reading is overridden by the so-called goal bias, whereby the resultant configuration is more cognitively salient than the motion producing it. It suggests that the linguistic construal of stative spatial relations may to some extent be correlated with the formal means of expression, where marking by adpositions favours a ‘search domain’ construal whereas encoding wit...
In this paper we discuss two cases of contact-induced language change where lexical and grammatic... more In this paper we discuss two cases of contact-induced language change where lexical and grammatical borrowing appear to have gone in opposite directions: one language has borrowed large amounts of vocabulary from another while at the same time being the source of structural borrowings into the other language. Furthermore, it appears in both cases that the structural borrowing has come about through bilingualism in L1 speakers of the source language, while L1 speakers of the language undergoing the structural change are largely monolingual. We propose that these two unusual factors are not unrelated, but that the latter is the cause of the former: Under circumstances where the numerically much smaller language in a contact situation is the contact language, the L2 speakers' variety, influenced by their L1, may spread into the monolingual community. e lexical borrowing naturally happens from the bilingual speakers' L2 into their L1, resulting in opposite directions of lexical ...
This article traces the birth of two different pink categories in western Europe and the lexicali... more This article traces the birth of two different pink categories in western Europe and the lexicalization strategies used for these categories in English, German, Bernese, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic with the cognate sets pink, rosa, bleikur, lyserød, ceris. In the 18th century, a particular shade of light red established itself in the cultural life of people in Western Europe, earning its own independent colour term. In the middle of the 20th century, a second pink category began to spread in a subset of the languages. Contemporary experimental data from the Evolution of Semantic Systems colour project (Majid et al., 2011) is analysed in light of the extant historical data on the development of these colour terms. We find that the current pink situation arose through contact-induced lexical and conceptual change. Despite the different lexicalization strategies, the terms' denotation is remarkably similar for the oldest pink category and we investigate the impact of the advent of the younger and more restricted secondary pink category on the colour categorization and colour denotations of the languages.
This paper examines the argument-marking system in the Polynesian language Vaeakau-Taumako, which... more This paper examines the argument-marking system in the Polynesian language Vaeakau-Taumako, which has pragmatically related functions similar to those found e.g. in so-called Differential Object Marking systems, but which does not refer to syntactic relations or semantic roles, the functions normally attributed to case-marking systems. It asks exactly which functions should be taken to define a case-marking system as opposed to a system marking pragmatic functions such as topic-focus-structure, and suggests a distinction between two grammatically relevant types of pragmatic salience: referent-determined salience, which is often relevant to case marking, and speaker-determined salience, which is typically encoded in purely pragmatic marking systems. On this account, referent-determined salience emerges as the property that links case-marking and pragmatic marking systems.
This paper argues that the best way of analyzing the directional morphemes in the Polynesian Outl... more This paper argues that the best way of analyzing the directional morphemes in the Polynesian Outlier Vaeakau-Taumako (Pileni) is as verbs that most frequently, but not exclusively, occur in serialization with another verb. The class of directionals in Polynesian in general is somewhat heterogeneous; most sources classify them as particles or adverbs, while often noting that some items have a limited verbal use, or are homophonous with verbs with similar meanings. The analysis of directionals as verbal in Vaeakau-Taumako suggests that they are less grammaticalized in this language than in most other Polynesian languages, and so raises the question of how this situation has arisen. One possible explanation is that the presence of verb serialization in Vaeakau-Taumako may have preserved the verbal nature of the directionals longer than in other Polynesian languages. This may in turn have been reinforced through contact with the neighboring Äiwoo language of the Reefs-Santa Cruz group, which has several serialization constructions that are structurally and functionally very similar to those found in Vaeakau-Taumako. A second possibility is that the difference between Vaeakau-Taumako and other Polynesian languages is only apparent, and that Polynesian directionals in general may have verbal properties to a greater extent than generally recognized. As Polynesian languages are poor in verbal morphology, distinguishing verb serialization from other types of complex verbal constructions in these languages is problematic, which might explain why directionals have typically not been analyzed as verbal.
This paper examines a set of structural parallels between Vaeakau-Taumako (Pileni), a Polynesian ... more This paper examines a set of structural parallels between Vaeakau-Taumako (Pileni), a Polynesian Outlier spoken in Temotu Province in the Solomon Islands, and the Vanuatu Outliers Emae, Ifira-Mele, and Futuna-Aniwa. It shows that these four languages share a set of structural features that is not, as a whole, shared by other known Polynesian languages; other languages may show one or two of the features under discussion, but not all four. It argues that the parallels are too detailed to be coincidental, and asks why it should be that just these four languages show such detailed similarities in structure. While it is not possible on the basis of the available data to decide whether the similarities should be assumed to result from shared origins or contact (or both), it is proposed that they may be seen as tentative support for the suggestion made by Bayard that the Vanuatu Outliers (and West Uvean) received their primary settlement from the Vaeakau-Taumako area, rather than directly from Triangle Polynesia.
This paper discusses a number of problems associated with the widely accepted analysis of differe... more This paper discusses a number of problems associated with the widely accepted analysis of differential object marking (DOM) as reflecting the semantic markedness of highly individuated (definite and/or animate) direct objects. Firstly, such an account is in conflict with established notions of transitivity which take a typical object to be highly affected, since affectedness can be shown to correlate with a high degree of individuation. Secondly, the notion of markedness reversal, which is employed as a means of providing a unified account of differential marking of subjects and of objects (e.g. Aissen, 2000), cannot unproblematically be applied to the kinds of oppositions typically involved in DOM. Finally, the predictions made for subject marking only partly correspond to attested linguistic data. An alternative analysis is proposed which takes accusative case-marking to be a marker of a high degree of affectedness in objects. By exploiting the association between affectedness and a high degree of individuation (definiteness/animacy), such an analysis can account for the DOM data, while avoiding the difficulties inherent to the approach which takes individuated objects to be semantically marked.
Formal models of syntax typically accord the structural position external to the verb's domai... more Formal models of syntax typically accord the structural position external to the verb's domain a privileged status in the overall syntactic makeup of a language, either by assuming that external arguments are always S or A, or by linking external argument position to syntactic pivothood. This paper demonstrates that the Oceanic language Äiwoo has an ergative verb phrase – i.e. A as the VP-internal argument and S/O as external arguments – but no corresponding S/O pivot. That is, the ergative structure of the verb phrase in Äiwoo does not entail any syntactically privileged status of the VP-external arguments; rather, it is simply a by-product of various diachronic developments. This situation shows that what has traditionally been perceived as fundamental differences in grammatical organisation – the difference between an accusative and an ergative pattern of VP structure – need not in fact be associated with any broader differences in syntactic or pragmatic structure. More impor...
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language of the Temotu subgroup. It argues that the functions of this prefix can be subsumed under the label pluractionality, and that it is a likely reflex of the Proto-Oceanic prefix *paRi-. However, the distribution of the Äiwoo pluractional prefix is unusual in that it most common by far with intransitive position verbs; it can also occur on transitive verbs, but this is infrequent in the available data. This paper argues that this distribution is linked to the fact that Äiwoo has a distinct transitive actor voice which covers many of the typical pluractional functions with transitives. This is particularly clear when one compares Äiwoo (v)e- to its likely cognate (v)ö- in the Santa Cruz languages, which only applies to transitive verbs with detransitivizing functions; many of the functions of SC (v)ö- are covered by the actor voice in Äiwoo. The fact that Äiwoo appears to retain both a reflex of *paRi- and an actor voice/undergoer voice distinction may provide new perspectives on the history of *paRi-, since most Oceanic languages have lost the voice distinction; this may have led to an expansion of the functions of *paRi-, as suggested by the comparison between Äiwoo and the Santa Cruz languages.
language of the Temotu subgroup. It argues that the functions of this prefix can be subsumed under the label pluractionality, and that it is a likely reflex of the Proto-Oceanic prefix *paRi-. However, the distribution of the Äiwoo pluractional prefix is unusual in that it most common by far with intransitive position verbs; it can also occur on transitive verbs, but this is infrequent in the available data. This paper argues that this distribution is linked to the fact that Äiwoo has a distinct transitive actor voice which covers many of the typical pluractional functions with transitives. This is particularly clear when one compares Äiwoo (v)e- to its likely cognate (v)ö- in the Santa Cruz languages, which only applies to transitive verbs with detransitivizing functions; many of the functions of SC (v)ö- are covered by the actor voice in Äiwoo. The fact that Äiwoo appears to retain both a reflex of *paRi- and an actor voice/undergoer voice distinction may provide new perspectives on the history of *paRi-, since most Oceanic languages have lost the voice distinction; this may have led to an expansion of the functions of *paRi-, as suggested by the comparison between Äiwoo and the Santa Cruz languages.