[Lingtyp] Grammatical diversity of Oceania, suggestions for features?

Wed Apr 5 17:49:16 UTC 2017

Hi Hedvig,

Quick clarification question since "Pacific" could also be ambiguous: do
you mean to include only AN languages? or, do you mean to include all
indigenous languages, both AN and non-AN languages, of these three
geographic areas?

Best,
Mary

Mary Elizabeth Walworth, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher in Linguistics
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
http://www.shh.mpg.de/employees/51452/25522

Visiting Researcher and Instructor
Université de la Polynésie française
http://www.upf.pf/fr

On Wed, Apr 5, 2017 at 10:37 AM, Hedvig Skirgård <hedvig.skirgard at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hello again!
>
> Thanks for those who have been sending comments and suggestions, let's
> keep the thread going.
>
> Just to clarify, when I wrote "oceania" above I did actually refer to the
> geographic area, i.e. Polynesia + Micronesia + Melanesia. Apologies for the
> confusion. (In fact, when I was growing up in Sweden, I was taught to also
> include Australia in this region, but I've since learned that that's not
> commonly done.) I realise that something like "pacific region" might have
> been better. Apologies.
>
> Either way, I'm interested to include languages of Melanesia, Polynesia
> and Micronesia in this set.
>
> I'll be working together with colleagues at ANU and in the Grambank
> project. I'm a PhD student at ANU and one of the researchers at Glottobank.
>
> /Hedvig
>
>
> *****
>
> *Tōfā soifua,*
>
> *Hedvig Skirgård*
>
>
> PhD Candidate
> The Wellsprings of Linguistic Diversity
>
> ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language
>
> School of Culture, History and Language
> College of Asia and the Pacific
>
> Rm 4203, H.C. Coombs Building (#9)
> The Australian National University
>
> Acton ACT 2601
>
> Australia
>
> Co-chair of Public Relations
>
> Board of the International Olympiad of Linguistics
>
> www.ioling.org
>
> Blogger at Humans Who Read Grammars
> http://humans-who-read-grammars.blogspot.
>
> On 30 March 2017 at 16:34, Hedvig Skirgård <hedvig.skirgard at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear pacific linguists,
>>
>> What are interesting grammatical typological features for capturing the
>> diversity of Oceania? (Please respond with concrete examples, and respond
>> to the full list :).)
>>
>> I work with a grammatical survey of the world's languages, Grambank, and
>> I'm also personally interested in Oceania in particular for my PhD project.
>> I've been doing some thinking as to what features would be interesting to
>> cover to more accurately capture the grammatical diversity of Oceania in
>> particular, besides the feature set that we already have for the
>> world-sample.
>>
>> One guide are the features that Reesink, Dunn et al used in their
>> publications on Sahul and Melanesia (see attachments and references listed
>> below).  They've taken in input from a lot of previous literature and
>> commentary, so it's a good set.
>>
>> Besides those, do you have other suggestions?
>>
>> From a rather Samoan-centric perspective, I'd be inclined to add features
>> like these:
>>
>>
>>    - Is there a "neutral" choice in attributive possession, i.e. not
>>    alienable/inalienable, dominant/subordinate?
>>    - Can the agent be expressed as the possessor of the verb instead of
>>    encoded in the more canonical ergative/nominative manner?
>>    - Can TA markers be entirely dropped in main clauses?
>>    - Is number of absolute arguments expressed by reduplication on the
>>    verb?
>>
>> Clearly these need further refinement, I just wanted to give some
>> examples. Looking forward to more suggestions!
>>
>>
>> *Tōfā soifua,**Hedvig Skirgård*
>>
>>
>> *References:*
>>
>> Dunn, Michael, Angela Terrill, Ger Reesink, Robert A. Foley & Stephen C.
>> Levinson. 2005. Structural phylogenetics and the reconstruction of ancient
>> language history. Science 309. 2072–2075.
>>
>> Dunn, Michael, Robert A. Foley, Stephen C. Levinson, Ger Reesink & Angela
>> Terrill. 2007. Statistical reasoning in the evaluation of typological
>> diversity in Island Melanesia. Oceanic Linguistics 46(2). 388-403.
>>
>> Dunn, Michael, Stephen C. Levinson, Eva Lindström, Ger Reesink, & Angela
>> Terrill. 2008. Structural phylogeny in historical linguistics:
>> Methodological explorations applied in Island Melanesia. Language 84(4).
>> 710-759
>>
>> Reesink, G., Singer, R., & Dunn, M. (2009). Explaining the linguistic
>> diversity of Sahul using population models. PLoS Biology, 7(11), e1000241.
>> doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000241
>>
>> Reesink, Ger & Michael Dunn (2012) Systematic typological comparison as a
>> tool for investigating language history. in Nicholas Evans and Marian
>> Klamer (eds) Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication No.
>> 5 Melanesian Languages on the Edge of Asia: Challenges for the 21st
>> Century. pp. 34–71
>>
>>
>>
>> *****
>>
>> *Hedvig Skirgård*
>>
>>
>> PhD Candidate
>> The Wellsprings of Linguistic Diversity
>>
>> ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language
>>
>> School of Culture, History and Language
>> College of Asia and the Pacific
>>
>> Rm 4203, H.C. Coombs Building (#9)
>> The Australian National University
>>
>> Acton ACT 2601
>>
>> Australia
>>
>> Co-chair of Public Relations
>>
>> Board of the International Olympiad of Linguistics
>>
>> www.ioling.org
>>
>> Blogger at Humans Who Read Grammars
>> http://humans-who-read-grammars.blogspot.
>>
>>
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