Startseite Linguistik & Semiotik The grammaticalization and dissolution of High Extended Intonation: an inalienable possession paradigm in Roon
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The grammaticalization and dissolution of High Extended Intonation: an inalienable possession paradigm in Roon

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Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 18. September 2023
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Abstract

This paper is concerned with the documentation, typology and diachrony of a single inflectional paradigm expressing inalienable attributive possession in Roon, a language of the South Halmahera West New Guinea subgroup of Austronesian. The paradigm in question exhibits a substantial amount of variation both within and across speakers. Formally, the paradigm is exceptional in that, in some of its variants, it makes use of an H toneme, the only attested usage of tonality in the entire language. Functionally, the paradigm is remarkable in that, in some of its variants, the possessor is distinguished not for person but rather for distal deixis. Historically, the H toneme forming part of the paradigm is argued to derive from the grammaticalization of a High Extended Intonation contour expressing excessivity along a scalar dimension, characteristic of many languages of New Guinea and Australia. In some languages of North West New Guinea, this intonation contour anchors to certain particles, resulting in ideophones such as the Papuan Malay eeeH. One such ideophone, it is suggested, was subsequently incorporated into the expression of inalienable attributive possession in Roon. The proposed analysis thus provides a case study of how intonation may develop into tone, and, more generally, how gesture may be incorporated into grammar.


Corresponding author: David Gil, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

Above all, I am indebted to Jim Betay, without whose patient and painstaking tutoring this paper would not have been possible; I will probably always have this nagging feeling that I have failed to do justice to all the time and energy that he devoted to me. I am also grateful to Alexander Betay, Dismas Marin, and Solipas (whose surname I never got round to asking for), for further insights into the Roon language. Special thanks to Laura Arnold and Emily Gasser for always being on hand to contribute their extensive knowledge of SHWNG languages. For other useful conversations related to the topics of this paper, I would also like to thank Dave Kamholz, Yusuf Sawaki, and Antoinette Schapper. Helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper were offered by Laura Arnold and two anonymous reviewers, and a useful tutorial on producing pitch tracks was provided by Emily Gasser. As always, I am grateful to Bernard Comrie and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology for making my research into Roon possible. And finally, a special thanks to all the people of Syabes, on the island of Roon, for their extraordinary hospitality.

Abbreviations

1

1st person

2

2nd person

3

3rd person

all

allative

anim

animate

art

article

ASL

American Sign Language

cp

connecting particle

def

definite

deic

deictic

dem

demonstrative

dist

distal

distr

distributive

du

dual

exc

excessive

f

feminine

fra

frame marker

H

high

iam

iamitive

inan

inanimate

irrit

irritative

L

low

lnk

linker

loc

locative

m

masculine

med

medial (distance)

ncnt

non-contrastive

nmlz

nominalizer

NP

noun phrase

nsg

non-singular

obl

oblique

perl

perlative

pl

plural

pn

proper noun

poss

possessive

pred

predicative

prf

perfect

proh

prohibitive

prox

proximal

prt

particle

rel

relative

sg

singular

SHWNG

South Halmahera-West New Guinea

superl

superlative

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Published Online: 2023-09-18
Published in Print: 2023-09-26

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