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Mian for typologists - the essentials

Mian for typologists - the essentials. Gabelentz Plenary ALT 10 Leipzig, August 18, 2013. Sebastian Fedden. With thanks to the AHRC (UK) (grant AH/K003194/1) . Hans Georg Conon von der Gabelentz. * March 16, 1840 in Poschwitz /Altenburg † December 11, 1893 in Lemnitz.

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Mian for typologists - the essentials

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  1. Mian for typologists - the essentials Gabelentz Plenary ALT 10 Leipzig, August 18, 2013 Sebastian Fedden With thanks to the AHRC (UK) (grant AH/K003194/1)

  2. Hans Georg Conon von der Gabelentz *March 16, 1840 in Poschwitz/Altenburg † December 11, 1893 in Lemnitz “In der schilderndenDarstellungwerden die Einzelsprachen und Sprachfamilienunter den Gesichtspunkt der allgemeinenSprachwissenschaftgerückt.” (Die Sprachwissenschaft, 2. Auflage,1901: 479) Language description puts individual languages and language families in the purview of general linguistics. [Translation mine]

  3. Phonetics/ Phonology Syntax MIAN Morphology

  4. Mian • Ok family (ok‘water, river’) • Trans New Guinea (TNG) (Pawley 2005; Ross 2005; Wurm 1982) • Telefomin District, Sandaun Province, PNG • Two dialects: • Eastern dialect has approx. 1,400 speakers • Western dialect (aka Suganga) has approx. 350 speakers • First contact in the mid-1930s (Kienzle and Campbell 1938; Campbell 1938: 245)

  5. 141st parallel Map 1. Putative subgroups within Trans New Guinea (from Ross 2005: 34)

  6. 141st parallel Map 1. Putative subgroups within Trans New Guinea (from Ross 2005: 34)

  7. Ok-Oksapmin The Ok family Ok Oksapmin Lowland Ok Mountain Ok Mian Muyu Ninggerum Yonggom Faiwol Tifal Telefol Bimin Ngalum Morop Figure 1. Based on Healey (1965), Voorhoeve (2005), Loughnane and Fedden (2011)

  8. Multi-lingual environment • Neo-Melanesian Pidgin (TokPisin): by now practically everybody • Telefol: only old male speakers, decreasing importance • Growing importance of English

  9. Essential Mian in one sentence unáng=ikáawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-sese-bl-Ø-io=be F_CL.SG.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-RECP-exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’

  10. Essential Mian in one sentence unáng=ikáawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-sese-bl-Ø-io=be F_CL.SG.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-RECP-exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’

  11. Mian for typologists - the essentials Pharygealization and tone

  12. Pharyngealization • Phonemic distinction between a pharyngealized /aˤ/ (spelled <aa>) and a plain /a/ • The contrast of a low, long, glottalized or pharyngealized vowel against another /a/ typical of Sepik languages; possibly a diffused feature (Bill Foley, p.c.) Minimal pairs: al ‘faeces’ aal ‘skin’ ayal ‘light’ ayaal ‘tree sp.’ Near-minimal pairs: am ‘house’ âam ‘older sister’ mak‘other’ daak ‘down’

  13. Pharyngealization • Lower frequency of the third and a higher frequency of the first formant (Ladefoged and Maddieson1996) Figure 2.Spectogramm of /Lal/ ‘faeces’ Figure 3.Spectogramm of /Laˤl/ ‘skin’ F3 F1

  14. Harmonic structure of al ‘faeces’ H1 H2

  15. Harmonic structure of aal ‘skin’ H1 H2

  16. A tone typology (Donohue 1997) • Types are based on the domain of contrast which is phonemically exploited, rather than the number and identity of tones in a system Syllable tone system: T T T T TT | | | | | | σσσσσσ Word tone system: T T T | | | ωωω | /\ / | \ σσσσσσ E.g. Mandarin, Cantonese Vietnamese, Igbo, Chuave (Papuan, Chimbu Province), and Sikaritai (Lake Plains, Irian Jaya) E.g. Swedish, Mende, Shanghai, Mian and Kewa (Papuan, Enga Province, PNG)

  17. Tone in New Guinea • Within TNG • - Ok • - Mek • - Engan, e.g. Kewa (Franklin 1971) • - Chimbu-Wahgi, e.g. Kuman (Hardie 2003), Golin (Evans and Stoakes 2004), Dom (Tida2006) • - Gorokan, e.g. Fore (Scott 1990) • - Turama-Kikorian, e.g. Kairi (Rumu) (Newman and Petterson 1990) • Outside TNG • - Skou(Donohue 2003) Map 2. Tone languages in New Guinea (Donohue 2003: 330; conservative estimate) • Phonemic tone in many TNG languages • Not reported for the languages of the Sepik-Ramu area (Foley 1991: 19), the Bismark Archipelago, and the Solomon Islands

  18. Tone in Mian • Only a few of the logically possible tonal melodies occur in mono- and polysyllabic words • L (low), e.g. am ‘house’, ibal ‘dust’; fu ‘cook (v.)’ • H (high), e.g. ān ‘arrow’, ēimawe ‘haze’, *verbs • LH (rising), e.g. áam ‘pandanus’, unáng ‘woman’, káawa ‘steel axe’, *verbs • LHL (peaking), klâ ‘properly’, alukûm ‘all’; -ûb’- ‘give (v.)’ • HL (falling), e.g. bòks‘box’, usàn ‘tail’; hà’ ‘break (v.)’

  19. Tone association /LHunaŋ/ ‘woman’ LH L H L H |/ /|/ unaŋ→unaŋ→unaŋ [unáŋ] ‘woman’

  20. Tone association /LHunaŋ/ ‘woman’ LH L H L H |/ /|/ unaŋ→unaŋ→unaŋ [unáŋ] ‘woman’ Figure 4.Waveform and fundamental frequency for /LHunaŋ/ ‘woman’

  21. Segments attracting tone /LHkaʕwa/ ‘steel axe’ LH L H L H | | | kaˤwa→ kaˤwa→kaˤwa *** [kʰaˤwá] ‘steel axe’

  22. Segments attracting tone /LHkaʕwa/ ‘steel axe’ LH L H L H | | | kaˤwa→ kaˤwa→kaˤwa *** [kʰaˤwá] ‘steel axe’ Figure 5.Waveform and fundamental frequency for /LHkaˤwa/ ‘steel axe’

  23. Segments attracting tone /LHkaʕwa/ ‘steel axe’ LH L H L H | | | kaˤwa→ kaˤwa→kaˤwa *** [kʰaˤwá] ‘steel axe’ Figure 5.Waveform and fundamental frequency for /LHkaˤwa/ ‘steel axe’ • Also in : • ngáamein‘yellow’ (ADJ) • máamein‘maternal uncle’ (N) • gâala‘tear down’ (V)

  24. Interplay between segmental and suprasegmental specification • Segmental feature attracts tone • Related phenomenon in Warembori (Donohue 1999: 8-9) • “Normal” and “heavy” set of nasal and voiced stops, which are pronounced identically, but heavy series attracts stress

  25. Mian for typologists - the essentials Noun categorization − gender and classifiers

  26. Our example sentence unáng=ikáawa=o woman=PL.ANsteel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-sese-bl-Ø-io=be F_CL.SG.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-RECP-exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’

  27. Combining gender and classifiers • Typologically relatively rare • Recent research has turned up more and more languages that combine gender and classifiers • Papuan • Mian (Trans New Guinea, Fedden 2011) • Tidore (West Papuan, van Staden2000) • South American • Miraña(Witotoan, Seifart2005) • Tariana(Arawak, Aikhenvald 1994, 2000) • Australian • Enindhilyakwa(Non-Pama-Nyungan, van Egmond 2008)

  28. Mian gender • M, F, N1, N2 in the 3rd person • Marked on: Free pronouns, articles, demonstratives, person affixes on the verb • Nominal gender typical of Mountain Ok languages (Healey 1965a; Healey and Steinkraus 1972; Weber 1997) • Not typical of TNG languages, which have pronominal gender (M/F), if at all

  29. Agreement target: article a.naka=e‘a/the man’ naka=i‘(the) men’ b. unáng=o‘a/the woman’ unáng=i ‘(the) women’ c. tóm=e ‘a/the stone’ tóm=o‘(the) stones’ d. káawa=o‘a/the steel axe’ káawa=o ‘(the) steel axes’

  30. Controller genders • Neuter 1 and neuter 2 are non-autonomous values (Zaliznjak 1973[2002]: 69–74)

  31. Gender syncretism

  32. Gender syncretism Cited from Corbett (1991: 198)

  33. Singular Plural Gender syncretism M e o i o N1 F N2 Target genders in Mian Cited from Corbett (1991: 198)

  34. Verbal classifiers • M-CL, F-CL, Long, Bundle, Cover, Residue • Marked on: Verbs of object handling and movement, e.g. ‘give’, ‘take’, ‘put’, ‘throw’, ‘lift’, ‘turn’, ‘fall’ (~50 verbs) • Absolutive basis (Keenan 1984) • Typologically, classification by verb extends: • Never to A (absolute universal) • Only to S or O (strong statistical universal) with some exceptions, e.g. S, O or LOC adjuncts in Enindhilyakwa (van Egmond 2008)

  35. Verbal classifiers nēmemâalofút=e 1SG now tobacco=SG.N1 tob-ò-n-i=a 3SG.LONG.O-take.PFV-SS.SEQ-1SG.SBJ=MED ‘Now I take the tobacco leaf and then I ...’ (Rolling smokes) Dried Nicotiana leaves bound together

  36. Verbal classifiers

  37. Clear and intermediary cases • Gender system fairly normal (with the wrinkle of the mismatch between controller and target genders) • Verbal classifiers are a more mixed category More gender-like - Small finite set of categories - Bound form - Marked outside the noun More classifier-like - Marked once, on a single constituent type - Some nouns not classified - Form and function semantics - Multiple categorization is common

  38. Multiple categorization A. som=e banana_bunch=SG.N1 dob-meki-n-e=be 3SG.M_CL.O-hang_up.PFV-REAL-3SG.M.SBJ=DECL ‘I've hung up the banana bunch.’ B.som=e banana_bunch=SG.N1 gol-meki-n-e=be 3SG.BDL.O-hang_up.PFV-REAL-3SG.M.SBJ=DECL ‘I've hung up the banana bunch (that is supplied with some string or rope to hang it up on).’

  39. A case for Canonical Typology • New 3-year long AHRC-funded project on “Combining gender and classifiers in natural language”

  40. A case for Canonical Typology • New 3-year long AHRC-funded project on “Combining gender and classifiers in natural language” • Inform the typology of different types of noun categorization systems in a language

  41. A case for Canonical Typology • New 3-year long AHRC-funded project on “Combining gender and classifiers in natural language” • Inform the typology of different types of noun categorization systems in a language • Use a canonical approach to mapping out the possibility space and focus on intermediate cases

  42. Mian for typologists - the essentials reciprocals

  43. The sese-construction unáng=ikáawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-sese-bl-Ø-io=be F_CL.SG.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-RECP-exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’

  44. The sese-construction unáng=ikáawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-sese-bl-Ø-io=be F_CL.SG.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-RECP-exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’ • Verb-marking reciprocal strategy

  45. The sese-construction unáng=ikáawa=o woman=PL.ANsteel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-sese-bl-Ø-io=be F_CL.SG.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-RECP-exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’ • Reciprocants have to be (i) subjectand (ii) object • Transitive verb-marking reciprocal strategies are typologically unusual (Nedjalkov 2007: 12, 40) • But see Moyse-Faurie (2008) for Oceanic languages and Marlett (2005) for Seri

  46. The sese-construction unáng=ikáawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-sese-bl-Ø-io=be F_CL.SG.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-RECP-exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’ • Note the singular object suffix -o ‘3SG.F.R’ • Iconicallyexpressing that the respective reciprocal actions are directed towards individuals of the same sex • Restricted to two reciprocants (constructional encoding of a dual) • The plural -e ‘AN.PL.R’ is also possible, but only if there are three or more reciprocants

  47. The sese-construction unáng=ikáawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-sese-bl-Ø-io=be F_CL.SG.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-RECP-exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’ • Existential verb • subject suffix in the plural, expressing the whole set of reciprocants ‘they are doing this’ • aspectual function of expressing imperfectivity

  48. An alternative construction unáng=ikáawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-s-e F_CL.PL.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-DS.SEQ-3SG.M.SBJ om-ûb’-o-s-e F_CL.PL.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-DS.SEQ-3SG.M.SBJ bl-Ø-io=be exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’

  49. ‘Zigzag’ construction (Evans 2008) unáng=ikáawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-s-e F_CL.PL.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-DS.SEQ-3SG.M.SBJ om-ûb’-o-s-e F_CL.PL.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-DS.SEQ-3SG.M.SBJ bl-Ø-io=be exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’ Zigzag verb spelling out reciprocal subevents Existential verb

  50. The Mian ‘zigzag’ construction -s is a S/R marker indicating ‘different subject’ and ‘sequentiality of events’ unáng=ikáawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-s-e F_CL.PL.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-DS.SEQ-3SG.M.SBJ om-ûb’-o-s-e F_CL.PL.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-DS.SEQ-3SG.M.SBJ bl-Ø-io=be exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’

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