A Grammar of Yidin

591 Pages·1977·27.261 MB·English

by  R. M. W. Dixon

CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN LINGUISTICS
General Editors . w. SIDNEY ALLEN . c. j. FILLMORE .
E. J. A. HENDERSON . F. W. HOUSEHOLDER . J. LYONS .
R. B. LE PAGE . F. R. PALMER AND J. L. M. TRIM
A Grammar of Yidiji
In this series
1 DAVID CRYSTAL: Prosodic systems and intonation in English *
2 PIETER A. M. SEUREN: Operators and nucleus
3 RODNEY D. HUDDLESTON: The sentence in written English
4 JOHN M. ANDERSON: The grammar of case*
5 M.L.SAMUELS: Linguistic evolution*
6 P. H. MATTHEWS: Inflectional morphology*
7 GILLIANBROWN: Phonological rules and dialect variation *
8 BRIAN NEWTON: The generative interpretation of dialect
9 R. M. w. DIXON: The Dyirbal language of North Queensland*
10 BRUCE L. DERWING: Transformational grammar as theory of language
acquisition*
11 MELISSA BOWERMAN: Early syntactic development*
12 w. SIDNEY ALLEN: Accent and rhythm
13 PETER TRUDGILL: The social differentiation of English in Norwich
14 ROGER LASS and JOHN M. ANDERSON: Old English phonology
15 RUTH M. KEMPSON: Presupposition and the delimitation of semantics*
16 JAMES R. HURFORD: The linguistic theory of numerals
17 ROGER LASS: English phonology and phonological theory
18 G. M. AWBERY: The syntax of Welsh
19 R. M. w. DIXON: A grammar of Yidijt
* Issued in hard covers and as a paperback
A GRAMMAR
OF YIDIJsT
R. M. W. DIXON
Professor of Linguistics,
Australian National University
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE
LONDON ' NEW YORK • MELBOURNE
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521142427
© Cambridge University Press 1977
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1977
This digitally printed version 2010
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 76—27912
ISBN 978-0-521-21462-9 Hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-14242-7 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in
this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is,
or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
This book is dedicated to
Dick Moses,
Pompey Langdon,
George Davis,
Katie May,
and the late Tilly Fuller,
who shared their language with me.
And to the remaining members of the
Yidind,i and Gungajid,i tribes, who have -
through no fault of their own - lost most
of their own language and culture.
In the hope that they may be allowed
to remould their lives, and their own
society, in ways that they themselves
choose.

Contents
List of maps and plates page xiv
Preface xv
Acknowledgements xix
Abbreviations xxi
Rough guide to pronunciation xxiii
1 THE LANGUAGE AND ITS SPEAKERS
I.I Linguistic type i
i .2 Dialects 3
1.3 Surrounding languages 6
1.4 Cultural background 9
1.5 Moieties 16
1.6 ' Mother-in-law language' 20
1.7 Recent history 22
1.8 Sources for this study 27
2 PHONOLOGY 31
2.1 Segmental phonology
2.1.1 Phonemes and their realisations 31
2.1.2 Phonotactics 35
2.1.3 Probabilities of occurrence 37
2.2 Vowel length and stress 39
2.3 Phonological rules
2.3.1 Penultimate lengthening [Rule 1] 42
2.3.2 Final syllable deletion [Rule 2] - (i) affix
reduction 44
2.3.3 Final syllable deletion [Rule 2] - instances of (i) 50
2.3.4 Final syllable deletion [Rule 2] - (ii) root
reduction 56
2.3.5 Sources of vowel length 68
2.3.6 Illicit length elimination [Rule 4] 74
2.3.7 Syllable-final yotic deletion [Rule 3] 77
[ vii ]
viii Contents
2.3.8 Roots with final long vowel page 83
2.3.9 Evidence from -la ~ -ala 86
2.4 Grammatical and phonological words 88
Other phonological processes
2.5.1 Dissimilation and double dissimilation 98
2.5.2 Nasal insertion
100
2.6 Late phonetic rules
2.6.1 Stress fronting
IOI
2.6.2 Stress retraction
102
2.6.3 Final y and vowel nasalisation 103
2.6.4 Phonetic reduction I05
3 MORPHOLOGY 108
3-1 Preliminary remarks
3.1.1 Syntactic orientation 108
3.1.2 Hierarchies and grammatical choice no
3.1.3 Discourse structure
112
3.1.4 First person orientation Il8
3.1.5 Extended use of pronouns
120
3-2 Parts of speech
3.2.1 Grammatical criteria
121
3.2.2 Semantic content
122
3-3 Morphology of nouns and adjectives 124
3.3.1 Case inflections - system 124
3.3.2 Case inflections - form 126
3.3.3 Genitive stems
134
3.3.4 Comitative -d,i ~ -yi 138
3.3.5 Review of monosyllabic nominal affixes 140
3.3.6 Other derivational affixes 142
3.3.7 Further nominal affixes 149
3.3.8 Locational words as nominal affixes
153
3.3.9 Nominal reduplication 156
Locational qualifiers
34
3.4.1 Case inflections 157
3.4.2 -bap 161
3.4.3 4a:- 162
3.4.4 Hierarchy of locational words 163
3-5 Time qualifiers 163
Contents IX
3-6 Pronouns
3-6-1 Reference page 165
3.6.2 Paradigm 167
3-6-3 Analysis 169
3-6-4 Historical development 172
3-6-5 jiunduba 176
3-7 Deictics - definite and indefinite/interrogative
3-7-1 Reference 180
3-7-2 Paradigm 186
3-7-3 Analysis 192
3-7-4 Historical development 194
3-7-5 yijidjumba 196
3-7-6 ytyarijilwajtcjariji 197
3-7-7 wajidjirl' how many' 199
3-7-8 Time interrogatives 199
3-7-9 Other interrogatives 203
3-8 Morphology of verbs and adverbs
3-8-1 Verbal word structure 204
3-8-2 Paradigm 206
3-8-3 Conjugations and transitivity 206
3.8.4 Inflections 211
Syntactic derivational affixes
3-8-5 215
3.8.6 Aspects - ' going' and ' coming' 219
3-8-7 Affix combinations 227
3.8.8 -:n-bid,i-n 232
3.8.9 Verbal reduplication 233
3-9 Post-inflectional affixes 236
3-9-1 -(a)la 236
3-9-2 -di 239
3-9-3 -pup 241
3-9-4 -rjuxu 243
3-9-5 -budjun 244
3.9.6 -wad,an 244
3-9-7 Summary 246
4 SYNTAX
4.1 Simple sentences
4.1.1 Non-pronominal noun phrases 247
4.1.2 Pronominal noun phrases
25 !
Contents
4.1.3 Verb complexes page z$z
4.1.4 Syntactic marking 254
4.1.5 Syntactic types of verbs 257
4.1.6 Syntactic extensions 258
4.1.7 Local extensions 263
4.1.8 Dative and locative 264
4.1.9 Order of sentential constituents 268
4.1.10 Minor sentences 271
4.2 -:dji-n constructions
4.2.1 Transitivity distinction 273
4.2.2 - :d,i-n - survey of functions 274
4.2.3 Antipassives 277
4.2.4 Reflexives 280
4.2.5 Non-animate agent 282
4.2.6 Chance events 288
4.2.7 Continuous action 289
4.2.8 - :dji-n summary 291
4.3 Comitative constructions 293
4.3.1 Comitative NPs 294
4.3.2 Instrumental NPs 300
4.3.3 Verbal -ya-l (i) comitative sense 302
4.3.4 Verbal -ya-l (ii) locative sense 305
4.3.5 Verbal -ya-l (iii) dative and (iv) 'fear' senses 307
4.3.6 Verbal -ya-l (v) instrumental sense 309
4.3.7 Verbal -ya-l (vi) controlling sense 311
4.3.8 -ya-l and -:dji-n 318
4.4 Dative and causal subordinate clauses 322
4.4.1 Dative clauses - coreferential type 323
4.4.2 Order of constituents 327
4.4.3 Dative clauses - non-coreferential type 330
4.4.4 Causal NPs 333
4.4.5 Causal clauses - coreferential type 334
4.4.6 Causal clauses and causal NPs 338
4.4.7 Causal clauses - non-coreferential type 340
4.5 Purposive constructions
4.5.1 Purposive NPs 342
4.5.2 Purposive verbs - in main clause 343
4.5.3 Purposive subordinate clauses - coreferential type 345