Abstract
In this article we describe a possessive construction in the Ngumpin-Yapa languages of Australia which has interesting implications for crosslinguistic models of agreement. In this “possessor dissension” construction, the possessor NP remains a modifier within the larger possessive NP, yet both the possessor and the possessum are cross-referenced with clause-level agreement morphology. Thus, there is a type of morphosyntactic disagreement (or dissension) between the syntactic position of the possessor as an NP-internal argument and its being agreed with at the clausal level as if it were a clausal argument. This phenomenon has had only limited mention in the typological literature, and has not previously been discussed for Australian languages. We discuss the properties of the construction, how it can be distinguished from other related construction types, and its implications for the typology of agreement.
Acknowledgements
The collection of the Bilinarra data was funded by the University of Melbourne in 1990, Diwurruwurru-jaru Aboriginal Corporation (2000–2007), an AIATSIS grant “Bilinarra Dreaming Lines” (2003–2004), and the Jaminjungan and Eastern Ngumpin DoBeS project (2008–2009). The collection of Gurindji data was funded by the Jaminjungan and Eastern Ngumpin DoBeS project (2008–2009) and a Hans Rausing Endangered Languages ELDP project (2009–2011). Earlier versions of this article were presented at the Australian Languages Workshop in Queensland in March 2013 and the Association for Linguistic Typology conference in Leipzig in August 2013. We thank the audiences of these presentations for many helpful questions and comments, and especially Mary Laughren, David Nash, Irina Nikolaeva, Jane Simpson, Tasaku Tsunoda, and all of those who responded to our post “Verbal agreement with internal NP-modifiers” on the Lingtyp list in August 2014 (see http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/). We are also very grateful to Frans Plank, Sandy Ritchie, and three anonymous reviewers for providing useful feedback on a previous draft, which led to substantial improvements. A number of language consultants were instrumental in the collection of the Bilinarra and Gurindji data. We are grateful to Hector Waitbiari Jangari†, Anzac Munganyi Jangari†, Ivy Kulngari Nangari-Nambijina† (Bilinarra), Violet Wadrill Nanaku, Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal Nangari, and Biddy Wavehill Yamawurr Nangala (Gurindji).
Abbreviations
- 1/2/3
1st/2nd/3rd person
- abl
ablative
- abs
absolutive
- acc
accusative
- all
allative
- alone
alone
- and
and
- aug
augmented
- aux
auxiliary
- ben
benefactive
- cat
catalyst
- cons
consequence
- dat
dative
- du
dual
- dub
doubt
- dyad
kinship pair
- ep
epenthetic
- erg
ergative
- exc
exclusive
- fact
factive
- foc
focus
- gen
genitive
- hith
hither
- impf
imperfective
- inc
inclusive
- incho
inchoative
- io
indirect object
- loc
locative
- min
minimal
- neg
negative
- nmlz
nominaliser
- npst
non-past
- o
object
- obl
oblique
- only
restrictive
- other
an/other
- perf
perfect
- pl
plural
- poss
possessive
- pot
potential
- pp
past perfective
- prop
proprietive
- prs
present
- psm
possessum
- psp
possessive phrase
- psr
possessor
- pst
past
- rempst
remote past
- rr
reflexive/reciprocal
- s
subject
- sg
singular
- stat
stative
- subsect
subsection term
- top
topic
- tr
transitive
- ua
unit augmented.
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