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Nominals as adjuncts or arguments

Further evidence from language mixing
  • Felicity Meakins
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Language Description Informed by Theory
This chapter is in the book Language Description Informed by Theory

Abstract

Generativists have argued that nominals in non-configurational languages such as Warlpiri do not have the status of arguments. This paper provides new evidence for this claim from an unlikely source: code-switching between Kriol, an English-based creole, and Gurindji, a Ngumpin-Yapa language closely related to Warlpiri. In Gurindji-Kriol code-switching, case-marked nominals are non-obligatory and, where they do occur, they are cross-referenced with a pronoun. This pattern is found even where Kriol sets the morpho-syntactic frame and provides the pronouns. The structure reflects that of monolingual Gurindji where bound pronouns are obligatory and nominals are optional. Given the resistance of inflectional morphology to switching, it is unexpected to find Gurindji case-marked nominals present in an otherwise Kriol morpho-syntactic frame. Nonetheless, structural material can enter into a code-switched clause via structural islands which do not participate in the predicate argument structure of the code-switched clause. This paper argues that case-marked nominals are structural islands and this adjunct-like structure must have been available in the source language, Gurindji, thereby providing further evidence for the non-argument status of Gurindji nominals.

Abstract

Generativists have argued that nominals in non-configurational languages such as Warlpiri do not have the status of arguments. This paper provides new evidence for this claim from an unlikely source: code-switching between Kriol, an English-based creole, and Gurindji, a Ngumpin-Yapa language closely related to Warlpiri. In Gurindji-Kriol code-switching, case-marked nominals are non-obligatory and, where they do occur, they are cross-referenced with a pronoun. This pattern is found even where Kriol sets the morpho-syntactic frame and provides the pronouns. The structure reflects that of monolingual Gurindji where bound pronouns are obligatory and nominals are optional. Given the resistance of inflectional morphology to switching, it is unexpected to find Gurindji case-marked nominals present in an otherwise Kriol morpho-syntactic frame. Nonetheless, structural material can enter into a code-switched clause via structural islands which do not participate in the predicate argument structure of the code-switched clause. This paper argues that case-marked nominals are structural islands and this adjunct-like structure must have been available in the source language, Gurindji, thereby providing further evidence for the non-argument status of Gurindji nominals.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Map of Australian languages refferred to in this book vii
  4. List of contributors xi
  5. Editors’ introduction 1
  6. Bibliography of Mary Laughren 15
  7. Evaluating the Bilingual Education Program in Warlpiri schools 25
  8. Part 1. Phonology
  9. Phonological aspects of Arandic baby talk 49
  10. Prestopping of nasals and laterals is only partly parallel 81
  11. Part 2. Morphology
  12. Liminal pronoun systems 99
  13. Verbs as spatial deixis markers in Jingulu 123
  14. The reconstruction of inflectional classes in morphology 153
  15. Part 3. Syntax
  16. Marking Definiteness or Specificity, not necessarily both 193
  17. Theory and experiment in parametric minimalism 217
  18. Serial verbs in Wambaya 263
  19. Nominals as adjuncts or arguments 283
  20. Part 4. Semantics
  21. The case of the invisible postman 319
  22. Manner and result 337
  23. Part 5. Anthropological Linguistics
  24. Shifting relations 361
  25. Language index 383
  26. Subject index 385
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.147.12mea

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Map of Australian languages refferred to in this book vii
  4. List of contributors xi
  5. Editors’ introduction 1
  6. Bibliography of Mary Laughren 15
  7. Evaluating the Bilingual Education Program in Warlpiri schools 25
  8. Part 1. Phonology
  9. Phonological aspects of Arandic baby talk 49
  10. Prestopping of nasals and laterals is only partly parallel 81
  11. Part 2. Morphology
  12. Liminal pronoun systems 99
  13. Verbs as spatial deixis markers in Jingulu 123
  14. The reconstruction of inflectional classes in morphology 153
  15. Part 3. Syntax
  16. Marking Definiteness or Specificity, not necessarily both 193
  17. Theory and experiment in parametric minimalism 217
  18. Serial verbs in Wambaya 263
  19. Nominals as adjuncts or arguments 283
  20. Part 4. Semantics
  21. The case of the invisible postman 319
  22. Manner and result 337
  23. Part 5. Anthropological Linguistics
  24. Shifting relations 361
  25. Language index 383
  26. Subject index 385
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