A grammar of Wooi: An Austronesian language of Yapen Island, Western New Guinea
Date
2016
Authors
Sawaki, Yusuf Willem
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Abstract
This thesis is a description of Wooi, an Austronesian language of
the South Halmahera-West New Guinea group, spoken on Yapen
Island, Western New Guinea. The language is spoken by
approximately 3,000 people in three main villages: Wooi, Woinap
and Yenuari, and others scattered around cities in West Papua.
The areas of grammar covered in this thesis are phonology
(chapter 2), word classes (chapter 3), noun phrases (chapter 4),
possession and possessive constructions (chapter 5), verbal
morphology (chapter 6), the clause (chapter 7), grammatical
relations (chapter 8), valence, valency changing derivations, and
related constructions (chapter 9), serial verb constructions
(chapter 10), complex clauses (chapter 11), topic and focus
constructions (chapter 12), and deictics and spatial orientation
(chapter 13).
Wooi has five basic vowels, thirteen diphthongs and sixteen
consonants. Consonant clusters are restricted and occur across
syllables. Stress is not phonemic. Morpho-phonological processes
include metathesis, vowel deletion, palatalization, vowel merger,
vowel retention, fortition, lenition, nasal assimilation and
consonant insertion.
The language is a left-headed language in which most of the
modifiers are post-nominal and the head noun is to the right of
the NPs, except the possessive modifier. The basic clause
structure is SVO-OBL, in which the order is fixed. Insertion is
not allowed within the basic clause structure. Object alternation
is not allowed. Peripheral elements such as locative and temporal
adjuncts occur outside the basic clause structure, following the
oblique argument.
The morphology of the verb is simple, consisting of the
obligatory prefixed-subject marker and the applicative marker.
The object clitic is syntactically determined. Morphological
realization of the subject marker varies depending on the
phonological shapes of verb stems, vowel-initial or
consonant-initial verb stems. The realization can be as a prefix
or infix. The verb types include action verbs, derived verbs, and
verbs with possessive morphology.
Wooi is a nominative-accusative language. S/A are identical, as
opposed to O/P. Oblique has its own marking. The grammatical
relations are determined by linear word order, categorical
expression, agreement marking and behavioural properties.
Wooi distinguishes direct and indirect possessive constructions.
In direct possessive constructions, the possessor attaches
directly to the possessed noun. In indirect possessive
constructions, the possessor attaches to the possessive marker,
not directly to the possessed noun. There are also two other
possessive types, namely, mixed type and N-N juxtaposition type,
but these are more restricted.
Serial verb constructions are distinguished based on their formal
and semantic properties. SVCs in Wooi are considered as a
monoclause consisting of two (or more) verbs in sequence. The two
types of SVCs in Wooi are true SVCs and pseudo SVCs. They are
mostly distinguished based on argument realisation and argument
sharing.
Topic and focus constructions are triggered by pragmatic
requirements. Topic can be marked by NPs, pronouns and person
marking/pronominal copy. Focus can be marked by NPs and focus
markers, especially in contrastive focus. There are different
markings for verbal focus and non-verbal focus.
Deictics and spatial orientation are very complex in Wooi. There
are three types of deictics in Wooi – deictic adverbs,
demonstrative modifiers and demonstrative pronouns. They
distinguish proximate, neutral, distal1 and distal2 orientation.
The deictics have basic locative orientation but they can also be
extended to temporal orientation. Spatial orientation consists of
the topological types; which have stative locative verbs, the
frame of reference types, which consist of intrinsic frame of
reference, relative and absolute frame of references; and the
motion types, which consist of motion verbs and directional
prepositions
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Wooi grammar, Descriptive, Austronesian, Yapen Island, Western New Guinea, Papua
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Thesis (PhD)
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