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<div>Dear Colleagues, I am currently preparing an article on 'Dyad
constructions' for the Encyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics. I
enclose pdf and Word versions of the draft of this article, as well as
a pdf file listing the languages known to me so far in which Dyad
constructions are attested. The paragraph pasted in below summarizes
what dyad constructions are.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>So far I have the impression that the worldwide distribution of
dyad constructions is heavily skewed, with a strong concentration in
the Western Pacific (especially Australia, Austronesian, Papuan) with
sporadic attestation in western north America, the Amazon, the
Caucasus, Siberia and Khoisan. However, this may be an artefact of my
own areas of knowledge, of the book holdings in our library here, or
of particular descriptive traditions. I would therefore be very
grateful if any subscribers to this list were able to extend the list
of languages (and of course further data on construction types etc.)
beyond what I have included in these files.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Yours gratefully, Nick Evans</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Times" color="#000000">Dyad constructions denote
relationally-linked groups of the type 'pair/group of brothers' or
'mother and child(ren)'. They may be formed by morphological
derivation, as with Kayardild (Australian)<i> ngamathu-ngarrb</i>
'mother and child' <<i> ngamathu</i> 'mother', or they may be
unanalyseable lexical roots , such as Mianmin (Papuan)<i>
lum </i> 'father and child'. Though they most commonly refer
to pairs, as in the above examples, they may also refer to larger
groups, e.g. Mianmin<i> lum-wal </i> 'father and children'.
Where a dual-plural contrast exists, the dual dyad is usually formally
unmarked (§3). Though the above languages have dedicated dyad forms,
it is more common for dyadic constructions to overlap formally with
other categories, most commonly reciprocals, proprietive or possessive
constructions, or pair markers (§4). Dyad constructions display a
notably skewed geographical distribution, being concentrated in the
language families of the Western Pacific, with only scattered
occurrences elsewhere (§5).</font></div>
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