Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton April 27, 2018

Optional ergative, agentivity and discourse prominence – Evidence from Yali (Trans-New Guinea)

  • Sonja Riesberg EMAIL logo
From the journal Linguistic Typology

Abstract

A phenomenon often termed “optional ergative marking” is found in a number of genetically unrelated languages. Yali, a Trans-New Guinea language spoken in West Papua, shows striking similarities to optional ergative systems as described in the literature. This paper focuses on the relation between agentivity and discourse prominence, and argues in favour of a systematic distinction between semantic and syntactic contexts as conditioning factors for optional ergative marking. It further provides new evidence for the close interplay of ergative marking and what has been termed “discourse prominence” in descriptions of some other languages and shows that in Yali, optional ergative marking operates on both the global and the local level of discourse.

Acknowledgments

The main research and field work reported in this paper was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation as part of the DoBeS documentation project “Documentation Summits in the Central Mountains of Papua” (2012-2016, AZ 85 892). During revision and finalization I have been generously supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) as a member of the “Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language” at the Australian National University, and by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the SFB 1252 “Prominence in Language” at the University of Cologne.

An early version of this paper was presented at the 11th Meeting of the Association for Linguistic Typology in Albuquerque 2015, and I thank the audience for helpful comments and suggestions. I gratefully acknowledge the constructive criticism and detailed comments by three anonymous reviewers. The quality of the published paper has greatly benefited from their feedback. I am also grateful to Birgit Hellwig, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann, Gertrud Schneider-Blum and Stefan Schnell for fruitful discussions on the topic and for useful comments on earlier drafts. Thanks to Katherine Walker for proofreading the manuscript and improving English grammar and style, and to Gabriele Schwiertz for help with Figure 1 and other phonetic issues. The responsibility for all remaining errors, including any remaining dangling participles, is of course mine.

Abbreviations

1

first person

2

second person

3

third person

adv

adverbial

ben

benefactive

dem

demonstrative

det

determiner

dir

directional

ds

different subject

erg

ergative

fut

future

gen

genitive

im

immediate

impfv

imperfective

inst

instrument

loc

locative

neg.ex

negative existential

nmlz

nominalizer

obj

object

p

plural

part

participle

pass

passive

pn

personal name

pfv

perfective

prior

prior (to the event denoted in the previous clause)

prog

progressive

prs

present

pst

past

real

realis

rel

relative

rem

remote

s

singular

say

quotative

sit

situational

ss

same subject

st

stative

sub

subordinator

top

topic

tr

transitional sound

vblz

verbalizer

References

Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2008. Versatile cases. Journal of Linguistics 44. 565–603.10.1017/S002222670800532XSearch in Google Scholar

Anderson, Neil & Martha Wade. 1988. Ergativity and control in Folopa. Language and Linguistics in Malenesia 19. 1–16.Search in Google Scholar

Årsjö, Britten. 1999. Words in Ama. SIL Manuscript. http://www01.sil.org/pacific/png/pubs/928474531105/Ama_Words.pdf (accessed 28 April 2017).Search in Google Scholar

Bromley, H. Myron. 1981. A grammar of Lower Grand Valley Dani. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Search in Google Scholar

Brown, Janessa L. 2009. A brief sketch of Urama grammar with special consideration of particles marking agency, aspect, and modality. University of North Dakota M.A. Thesis.Search in Google Scholar

Chafe, Wallace L. 1976. Givenness, contrastiveness, definiteness, subjects, topics, and point of view. In Charles N. Li (ed.), Subjects and topics, 25–56. New York: Academic Press.Search in Google Scholar

Chelliah, Shobhana L. & Gwendolyn Hyslop. 2011. Introduction to special issue on optional case marking in Tibeto-Burman. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 34(2). 1–7.Search in Google Scholar

Christensen, Steve. 2010. Yongkom discourse: Ergativity and topic. In Joan Hooley (ed.), Papers on six languages of Papua New Guinea. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Search in Google Scholar

Coupe, Alexander R. 2007. A grammar of Mongsen Ao. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110198522Search in Google Scholar

Coupe, Alexander R. & Sander Lestrade. 2017. Non-structural case marking in Tibeto-Burman and artificial languages. Linguistic Discovery 15(1). 1–34.10.1349/PS1.1537-0852.A.475Search in Google Scholar

Croft, William. 1991. Syntactic categories and grammatical relations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar

Croft, William. 1993. Case marking and the semantics of mental verbs. In James Pustejovsky (ed.), Semantics and the lexicon, 55–72. Dordrecht, Boston & London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.10.1007/978-94-011-1972-6_5Search in Google Scholar

de Vries, Lourens. 2006. Areal pragmatics of New Guinea: Thematization, distribution and recapitulative linkage in Papuan narratives. Journal of Pragmatics 38. 811–828.10.1016/j.pragma.2005.11.005Search in Google Scholar

DeLancey, Scott. 2011. “Optional” “ergativity” in Tibeto-Burman languages. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 34.2. 9–20.Search in Google Scholar

Donohue, Cathryn & Mark Donohue. 1997. Fore case marking. Language and Linguistics in Malenesia 28. 69–98.Search in Google Scholar

Dowty, David. 1991. Thematic proto-roles and argument selection. Language 67(3). 547–619.10.1353/lan.1991.0021Search in Google Scholar

Farr, Cynthia J. M. 1999. The interface between syntax and discourse in Korafe, a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Search in Google Scholar

Franklin, Karl J. 1971. A grammar of Kewa, New Guinea. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Search in Google Scholar

Gaby, Alice. 2008. Pragmatically case-marked. Non-syntactic functions of the Kuuk Thaayorre ergative suffix. In Ilana Mushin & Brett Baker (eds.), Discourse and grammar in Australian languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.10.1075/slcs.104.08gabSearch in Google Scholar

Gaby, Alice. 2010. From discourse to syntax and back: The lifecycle of Kuuk Thaayorre ergative morphology. Lingua 120. 1677–1692.10.1016/j.lingua.2009.05.014Search in Google Scholar

Givón, Talmy. 1983. Topic continuity in discourse: An introduction. In Talmy Givón (ed.), Topic continuity in discourse: A quantitative cross-language study. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.10.1075/tsl.3Search in Google Scholar

Heeschen, Volker. 1992. A dictionary of the Yale (Kosarek) language (with sketch of grammar and English index). Berlin: Reimer.Search in Google Scholar

Heeschen, Volker. 1998. An ethnographic grammar of the Eipo language spoken in the central mountains of Irian Jaya (West New Guinea), Indonesia. Berlin: Reimer.Search in Google Scholar

Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. & Beatrice Primus. 2015. Prominence beyond prosody – A first approximation. In A. De Dominicis (ed.), pS-Prominence: Prominence in Linguistics. Proceedings of the International Conference. Viterbo: DISUCOM Press.Search in Google Scholar

Hynum, David. 2010. Ergativity in Numanggang. In Joan Hooley (ed.), Papers on six languages of Papua New Guinea. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Search in Google Scholar

Jasinskaja, Katja, Sofiana Chiriacescu, Marta Donazzan, Klaus von Heusinger & Stefan Hinterwimmer. 2015. Prominence in discourse. In Amedeo De Dominicis (ed.), pS-Prominence: Prominence in Linguistics. Proceedings of the International Conference. Viterbo: DISUCOM Press.Search in Google Scholar

Krifka, Manfred. 2007. Basic notions of information structure. In Caroline Féry, Gisbert Franselow & Manfred Krifka (eds.), The notions of information structure. Working Papers of the SFB 632. Potsdam: Universitätsverlag Potsdam.Search in Google Scholar

Lambrecht, Knud. 1994. Information structure and sentence form. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511620607Search in Google Scholar

Li, Charles N. & Rainer Lang. 1979. The syntactic irrelevance of an ergative case in Enga and other Papuan languages. In Frans Plank (ed.), Ergativity, 307–324. London: Academic Press.Search in Google Scholar

Matić, Dejan & Daniel Wedgwood. 2013. The meaning of focus: The significance of an interpretation-based category in cross-linguistic analysis. Journal of Linguistics 49.1. 127–163.10.1017/S0022226712000345Search in Google Scholar

Mayer, Mercer. 1969. Frog, where are you? New York: Dial Books for Young Readers.Search in Google Scholar

McGregor, William B. 2006. Focal and optional ergative marking in Warrwa (Kimberley, Western Australia). Lingua 116. 393–423.10.1016/j.lingua.2005.02.002Search in Google Scholar

McGregor, William B. 2007. Ergative marking of intransitive subjects in Warrwa. Australian Journal of Linguistics 27(2). 201–229.10.1080/07268600701531351Search in Google Scholar

McGregor, William B. 2010. Optional ergative case marking systems in a typological-semiotic perspective. Lingua 120. 1610–1636.10.1016/j.lingua.2009.05.010Search in Google Scholar

McGregor, William B. & Jean-Christophe Verstraete. 2010. Optional ergative marking and its implications for linguistic theory. Lingua 120. 1607–1609.10.1016/j.lingua.2009.05.009Search in Google Scholar

Meakins, Felicity. 2015. From absolutely optional to only nominally ergative: The life cycle of the Gurindji ergative suffix. In Francesco Gardani, Peter Arkadiev & Nino Amiridze (eds.), Borrowed morphology, 189–218. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9781614513209.189Search in Google Scholar

Meakins, Felicity & Carmel O’Shannessy. 2010. Ordering arguments about: Word order and discourse motivations in the development and use of the ergative marker in two Australian mixed languages. Lingua 120. 1693–1713.10.1016/j.lingua.2009.05.013Search in Google Scholar

Ozerov, Pavel. 2015. Information structure without topic and focus. Differential object marking in Burmese. Studies in Language 39(2). 386–423.10.1075/sl.39.2.04ozeSearch in Google Scholar

Pennington, Ryan. 2013. Topic as evidence for nominative case in Ma Manda. Language & Linguistics in Melanesia 31(2). 1–26.Search in Google Scholar

Riesberg, Sonja, Kristian Walianggen & Siegfried Zöllner. 2012-2016. DoBeS Documentation Summits in the Central Mountains of Papua. The Language Archive MPI Nijmegen, http://dobes.mpi.nl/.Search in Google Scholar

Ross, Malcolm & John Natu Paol. 1978. A Waskia grammar sketch and vocabulary. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Search in Google Scholar

Rumsey, Alan. 2010. ‘Optional’ ergativity and the framing of reported speech. Lingua 120. 1652–1676.10.1016/j.lingua.2009.05.012Search in Google Scholar

Rumsey, Alan, Lila San Roque & Bambi B. Schieffelin. 2013. The acquisition of ergative marking in Kaluli, Ku Waru and Duna (Trans New Guinea). In Edith L. Bavin & Sabine Stoll (ed.), The acquisition of ergativity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.10.1075/tilar.9.06rumSearch in Google Scholar

Schnell, Stefan. forthc. Attention focus and information packaging in Vera’s demonstratives. In Sonja Riesberg, Asako Shiohara & Atsuko Utsumi (eds.), A cross-linguistic perspective on information structure in Austronesian languages. Berlin: Language Science Press.Search in Google Scholar

Scott, Graham. 1986. On ergativity in Fore and other Papuan languages. Papers in New Guinea Linguistics 24. 167–175. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Search in Google Scholar

Simard, Candide & Eva Schultze-Berdt. 2011. Documentary linguistics and prosodic evidence for the syntax of spoken language. In Geoffrey L. J. Haig, Nicole Nau, Stefan Schnell & Claudia Wegener (eds.), Documenting endangered languages. Achievements and perspectives. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110260021.151Search in Google Scholar

Simpson, Jane. 1988. Case and complementizer suffixes in Warlpiri. In Peter Austin (ed.), Complex sentence constructions in Australian Aboriginal languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.10.1075/tsl.15.10simSearch in Google Scholar

Skopeteas, Stavros, Ines Fiedler, Sam Hellmuth, Anna Schwarz, Ruben Stoel, Gisbert Franselow, Caroline Féry & Manfred Krifka. 2006. Questionnaire on information structure (QUIS): Reference manual. Working Papers of the SFB 632. Potsdam: Universitätsverlag Potsdam.Search in Google Scholar

Spaulding, Craig & Pat Spaulding. 1994. Phonology and grammar of Nankina. Ukarumpa via Lae: SIL.Search in Google Scholar

Stolz, Thomas, Cornelia Stroh & Aina Urdze. 2006. On comitatives and related categories. A typological study with special focus on the languages of Europe. Berlin & New York: De Gruyter.Search in Google Scholar

Suter, Edgar. 2010. The optional ergative in Kâte. In John Bowden & Nikolaus P. Himmelmann (eds.), Festschrift for Andrew Pawley. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Search in Google Scholar

Talmy, Leonard. 1976. Semantic causative types. In Masayoshi Shibatani (ed.), Syntax and semantics 6: The Grammar of causative constructions, 43–116. New York: Academic Press.Search in Google Scholar

Verstraete, Jean-Christophe. 2010. Animacy and information structure in the system of ergative marking in Umpithamu. Lingua 120. 1637–1651.10.1016/j.lingua.2009.05.011Search in Google Scholar

Zöllner, Siegfried & Ilse Zöllner. 2017. A Yali (Angguruk) – German dictionary. Wörterbuch Yali (Angguruk) – Deutsch. In Sonja Riesberg (ed.), in collaboration with Carmen Dawuda, Lucas Haiduck, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann & Kurt Malcher, A Yali (Angguruk) – German dictionary. Wörterbuch Yali (Angguruk) – Deutsch, 45–212. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2017-04-30
Revised: 2017-11-20
Published Online: 2018-04-27
Published in Print: 2018-04-25

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 25.4.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/lingty-2018-0002/html
Scroll to top button