Mian for typologists - the essentials

Mian for typologists - the essentials
Gabelentz Plenary ALT 10 Leipzig, August 18, 2013 Sebastian Fedden With thanks to the AHRC (UK) (grant AH/K003194/1)

Hans Georg Conon von der Gabelentz
* March 16, 1840 in Poschwitz/Altenburg † December 11, 1893 in Lemnitz “In der schildernden Darstellung werden die Einzelsprachen und Sprachfamilien unter den Gesichtspunkt der allgemeinen Sprachwissenschaft gerückt.” (Die Sprachwissenschaft, 2. Auflage, 1901: 479) Without language description linguists and typologists wouldn’t be able to make the generalizations they are after, theoretical linguistics and linguistic typological have to look at individual languages Language description puts individual languages and language families in the purview of general linguistics. [Translation mine]

MIAN Phonetics/ Phonology Syntax Morphology
In this presentation I would like to show what Mian can actually contribute to the field of phonetics/phonology, morphology and syntax. Morphology

Mian Ok family (ok ‘water, river’)
Trans New Guinea (TNG) (Pawley 2005; Ross 2005; Wurm 1982) Telefomin District, Sandaun Province, PNG Two dialects: Eastern dialect has approx. 1,400 speakers Western dialect (aka Suganga) has approx. 350 speakers First contact in the mid-1930s (Kienzle and Campbell 1938; Campbell 1938: 245)

Map 1. Putative subgroups within Trans New Guinea (from Ross 2005: 34)
141st parallel Map 1. Putative subgroups within Trans New Guinea (from Ross 2005: 34)

The Ok family Mian Ok Lowland Ok Mountain Ok Bimin Telefol Tifal
Faiwol Mian Yonggom Ninggerum Muyu Ngalum Ok-Oksapmin Oksapmin Morop Figure 1. Based on Healey (1965), Voorhoeve (2005), Loughnane and Fedden (2011)

Multi-lingual environment
Neo-Melanesian Pidgin (Tok Pisin): by now practically everybody Telefol: only old male speakers, decreasing importance Growing importance of English

Essential Mian in one sentence
unáng=i káawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-sese-bl-Ø-io=be F_CL.SG.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-RECP-exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’ Mention that the language is strongly zero-anaphoric. Overt NPs there are not overt noun phrases, just the person markers on the verb.

unáng=i káawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-sese-bl-Ø-io=be F_CL.SG.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-RECP-exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’

Pharygealization and tone
Mian for typologists - the essentials Pharygealization and tone

Pharyngealization Phonemic distinction between a pharyngealized /aˤ/ (spelled <aa>) and a plain /a/ The contrast of a low, long, glottalized or pharyngealized vowel against another /a/ typical of Sepik languages; possibly a diffused feature (Bill Foley, p.c.) Near-minimal pairs: +tone difference or + segmental difference Minimal pairs: al ‘faeces’ aal ‘skin’ ayal ‘light’ ayaal ‘tree sp.’ Near-minimal pairs: am ‘house’ âam ‘older sister’ mak ‘other’ daak ‘down’

Pharyngealization Lower frequency of the third and a higher frequency of the first formant (Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996) Figure 2. Spectogramm of /Lal/ ‘faeces’ Figure 3. Spectogramm of /Laˤl/ ‘skin’ F3 Enlarge the spectrogramm for ‘skin’. F1

Harmonic structure of al ‘faeces’
Measured at the middle of the vowel. Modal voice.

Harmonic structure of aal ‘skin’
Measured at the middle of the vowel. Second harmonic is higher => non-modal voice.

A tone typology (Donohue 1997)
Types are based on the domain of contrast which is phonemically exploited, rather than the number and identity of tones in a system Syllable tone system: T T T T T T | | | | | | σ σ σ σ σ σ Word tone system: T T T | | | ω ω ω | /\ / | \ σ σ σ σ σ σ E.g. Mandarin, Cantonese Vietnamese, Igbo, Chuave (Papuan, Chimbu Province), and Sikaritai (Lake Plains, Irian Jaya) E.g. Swedish, Mende, Shanghai, Mian and Kewa (Papuan, Enga Province, PNG)

Tone in New Guinea Phonemic tone in many TNG languages
Within TNG - Ok - Mek - Engan, e.g. Kewa (Franklin 1971) - Chimbu-Wahgi, e.g. Kuman (Hardie 2003), Golin (Evans and Stoakes 2004), Dom (Tida 2006) - Gorokan, e.g. Fore (Scott 1990) - Turama-Kikorian, e.g. Kairi (Rumu) (Newman and Petterson 1990) Outside TNG - Skou (Donohue 2003) Map 2. Tone languages in New Guinea (Donohue 2003: 330; conservative estimate) Maybe reduce the list of tonal TNG languages Phonemic tone in many TNG languages Not reported for the languages of the Sepik-Ramu area (Foley 1991: 19), the Bismark Archipelago, and the Solomon Islands

Tone in Mian Only a few of the logically possible tonal melodies occur in mono- and polysyllabic words L (low), e.g. am ‘house’, ibal ‘dust’; fu ‘cook (v.)’ H (high), e.g. ān ‘arrow’, ēimawe ‘haze’, *verbs LH (rising), e.g. áam ‘pandanus’, unáng ‘woman’, káawa ‘steel axe’, *verbs LHL (peaking), klâ ‘properly’, alukûm ‘all’; -ûb’- ‘give (v.)’ HL (falling), e.g. bòks ‘box’, usàn ‘tail’; hà’ ‘break (v.)’ List the tonal melodies first (L, H, LH, …), then say that this applies to nouns and adjectives which can be up to 3 syllables long.

Tone association /LHunaŋ/ ‘woman’ LH L H L H |/ /|/ unaŋ → unaŋ → unaŋ
|/ /|/ unaŋ → unaŋ → unaŋ [unáŋ] ‘woman’ In nouns the whole tonal melody attaches to the final syllable. Only the final syllable is allowed to bear two tones. PUT THE INFLECTION POINT IN?

Tone association /LHunaŋ/ ‘woman’ LH L H L H |/ /|/ unaŋ → unaŋ → unaŋ
|/ /|/ unaŋ → unaŋ → unaŋ [unáŋ] ‘woman’ Figure 4. Waveform and fundamental frequency for /LHunaŋ/ ‘woman’ In nouns the whole tonal melody attaches to the final syllable. Only the final syllable is allowed to bear two tones.

Segments attracting tone
/LHkaʕwa/ ‘steel axe’ LH L H L H | | | kaˤwa → kaˤwa → kaˤwa * * * [kʰaˤwá] ‘steel axe’

/LHkaʕwa/ ‘steel axe’ LH L H L H | | | kaˤwa → kaˤwa → kaˤwa * * * [kʰaˤwá] ‘steel axe’ Figure 5. Waveform and fundamental frequency for /LHkaˤwa/ ‘steel axe’ Better to say that pharyngealization delays/postpones the high tone due to physiological factors.

/LHkaʕwa/ ‘steel axe’ LH L H L H | | | kaˤwa → kaˤwa → kaˤwa * * * [kʰaˤwá] ‘steel axe’ Figure 5. Waveform and fundamental frequency for /LHkaˤwa/ ‘steel axe’ Also in : ngáamein ‘yellow’ (ADJ) máamein ‘maternal uncle’ (N) gâala ‘tear down’ (V)

Interplay between segmental and suprasegmental specification
Segmental feature attracts tone Related phenomenon in Warembori (Donohue 1999: 8-9) “Normal” and “heavy” set of nasal and voiced stops, which are pronounced identically, but heavy series attracts stress Warembori: Probably Papuan but with strong Austronesian influence, spoken on the north coast of West Papua).

Noun categorization − gender and classifiers
Mian for typologists - the essentials Noun categorization − gender and classifiers

Our example sentence unáng=i káawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-sese-bl-Ø-io=be F_CL.SG.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-RECP-exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’

Combining gender and classifiers
Typologically relatively rare Recent research has turned up more and more languages that combine gender and classifiers Papuan Mian (Trans New Guinea, Fedden 2011) Tidore (West Papuan, van Staden 2000) South American Miraña (Witotoan, Seifart 2005) Tariana (Arawak, Aikhenvald 1994, 2000) Australian Enindhilyakwa (Non-Pama-Nyungan, van Egmond 2008) Typically we think that languages have either gender or classifiers, but …

Mian gender M, F, N1, N2 in the 3rd person
Marked on: Free pronouns, articles, demonstratives, person affixes on the verb Nominal gender typical of Mountain Ok languages (Healey 1965a; Healey and Steinkraus 1972; Weber 1997) Not typical of TNG languages, which have pronominal gender (M/F), if at all

Agreement target: article
a. naka=e ‘a/the man’ naka=i ‘(the) men’ b. unáng=o ‘a/the woman’ unáng=i ‘(the) women’ c. tóm=e ‘a/the stone’ tóm=o ‘(the) stones’ d. káawa=o ‘a/the steel axe’ káawa=o ‘(the) steel axes’ Use the agreement of the article as an example. The other targets follow the same pattern.

Controller genders Singular Plural Assignment Masculine =e =i Males
Feminine =o Females Neuter 1 Inanimates Neuter 2 Inanimates: locations, body decoration, weather phenomena, illnesses, abstract nouns, some tools and weapons (e.g. káawa ‘steel axe’) Defined by the agreements required by the controller. Mian gender is fairly typical, but the agreements show an interesting pattern of syncretism. Non-autonomous, i.e. the neuter genders have no agreement forms which are unique to them. Neuter 1 and neuter 2 are non-autonomous values (Zaliznjak 1973[2002]: 69–74)

Gender syncretism Singular Plural Assignment Masculine =e =i Males
Feminine =o Females Neuter 1 Inanimates Neuter 2 Inanimates: locations, etc. Mian SG PL M A C F B N1 N2

Feminine =o Females Neuter 1 Inanimates Neuter 2 Inanimates: locations, etc. Mian SG PL M A C F B N1 N2 Cited from Corbett (1991: 198) Andi SG PL I A II B III C IV D

Feminine =o Females Neuter 1 Inanimates Neuter 2 Inanimates: locations, etc. Mian SG PL M A C F B N1 N2 Target genders in Mian Cited from Corbett (1991: 198) Andi SG PL I A II B III C IV D e o i o Singular Plural N2 F M N1

Verbal classifiers M-CL, F-CL, Long, Bundle, Cover, Residue
Marked on: Verbs of object handling and movement, e.g. ‘give’, ‘take’, ‘put’, ‘throw’, ‘lift’, ‘turn’, ‘fall’ (~50 verbs) Absolutive basis (Keenan 1984) Typologically, classification by verb extends: Never to A (absolute universal) Only to S or O (strong statistical universal) with some exceptions, e.g. S, O or LOC adjuncts in Enindhilyakwa (van Egmond 2008)

Verbal classifiers nē memâalo fút=e 1SG now tobacco=SG.N1 tob-ò-n-i=a
3SG.LONG.O-take.PFV-SS.SEQ-1SG.SBJ=MED ‘Now I take the tobacco leaf and then I ...’ (Rolling smokes) Dried Nicotiana leaves bound together

Verbal classifiers Singular Plural Assignment M-classifier dob- dol-
Males; plate, clothes, mosquito net, some bananas, some pandanus F-classifier om- Females; inanimates: all nouns of N2 gender Long tob- tebel- Inanimates: arrow, pen, tobacco leaf, bone, tongs, bush knife, nail, belt Covering gam- gemel- skin, palm bark, blanket Bundle gol- gulel- string bag, bundles Residue ob- ol- tortoises; rest of inanimates

Overlapping categorization
Feminine Residue F-classifier M-classifier Long Covering Bundle Neuter 2 Neuter 1 Masculine

Clear and intermediary cases
Gender system fairly normal (with the wrinkle of the mismatch between controller and target genders) Verbal classifiers are a more mixed category More gender-like More classifier-like - Small finite set of categories - Marked once, on a single constituent type - Bound form - Marked outside the noun - Some nouns not classified - Form and function semantics - Multiple categorization is common

Multiple categorization
A. som=e banana_bunch=SG.N1 dob-meki-n-e=be 3SG.M_CL.O-hang_up.PFV-REAL-3SG.M.SBJ=DECL ‘I've hung up the banana bunch.’ B. som=e banana_bunch=SG.N1 gol-meki-n-e=be 3SG.BDL.O-hang_up.PFV-REAL-3SG.M.SBJ=DECL ‘I've hung up the banana bunch (that is supplied with some string or rope to hang it up on).’ Often several different prefixes can be selected in order to highlight a certain property of the referent. Subtle manipulation of the semantics of an utterance possible. What is classified is the referent.

A case for Canonical Typology
New 3-year long AHRC-funded project on “Combining gender and classifiers in natural language” Linguists agree that there is a distinction between gender and classifier systems, the definitions vary and there are cases which are decidedly intermediary (e.g. Mian verbal classifiers).

New 3-year long AHRC-funded project on “Combining gender and classifiers in natural language” Inform the typology of different types of noun categorization systems in a language Linguists agree that there is a distinction between gender and classifier systems, the definitions vary and there are cases which are decidedly intermediary (e.g. Mian verbal classifiers).

New 3-year long AHRC-funded project on “Combining gender and classifiers in natural language” Inform the typology of different types of noun categorization systems in a language Use a canonical approach to mapping out the possibility space and focus on intermediate cases Linguists agree that there is a distinction between gender and classifier systems, the definitions vary and there are cases which are decidedly intermediary (e.g. Mian verbal classifiers).

reciprocals

The sese-construction

unáng=i káawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-sese-bl-Ø-io=be F_CL.SG.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-RECP-exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’ Verb-marking reciprocal strategy

unáng=i káawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-sese-bl-Ø-io=be F_CL.SG.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-RECP-exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’ Reciprocants have to be (i) subject and (ii) object Transitive verb-marking reciprocal strategies are typologically unusual (Nedjalkov 2007: 12, 40) But see Moyse-Faurie (2008) for Oceanic languages and Marlett (2005) for Seri Typologically unusual for a verb-marking reciprocal strategy that both reciprocant argument positions have to be filled and that the reciprocal verb remains transitive .

unáng=i káawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-sese-bl-Ø-io=be F_CL.SG.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-RECP-exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’ Note the singular object suffix -o ‘3SG.F.R’ Iconically expressing that the respective reciprocal actions are directed towards individuals of the same sex Restricted to two reciprocants (constructional encoding of a dual) The plural -e ‘AN.PL.R’ is also possible, but only if there are three or more reciprocants

unáng=i káawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-sese-bl-Ø-io=be F_CL.SG.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-RECP-exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’ Existential verb subject suffix in the plural, expressing the whole set of reciprocants ‘they are doing this’ aspectual function of expressing imperfectivity

An alternative construction
unáng=i káawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-s-e F_CL.PL.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-DS.SEQ-3SG.M.SBJ bl-Ø-io=be exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’ There are many similarities but let’s concentrate on the differences.

‘Zigzag’ construction (Evans 2008)
unáng=i káawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-s-e F_CL.PL.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-DS.SEQ-3SG.M.SBJ bl-Ø-io=be exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’ Zigzag verb spelling out reciprocal subevents Coined by Evans (2008), based on data from the TNG languages Amele and Hua. Existential verb

The Mian ‘zigzag’ construction
-s is a S/R marker indicating ‘different subject’ and ‘sequentiality of events’ unáng=i káawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-s-e F_CL.PL.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-DS.SEQ-3SG.M.SBJ bl-Ø-io=be exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’ Coined by Evans (2008), based on data from the TNG languages Amele and Hua.

-s is a S/R marker indicating ‘different subject’ and ‘sequentiality of events’ unáng=i káawa=o woman=PL.AN steel.axe=N2 om-ûb’-o-s-e F_CL.PL.O-give.PFV-3SG.F.R-DS.SEQ-3SG.M.SBJ bl-Ø-io=be exist-IPFV-2/3PL.AN.SBJ=DECL ‘The (two) women are giving a steel axe to each other.’ -e is a subject cross-referencing suffix frozen to the 3rd person singular masculine Coined by Evans (2008), based on data from the TNG languages Amele and Hua.

A standard S/R example nē bib un-Ø-om=o! 1SG place go.PFV-REAL-HORT.1SG.SBJ=HORT ge baa-s-e=a say.PFV say.PFV-DS.SEQ-3SG.M.SBJ=MED éil=e ae ge-n-e=a pig=SG.M yes say.PFV-SEQ-3SG.M.SBJ=MED ‘he (the male protagonist) said “Let’s go to my place!”, “yes” said the pig, and then …’ [The talking pig]

Circular S/R marking it-give-her-DS-SBJ it-give-her-DS-SBJ they.are om-ub’-o-s-e om-ub’-o-s-e bliobe

Makes overt all the semantic components of a reciprocal event First two subevents are mapped onto the transitive zigzag verbs Difference in agent motivates ‘backward-looking switch-reference’ (Evans 2010: 33) Existential verb: Whole complex event is a joint activity

Development of the fused reciprocal
V-s-e … V-s-e > V-s-e … V-s-e > V-sese Haplology-like phonological reduction For a historical scenario, see Fedden 2013 Zigzag type reported for other TNG languages (Amele and Hua) Fused type is so far only attested in Mian

coda

Thanks to The Gabelentz Award committee: Chair: Hein van der Voort
Sonia Cristofaro Mark Donohue Nick Enfield Katharina Haude Birgit Hellwig Søren Wichmann

Thanks to Greville G. Corbett (SMG, 2009-2011)
Stephen C. Levinson (MPIP, )

Mr Kasening Milimap (with his father’s headgear, 2008)
Dót klayâm sūm Mr Kasening Milimap (with his father’s headgear, 2008)

Hans Georg Conon von der Gabelentz
* March 16, 1840 in Poschwitz/Altenburg † December 11, 1893 in Lemnitz “In der schildernden Darstellung werden die Einzelsprachen und Sprachfamilien unter den Gesichtspunkt der allgemeinen Sprachwissenschaft gerückt.” (Die Sprachwissenschaft, 2. Auflage, 1901: 479) Without language description linguists and typologists wouldn’t be able to make the generalizations they are after, theoretical linguistics and linguistic typological have to look at individual languages Language description puts individual languages and language families in the purview of general linguistics. [Translation mine]

Phonetics/ Phonology Syntax MIAN Morphology

Phonetics/ Phonology Syntax MIAN Typology Morphology

Pharyngealization Syntax MIAN Tone Typology Morphology

MIAN Typology Morphology Switch-reference Pharyngealization
Reciprocals Tone Typology Morphology

MIAN Typology Switch-reference Pharyngealization Reciprocals Tone
Gender Classifiers

Mian for typologists - the essentials

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