Jinglu Grammar, Dictionary and Texts

R. J. Pensalfini, 1997

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This dissertation is primarily intended as a thorough description of the Jingulu language of North-Central Australia.  The first part describes Jingulu"s phonological, morphological and syntactic structure, illustrating with numerous examples collected by the author in the field in 1995 and 1996, and with a secondary focus on what Jingulu can contribute to an understanding of language from a theoretical perspective.  Chapter 1 focuses on the socio-historical context in which the language is spoken, with a lengthy excursus on the state of endangerment of the majority of the world"s languages.  Chapter 2 is devoted to Jingulu phonology, with in-depth theoretical discussions of Australian stress systems and of Jingulu"s regressive vowel harmony.  Chapter 3 outlines the architecture of the language faculty and the theory of morphology that underlies the description and analyses of the following chapters.  Chapter 4 discusses Jingulu syntax, focusing on the question of nonconfigurationality, and includes a syntactic typology of the various types of nonconfigurationality found among the world"s languages.  Chapters 5 and 6 are expositions of the morphology of Jingulu nominal and verbal words respectively.  The theory outlined in chapter 3 is applied in detail to the complex and apparently bizarre morphological systems of Jingulu, and this complexity is seen to follow from a small number of principles governing how formal features can be spelled out on the surface.  Chapter 7 contains 34 glossed and translated texts collected by the author.  Throughout the dissertation I have preferred to provide more texts and sentence examples rather than fewer, so that future researchers can test my generalizations, examine the data to find their own, and refute or affirm my analyses.

Part II of the dissertation is a Jingulu to English dictionary with an English to Jingulu word finder.  Each Jingulu entry in the dictionary is accompanied by grammatical, morphological and cultural information in addition to an English translation.  Most Jingulu entries also include examples of the word used in a sentence.  The dictionary is the latest stage in a collaboration that has involved many people over several decades.

Thesis supervisor:         Kenneth Locke Hale

Title:                             Ferrarri P. Ward Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics

Table of Contents

Part I    A Grammatical Description and Analysis of the Jingulu Language

Chapter 1         The language and its speakers                                                               17

            1          History and current status                                                                      17

                        1.1       Territory, genealogy and surrounding languages             17

                        1.2       Previous descriptions                                                                19

                        1.3       Jingili, Mudburra, Kuwarrangu and Kuwirrinji                20

            2          Jingulu as an endangered language                                                         23

                        2.1       Number and age of speakers                                                    23

                        2.2       Endangered languages and the maintenance of linguistic

                                    diversity                                                                                    24

                                    2.2.1    What is a language                                                        25

                                    2.2.2    What is an "endangered language"?                               30

                                    2.2.3    What makes a language become endangered?   33

                                    2.2.4    Why should anyone care?                                             35

                                                2.2.4.1 The museum view                                             39

                                                2.2.4.2 The relativity view                                             40

                                                2.2.4.3 The emancipation view                          43

            3          Kinship and subsection system                                                  45

Chapter 2         Phonology                                                                                            53

            1          Phoneme inventory                                                                               53

                        1.1       Vowels                                                                         53

                        1.2       Consonants and glides                                                              56

                                    1.2.1    Retroflex consonants                                                     58

                                    1.2.2    The palato-velar stop: phoneme or cluster?                    59

                                    1.2.3    Neutralisation of [+/- lateral] in clusters             63

                                    1.2.4    Initial glides and the special status of /ng/                       63

            2          Phonotactics " clusters and syllabification                                              66

            3          Stress                                                                                                   70

                        3.1       Word stress                                                                              70

                        3.2       Stress and suffixes                                                                    72

                        3.3       Formal analyses of Jingulu stress, with extensions to other

                                    Australian languages                                                                  74

                                    3.3.1    An Optimality Theoretic approach                                 74

                                    3.3.2    Bracketed metrical grids                                               86

            4          Vowel harmony                                                                                    96

                        4.1       Jingulu harmony as feature spreading                                         96

                        4.2       Putting a finger on the trigger                                                     99

                                    4.2.1    Nominals                                                                      99

                                    4.2.2    Verbs                                                                           100

                        4.3       Explaining Jingulu Harmony                                                       103

                                    4.3.1    Templates                                                                     103

                                    4.3.2    Floating features                                                           105

                                    4.3.3    Null morphemes block spreading                                  106

                                    4.3.4    Merger of roots with syntactic heads                             108

                        4.4       Predictions of merger analysis                                       114

            5          Morphophonology                                                                                118

                        5.1       Linking vowels                                                              118

                        5.2       Lexical alternations                                                                   122

                                    5.2.1    Retroflex versus anterior coronals                                  122

                                    5.2.2    Masculine suffixes                                                         124

                        5.3       Reduplication                                                                            124

Chapter 3         Parts of Speech and Derivation                                                 129

            1          Theory of morphology                                                              129

            2          Parts of speech                                                                         136

                        2.1       Nominal                                                                                   136

                        2.2       Verbal                                                                                      138

                        2.3       Adverbial                                                                                 141

            3          Derivation                                                                                             145

                        3.1       Nominalisation                                                              145

                        3.2       Adverbialisation                                                                        147

                                    3.2.1    /-kaji/                                                                           147

                                    3.2.2    /-nama/                                                             149

Chapter 4         Syntax                                                                                                  153

            1          Simple clauses                                                                                      153

                        1.1       Nonconfigurationality                                                                153

                                    1.1.1    Kinds of nonconfigurationality                           154

                                    1.1.2    Jingulu nonconfigurationality                                          158

                                    1.1.3    A typology of nonconfigurationality                                174

                                                1.1.3.1 English, Japanese and Hopi                               176

                                                1.1.3.2 Jiwarli                                                               176

                                                1.1.3.3 Warlpiri                                                            176

                                                1.1.3.4 Wambaya                                                         177

                                                1.1.3.5 Jingulu                                                              178

                                                1.1.3.6 Mayali and Mohawk                                         178

                                                1.1.3.7 Kalam                                                              179

                                                1.1.3.8 A typology continuum for Australian

                                                            nonconfigurationality                                         181

                                    1.1.4    The problem of semiconfigurational languages    183

                        1.2       Nominal predication                                                                  185

                                    1.2.1    Adjectives and nouns as predicates                               185

                                    1.2.2    Possession as predication                                              189

                                    1.2.3    Adpositional predication                                               192

                        1.3       Adverb placement                                                                    193

                        1.4       Questions                                                                                 198

                                    1.4.1    Simple questions                                                           198

                                    1.4.2    Multiple interrogatives                                       199

                        1.5       Negation and quantification                                                       200

                                    1.5.1    Negation                                                                      201

                                    1.5.2    Quantification                                                               202

                        1.6       "Double object" and beneficiary constructions                205

            2          Complex sentences                                                                               209

                        2.1       Coordinate structures                                                                209

                        2.2       Subordinate structures                                                              212

                                    2.2.1    Cause-effect                                                                 213

                                    2.2.2    Purpose                                                                        214

                                    2.2.3    Evitative                                                                       216

                                    2.2.4    Relative clauses                                                            217

                                    2.2.5    Causatives                                                                    220

                                    2.2.6    Switch reference                                                           221

                        2.3       Clausal arguments                                                                     223

Chapter 5         The Noun Phrase                                                                                  225

            1          Demonstratives                                                                         225

                        1.1       This, that, and the other thing                                                     225

                        1.2       The aforementioned and the newly introduced               232

                        1.3       hither, thither, and this way                                                        234

                        1.4       Interrogatives                                                                            236

                                    1.4.1    Who, what, when, where, why and how                        236

                                                1.4.1.1 Nyamba questions                                            236

                                                1.4.1.2 (W)aja questions                                              238

                                                1.4.1.3 (W)ani questions                                              239

                                    1.4.2    A simple "yes" or "no" would do                                    241

            2          Pronouns                                                                                              242

                        2.1       Nominative pronouns                                                                243

                        2.2       Ergative pronouns                                                                     244

                        2.3       Accusative and genitive pronouns                                              246

            3          Nominal features                                                                                   253

                        3.1       Gender                                                                                     253

                                    3.1.1    Genders and gender morphology                                   253

                                    3.1.2    Adjectival agreement                                                    259

                                    3.1.3    Gender disagreement and the gender feature

structure                                                                       259

                        3.2       Number                                                                                    263

                                    3.2.1    Number morphology                                                     263

                                    3.2.2    Number feature structure                                              267

                        3.3       Case and role marking                                                  271

                                    3.3.1    Core, structural, or grammatical case                             272

                                                3.3.1.1 The ergative suffix /-mi/                         273

                                                3.3.1.2 The dative suffix /-ma/                           274

                                    3.3.2    Semantic or adpositional case                                       279

                                                3.3.2.1 The locational suffixes                           280

                                                3.3.2.2 The instrumental suffix /-arndi/               283

                                                3.3.2.3 The comitative suffix /-ngkujku/             286

                                                3.3.2.4 The privative suffix /-jija/                                   286

                                    3.3.3    Pragmatic marking                                                        287

                                                3.3.3.1 The focus suffixes                                             287

                                                3.3.3.2 The emphatic suffix/particle /-ma/                      293

                                                3.3.3.3 Vocative forms                                     295

                        3.4       (In)definiteness                                                             295

                        3.5       Structure of nominals " review                                      299

                        3.6       The origins of the focus suffixes                                     301     

                                    3.6.1    Three distinct sources                                                   302

                                    3.6.2    Contact-induced change in an environment of

                                                language loss                                                                303

Chapter 6         The Verb Complex                                                                               305

            1          Argument marking                                                                                305

                        1.1       Subject agreement                                                                    305

                        1.2       Object agreement                                                                     308

                        1.3       Combined subject and object agreement                                   310

                                    1.3.1    Filling nodes individually                                                312

                                    1.3.2    Fused nodes                                                                 316

                                    1.3.3    Switching morpheme order and the inverse

                                                construction                                                                  320

                        1.4       Reflexive and reciprocal constructions                           325

                        1.5       Agreement feature neutralisation and absence of object

agreement                                                                                 327

                        1.6       Doubling inflection                                                                    329

            2          Core verbs                                                                                           330

                        2.1       The three verbs                                                             330

                        2.2       Irrealis and imperative moods                                                    334

                        2.3       Interpretation of tense                                                               338

                        2.4       Verbs suffixed to nominals                                                        339

            3          Other verbal morphology                                                                      345

Chapter 7         Texts                                                                                                    347

            1          The people and their land                                                                      347

                        1.1       The story of the Jingili                                                   347

                        1.2       Warranganku I                                                             350

                        1.3       Warranganku II                                                                        352

                        1.4       Pharlap"s story                                                             355

                        1.5       Kirnbininku                                                                               356

                        1.6       At the creek                                                                             359

                        1.7       Rough country                                                                          360

                        1.8       Lancewood dreaming                                                               363

                        1.9       Fly dreaming, longreach                                                            364

                        1.10     My home                                                                                  365

                        1.11     Stars                                                                                        367

                        1.12     Mother birds                                                                            368

                        1.13     Hornets                                                                                    368

                        1.14     Fish                                                                                          369

                        1.15     Environmental changes                                                  369

            2          Implements and instruments                                                                   372

                        2.1       Making implements                                                                   372

                        2.2       Putting a blade on a spear                                                         373

                        2.3       Making a didgeridoo                                                                 374

            3          Hunting, food, and cooking                                                                   376

                        3.1       Sugarbag                                                                                  376

                        3.2       Sugarleaf                                                                                  377

                        3.3       No meat, lots of gum                                                                378

                        3.4       Hunting at night                                                             380

                        3.5       We killed a goanna                                                                   387

                        3.6       Hunting                                                                         389

                        3.7       Translation of a mudburra hunting story                         391

                        3.8       Hunting far away in the old days                                                392

                        3.9       Cooking in an earth oven                                                          393

                        3.10     Making a fire and cooking                                                         393

                        3.11     Preparation of yams                                                                  395

                        3.12     Hunting for ashes                                                                      396

            4          Culture                                                                                                 397

                        4.1       Teaching about initiatives                                                           397

                        4.2       Traditional poison                                                                     397

                        4.3       Tree burials                                                                              398

            5          The old blind man                                                                                 399

            6          Kriol text " My home                                                                           400

References                                                                                                                   401

Part II " Jingulu-English English-Jingulu Dictionary

            User"s Guide                                                                                                    413

            Jingulu-English                                                                                      417

            English-Jingulu                                                                                      575