R-3 Repository :: Browsing by Author "Shibatani, Masayoshi"

Browsing by Author "Shibatani, Masayoshi"

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A grammar of Eastern Khanty
(2007) Filchenko, Andrey Yury; Shibatani, Masayoshi
A reference grammar of the endangered indigenous Eastern Khanty dialects of Vasyugan and Alexandrovo of the Uralic language family has been developed. The study bases on the corpus of natural narrative discourse, and is set in a general cognitive-functional, usage-based model of language. The description addresses the main patterns of the Eastern Khanty language system and offers some typological contextualization of the reviewed language data. The description covers the issues in phonology, word-classes, morphology, syntax and semantics of simple and complex clauses. In the area of phonology, such systematic features as robust backness vowel harmony and consonant-vowel harmony are analyzed in the articulatory gesture framework. Morphologically, the system is agglutinating with suffixation dominant in derivation and inflection. Syntactically, Eastern Khanty patterns as a typical SOV language. Occasional non-prototypical features include non-canonical argument marking along ergative pattern against the general background of Nom-Acc system of GR organization. In mapping of the pragmatic functions---to semantic roles---to grammatical relations, Eastern Khanty shows strong preference towards Topic-initiality, typically mapped onto Agent semantic role. This preference remains dominant in detransitivisation operations, where the prototypical mapping is altered towards Topic-Target-S that generally has to do with the parenthetical demotion of pragmatic status of the Agent referent and promotion of the non-Agent. Analysis of Eastern Khanty complex clauses reveals robust use of finite and non-finite (participial, infinitival and converbial) constructions as relative, adverbial and complement clauses in typologically common strategies of clause-linking. Traditional discrete differentiation into subordinate and coordinate types based on morphosyntactic criteria appears inadequate, divorced from the structural diversity of the observed complex clauses. Cognitive-functional approach is used instead, implying a universal way of construal of linked events, appealing to cognitive relations between states-of-affairs, rather than particular structural means. This results in a continuum of combinable features locating each clause in relation to either the subordinate or coordinate prototypes. Clause-linkage strategies are related to the pragmatic differentiation of information in utterances, with pragmatics, information structuring aspects being at the core of the distinction between the subordination and coordination.
A Grammar of Gã
(2017-05-31) Campbell, Akua Asantewaa; Shibatani, Masayoshi
This dissertation constitutes a description of the grammar - mainly the morphology and syntax - of Gã, a Kwa language spoken in Accra, Ghana by about 700,000 people. The aim is to present a comprehensive, usage-based account of Gã as it is spoken currently, while incorporating diachronic evidence where available to further understand and account for the synchronic data. In the first chapter, background information is given on the Gã people, their history and culture. There is also a brief description of basic phonetics and phonology. Chapter 2 looks at the concept of the word, word classes and their associated morphology. Gã has all the major word classes: nouns, verbs and adjectives. It has bound subject pronominal clitics and free object pronominals. There is a sizeable class of property concepts that are expressed by verbs. Ideophones are very common and belong mainly to the adverb and adjective class. Chapter 3 is dedicated to verbs. Verb morphology is characterized mainly by suffixation. Gã is an aspectual language with a recently established future time prefix that is becoming more tense-like. Gã is nominative-accusative with highly transitive clauses and an indispensable subject. Chapter 4 discusses serial verb constructions. These were found to be pervasive and an important means of achieving valency changes and carrying out aspectual functions. As a result, morphological operations to alter valency are few. Major voice categories are manifested mainly through periphrastic means (Chapter 5). Chapter 6 looks at nominalizations generally. In Gã, grammatical nominalizations have functions ranging from relativization to adverbial expression and complementation. Topic and focus constructions are examined in the final chapter. Focus constructions are utilized for contrast and emphasis. Topic constructions are made up almost entirely of left-dislocated constructions. They may also mark contrast, and are used discursively to highlight background information.
Middle Voice in Northern Moldavian Hungarian
(2013-07-24) Hartenstein, Anne Marie; Shibatani, Masayoshi; Achard, Michel; Tyler, Stephen A.
Based on 160 hours of recording collected in the villages of Săbăoani, and Pildeşti, Romania, the present research attempts to describe the middle voice system of Northern Moldavian Hungarian (NMH), an endangered language spoken by no more than 3000 speakers. Defining the middle voice category semantically rather than formally, it is argued that the various middle situation types in NMH can be placed relative to one another on a “semantic map” based on shared semantic properties such as 1) the confinement of the development of the action within the agent’s sphere to the extent that the action’s effect accrues back on the agent itself, 2) the degree of volitionality of the Initiator/Agent, and 3) the degree of affectedness of the Initiator/Agent. Polysemy structures are examined against the background of a common semantic map derived on the basis of cross linguistic investigation of a given grammatical domain. In working toward this end a detailed description of major patterns of meaning inherent in the NMH middle system, examining three types of morphological middles, syntactic middles, and lexical middles is presented. Cases in which the same verb can occur with or without a middle marker apparently having the same meaning are discussed. Moreover, seemingly minimal pairs in which two different morphological constructions occur with the same verb are analyzed. A detailed analysis of the differences in form and function of the two reciprocal syntactic middle constructions in NMH is provided. Regarding reflexive syntactic middles it will be shown that depending on the case marking taken by the reflexive anaphoric operator the function conveyed is different such as reflexives, intensifiers, causers, and experiencer. Finally, cases in which the same verb can convey a middle meaning by using a morphological middle marker or by using a syntactic middle construction are analyzed showing that there are main differences in the meaning those two strategies convey. Thus, the present paper identifies specific semantic properties relevant to the middle voice system in NMH, sets up some hypotheses regarding the relations among middle and related situation types and proposes some diachronic predictions regarding the middle voice system of NMH.
Morphosyntax of Wangka, a dialect of Rembong-Riung
(2013-12-16) Schmidt, Christopher; Shibatani, Masayoshi; Willis Oko, Christina; Tyler, Stephen
This dissertation presents an analysis of the morphosyntax of Wangka, a dialect of Rembong-Riung, a language spoken in west-central Flores in eastern Indonesia. Wangka is spoken by about 5,000 people in three villages, while the Rembong-Riung language is spoken by about 40,000-50,000 people in total spread out over three regencies on the northern coast of west-central Flores. The work was based on extensive fieldwork undertaken over a period of more than a year. It is divided into twelve chapters, with the first chapter being an introductory one and the last one a conclusionary one. In chapter two, the work also includes a detailed analysis of the subgroupings of the Austronesian languages in the region, from the two main linkages, Manggaraiic and Central Flores, to internal classification of Manggaraiic. It argues that pace Verheijen (1977) Rembong should be seen as a part of the Manggaraiic linkage network. Furthermore, defining features for all dialects of Rembong-Riung are offered. Wangka has a number of unique features making it stand out from the language varieties in the region, such as the use of a polite first person singular pronoun, the loss of the nasal in a homorganic cluster of nasal and voiceless plosive (Wangka > Waka), and several lexical innovations exclusive to Wangka. Chapter three introduces the phonological system of Wangka, with discussion of several phonological issues such as glottalisation of vowels, the phonemic status of the schwa, and the phonotactics of the language. Finally the orthographic system of the language is laid out. After comparing the various orthographies that have been used to write Wangka, the proposal of an orthography that has been worked out in cooperation with the language community is presented. Chapter four presents the various morphological processes used in Wangka, from reduplication, compounding, cliticisation and affixation. Overall, the degree of morphological complexity in Wangka is low, which is typical for Flores languages, but totally out of character for Austronesian languages overall. Chapters five and six discuss the major and minor word classes that can be posited for Wangka. First the question is addressed whether the major word classes of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs can be posited in Wangka, and then a number of functional categories such as pronouns, prepositions, quantifiers, predicate operators, conjunctions, final particles and interjections are discussed. Chapters seven and eight present the structure of the noun phrase and the verbal complex in Wangka. With the former, the important role nominalised clauses play is discussed as well, and with the latter, the function of various tense, aspect and mood (TAM) markers as well as adverbs and negators is explained. Chapters nine and ten discuss the important syntactic issues of predicate structures and voice. The argument structure of different types of predicates is discussed as well as grammatical relations. With regard to voice, the most important phenomenon in Wangka is a construction known as the le construction, where the agent phrase is marked with a preposition le, but the verb stem remains unmarked. There is a debate about whether this type of construction can be regarded as a passive construction or as a patient focus construction which is common in many Austronesian languages. It is argued in this dissertation that while the construction shares some characteristics of both, it probably still reflects the remnants of a focus system in the language whose corresponding morphosyntactic markings have disappeared almost without a trace. Chapter eleven discusses the spatial markers which are prevalent in the languages of the region. There are three types of spatial markers: basic spatial makers which express locative relations according to the degree of proximity to the speaker (`here, there’); intrinsic spatial markers expressing various locative relations within a frame of reference relative to an entity (`above, below’), and geocentric spatial markers that operate within a geographic frame of reference, usually within the cardinal directions. However, the geographic spatial markers can also be used in a landmark-oriented frame of reference within an intermediate distance of up to 20km.
Nominalization and Possession in Formosan Languages
(2016-10-24) Jiang, Haowen; Shibatani, Masayoshi
This dissertation investigates nominalization and possession in Formosan languages from a functional-typological perspective, where nominalization is a metonymic process of creating denoting expressions. Two types of nominalization are each the topic of the two primary parts of this study. Verbal-based nominalization characterizes a nominal in terms of a salient event and the nominal denotes that event as a whole (event nominalization) or participants in it (argument nominalization). Nominal-based nominalization produces a nominal with respect to a salient entity such that denotations of the former bear crucial relevance to the latter. Special attention is paid to nominalizations lacking a lexical status, covering constructions traditionally called relativization and possession. In almost all Formosan languages, the semantic role of an argument nominalization is determined by a small set of affixes on a morpho-lexical class of Focus-words. Conservative languages demonstrate up to four grammatical categories of Focus-words, marked by two broad sets of affixes (Set I and II) reconstructible in the Proto-Austronesian (PAn) period. Focus-words with Set II predominantly have both predicate and argument functions, which has been explained in terms of a historical reanalysis whereby erstwhile nominalizations were reinterpreted as default verbs, thus marginalizing the use of those with Set I, which are considered verbal throughout the Austronesian history. However, it is argued that Focus-words with both Set I and II can equally constitute argument nominalizations, both subject to the same grammatical restrictions, be it within or across languages. The new analysis suggests PAn was a language employing the gap strategy for argument nominalizations, thus rendering superfluous the question of how or when the nominalization-into-verb reanalysis took place. The second part explores possessive NPs, and identifies three structural types that are constructionally and paradigmatically defined. The literature shows vigorous interest in the possessor-possessum syngtam, but generally overlooks phrases including the possessor but denoting the possessum instead (called possessive substantives). Possessive substantives in Formosan are important because they expose different syntactic functions of so-called genitive markers across languages even when cognate forms are involved. Moreover, distributions of cognate forms across the three types reveal clues to their possible historical developments.
Patterns in Karitiana: Articulation, perception, and grammar
(2007) Everett, Caleb; Shibatani, Masayoshi
In this study, I present analyses of various aspects of Karitiana, a Tupi-Arikem language spoken in the state of Rondonia, in the Amazon region of Brazil. These analyses range in both methodology and scope, but are unified by the goal of elucidating articulatory, perceptual, and morphosyntactic patterns in the language. These patterns crystallize during the course of each of two parts of the dissertation. In the first part, I focus on the sound system of Karitiana. The investigation of the sound system includes detailed analyses of the phonemic inventory of the language, as well as basic phonological processes. However, the investigation also includes acoustic, quantitatively-oriented examinations of the vowel system, stop-vowel sequences, and patterns of velar lowering, among other phenomena. These studies focus on basic articulatory gestures in the language. Basic perceptual patterns, related to the typologically-unusual patterns of velar lowering in the language, are also considered in Part I, via the discussion of a speech-perception experiment carried out among the Karitiana. In Part II morphological and syntactic patterns in Karitiana are examined, within a functional-typological framework. Part II includes a grammatical sketch of Karitiana morphology and syntax, as well as more detailed studies of two basic aspects of Karitiana morphosyntax, namely grammatical relations and voice phenomena. I demonstrate that in some cases the latter sorts of phenomena reflect basic conceptual patterns, associated with the construal of event types, which are evident in the grammar of Karitiana.
The Lamaholot Language of Eastern Indonesia
(2012) Nagaya, Naonori; Shibatani, Masayoshi
This study presents the grammar of the Lewotobi dialect of Lamaholot, an Austronesian language spoken in the eastern part of Flores Island and neighboring islands of Indonesia. Lamaholot belongs to the Central Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of Austronesian, within which it is in a subgroup with the languages of Timor and Roti. The number of speakers of the Lewotobi dialect is approximately 6,000. Despite its importance in the history and typology of Austronesian languages, this dialect of Lamaholot has not been fully described yet. This study is the first thorough grammar of this dialect. In the absence of available description of the language, the data presented here have been collected through fieldwork conducted at the Nurri village of Kabupaten Flores Timur for a total of eight months. The purpose of this sturdy is two-fold. The first goal is to provide an empirically-based description and analysis of the entire range of the Lamaholot grammar from phonology through morphology to syntax and semantics. It begins with the discussion of phonetics and phonology, proceeds to examine morphological processes and parts of speech and then turns to the form and function of each part of speech: nouns, pronouns, numerals, measure words, verbs, adjectival nouns, adjectival verbs, demonstratives, directionals, the locative, TAM markers and other minor parts of speech. Building upon these foundations, subsequent chapters offer a detailed analysis and discussion of the following syntactic phenomena: (i) agreement, (ii) clause structure, (iii) voice and grammatical relations, (iv) verb serialization, and (v) spatial language. A mini dictionary and texts are provided as appendices to a grammatical description. The second and equally important purpose of this study is to shed new light on issues surrounding the history and typology of Austronesian languages from a perspective of Lamaholot data. Attention is drawn particularly to two grammatical phenomena: (i) the position of Lamaholot in a typology of voice and grammatical relations in western Austronesian languages and (ii) spatial language and frames of reference. It is hoped that this study will help advance both research in Austronesian linguistics and our knowledge of human language in general.

Browsing by Author "Shibatani, Masayoshi"

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