The Ngkolmpu Language with special reference to distributed exponence

Abstract

The Ngkolmpu language of southern New Guinea is notable for the remarkable extent to which grammatical values are distributed across multiple morphosyntactic systems in the language. This is most apparent in the extremely complex inflectional morphology of verbs, where the exponence of morphosyntactic feature values is distributed over a number of inflectional sites, such that determining the exact value of any given feature requires unification at multiple structural locations. Moreover, this phenomenon is not restricted to the inflectional morphology, and permeates the morphology, syntax and semantics of the language.

This thesis provides the first comprehensive description of the phonology, morphology and nominal and clausal syntax of Ngkolmpu. There is a particularly strong focus on the complex verbal inflectional morphology. In addition to the core description, it contains an exploration of the phenomenon of distributed exponence and related structures in the syntax and semantics. The goal is to chart the extent of this apparently non-optimal approach to exponence and provide a discussion of the consequences of such a structure informed by current thinking in morphological theory.

Chapters 2-7 comprise the descriptive part of the thesis, the primary goal of which is to give explicit empirical coverage of the main structural features of the language. As such, it is written from a framework-free approach in which all categories, classes and constructions are explicitly defined on a language particular basis. Chapter 2 sets out the phonemic inventory, their phonetic realisations and the phonotactics. Chapter 3 is a description of the nominal morphology, including word structure and a list of cases, their forms and functions. Chapter 4 is an account of the nominal syntax; it establishes the various classes of nominals and sets out the phrase level constituency. Chapter 5 lists the various valency-related constructions of the language. It establishes a set of valence alternation classes and describes the syntax and semantics of valence alternation processes. Chapter 6 is a description of the inflectional and derivational sites of verbs, focusing on the complex paradigmatic structure of these sites. Chapter 7 describes the system of stem alternation and establishes verbal number, aspect and nominal number as distinct but interacting categories.

The last two chapters change gear and aim at situating the workings of Ngkolmpu distributed exponence typologically, informed by advances in realisational approaches to morphology. Chapter 8 defines the concept of distributed exponence and charts the extent that features may be distributed in the systems of verbal inflection. It extends this discussion to draw parallels in structure across morphological domains of agreement, in the system of grammatical relations and the semantic interactions between verbal number and nominal number. Chapter 9 provides an explicit description of the inflectional sites of verbs in the light of distributed exponence. The description is presented in natural language but is firmly within the realisational tradition, drawing heavily from Paradigm Function Morphology. Its goal is to explore the consequences of distributed exponence on realisational approaches to morphological theory and uniquely proposes a level of morphological autonomy localised to each particular inflectional site.