Complex nominal expressions

Brett Baker: The interpretation of complex nominal expressions in two Australian languages. Link goes to pdf. To be published in a collected volume edited by Ilana Mushin and Brett Baker with the provisional title of 'Discourse and grammar in Australian languages'.

Right(s), Permission(s) and Protocol(s) in Language Documentation

"Right(s), Permission(s) and Protocol(s) in Language Documentation: Laves' 1931 Noongar Field Notes". John Henderson, University of Western Australia. HRELP Seminar, 13th June. See http://www.hrelp.org/events/seminars/ for more details.

Workshop on Australian Languages

SOAS, May 19th. Program is at http://www.hrelp.org/events/seminars/abstracts/aboriginal_lang_prog.doc

Papers by Peter Austin

Several new papers are on Peter Austin's web site at http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/staff/index.php?cd=pa
Austin, Peter in press ‘Survival of Languages’ in Emily F. Shuckburgh (ed.) Survival: Darwin College Lectures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/staff/peter_austin/AustinDarwinLecture.pdf

Austin, Peter in press ‘The Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi) Language, northern New South Wales — A Brief History of Research’ in William McGregor (ed.) History of Research on Australian Languages. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/staff/peter_austin/AustinGamil.pdf

Austin, Peter 2006 Article 5040 ‘Languages of the World: Gamilaraay’ in Keith Brown (ed.) International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd edition. Oxford: Elsevier. http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/staff/peter_austin/Austin5040.pdf

Austin, Peter 2006 Article 5042 ‘Languages of the World: Jiwarli’ in Keith Brown (ed.) International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd edition. Oxford: Elsevier. http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/staff/peter_austin/Austin5042.pdf

Austin, Peter 2006 Article 1711 ‘Countries and Language – Australia’ in Keith Brown (ed.) International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd edition. Oxford: Elsevier. http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/staff/peter_austin/Austin1711.pdf 

A systemic functional approach to language evolution

by David Rose. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 16.

Link goes to abstract. The paper seems to be freely available online (link is at the top of the abstract page).

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=390798 

Laryngeal Markedness and aspiration

by Bet Vaux and Bridget Samuels. Link goes to CJO abstract. Mentions data from Australian languages.

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=420588 

Warlpiri Preverbs

An old but important paper by David Nash on Warlpiri preverbs is now available at his web site. The link below goes directly to the pdf.

http://www.anu.edu.au/linguistics/nash/papers/1982-Wlp-preverbs.pdf 

LFG06

LFG 2006 will be held in June in Konstanz (Germany). The program will be available at the website (here) shortly. It includes a talk by Rachel Nordlinger and Louise Sadler on Apposition as Coordination in Australian Languages.

suspended affixation

SUSPENDED AFFIXATION DAY

Konstanz
24 June 2006

CALL FOR PAPERS

Suspended Affixation Day is not to be confused with Ascension Day, which is
on Thursday, 25 May, while the former will only be held on Saturday, 24
June.  We'd like to invite phonologists, morphologists, syntacticians, and
semanticists (and why not pragmaticists too) to join us in paying homage to
the marvels of suspended affixation on that day.

Suspended affixation is what you see, or indeed don't see, in this Turkish
sentence:

Tebrik ve teSekkür-ler-im-i sunaržm.
congratulation and thank-PL-1SG-ACC I.offer
'I offer my congratulations and thanks'

In a syntactic construction (coordination) where two members (nouns) can
potentially be affixed for the same inflectional categories (number, person
and number of possessor, case), one (the first) isn't.  Though it could be
(tebrik-ler-im-i ...), with no great semantic or pragmatic difference in
this particular case.  As everybody knows, however, it does make a
difference whether you suspend or don't in cases like this:

Laurel('s) and Hardy's films

The term "suspended affixation" was probably coined by G. L. Lewis in his
Turkish Grammar (1967), and has subsequently found particular favour in
Turkic linguistics (see further
http://ling.uni-konstanz.de/pages/home/kabak/papers/Kabak2007saff.pdf).
However, the phenomenon as such had been much discussed in morphological
typology, most notably, in the Humboldt/Steinthal tradition, by Franz
Nikolaus Finck in his Die Haupttypen des Sprachbaus (1910), where it is
subsumed under the notion of "group inflection".  (What's nowadays called
"phrase marking", as opposed to "word marking".  See the introduction to
Double Case, if you find the original sources too heavy-going.)

At any rate, suspended affixation is not something limited to inflection;
on certain conditions, derivational affixes can be suspended, too:

This stuff is neither eat- nor drink-able.

If you need further background, drop us a line.

For Suspended Affixation Day we invite papers on questions such as the
following, and whichever others you feel bear on the issue:

*  In which languages can affixation be suspended?
(surely not in all ...)

*  What kinds of syntactic constructions admit suspended affixation in the
relevant languages?
(coordination, tight/loose apposition, subordinative constructions, ...)

*  What does suspended affixation tell us about the nature of constructions?

*  Which kinds of morphological milieus are conducive to affix suspension?
(agglutination, with affixes separatist, invariant, loosely-bound, not
flexion, with affixes cumulative, variant, tightly-bound?)

*  What kinds of semantic and pragmatic constraints curb suspended
affixation in circumstances where it would be possible on morphosyntactic
and phonological grounds?
(semantic unity, scope, frequency, ...)

*  What kinds of prosodic constraints curb suspended affixation?
(phonological wordhood of bases, prosodic weight of affixes, ...)

*  What notions of "word" and "phrase" are relevant for accounting for
suspended affixation?
(phonological, morphological, syntactic ...)

*  What is the relation of suspended affixation to phrase marking?
(to patterns such as these:  N-case;  N-ADJ-case)

Unlike Ascension, Suspended Affixation Day will be an informal affair.  If
interested in giving a paper (length within reason:  do send a title,
preferably with an abstract), or just to listen in and join in the
discussion, let us know asap, and we'll be in touch.

The presenters and discussants will minimally include the three undersigned
locals and two local affiliates, Amanda Pounder (Calgary) and Olya Gurevich
(Berkeley).

Unfortunately we can't cover travel costs.  We'd be at your assistance,
though, helping you find (i) your way to Konstanz and (ii) reasonable
accommodation.

Frans Plank (frans.plank@uni-konstanz.de)
Baržs Kabak (baris.kabak@uni-konstanz.de)
Bernhard Wälchli (bernhard.waelchli@uni-konstanz.de)

Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft & Sonderforschungsbereich 471,
Universität Konstanz
Konstanz, Germany

Putting Herbert Basedow back in focus: the 1928 expedition to Arnhem Land

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&se=gglsc&d=5008437895 Australian Aboriginal Studies 2004.