ORCID Profile
0000-0002-3576-9827
Current Organisations
KU Leuven
,
Australian National University
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Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 2010
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 08-2006
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 15-06-2015
Abstract: This paper analyses the adnominal use of personal pronouns in a s le of 75 Australian languages. We develop two arguments. First, we argue that in all of the adnominal uses examined, the personal pronoun has a determiner-like function, showing both the functional properties and some of the behaviour of more typical determiner categories like demonstratives or articles. We support this analysis with evidence from positioning tendencies, semantics and discourse functions, and indications of grammaticization in some languages. Secondly, we show that this phenomenon is relatively widespread in Australia, occurring in about half of the languages examined here. We identify five potential geographic clusters, one or two of which can be analyzed as areally determined groupings around a centre with incipient grammaticization. From a typological perspective, these data present new evidence for a somewhat under-studied pathway to nominal determination, in addition to better-studied pathways involving demonstratives, numerals or adjectives.
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 12-2021
DOI: 10.1075/SL.20055.LUK
Abstract: This study analyses the role of conjunctions in clause linkage in Australian languages. Conjunctions are seemingly straightforward clause-linking devices, but they remain under-studied, both for Australian languages and from a broader typological perspective. In this study, we propose a functional definition of conjunctions, as set against other resources for clause linkage. We show that this captures not just the prototypical free-standing elements (the equivalents of if , because , but etc.), but also various types of bound markers with a similar function (bound to clause-scoping positions or predicates). We survey the role of conjunctions in a representative s le of 53 Australian languages, showing that they are not a marginal clause linkage resource in Australia, as seems to be assumed in the relevant literature, but often form a major category within clause linkage systems. We also identify a number of areal patterns, based on the size of conjunction inventories and their morphosyntactic features.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2011
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 2009
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 04-2008
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 18-01-2005
Publisher: De Gruyter
Date: 10-09-2018
Publisher: Mouton de Gruyter
Date: 16-07-2004
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 2006
DOI: 10.1515/COG.2006.011
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 15-07-2013
DOI: 10.1075/CAGRAL.5
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 14-04-2004
Abstract: This study investigates the opposition between intra-clausal and extra-clausal positions in the preverbal domain in English, German and Dutch. It is argued that some of the traditional criteria used to distinguish between these positions, especially the criterion of pronominal resumption, are not entirely reliable, and a number of new criteria are introduced, including distribution in non-declarative contexts. On the basis of these descriptive refinements, it is proposed that the opposition between intra-clausal and extra-clausal positions can be defined functionally in terms of the scope of illocution markers: the intra-clausal position falls within the scope of illocution, whereas the extra-clausal position is outside its scope. This functional generalization does not only help to explain the various formal criteria that distinguish the two positions, but it is also in line with their typical discourse functions.
Publisher: Oxford University PressOxford
Date: 13-06-2023
DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780198824978.003.0072
Abstract: This chapter is a survey of the Lamalamic languages, a subgroup of the Paman subgroup of Pama-Nyungan. The Lamalamic subgroup consists of three languages, viz. Umbuygamu, Lamalama, and Rimanggudinhma, all associated with the Princess Charlotte Bay region on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula. The chapter focusses on phonological change, specifically the far-reaching changes in phoneme inventory, root structure, and phonotactics that define Lamalamic. There is also some discussion of morphological and syntactic innovations within the subgroup. The most notable syntactic feature is the position of cross-referencing pronouns, which form a complex that is either encliticized to the inflected verb or is in clause-initial position when one of the participants is in focus.
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 17-11-2010
DOI: 10.1075/TSL.94
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 2010
DOI: 10.1075/TSL.94.01DAV
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2010
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2005
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 08-01-2004
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 15-11-2016
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 2011
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 2014
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-05-2021
Abstract: This study aims to reconstruct a change in the system of word stress in Umpithamu, a language of Cape York Peninsula, in northeastern Australia. The change involves a shift in parsing direction, from a left‐aligned system as found in most Pama‐Nyungan languages, to a system anchored at the right edge. The process of change is reconstructed using evidence from changes in root structure and root size, in combination with specifics of the synchronic system of word stress. The broader context for the analysis is a well‐known hypothesis about stress shift as a cause of initial consonant loss, a typologically rare phenomenon attested in areal patterns in Australia, including Umpithamu and its neighbours. The reconstruction of stress change in Umpithamu shows that the picture is more complex, with the major stress shift as a consequence rather than a cause of initial loss. Umpithamu shows partial rather than complete initial loss, and thus reveals the complexities of the actual processes rather than their end point. Comparison with languages at the end point of the processes shows how their stress systems can be derived from an Umpithamu‐type system simply by assuming further changes in root structure attested as following initial consonant loss.
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 14-05-2012
Abstract: This paper presents an analysis of complement insubordination in Dutch, i.e. structures that are formally marked as subordinate complement clauses but conventionally used as main clauses. We develop a typology of seven distinct construction types (in three semantic domains), none of which have been analyzed in detail before. From a more general perspective, we show that insubordinate constructions provide a fresh perspective on the analysis of modality and evaluation, with semantic parameters that are not found in more typical exponents like modal verbs. In addition, we show that it is difficult to develop a schematic generalization across the different construction types, in spite of their apparent formal similarity as complement structures. We argue that this points to separate developmental trajectories for the different types, with a point of origin in different main-subordinate constructions, and different degrees of conventionalization for the resulting insubordinate constructions.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-2011
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2019
DOI: 10.1111/LNC3.12311
Publisher: Project MUSE
Date: 2005
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2014
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 26-01-2016
DOI: 10.1075/CLU.18
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 10-2021
DOI: 10.1515/TL-2021-2026
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 03-09-2021
Abstract: This paper investigates the historical loss of root-initial consonants, using a case study of Middle Paman languages of Cape York Peninsula, in northeastern Australia. Systematic loss of initial consonants is a typologically unusual phenomenon, mainly found in Australia, that has often been regarded as a starting point for far-reaching changes in root structure, phonotactics and even phoneme inventory. So far, the literature has focused mainly on identifying phonetic causes of initial loss. This study focuses on the actual processes and pathways of initial loss, which is an equally important part of the historical puzzle. Specifically, it shows that there are multiple pathways for initial loss: it can be the result of a gradual phonetic process involving intermediate steps like lenition, as is assumed in part of the literature, but it can also be due to more abrupt processes involving borrowing and even morphosyntactic alternations. This adds to a more ersified model of how initial loss actually proceeds, which together with earlier work on the ersity of phonetic causes of initial loss produces a more comprehensive understanding of this typologically and diachronically unusual phenomenon.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 26-04-2018
DOI: 10.1017/S0025100318000105
Abstract: Mbarrumbathama is a clan-named variety of Lamalama, a language of Cape York Peninsula, in the northeast of Australia. Together with Umbuygamu (Ogilvie 1994, Sommer 1998, Verstraete 2017) and Rimanggudinhma (Godman 1993), Lamalama forms the Lamalamic subgroup of Paman languages (Laycock 1969, Rigsby 1997, Verstraete 2018), themselves a subgroup of Pama-Nyungan (Hale 1964, 1966 see also Bowern & Atkinson 2012). The language is no longer spoken, but it is traditionally associated with about 20 clans (as reconstructed by Rigsby 1999, 2014) belonging to the southern shores of Princess Charlotte Bay, on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula (see Figure 1). The clans’ estates are mainly coastal, extending from the Normanby River mouth in the east to about 10 km west of the North Kennedy River mouth, but they also include some inland estates (see Rigsby 1992: 356).
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2008
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 10-2020
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 24-06-2018
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 30-05-2004
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 17-05-2017
DOI: 10.1017/S0025100317000172
Abstract: Umbuygamu is a Pama-Nyungan language of the east coast of Cape York Peninsula, in the northeast of Australia. Genetically, the language belongs to the Lamalamic subgroup (Laycock 1969, Rigsby 1997) of Paman languages, themselves a subgroup of Pama-Nyungan (as proposed by Hale 1964, 1966 see also Bowern & Atkinson 2012). Umbuygamu is the language of three clans at the southern end of Princess Charlotte Bay, about halfway up the east coast of Cape York Peninsula. Their estates are centred on a lagoon called Emanha (or Dinner Hole in English) they extend inland into the upper Running Creek system, and include the Cliff Islands group along the coast see Rigsby 1992 for more details, and Verstraete & Rigsby (2015: 2) for a map of the region and its languages. Neighbouring languages are the Middle Paman language Umpithamu, along the coast to the north (see, for instance, Verstraete 2010, 2012) and two Lamalamic languages, Rimanggudinhma to the southwest (located inland Godman 1993, Sommer 1999b), and Lamalama to the southeast (along the coast Sommer 1999a).
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2010
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 1998
Abstract: This paper attempts to develop a comprehensive model for the problem of internal vs. external conjunction (Halliday & Hasan 1976). It is first argued that the distinction between internal and external conjunction is not merely a matter of semantics, but that the two types are semiotically significant categories. By postulating that internal and external conjunction are cryptotypically anchored in the speaker-encoding vs. content-related grammar of their main clause, it can be explained why and how syntactic criteria like clefting or nominalization 'react' to the semantic distinction between the two types of conjunction. Secondly, it is argued that the internal category should be sub ided into two grammatically distinct types of conjunction, which are related to the modal and the speech functional grammar of their main clause. Finally, this analysis is used to propose a sharper delineation of the modal and the speech functional subtypes of the internal category.
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 07-2023
Abstract: Middle voice systems are characterized by the distribution of a middle marker over two macro-classes of verbs: oppositional and non-oppositional verbs. In diachronic studies, it has been proposed that the historical link between the two groups is unidirectional, with middle marking spreading from oppositional to non-oppositional verbs. In this paper, we challenge this assumption and discuss two case studies, one from Anatolian and one from Paman languages that show the opposite development, that is, from non-oppositional to oppositional. In both cases, we argue, constructions that originally had a lexically determined distribution develop grammatical functions connected with valency reduction.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 04-2002
Publisher: DE GRUYTER
Date: 31-12-2015
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2001
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 26-01-2016
DOI: 10.1075/CLU.18.01VER
Publisher: DE GRUYTER
Date: 31-12-2007
Publisher: Project MUSE
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1353/OL.2018.0000
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2005
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 12-09-2000
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 2008
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 30-05-2004
DOI: 10.1075/FOL.11.1
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 20-04-2010
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 04-2006
Publisher: Mouton de Gruyter
Date: 17-09-2007
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2008
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 17-04-2011
Abstract: This paper is a semantic analysis of ‘experienced action’ constructions in Umpithamu, a Paman language from Cape York Peninsula (Australia). The basic argument is that these constructions are related to the better-attested category of experiencer object constructions (e.g. Evans, Non-nominative subjects 1: 69–192, 2004), which in Umpithamu describe involuntary experience of bodily processes. Experienced action constructions extend the feature of ‘involuntary experience’ from processes within the body to actions originating outside the body, and thus provide a semantically marked alternative for standard transitive clauses. The constructions are typologically interesting because they show the need to identify different loci of experiential semantics in a construction, and they help to clarify the status of control for human Undergoers within semantic typologies of reduced transitivity.
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 2013
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 2016
Abstract: This article examines whether Australian languages generally lack clear noun phrase structures, as has sometimes been argued in the literature. We break up the notion of NP constituency into a set of concrete typological parameters, and analyse these across a s le of 100 languages, representing a significant portion of ersity on the Australian continent. We show that there is little evidence to support general ideas about the absence of NP structures, and we argue that it makes more sense to typologize languages on the basis of where and how they allow “classic” NP construal, and how this fits into the broader range of construals in the nominal domain.
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Date: 10-10-2012
Abstract: This paper analyses the morphosyntactic status of pronouns in Umpithamu, a language from Cape York Peninsula (Australia). The analysis shows that pronominal morphosyntax in Umpithamu deviates from what can be expected historically and typologically, and attributes this to restructuring under the influence of intensive contact with Lamalamic languages, to which it is not closely related. The evidence for contact-induced restructuring combines a clear linguistic case involving a rare morphosyntactic pattern with a rare function, with a well-documented anthropological case for long-standing language contact. The outcome of the process is morphologically hybrid, combining the external structure of enclitic forms with the internal structure of free forms, which testifies to the abrupt nature of the process that was involved.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 13-03-2008
No related grants have been discovered for Jean-Christophe Verstraete.