Topics in Nyiyaparli morphosyntax

Abstract

Nyiyaparli is a Pama-Nyungan language spoken by a small number of Nyiyaparli and Palyku people in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. While lexicographic materials have been produced, there is little literature that investigates the grammar of the language. In making a contribution towards addressing this gap, this thesis provides a description of the major aspects of the morphosyntax, focusing on describing the forms and functions of major nominal and verbal suffixes and clitics. The research is based on the repatriation and analysis of narratives told by Gordon Mackay and recorded by Carl von Brandenstein in the 1960s, and translated by Nyiyaparli speakers, primarily David Yandicoogina Stock. The research also draws on the fieldwork and analysis carried out by Allison Kohn with Charlie Stream.

Chapter 1 provides an overview of Nyiyaparli and its speakers, comments on its relations with neighbouring languages including Panyjima, and explains how this research was conducted. In Chapter 2, I give an overview of the phonology of Nyiyaparli, providing the phonemic inventory, commenting on the unconfirmed laminal contrast, and outlining the phonotactics of the language. In Chapter 3, I discuss (personal, demonstrative, and interrogative/indefinite) pronouns and pronominal clitics and demonstrate that the case alignment system of Nyiyaparli is tripartite. I examine nominal morphology in Chapter 4, describing and illustrating the forms and functions of the cases and other major nominal morphemes. Verbal inflectional and derivational morphology is described in Chapter 5, including discussing various types of predicates, transitivity types, and case frame and argument structure alternations. Chapter 6 briefly discusses some syntactic topics, including inter-speaker variation in case marking within nominal phrases, case stacking, agreement, and major subordinate verb forms and their behaviour. Finally, Chapter 7 provides a summary of the thesis and offers directions for future research. Show more