Motivations for second position: Evidence from North-Central Australia

Ilana Mushin

doi:10.1515/LINGTY.2006.010

Article

Motivations for second position: Evidence from North-Central Australia

Ilana Mushin

Published/Copyright: January 3, 2007

Published by

Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Submit Manuscript Author Information Explore this Subject

From the journal Volume 10 Issue 3

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Australian languages; auxiliary; clitic; clitic cluster; cliticisation; focus; Garrwa; grammaticalisation; information packaging; pronoun; second position; tense-aspect-modality; Wambaya; Warlpiri; word order

*Correspondence address:Linguistics Program, School of English, Media Studies and Art History, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, 4072, Australia

Received: 2006-02-13

Revised: 2006-09-07

Published Online: 2007-01-03

Published in Print: 2006-12-01

You are currently not able to access this content.

Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/LINGTY.2006.010

Keywords for this article

Australian languages; auxiliary; clitic; clitic cluster; cliticisation; focus; Garrwa; grammaticalisation; information packaging; pronoun; second position; tense-aspect-modality; Wambaya; Warlpiri; word order