Functional grammar of Nunggubuyu Jeffrey Heath Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies Canberra 1984 Published in Australia by the Contents Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, GPO Box 553, Canberra, ACT 2601. Sold and distributed in North and South America by Humanities Press Inc., 171 First Avenue, Atlantic Highlands, NJ 07716. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. ~Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies 1984. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication TABLES/FIGURES/TEXT xi may be reproduced by any process whatsoever without ABBREVIATIONS/SYMBOLS xiii the written permission of the publisher. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 AlAS new series no. 53 1.1 The Nunggubuyu people 1 1.2 Main features of the language 1 National Library of Australia 1.3 The data base and its usage here 4 Cataloguing-in-Publication data: 1.4 Use of this grammar 6 1.5 Acknowledgements 7 Heath, Jeffrey. Functional grammar of Nunggubuyu. CHAPTER 2 SEGMENTAL PHONETlCS/PHONOLOGY 9 Includes index. 2.1 Vowel segments 9 2.2 Vowel archiphoneme /V/ and other ISBN 0 85575 157 6. problematic cases 10 1. Nunggubuyu language - Grammar. 2.3 Consonantal segments 11 I. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. 2.4 Consonant archiphonemes /G/ and /N/ 13 II. Title. 2.5 Paired stops and continuants; the problem of /wl/ and /w2/ 14 499' .15 2.6 Distributional restrictions: vowels 17 2.7 Distributional restrictions: initial and final C, CC 18 2.8 Distributional restrictions: medial CC clusters 20 2.9 CCC clusters 30 2.10 Phonologically significant phoneme classes 31 2.11 Intonation and pitch contour 32 2.12 /0:/ 33 CHAPTER 3 PHONOLOGICAL RULES 35 3.1 General 35 3.2 ngu-Epenthesis P-l 35 3.3 Initial Reduplication P-2 37 3.4 Final Reduplication P-3 41 84 06 1000 3.5 Homorganic Semivowel-Deletion p-4 42 Printed in Australia by Brown Prior Anderson Pty Ltd, Melbourne 3.6 Initial Semivowel-Insertion P-5 46 3.7 wI-Insertion p-6 46 ii iii 47 4.5 Place names (toponyms) 156 3.8 w-Insertion :-7 48 4.6 Inflection and derivation 159 3.9 Velar-Insertlon p-8 50 4.7 NC (noun-class) prefixes: forms 159 3.10 wl-Deletion P-9 53 4.8 Uses of NCinfl prefixes 163 3.11 y-Insertion P-10 . 53 4.9 Uses of NCder prefixes; defective (bound) roots 173 3.12 Prefixal w2-D~letlon P-ll 55 4.10 Semantics of NC categories: human 177 3.13 Stern w2-Deletl~n P-12 56 4.11 Semantics of nonhuman NC categories: NA, NgARA 179 3.14 wl-Palatalisatlon P-13 57 4.12 Semantics of nonhuman NC categories: WARA 185 3.15 yr-Contraction p-14 57 4.13 Semantics of nonhuman NC categories: 3.16 iy-Contraction P-15 58 ANA¢, ANAwu, and MANA 186 3.17 Lenition p-16 62 4.14 Types of reduplication 193 3.18 ~igu-Lenition P-17 62 4.15 Regular number-marking 195 3.19 Hardening p-18 . 64 4.16 Minor plural markers: Iman-/,!-mulung-I, g g 33 .. 2201 LPeroftnwoamrdin-Hala rdd-eI.nmsnegr tP'l -O1~9 P -20 6656 4.17 Multip/l-ew ~/-awngl/a,r a/(-Gy)u-n/, /,P 1 anind te-nysinifYiuenr // -lhangu/ 119978 3.22 Derivational d-Insertlon P-2l 66 4.18 Case system: general 199 3.23 Nasalisation P-22 67 4.19 Nominative /-¢/ 200 3.24 Denasalisat~on P-23 68 4.20 Allative-Dative /-wluy/; 3.25 rn-Contractlon p-24 68 direct vs. indirect object 201 3.26 r-Deletion P-:5 69 4.21 Ablative /-wlala/ 203 3.27 palatal-D~l~tlo~ p-26 70 4.22 Special nuclear uses of /-wluy/ and /-wlala/ 204 3.28 Nasal-Asslmllat~on P-27 71 4.23 Pergressive /-w2aj/ and Retrospective 3.29 Semivowel-Deletlon P-28 72 Pergressive /-wlaj/ 205 3.30 Stop-Deleti~n P-29 73 4.24 Purposive!--YUngguyung/ 208 3.31 Nasal-Deletlon P-~O 74 4.25 Locative -ruj/ . 208 3.32 Geminate-Con~rac~lon P-3l 75 4.26 Ablative-Pergressive /-wlala-waj/ 210 3.33 lh_Delaterallsatlon.P-32 76 4.27 Instrumenta~-miri/ 210 3.34 Initial Nasal-Deletlon :-33 76 4.28 Originative -mira:dhu/ 212 3 35 Feminine Prefix-Truncatlon P-34 76 4.29 Similative -yi:/ 212 3:36 Prefix-Truncation P-35 78 4.30 Relative /-yinYung/ 213 3.37 rV-Truncati~n P-36 79 4.31 Vocatives 217 3.38 V-Assimilatlon P-37 80 4.32 Postpositions: /-W2ugij/, /-maji:/, 3.39 V-Ablaut P-38 . P 86 /-w indi:yung/, /-maga:/, i-magi/ 217 3.40 Interjection-Formatlon -39 86 4.33 Nouns use~ as abstractives: /wunga:ri/, 3.41 Rdp-Shortenin~ p-40 87 /wumangumangu/, /wungali/, /bari/, /lhaEug/, 3.42 Nonsg-Shortenl~ P-4l 87 /wungubal/, /wuyungguwan/, /galij/ 218 3.43 Adverb-Shorten~g p-42 88 4.34 Nominal affixes used with other word-classes 219 3.44 Length-Shift p-43 . p-44 88 3.45 Monosyllable-~engthenlng 91 CHAPTER 5 KIN TERMS 221 3.46 Verb-Lengthenlng p-45 92 3.47 V-Truncation p-46 93 5.1 General 221 5.2 Stern morphology 224 3.48 yi-Elision P-~7 93 g 3 49 w2an-Contractlon P-48 94 5.3 Dual /-w2a:/ and /-w2i:yun / 228 3:50 vv-Contraction P-49 101 5.4 Further analysis of stern forms 228 3 51 V-Fronting P-50 106 5.5 NPs with separate expression of propositus 230 3:52 Order of application . 142 5.6 Dyadic kin terms 231 3 53 Diagrams of rule orderlng 144 5.7 Bereavement terms and avoidance style 233 3:54 Final remarks on phonology 5.8 Markedness relations; choice of propositus 234 g 5.9 Suffix sequence /-lhara-yun / 234 151 5.10 Kinship subcategories; body-part metonyms 234 CHAPTER 4 NOUN MORPHOLOGY 151 5.11 Nonhuman kin terms and compounds 237 4.1 General 152 5.12 Kinship verbs 238 Cornmon and adjectival nouns 4.2 154 4.3 Adverbial nouns 155 4.4 Personal names, including necronyms v iv CHAPI'ER 6 PERSONAL PRONOUNS 241 7.24 Extent DemAdv in / -ga-waj~ 327 Y 7.25 Type derivatives:!.i:-jun /~ /i:-jin /, 6.1 General 241 g g /i:-jinYun , /bu-junJun / 327 6.2 Stem forms 242 7.26 Perspective shift 328 6.3 Uses of Nominative pronouns 245 7.27 Demonstrative categories associated with 6.4 Uses of Relative case forms of pronouns 248 pronominal persons 331 6.5 Unsuffixed Oblique stem (predicate genitive) 250 7.28 Deictic measures of distance: /ngunYju ... nga ... / 332 6.6 Other nonzero case forms 251 7.29 Cardinal directions: compass points, up/down 333 6.7 Vocatives 253 g 7.30 Postpositions with demonstratives: /-w ugij/, 6.8 Contrastive /-ayun /, /-ayung-gaj/ 254 2 /-lhangu/, /-w2indi:yung/, /-maga:/, 6.9 Emphatic /-waj/, /-waj-baj/ 261 /-magi/, /-maji:/ 334 6.10 Sequential /-abilhangu/ 264 7.31 Temporal orientation 335 6.11 Lateral derivatives 265 6.12 Suffix /-miri/ 266 6.13 Postpositions: /-w ugij/, /-maji:/, etc. 266 CHAPTER 8 OUTLINE OF THE VERBAL INFLECTJDNAL SYSTEM 337 2 6.14 Interaction of pronominal and 8.1 Tense-Aspect-Mood-Negativity categories 337 demonstrative categories 267 8.2 Formal expression of the categories 338 8.3 Aspect 340 CHAPTER 7 DEMONSTRATIVES 269 8.4 Verb reduplication 341 8.5 Imperative 343 7.1 General 269 7.2 Forms of predicative (unprefixed) DemPro 271 8.6 Past Potential 345 8.7 Evitative 346 7.3 Forms of nonpredicative (prefixed) DemPro 274 7.4 Uses of predicative and nonpredicative DemPro 278 7.5 Centripetal I-alai, Centrifugal I-alii, CHAPI'ER 9 PRONOMINAL PREFIXES WITH VERBS 347 Transverse / -waj/ 281 9.1 General 347 7.6 Concrete /-u/ 287 9.2 Additional phonological modifications 350 g 7.7 Absolute /-yun / and Absolute Dual /-yum-ba:/ 291 9.3 Formal internal analysis of pronominal prefixes 360 7.8 Centripetal plus Ablative: /an-uba-ni:-'la-wala/ 295 9.4 Direct, inverse, and equipollent g 7.9 /-ala-yun /, /-ala-yung-gala/, transitive prefixes 362 ~-ala-YUng-gala-Waj/ 296 9.5 Ca tegorial neutralisat ions in transitive prefixes 363 7.10 /-yun -gaj/ 297 9.6 Portmanteaus 363 7.11 Demonstrative adverbs (DemAdv) in general 298 9.7 The pronominal hierarchy and 7.12 Locative DemAdv in /-ji/,/-gU/ 299 morpheme ordering rules 366 7.13 Allative DemAdv in /-guni 303 9.8 B-Insertion and Inverse-Insertion 368 7.14 Directional DemAdv in /-u-wuy/ 307 9.9 Deletions of component morphemes g 7.15 Centripetal DemAdv in I-alai, /-ala-yun / 309 within pronominal prefixes 369 7.16 Centrifugal DemAdv in I-alii 313 9.10 A morpheme conversion rule ( .... Pl- becomes -Nonsg-) 372 7.17 Pergressive DemAdv in /-waj/, /-waj-gaj/, 9.11 Allomorph-Assignment for component morphemes 372 /-wlala-waj/ 314 9.12 Nominative-accusative or ergative-absolutive 7.18 Case suffixes with DemAdv and DemPro: patterning? 375 Locative /-ruj/ 317 7.19 Case suffixes with DemAdv and DemPro: CHAPI'ER 10 VERBAL DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES 377 Instrumental / -miri/ 318 10.1 General 7.20 Case suffixes with DemAdv and DemPro:!.-mira:dhu/, 377 g 10.2 Benefactive /-aG-/ or /-wa:G-/ 377 /-wlala/, /-WyUy~, /-yungguyun , 10.3 Comitative /-anYji-/ 381 / -yi: /, / -yin un / 320 10.4 Multiple prefixes: /-ngaran-/ or /-ngaraG-/, 7.21 Lateral DemAdv and DemPro: /ya:-ji-ji:-'la/, /-wlara-/ o;<-wlaraG-/, /-lhagara-/, /ya:-ji-ji:-'li/, /wa-ga-ga:-'la/, /-wlaragara- , /-w algara-/ 383 /wa-ni:-'la/, etc. 322 2 10.5 Reflexive suffix /-i-// 389 7.22 'Facing here/away/' derivatives /-bu-gunu:-'/, 10.6 Reciprocal suffix /-nYji-/ 391 !buguwugunu:/, /ba-ga:-'la/, 10.7 Causative suffix /-jga-/, /-jgi-/ 393 /bagawaga:la/, g/bagawaga:lu:/ 325 10.8 Inchoative verbalising suffixes /-ma-/, /-Wli-'-/, 7.23 Companrls with /mulun -/ 'group' and /-w2i-/, /-dhi-/ 395 Gentilic /nuN-/ 326 vi vii Y 10.9 Factitive /-wla-/, /-ga-/ 398 13.4 jyangi-maYi~ /nun -~angi-maYi/ '(of) what place?' '457 10.10 Minor derivational affixes: 'together' prefixes 13.5 /yangi-nYun /, /gan i-nYum-ba:/, /-anggara-/, /-albunguN-/, /-ilbuN-/, /yanga-yan i/ 'who?' 457 /-ambirwir-/, /-w~aji-/; 13.6 /-ngarg~ 'how much?, how many?' 458 suffixes /-ja-/, /-dha-/, /-mi-/ 400 13.7 /lhal-n argu/ 'when?' 459 10.11 Combinations of two or more derivational affixes 402 13.8 Interrogative-demonstratives 459 13.9 Interro~ative verb /=yaminggari-/ 461 CHAPl'ER 11 VERBAL INFLECTIONAL SUFFIXES 407 13.10 /(w)a:n / 'whatchamacallit?' 461 11.1 General 407 CHAPI'ER 14 COMPOUNDS AND SIMILAR DERIVATIVES 463 11.2 Verb classes 407 11.3 Identification of suffix allomorphs 412 14.1 Classification of cpds. 463 11.4 Identification of stem-final vowel 414 14.2 Special cpd. initials 465 11.5 YA class augments 415 14.3 Special cpd. finals 468 11.6 Suppletive verbs: 'to come', 'to go' 415 14.4 Auxiliary compound finals: /-w2u-/ and others 469 11.7 Aspectual subsystems in the 14.5 Nc-NAdj and (rare) Nc-Nc cpds. 471 inflectional affixation 416 14.6 Grammatical relation of nominal cpd. initial 472 11.8 Assignment of verbs to inflectional classes 417 14.7 Derivational layering (double cpds., etc.) 475 11.9 Textual attestations (selected) 421 14.8 Discourse uses of productive cpds. 477 14.9 Transitivity changes accompanying compounding 478 CHAPl'ER 12 PARTICLES AND POSTPOSITIONS 423 14.10 Unmarked (dummy) cpd. initials: /-w1ara-!, /-lhalma-/, /-ngagara-/, /~rangga-/, 12.1 Definitions: particle, postposition, /-WUEugu-/, /-malangaG-/, /:aG-/ 480 enclitic particle 423 14.11 Gentilic /nuN-/ 481 12.2 Verbal root forms 423 14.12 Special nuclear initials: /bala-/ 'side', 12.3 /a£aba/ or jabal 'now, then' (immediate) 425 /malG-/ 'time(s), , /agalhal-/ 'season', 12.4 /mari/ or /nga/ 'and' 426 /lhal-/ 'country, place' 482 12.5 /wuruguL 'later' 430 g 14.13 /wlandha-/ 'craving', /anYji-/ 'being with' 12.6 /ngijan / 'more, again, further' 430 as cpd. initials 482 12.7 AnticiPatorY/Yingga/, /araga/ 'suddenly', 14.14 Proprietive derivation: reduplication /giya: 'lo~k out:'" g" 431 and suffix /-yij/ 483 12.8 Confirmative par~lcles: (~l~aJ/, (n,ublndl/ 434 14.15 Nc or NAdj nominaliser /-j/ 12.9 Exhortative partlcles: /jlrl/, /wlll/, g (with or without reduplication) 484 /nga:ban /, /ma/ 434 14.16 Abstractive nominalisations: /-j/, /-nY/ 486 12.10 Concessive /wulguy/, Adversative /yagu/ 435 14.17 Special reduplications of /anYbaj/ 12.11 Dubitatives /aEi/, /muga/, /nga:lhug/ 438 'other, different' 486 12.12 jyaga:/ 439 14.18 Cpd. initial /-malangaG-/ 'considerably, very' 487 12.13 Similative /ngunYju/ 'like, as' 440 14.19 Actor-indexing cpd. initials for myth characters 487 12.14/arbidi/ 'anyway' (noun) 442 14.20 Special PI/Collective initials with verbs and 12.15 Enclitic /yamba/ 'because' y g 442 g NAdj: /-man-/, /-mandag-/, /-mulun -/ 488 12.16 Emotive exclamations: /a£uga/, Ian jawalayun / 444 14.21 Root nouns (participial, agentive); 12.17 Terminal particle /wi:ya:/ 'that's all:' 445 Negative final /-aEi/ 490 12.18 Affirmative particles: /yao:/, /i:/ 445 14.22 /-w alij/ 'pair of' 12.19 Self-correcting /gada:/ 446 2 491 14.23 Diminutives (compounded or by 12.20 Exclamations: 19ao:7, /way:/, /gay:/, consonantal "symbolism") 492 /yay:/, /gaga:/, /yagay:/ 446 14.24 Irregular and problematiC sets 493 12.21 Postpositions: !-w ugij/, /-maji:/, /gmaga:/, 2 14.25 Numerals; /anYja:-'nYja:-'nYja:bugij/ /-magi/, /-w2indi:yung/, /-lhan u/ 447 'one by one' 494 CHAPl'ER 13 INTERROGATIVES 453 g 13.1 Yes/no particles: /yu:ga/, /aliyun /, /ala/ 453 13.2 WH interrogatives: general remarks 454 13.3 /yangi/ 'what?' 455 viii ix 497 TABLES SYNTAX: "PHRASE" AND "CLAUSE" LEVEL CHAPTER 15 497 15.1 General 497 ~ ~ 15.2 Status of "NP" 2-1 Consonant Phonemes 12 9-3 ISg Object Prefixes 349 506 15.3 Status of "VP" . . 2-2 Final Consonants 19 9-4 lExPl Object Prefixes 350 15.4 Basic word order patterns wlthln 507 2-3 Intervocalic CIC2 9-5 lInDu Object Prefixes 350 breath/intonation groups 4 Clusters 21-22 9-6 lInPl Object Prefixes 351 15.5 St a t us of "clause"; double-pr"e dicate construction 51 4-1 Forms of Noun-Glass 9-7 2Sg Object Prefixes 351 15.6 Negation, "negative cont~xt, Prefixes 160 9-8 2Pl Object Prefixes 352 and aspectual skewlng 554109 4-2 Correlation of NCinfl Form 9-9 3Pl/WARA Object Conjunction (of nouns, etc.) with Case Category 164 15.7 Prefixes 353-354 545 15.8 Possession 4-3 NCde7 Paradigm of 9-10 3MSg Object Prefixes 355 15.9 Grammatical relations; "dummy" subjects 550 /muwaj/ 'name' 174 9-11 NA Object Prefixes 356 g 5-1 Kin-Term Stems 225-228 9-12 3FSg/N ARA Object 557 CHAPTER 16 SYNTAX: COMPLEX CONSTRUCTIONS 5-2 Body-Part Metonyms 235 Prefixes 357 6 Simple clause conjunction and chaining 557 6-1 Personal Pronouns g 243 9-13 ANA¢ Object Prefixes 357 1 .1 Status of "complement" and "subordinated" clauses 558 6-2 Analysis of /-ayun / and 9-14 ANAwu Object Prefixes 358 1166..23 Direct and indirecthqu/o t ~ t·y ong/ 559 7-1 PreNdiocmaitnivateiv De emPrPoron ouns 227525 99--1165 SMAtrNuA cOtubrjee cot fP refixes 359 6 4 Relative clause wit -ylIT un ; 1 . case-spreading from head nOMn 560 7-2 Human Nonpredicative Basic PMs 361 6 Purposive clause with /-~ungguy~n~~ . 570 DemPro 274 11-1 Classes with 16'~ Other case suffix subordlnators. /-ruJ/, /-wlala/, 7-3 Nonhuman Nonpredicative Stem-Final lal 408 DemPro 275-276 11-2 Classes with 1 . /-waj/, /-wluy/, /-mira:dhu/, /-miri/, / -yi:! 572 7-4 Motion Forms of DemPro 282 Stem-Final iii 408 577 7-5 Frequency of Concrete 11-3 Classes with 1166..78 C'toon dwiatinotn' aclso nstruction 582 Imm Forms 288 Stem-Final lui 409 7-6 Frequency of 11-4 Augment Classes: 1 6 .9 Rough we'n:1i. tuhi vcaolmenptlse moefn tEs nglish matrix verb 584 Absolute /-yung/ 292 Nand YA 409 587 7-7 Locative DemAdv 300 11-5 Classes with Augment 16.10 Comparatives 7-8 Allative DemAdv 303 -nga- 410 589 7-9 Directional DemAdv 307 11-6 Classes with Augments FUNCTIONAL SYSTEMATICS (TEXT ANALYSIS) CHAPTER 17 7-10 Centripetal DemAdv 309 -ma-, -ra- 411 17.1 General 589 7-11 Centrifugal DemAdv 313 11-7 Verbs with NonpasiQ -yi: 411 17.2 Remarks on "Text A" 589 7-12 Pergressive DemAdv 315 11-8 Suppletive I=ya(:)-/, 17.3 Information units in Text A 7-13 Other Case Forms of I=Euma-1 'to go' 411 (Echoes, Rephrasings, etc.) 591 DemAdv and DemPro 321-322 12-1 Root Forms 424 602 17.4 Discourse uses of intonation . . 7-14 Lateral DemAdv 13-1 Interrogative- 604 17.5 Referential tracking and disa~blguatlon and DemPro 323 Demonstratives 459 606 17.6 Focus, topic, definiteness, glve~ess 7-15 Cardinal Directions 333 14-1 SpeCial Cpd. Initials 465 17.7 Preposed and "afterthought" constltuents 612 8-1 Verbal Inflectional 14-2 Phonologically Irregular 615 17.8 Compounding in Text A Categories 337 Cpd. Initials 466 17.9 Particles in Text A 617 8-2 Distribution of Suffixal 14-3 Semantic Shifts 467 Categories 338 15-1 Negation of 8-3 Distribution of Predicative NAdj 523 APPENDICES A and B Prefixes 339 15-2 Lexicalised Negatives 537 621 9-1 Intransitive Prefixes 341 16-1 Case Suffix Adverbial A. Adaptation of English and Creole borrowings 627 9-2 l~ 2 and 2~ 1 Prefixes 349 Subordinators 573 B. Historical linguistic notes C. Addenda/Corrigenda to earlier publications 639 647 BI BL IOGRAPHY 651 INDEX xi x Abbreviations and symbols FIGURES page 144 3-1 Selected Rule Orderings 145 3-2 Model of Word Structure (Verbs) 223 5-1 Kinship System 270 7-1 Demonstrative Categories 287 7-2 DemPro Motion Axes 305 7-3 DemAdv Motion Axes . . . 15-1 A. Constituent-Negatlon Analysls, 525 B Pruned Clause-Negation Analysis 15-2 L~ping Approach to Clausal and 534 Existential Negatives 16-1 Analyses of Double Noun-and-Verb 565 ReI Sequence 591 17-1 [model of narrative units] a) book references. TEXT NMET Heath, Nunggubuyu Myths and Ethnographic Texts 592-598 TNT Hughes, Tales of the Nunggubuyu Tribe Text A MT Hughes, More Tales of the Nunggubuyu Tribe [see Bibliography, pp. 647-48, for references] b) phonological symbols vowel length morpheme boundary = boundary before verb root or predicative NAdj # word boundary (in some rules also stem boundary) C consonant G stop archiphoneme, p. 13 L liquid consonant, pp. 24, 134 N nasal consonant or nasal archiphoneme, pp. 13-14 V vowel or vowel archiphoneme wI /w/ becoming /g/ by Hardening P-18 w /w/ becoming /b/ by Hardening P-18 2 c) other symbols / •.. / enclosing phonological transcriptions // ••. // enclosing underlying or presurface transcriptions [ ..• ] enclosing phonetic transcriptions a) 'becomes' in phonological rule b) subject/object relationship (pronominal prefixes) morpheme-initial vowel contracted by VV-Contraction P-49 ¢ zero (nil morpheme) d) kinship terms (Chapter 5) 0' male ~ female [for 'Br', 'Mo', etc., see list p. 221 xiii xii e) subscripts (X represent s word/symbol with subscript) Chapter 1 A series pronominal prefix, p. 338ff. B" " " Introduction Continuous derivational inflectional Punctual 1 of ANA class or unprefixed[Text AJ ANAri sub c ass _ ANAP subclass of ANA noun class usa;~ varies, see Index f) grammatical 1mm Imme dl"a t e demonstrative In inclusive person A A series, p. 338ff. t" 408J Inch Inchoa lve Al etc. [verb classes, p. L list intonation p. 592ff. Abl Ablative Loc Locative Aft afterthought, p. 592ff. M Masculine All Allative MAl etc. [verb classes, p. 410J 1.1 The Nunggubuyu people. ANA a noun class MANA a noun class ANA¢ subclass of ANA MN modifier-nucleus cpd: p. 464 This grammar completes a three-volume series begun with Nunggubuyu ANAwu other subclass of ANA Mult Multiple deriv. preflx M ths and Ethno ra hic Texts (1980) and Nunggubuyu Dictionary Anaph Anaphoric demonstrative N noun; a verb class, p. 409 1982 , hereafter referred to as "NMET" and "the dictionary," Arg argument, p. 525 NA a noun class respectively. B B series, p. 338ff. NAdj adjectival noun The two or three hundred people who speak this language with Backgr background, p. 592ff. NAdv adverbial noun varying degrees of proficiency were formerly hunters and gatherers Benef Benefactive Nc common noun on the mainland coast of Arnhem Land opposite Groote Eylandt, in Br broken-off; brother NC noun class the Northern Territory of Australia. The majority of Nunggubuyu BO Benefactive obj., p. 550 NgARA a noun class p. 410J were settled at Numbulwar Mission in 1952, and it was there that C clause NgAl etc. [verb classes, most of my fieldwork was done between 1973 and 1977. During the Caus Causative Nk kin-term noun years immediately before 1952, the Nunggubuyu spent some time at Centrif Centrifugal demonstr. NM nucleus-modifier cpd. other earlier settlements but, due to periodic outbreaks of friction Centrip Centripetal demonstr. O/obj. object with the locally dominant groups there and to their culturally CM component morpheme P-l etc. [phonological rulesJ engrained attachment to their own local territory and its food cpd. compound[ing initialJ Per Pergressive and ritual resources, they also spent much time in the bush living Comit Comitative Pl Plural; place their traditional life. Several of my major informants and Cont Continuous Pred predicate narrators therefore grew up in the bush, and even in the mid seventies Contr Contrastive pronoun / 6 Pron pronoun " ) spoke little or no English and had made little adjustment to D demonstrative, p. 42 25 PROP propositus (of kln term European culture (as opposed to European material phenomena). Dat Dative Rdp reduplicated [cf. p. 342J The present grammar is therefore a record of a living language DemAdv demonstrative adverb Recip Reciprocal spoken by fully competent adult native speakers for whom this was DemPro demonstrative pronoun Refl Reflexive still the vernacular of daily life as well as the medium in which DER derivational, p. 145 Rel Relative traditional culture was expressed. dir. direct (object) S/Subj Subject Additional information about clans, moieties, rituals, and Dist Distant demonstrative Sg Singular individual narrators is provided in NMET; indeed, NMET as a whole Du Dual Tr Trial number is a kind of mini-encyclopedia of traditional Nunggubuyu life, told Emph Emphatic pronoun TS transitive subject, p. 258 mainly by Nunggubuyu. Since this information is usually not directly Erg Ergative Ul etc. [verb classes, p. 409J relevant to grammatical matters we do not repeat it here, though Evit Evitative V verb [in phonology: vowelJ we will discuss the kinship system in Chapter 5, below. Additional Ex exclusive person VOC vocative (esp. kin term) ethnographic references are given in NMET (pp. 10-12). F feminine VP verb phrase Fact Factitive WARA a noun class 1.2 Main features of the language. HM high monotone, p. 592ff. YA [a verb class, p. 409J HumSg human singular Although attaching simple typological labels to a language as 11 etc. [verb classes, p. 408J immensely difficult as this one would be arbitrary and unhelpful, xiv §l.l, §1.2 1 I will try to mention a number of features which characterise it 1) use of a small number of interjection-like "root forms" and which perhaps cohere with each other in some way, in order to as uninflectable forms with the meaning of an inflected verb, for certain meanings (§12.2); provide an initial orientation to readers: a) word order flexible (§15.4); m) use of some lexical nouns as abstractives with verbal b) multi-word syntactic units like,NP, VP, and cl~use,are meaning (§4.33); difficult to justify except as lnformal approxlmatlons n) use of some lexical nouns with agentive meaning (§14.21). or potentialities (for ex., coreferential elements in a It is equally important to indicate some features of the more "NP" may be scattered, and can be analysed as appositional), familiar languages which are not present: see §15.2, §15.3, §15.5; 0) no infinitive or similar reduced complement clause type; c) intonational/breath groups ('strings') only occasionally p) no productive participial (deverbative) formation; coincide exactly with (intuitive) "clauses," because of q) no productive verbal noun form (derived from verb); frequent pauses within a "clause" and because two or more r) no relative-clause construction requiring coreferential "clauses" may be run together (§15.5); head noun (though such coreference is occasionally overtly d) direct marking of cases is also rather casual, since marked in the Nunggubuyu "Relative" construction, §16.4); zero (Nominative) is used for subject and direct object, s) no switch-reference system or other cross-clause rules and often as an option for other case categories (§4.18ff.); triggered by coreferentiality (for a minor and somewhat e) elaborate system of noun-class affixation, with different dubious exception see the 'to want' construction described subsystems used for nouns, pronouns, demonstratives, and in §16.8); pronominal prefixes (subject-object) in verbs (§4.7ff.); t) no copula; f) proliferation of morphology, with each word-class (nouns u) no formal distinction between imperative and future (except of several types, personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, for 'come!', §8.5); cardinal-direction adverbs, verbs) developing its own v) aside from dubious 'to want' construction mentioned in (s), highly unique set of forms and categories; no complex surface constructions with a "higher" verb g) direct influence of discourse factors in much of the like 'can', 'must', 'promise to', 'persuade to', etc. morphology--choice among two series of noun-class prefixes (see §16.9 for Nunggubuyu counterparts); or absence of prefix (§4.8), use of a whole series of w) no passive or antipassive rules creating demoted (ch~meur) personal pronoun formations expressing different kinds of nouns (for derivations roughly similar to agentless passive focus and emphasis (§6.8-10), use of demonstratives and objectless antipassive see §lO.5 and §14.9). separately marking nuances of discourse status in roots It is not appropriate to launch here into a long typological (§7.1), prefixes (§7.4), and suffixes (§7.6-7), use of disquisition involving data from many other languages. However, we reduplication and compounding in some types of repetitions can say that some of these positive and negative features make of verbs (§8.3-4, §14.8, §17.5-6), use of distinctive sense, either by direct reference to nonlinguistic way of life intonation patterns (§17.4), and use of a number of particles (use of a few lexical, unsegmentable nouns with abstractive verbal with framing effects (Chapter 12, §17.9), in addition to or agentive participial meaning, instead of having productive partial discourse determination of word order (§15.4); deverbative formations, reflecting small number of traditionally h) extensive morphological and syntactic interactions between institutionalised "activities" and absence of occupational tense-aspect, mood, and negativity (with effects on specialisation), or by reference to others among the features listed. noun-class prefixes on nouns and pronominal concord prefixes In particular, the prolific noun-class indexing system (e) and the on verbs), so that instead of separate formal expression use of discourse-controlled affixation in all major word-classes these categories tend to blend into interactive configura (g) seem to be centrally important, compensating for (and thus tions (Chapter 8, §15.6); permitting) fluid word order (a), looseness of phrasal and clausal i) "possession" not a unified phenomenon, rather an umbrella structure (b-c) , casualness of case marking (d), looseness of label for a number of quite distinct formal mechanisms, subordination (j-k), and several of the negative features, cf. also including propositus[Ego-of-reference] indexing in kin the use of noun-class derivational marking for one type of terms (Chapter 5), derivational ("inner") noun-class "possession" (i). concord for whole-part harmony (§4.7, §4.9), and genitive In these respects, Nunggubuyu seems to have gone farther than usage of a broader "Relative" case marker (§4.30, §6.4), even the neighbouring Aboriginal languages which I have also worked along with special forms for predicate genitive (§6.5), on (Ngandi, Warndarang, Mara, Ritharngu, Dhuwal, etc.). For this see overall discussion in §15.8; reas~n, and because these publications on Nunggubuyu are much more j) use of direct rather than indirect quotation (§16.3); detalled and reflect much more effort than earlier ones on those k) "subordinated" clauses including Relatives having semi languages, it would seem to me that Nunggubuyu is a language which autonomous status, formally with normal inflected verbs and des~rves recognition by serious typologists, as representing nouns plus a subordinator (§16.2, §16.4ff.); maxlmal development of a certain discourse/grammatical strategy. 2 §1.2 B §1.2 :3 1.J The data base and its usage here. Particularly in the case o.f demonstratives (Chapter 7) I fo.und A casual thumbing-through of chapters in this grammar (except the it necessary in addition to generate statistics about corr~lations early phonetics/phonology ones) will immediately reveal a large among roots and affixes. I therefore installed a concordance number of lists of numbers like "15.4.J, 17.5.2/J, TNT 4, MT 6." program in our computing centre at Harvard (the Oxford Co.ncordance These numbers indicate textual references, and playa major part Project), typed in the more than JOOO tokens of demonstratives in in the organisation of the present volume (as they did in the NMET with a schematisation of contexts, and produced a working dictionary). The three-part sequences like "15.4.J" refer to NMET concordan~e ~nd s~at~stical word-list. This material was highly (i.e., my own texts volume) and indicate text number (15), segment valuable In ldentlfYlng categorical and statistical covariation number within that text (4), and line of Nunggubuyu text (disregard pattern~ among the mo.rphemes in the demonstrative system, and led ing English interlinear glosses) within that segment (3). "17.5.2/J" to prevlously unsuspected conclusions about the usage of each with slash indicates occurrence of the feature in question on both morpheme. Some statistical material is also. given in connection line 2 and line J of text segment 17.5, while "17.5.2-J" indicates with no.uns (Chapter 4), though in that case the problems were mere that the feature spills over from line 2 into line J. "TNT" manageable without computational resources. (Tales o.f the Nun ubu u Tribe) and "MT" (Mere Tales of the Nunggubuyu The extensive exposition of textual citations and statistics Tribe refer to. two volumes o.f mimeo.ed texts prepared by Rev. in many chapte~s of th~s vOlu~e may strike some readers as reflecting Earl Hughes, and which are available at the library of the a personal fetlsh of mlne. Whlle this may be true it is a fetish Australian Institute o.f Aboriginal Studies in Canberra (as well as which I would defend. The format used permits tho~e readers who at Numbulwar itself); citatio.ns with TNT o.r MT are followed by just want the bottom line to. get it (by skipping over lists of page number only. exx., statistics presented in tables, etc.), and indeed I assist These textual citations serve several purposes. When attached them further by do.uble-underlining of important terms and conclusions to a fully cited Nunggubuyu ex., they have basically do.cumentary On the other ?and, it gives a more patient (or more skeptical) . value--the reader is assured that the ex. is fro.m a real text, and reader a feellng for the raw data which underlie the analysis and a reader wanting to know more or having doubts about the analysis an opportunity to "cross-examine" the author by going directly to can find it and analyse it. Often, however, I cite just one or two the data. It also encourages readers with highly specialised exx. o.f so.me pattern in this way, then append a list of other interests, ~r with a different theory o.f language, to discover new textual exx.--readers get an immediate idea of how common the patterns whlch I overlooked or did not have space to discuss. pattern is (if the list is stated to be exhaustive at leas~ for My concern with documentation reflects my own sad experiences NMET) , and a reader with a specialist's interest in a partlcular as a reader of other linguists' grammars, which have almost never grammatical problem will be able to analyse a much larger number of provided me,with the info.rmation I wanted to undertake my own real exx. than could possibly be presented in full in a one-vo.lume (re-)analyslS of the language in questio.n. It also reflects my grammar. I also occasio.nally use an intermediate format, with experience that most published grammars are based on material perhaps one ex. presented in full, and with an accompanying list of obta~ned in unreliable direct-elicitation (sentence-translation) other textual exx. with a schematic "English" translation or summary sesslons, and/or utterances which were produced by the linguist added to. the numerical citatio.n in parentheses o.r brackets. Such with,or without "confirmatjo.n" from a native informant. I have no formats give readers at least an idea o.f the kinds o.f contexts confldence whatever in such data, since my own early "data" of this invo.lved, again without taking up too. much space. In,this way, we t~pe ~ften turned out to be seriously wro.ng. Acco.rdingly, to. other take maximal advantage of the published texts (especlally NMET), Ilngulsts who express disappro.val of my emphasis en do.cumentation achieving a far higher level o.f documentation than is observable I suggest that they try do.ing an analysis based on a co.mparable ' in other reference grammars, while still being able to. devo.te mo.st textual co.rpus and see if it doesn't add to. their understanding o.f of the pp. in this vo.lume to. commentary and analysis. their favourite language. The standards o.f accuracy and do.cumentation which I have set In the present volume, I have been least co.ncerned with textual for myself in preparing this volume have been high, though I may not documentation in the phonetics/phonology chapters, and in Chapter have lived up to them uniformly. In essence, this is a corpus-based 9 (pro.nominal prefixes), since even a large co.rpus would net contain grammar, and my ideal has been to. acco.unt for all or nearly all alIef the pro.no.minal prefixes, and certainly net all of the fo.rms instances in the texts of each morpheme o.r other feature under needed to specify details of phonolo.gical rules and their o.rdering consideration. Accordingly, I have totally revised earlier unpub relationships. I have also. kept textual do.cumentation lew in some lished versions of this grammar, which were based to a large extent syntax sections such as §15.2 (status of "NP") and §15.4 (wo.rd on directly elicited sentences and en my own "knowledge" of the order) because o.f the o.pen-endedness o.f the problems raised (and language. In combing through the texts while preparing various ~he finiteness of this vo.lume). Of co.urse, elicited utterances have sections of the final version, I have disco.vered that some of my een used as exx. in vario.us places where no suitable textual ex rules were wrong, but above all that my rules were o.versimplified, was available or for other reasons, but this should be clear fro.~ missing semantic and syntactic patternings which emerged from the absence of numerical citations if not from the commentary. collating and organising large numbers of textual occurrences. 4 §l.J §l.J 5