A Grammar of Unua

Pearce, Elizabeth

doi:10.1515/9781614516590

Cited by 8 publications

(39 citation statements)

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“…This relativizer has its origins as a demonstrative (Pearce 2011(Pearce , 2015. The form nga is also used as a linker with certain classes of noun modifiers, but it is only sporadically used to introduce non-relative subordinate clauses (Pearce 2015: 156-163).…”

Section: 1 Relative Clausesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…. These are for North-East Malakula: Atchin (Capell & Layard 1980), Avava (Crowley 2006d), Nahavaq (Dimock 2009), Naman (Crowley 2006c), Nāti (Crowley 1998), Nese (Crowley 2006a), Neverver (Barbour 2012), Neve'ei (Musgrave 2007), Port Sandwich (Charpentier 1979), Tape (Crowley 2006b), Tirax (Brotchie 2009), Unua (Pearce 2015), Uripiv (McKerras 2005) and V' ënen Taut (Fox 1979).…”

Section:  Other Malakula Languagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Non-standard glosses are as follows: c Complementizer, cont Continuous, ngen Ngenitive (form = nen), tr Transitive and xgen XGenitive (form = xi(se)-). The references accompanying Unua data are coded as described in Pearce (2015). (Sources represented as 'XX.xx' are from recorded narratives, 'XX' followed by a date identify forms elicited with individual speakers and 'Mark/Luke/John/ x:xx' identify texts of New Testament translations: Bembe 2005Bembe /2007Bembe /2009.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Whither Realis marking

Pearce

2016

DIA

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The verb paradigms of declarative clauses in Unua (an Oceanic language of Malakula, Vanuatu) have a distinct Irrealis prefix b-contrasting with zero marking for the Realis. In relative clauses, however, the Irrealis b-contrasts with a prefix m-encoding realis interpretations. On the basis of comparative evidence, the synchronic m-prefix is a remnant of an earlier Realis *m w -that has become specialized for use in relative clauses. The diachronic loss of overt morphology in unmarked categories is not unusual. What is unusual in the Unua case is the retention and specialization of the morphology for the unmarked category in a sub-class of constructions, relative clauses. This paper sketches out the likely significant factors in the historical changes giving rise to the synchronic state. These include conditioned phonological weakening and effects of the salience of the m-prefix in the cross-construction noun modification functional role.

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Section: 1 Relative Clausesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section:  Other Malakula Languagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Whither Realis marking

Pearce

2016

DIA

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“…On the island of Malekula, the data from various languages has been pooled and used to try to identify regional groupings. Pearce (2015) places Malekula's languages in the Central Eastern Oceanic sub-group. Lynch (2007) divides the Malekula languages into Eastern and Western divisions.…”

Section: Malekula Language Divisionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Through some grammatical comparison, I find that Denggan has some common similarities to this Eastern linkage, but also shares similarities with the Southeastern branch, which makes sense as it is directly located in between the two linkages (Hoback, 2018). Through all the iterations of Malekula subgroupings, Aulua, Unua, Uripiv and Denggan (under the name Banam Bay) have remained grouped together (Lynch, 2006(Lynch, , 2007(Lynch, , 2016Pearce, 2015;Tryon, 1976).…”

Section: Malekula Language Divisionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Sociolinguistic Study of Language Documentation: Denggan (Banam Bay, Malekula, Vanuatu)

Hoback

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In the country of Vanuatu, there are estimated to be as many as 138 different languages. Of those, there are still many languages which remain undocumented. Yet, with the move to integrate the vernacular local languages into the education system, speakers of these languages are developing orthography systems as a way of maintaining the vitality of their language in oral and written forms. Often the goals of language documentation and orthography development create a partnership between outside linguists and native speakers of the language. These joint projects are consistent with the current aims of linguists working in the field of language documentation and Indigenous academic researchers, who are calling for more collaborative research projects. Such scholars suggest that research on indigenous languages need to be undertaken ‘with’ communities, rather than ‘on’ or ‘for’ communities. However, this partnership brings questions, such as, what does collaboration look like and how do the community desires get prioritised amongst the various requirements of academic research. Furthermore, what does it mean to research ‘with’ when there may be differences in the epistemological foundations underlying the design of a project.This thesis is a result of a community orthography and language documentation project in Southeast Malekula, Vanuatu. It focuses on the language, Denggan, formerly known as Banam Bay Language or Burmbar (ISO code vrt-639-3) spoken by around 900-1000 speakers. Within this project two initial orthography workshops were conducted with community members to facilitate the transition of Denggan from a completely oral tradition into a new domain of written literacy. A separate grammatical analysis was undertaken to further the language documentation record and to assist in the creation of future pedagogical language resources. The presentation of this thesis is interdisciplinary and hybrid in its structure. It consists of a discussion on collaborative research design and Pacific Indigenous epistemologies, an exploration of the sociolinguistic background of Denggan as an endangered, yet vital language, a grammar sketch of Denggan phonetics and syntax, and a reflection on collaborative projects and the responsibilities of a researcher in working with Indigenous communities within such a project. The hybrid structure of this thesis allows for a contextualised approach of situating the project’s orthography workshop discussions and the linguistic grammatical analysis of Denggan within its historical and sociolinguistic contexts. This hybrid structure also allows for reflection on Pacific Melanesian and Western academic epistemic assumptions in approaching the design of a collaborative research project. This thesis provides an example of a unique language documentation project arising out of a community’s vision and coming to fruition through community involvement. It provides the theoretical basis for creating collaborative language documentation projects grounded in Pacific Indigenous epistemologies and reflects on important questions in navigating the differences between these epistemologies and Western academic assumptions regarding research. Lastly, the thesis contributes to the documentation record of Denggan through a grammar sketch with valuable data from recorded stories and conversations.

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Variation in Matukar Panau kinship terminology

Barth

2019

APLV

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Referential kinship terms in Matukar Panau (Oceanic, Papua New Guinea) are obligatorily possessed. Traditionally, kinship terms are directly possessed in Oceanic languages (with an obligatory suffix on the root that agrees with the person and number of the possessor). In Matukar Panau, some kinship terms are also indirectly possessed (with a classifier that agrees with the person and number of the possessor). A third pattern shows double-marking of possessors with directly possessed terms co-occurring with a classifier. I present a multivariate analysis of the predictors that influence the choice of the direct, indirect or double-marked patterns. Older women and younger men are most likely to use the indirect pattern, particularly when discussing their own kin from their households, especially in conversational situations. The indirect possession pattern, then, is used for more integral relationships, what has previously been the semantic domain of direct possession in Oceanic.

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A Grammar of Unua

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Whither Realis marking

Whither Realis marking

A Sociolinguistic Study of Language Documentation: Denggan (Banam Bay, Malekula, Vanuatu)

Variation in Matukar Panau kinship terminology

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