Big words, small phrases

Mismatches between pause units and the polysynthetic word in Dalabon

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3989744
AutoresNicholas Evans (0000-0003-0893-3713, Australian National University), Janet Fletcher (0000-0001-7223-4533, The University of Melbourne), Belinda Ro, Belinda Ross (The University of Melbourne)
Año2008
Volumen46
Número1
Páginas89-129
Fecha de publicación2008-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaLinguistics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0024-3949 • E-ISSN: 1613-396X
EditorialWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/ling.2008.004
OpenAlexW2010322098
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas22
Referencias citadas17

This article uses instrumental data from natural speech to examine the phenomenon of pause placement within the verbal word in Dalabon, a polysynthetic Australian language of Arnhem Land. Though the phenomenon is incipient and in two sample texts occurs in only around 4% of verbs, there are clear possibilities for interrupting the grammatical word by pause after the pronominal prefix and some associated material at the left edge, though these within-word pauses are significantly shorter, on average, than those between words. Within-word pause placement is not random, but is restricted to certain affix boundaries; it requires that the paused-after material be at least dimoraic, and that the remaining material in the verbal word be at least disyllabic. Bininj Gun-wok, another polysynthetic language closely related to Dalabon, does not allow pauses to interrupt the verbal word, and the Dalabon development appears to be tied up with certain morphological innovations that have increased the proportion of closed syllables in the pronominal prefix zone of the verb. Though only incipient and not yet phonologized, pause placement in Dalabon verbs suggests a phonology-driven route by which polysynthetic languages may ultimately become less morphologically complex by fracturing into smaller units

Affix · Linguistics · Morpheme · Phenomenon · Prefix · Verb · Word (group theory) · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation