Put and Take in Yélî Dnye, the Papuan language of Rossel Island
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Stephen C. Levinson
Abstract
This paper describes the linguistic treatment of placement events in the Rossel Island (Papua New Guinea) language Yélî Dnye. Yélî Dnye is unusual in treating PUT and TAKE events symmetrically with a remarkable consistency. In what follows, we first provide a brief background for the language, then describe the six core PUT/TAKE verbs that were drawn upon by Yélî Dnye speakers to describe the great majority of the PUT/TAKE stimuli clips, along with some of their grammatical properties. In Section 5 we describe alternative verbs usable in particular circumstances and give an indication of the basis for variability in responses across speakers. Section 6 presents some reasons why the Yélî verb pattern for expressing PUT and TAKE events is of broad interest.
Abstract
This paper describes the linguistic treatment of placement events in the Rossel Island (Papua New Guinea) language Yélî Dnye. Yélî Dnye is unusual in treating PUT and TAKE events symmetrically with a remarkable consistency. In what follows, we first provide a brief background for the language, then describe the six core PUT/TAKE verbs that were drawn upon by Yélî Dnye speakers to describe the great majority of the PUT/TAKE stimuli clips, along with some of their grammatical properties. In Section 5 we describe alternative verbs usable in particular circumstances and give an indication of the basis for variability in responses across speakers. Section 6 presents some reasons why the Yélî verb pattern for expressing PUT and TAKE events is of broad interest.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors ix
- Preface xi
- Putting and taking events 1
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Part I. Lexical semantics
- The linguistic encoding of placement and removal events in Jahai 21
- “She from bookshelf take-descend-come the box” 37
- To ‘put’ or to ‘take’? 55
- The encoding of placement and removal events in ǂĀkhoe Haiǁom 79
- The semantics of placement and removal predicates in Moroccan Arabic 99
- Placement and removal events in Basque and Spanish 123
- On the use of PUT Verbs by multilingual speakers of Romansh 145
- Probing the linguistic encoding of placement and removal events in Swedish 167
- The semantic role of agentive control in Hungarian placement events 183
- Putting and Taking in Tamil and Hindi 201
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Part II. (A)symmetries in encoding placement vs. removal events
- The Thaayorre lexicon of putting and taking 233
- The expression of ‘putting’ and ‘taking’ events in Japanese 253
- Put and Take in Yélî Dnye, the Papuan language of Rossel Island 273
- Take it up, down, and away 297
- Semantic granularity of placement and removal expressions in Polish 327
- How to put and take in Kalasha 349
- Language index 367
- Subject index 369
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors ix
- Preface xi
- Putting and taking events 1
-
Part I. Lexical semantics
- The linguistic encoding of placement and removal events in Jahai 21
- “She from bookshelf take-descend-come the box” 37
- To ‘put’ or to ‘take’? 55
- The encoding of placement and removal events in ǂĀkhoe Haiǁom 79
- The semantics of placement and removal predicates in Moroccan Arabic 99
- Placement and removal events in Basque and Spanish 123
- On the use of PUT Verbs by multilingual speakers of Romansh 145
- Probing the linguistic encoding of placement and removal events in Swedish 167
- The semantic role of agentive control in Hungarian placement events 183
- Putting and Taking in Tamil and Hindi 201
-
Part II. (A)symmetries in encoding placement vs. removal events
- The Thaayorre lexicon of putting and taking 233
- The expression of ‘putting’ and ‘taking’ events in Japanese 253
- Put and Take in Yélî Dnye, the Papuan language of Rossel Island 273
- Take it up, down, and away 297
- Semantic granularity of placement and removal expressions in Polish 327
- How to put and take in Kalasha 349
- Language index 367
- Subject index 369
