Reason marker in Oceanic - a summary

[Frank Lichtenberk]

Dear Austronesianists,

Several weeks ago I posted a query about data concerning one type of reason marker in Oceanic. (The original message is repeated further below). I have had a number of very useful responses, and I wish to thank all those who have written to me.

Here is a summary.

John Jensen says that Yapese has an intransitive verb [su:l] ‘follow’ and a transitive verb [suluwe:g] ‘return s.t.’. The alternation between the long [u:] in the intransitive form and the short [u] in the transitive form suggests to him a proto-form of the form *sulV.

David Gil says that in Indonesian susul ‘means ‘follow’ in the sense of ‘go somewhere that some other person has previously gone’.

And Aleksandr Ogloblin mentions Malay/Indonesian menyusul (< susul) ‘follow, pursuit’.

Paul Geraghty says he reconstructs something like *quc[ui]-0̷ for Proto Central Pacific (q stands for glottal stop). Fijian reflexes generally mean ‘imitate, resemble’, and Polynesian reflexes ‘go by, pass by’. There are possibly also two grammatical reflexes in Fiji meaning ‘like’, used with demonstratives, ‘like this, ‘like that’. Paul also mentions huur ‘follow’ in Nyalayu [Nyelâyu] (New Caledonia) and isek pass ‘pass through, go by way of’ and sigen ‘go by way of’ in Chamorro. [In New Caledonia there is also huura/huuri in Nêlêmwâ.]

A couple of people wrote to say that the language(s) they are familiar with do not have any forms related to the ones I am interested in, but Chuck Grimes mentions that ‘follow’-cause/reason polysemies are found in eastern Indonesia with forms that are not cognate with/reflexes of *suRi or *XusuRi. In fact, such “non-cognate” polysemies/heterosemies are also found in Oceanic. Clearly, there is a link between the meaning ‘follow’ and the reason/causal meaning. In my (still to be completed) paper I suggest there is a metonymy involved.

Frank Lichtenberk


Original message:

Dear Austronesianists,

I have been investigating the development of one type of reason (and purpose) marker in Oceanic. There is evidence for a proto-form *suRi, and also some evidence for a longer proto-form *XusuRi, where “X” stands for a segment still to be determined, possibly zero.
	The meanings/functions associated with reflexes of one or both of the proto-forms include the verbal meaning ‘follow’, prepositional meanings ‘because of, for’ and also ‘about’ (as in ‘speak about’), ‘concerning’, ‘behind, after’ and as markers of reason and purpose clauses.
	Pawley (1973, Some problems in Proto-Oceanic grammar) reconstructs *su(ldR)i and says that its reflexes usually function as a prepositional verb ‘motion to or after a person’ or ‘according to, concerning, on behalf of’, and as a verb ‘follow’. He does not find evidence for reconstruction at the Proto-Oceanic level. In his 1972 study (On the internal relationships of Eastern Oceanic languages) he reconstructs *su(ldR)i as a prepositional verb ‘motion to/after a person’ for Proto-Eastern Oceanic. Lynch, Ross and Crowley (2002, The Oceanic languages) posit *suRi allative for Proto-Oceanic (see also Ross 1988, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of western Melanesia).
	It is clear that a reason marking function is, in principle, reconstructible at least for Proto-Central/Eastern Oceanic, and possibly for Proto-Oceanic. 
	Reflexes of *suRi and/or *XusuRi are found in a number of Southeast Solomonic languages and in a number of languages spoken in Vanuatu. Outside of Central/Eastern Oceanic there is sur in Siar for which the following functions have been identified: goal preposition, intentive marker (‘for, in order to’) (Frowein 2011, A grammar of Siar, an Oceanic language of New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea); ‘towards’, reason, purposive, marker of purpose clauses (Ross 2002, Siar). There is also a transitive verb uduri-a ‘steer for a point; follow’ in Motu, which is tantalising, but it may be related to udu ‘mouth, nose, beak’.
	I would be very grateful for data that point to *suRi or *XusuRi, especially, but not exclusively, from languages outside the Central/Eastern Oceanic subgroup. I will post a summary.
	Please note that there are also forms that reflect *muri that have some of the meanings found with the reflexes of *suRi and *XusuRi, but this is a different etymon.

Thank you.
Frank Lichtenberk

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