A reference grammar of Paiwan

Abstract

This thesis is a grammatical description ofNorth Paiwan, spoken in Santimen and Saichia townships in Pingtung County, Taiwan. This language is predicate-initial. Order of the arguments is flexible, as there is a preceding case marker indicating their syntactic role. Paiwan has fairly rich morphology. Like most Formosan languages, it has four morphologically marked voices: Actor Voice (A V), Goal Voice (GV), Instrument Voice (IV) and Locative Voice (LV). GV, IV and LV can be grouped under the heading ofNon-actor Voice (NAV). Topicality is the main factor determining choice among voice constructions. Although the alignment of argument case marking is seemingly consistent with ergativity, morphologically Paiwan is neither ergative nor accusative because neither A V Clauses nor NA V clauses are attested to be more basic. It is thus better classes as a morphologically symmetrical language. Syntactically it is not entirely a symmetrical language. Paiwan A V verbs may be transitive because an oblique argument may also bear some properties of core arguments. However, NAV verbs are more transitive than AV verbs. Syntactically, Paiwan resembles Tagalog, standing somewhere between ergativity and symmetricality. This thesis consists of fifteen chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the language, its speakers and the areas where they live. Chapter 2 describes the phonetics and phonology. Chapter 3 deals with reduplication and some morphophonemic processes. An overview of Paiwan main clause structures, including verbal clauses and nonverbal clauses, is provided in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 treats major and minor word classes. Paiwan major word classes include verbs, nouns and adjectives. Chapter 6 deals with the derivation of complex stems. Chapter 7 analyses the structure of the noun phrase. Chapter 8 treats verbs and verbal predicates. Verbal focus morphology and valence-changing morphology, including causatives, anticausatives, reflexives and reciprocals, are described, as are verbal auxiliaries. Chapter 9 introduces verb serialization. Chapter 10 describes interrogative and imperative clauses. Chapter 11 introduces some complex constructions, discourse connectors and inferential markers. Chapter 12 describes relative clauses. Chapter 13 deals with complement clauses. Argument raising in a tu complement clause is examined. The pragmatic function of the Paiwan voice system is discussed in Chapter 14. Chapter 15 examines the syntax of the Paiwan voice system.