The grammaticalization and dissolution of High Extended Intonation

An inalienable possession paradigm in Roon

Bibliographic Data

ID21819998
AuthorsDavid Gil (0000-0002-0964-1838, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume76
Issue3
Pages403-441
Publication date2023-09-26
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage Typology and Universals (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1867-8319 • E-ISSN: 2196-7148
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/stuf-2023-2015
OpenAlexW4386804931
LanguageEN
References cited29

This paper is concerned with the documentation, typology and diachrony of a single inflectional paradigm expressing inalienable attributive possession in Roon, a language of the South Halmahera West New Guinea subgroup of Austronesian. The paradigm in question exhibits a substantial amount of variation both within and across speakers. Formally, the paradigm is exceptional in that, in some of its variants, it makes use of an H toneme, the only attested usage of tonality in the entire language. Functionally, the paradigm is remarkable in that, in some of its variants, the possessor is distinguished not for person but rather for distal deixis. Historically, the H toneme forming part of the paradigm is argued to derive from the grammaticalization of a High Extended Intonation contour expressing excessivity along a scalar dimension, characteristic of many languages of New Guinea and Australia. In some languages of North West New Guinea, this intonation contour anchors to certain particles, resulting in ideophones such as the Papuan Malay eeeH . One such ideophone, it is suggested, was subsequently incorporated into the expression of inalienable attributive possession in Roon. The proposed analysis thus provides a case study of how intonation may develop into tone, and, more generally, how gesture may be incorporated into grammar

Attributive · Grammaticalization · Linguistics · Malay · Typology · Hearing Impairment and Communication · History · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Psychology

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