Languages of Papua New Guinea

Maisin: a grammatical description of an Oceanic language in Papua New Guinea

Availability:
Not Available Online
Issue Date:
2014-10
Degree:
M.A. in Linguistics, University of Otago
Extent:
xvi, 191 pages
Abstract:

Maisin: a grammatical description of an Oceanic language in PNG is a descriptive study of the Maisin language, spoken in Collingwood Bay, on the north coast of Oro Province, Papua New Guinea, with particular treatment of those features that distinguish the language from other Austronesian languages within the Papuan Tip cluster.

Some of the distinctive features of Maisin described here include its topic and focus marking system; its use of postpositional phrases (showing proto-Austronesian forms, but following Papuan categories); chaining of co-ordinate dependent clauses preceding an independent clause; marking of tense, mood and aspect by suffixes rather than by prefixes; the existence of a closed set of intransitive verbs which mark subject person and number by suffixation only; and a typically Papuan style marking of medial and final verbs.

After providing an overview of the phonology and syntactic structure of the language, the thesis concludes by giving particular attention to the topic and focus marking system, and some tentative suggestions regarding the interaction of these markers within the information structure system of the language.

Publication Status:
Preprint
Table of Contents:
1 Introduction -- 1.1 Environment -- 1.2 Culture and lifestyle -- 1.3 Language Use -- 1.4 History of Contact -- 1.5 Linguistic Classification -- 1.6 Data collection and fieldwork -- 1.7 Typological Characteristics -- 1.7.1 Word Order -- 1.7.2 Possessor pronominal suffixation on inalienably possessed nouns -- 1.7.3 Subject-marking by prefixation on the verb -- 1.7.4 Exclusive/inclusive distinction within 1st person plural -- 1.7.5 Reduplication -- 1.7.6 Subject marking by suffixation -- 1.7.7 Tense/aspect marking by suffixation -- 1.7.8 Post-postional phrases with case-marking by cliticisation -- 1.7.9 Topic marking -- 1.7.10 Focus marking -- 1.7.11 Serial constructions marking medial and final verbs -- 2 Phonology -- 2.1 Phonemes -- 2.1.1 Consonants -- 2.1.2 Vowels -- 2.1.3 Phonemic and orthographic inventory -- 2.2 Phonotactics -- 2.2.1 Syllable patterns -- 2.2.2 Consonant sequences -- 2.2.3 Vowel sequences -- 2.3 Phonological processes -- 2.3.1 Rules affecting nasal consonants -- 2.3.2 Rules affecting non-nasal consonants -- 2.3.3 Rule affecting vowels -- 2.4 Stress -- 2.5 Orthographic conventions -- 2.5.1 Long vowels -- 2.5.2 Nasals -- 2.5.3 Labialised /k/ -- 2.5.4 Approximants -- 3 Word Classes and Morphology -- 3.1 Open Word Classes -- 3.2 Closed Word Classes -- 3.2.1 Pronouns -- 3.2.2 Demonstratives -- 3.2.3 Interrogative/indefinite -- 3.2.4 Adverbs -- 3.2.5 Numerals and quantifiers -- 3.2.6 Enclitics -- 3.2.7 Conjunctions -- 4 Nouns and noun phrases -- 4.1 Nouns -- 4.1.1 General nouns -- 4.1.2 Temporal nouns -- 4.1.3 Human nouns -- 4.1.4 Directly possessed nouns -- 4.1.5 Adjectival nouns -- 4.2 Noun phrase -- 4.2.2 Compound nouns -- 4.2.3 Possessive noun phrase -- 4.2.4 Appositional noun phrase -- 4.2.5 â Headlessâ noun phrase -- 4.2.6 Modifier noun phrase -- 4.2.7 Pronominally headed noun phrase -- 4.2.8 Co-ordinate and serial noun phrases -- 4.2.9 Case-marking on noun phrases -- 5 Verbs and verb phrases -- 5.1 Verbs -- 5.1.1 Subject prefixes -- 5.1.2 Verbs with subject-marking by suffixation -- 5.1.3 Object suffixes -- 5.1.4 Continuous aspect reduplication -- 5.1.5 Verb nominalisation -- 5.1.6 Final tense/aspect markers -- 5.1.7 Medial tense/aspect markers -- 5.1.8 Verbs of motion and direction -- 5.2 Verb phrases -- 5.2.1 Aspectual verb phrases -- 5.2.2 Nominal + â doâ verb phrases -- 6 Clauses and simple sentence types -- 6.1 Non-verbal clauses -- 6.1.1 Equative clauses -- 6.1.2 Locative clause -- 6.1.3 Possessive clauses -- 6.2 Verbal clauses -- 6.2.1 Existential clauses -- 6.2.2 Intransitive clauses -- 6.2.3 Transitive Clauses -- 6.2.4 Other constituents of the clause and clause ordering possibilities -- 6.3 Clause negation -- 6.3.1 Non-verbal clause negation -- 6.3.2 Existential clause negation -- 6.3.3 Verbal clause negation -- 6.4 Declarative sentences -- 6.5 Interrogative sentences -- 6.5.1 Content questions -- 6.5.2 Polar questions -- 6.6 Commands and prohibitions -- 6.6.1 Commands -- 6.6.2 Prohibitions -- 7 Complex Sentence Structure -- 7.1 Serial constructions/merged clauses -- 7.1.1 â Adverbialâ SVC: -- 7.1.2 Directional focus SVC -- 7.1.3 Constructions involving the medial suffix /-n/ -- 7.1.4 Object-subject serial causative -- 7.2 Clause chaining/coordinate dependent clauses -- 7.3 Coordinate constructions -- 7.3.1 Clause coordination using conjunctions -- 7.3.2 Clause coordination by juxtaposition -- 7.4 Subordinate-Main structures -- 7.4.1 Temporal/conditional contingencies -- 7.4.2 Reason-result clauses -- 7.4.3 Relative clauses -- 7.5 Complements -- 7.5.1 Utterance predicates -- 7.5.2 Predicates of propositional attitude and knowledge -- 7.5.3 Predicates of modality -- 7.5.4 Predicates of immediate perception -- 8 Topic and Focus -- 8.1 Introduction -- 8.2 Topic and focus markers -- 8.3 Defining Topic -- 8.4 Previous discussion of Maisin information structure -- 8.4.1 Topic -- 8.4.2 Focus -- 8.5 Topic in Maisin -- 8.5.1 Topic and focus in a narrative text -- 8.5.2 Topic and focus in a procedural text
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Entry Number:
62027