Exploring Applications of Fieldwork Data:

A Case Study of MalakMalak

Complex Predicates in Discourse

Dorothea Hoffmann, University of Chicago

Ryan Henke, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa

1. Language Documentation

and Archiving

“ “All documentation projects should be conceived

with an eye toward the ultimate deposit of the recorded data and analysis

in an archive”

(Austin & Grenoble 2007: 19)

Creating best practices What are the best ways to collect, manage, and archive documentation data?

Developments in linguistic archiving

Expanding audiences How do we get more people using archives for a broader variety of purposes?

Speech communities Language revitalization and other “cultural, historical or language-learning purposes” (Austin 2011)

Who uses archived data and for what?

Linguistic researchers Traditional domains of study, by experts in the language -Not much discourse analysis

Our case study

▣  Untouched archived data + new data ▣  Discourse, not just traditional areas of study

▣  See how discourse environments affect:

o  complex predicate constructions o  discourse markers o  (word order and nominal classifiers)

2. MalakMalak

Complex Predicates A case study in discourse

§  One inflecting verb (1) nguntyul nana yunu black.whip.snake always 3.SG.M.sit.PST

‘the snakes kept on sitting there’

§  Coverb(s) + inflecting verb

(2) tyurrp-taty wirriminy cut-hit 3.PL.do.PUNCT ‘they were cutting it (the rope)’

§  Or predicates without an inflecting verb

(3) tyurruk pak bury.PL.OBJ sit ‘they buried themselves’

MalakMalak complex predicates (CPs)

Individual speaker variation

§  Simple CP (4) dek nana wani-yen camp be.finished dreaming-DIR pak yunu=wa? sit 3.SG.M.sit.PST=COMP ‘He was turning into a dreaming, (right?)’

§  Serial coverb CP (5) wani nana pak ka-nggi dreaming be.finished sit come-DIR.PROX yunu=wa=ke 3.SG.M.sit.PST=COMP=FOC

‘he was turning into a dreaming’

§  Simple predicate (6) nana=na wani-yen yunu=wa=ke finished=FOC dreaming-DIR 3.SG.M.sit.PST=COMP=FOC

‘he was turning into a dreaming’

‘Extreme’ Serialization

§  One event, multiple actions (7) [tity tyurrk tity] [baiga-ma] yide come.out enter come.out go.up-CONT 3.SG.M.go.PRS

‘he kept on going in and out and in and out and (then) up’

§  Near-synonymous events

(8) pi, dae yuenduen [wayalk pi] move meat/animal 3SG.M [go.hunting move] [taty-ma ka] [hit-CONT come] ‘(the crocodile) is moving, the animal is (always) going hunting and killing’

Serial Coverb Expansion in Discourse

(9a) wa-pi ngun-na, katy-tyurrk-wat katy get-move DIST-ALL throw-enter-send throw ‘They brought (the trap) there and threw it (into the water)’ (RK)

(9b) katy-tyurrk-wat purrungpurrung-ma yida::: throw-enter-send RDP.boil-CONT 3SG.M.go.PST ‘he (the man in the trap) was thrown (into the water) and bubbles were coming up’ (BL)

(9c) purrungpurrung-ma yida::::

RDP.boil-CONT 3SG.M.go.PST ‘bubbles came up’ (RK)

(9d) purrungpurrung-ma yida nana

RDP.boil-CONT 3SG.M.go.PST be.finished

‘bubbles came up, and stopped’ (FM)

A Case Study

3. MalakMalak Discourse

Markers

Focus Marker: Change of Protagonist

(10a) warrad yuwayi ka yida=ke walk move.toward come 3SG.M.go.PST=FOC ‘he (the bluetongue lizard) walked out there’

(10b) tyerriny tity ka-nggi yida=ke goanna come.out come-PROX.DIR 3SG.M.go.PST=FOC dat yiminy-nu look 3SG.M.do.PUNCT-3SG.M.OBJ ‘The goanna came out and looked at him (the bluetongue lizard)

(11a) yawug tyerriny kubuk yuwayi yida,

other goanna swim move.towards 3SG.M.go.PST

kumugut=de

bluetongue.lizard-FOC

‘The other goanna swam away, while the bluetongue…’

(11b) dek nen-many yida=ke

place person/thing-ABL 3SG.M.go.PST=FOC

‘…came from that place’

Focus Marker: Change of Topic

(12a) wirrk wag yingi=we finish/die/kill water saltwater-crocodile=FOC ‘the crocodile kills them in the water’ (BL)

(12b) agun dek-nen WaliWali-nen where place-thing/person Daly.River-thing/person wunguny nga=we 3SG.N.go.IPFV 1SG.excl=FOC `Where did it go from there in the river, I wonder?’ (FM)

(12c) tyung-nen witybi yi-pi tree-thing/person small.N leave-go ‘They are left as small trees’ (FM)

Discourse Markers: Emphasis, Deixis, Attention

(13a) ngaty tity perr=da dek EMPH come.out rest=3SG.N/M.F.go.PS T place ‘he came back out to the camp to rest’

(13b) yerra yingki nguyi-pak ka-nggi wutu now/PART afternoon enter.PL-sit come-PROX.DIR 3PL.sit.PST ‘and now (here) in the afternoon, they went inside to stay’

(13c) mi-nue=we vegetable.food-BENEF=FOC ‘to eat/for food’ (Birk 1974)

Expanding the study

▣  word order preferences in a ‘free’ word order language

▣  use of (optional) nominal classifiers in discourse as

markers of definiteness

4. Conclusion

So what does this mean?

Adding to the conversation ...

▣  Keep spreading the word about standards (e.g., Thieberger 2012) ▣  Studies like this wouldn’t be possible without standards

▣  Use archived data for non-traditional studies

References

Austin, Peter K. and Lenore Grenoble. 2007. Current trends in language documentation. Language Documentation and Description Volume 4, ed. by Peter K. Austin, 12–25. London: SOAS. Bird, Steven and Gary Simons. 2003. Seven Dimensions of Portability for Language Documentation and Description. Language 79.3. 57–582. Birk, David. 1974.MalakMalak recordings: Collected between 1972 and 1974. AIATSIS: Canberra Crocombe, Mark. 2010. MalakMalak and Matngele recordings: Collected between 2009 and 2010. unpublished Gippert, Jost. 2006. Linguistic Documentation and the Encoding of Textual Materials. Essentials of Language Documentation, ed. by Jost Gippert, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann, and Ulrike Mosel, 337–361. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Hoffmann, Dorothea. 2013. MalakMalak and Matngele recordings. Collected between 2012 and 2013. ELAR: London

Schwiertz, Gabriele. 2012. Online Presentation and Accessibility of Endangered Languages Data: The General Portal to the DoBeS Archive. Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication No. 3, Potentials of Language Documentation: Methods, Analyses, and Utilization, ed. by Frank Seifart, Geoffrey Haig, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann, Dagmar Jung, Anna Margetts, and Paul Trilsbeek, 126–128. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Thieberger, Nicholas. 2012. Using Language Documentation Data in a Broader Context. Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication No. 3, Potentials of Language Documentation: Methods, Analyses, and Utilization, ed. by Frank Seifart, Geoffrey Haig, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann, Dagmar Jung, Anna Margetts, and Paul Trilsbeek, 129–134. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Trilsbeek, Paul and Alexander König. 2014. Increasing the Future Usage of Endangered Language Archives. Language Documentation and Description Volume 12: Special Issue on Language Documentation and Archiving, ed. by David Nathan and Peter K. Austin, 151–163. London: SOAS.

5. Appendix

So what does this mean?

A Case Study in Discourse

MalakMalak Nominal Classification

Definite/indefiniteness in MalakMalak

Definite/indefiniteness in Kriol

Nominal Classifiers in Discourse

Nominal Classifiers in Discourse

A Case Study in Discourse

MalakMalak non-configurational word order

Title here

▣  `free’ word order language ▣  preference for verb-medial order (OVS 31% and SVO 41%)

Word order preferences

O V S

Title here Word order guidelines

Credits

Special thanks to all the people who made and released these awesome resources for free: ▣ Simple line icons by Mirko Monti ▣ E-commerce icons by Virgil Pana ▣ Streamline iconset by Webalys ▣ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival ▣ Photographs by Unsplash