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Chapter 8. Double agent, double cross?

Or how a suffix changes nature in an isolating language: dór in Tetun Dili
  • Catharina Williams-van Klinken and John Hajek
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Austronesian Undressed
This chapter is in the book Austronesian Undressed

Abstract

In East Timor, there have been centuries of contact between the strongly isolating Austronesian language Tetun Dili and the morphologically-rich Romance language Portuguese. In all this time, only one derivational morpheme has been borrowed into Tetun Dili for use with native lexicon. This is -dor, a transparent agentive suffix which neatly fits the word order and stress patterns of existing Tetun Dili agentive compounds. Tetun Dili has borrowed numerous nouns with this suffix. However when in combination with native roots, it has shifted in terms of its semantics, word class of the root and derivation, and even word status, bringing it more in line with pre-existing native agentive morphemes. In other words, Tetun’s strongly isolating nature has won, at least for now.

Abstract

In East Timor, there have been centuries of contact between the strongly isolating Austronesian language Tetun Dili and the morphologically-rich Romance language Portuguese. In all this time, only one derivational morpheme has been borrowed into Tetun Dili for use with native lexicon. This is -dor, a transparent agentive suffix which neatly fits the word order and stress patterns of existing Tetun Dili agentive compounds. Tetun Dili has borrowed numerous nouns with this suffix. However when in combination with native roots, it has shifted in terms of its semantics, word class of the root and derivation, and even word status, bringing it more in line with pre-existing native agentive morphemes. In other words, Tetun’s strongly isolating nature has won, at least for now.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Preface ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Chapter 1. What does it mean to be an isolating language? 9
  6. Chapter 2. The loss of affixation in Cham 97
  7. Chapter 3. Dual heritage 119
  8. Chapter 4. Voice and bare verbs in Colloquial Minangkabau 213
  9. Chapter 5. Javanese undressed 253
  10. Chapter 6. Are the Central Flores languages really typologically unusual? 287
  11. Chapter 7. From Lamaholot to Alorese 339
  12. Chapter 8. Double agent, double cross? 369
  13. Chapter 9. The origins of isolating word structure in eastern Timor 391
  14. Chapter 10. Becoming Austronesian 447
  15. Chapter 11. Concluding reflections 483
  16. Index 507
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.129.08kli

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Preface ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Chapter 1. What does it mean to be an isolating language? 9
  6. Chapter 2. The loss of affixation in Cham 97
  7. Chapter 3. Dual heritage 119
  8. Chapter 4. Voice and bare verbs in Colloquial Minangkabau 213
  9. Chapter 5. Javanese undressed 253
  10. Chapter 6. Are the Central Flores languages really typologically unusual? 287
  11. Chapter 7. From Lamaholot to Alorese 339
  12. Chapter 8. Double agent, double cross? 369
  13. Chapter 9. The origins of isolating word structure in eastern Timor 391
  14. Chapter 10. Becoming Austronesian 447
  15. Chapter 11. Concluding reflections 483
  16. Index 507
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