Ergative Marking of Intransitive Subjects in Warrwa

Bill McGregor, University of Aarhus. AJL 27/2

Abstract

As in a number of ergative languages, the ergative case-marker -na∼-ma in Warrwa is occasionally found on the subject of intransitive clauses, indeed even on the subject of verbless clauses. I argue that the presence vs. absence of the ergative marker in this environment is not random free variation, but is motivated and highly constrained. The paper is concerned with identifying the motivations. It is proposed, based on an investigation of uses in a corpus of narrative and other texts, that two features are relevant: (a) semantic – the subject is highly agentive; and (b) referential – the identity of the subject is not predictable: it is unexpected. Use of the ergative on an intransitive subject thus highlights both the agentivity and the unexpectedness of the subject. I argue that, contrary to recent claims by some, Warrwa is not an active language: it is not the case that -na∼-ma groups together some intransitive and transitive subjects, while zero marking groups some intransitive subjects with transitive objects; these groupings are, I argue, purely formal and epiphenomenal. Finally, I situate optional marking of intransitive subjects in Warrwa in a wider theory of optional case marking.

This is a revised version of a paper presented to the Australian Linguistic Society Conference, University of Queensland, 7 July 2006. Thanks to the audience for useful questions, and to Jane Simpson and two anonymous referees for comments on an earlier draft, which was written during a two month stay in the Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, July–August 2006. I am grateful to Andy Pawley for making me welcome in his department, and providing infrastructure support for the duration of my stay. I am also grateful to Alec Coupe, Alice Gaby, Felicity Meakins, Carmel O’Shannessy, Edgar Suter, and Jean-Christophe Verstraete for making unpublished work available to me, and for discussions of optional ergative marking. The fieldwork on which this paper is based was funded by Australian Research Council Large Grants A58930745 and A59332055. The initial research was undertaken during tenure of a Research Fellowship at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 1998; this was followed up by further research at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen. Thanks are due to these organizations for their support. My greatest debt of gratitude, of course, goes to my Warrwa teachers, Maudie Lennard and †Freddy Marker.

Language Contact and Deliberate Change

Sarah Thomason, University of Michigan. Journal of Language Contact 1. Discusses cases where speakers have deliberately engineered correspondences and evaluates the potential harm for reconstruction.

Natural History of Infixation

Alan Yu, University of Chicago. Includes data from Australian languages. [pdf of prepublication ms]

University of Melbourne Ling E-prints

The University of Melbourne’s Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics ePrint repository has a number of works on Australian languages

Many Rivers Language Centre

From their web site:

Established in 2004, Many Rivers Aboriginal Language Centre (M.R.A.L.C.) provides strategic support for Aboriginal communities of the northern and central coasts of NSW who want to revitalise their languages. MRALC is a regional language centre that aims to support the following languages: Awabakal – Wonnarua, Bundjalung, Darkinyung, Dhanggati, Kattang (Birrbay & Warrmay), and Yaygirr – Yaegl.  Click here to view map.

Like other regional language centres, MRALC conducts research on several Aboriginal languages and supports communities in their efforts to learn and teach their languages. Regional Aboriginal Language Centres have until recently only existed in more remote areas of Australia, for example Katherine Regional Aboriginal Language Centre, and Wangka Maya in Port Headland. There have been language programs elsewhere including NSW but they have tended to work with one local language, or closely related dialects, for example the Yuwaalaraay Language Program based in Walgett supports Yuwaalaraay, Yuwaalayaay and Gamilaraay. MRALC has an Advisory Group made up of representatives from all languages, and a Specialist Group of Elders, linguists and teachers who assist as needed. MRALC employs a coordinator – linguist, language researchers – teachers and teacher – linguists.

 The Centre has an impressive publication plan (the first volume on the Hunter River and Lake Macquarie language is out).

LibraryThing

LibraryThing (an online book cataloguing site) can now search 28 library catalogues in Australia, including AIATSIS!

Representation of Third Person

Andrew Nevins. NLLT. Includes data from Australian languages

 Abstract  In modeling the effects of the Person-Case Constraint (PCC), a common claim is that 3rd person “is not a person”. However, while this claim does work in the syntax, it creates problems in the morphology. For example, characterizing the well-known “spurious se effect” in Spanish simply cannot be done without reference to 3rd person. Inspired by alternatives to underspecification that have emerged in phonology (e.g., Calabrese, 1995), a revised featural system is proposed, whereby syntactic agreement may be relativized to certain values of a feature, in particular, the contrastive and marked values. The range of variation in PCC effects is shown to emerge as a consequence of the parametric options allowed on a Probing head, whereas the representation of person remains constant across modules of the grammar and across languages.

Evolutionary Game Theory

Includes data from Australian languages.

Jäger, Gerhard, 1967-
• Evolutionary Game Theory and Typology: A Case Study
  [Access article in PDF]
  Subject Headings:
  • Grammar, Comparative and general — Case.
  • Historical linguistics.

  Abstract:

  This article deals with the typology of the case marking of semantic core roles. The competing economy considerations of hearer (disambiguation) and speaker (minimal effort) are formalized in terms of EVOLUTIONARY GAME THEORY. It is shown that the case-marking patterns that are attested in the languages of the world are those that are evolutionarily stable for different relative weightings of speaker economy and hearer economy, given the statistical patterns of language use that were extracted from corpora of naturally occurring conversations.

Mukurtu Archive

Mukurtu Wumpurrarni-kari digital archive [via Long Road]

The Mukurtu Wumpurrarni-kari Archive is a browser-based digital archive created by the Warumungu community in Tennant Creek, N.T. Australia in collaboration with researchers Kimberly Christen, Craig Dietrich, Chris Cooney, and Tim Dietrich.

The archive, housed at the Nyinkka Nyunyu Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre, contains photos, digital video clips, audio files, and digital reproductions of cultural artifacts and documents. The content in the archive is defined by access parameters based on a set of Warumungu cultural protocols for the viewing and distribution of cultural knowledge.

Wiradjuri Language Development Project

Site with information about Wiradjuri language and culture, including links for the purchase of language materials.