ELL: An Australian type of NP: the subset construction

[Claire Bowern]

Hi Ruth,
It may be relevant to your essay that one source of the inclusive/exclusive
distinction is the appropiate dual or pronoun 1st person pronoun and a
second peson singular pronoun (for inclusive) or a third or first person
singular (for dative). That's happened a number of times in Karnic
languages, also Walmatjarri and some Western Desert varieties. These are
unanalysable in the modern languages but are reconstructable to the same
"subset construction" you talk about.
Claire


At 02:20 PM 11/8/00 -1000, you wrote:

>On Wed, 8 Nov 2000, Ruth Singer wrote:
>
> > Dear list members,
> > I an honours student at Melbourne Uni. I am looking into a construction
> > in Australian languages which has been described as a type of part-whole
> > construction for an essay I'm doing. Blake in Australian Aboriginal
> > Grammar calls it the 'inclusive construction' and I have been calling it
> > the 'subset construction', following Nick Evans, who first brought it to
> > my attention. An example is the easiest way to explain it. One from
> > Ngukurr Kriol is below:
> >
> > mindubala banji
> > 1.dual    brother-in-law
> > My brother-in-law and I
> >
> > The basic form is that a non-plural pronoun is used followed by a
> > singular NP. The hearer then constructs the larger group of which the
> > overt NP is a subset from contextual clues. When the first person dual
> > is used the missing NP is taken to be the speaker. When a third person
> > dual form is used the missing NP could be evident from the context or
> > unspecified. When a third person group pronoun is used the constuction
> > is usually taken to mean the named referent and his or her 'gang' or
> > group they usually hang around with. The construction also occurs with a
> > first person group pronoun. There's some examples of these types below.
> > Basically I was just wondering if anyone knew of any more in-depth
> > discussions of this construction and if anyone had any interesting
> > examples to contribute. It seems to be a pretty widespread construction
> > and I've found examples in a number of different language families quite
> > widely separated spatially and typologically.
> >
> > Walmajarri
> >
> > Yijayi-jarra pila      yani  kurlirra
> > (name)-DU     AUX:3:DU went south
> > Yijayi and her friend went south
> >                 (Hudson 1983:66)
> >
> > Djapu
> > raku-ërakuny-dji-rr-a       [Nanapurr   Birandjitj-tja]s
> > dead-REDUP-INCHO-UNM-IM 1plexcNOM Frances+ABS-PRO
> > ëWe all, Frances included, were dying
> >                 (Morphy 1983:87)
> >
> > Guugu-Yimidhirr
> >
> > Bula      ngadhu        yumurr     yuwal-inh   dhada-y
> > 3du+NOM   1sg+GEN+ABS   child+ABS  beach-ALL   go-PAST
> > Those two - my son included - went to the beach
> >                 (Havidland 1979:105)
> >
> > Fitzroy Valley Kriol
> >
> > Les   kripap    la Sherin-mob
> > letís creep.up LOC S.-COL
> > Letís creep up on  Sharon and her friendsí
> >         (Hudson 1983:.60)
> >
> >
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> >


_________________________
Claire Bowern

Department of Linguistics
Harvard University
305 Boylston Hall
Cambridge, MA  02138
fax: 617-496-4447
ph: 617-547-3521
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~lingdept/

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