Search

Diverse evidence from Bardi and other Australian languages is used here to argue for a multifunctional view of complex predication, one which includes event classification but is not limited to it. These data bear directly on the question of whether complex predicate formation involves the transfer of arguments from the light verb to the preverb, or whether complex predicates are better analysed as a unification of preverb and light verb. The multifunctionality of the construction, as well as the syntax of Bardi and other languages, provides arguments against the argument transfer analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gurindji Kriol is a mixed language spoken in northern Australia. It is derived from Gurindji, a Pama-Nyungan language, and Kriol, an English-lexifier creole language. Despite these clear sources, Gurindji Kriol contains grammatical systems which are not found in Gurindji or Kriol, for example asymmetrical serial verb constructions. The origin of these constructions is unclear given that Kriol only contains a very limited set of serial verb constructions and they are not found in Gurindji. The development of asymmetrical serial verb constructions is examined and it is suggested that they are a product of the more restricted Kriol serial verb construction developing and expanding under the influence of the Gurindji complex verb. The formation of this construction was a part of the more general genesis of the mixed language which was derived from code-switching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has long been observed that many languages from all over the world require that certain grammatical categories (e.g., person, number, tense, modality) occur in the “second position” of a clause. Much of the research into second position has developed formal explanations for this recurring pattern, based on interactions between morphosyntax and phonology. In this article I explore how pragmatics of information packaging interacts with these other features in the development of such morphosyntactic architecture in three North-Central Australian languages: Warlpiri, Wambaya, and Garrwa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]