Topics in the morpho-syntax of Ibaloy, Northern Philippines

Abstract

This study describes selected aspects of the grammar of Ibaloy, a member of the Northern Philippines subgroup of Austronesian, spoken on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. A sketch of the phonology is provided, as focusing on processes that interact with morphology. Phonological words in Ibaloy carry final or penultimate primary stress. The basic syllable structure is cv( c). Several morpho-phonemic processes apply to words when they take part in particular word-derivational processes. Only the major morpho-phonemic processes are here described. Ibaloy has an elaborate derivational system. Nouns typically occur underived as monomorphemic words. Verbs are typically derived with a system of affixes (also known as "focus"). Different categories of verbs and nouns are identified on morphosyntactic criteria. Ibaloy is a head-initial (or right-branching) language. In a noun phrase, modifiers (e.g. relative clause) typically follow the noun they modify. In a clause, verbal complements, adjuncts, and modifiers of the predicate typically occur after the predicate. Three types of phrases are identified here: the noun phrase, the determiner phrase, and the prepositional phrase. The main functions of these phrase-types are described together with their internal structure. Clauses are classified according to their predicate, as verbal and non-verbal. Verbal clauses include clauses headed by varies subcategories of verbs. Extension verbs require a sentential complement, and complement clauses are of two types, namely finite and non-finite. Verbal clauses are also classified depending on the number and type of verbal complements present in the clause. Ibaloy distinguishes between core and extension-to-core complements. Intransitive clauses all have a single core complement, the Nominative. Transitive clauses have two core complements, the Agent and the Nominative. Ibaloy uses ergative case marking for its core complements. In addition, clauses may contain one or more extension-to-core complements and adjuncts. Clauses are typically linked by an overt constituent. Relative clauses are introduced by a subordinator, the linker. Only the Nominative complement of a clause can be relativised. For this, a "gap" strategy is used. However, Ibaloy has an extensive system of verbal derivation which allows a non-Nominative complement to be repositioned as Nominative, and thereby to be eligible for processes which refer to Nominative (e.g. relativisation). Other phenomena treated in this work include pronominal agreement marking and topicalisation. Ibaloy allows agreement marking of a third person Agent or Nominative depending on the transitivity and type of the construction. A personal bound pronoun occurs with and agrees in number and case with a complement of the construction. It is generally possible to topicalise a core complement, an adjunct, the possessor of a Nominative phrase of an intransitive construction, or, rarely, an extension to-core complement expressing a location. However, two different topicalisation strategies are employed. The resumptive pronoun strategy is used to topicalise core complements, while no resumptive pronoun is used for the other constituents. Show more