GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS IN ROMANI AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE General Editor E.F. KONRAD KOERNER (University of Ottawa) Series IV – CURRENT ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC THEORY Advisory Editorial Board Raimo Anttila (Los Angeles); Lyle Campbell (Christchurch, N.Z.) Sheila Embleton (Toronto); John E. Joseph (Edinburgh) Manfred Krifka (Berlin); Hans-Heinrich Lieb (Berlin) E. Wyn Roberts (Vancouver, B.C.); Hans-Jürgen Sasse (Köln) Volume 211 Viktor Elšík and Yaron Matras (eds.) Grammatical Relations in Romani The Noun Phrase GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS IN ROMANI THE NOUN PHRASE Edited by VIKTOR ELŠÍK YARON MATRAS University of Manchester With a Foreword by FRANS PLANK Universität Konstanz JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American 8 National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Grammatical relations in Romani : the noun phrase / edited by Viktor Elšík, Yaron Matras ; with a foreword by Frans Plank. p. cm. -- (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series IV, Current issues in linguistic theory, ISSN 0304-0763 ; v. 211) Four of the eight contributions are based on papers presented at the 4th International Conference on Romani Linguistics, held Sept. 1998, University of Manchester, Manchester, Eng. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Romany language--Noun phrase. 2. Romany language--Nominals. I. Elšík, Viktor. II. Matras, Yaron, 1963- III. International Conference on Romani Linguistics (4th : University of Manchester : 1998) IV. Series. PK2897.G73 2000 491.4’975--dc21 00-062140 ISBN 90 272 3718 2 (Eur.) / 1 55619 022 2 (US) (alk. paper) © 2000 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O.Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • The Netherlands John Benjamins North America • P.O.Box 27519 • Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 • USA CONTENTS Preface vii List of abbreviations ix Foreword 1 Frans Plank Romani nominal paradigms: Their structure, diversity, and development 9 Viktor Elsik The definite article in Romani dialects 31 Norbert Boretzky Dialect variation in Romani personal pronouns 65 Viktor Elsik The structural and functional composition of Romani demonstratives 95 Yawn Matras Romani genitives in cross-linguistic perspective 123 Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm External possession in Romani 151 Mily Crevels & Peter Bakker Proleptic and resumptive object pronouns in Romani: A Balkan noun 187 phrase perspective Victor A. Friedman Was Proto-Romani an ergative language? 205 Vit Bubenik Index of Romani dialects 229 Index of names 233 Index of subjects 237 PREFACE The present collection focuses on a specific area of grammatical structure in Romani - the noun phrase. By choosing a grammatical theme, we aim to help promote the typologically-oriented discussion of Romani, as well as to stimulate further interest in Romani among those whose work is devoted primarily to general linguistic, comparative and typological issues. Of the papers included in this collection, four are based on presentations at the Fourth International Conference on Romani Linguistics, held at the Univer sity of Manchester in September 1998: Elsik (on Nominal Paradigms), Koptjev- skaja-Tamm (on Genitives), Crevels and Bakker (on External Possession), and Friedman (on Object Reduplication). We wish to thank the British Academy, the Linguistic Association of Great Britain, the University of Manchester's Research and Graduate Support Unit, and the Department of Linguistics at the University of Manchester for their financial and logistic support of the Conference. We are also grateful to Johan van der Auwera, Kees Hengeveld, Maria Koptjevskaja- Tamm, John R. Payne, Frans Plank, and John Charles Smith for their con tributions to the preparation of the Conference. The Editors Manchester, May 2000 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ABL ablative F0-J thematic jotated zero-feminines ABS absolutive Fi thematic /-feminines ACC accusative *Fa athematic ö-feminines ACT active FUT future ADJ adjective, adjectivising element GA genitive adnominal AN animate GB Government and Binding AOR aorist GEN genitive ART definite article LA Indo-Aryan BSA base-stem agglutination IMC identically marked construction C consonant IMP imperative CAUS causative IMPF imperfect(ive) CLASS classifier INAN inanimate CLIT clitic INDEF indefinite COMM common gender INF infinitive COMP complementizer INSTR instrumental COMPAR comparative LOC locative CONSTR marker of status constructus M masculine COP copula M0 thematic zero-masculines DAT dative M0-a thematic zero-masculines with DEF definite, definiteness marker out number neutralization DEM demonstrative M0-0 thematic zero-masculines with DIR direct case number neutralization DO direct object M0-A thematic abstract zero-mascu EP external possession lines EPC external possession construe- Mo thematic o-masculines Mi thematic /-masculines ERG ergative MIA Middle Indo-Aryan EV evidential MIN minimal EXP experiencer *Mo athematic o-masculines F feminine *Mu athematic w-masculines F0 thematic zero-feminines *Mi athematic /-masculines F0-U thematic unmodified zero-femi *MV athematic masculines with a nines stressed classification vowel