32.1859, Review: Dyirbal; Warrgamay; Yidiny; Morphology; Phonetics; Phonology; Pragmatics; Semantics; Syntax: Dixon (2020)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-32-1859. Thu May 27 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.1859, Review: Dyirbal; Warrgamay; Yidiny; Morphology; Phonetics; Phonology; Pragmatics; Semantics; Syntax: Dixon (2020)

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Date: Thu, 27 May 2021 18:05:00
From: David Robertson [ddr11 at columbia.edu]
Subject: Edible Gender, Mother-in-Law Style, and Other Grammatical Wonders

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36658057


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/31/31-2593.html

AUTHOR: R. M. W. Dixon
TITLE: Edible Gender, Mother-in-Law Style, and Other Grammatical Wonders
SUBTITLE: Studies in Dyirbal, Yidiñ, and Warrgamay
PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press
YEAR: 2020

REVIEWER: David Douglas Robertson, University of Victoria

SUMMARY

(xiv + 342 pp.) This newest contribution to linguistic typology by a prolific
major figure highlights notable structural and sociolinguistic phenomena in
the Indigenous languages of a specific region in Queensland, Australia. Dixon
arranges his tour as a five-part, 16-chapter study. 

The first chapter establishes “Background” (1-17) on relevant cultural traits,
tribal units, and linguistic characteristics of the languages under
discussion.

Part I “Genders and Classifiers” (19-20) begins with a concise summary of the
state of linguistic knowledge about these items. Chapter 2 “Edible and the
other genders in Dyirbal” (21-43) proceeds from the morphosyntax of that
language’s four “noun markers” of gender to a tabulation of the meanings
typical in obligatorily assigning every noun to one of these genders. The
fundamental semantic distinctions in this gender system are shown, and their
numerousness is then explained with reference to culture-specific principles
and practices. Dixon takes a moment (43) to correct widespread
misunderstandings of this system arising from George Lakoff’s influential 1987
take on them. 

Chapter 3 “Classifiers in Yidiñ” (44-60) shows a neighbouring language’s
contrasting approach to categorizing nouns, with many but not all occurrences
of nominals taking one of about 20 classifiers. Dixon observes that it is
generally “more felicitous” to include the latter than not to, but also that
it “would be unbearably pedantic” to speakers if classifiers were always used
(44). This sensitivity to the texture of discourse, he shows, initially
puzzled and then enlightened him as to which morphs are classifiers and which
are not (46-48); they fall into two types, reflecting a noun’s “inherent
nature” or “function”. The Dyirbal and Yidiñ nominal-categorization systems
are compared and contrasted.

Part II,“Kin Relations and How to Talk with Them”, again starts with a pithy
sketch, highlighting the characteristically Indigenous Australian conception
of ‘family’ as exclusively consanguineal, thus defining all members of one’s
tribal society as some kind of blood relation (61-62). Chapter 4, “The Dyirbal
kinship system” (63-84), exemplifies in depth one language’s categorization of
relations within such a society. Nine basic kin categories are shown to be
fundamental, as are concepts of ‘harmonic’ (“same generation, or two apart”)
vs. ‘disharmonic’ (“one or three generations apart”) (71), and elder vs.
younger siblings. A limited set of kin terms exists for respectful reference
in certain circumstances (69-71). Dixon demonstrates with two kinship charts
how it is more intuitive and economical to conceptualize Dyirbal kinship in
culture- and language-internal terms than in customary anthropologists’ terms
(which are English-oriented and affinal) (74-76). The above principles are
shown to be implemented in traditional rules of choosing a potential spouse. 

Chapter 5, “Jalnguy, the ‘mother-in-law’ speech style in Dyirbal” (85-111),
situates this oft-cited phenomenon in context, showing that Australian
languages have a variety of well-developed registers and styles. Jalnguy (Ja)
use is more accurately characterized as “to mark the relationship of avoidance
between cross-cousins” in tribal initiation contexts (86). Essentially, all
lexical content words of “everyday” (Ev) speech (but not names) are replaced
by different forms in Ja, but easing the cognitive demands of substitution is
a many-Ev-to-one-Ja-form correspondence; typically one Ev noun or verb is the
‘nuclear’, prototypical, member of a set translated by a Jalnguy term (94). Ja
uses either a distinct root alone, or a complex Ja paraphrase, e.g., the Ev
root for ‘kookaburra’ is ‘he who laughs a lot’ in Jalnguy (92-96); in some
cases voice timbre or gestures disambiguate a Ja term (108). Dyirbal grammar
is identical between the styles, with differences in usage (110-111). 

Chapter 6, “The origin of ‘mother-in-law’ vocabulary in Dyirbal and Yidiñ”
(112-138), shows that the Jalnguy replacement lexicon developed diachronically
by three mechanisms: phonological distortion of several Ev lexemes; most often
by borrowing an Ev lexeme; and sometimes by borrowing a Ja lexeme (121).
Directionality of borrowing and dating of changes cannot be established due to
unequal quality of available data in various languages.  

Part III, “Grammatical Studies”, focuses on prominent morphosyntactic
characteristics of the book’s subject languages. Chapter 7, “Comparing the
syntactic orientations of Dyirbal and Yidiñ” (141-158), is another
illustration of the value of taking behavioral factors into account in
linguistic analysis, showing how preferences around discourse organization
have influenced the grammatical evolution of these two languages. Dixon makes
use of his concept of ‘pivot’, examining which arguments can (and must) occur
in common between coordinated clauses or between main and relativized clauses.
Dyirbal’s almost uniformly S/O pivot is understandable in light of its
preference for third-person narration and the cognitive demands of its long
pivot chains. Yidiñ’s more variable pivot, S/A ~ S/O, correspondingly
interacts with its shorter, more manageable pivot chains and its first-person
storytelling convention (speech-act participant pronouns, which are more
likely to be Agents, are very frequent as a coordination pivot; nominals,
which are more likely to be Objects, are more common in relative clauses)
(154-156).

Chapter 8, “Serial verb constructions in Dyirbal” (159-186), examines the
phenomenon of multiple verbs not linked by a coordination or subordination
strategy but instead functioning as a single predicate sharing at least one
core argument. Most Dyirbal SVCs are symmetrical, that is, involving only
verbs, but many are asymmetrical, involving an “adverbal” – essentially an
inflectable adverb. Most have two members, some have three, and just one has
four. The notional transitivity of the SVC members need not match, whereas
surface transitivity must agree; thus various transitivity-altering morphology
is often deployed. Past tense is the most common SVC inflection, with
significant smaller amounts of purposive, imperative, and relative-clause
tokens. Just nine lexemes account for most SVC members, with verbs of motion
most prominent and verbs of rest and adverbals somewhat less so. The members
of one SVC commonly are a verb of rather general meaning and its hyponym(s),
verbs expressing different aspects of a motion, or simultaneous events or
states. Dyirbal and Yidiñ are the only two languages so far described as
having both asymmetrical and symmetrical SVCs.

Chapter 9, “Complementation strategies in Dyirbal” (187-204), shows how
various strategies are enlisted for the functions that would be filled if this
language had a complement-clause construction. SVCs express concepts of
finishing and trying. The purposive inflection approximates English
‘(for)...to’ expressions. The relative-clause inflection is used on notional
complements of attention, thinking, speaking, and human-propensity predicates
such as ‘jealous’ and ‘ashamed’; perhaps the common theme is that of cognitive
acts. 

Chapter 10, “Grammatical reanalysis in Warrgamay” (205-226), is the only one
devoted entirely to this language. Its focus is on a diachronic change
evidenced by differences between the two dialects, whereby the distributions
shifted of allomorphs of four “case” suffixes (a broad label for certain noun
affixes, some of which might strictly be analyzed as inflectional, others
derivational) . Some formerly phonologically conditioned alternations of
single cases became distinct markers of separate cases. A bigger shift has
been from a former rigid division between a conjugation set of verb roots,
most of which were intransitive, and one that was mostly transitive, to a
modern regularization wherein any verb can take either a transitive or an
intransitive conjugation depending on circumstances of use. Dixon takes the
unusual step of hypothesizing further stages to which Warrgamay might have
evolved  had it continued being spoken; for example, he suggests it could have
shifted from ergative to accusative syntax. 

Part IV, “Variation, Contact, and Change”, studies variability in Dyirbal
through time and space. Chapter  11, “Dyirbal grammar: Variation across
dialects” (227-249), is essentially a list of the varying forms of morphemes
which nominals and verbals take; even reduplication, particles, and clitics
take distinct forms, such that virtually every area of grammar betrays a
speaker’s dialect identity. 

Chapter 12, “Dyirbal dialectology: Lexical variation” (250-258), is a pilot
study of 360 nouns, indicating that just over half are identical across all
dialects. Another third have two forms, a broadly northern and southern one;
virtually all of the remainder have three forms. Cognacy with neighbouring
languages in the Queensland hotspot is the rule, averaging around 70% of
lexemes, so it is often difficult to determine the direction of borrowing. 

Chapter 13, “Compensatory phonological changes” (259-278), reconstructs the
series of connected events in the Ngajan dialect that led it to merge two
rhotic phonemes and develop a two-way vowel length distinction. Changes in
root forms and in nominal and verbal morphology each are highlighted, and a
timeline of changes established. Exceptions including recent loans are pointed
out. 

Chapter 14, “A study of language contact” in the Cairns rainforest region
(279-299), spotlights complex lexical and semantic influences among Dyirbal,
Warrgamay, and Yidiñ, and the latter’s neighbour and relative Ja:bugay, in a
microcosm of Australia’s single “gigantic linguistic area” (280) in which it
is very hard to determine genetic relationships. Shared features are
revealing: the distribution of meanings in the demonstrative system of Dyirbal
has been borrowed into the neighbouring dialect of Yidiñ; the northern Dyirbal
dialects’ tense-suffix system is identical with that in Yidiñ; Yidiñ has
borrowed a Dyirbal first-person dual pronoun into a system that is natively
only singular vs. non-singular; northerly Dyirbal dialects lost initial
rhotics under Yidiñ influence; they also innovated vowel length due to the
same stimulus. 

Part V, “Languages Fading Away”, introduces a schema useful in the environment
of language obsolescence in which Dixon has spent a career researching these
languages: older generations “T” (traditional, fluent speakers), younger “S”
(semi-speakers), and youngest “N” (essentially non-speakers) (301-302).
Chapter 15 “The last change in Yidiñ” (303-313) tells of observed variation in
generation “S”, including sporadic loss of case suffixes, unpredictable
allomorph distributions, and limited lexical knowledge, and the overall
resulting shift into a less stable, more variable communicative system. 

Chapter 16, “The gradual decline of Dyirbal” (314-329), gives a fairly
detailed sociolinguistic sketch of post-contact Dyirbal generally, and
specifically at the time of Dixon’s first work with it in 1963 and then from
1977 to 1984 and beyond. At each successive stage the speech community had
contracted and fragmented; certain named individuals retained an extraordinary
grasp of their Aboriginal language, but it became increasingly difficult and
then impossible to proceed with field research.  

All of this content is bracketed with a List of Tables, Diagrams, and Map
(xi-xii), List of Abbreviations (xiii-xiv), Acknowledgments (331), References
(332-338), and Index (339-342). 

EVALUATION

Most of the material in this book has been previously published, but its
appearance as an anthology is very welcome, not only because it makes Dixon’s
groundbreaking research more accessible, but also because he takes the
opportunity to revise older work in light of newer insights and discoveries.
“Edible Gender” is an excellent survey of varied topics in linguistic
typology, and it will reward readers in settings ranging from specialists in
typology, to seminars in Australian linguistics or linguistic anthropology, to
those educated laypeople who might pick it up out of sheer curiosity at the
title. Hardly any previous acquaintance with the jargon of linguistics is
assumed, with every term more esoteric than “noun” or “verb” carefully
explained and illustrated. Ample data appears, but it is limited to what is
needed to illustrate a point. The tone is relatively conversational; Dixon
relates many personal experiences from his fieldwork and quotes from
conversations with late elders. All of this is to say that I can strongly
recommend this volume to a fairly broad audience; linguists and others are
bound to come away with deeper knowledge for having read it.  

The slight shortcomings virtually inevitable in any linguistic publication
exist here. The List of Abbreviations predictably lacks reference to this or
that convention; particular symbols could have been added, to many readers’
relief, such as the undefined : which appears in glosses of fused morphs (e.g.
145) and the • apparently representing core arguments (e.g. 188). 

The text itself sports some terms that Dixon employs with apparent precision
but that are idiosyncratic and/or undefined by him, such as a syntactic
environment characterized as “only in complex combinations” (e.g. 25, 236).
One stylistic habit in the text, that of translating an Aboriginal-language
word just once into English but then involving it repeatedly in discussion for
pages afterward, makes for most of the most demanding prose here. In another
shortcoming more editorial than authorial, the unfamiliarity to most readers
of Australian languages generally and of Yidiñ in particular can make for mild
confusion in the rare instances where Dixon just mentions an existing
structure without exemplifying it, e.g., “We can now have (31) as main and
(29-ap) as relative clause ‘The woman who slapped the man laughed’” (151). And
at least for this reviewer, whose linguistic training encompassed relatively
few anthropology courses, the chapter on the Dyirbal kinship system is heavy
going indeed, not due to its terminology’s opacity, but rather for its
conceptual unfamiliarity. A single kin term in this language can label people
of varying generations via a range of linking relatives, and I experienced
quite a challenge in assimilating the data in detail, although Dixon’s
exposition of the system’s uniqueness is perfectly clear. 

Perhaps the most substantial subject in the book that I wished had been more
fully explored is Dixon’s innovative and insightful typology of
complement-taking predicates into Primary verbs (which can otherwise be
predicates on their own) and Secondary verbs, “which serve to modify the
meanings of Primary verbs” (189), each subdivided into clusters of meanings
that tend to be expressed similarly. This analysis was previously laid out in
crosslinguistic surveys such as Dixon (2010). His chapter on complementation
strategies in Dyirbal, which lacks a dedicated complement-clause construction,
is a compelling illustration of other ways of expressing the same senses as
clause linkages in other languages, yet it only partially relates the
approaches taken by Dyirbal speakers with that schema. We are left with a
number of questions which presumably only Dixon could readily answer. He is
conscientious about noting gaps in his knowledge, e.g., “I do not know what
conditions th[e] choice” between instrumental or dative case with Warrgamay
purposive inflection (212), and so we can hope that his not stipulating this
in the Dyirbal instance does not indicate a lack of data.

Dixon’s clear thinking about decades of primary data gathering will have the
benefit of opening many linguists’ eyes to possibilities they had not
considered. Two points from the Yidiñ serial verb chapter can help show how.
First, the book specifies that this language has no coordinating conjunction,
yet its word ‘añja’ might be taken as such by a nonspecialist – for reasons
including speakers’ ease of glossing it as ‘and’ (178) to its anomalous
phonotactics in that it uniquely lacks a word-onset consonant (162). Dixon
makes a good case by examples (e.g. 171, 178, 184) that ‘añja’ nevertheless is
positionally quite free and functions as a signal of either a new “pivot”
(roughly, a topical subject) or a new action by an established pivot (162).  

Second, Dixon shows (many an introductory linguistics course’s generalizations
to the contrary) that not all affixal functions have the same morphological
status from language to language. Verbal valency-altering and aspectual-type
morphemes, for example, are derivational, not inflectional, in Yidiñ (165).
This language’s inflectional repertory includes just eight morphs (two tenses,
positive and negative imperatives, purposive, apprehensive, relative-clause,
and ‘-ŋurra’ “ S or O … is coreferential with the A NP of the preceding
clause, and … the event … follows immediately after the event of the preceding
clause”) (166-167). 

“Edible Gender” is an approachable and exemplary model of high-quality
linguistic research and of communicating the value of such research to a
broader public. 

REFERENCES

Dixon, R.M.W. 2010. Basic Linguistic Theory (volume 1 and 2). Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories
reveal about the mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

David Douglas Robertson PhD is an independent consulting linguist in Spokane,
Washington, USA, specializing in historical sociolinguistics and in the
documentation of under-researched languages of the region, including Chinuk
Wawa (Chinook Jargon), ɬəẃáĺməš (Lower Chehalis Salish), and Natítanui
(Shoalwater-Clatsop Lower Chinookan). He also collaborates in the repatriation
of indigenous intangible cultural heritage.





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