Volume 9, Issue 1

Reference grammars often set out the personal pronouns in paradigms similar to those of nouns. When the pronoun stems are phonologically different, this approach implies that we have instances of suppletion, though this is typically not discussed explicitly. In contrast, those linguists who have raised the issue directly tend to suggest that we are not dealing with suppletion. They claim rather that personal pronouns are not opposed for number (thus we would not be the plural of I  ). The issue is particularly important if we wish to develop a typology of suppletion, since personal pronouns are potentially one of the commonest instances. If we separate out the two parts of suppletion (irregularity of form and regularity of meaning), the question becomes clearer. As far as form is concerned, while personal pronouns are frequently irregular, there are languages with morphologically regular pronouns (which makes the suppletion analysis for irregulars more plausible). And in terms of meaning, we find different types of number at different points on the Animacy Hierarchy; it is not a major issue that the plural of personal pronouns frequently involves associativity, since this may be found also for other items high on the hierarchy. These two main points lead us to conclude that there are languages where the personal pronouns show suppletion for number. Two subsidiary arguments, based on data from Latvian and Bengali, support this conclusion. Thus a typology of suppletion should include personal pronouns as an important part. This interesting but specific problem is set in the broader context of the need for reproducibility in typology.

This article analyses the functions and meanings of the reflexes of the Proto-Oceanic (POc) prefix *paRi- in New Caledonian languages and, based on comparisons with other Austronesian languages, seeks to account for their broad polyfunctionality and polysemy in New Caledonia. POc *paRi- originates from Proto-Austronesian and Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *paR- , as evidenced by their reflexes in various Formosan and Malayo-Polynesian languages. In Formosan languages, these prefixes are reciprocal markers and their combination with root reduplication marks plurality of reciprocal participants. In Malayo-Polynesian languages, the prefixes have a greater variety of functions and meanings: they are basically intransitive actor focus morphemes which also express middle voice and reciprocity as well as plural relationship, intensive, and frequentative meanings. In Oceanic languages, the reflexes of POc *paRi- express symmetrical, plural relationship and lower transitivity. POc *paRi- could also combine with two suffixes (POc *-i , *-aki  ) or with reduplication to express some other meanings (intensive, iterative, distributive, dispersive), as attested in various Oceanic languages. Thus, originally reciprocal prefixes in Formosan languages evolved into more polysemous morphemes in Malayo-Polynesian languages and developed in more or less conservative or innovative ways in Oceanic languages. In the northern New Caledonian languages, the decay of some of their combined suffixes and of reduplication probably triggered the conflation of these various functions and meanings into the preserved and productive prefixes.

A systematic collection of problems and counterexamples is presented for predictions of patterns of relational marking on noun phrases in terms of a noun phrase hierarchy (also known as animacy hierarchy), as conceived of by Silverstein (1976) and others. In seeking to account for case marking distributions that are at odds with the three main principles underlying the noun phrase hierarchy – role expectation, marking economy, scalar continuity –, the ordering of 1st and 2nd person pronouns on top of the hierarchy is given particular attention. Several ways of liberalizing noun phrase rankings in terms of feature systems, in particular an equal ranking for speech-act participants, are considered in order to square hierarchy predictions with the attested diversity of pronominal case marking in split alignment systems.

The typologist reader is presented here with an overview of the most interesting characteristics of Mwotlap, an Oceanic language of Vanuatu. After a short presentation of its phonology, its main morphosyntactic categories are described and explored from a functional angle. The construal of noun phrases reveals a cognitive asymmetry between human individuals and other referents. Nouns, just like verbs or adjectives, are predicative, and are even sensitive to tense-aspect-mood markers and actionality properties. The argument structure of a verb can regularly be affected by its modifiers. Finally, deictics can be shown to play a major role in the structuring of discourse and complex sentences. Whenever relevant, the grammar of Mwotlap is briefly compared to other languages, and assessed in the light of existing typological generalisations.

Steve Nicolle, Motion, Direction and Location in Languages , edited by Erin Shay and Uwe Seibert Gilbert Lazard, Non-canonical Marking of Subjects and Objects , edited by Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, R. M. W. Dixon, and Masayuki Onishi