1

Alyawarr Verb Morphology

David Campbell Moore, Bachelor of Arts (Honours).

This thesis is presented for the degree Master of Arts of the

University of Western Australia.

School: Social Sciences.

Discipline: Linguistics.

Thesis submitted in 2012

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Abstract

The Alyawarr Language Region is located in the Sandover and Barkly areas of the Northern

Territory. Alyawarr is a language with around 2000 first language speakers. Although the

Alyawarr language has been studied since the 1930s, only recently has long-term detailed

fieldwork been undertaken in Alyawarr.

Alyawarr verbs are agglutinative, suffixing and compounding. Alyawarr is in rich inflectional

and derivational morphology. One significant category is Motion.

Chapter One is an introduction to the Alyawarr language and reviews the literature on the

language. Verb roots and types of word formation are explored in Chapter 2. Subsequent

chapters explore different categories which follow the verb root. Chapter 3 covers Derivation

and Number. Chapter 4 explores the categories of Motion and Aspect. Chapter 5 is dedicated to

the inflectional categories of Tense and Mood and to complex clauses.

This research represents seventeen years of research in the Alyawarr language based upon

extensive text collections and data elicitation. Although this thesis builds on that of Stanham

(1972), Turtle (n.d) and Yallop (1977), it contains new perspectives on understanding the

Alyawarr verb and further refines previous analyses.

This thesis is also distinctive and interesting because of further detailed information about

reduplication in Alyawarr. Basic Motion verbs are explained and the category of Motion

including an account of vertical motion. Another feature of this thesis is an exploration of the

aspectual system of Alyawarr and its relationship to the categories of tense and mood along with

a number of hitherto undescribed inflections.

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents ..................................................................................................... 4

Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. 7

Table of Abbreviations ............................................................................................. 8

Figures ................................................................................................................... 11

Tables .................................................................................................................... 11

1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 14

1.1 The Alyawarr language region............................................................................. 14

1.2 Classification of the Alyawarr language ............................................................... 14 1.2.1 Typological features of the Alyawarr language .................................................................... 15 1.2.2 Thesis orthography: Sounds and their representation in Alyawarr ...................................... 15

1.3 Review of Linguistic Research in the Alyawarr language ...................................... 17 1.3.1 Early Research: Wordlists ..................................................................................................... 18 1.3.2 Anthropological research in the Alyawarr region ................................................................. 19 1.3.3 Professional Linguistic Research from 1930 ......................................................................... 19 1.3.4 Verb morphology .................................................................................................................. 22

1.4 Linguistic Variation ............................................................................................. 22

1.5 Social context of the language ............................................................................ 23 1.5.1 Wider contacts with other languages of Central Australia ................................................... 23 1.5.2 Mutual intelligibility and relatedness of Alyawarr dialects ................................................... 25 1.5.3 Speakership and language ownership .................................................................................. 27 1.5.4 Areal Features ....................................................................................................................... 27

1.6 Language change ................................................................................................ 28 1.6.1 The profile of Alyawarr in Central Australia .......................................................................... 28 1.6.2 Mobility ................................................................................................................................. 28 1.6.3 Demographics ....................................................................................................................... 29 1.6.4 Alyawarr and English ............................................................................................................. 30 1.6.5 The influence of literacy and education ............................................................................... 30 1.6.6 Two way education ............................................................................................................... 31 1.6.7 The influence of media ......................................................................................................... 31

1.7 The data and sources .......................................................................................... 32 1.7.1 Participant observation ......................................................................................................... 32 1.7.2 Types of data ......................................................................................................................... 32 1.7.3 Texts ...................................................................................................................................... 33 1.7.4 Genre .................................................................................................................................... 33 1.7.5 Elicitation .............................................................................................................................. 34 1.7.6 Observed speech................................................................................................................... 35 1.7.7 Translations ........................................................................................................................... 35 1.7.8 Introspective comments of speakers .................................................................................... 35 1.7.9 Learning the Alyawarr language ........................................................................................... 36 1.7.10 The roles of language consultants .................................................................................... 37 1.7.11 Recording techniques ....................................................................................................... 38

1.8 The outline and scope of this work...................................................................... 38

2 The Alyawarr Verb........................................................................................... 39

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2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 39

2.2 Verb structure .................................................................................................... 39

2.3 Properties of Verb Roots: Transitivity .................................................................. 40

2.4 Verbal Sub-categories ......................................................................................... 41 2.4.1 Basic Motion verbs ............................................................................................................... 42 2.4.2 Basic Stance verbs ................................................................................................................ 46

2.5 Compound Verbs ................................................................................................ 49 2.5.1 Other evidence for compound status .................................................................................. 50 2.5.2 Subclassification of compounding types .............................................................................. 53 2.5.3 Compounds based upon IV and TV ...................................................................................... 56

2.6 Verbal Reduplication .......................................................................................... 60 2.6.1 Semantics of reduplication and iconicity ............................................................................. 61 2.6.2 Pre-bases .............................................................................................................................. 62 2.6.3 RED.elp Attenuative ............................................................................................................. 64 2.6.4 RED.ep Frequentive .............................................................................................................. 67

3 Derivation and Number .................................................................................... 70

3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 70

3.2 Derivation .......................................................................................................... 70

3.3 Verbalising suffixes ............................................................................................. 70 3.3.1 Intransitive Verbaliser -irr .................................................................................................... 71 3.3.2 Attribute Intransitive Verbaliser -elh .................................................................................... 71

3.4 Mediopassive -elh .............................................................................................. 71 3.4.1 Reflexive ............................................................................................................................... 73 3.4.2 Passive .................................................................................................................................. 76 3.4.3 Middle .................................................................................................................................. 76 3.4.4 Antipassive ........................................................................................................................... 76

3.5 Reciprocal -err .................................................................................................... 79

3.6 Transitive Verbaliser ........................................................................................... 81 3.6.1 Nominal bases ...................................................................................................................... 81 3.6.2 Verb bases ............................................................................................................................ 82 3.6.3 Transitiviser -ern ................................................................................................................... 84

3.7 The Category of number ..................................................................................... 84 3.7.1 Plural -err and -arr ................................................................................................................ 86 3.7.2 -enherr .................................................................................................................................. 86 3.7.3 -erl.ew plural with Basic Motion verbs ................................................................................. 87 3.7.4 RED.ew- ................................................................................................................................ 87 3.7.5 -elhelerr ................................................................................................................................ 88 3.7.6 -arlelherr ............................................................................................................................... 88

3.8 Discrete -am ....................................................................................................... 89

4 Motion and Aspect ........................................................................................... 91

4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 91

4.2 The category of Motion ...................................................................................... 91

4.3 PATH morphemes ............................................................................................... 92 4.3.1 -eyn Return ........................................................................................................................... 92 4.3.2 -enh Point ............................................................................................................................. 95

4.4 Sequenced Motion compounds ........................................................................... 98 4.4.1 DO&MOTION -erl.................................................................................................................. 99 4.4.2 MOTION&DO -ey ................................................................................................................ 101

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4.4.3 Reduplication and Motion compounding ...........................................................................104 4.4.4 RUN .....................................................................................................................................105 4.4.5 Compositionality and motion compounds ..........................................................................109 4.4.6 Compounding vs. morphemic complexes ...........................................................................110

4.5 Rapid actions.................................................................................................... 111 4.5.1 -erl.iw SIDE ..........................................................................................................................111 4.5.2 (-erl).iw Small Repetitive Reduplication ..............................................................................112 4.5.3 -erl.ayn AWAY .....................................................................................................................114

4.6 Action along a path .......................................................................................... 115 4.6.1 -erl.ap Convey something along .........................................................................................115 4.6.2 -erlenty.akng Distributed motion .......................................................................................117

4.7 Vertical movement and ‘do while Y approaches’ ............................................... 118 4.7.1 -ey.aynt ‘UP’ ........................................................................................................................119 4.7.2 -erl.arrern ‘DOWN’ ..............................................................................................................122

4.8 Cultural explanation for complex motion verbs ................................................. 124 4.8.1 Example of Motion..............................................................................................................125

4.9 ASPECT............................................................................................................. 127 4.9.1 Continuous Aspect ..............................................................................................................128 4.9.2 -erl.an State.........................................................................................................................130

5 Obligatory verb marking ............................................................................... 132

5.1 Tense and Aspect ............................................................................................. 132 5.1.1 -eyel Present .......................................................................................................................133 5.1.2 -eyenh Future ......................................................................................................................135 5.1.3 -ek/-ew Past Perfective .......................................................................................................136 5.1.4 -enh Past Imperfective IMPP...............................................................................................137 5.1.5 Relative Past Tense .............................................................................................................139 5.1.6 -eyartingkerr Past Habitual .................................................................................................140 5.1.7 -ey.inkwern Past Habitual2 .................................................................................................140

5.2 Mood ............................................................................................................... 141 5.2.1 Imperative ...........................................................................................................................141 5.2.2 -ey Hortative .......................................................................................................................142 5.2.3 -etyek, -eyew, -eyek Purposive............................................................................................142 5.2.4 -em Potential.......................................................................................................................143 5.2.5 -ey.angenh, -eyang Negation ..............................................................................................148

5.3 Complex Sentences .......................................................................................... 150 5.3.1 Purposive in complex sentences .........................................................................................151 5.3.2 -ey.alkenh, -ey.akenh, Subsequent .....................................................................................151 5.3.3 -enty Irrealis ........................................................................................................................152 5.3.4 -emer Subjunctive ...............................................................................................................157 5.3.5 -el Same Subject ..................................................................................................................159 5.3.6 -ekerr/-ewerr Apprehensive ...............................................................................................160 5.3.7 -ekerr-awaty Before ............................................................................................................161 5.3.8 Characteristic -ey.angker and -enh.RED .............................................................................161

5.4 An alternative classification .............................................................................. 162 5.4.1 Aspectual Category Two: Intentional Mood .......................................................................163 5.4.2 Aspectual Category Three ...................................................................................................163

6 Future Research ............................................................................................ 166

References ........................................................................................................... 167

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to my supervisor John Henderson of the Linguistics Discipline Group in the

School of Social Sciences who encouraged this project from the beginning in 2005. I have had

many long distance conversations with John while I worked on this project and have benefitted

from his wealth of knowledge of Central Australian languages. Thanks also to Alan Dench and

the Department of Linguistics at UWA whose support has enabled me to understand the issues

involved in analysing languages

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Table of Abbreviations

A Transitive Subject

ABL Ablative -they

AED

Alyawarr to English

Dictionary

(Green 1992)

AED2 Alyawarr to English

Dictionary revision

ALL Allative -warl

APP Apprehensive -ekerr 5.3.6

ADV Adverbialiser -el

ASSOC Associated with -areny

ATT Attenuative 2.6.3

AVERS Aversive -kety, -wety

AWAY Away from -erl.ayn 4.5.3

BASE&DO Move to base and do V -ey.alp 4.4.2.2

BEFORE Before -ekerr-awaty 5.3.7

CHAR Characteristic -ey.angker 5.3.8

CHAR1 Characteristic 1 -angker 5.3.8

CHAR2 Characteristic 2 -enh 5.3.8

COM Comitative -akert

CONJ Conjunction -ap

CONT1 Continuous 1 -aynt 4.9.1.1

CONT2 Continuous 2 -erl.aynt 4.1.9.2

CONV Convey -erl.ap 4.6.1

DAT Dative -ek/-ew

DISC Discrete -am 3.8

DISTR Distributive -erlenty.akng 4.6.2

DAT Dative case -ew, -ek

DO&BASE Do V and then move to base -erl.alp 4.4.1.2

DO&GO Do action and go -erl.alh 4.4.2.1

DO&RUN Do action and run -erl.elp 4.4.4.2

DOWN Do verb action while

moving down

-erl.arrern 4.7.2

ECAED

Eastern and Central Arrernte

to English Dictionary

(Henderson and Dobson

1994)

EMPH Emphasis -ey

ERG Ergative -el

EX Exclusive marking on

pronoun

-en

FIRST Occurs first in sequence -tangkwel

FOC Focus -an

FREQ Frequentive -ep 2.6.4

FUT Future -eyenh 5.1.2

GO&DO Go and then do action -ey.alh 4.4.2.1

HAB Past Habitual -eyartingkerr 5.1.6

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HAB2 Past Habitual -ey.inkwern 5.1.7

HORT Hortative -ey 5.2.2

IMP.S

IMP.DU

IMP.PL

Imperative

Dual

Plural

-Ø

-enh(err)atherr

-enh(err)arey

5.2.1

5.2.1

5.2.1

IMPP Past Imperfective -enh 5.1.4

INS Instrumental -el

IRR Irrealis -enty 5.3.3

IV Intransitive verbaliser -irr 3.6

LOC Locative -el, -ew, -ek, -itwew, -

itwek, -itwel

LOTS Lots of, numerous -angketyarr

MED Mediopassive, middle voice -elh 3.4

NEG Negative, negation -eyang, ey.angenh 5.2.5

NOM Nominative

NP Noun phrase

NPL Nominal Plural -rnem

O Object, grammatical object

PERL Perlative, through -angkwarr

PP Past Perfective -ek/-ew 5.1.3

PL Plural

POINT Action occurs at point on

path

-enh 4.3.2

POSS Possessive -kenh/-wenh

POT Potential -em 5.2.4

PRES Present tense -eyel 5.1.1

PRIV Privative -weny

PURP Purposive -etyek, eyew 5.2.3

QUOT Quote -wenh

REAS Reason -wety, -kety

REC Reciprocal -err 3.5

RED Reduplication

REP Small repetitive movement

RET Return -eyn 4.3.1

ROUND around -anyem

RUN&DO Run and do -ey.elp 4.4.4.1

S Intransitive Subject

SAE Standard Australian English

SBJV Subjunctive -emer 5.3.4

SEMB Semblative -ilkwer

SIDE Move to the side -erl.iw 4.5.1

SRC Source -penh

SS Same subject -el 5.3.5

STAT State -erl.an 4.9.2

STILL Still occuring -antey

SUB Subordinate clause marker -arl

SUBS Subsequent action -ey.alkenh 5.3.2

THEN Temporal succession -anem

TV Transitive Verbaliser -il, -elhil 3.6

UP Do action while moving

upwards

-ey.aynt 4.7.1

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1S First person singular

1D First person dual

1PL First person plural

2S Second person singular

2D Second person dual

3S Third person singular

3D Third person dual

3PL Third person plural

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Figures

Figure 1: Map of the Alyawarr language region and adjacent languages. ...................................13

Figure 2: Example of motion suffixes ........................................................................................126

Tables

Table 1: Alyawarr Consonants .....................................................................................................16

Table 2: Alyawarr Vowels ...........................................................................................................16

Table 3: Percentages of cognates shared (Hale 1962:181) ..........................................................20

Table 4: Alyawarr Simple Verb Structure ...................................................................................39

Table 5: Verbal Subcategories .....................................................................................................42

Table 6: Alyawarr Basic Stance verbs .........................................................................................47

Table 7: Types of Alyawarr compounds ......................................................................................49

Table 8: Verbs occurring in lexical compounds ..........................................................................53

Table 9: Types of verbal compound ............................................................................................57

Table 10: Alyawarr Basic Stance compounds .............................................................................58

Table 11: Deictic Motion compounds ..........................................................................................59

Table 12: Verbal reduplication patterns in Alyawarr ...................................................................61

Table 13: Occurrence of verbs with FREQ and ATT ..................................................................63

Table 14: Derivational Suffixes ...................................................................................................70

Table 15: Verb roots which combine with Mediopassive (including compounds) ......................72

Table 16: Mediopassive functions ...............................................................................................73

Table 17: Some verbs with antipassive interpretation .................................................................77

Table 18: Properties of Antipassives ...........................................................................................78

Table 19: Number marking on Alyawarr roots and derived stems ..............................................85

Table 20: POINT-marked verbs ...................................................................................................98

Table 21: Sequenced motion compounds ....................................................................................98

Table 22: RUN&DO verbs and their interpretations .................................................................106

Table 23: DO&RUN verbs and their interpretations .................................................................107

Table 24: Rapid complex markers .............................................................................................111

Table 25: Small repetitive Reduplication ...................................................................................113

Table 26: Habitual action along a path complex markers ..........................................................115

Table 27: vertical movement markers ........................................................................................119

Table 28 State, Adopt posture and Agentive forms ...................................................................119

Table 29: Downward motion forms in the C. Strehlow wordlist ...............................................123

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Table 30: Imperfective Aspect markers ..................................................................................... 128

Table 31 Continuous Aspect with modal markers. .................................................................... 128

Table 32 Alyawarr Obligatory Verb Markers .......................................................................... 132

Table 33: imperative markers .................................................................................................... 141

Table 34: Aspectual classes of Alyawarr verbs ......................................................................... 163

Table 35: Intentional Mood markers ......................................................................................... 163

Table 36: Alternative State Markers .......................................................................................... 164

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Figure 1: Map of the Alyawarr language region and adjacent languages.

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1 Introduction

1.1 The Alyawarr language region

Alyawarr [aʎawar] is a language of Central Australia, in the Northern Territory of Australia.

There are around 2000 first language speakers of Alyawarr. See §1.6.3 for discussion. In pre-

contact times, the traditional Alyawarr-speaking region was located in the area of the Sandover

and Bundey rivers. According to Yallop (1969), Alyawarr is spoken in an area ‘roughly

bounded by Hatches Creek, Utopia, MacDonald Downs and Ooratippra’.

The Alyawarr region has expanded beyond the traditional boundaries. See Figure 1. The

Alyawarr region is unusual in comparison with other language regions in Central Australia

because the Alyawarr-speaking population is decentralized. Today most Alyawarr speakers live

in small settlements and outstations. Although they have a high level of mobility, their

movements are usually within the Alyawarr region. The area covered by the Alyawarr region is

shown by the map of the Alyawarr language region and adjacent languages in Figure 1.

1.2 Classification of the Alyawarr language

The Alyawarr and their neighbours use the name ‘Alyawarr’ for themselves and are identified

by a common language. Alyawarr is a member of the Arandic group, a subfamily of the Pama-

Nyungan family of Australian languages. Other Arandic languages are spoken to the south and

west of the Alyawarr region while non-Arandic languages are spoken to the north and east of

the region. Spencer and Gillen (1899) referred to Alyawarr as part of the ‘Arunta nation’. Hale

(1962:183) claimed that, ‘dialects referred to as Alyawarr appear, in the Plenty River area, to

grade into dialects referred to as Aranda’. Dixon (2002:670) regards all of the Arandic

languages with the exception of Kaytetye as one language and claims that their separation into

distinct languages by Wilkins (1989) is done ‘partly on sociopolitical criteria’. For further

discussion of this view refer to §1.5.3.

The spelling in the official orthography for the language is ‘Alyawarr’. The language has also

been variously spelled as Il(l)aura, Iljauara, Ilyauarra, Ilyowra, Ilowra, Illyowra, Illura,

Alyawara, Ilawara (Tindale 1974:226). Some of the spellings such as Aliwara, Aliawara and

Aljawara were Kaytetye pronunciations according to Tindale. He claims that other spellings

such as Ilawara and Jaljuwara were Ngalia (Warlpiri) pronunciations and ‘western tribal’

pronunciation. Since that time there have also been additional spellings: Aljawara (Yallop

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1969), Alyawarra (Yallop 1977, Turtle 1977) and Alyawarre (Lyon and Parsons 1989). The

current spelling was adopted for the Alyawarr to English Dictionary (Green 1992).

1.2.1 Typological features of the Alyawarr language

Among the languages of the world Alyawarr has a relatively high number of place contrasts for

consonants. Six points of articulation are distinguished for stops and nasals as in Table 1:

bilabial, lamino-dental, alveolar, retroflex, palatal and velar. The three Alyawarr vowels are

shown in Table 2.

Alyawarr is agglutinative and suffixing. Noun cases and verb tenses are marked by suffixes.

Grammatical functions are expressed by nominal case inflections and word order is

comparatively free. There are three core cases, Ergative, Nominative and Accusative. Non-core

cases include Dative, Possessive, Locative and Instrumental. Alyawarr has a ‘split case’ system

with ergative-absolutive alignment for nominals and nominative-accusative alignment for

pronouns with the exception of 1sg and 2sg which have tripartite alignment.

Unlike many other Australian languages Alyawarr has no conjugation classes. It has a rich

inflectional and derivational morphology. Verbs are agglutinative, suffixing and compounding.

The structure of the Alyawarr verb is elaborated in detail in §2.1. One significant category of

verbal morphology conveys the motion of the Subject and whether the motion ‘was before,

concurrent with or after the action referred to by the verb’ (Koch 1984). Obligatory elements

include the verb root and an inflection which denotes tense-aspect, mood or clause-joining.

1.2.2 Thesis orthography: Sounds and their representation in

Alyawarr

This thesis accepts the current phonological analysis of Alyawarr and Arrernte (Breen 1990). It

utilises the orthographical conventions of the common Arandic orthography, the development of

which is outlined in Breen (2005: 95-99) and shown in Table 1 and Table 2. The aim of this

section is to briefly explain the current phonological analysis of Alyawarr and the orthography

which has developed from that analysis and which is used throughout this thesis.

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Table 1: Alyawarr Consonants

Bilabial Interdental Apico-

Alveolar

Retroflex Prepalatal Palatal Velar

stop p th t rt yt ty k

Pre-

stopped

pm tnh tny kng

Nasal m nh n rn yn ny ng

Lateral lh l rl yl ly

Flap/trill rr

Approxi

mant

w r y h

Table 2: Alyawarr Vowels

FRONT MID BACK

i

(we)

e

a

Notes:

When /e/ follows a rounded consonant (written with a w), it is realized as a high back rounded

vowel, [u] if there is a following non-palatal consonant.

When /e / follows a palatal consonant (written with a y), it is realized as a mid to high front

vowel, “i” if there is a following consonant.

Otherwise (i.e. at the end of a word) it will sound like [ə] (schwa), or not be pronounced

(especially in running speech).

Linguists had long been aware that the majority of words in northern Arandic languages

including Alyawarr begin with a vowel, (Yallop 1977:28, Strehlow 1944:46). Yallop (1977:29)

claimed that morphemes were vowel-initial in Alyawarr and that this included suffixes (Breen

2005: footnote 8). The set of consonants for Arandic languages was established by the 1970s

and represented in the orthography using digraphs rather than diacritics. The same symbols

could be used to represent all of the Arandic languages with some minor variations. However

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the vowels were more problematic. Yallop (1977) and Turtle (1977) both used the triangular

system of three vowels which had been found for other Australian languages, represented by the

letters <a>, <i> and <u>. The first orthography for Alyawarr (Yallop 1977, Turtle 1977) was

similar to that of the Pfitzner orthography which was used for Western Arrarnta (Yallop

1977:7).

Breen (1977) argued that Antekerrepenh had two vowels. The most noticeable change in the

orthography proposed by the School of Australian Linguistics (SAL) was the use of <e> to

represent the centralized vowel or schwa. A common orthography was developed for the Central

Australian Arandic languages.

In November 1987 another meeting was held to fix the orthography for Alyawarr. Major

decisions which were taken at the meeting:

1. To drop <u>

2. To retain <i>

3. Hyphens to be used, at least for pedagogical purposes, but details not decided.

4. Final <e> to be written on words only when it is stressed.

As Breen (2005:100) explains, another orthography meeting in Tennant Creek was held in 1992

to finalise the orthography for Alyawarr prior to the publication of the Alyawarr to English

dictionary (Green 1992). Apart from some minor changes in hyphenation conventions (Breen

and Green 1995) and some dialectal spelling variations, the orthography of the Alyawarr to

English Dictionary (AED) has been used for this thesis.

1.3 Review of Linguistic Research in the Alyawarr language

Early researchers focused their efforts on the language of the regions which had been occupied

by European settlers, particularly Arrernte (Austin-Broos 2009:19). The first observations of

Alyawarr speakers were made by explorers and ethnographers who travelled the periphery of

the Alyawarr region in the nineteenth century and had brief contact with speakers. The explorer

David Lindsay (1889:664) wrote ‘the language is also the same as that of the Macumba and

Finke districts’. In his chapter on language ‘Die Sprache’, it is evident that the German

ethnographer Erhard Eylmann (1860-1926) had some familiarity with Arandic languages

(Eylmann 1966 (1908)). During his expedition of the 1890s, he visited the Frew River and

would have been in contact with Alyawarr speakers. However, it was the mid-twentieth century

before the Alyawarr language came to the attention of scholarly researchers. The analysis of

Arrernte has influenced that of Alyawarr, which is particularly evident in the linguistic

description of Yallop (1977). More specifically, the analysis of particular morphemes has been

influenced by the Arrernte analysis. Often there has been a pseudo-similarity between forms and

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an assumption that the Alyawarr marker has the same function as the homophonous Arrernte

marker. The difficulties of the analysis of such ‘false friends’ will be referred to in the relevant

sections.

The purpose of the following sections is to survey the previous literature on the Alyawarr

language and related Arandic varieties, documenting the sources which were available for the

purpose of writing this grammar.

1.3.1 Early Research: Wordlists

The first phase of research in the late nineteenth century resulted in collections of words from

Arandic languages.1 Some early wordlists were compiled by F.J. Gillen (1855-1912) and W.B

Spencer (1860-1929). One of Gillen’s wordlists of 114 words recorded in his journal of 1875 is

the earliest wordlist of Lower and Southern Arrernte words. Spencer and Gillen (1899:70)

mention the ‘Ilaura’. Walter Roth (1861-1933) worked to the east of Alyawarr country for four

years as a surgeon in far Western Queensland. During this time he documented Arandic

languages closely related to Alyawarr, namely: Ayerrerenge and Antekerrepenh (Roth 1897).

Roth’s works contain comparative wordlists of these languages containing a limited number of

items drawn from common semantic domains.

Hermannsburg Mission was established by Lutheran missionaries in the Western Arrarnta-

speaking area in 1877. There was a long tradition of language research in the Lutheran mission

tradition beginning with Kempe’s grammar which was the first systematic attempt at compiling

a grammar of Aranda (Kempe 1891). Carl Strehlow (1871-1922) made a wordlist of 7124

Aranda words while living at Hermannsburg Mission (1894-1922). These words appear to have

been taken from several Arandic dialects. Strehlow refers to the closely related dialect ‘Northern

Aranda’, referring to Arandic varieties to the north of Hermannsburg in his ethnographic work

Die Aranda (Strehlow 1909) although apparently there are no specific mentions of Alyawarr.

1 A variety of orthographies have been used for writing Arandic languages since the late nineteenth

century. The orthography adopted by the Lutheran Finke River Mission (FRM) was ‘Aranda’ which was

the foundation for ‘Arandic’ which followed the orthography of the German missionaries at

Hermannsburg Mission which had been established in 1877. Later FRM used ‘Arrarnta’ for Western

Arrarnta. In the common orthography developed by the School of Australian Linguistics (SAL) and used

by the Institute for Aboriginal Development (IAD) ‘Arrernte’ is used for Eastern and Central Arrernte

andother Arandic languages and dialects of Central Australia.

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1.3.2 Anthropological research in the Alyawarr region

In August and September of 1930 anthropological research was carried out amongst Alyawarr

speakers at MacDonald Downs Station by a team from the South Australian Museum and the

Board for Anthropological Research at the University of Adelaide (Ford 1966: 142). The

MacDonald Downs site was chosen because of the traditional nature of Alyawarr society and

because the children of the pastoralist Chalmers family could speak Alyawarr and interpret the

language for the researchers. Norman B Tindale (1900-1993) collected wordlists, personal

names and items of ethnographic interest. He learned from Jessie Chalmers and Don Chalmers

who had lived at the station and who acted as guides and interpreters. Tindale recorded words

with an orthography of the Royal Geographical Society (known as RGS II) which was designed

for the recording of place names (Walter 1988). Later he transcribed Alyawarr words with a

modified version of the International Phonetic Alphabet which has been called the Adelaide

University Phonetic System (AUPS). (See Monaghan 2008).

Macdonald Downs was the site of research by archaeologists and anthropologists throughout the

early 1970s. In 1971 Woodrow Denham conducted research amongst Alyawarr people at

MacDonald Downs station (Denham 1975, 1978). James O’Connell and Lewis Binford studied

people in the same area and also gathered data on the Alyawarr population (O’Connell 1979,

Binford 1984, 1986). Richard Moyle concentrated upon the musical aspects of songs during

fieldwork trips from 1977 to 1980 (Moyle 1986:1). His research focused upon Alyawarr

speakers on the Aharreng estate at Ammaroo station and included lexical items. Jeannie Devitt

researched food-gathering and use of natural resources of Alyawarr and closely related language

groups (Devitt 1988, 1994).

1.3.3 Professional Linguistic Research from 1930

As noted in §1.3.2, the Alyawarr language had been heard by explorers in the late nineteenth

century and some words were recorded at Macdonald Downs in 1930. Significant in Australian

linguistics 1930-1960 was the Adelaide School, which included the linguistically-trained TGH

(Ted) Strehlow (1908-1978) (Moore 2008) and Tindale (Monaghan 2008). Methods of

recording speech improved markedly during the period 1930-1960 through the use of recording

devices and phonetic transcription. Tindale and Strehlow used the symbols of a version of the

International Phonetic Alphabet (I.P.A) which had been developed at Adelaide University. An

Aranda dictionary was being compiled by Strehlow in the late 1950s with around 3160 entries

as an extension of his father Carl Strehlow’s wordlist. The techniques of phonemics and

morphemics were not widely adopted in Australian linguistics until the 1950s and 1960s (Moore

2008), after the time in which Strehlow did his linguistic field research. Some grammatical

20

analysis was previously undertaken of Eastern Arrernte dialects by T.G.H Strehlow in his

detailed account of the phonetics and grammar of Arrernte dialects (Strehlow 1944). His

grammar was the only published grammar of an Arandic language until the 1970s. In a letter to

Suzanne Allbright (nee Shepley) concerning a name of Alyawarr origin, Strehlow indicated that

he had ‘never done any research work in the Ilaura area’ (correspondence between Strehlow and

Allbright 29th November 1958, Strehlow Research Centre). Strehlow had a limited interest in

Alyawarr, regarding Alyawarr as a non-traditional group because they had contact with

explorers, pastoralists and with miners at Hart’s Range to the south of the Alyawarr Region

(Strehlow commenting on Denham application in a letter to Ronald Berndt 24th March 1970,

AIAS correspondence file). According to Capell, (1962:101), at the time of writing Alyawarr

was ‘not as yet recorded’.

In the late 1950s professional linguists who were trained in descriptive linguistic techniques

began working on Australian languages in what McGregor (2008) describes as the third period

of Australian linguistics. Strehlow’s focus on the languages to the south of Alyawarr (Green

2001:33) was one of the reasons why the linguist Ken Hale undertook research in the Alyawarr-

speaking region. Hale collected extensive recordings and notes on Australian languages

including Alyawarr in 1959 (Green 2001:33). He conducted a linguistic survey in 1959-60 and

his paper (Hale 1962) showed an early application of the method of lexicostatistics to Australian

languages. The survey utilized a 100 word list to elicit words from ten localities including words

from two dialects of Alyawarr as shown in Table 3.

Table 3: Percentages of cognates shared (Hale 1962:181)

AAl MDAl Ak PRAr ASAr An HgAr HyAr LoAr

Ka 41 38 37 33 31 32 30 28 29

AAl 83 77 70 64 60 60 56 55

MDAl 83 72 67 59 60 58 57

Ak 79 70 60 62 62 64

PRAr 87 75 74 68 65

ASAr 83 86 77 67

An 82 70 54

HgAr 84 66

HyAr 65

21

Key

Ka Kaytetye from Murray Downs Kaytetye from Murray Downs

AAl Alyawarr from Ammaroo

MDAl Alyawarr from MacDonald Downs

Ak Akarre, Aketyarre or Akarre-Aketyarre from the Plenty River area.

PRAr Arrernte from the Plenty River area west of Ak

ASAr Eastern Arrernte from Alice Springs

An Anmatyerr from Napperby

HgAr Western Arrernte from Hermannsburg

HyAr Pirtima or Southern Arrernte, from Henbury

LoAr Lower Arrernte from Dalhousie

Colin Yallop researched the Lake Nash dialect of Alyawarr at the end of 1966 and throughout

1967 completing his PhD thesis at Macquarie University which was published as Alyawarra

Grammar (Yallop 1977). He checked some points of his work with Alyawarr residents at

Ammaroo and Alice Springs. A large number of texts were recorded. Elicitation was recorded

on field cassettes 877-1630 which are archived at the AIATSIS. I listened to these texts and

transcribed some of them for this thesis.

The Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) began working in the Alyawarr region in 1972 with

the intention of translating the Bible into Alyawarr. Janet Stanham researched Alyawarr at Lake

Nash and Murray Downs, compiling a sketch grammar and small dictionary (Stanham 1972).

Nancy Turtle researched phonology at Alekarenge (Warrabri, Ali-Curung) in the 1970s (Turtle

1977). Turtle and Carol Morris compiled an unpublished grammar of Alyawarr in the 1980s,

working with speakers of the northern dialect at Alekarenge. A number of fluency drills,

mimicry drills and texts were recorded, for the purpose of learning Alyawarr. Discourse markers

were analysed by SIL linguists (Bierbaum 1987). An Alyawarr mini-Bible consisting of one

third of the New Testament and selections from two books of the Old Testament was published

in 2002. An Alyawarr Songbook was published by SIL and an Alyawarr hymnbook by Finke

River Mission containing many song translations.

Alyawarr wordlists were compiled by Ken Hale, Colin Yallop, Nancy Turtle and Carol Morris.

The Arandic Languages Dictionary Program of the Institute for Aboriginal Development began

to collect data in the 1980s. These words were checked at Ampilatwatja and Alpurrululam in

1985. Early wordlists included a Picture Vocabulary (Breen 1986). Breen worked on the

wordlist which was compiled in March 1989 and was organized in semantic domains and which

became available as the Alyawarr Wordlist (Arandic Languages Dictionary Programme 1990).

Jenny Green had worked in the Alyawarr region in 1977-78 on community literacy and art. She

22

began collecting data for the Alyawarr to English dictionary in the early 1990s. The Alyawarr to

English Dictionary (henceforth: AED) was published by the Institute for Aboriginal

Development Press in 1992. A revision is currently in progress. David Blackman worked at

McLaren Creek (1992) and Epenarra (1994-2004) and provided extra words for the dictionary.

David Moore worked with Alyawarr speakers to collect additional data from Amperlatwaty

from 1995 onwards.

Barbara Sayers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics taught a discourse analysis workshop in

Alice Springs in 1998. The main purpose of the workshop was to analyse Alyawarr language

data at a level above the clause. Other workshops were continued by linguists from SIL and the

Finke River Mission in 2004 and 2005 which involved discourse analysis of Alyawarr texts.

1.3.4 Verb morphology

Grammars of Alyawarr have been compiled since the latter part of the twentieth century. Yallop

(1977) admitted that his work was a sketch grammar. The AED (Green 1992) contains a more

basic account of the grammatical suffixes which was necessary in a lexicographic work. David

Wilkins researched the Mparntwe dialect of Arrernte (Wilkins 1989) in the Australian

morphosyntactic tradition. Wilkins brought more recent theory and collaboration with other

researchers to his research in Arrernte. David Strickland worked as a Bible translator with SIL

at Amengernternenh (Utopia Clinic) from 1998-2000 and completed a basic grammar

(Strickland 1998). This work was an extension of the earlier work of Yallop (1977) and the

AED and involved the analysis of some morphemes which had not been considered by earlier

researchers.

1.4 Linguistic Variation

The Alyawarr language is a large and viable language, having the sixth largest number of

speakers of all of the Aboriginal languages in Australia (excluding creole languages), according

to the Australian population census of 2001 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics

(http://www.abs.gov.au). There is a direct relationship between land and the Alyawarr language,

a situation which has been reported for other Australian languages (Rumsey 1993). The

relations between people and language are complex and there is no simple correspondence

between these two aspects of Alyawarr identity. The Alyawarr language itself forms the primary

link between a number of separate social and political units.

There is variation in Alyawarr which can be attributed to age factors and social settings i.e. non-

geographical factors. These include avoidance registers, sign language and the language of

23

songs. There is a child-directed speech register which is a simplified code. Otherwise there

appear to be few significant age-related differences in the language of the kind which has been

reported by O’Shannessy (2005) for Light Warlpiri. The modalities of song and signs are

derived from and dependent upon spoken language. They can be explained by the use of the

normal spoken language but not vice versa.

In this thesis I concentrate upon the main vehicle of communication in Alyawarr society which

is the ordinary spoken language of adult speakers. In the next two sections I will attempt to

account in more detail for the sources of linguistic variation and change in Alyawarr. In the first

part I will concentrate on dialect variation as a geographic factor in variation and in the second

part I will examine change as a historical process of variation in the language.

1.5 Social context of the language

Geographically-determined language variation is indicative of the patterns of long-term social

interaction in the Alyawarr region. Alyawarr speakers have had relatively recent contact with

the mainstream Australian culture. In traditional times they lived in exogamous patrilineal

groups in the Sandover and Bundey River areas. Their population was probably distributed in a

similar way to that which Strehlow (1965:142) describes for Western Arrarnta as reflecting an

essential ‘disunity of the tribe’ (Strehlow 1947:1). The size and composition of each group was

limited by environmental factors and the availability of resources (O’Connell 1979:100).

1.5.1 Wider contacts with other languages of Central Australia

Yallop (1969) documents the most significant ceremonial connections between the Alyawarr

and other language groups in Central Australia. Mythological Dreaming tracks or paths link

Alyawarr speakers with their neighbours (Yallop 1969:194). Ceremonial activities have

traditionally been the meeting point of speakers of different social groups. People maintain

contact with their kin and associate with speakers of other, often unrelated language groups at

ceremonial gatherings. Different language groups shared altyerr ‘dreamings’. Some Alyawarr

speakers claim kinship relationship with Arabana speakers, approximately 1500 kilometres

away at Port Augusta through possession of common altyerr affiliations (D. Thompson, p.c).

According to early sources (Roth 1897) there were speakers of Arandic dialects living near the

Queensland border in the late nineteenth century. The Ayerrerenge and Antekerrepenh

languages were Arandic languages which appear to have been mutually intelligible with

Alyawarr.

24

In the early twentieth century Alyawarr speakers began to settle in the areas of other language

groups whose numbers were reduced drastically because of white settlement (Lyons and

Parsons 1989). Some Alyawarr speakers migrated to Lake Nash, which had previously been

inhabited by speakers of Pwelany and other languages.

In the mid-twentieth century there was a general move towards larger settlements, for example

the settlement of Warrabri (Alekarenge) which was established in 1956. Yallop (1977:1)

claimed that “Arandic peoples now live in concentrations determined by the pattern of white

settlement and administration rather than by traditional Aboriginal life”. This was the situation

that prevailed throughout the Northern Territory at the time that Yallop researched the Lake

Nash dialect. Yet his claim was less applicable to Alyawarr than to other groups in Central

Australia. With the exception of Warrabri, there were no large welfare settlements established

close to Alyawarr land. Many Alyawarr worked on stations in close proximity to their

traditional land, particularly at the pastoral properties of Derry Downs and Macdonald Downs.

Denham (1978:14) highlights the difference between the three groups of Alyawarr then resident

(1971-72) at Macdonald Downs, Lake Nash and Warrabri- ‘it seems likely that divergence from

pre-contact conditions was greatest at Warrabri settlement and least in the Macdonald Downs-

Derry Downs area’. Recent movement patterns tend to suggest that cultural priorities determine

Alyawarr patterns of movement to a large degree. Autonomy is highly valued by Alyawarr

speakers and has meant a lack of conformity to patterns of settlement determined by ‘white

settlement and administration’.

Due to a combination of cultural and economic factors, opportunities for work in the pastoral

industry declined at the same time that welfare payments became more available to Aboriginal

people in the Northern Territory. Alyawarr control of land was facilitated by the Aboriginal

Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act of 1976 (Hagan and Rowell 1978, 1979). In the late

twentieth century there was a revival of interest in gaining land tenure in the region. Outstations

were established on traditional land and were controlled by family groups. The return to

traditional lands has allowed continuity between contemporary and traditional patterns of

settlement. O’Connell (1979:117) identifies this recent development as ‘the reassertion of faith

in traditional culture and the corresponding rejection of much that is European which is inherent

in the land rights controversy, the outstation movement and other recent developments in

Northern and Central Australia’.

As a consequence of the decline of language groups adjacent to Alyawarr, such as Wakay and

Pwelany, there was a diaspora of Alyawarr beyond their traditional country. In far western

Queensland and the southern Barkly region Alyawarr speakers are now numerically dominant.

The diaspora has probably led to a strengthening of Alyawarr as a ‘discrete social entity’

(Yallop 1969:189). Alyawarr is the language of a socially and culturally intact people. Although

25

a large proportion of Alyawarr speakers live beyond the boundaries of their traditional land,

they continue to visit their ‘country’ and to participate in initiation ceremonies which are held in

the region. Most speakers at Lake Nash, for example, know what land they are affiliated to in

the Sandover region.

1.5.2 Mutual intelligibility and relatedness of Alyawarr dialects

In this thesis, three Alyawarr dialects are recognised. The dialects of Alyawarr form a ‘network’

which is continuous with other Arandic languages to the south, north and west. The other

Arandic languages appear to be genetically related to Alyawarr, that is, they are historical

continuations of an ancestral language (Hale 1962). Kenneth Hale classified Alyawarr as part of

‘Upper Aranda’ and introduced the notion of dialect chain, a dialect being defined as ‘forms of

speech which differ in certain respects but which are mutually intelligible or are members of a

chain in which adjacent links are mutually intelligible’ (Hale 1962:183). Yallop (1969:187) put

forward four reasons why the Alyawarr should be recognised as having a separate identity: their

possession of a separate dialect (language), a tribal name, a distinctive culture and their own

territory.

Alyawarr appears to lack the distinct internal dialect labels which are reported for other

languages (Wilkins 1989, Meggitt 1962). One dialect of Alyawarr is spoken in the north of the

Alyawarr area at Epenarra, Murray Downs and Antarrengeny. (See Figure 1, map of the

Alyawarr language region and adjacent languages in §1.1). Another dialect is mainly spoken in

outstations which have been settled by those speakers who were formerly resident at Macdonald

Downs. Lake Nash was originally populated from the southern regions of the Alyawarr area

(Yallop 1977:3) but some speakers from the north of the area also settled there. The Lake Nash

dialect contains a few unique vocabulary items but is otherwise similar to the southern dialect of

Alyawarr.

In this section I will attempt to account in more detail for the sources of linguistic variation and

change in Alyawarr. I will concentrate on dialect variation as a geographic factor in variation

and examine change as a historical process of variation in the language.

Hale (1962) spoke of a northern dialect around Ammaroo and a southern dialect based at

Macdonald Downs which share 83% common vocabulary. I claim on the basis of more recent

lexicostatistics that there are probably 150 words which differ for each dialect within the corpus

of the AED, which contains 4500 words. This represents around 3% of the total number of

lexical entries that have been recorded, meaning that these dialects have 97% of lexical items in

common.

26

Yallop (1969:191) comments on the difficulty of using dialect labels for Arandic languages. The

Sandover and Barkly regions are multilingual and multi-dialectal. There are many people living

in areas adjacent to the Alyawarr region who speak Alyawarr as a second or third language.

Alyawarr speakers often marry speakers of the adjacent Arandic languages as Yallop (1977:3)

noted at Lake Nash, but this is a traditional pattern and not something adopted only because of

contemporary living arrangements. Northern Alyawarr speakers often have kinship ties with

Kaytetye speakers and southern Alyawarr speakers to Arrernte speakers. Borrowings into

Alyawarr from adjacent languages tend to accentuate the differences between the Alyawarr

dialects.

While most words are uncontroversially accepted by all speakers, there is no clear agreement

among speakers about what vocabulary items are included within the domain of each dialect and

language. The inclusion of a particular word will vary according to the opinions of speakers

from different dialects who have different social and linguistic affiliations. Speakers are likely

to say that a word used by speakers of another Alyawarr dialect is not Alyawarr at all but is used

by speakers of another language (Yallop 1969:192). Green reported that ‘people in communities

such as Antarrengeny are inclined to say that some of the Lake Nash words are actually

Arrernte’ (Green 1992: xii). This comment reflects the degree of overlap between languages as

speakers of the southern and Lake Nash dialects share particular lexical items with the adjacent

Arrernte dialects. At the launch of the Alyawarr Picture Dictionary in October 2004 there was

considerable debate about the inclusion of some of the items in the dictionary. Although efforts

were made to include all dialects in the dictionary, some speakers were unhappy that words

from another dialect had been included. One speaker of the northern dialect expressed regret

that Lake Nash language had been included in the Alyawarr Picture dictionary because ‘they are

not Alyawarr’. A Lake Nash speaker was adamant that their words are ‘proper Alyawarr’.

Nor are there a large number of regular isoglosses for the language. Although some emblematic

items in the vocabulary appear to clearly mark the speakers of a particular dialect, these forms

only represent a small percentage of items in the lexicon. Nevertheless a few common lexical

and grammatical items can be noticeable in speech. Speakers from different dialects regard

particular words as diagnostic of ‘essential’ Alyawarr. For example, whether speakers use apey-

alheyel or apetyeyel ‘coming’ is thought to separate speakers of Alyawarr from speakers of

other languages. Yallop found it disconcerting that many Alyawarr people themselves used

apetyem in preference to apey-alhem ‘coming’(apety- is a shared lexical item used by both

Alyawarr and Arrernte speakers, apey-alh- is restricted to Alyawarr) . At Lake Nash Arrernte

speakers were called ‘petyeme people’ from their use of apetyem ‘coming’ in contrast with

apey-alh- which is commonly used by Alyawarr speakers. More conspicuous in speech are

27

grammatical forms which are differentiated for dialect e.g Past Perfective -ew/-ek and the

Purposive -eyew/-etyek which have a high frequency of use.

1.5.3 Speakership and language ownership

A distinction can be made between linguistic and political uses of ‘language’ similar to that

made by Dixon (1976:214). This distinction corresponds to the difference between

communicative competence in a language and being an owner of the language, a situation also

reported for Mparntwe Arrernte (Wilkins 1989). The situation for Alyawarr in terms of

‘speaker’s identification’ is similar to that which holds for Arrernte. Language ideology plays a

part in intelligibility (mutual intelligibility) and what speakers are able to understand (Wilkins

1989:10) and not only linguistic features of the languages.

Accommodation and code-switching is common in interaction between the speakers of different

languages. Language identification ‘appears to be based more on social networks or political

affiliations than linguistic features’ (Henderson 1998:5). In conversation speakers use the phrase

angka anyent ‘one language’ to emphasis their relationship with speakers of related dialects and

languages. Claims are often made that speakers of other dialects speak angka anyent-antey - the

‘one language’ claim is also extended to speakers of related Arandic dialects, for example north-

eastern Arrernte speakers who are related to Alyawarr speakers. Alyawarr speakers typically say

that their own language is ‘a bit light’ and that the adjacent dialects of other languages are also

‘light’ or easy to understand. The local English term ‘light’ has a geographical sense rather than

a chronological sense as in O’Shannessy (2005). Distant dialects of another language are awerr

‘hard’ and anantherr awey-angenh ‘we can’t hear (that language)’. Eastern Anmatyerr (spoken

in Utopia outstations) and northeastern Arrernte dialects (spoken at Alcoota and Harts Range)

are thought to be easy to understand and share many lexical and grammatical items with the

southern dialect of Alyawarr. Compared with Eastern Anmatyerr, Central Anmatyerr is

described by Alyawarr speakers as awerr ‘hard’. The corresponding ‘inner’ dialects of

neighbouring languages, Central Anmatyerr and more distant dialects of Arrernte are not

thought by speakers to be mutually intelligible with Alyawarr.

1.5.4 Areal Features

Alyawarr appears to share some areal features which may have diffused into Alyawarr from

non-Arandic languages. Borrowing is frequently from languages said to be mutually

unintelligible with Alyawarr (Yallop 1969:187) e.g Warumungu and Warlpiri. (See Figure 1

map of the Alyawarr language region in 1.1) Many Alyawarr speakers are bilingual or

multilingual speakers of other languages and have regular social interaction with speakers of

28

other languages. There is a regular traffic of words from languages adjacent to Alyawarr. Often

replacement words are borrowed from adjacent languages. Borrowing occurs through name

taboos which occur when a person dies and words which sound similar to their name are

replaced with a replacement word (often kwementyay), leading to lexical replacement within the

language. Some of the loans are of recent origin; others are assumed to have appeared in

Alyawarr before recorded history.

1.6 Language change

In the pre-contact situation, language change occurred through social interaction and

intermarriage between different language groups. The most common vector of language change

in Alyawarr continues to be social interaction with speakers of other languages.

1.6.1 The profile of Alyawarr in Central Australia

The status of Alyawarr as a language determines the degree of its acceptance as a vehicle of

communication. A number of factors have acted as inhibitors of language loss and change.

The Alyawarr are a culturally conservative people with relatively limited influences from

Western society. Most retain a core patrilineal affiliation to their traditional country in the

traditional Alyawarr region. Alyawarr speakers have a low profile in the wider Central

Australian community. Most speakers live in small remote and dispersed outstations which tend

to have strong social controls. As O’Connell (1979: 100) noted, ‘the consumption of alcohol is

low and the amount of overt interpersonal hostility and violence negligible’, a situation which

continues at the present time. Alyawarr people tend to appear reserved and avoid speaking out at

meetings. Most are involved in the hunting and gathering of bush foods. The lack of attention

from governments, both Commonwealth and Territory has meant that Alyawarr are often not

visible in the public arena but often ‘go under the radar’. There has been limited penetration of

external institutions into the Alyawarr region.

Numbers of non-Indigenous people in Sandover and Barkly communities have been low and

have exerted little influence over the Alyawarr-speaking population. The land permits which are

administered by the Central Land Council (CLC) have controlled social contact, particularly

with those outside influences which could have detrimental effects upon Alyawarr language and

culture.

1.6.2 Mobility

Devitt (1988:40) observed that ‘the lifestyle of Aborigines of Sandover River region was

characterised by mobility’. A number of contemporary factors increase contact between

29

Alyawarr and other language groups in Central Australia. People travel long distances to attend

gatherings where they may remain for several days or weeks. Community issues are often

resolved at large gatherings.

Greater access to vehicles has increased the distances which may be travelled. In recent times

social interaction has also involved football carnivals which have often occurred on a regional

basis but can involve teams from more distant and unrelated locations in Central Australia.

Many speakers attend the Show (a kind of fair) at Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, regional

rodeos and the Harts Range races. The towns of Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Mount Isa

are resource centres for Alyawarr speakers. The towns have attracted Alyawarr speakers who

are seeking medical attention and visiting their relatives.

Many Alyawarr speakers are reluctant to go to visit towns because the land is controlled by

other language groups, for example Arrernte in Alice Springs. As a result Alyawarr speakers

tend to congregate in town camps or suburban houses with other Alyawarr speakers when they

visit towns.

The Finke River Mission (FRM) of the Lutheran Church has promoted contacts between

Alyawarr and other language groups through courses, including languages such as Luritja which

is not closely related to Alyawarr. The Aborigines Inland Mission (A.I.M) has conducted Easter

Conventions at Cammooweal, Mount Isa and other centres to which large numbers of Alyawarr

speakers congregate with speakers of other languages. Both the FRM and AIM organizations

have encouraged Alyawarr people to assume leadership positions in their respective churches

and encouraged the use of Alyawarr in worship services.

The Central Land Council has conducted large meetings about land tenure which have brought

speakers from many different language groups together.

1.6.3 Demographics

Population growth of Alyawarr speakers occurred throughout the twentieth century from earlier

estimates of population of a few hundred (Yallop 1977, Denham 1978:13), to more recent

estimates of around 1500 (Hoogenraad and Thornley 2003:2) and 2000 (Australian Bureau of

Statistics). There are also large numbers of non-first language speakers which includes speakers

of Anmatyerr, Arrernte, Kaytetye and Akarre speakers. The Alyawarr speaking population is

relatively young. At Ampilatwatja the average age is in the early twenties (Ampilatwatja Health

Service, Paul Quinlivan, p.c). As lifestyle diseases are less prevalent than in other parts of

Central Australia, there is also a large population of older people. Language and culture is being

transmitted to the younger generations and levels of intergenerational conflict appear to be low.

30

The large number of young speakers indicates that Alyawarr is likely to continue to be viable in

the future.

1.6.4 Alyawarr and English

Contact between Alyawarr and speakers of English greatly accelerated throughout the twentieth

century. The proximity of Alyawarr to the Barkly region and the pattern of travelling and

interaction of many Alyawarr speakers means that there are influences from Kriol which is

spoken to the north of the Alyawarr region. Many Alyawarr speak a local variety of English

which has been described as ‘Aboriginal English’. Some elements of the English influence have

arrived through an earlier pidgin English established when non-Aboriginal people first came

into the area (Henderson 1998:9). There is a distinctive semantics in local Aboriginal English

which reflects the underlying semantics of Alyawarr (Harkins 1994).

A community perception is that middle aged people have some fluency in English (Frank

Turner, p.c). English is spoken by older more widely-travelled men who worked in the pastoral

industry as youths. Older women and young children are often monolingual speakers of

Alyawarr.

Alyawarr language often contains ‘loanwords’ which originate with English. English loans are

phonologically assimilated to Alyawarr to varying degrees, often depending upon the age of the

speaker.

1.6.5 The influence of literacy and education

Access to education in English-only schools is a possible threat to the viability of the Alyawarr

language. Schools were established relatively recently in Alyawarr country. By 1960 Welfare

Branch schools had been established at Elkedra and Murray Downs. The first school in the

Sandover River region was established at Utopia in 1969. Richardson (2001:117) makes the

claim that as late as 1979 two hundred children living on stations in the Sandover River were

not receiving any form of education. Even at the Utopia School a high rate attrition of teaching

staff frequently led to the ‘truncation of education programs and student learning outcomes,

necessitating the constant revision of previous coursework’. From the point of view of the

Education Department, staffing the schools was a bigger priority than the content of what was

taught in the schools. From the point of view of the Indigenous people, ‘they responded to

educators whom they liked and participated in the school’s programs primarily because they

wanted to get to know the person teaching, rather than because of the content of what was being

taught’ (Richardson 2001:157). In the 1980s, homeland learning centres were built on

31

outstations and schools were built on the larger communities following the policies which

Richardson describes as ‘tokenistic’. This means many school-aged children in the ‘homelands’

or ‘outstations’ were unable to access education. High levels of mobility, high staff turnover and

official indifference have created a situation where Western education has not been accessed by

a large proportion of Alyawarr speakers.

1.6.6 Two way education

The Alyawarr language has recently been incorporated in formal educational programs in the

Sandover and Barkly regions. School Bilingual education programs have never been established

in these regions (Hoogenraad 2001:131). An adult literacy course was developed by Gavan

Breen and taught at Alpurrurulam (Lake Nash) in 1983 through the School of Australian

Linguistics (SAL). In April 1985 Gavan Breen (Breen 2001: 171) visited seven Alyawarr

communities, commenting that “at least ten percent of the thousand-odd Alyawarr speakers

attended at least part of an SAL course”. Vernacular literacy has been taught in some Alyawarr

schools since around 1995 (Susan Moore, p.c.)

Batchelor College ran an annual Aboriginal Languages Fortnight in the mid-1990s within its

teacher education program involving the recording of stories for use in the classrooms. The

Batchelor College branch in Alice Springs has been teaching Alyawarr literacy as part of the

Certificate in Own Language course. The Northern Territory Department for Education and

Training (DET) have run vernacular literacy workshops in the Sandover region. The Alyawarr

Picture Dictionary was launched at Ampilatwatja in 2004 and has been widely used in school

language and culture programs.

1.6.7 The influence of media

The availability of radio and television in Alyawarr communities has given speakers a greater

exposure to English. Many of the smaller outstations haven’t had full access to television,

internet and computing facilities so the effects of these media has been limited.

The Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) has made several programs in

Alyawarr with English subtitles. These documentary style films are of twenty minutes duration

and have been televised on Imparja television and the ABC channel as part of the Nganampa

Anwernekenhe series. These included the Alyawarr language films Crookhat and Camphoo

(2005) and Willaberta Jack (2007).

32

1.7 The data and sources

The current work is based upon over 100 000 words of text including many texts which were

recorded and transcribed as part of this grammatical description project. I have included

material from all of the dialects of Alyawarr in a variety of genres. The data upon which this

thesis is based has been gathered over a fifteen year period of language learning and research,

including residence in Ampilatwatja for ten years. Where the treatment of verb morphemes has

been brief in the work of previous writers, I offer a more fine-grained analysis. In this section I

will outline my data gathering methods and the types of data which I have collected. The

approach which I have taken in writing this grammar is descriptive and eclectic, drawing on a

variety of theoretical approaches and presented in as straightforward terms as possible. I can lay

no claim to complete objectivity as a statement of the language but I aim to make my

methodology clear.

1.7.1 Participant observation

Rather than using non-linguistic ‘props’ (Hellwig 2006) to elicit information, participant

observation associated with text has enabled me to understand the context in which the text is

located (see §1.4.8). Observation and recounting of activities enabled me to understand some of

the subtler distinctions of language use by understanding the context of the utterances. As much

as possible I have used stimuli in the natural environment to elicit data, which means that the

informant’s responses are not limited to their understanding of the researcher’s questions. Maps

have been used to elicit compound verbs associated with movement.

1.7.2 Types of data

I have used a range of data which reflects a balance between different types. I have tried to

ensure accuracy by confirmation across different types and different sources. All data types

have strengths and weaknesses which I will explain in the following paragraphs. I have given

the data different ‘weight’ within the text corpus according to its reliability and ranked as

follows:

(i) Texts in which the language informant has told a narrative on a particular topic including

Dreaming texts, local history and hunting texts.

(ii) Elicited sentences. Language informants have been asked to provide an example sentence

for the AED. Language is given as a translation of the type, ‘how do you say X?’

(iii) Freely spoken utterances heard in situations where they could be written but not recorded.

33

(iv). Translations from English and other languages into Alyawarr.

(v). Statements from language consultants about a particular grammatical construction.

The material in (i) and (ii) includes texts and sentences which have been gathered by previous

researchers and all published and publicly available sources of Alyawarr.

1.7.3 Texts

In constructing this grammar, I have given priority to natural texts. As Payne (1997:368) claims,

‘the more pragmatic, semantic and subtle parts of language are best analyzed via a large body of

text data, supplemented by elicitation where necessary’. Although recent fieldwork practice e.g.

Heath (1984:5) often emphasises the exclusive use of texts over other forms of data, it is clear

that text alone cannot form the only form of data collected by the researcher. While I agree with

McGregor’s (2008:414) comments concerning the limitations of elicitation and the need for the

careful interpretation of data, I maintain that the real problem with elicited data is with the lack

of time spent in fieldwork and language learning which leads to problems with translation and

interpretation.

Myth narratives known as altyerr and historical narratives often contain ellipsis, unfamiliar

vocabulary and descriptions of customs which are alien to the researcher’s culture. All of the

texts in this collection have required elicitation consisting of follow-up checking and

confirmation to ensure a clear interpretation of the data. The low frequency of some forms in

text means that there is a need to question speakers about these forms and to attempt to elicit

further examples of them. As many of the narratives involve the recounting of events in the past,

there may be a bias to the description of the remote past or a past that is remembered

nostalgically.

1.7.4 Genre

I have collected in a variety of different genres. There is a correlation between particular

grammatical forms and genre, in that some forms are more prevalent in particular genre types

(see for example McGregor 1990:31), e.g the Potential -em morpheme occurs frequently in

hortatory texts.

34

Figure 2: Proportion of each genre as a proportion of the total number of texts: 50

dreaming

hunting

historical

expository

hortatory

I have made an effort to achieve a balance by including texts of a variety of genres. Although

the text collection contains a broad range of data, there is a bias towards narratives as this is the

most common genre and the easiest to record. There is limited conversational data. Hortatory

texts are difficult to collect and are limited in the collection. Often samples of a genre are found

embedded within another. Often the speaker’s purpose in using narrative text is not simply

recounting events but expository; to inform the hearer about the ways in which things were done

in the past. As much as possible I have attempted to distinguish locally-defined genre, for

example altyerr, Dreaming story. A genre which is not represented in the data is aharlperr or

Morning Discourse (Liberman 1985:4,5,102, Wallace 1979:149).

1.7.5 Elicitation

Elicitation can be a useful technique in gaining data. I have always consulted native speakers

when transcribing texts and elicited further examples of forms which occur in texts. I have

elicited English glosses as translations of textual material from informants. Elicited sentences

through dictionary work in the preparation of the revision of the AED (forthcoming) have been

a valuable source of data.

There are limitations to the use of elicitation and ‘leading questions’ discussed by linguists such

as Strehlow (1947b:171). Strehlow (1947b:168) criticised the work of Spencer and Gillen who

elicited Arrernte through English: ‘practically all their errors could have been avoided had either

of the two authors possessed a thorough knowledge of any of the languages spoken by their

informants’. Vaux and Cooper (2003:20) highlight the problem of ‘priming effects’. I have

made use of naturally occurring language rather than attempting to elicit paradigms. I have also

avoided acceptability judgements, safeguarding against the danger of eliciting what Payne

(1997:369) labels ‘culturally nonsensical sentences’.

As much as possible I have used the Alyawarr language to gain information about grammatical

forms. A problem with using the English language for elicitation is the ‘pseudo-intelligibility’

35

trap (Harkins 1994:182) where the researcher assumes that a form in a local English variety

(Aboriginal English) has the same value as it would have in Standard Australian English. This

imposes limits on the use of elicitation as a technique (Sutton and Walsh 1979:5). I have been

able to converse with speakers monolingually in Alyawarr without often resorting to English.

However, I make no claim to ‘native speaker’ proficiency and my conclusions have been tested

extensively and triangulated with native speakers of Alyawarr.

1.7.6 Observed speech

Often I have only heard spontaneous utterances with the unaided ear without being able to

record them. Often interesting and unusual forms have been heard which represent natural

conversational data and which are not susceptible to the same problems which are associated

with elicited utterances. I have usually written down the utterance and later confirmed it with

speakers.

1.7.7 Translations

Translations into Alyawarr from other languages such as English have also been regarded as

valuable data, often revealing forms which are non-existent or sparsely represented in other

data. For example, I have referred to the Angka Mwerr-angker (2010) Bible translation and a

range of other texts which have been translated since the 1970s. A limitation of the use of

translations is the possible transfer of structures from the source text as the translator sought

accurate translation from the source text. As TGH Strehlow (1947b:167) had found earlier, a

number of words such as altyerr cannot easily be glossed. I have used texts that were translated

freely without the use of ‘front translations’ and ‘key terms’ and therefore the circularity of a

more fixed approach has been avoided (Chelliah 2001: 163). I have given less priority to

translations because I have attempted to study the utterances which reflect the conversations that

are occuring in Alyawarr society. The Alyawarr title of the Northern Territory government’s

report Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle “Little Children are Sacred” should be a cautionary

warning against accepting as data the kinds of utterances which Alyawarr-speaking people

themselves do not actually use.

1.7.8 Introspective comments of speakers

Often speakers will have useful insights into the structure and function of their language.

However, there are problems with using introspective statements. One problem is the

impressionistic comment of a language informant that two forms are ‘the same’ which are

similar but occur in different places in the data, have different functions and are distinct forms.

36

Informants may confirm or negate the researcher’s statements for a variety of reasons, including

non-linguistic reasons, often for reasons of content rather than linguistic form. McGregor (1990:

36) was reluctant to use starred forms in compiling a grammar of Gooniyandi because,

‘speakers were as a rule unwilling to label utterances I produced as unacceptable’.

Gratuitous concurrence is a pervasive phenomenon of intercultural conversation in Central

Australia (Liberman 1985:198) and occurs when an informant agrees with the researcher as a

way of establishing and maintaining relationships in terms of Myers’ (1986) ‘sustaining

relatedness’, rather than of evaluating propositional statements. Disagreement is a mark of

individuality in Western societies but is not as valued in Aboriginal societies (Liberman

1985:216). Most important is the informants ‘desire to please their questioners- a desire that

vitiates such evidence when given in a court of law- renders suspect some of the information

gained in this way’ (Strehlow 1947: 170).

I have often encountered gratuitous concurrence during fieldwork. For example I recently found

in answer to a question of linguistic acceptability, “Yeah, you can say that any time you want”.

However the informant could not think of how he would use the form. For this reason I have

used native speaker judgements and intuitions cautiously.

1.7.9 Learning the Alyawarr language

I began learning Alyawarr in 1995 when employed as a literacy worker with the Finke River

Mission of the Lutheran Church, an organization which had been working in Central Australian

Indigenous languages since 1877. Initially I recorded some speech and read some of the

available literature in the language such as the AED and some of the church translations. Later I

began using a more intentional approach to language learning. My language teacher was Banjo

Morton, apmerek-artwey or senior traditional owner of Aherrenge country and a speaker of the

Southern dialect of Alyawarr. Banjo had worked with linguists previously and emphasised the

careful pronunciation of forms, and the use of the ‘correct’ or ‘really Alyawarr’ forms. I listened

to some of the paradigm elicitation speech drills which had earlier been recorded at Alekarenge

by SIL linguists although I didn’t make much use of them. I learned the language through

‘language experience’, travelling on a number of hunting trips with Peter Ngwarrey Morton

(Aherrenge country), the Ross family at Irrultja and the senior women of Aherrenge. During

1996 I recorded stories about the hunting trips. Participant observation enabled me to learn the

language in context. Peter Morton sketched a number of drawings and diagrams of the hunting

trips. Photos were taken on these trips and often sentences relating to the photos and diagrams

were elicited. During this time I also collected texts of altyerr traditional ‘dreaming’ stories with

Peter Morton, who has a wide ranging repertoire of traditional stories and cultural knowledge.

37

The stories were illustrated by Peter Morton and made into books for teaching literacy, language

and culture at the Ampilatwatja School. Susan Moore and Agnes Ladd worked with local

women to illustrate books for teaching literacy at the school. After eighteen months of language

learning I was actively involved in interpreting and translating. Simon Ross (Irrwelty) and Frank

Turner (Aherrenge) helped me to understand the meanings of Alyawarr verb morphemes, giving

me sentences with additional examples of these morphemes. Both of these men had experience

as Bible translators, translating the Alyawarr Bible from Western Arrarnta and English. We

began translating the Alyawarr Bible in August 1996. Over time I became more aware of the

limitations and advantages of translating English texts into Alyawarr. In 1999 I recorded history

stories with Donald Thompson Kemarr as part of ATSILIP (Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander Language Initiative Program) Language Program funding which was accessed through

the Institute for Aboriginal Development (IAD) and auspiced by the Aherrenge Council

(Aherrenge Community report 1999-2000). Donald is a senior traditional owner of

Antarrengeny country. An authority on Alyawarr traditions and multilingual speaker of many

languages and dialects, he has been featured in Alyawarr language films such as Crookhat and

Camphoo in 2004 (video, Alice Springs, CAAMA Productions) and Willaberta Jack in 2007

(video, Alice Springs, CAAMA productions). In 1999 I began collecting additional items for the

AED. In 2003-04 Donald and other speakers worked on the Alyawarr Picture Dictionary

project.

I commenced research for this project on grammar in 2005. In recent times I have been working

as an interpreter for medical, educational, political, local government and legal organizations. I

worked as a tutor for the Own Language program at Batchelor College. During 2007 and 2008 I

researched language for the Cultural Signs project in Alyawarr (Turpin and Alyawarr speakers

2009). From 2006 to 2009 I researched the desert raisin project with the CSIRO (Walsh,

Douglas and Alyawarr speakers 2009).

Interpreting has given me access to much spoken language which was often not recorded at the

time. Widespread involvement in many domains of Alyawarr life and extensive travel in the

Sandover, Southern Barkly and Plenty regions has enabled me to gain additional knowledge of

the language in use and to confirm and check data gathered in a variety of contexts.

1.7.10 The roles of language consultants

I have recorded a variety of Alyawarr speakers of different ages, sexes and dialects in order to

achieve a balance which reflects the demographic realities of the Alyawarr language. The age

range of informants was from the thirties to the seventies. Although some forms are only used

38

by older speakers, the grammatical forms appearing in this grammar are in common use by

Alyawarr speakers.

Different Alyawarr speakers have fulfilled different roles in writing this grammar which reflect

their different talents and interests. The analysis of Alyawarr verb morphemes depends upon

accurate translation. I have depended upon consultants to translate the example sentences from

Alyawarr to English. As much as possible I have checked translations and ‘triangulated’ the

results with speakers other than the original speaker. Speakers have been engaged in a long

iterative process of checking and confirming data and better understanding the structure of the

language.

1.7.11 Recording techniques

All texts were recorded using a high quality digital recorder. The first period of fieldwork

involved collecting texts. In the second period of fieldwork I began to record elicitation sessions

and the comments of speakers (McGregor 2008:424 note 17) in order to provide additional

contextual background for the text. I was also able to capture the comments of speakers on the

recorded material. The wave files from the digital recorder have been saved on DVDs. Earlier

tape recordings of Alyawarr texts and elicitation sessions were digitized in 2006 and the earlier

transcriptions of these texts were revised.

1.8 The outline and scope of this work

Throughout this thesis, I have categorized verbal morphemes according to formal structural

morphological criteria rather than the notional criteria employed by traditional grammar. In

addition to formal criteria, functional or semantic criteria can also be used to further categorize

the morphemes which make up formal categories, particularly where different morphemes

appear to have the same distribution within the verb. Each chapter covers a structural position in

the verb, roughly from left to right. Chapter 2 outlines the basic structure of the Alyawarr verb

and three processes of word formation. In Chapter 3, derivational morphology and number are

discussed in detail. Chapter 4 concerns motion, aspect and verb compounding. The final

obligatory morphology of the verb is treated in Chapter 5.

39

2 The Alyawarr Verb

2.1 Introduction

Verbs were introduced as a primary syntactic category in §1.2.1. In this chapter I discuss the

structure of the Alyawarr verb in terms of its grammatical categories. The morphological

structure of Alyawarr verbs involves a set of categories, mostly determined upon the basis of the

distribution of markers within the verb. The categories are realized by the processes of

affixation, compounding and reduplication.

Following chapters each describe a particular grammatical category within the verb. Some

details of the Alyawarr verb are covered in Yallop (1977:48-67). However, I have made a

further analysis, refining and extending the description.

2.2 Verb structure

The morphological structure of the Alyawarr simple (i.e. non-compound) verb is shown in

Table 4. I consider complex verbs such as reduplications in §2.6. Two positions in the verb are

obligatory. The verb root conveys the lexical meaning of the word. The final position takes

tense, aspect, mood (TAM) and clause joining suffixes. These are discussed further in Chapter

5. Various non-obligatory elements occur between the root and the final inflection. In the

following verb structure diagrams, obligatory categories are marked {} and non-obligatory

categories are marked ( ).

Table 4: Alyawarr Simple Verb Structure

-----------Non-obligatory---------- Obligatory

{verb root} (Derivation)

(PATH)

(Number) {TAM, inter-clausal}

The most basic form of the verb is a root with a final inflectional suffix:

(1) atw-ek

hit-PP

{vroot} {TAM}

‘hit’

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Derivational suffixes which occur after the root are optional and have a syntactic function,

changing the transitivity of the verb in which they occur, for example:

(2) atw-err-eyel

hit-REC-PRES

{vroot} (DERIV: reciprocal, detransitivising) {TAM}

‘hitting each other, fighting’

Derivational morphology is explored further in Chapter 3. The other category of the simple verb

structure involves PATH morphemes which describe motion along a path, as in (3). PATH

morphemes are described in Chapters 4.

(3) ar-enh-ek

see-POINT-PP

{vroot} (PATH) {TAM}

‘saw at a point along a motion path’

Complex verbs may be distinguished from syntactic sequences. In compound verbs as in (4), the

ordering of elements is fixed and the initial element must precede the second part of the

compound2. This can provide evidence for distinguishing phrases from compounds in some

contexts though elements of some phrase types are also strictly ordered. Most non-obligatory

categories have both compounding and simple affix markers.

(4) ar-enh-ey-err-alp-enh

see-POINT-BASE&DO1-PL-BASE&DO2-IMPP

{vroot1} (PATH) (MOTION1) (NUMBER) (MOTION2) {TAM}

‘they would see while returning’

2.3 Properties of Verb Roots: Transitivity

The most significant property of the verb root is transitivity. Verb roots are strictly classified as

either transitive or intransitive (Yallop 1977:124). The argument structure of the clause is

determined by the transitivity of the verb. A transitive verb in Alyawarr is defined as one which

has the potential to occur with an ergatively-marked NP as in (5). The term ‘potential’ is used

because the ellipsis of case-bearing arguments is common and not every clause will show the

morphosyntactic properties that indicate its transitivity. Transitive roots are also distinguished

2 Alyawarr clauses have a relatively free order of the major constituents and all orderings are possible,

although AOV is the preferred ordering in transitive clauses.

41

on morphological grounds by being able to occur with Mediopassive and Reciprocal markers.

An intransitive verb cannot occur with an accusative argument or an ergative one but can occur

with at least one argument in nominative case, as in (5). Any additional arguments specified by

the verb will be in dative case. Transitivity is altered by derivational affixes which follow the

root, for example -elh ‘Mediopassive’ (intransitivizing) or Transitive Verbaliser -elhil

(transitivizing). Derivational morphology is further discussed in Chapter 3.

(5) artwa rtn-eyel

man:NOM stand-PRES

‘A man is standing’

(6) Arrwekeleny-el renh arlkw-enh

ancestors-ERG 3S:ACC eat-IMPP

‘The ancestors would eat it’

Wilkins (1989: 224) reports a further ambi-transitive class of roots in Arrernte, with just two

members amp- ‘burn’ and wern- ‘blow', which can be both transitive and intransitive. I have not

found ambitransitive verbs in the Alyawarr data. Alyawarr ampeyel ‘burn’ is exclusively

intransitive: it does not occur with Ergative or Accusative arguments. It can however occur with

a Locative argument marked by -el, as in (7), which is homophonous with the Ergative marker.

Since such an argument can co-occur with a Nominative NP but not a distinctively Accusative

one, the simplest analysis is Locative not Ergative case. Note that the S pronoun ayeng in (7) is

Nominative rather than the Accusative ayenh. The locative analysis is in agreement with

Yallop’s glossing of similar examples (1977:51). A further argument that amp- is intransitive, is

that transitive amperneyel ‘cook’ is straightforwardly derived from this root with the

transitivising -ern.3 See §3.6.3.

(7) Itwern-el ayeng ingkety amp-eyel

heat/sun-LOC 1S:NOM foot:NOM burn-PRES

‘My feet are burning from the heat of the sun (on the ground)’ Literally: ‘I feet are

burning’.

2.4 Verbal Sub-categories

Intransitive verb roots can be further categorized on morphological grounds. Compounding

roots are defined on two grounds: (i) they can occur as the second element in Verbal

Compounds §2.5.3.1 (Yallop 1977:62) and (ii) they take Plural allomorphs which are distinct

3 Note that the same derivation occurs in Arrernte where amp- is analysed as ambi-transitive.

42

from the regular -err allomorph. These Compounding roots are subcategorized on two further

grounds: (i) the specific Plural allomorph they take: -erl.iw with the two Basic Motion roots and

the reduplicative RED.ew with the two Basic Stance roots, and (ii) the ability to occur with Path

markers. These classifying properties are represented in Table 5.

Table 5: Verbal Subcategories

Class Compounding roots V2 in VV Verbal

Compounds

Plural Path affixes

Basic Motion alh- ‘go’

alp - ‘move to base’

Y -erl.iw N

Basic Stance

an- ‘sit, exist’

aynt- ‘lie, exist’

Y RED.ew Y

General (Red.plural) Specific roots N RED.ew Y

General (Other) Remaining roots N -err Y

2.4.1 Basic Motion verbs

Basic Motion roots alh-‘go’ and alp- ‘move to base’ form verbal compounds that are

semantically compositional, that is, the semantics of the verbs contribute to the meaning of the

compound in a transparent and straightforward manner. Basic Motion verbs have the same

meaning in their compounding role that they have in free verbs, as in (8), contra Yallop

(1977:62) who claims that in their compounding role ‘they seem to convey aspectual

distinctions rather than their independent senses’.

(8) “Atheperr-el ayeng alp-erl.aynt-eyew.”

cool-LOC 1S:NOM back-CONT2-PURP

aylp-ey.alp-enh kwaty-warl

enter-BASE&DO-IMPP water-ALL

‘ “I’ll go back to the cool!” It went back into the water’

Understanding the semantics of the Basic Motion verbs is crucial to understanding the

semantics of Motion compounds. The discussion in the following sections focuses on the

motion parameters that are central in Alyawarr as a preliminary to more detailed discussion of

each compound in Chapter 4.

43

2.4.1.1 Base and relationship to the subject

The two Basic Motion roots, alh- and alp- depend on the notion of a base but describe

complementary types of motion. Alh- can be explicated as ‘motion away from a base’, and alp-

as ‘motion to base to stay’. The distinction between them warrants some discussion since this

analysis differs from other sources on these roots in Alyawarr and on the corresponding roots in

other Arandic varieties, and because they can be translated in context in ways which do not

clearly reflect their meanings.

Like the languages discussed by Elson and Pickett (1988:25), Alyawarr Basic Motion verbs

depend on the direction of the subject’s motion relative to a reference point. The frequent use of

the Basic Motion verbs reflects the importance of both travel and the ‘base’ notion in Alyawarr

culture. Lewis (1976: 262, as cited by Wilkins 1989:283) speaks of a ‘mental map’ used by

Aboriginal people in the central desert region which was continually updated ‘so that the

hunters remained at all times aware of the precise direction of their base and/or objective’. The

two kinds of motion paths expressed by these roots are common in the narrative accounts of

Alyawarr speakers. The alh- motion includes hunting day trips where food would be gathered

and brought back to the apmer base, which is called ‘camp’ in local English. This movement is

referred to as awangk alheyel, a ‘day trip’. The alp- motion path is to a base which the subject

has travelled from or to a new base, and it can often be translated as ‘return’ or ‘move to’. Fairly

frequently in traditional lifestyles there would be a move to establish a new base, a situation

which still exists despite the more sedentary nature of Indigenous lifestyles on the larger

communities in recent decades.

In both cases, the critical issue is the motion of the subject in relation to the base. Only in the

speaker-oriented Deictic Motion compounds (§2.5.3.2) is the speaker’s position relevant. This

contrasts with the corresponding Arrernte basic motion roots as analysed by Wilkins (1989) and

Wilkins and Hill (1991) in which Arrernte lh- and alp- both entail motion away from the

speaker (1989: 268).

2.4.1.2 Alh- ‘go’

Alh- expresses the subject of the clause moving along, optionally to one or more specific

destinations. It does not specify that any destination will be a new base or the base from which

the motion started in (9). There is an implied sequel of an alp- motion to a base. The subject of

the clause is going away from the base on a trip and reaching a destination with an expectation

of returning to its original base in (10).

44

(9) Aker weth-ilkwer rernem arlkw-enh arrwekeleny-el-rnem

game that-SEMB 3PL:ERG eat-IMPP ancestor-ERG-NPL

pwety-el alh-erl.iw-enh-el

bush-LOC go-PL-IMPP-LOC

‘They would eat game meat like that when they were walking around in the bush’

(10) Kel ra arlewatyerr-ek alh-enh arleng akwerlp-warl

then 3S:NOM goanna-DAT go-IMPP distant sandhill-ALL

‘Then the boy would go out for goannas a long way to the sandhill country’

2.4.1.3 Alp- ‘move to base’’

Alp- may be considered to have a single sense ‘move to base’’. Since the base will frequently be

the one from which the subject initially departed, alp- is often translated as ‘go back’ or ‘return’,

as in (11) where the action follows an alh- movement. AED (Green 1992:27) only lists such

‘return’ senses - ‘go back, go home, return’ - but alp- is not only ‘return’.

(11) Apmer-warl alp-ew

home-ALL back-PP

‘went back and stayed at home’

The base that is moved to may also be a new one, as in (12). The verb alp- is also applied when

the Subject moves to a place where they die, or in the case of mythological characters, end their

time travelling on the earth as in (12). The permanency of such a move can be emphasized, for

example as: alpew intem=antey=anem ‘then moved away to stay at another place permanently’.

(12) Ratherr=ap alp-ek =anem apmer ingwer-warl=anem

2D:NOM=CONJ back-PP=THEN place another-ALL=THEN

‘Then those two moved away and stayed at another place’

45

(13) Awey nhaym=an atha il-em altyerr ra kwaty

boy This:NOM=FOC 1S:ERG say-POT Dreaming 3S:NOM water

apeynt=ant-warl alp-enh

spring=JUST-ALL back-IMPP

‘I shall speak about the Dreaming boy who finished up at a spring’

Alp- can describe certain situations that involve movement away from a reference point such as

the speaker.4 In fact, Yallop (1977:143) defines alp- as ‘go, move, walk’ (away from speaker or

point of reference, hence often: ‘go away’)’. However this can be related to the basic meaning

‘move to a (new) base’ given that where the participant is at a particular location, moving to a

base will necessarily involve movement away from that location and the fact that the destination

is a base means that it will be a substantive or even permanent move. In (15), for example, the

cattle were grazing in the open and might escape and not return to their owners. Alp- is often

used in an imperative form to send someone away. Dogs and children are commonly chased

away with the imperative alpay! (Yallop 1977:53,143). This reading is well illustrated in (14),

where the traditional owners who have always lived in a region, and belong there, are being

chased away from their land.

(14) Alp-enharey wenh! Alp-enharey apmer nhe-they!

away-IMP.PL QUOT back-IMP.PL place this-ABL

‘Get away! Stay away from this place!’

(15) Ratherr=ap yarraman-akert=anem alh-enh=anem pwelek

3S=CONJ horse-COM=THEN GO-IMPP=THEN cattle

rernem arleng alp-ekerr

3PL distant back-APP

‘And then they were going out with horses in case the cattle strayed ’

Alp- also has the extended meaning ‘to recede away to a distant point’ which is used of

inanimate objects extended horizontally in space such as roads and pipes. Such objects lead

away from the reference location and continue receding away to an endpoint which is some

4 Strehlow’s comment, note 36a on page 36 of Diary 17 (1953) seems to support this reading.

46

distance away. This resembles the ‘fictive motion’ described in Talmy (1996) and Levinson and

Wilkins (2006:52).5

The critical factor in determining which Basic Motion verb is used is the overall destination of

the Subject of the clause. Alyawarr resembles the languages which contrast one-way motion

versus round-trip motion (Elson and Pickett 1988:26). In the Zapotec languages there is an affix

which occurs with motion verbs that expresses incomplete action, and which resembles the

distinction between alh- (a motion which implies a return and a round trip) and alp- (one way

motion).

2.4.2 Basic Stance verbs

As we have seen, the Basic Stance roots, an- ‘sit’ and aynt- ‘lie’, are a subclass of

Compounding roots defined by their selection of the RED.ew Plural allomorph. They combine

two functions: (i) they denote the stative physical configuration (stance, posture, orientation) of

the human body and other objects and (ii) they have copular functions in equative and

attributive clauses and are used in existential constructions. They share this combination of

functions with two other roots, on which basis they together constitute a wider semantic

category of Stance-Existence verbs.

Table 6 shows the properties of the Stance-Existence roots. An-, aynt- and rtn- form lexical

compounds (§2.5.2.1) with monomorphemic non-verbal elements which have low productivity.

Like the Basic Stance roots, rtn- takes an irregular Plural allomorph, in this case -enherr.

However unlike them, rtn- doesn’t occur in verbal compounds. The fourth root, altywen-

doesn’t occur as a compounding element in either type of compound. In contrast with the Basic

Motion roots in compounds, compounds formed with stance-existence verbs are less

semantically compositional.

Stance verbs can be applied to all animate and inanimate objects depending upon their physical

configuration. Inanimates do not control their configuration though humans can adopt any of the

basic postures.

An existential sense of the Stance-Existence verbs has a reading of ‘being’, describing the

existence of different Subjects and having a function which is similar to the various forms of

5 The notion of extension along a path may also account for the Arrernte compounding marker for

‘extended action along a path’ which involves a monosyllabic reduplicant and rle-alpe (Henderson

1998:236).

47

English ‘be’. Mountains are said to be altyweneyel ‘crouching’. Various objects which have a

vertical orientation are described as rtneyel ‘standing’ such as trees, fenceposts, cars and cattle.

Objects which rtneyel ‘stand’ are not necessarily tall. For example, the ground-hugging iylaw

plant. Bodies of water such as waterholes are described as rtneyel.

Verb

Root

Gloss Applied to

e.g.

Lexical

compounds

Verbal

compounds

an- ‘sit’ people Y Y

aynt- ‘lie’ snakes,

roads,

traditions

Y Y

rtn- ‘stand’ trees,

cattle,

waterholes

Y N

altywen- ‘crouch’ hills N N

Table 6: Alyawarr Basic Stance verbs

The aspectual uses of -an and -aynt as ‘continuous’ in compound verbs (Yallop 1977:62) are

plausibly related to the ‘being’ existential sense of the independent verb. Similar to the situation

reported for Arrernte (Wilkins 1989:221), in clauses like (16) the default interpretation in the

absence of an existential verb is present tense. The existence verb is only necessary for a

temporal situation which is non-present. An attributive function which predicates a quality can

be regarded as copula (Dixon 2002:239-42, Wilkins 1989:221). However, a Stance verb can

only be a pure copula when the Subject is a more abstract entity which has no physical

orientation.

Stance-existence verbs convey states rather than accomplishments, which have terminal points.

This is in contrast to English where, for example, ‘sit’ can have both dynamic and static

interpretations (Newman 2002:4). The sentence ‘I sat on the chair’ could mean ‘I sat myself

down on the chair’ (dynamic, accomplishment) or ‘I was sitting on the chair’ (and didn’t move)

which is stative. Alyawarr uses morphological means to convey a dynamic ‘change of posture

or state’ event, as shown in Table 28. This Aktionsart change will be further explained in §4.7.

2.4.2.1 Aynt- lie

This root describes the human ‘lying’ configuration and its equivalent for other species which

can adopt a corresponding position, as in (16). More generally it can refer to objects which are

physically extended horizontally. Extended senses are ‘sleeping’ or ‘staying over one or more

48

nights’, as in (17). The stative Aktionsart and ‘staying’ sense are related to the use of -aynt to

convey an aspectual sense of extended duration in compounds §4.9.

(16) Aherr yanh-ey lyw-el aynt-eyel

kangaroo there-EMPH shade-LOC lie-PRES

‘The kangaroo is lying in the shade’

(17) Aynt-ey.alp-ew anwenakerr ingwer-el=anem=arl

lie-BASE&DO-PP 1PL.CP.EX other-LOC=THEN =SUB

‘Then we went and stayed at another place’

The verb applies to objects which have a natural shape or posture imagined as long, for

example, snakes in (18). Certain inanimate objects are also said to be ‘lying’, for example,

roads, tracks, wells and soakages6 as in (19).

7

(18) Pwerl-el ar-erl.alp-ek warl ikwer-itwek aynt-enh=antey=arl

Pwerl-ERG see-DO&RET-PP house 3S:DAT-LOC lie-IMPP=STILL=SUB

‘Pwerl went and saw it (snake) while it was staying in the house and returned.’

(19) Artarn=arl ikwerenh aynt-enh weth-ilkwer warl-they

track=SUB 3S:POSS lie-IMPP that-SEMB house-ABL

‘His tracks were leading away from the house’

Aynt- can also refer to abstract entities which are conceived of as holding over an extended area.

Both extension in space and extension in time are possible understandings of aynt-. There

appears to be a logical connection between these spatial and temporal senses. Abstract entities

like names, languages and laws8 can be seen as extending across the region and apply to those

who live in that region, as in (20). Often the temporal extension sense of aynt- is used to refer to

‘tradition’ or ‘the way things always were’. Laws (21) may be thought of as having traditional

authority which extends back in time and perhaps their extension is through time and

generations rather than just through space.

(20) Pwerlany angka aynt-enh-ey.alp-ew Avon Down-they

Pwerlany language lie-POINT-BASE&DO-PP place-ABL

‘The Pwelany language went along from Avon Downs’

6 A soakage is a kind of shallow well or depression in which water collects

7 For roads and tracks at least there is some degree of overlap in aynt- and the ‘recede away into distance’

sense of alp- in that the objects are extended in space. Compounds formed with –alp can also involve

spatial extension or ‘fictive motion’ (§2.4.1.3).

8 These entities may be laid down in journeys of mythological beings.

49

(21) Government arrwekeleny-wenh=arl aynt-ew alakenh-anyem=arl

government olden days-POSS=SUB lie-PP like-ROUND=SUB

‘In the olden days the government way (law) was like that’

2.4.2.2 An- sit

This root describes the human ‘sitting’ configuration, as in (22) and its equivalent for other

species such as dogs which can adopt a corresponding position. More generally it can refer to

entities which are not extended either horizontally or vertically, for example frogs. The root also

has a more existential sense, describing the normal existence of humans i.e ‘staying’, ‘living’ as

in (23). The stative aktionsart of an- contributes to the complex State marker erl.an §4.9.2.

(22) Itwern-wety anantherr lywenty-el an-eyel

sunshine-REAS 1PL:NOM shade-LOC sit-PRES

‘ We are sheltering from the sun, sitting in the shade’

(23) Arrwekeleny-rnem alakenh-anyem an-enh alakenh=an

ancestor:NOM-NPL like-ROUND sit-IMPP like that=FOC

‘That is how the early day people lived/were, like that’

2.5 Compound Verbs

Compounding involves the combination of lexemes to form a single morphological word. The

morphological word consists of one or more phonological words. The major types of

compounds are seen in Table 7.

Table 7: Types of Alyawarr compounds

Compound type initial compounding compositional

Lexical compound

unanalysable

preverb verb No

Lexical compound

analysable

preverb verb Yes

Verbal compound verb verb Yes

50

The complex verb in Alyawarr consists of:

Initial element------------------------------ Compound

{preverb}

{v root} (DERIV) (PATH) (SEQ) (NUM)} (v root){T-A,M, clausal}

The initial element may consist of a preverb, forming a lexical compound. Verbs can be

multiply compound and involve more than one type of compound. For example the compound

in (24) is formed from both a lexical compound (arntarnt.ar-) and a verbal compound (erl.alp-).

(24) Arntarnt.ar-erl.alp-eyel

look after-DO&RET-PRES

‘Look after and then go back’

The transitivity of the initial verb root determines the transitivity of the compound. The number

marking of the compound will follow the number marking of the initial root. A number of

elements that appear similar to compounding verbs have meanings which are not resolvable into

the meanings of their component parts. I have handled them as affixes. While they may have

developed from free verbs, this is not the preferred synchronic analysis. They are regarded as

single grammatical morphemes without a clear relationship to the free verbs.

2.5.1 Other evidence for compound status

In the following sections I outline the criteria which define compounds in Alyawarr versus both

non-compound words and syntactic sequences of distinct words.

2.5.1.1 Grammatical wordhood

A compound is a grammatical word and therefore has the general properties of cohesiveness of

its constituent elements, fixed order of those elements and conventionalized coherence and

meaning (Dixon and Aikhenvald 2002:19). However compounds often exhibit mixed behaviour

that reflects something of their two faces. Compound verbs in Alyawarr satisfy the requirement

of a fixed order of the constituent elements relative to each other. This distinguishes them from

syntactic sequences because although the preferred constituent order for clauses is for adverbs

and object nominals to precede the verb, it is possible for them to follow the verb or for object

nominals to be ellipsed.

51

Compound verbs generally meet the requirement of cohesiveness except that certain non-verbal

material may intervene between the compounded elements, most frequently in Verbal

Compounds (§2.5.2.3) , as in (25) where the clitic =arl intervenes. The possible intervening

material is highly restricted, most often a clitic or particle which can alternatively occur at the

end of the entire compound. This suggests a word-like boundary within the overall compound

and intervening material, for example, clitics, is evidence for two phonological words. There is

no constraint on the number of syllables in each of these phonological words. Clitics =arl SUB

and =anem THEN occur most commonly. There is likely to be an implicational relationship

such as that reported for EC Arrernte (Henderson 1998:275), in that word-final clitics will be

permitted to occur if other intervening material can follow the verb stem. More research is

required.

(25)

Rntern-enh=anem irrtyart-el kwaty-itwew=an antyw-ey=arl-alh-enh

spear-IMPP=THEN spear-INS water-LOC=FOC drink-GO&DO1=SUB-GO&DO2-IMPP

‘They would spear (them) when they were going to the water to drink’

2.5.1.2 Stress

Stress placement marks the phonological word in Alyawarr and provides evidence for

compound status versus a syntactic sequence of words on one hand and a single non-compound

word on the other. Yallop (1977:46) notes that stress can differentiate two words when there is

no segmental distinction between a single morphologically complex word and a sequence of

two words. In non-compound verbs, secondary stress falls on alternating syllables after the

primary stress. However, in compounds such as (26) the position of the secondary stress

indicates that the second compound element, here alpew, appears to constitute a distinct domain

of stress placement as opposed to a continuation of the alternating stress pattern. Brackets

indicate the compound boundary in the examples. Where there is intervening material,

individual clitics retain their original stress regardless of the number of syllables, as in (27) and

the stress placement in the following verb stem of the compound is independent of any

intervening material.

(26) Apmer (mpw r-ey)-(alp- w)

camp make-BASE&DO-PP

‘Went away and made camp’

52

(27) Artwa ikwer-rnem-wety (aylp ny ant nem arl)-(irr- nh)

man 3S:DAT-NPL-AVERS sick of=JUST=THEN=SUB-IV-IMPP

mpwernaynewantherr-wety.

their spouses-AVERS

‘Then they were just getting sick of the men, of their husbands’

2.5.1.3 Compositionality

Semantic compositionality constitutes a criterion for recognizing compounds in Alyawarr.

Crystal (1997:77) defines compositionality as ‘a hierarchical model of linguistic structure in

which larger units are seen as being composed of smaller units’.

Compounding is a gradient phenomenon in both productivity and compositionality. At one end

of the cline are lexical compounds which are limited in productivity and non-compositional. In

some cases the interpretation will be quite specific and restricted to a fixed combination of verb

roots. A number of elements that appear similar to compounding verbs I have handled as

affixes. While they may have developed from free verbs, this is not the preferred synchronic

analysis. They are regarded as grammatical morphemes without a direct relationship to the free

verbs.

In Lexical Compounds, semantic compositionality correlates strongly with productivity, i.e.

compositional types are likely to be productive. The largest number of compounds which can be

formed with an analysable preverb is the irrtyert ‘steal’ compounds as in (28) of which thirteen

have been recorded. Less compositional types are likely to be less productive as is the case for

the preverb iytarr in (29).

(28) irrtyert-ineyel

hidden-get

‘steal’

53

(29) iytarr-ineyel

?-get

‘drag out’

Verbal Compounds are the most semantically compositional and the most compound-like and

are discussed in more detail in §2.5.3.1.

2.5.2 Subclassification of compounding types

2.5.2.1 Lexical compounds

Lexical compounds consist of a non-inflecting and monomorphemic non-verbal preverb which

precedes an inflecting verbal element. Lexical Compounds vary widely in their

compositionality. According to Yallop (1977: 65), some compounds may be more easily

understood as lexical items composed of elements which are unanalysable, having ‘no separate

existence as a word’. Certain adverbs and nominals can occur as the preverb element in a

similar way to that for Warlpiri (Nash 1980: 42), however there are a large number of preverbs

that are not derived from any other category and cannot occur without a verb from a small set

selected by the given preverb. The following verb roots occur in lexical compounds:

Table 8: Verbs occurring in lexical compounds

alh- go

alp- move back, move away

akwern- put into

aylp- enter

rtn- stand

aynt- lie

an- sit

iw- throw, leave behind

arrern- put

in- get

rnkern- stand up

ar- see

akng- carry

athen- lay something down

atw- hit

angk- say

54

The inflecting elements in lexical compounds occur with the same obligatory final inflection

and are analysed as identical with the corresponding free verbs. Evidence that they are related to

independent verb roots is that they occur with the same distinctive plural marking allomorphy as

a free verb, at least for those corresponding free verbs that take an irregular Plural allomorph.

An example is (30). Most of the corresponding free verbs take only the regular Plural

allomorph, so that if the inflecting verb in the Lexical Compound also takes the regular Plural

allomorph, this may just be due to it being the regular allomorph.

(30) Irrtyert-alh-erl.iw-enh

hidden-go-PL-IMPP

‘going along hiding’

Analysable preverbs optionally reduplicate as for example (31) and there are a few examples of

unanalysable preverbs which reduplicate. Preverbs are the category most likely to reduplicate in

compounds.

(31) rlweth-rlweth-ak-eyel ‘chopped into small pieces’.

irrtyert-irrtyert-alh-eyel ‘running away and hiding’

When the preverb also occurs as an independent lexeme such as the examples given in (32),

there is an issue of how lexical compounds can be distinguished from an object nominal O+V.

(32) irrtnya ‘skin, hide’ irrtnyeweyel ‘skin something’

ankwa ‘sleep’ ankwatheneyel ‘lay down to sleep’

arlwar ‘circular’ arlwarertneyel ‘swell up’

arlpwart ‘uncovered’ arlpwart-rtneyel ‘uncover, expose’

The preverb always precedes the verb in lexical compounds whereas object+verb or

adverb+verb sequences can occur in either order. A lexical compound is shown in (34), with

example (33) something close to a paraphrase. In (33), the verbal element precedes the object

nominal. In (34) itna appears to be phonologically incorporated into an intransitive

mediopassive verb which only requires one argument. It is not possible for the itna part to

follow the welhew part. This constitutes evidence that itnewelheyel be regarded as a lexical

compound and not as a verb and object nominal. Preverbs can be distinguished from adverbials,

again by relative order in relation to the verb.

55

(33) Arrengikw r=an Antywemp-areny arrpemarl renh=arl

grandfather 3S=FOC place-ASSOC also 3S:ACC=SUB

rnkern-ew itna.

put in-PP name

‘His grandfather was from Antywemp as well and that is why he got the name’

(34) Artwa ra itn-ew Antywemp arrpemarl r=arl

man 3S name-DAT name again 3S:NOM=SUB

itn-ew-elh-ew=anem

name-leave-MED-PP=THEN

‘He was Antywemp as well and that is how he named himself’

Some preverbs occur as independent lexemes outside of Lexical Compounds, for example those

which involve a body part nominal followed by the -el LOC marker with akngeyel ‘carrying’

such as the items in (35).

(35) artep ‘back’ artepel-akngeyel ‘carrying on back’

nthek shoulder nthekel-akngeyel ‘carrying on shoulder’

The compounds act as hyponyms of the free verbs in

(36). The preverb doesn’t occur outside Lexical Compounds.

(36)

rtwapety-aneyel

‘sitting with legs folded back to one side’

aymparrk-aneyel ‘sitting with legs crossed’

The lexical compounds shown in (37) are less compositional semantically, that is to say the base

is not transparently related in meaning to free verb roots.

(37) arntarnt-areyel ‘watch over, care for’ areyel ‘see, watch’

aynterrar-iweyel ‘hang something up’ iweyel ‘throw, leave’

An example of an unanalysable compound is iterl-areyel ‘knowing’. The iterl appears to be a

cranberry morph as it does not occur independently. Iterl may be related to iterreyel ‘think’ and

areyel ‘seeing’ though there is no regular process that would account for the formation.

56

Speakers don’t seem to identify the two verbs as composed of independent lexemes. An

alternative analysis for this is, as in Arrernte, it-el-ar ‘throat-LOC/INST-see’ (Wilkins

1989:267), parallel to another cognition verb it-irr- as ‘throat-IV’. Some clitics are able to

intervene between the preverb and the verb, for example =anem ‘THEN’ in (38), indicating its

status as a compound.

(38) it-erl=anem-ar-enh

think-DO&SEE1=THEN-DO&SEE2-IMPP

‘Then (they) would know’

The productivity of preverbs varies. Most preverbs are unique to a single compound. The

highest number of compounds formed from a preverb found in the data is thirteen which are

based upon irrtyert in (28). The compounds which are based on tek ‘dry something out’ are

shown in (39).

(39) tek-ampeyel ‘dry out’

tek-arrerneyel ‘hang out to dry’

tek-iweyel ‘put out something to dry’

tek-aneyel ‘sun, sunbake’

2.5.3 Compounds based upon IV and TV

The verbalising morphemes Intransitive Verbaliser (IV) in (40) and Transitive Verbaliser (TV)

appear to have the most word-like properties of all the compounds. They are highly productive

and compound with a large number of nominals.

(40) Aylpeny-irr-enh=anem=arl ikwer-rnem-wety.

get sick of-IV-IMPP=THEN=SUB 3S:DAT-NPL-AVERS

‘Then they would get sick of them’

An indication of high productivity is that they combine freely with loanwords from English:

(41) change-irr ‘change’

gallop-irr ‘gallop’

yardem-il ‘yard’

loademup-il

registerem-il

‘load up’

‘register’

57

These verbalising morphemes often occur with intervening material, similar to the case reported

for Arrernte (Henderson 1998:275). Non-verbal material can intervene between a

nominal/adverb root and the TV marker, such as the intervention of clitics in example (42) and

(43). This suggests that the base and verbaliser parts can constitute separate prosodic words or

are prosodically independent in some way. There is more restricted variation in the constituent

ordering with lexical compounds than is possible with verb phrases. Verbalizing suffixes occur

after certain Obligatory suffixes: ey-angenhil §5.2.5.2 and etyek-irr §5.2.3.

(42) Rernem arlk-elh=ant=anem=arl-il-enh renh-rnem.

3PL call out-TV1=JUST=THEN=SUB-TV2-PP 3ACC-NPL

‘Then they just called out about them’

Further evidence of their compound status is that Verbalisers may carry primary stress and can

occur with a reduplicated preverb:

(43) Althart ikwer akarr-akarr=anem-il-ew

ceremony 3S:DAT gathered-RED=THEN-TV-PP

‘Then they gathered them up for the ceremony’

2.5.3.1 VV compounds

Verb-verb compounds introduce an additional verb root, nearly always in combination with a

specific suffix which precedes the compounding root, and with a compound boundary between

the two. The brief account of verbal compounds given here will be expanded upon in Chapter 4.

Table 9: Types of verbal compound

Compound type Initial verb root Compounding verb root

Non-deictic various Motion and Stance

Deictic ap-ey, anp-erl Motion

Compounding roots carry mostly the same inflections as their free verb counterparts but only

the last in a given word bears the obligatory morphology for the entire compound, as in (44).

(44) Arrathen-enh-ey.alh-ew

load spear-POINT-GO&DO-PP

‘(We) went and loaded spears into the woomeras along the way’

Although uncommon in the data, the occurrence of intervening material provides evidence of a

single compound containing two phonological words.

58

Certain clitics, Plural number -err/-arr and DISC -am can intervene between sequence suffixes

and compounding Motion verb roots. See §3.7.1 and §3.8. The insertion is taken to be indicative

of a phonological word boundary.

Non-deictic verbal compounds based upon Basic Motion verbs are semantically compositional.

I discuss Motion verb compounds further in Chapter 4. Although less compositional, the Basic

Stance compounding roots retain some of the meaning that they have as free verbs. Different

senses of the free Stance verbs are in focus within different compounded forms. For example,

-aynt can denote ‘motion’ or ‘stance’ depending upon the particular configuration of

morphemes of the compound.

Table 10: Alyawarr Basic Stance compounds

aynt- ‘lie, stay’ -erl-aynt ‘continuous aspect’ -ey-aynt ‘rise and do’

an- ‘sit, live’ -erl-an ‘stative’

2.5.3.2 Deictic Motion compounds

The Deictic Motion Compounds have roots ap- ‘arrive, come’ and anp- ‘depart’ which do not

occur independently. They are analysed as verb roots on the basis of their occurrence with a

similar range of intervening material as occurs with other Motion compounds. These

compounds have a high frequency of occurrence in texts.

Yallop (1977:65) claims that apey-alhem is not a compound because the apparent root ap- in the

compound is not semantically identifiable with the ap- root which occurs in simple verbs and

which he claims means ‘rub’ in Alyawarr. However in Arrernte (Koch 2001:80) the root is

found in Arrernte petye- ‘come’ (where -tye- contributes the ‘hither’ direction). According to

Koch it is also probably found in the frequentive affix -pe- and with -erl-ap (§4.6.1) with

motion-related meanings9 so it is clearly inherited from proto-Arandic. Clearly, apey-alp and

apey-alh are semantically compositional with the compositionality of alp- and alh- as I will

further explain below. Although ap- is analysable, it can be regarded as having a ‘defective

paradigm’ consisting of only two forms having a sense ‘arrive at speaker’.

9 The verb root ap- doesn’t occur in the AED (1992) nor in the recent dictionary extensions file

(D.Blackman, p.c). The translation which speakers cite for ‘rub’ is aperneyel which appears in Yallop’s

wordlist (1977:144) as ‘paint’. Apeme ‘rub, paint’ (Henderson and Dobson 1994: 180) occurs in

neighbouring Arrernte dialects (which use apetyeme for ‘come’). I conclude that the Deictic Motion verb

apey-alhem and apeme ‘rub’ are unrelated. Further discussion of apeme~aperneme is in Henderson

(1998:131).

59

Note that apetyeyel and apey-alheyel appear to be equivalent and are probably lectal variants.

Comparing akngety- ‘bring’ and akng- ‘carry, move’, suggests a suffix -ety HITHER. On that

basis, apety- ‘arrive’ can be analysed the same as Arrernte ap-ety- ‘go-HITHER’ (Wilkins

1989:269). The -ety suffix attaches only to these two verb roots.

Table 11: Deictic Motion compounds

Motion carrying

apety

‘come towards speaker’

akngety

‘bring towards speaker’

alh

‘go away from base’

apey-alh

‘come towards speaker’

anperl-alh

‘depart, move away’

akngey-alh

‘take away from speaker’

alp

‘move to base’

apey-alp

‘arrive back towards speaker’

‘come to speaker at new base’

akngey-alp

‘take back to speaker’

These compounds are deictic in that their meaning, specifically the direction of the motion, is

dependent on the physical context of the utterance, specifically the location of the speaker, as in

(45). These compounds and their deictic motion roots in Alyawarr do not correspond exactly to

Wilkins’ class of deictic motion verbs in Arrernte because he claims (1989:278 and 1991:224,

241) that Arrernte lhe ‘go’, alpe ‘go back’ and knge- ‘carry’ are ‘inherently deictic’, entailing

‘motion away from speaker’. The corresponding Alyawarr compounds operate in terms of the

base as the reference location. See §2.4.1.1.

(45)

Akarneng-they ap-ey.alp-enh waylpel ahelengkw-kety

Pl.name-ABL arrive-BASE&DO-IMPP white person aggressive-REAS

nhenh-el ap-ey.alp-enh ingkety-el-ey

Here-LOC arrive-BASE&DO-IMPP foot-INS-EMPH

‘From Akarneng they arrived here because of the aggressive whitefellers’

For the Deictic Motion Compounds, the reference location coincides with the speaker’s

location. The location of the old men is regarded as the reference location in (46) where it is the

speaker of the reported speech and not the speaker of the overall utterance.

60

(46)

Artwa ampw-el-rnem alhengk.aw-enh. “Ah artwa alethang

man old-ERG-NPL recognise-IMPP Ah man stranger

ap-ey.alh-em-aw!”

arrive-GO&DO-POT-EMPH

‘The old men would recognise (its call) “Ah, a stranger is arriving!”’.

The ap- forms express movement along a path and arrival at the speaker’s location. The -alp

part of the apey-alp compound apparently has a reading similar to that of its independent form

and other compounded forms which mean ‘move to (new) base’. It makes a separate

contribution to the meaning of the word. The deictic ap- forms can also be used to describe a

narrative deictic centre: movement to a place where a particular set of events happen which is

seen as the setting for the narrative.

The root anp- ‘depart’ does not occur outside of this compound in Alyawarr except that the

apparent root anpenh- ‘depart’ may be analysable as anp- plus -enh (POINT). There is a

corresponding free verb in some other Arandic varieties: E/C Arrernte has arnp- ‘set foot down’

and the compound arnperle-alh- ‘set off on foot’. Apart from the two compounds here, ap- also

does not occur elsewhere in Alyawarr although it is relatable historically to -erl.ap ‘do

continuously while going along’. However the corresponding root ap- in Kaytetye is the basic

‘go’ verb, equivalent to Alyawarr alh- and corresponding roots also occur non-productively in

some derived motion verbs in Southern Arrernte. See discussion in Henderson (1998) and Koch

(1984:23). Wilkins (1989:269) argues that (a)pe may have been the original Arandic word for

(undirected) ‘go’ and this is evidenced by the need to mark it for direction in Alyawarr. The ap-

form may have been applied to general movement whereas alh- and alp- imply directionality

and may have largely taken over from the ap- form which became restricted to just these two

compounds in Alyawarr. According to Breen (Dixon 1976:624) neighbouring Bularnu has a few

verbs of the form V + -baga meaning ‘to V while going’ (baga = go).

2.6 Verbal Reduplication

Yallop (1977: 44) gives four examples of noun reduplication and concludes that “Reduplication

is not a productive process in Alyawarra - reduplicated words appear in the vocabulary as

separate lexical items”. Contrary to Yallop (1977) and Fabricius (1998:107), Alyawarr has

productive nominal and verbal reduplication of several types, all partial reduplication. The

purpose of the following sections is to describe the morphological pattern of each verbal

reduplication type, as summarized in Table 12. An alternative to affixation is to analyse

61

reduplication as a non-concatenative process. (Haspelmath 2002:22). Verbal reduplication

occurs when a template is attached to a base. Sometimes an additional element may occur

between the base and the template. The reduplicative marker either precedes (left reduplication)

or follows (right reduplication) its base. The relative position of the marker cannot be

determined when the base and template are identical, which is the case for the reduplication of

preverbs and the whole stem. However, I will not address the analytical issues of an alternative

analysis.

Table 12: Verbal reduplication patterns in Alyawarr

Single

morpheme

Base Overall form Marker

label

Reduplicant

form

Reduplicant

copies from

Plural

§3.7.4

Root RED.ew PL monosyllabic

right

Attenuative

§2.6.3

Root RED.elp ATT monosyllabic

right

Frequentive

§2.6.4

Root RED.ep FREQ monosyllabic

right

Morphemic complexes

Small

repeated

(-erl).iw REP disyllabic left

Do and

move away

-ey-RED-alp DO&RET disyllabic left

Reduplicated

TV

-elh-RED-elhil TV disyllabic left

2.6.1 Semantics of reduplication and iconicity

Reduplication of all or part of the verb stem corresponds to repetition or continuousness of the

verb action and is thus iconic (cf. Moravcsik 1978; Dixon 2002: 210). Some reduplicative

markers also have an attenuative meaning, parallel to nominal reduplication in Alyawarr which

involves plurality and attenuative or diminutive meaning as can be seen in (47) where the

reduplicated form indicates ‘a number of small bank-like things’. Alyawarr thus has some

parallels to Warlpiri, where according to Nash (1980), reduplication indicates Plurality of

subject or object, distributive, speed and repetition.

62

(47) arnkarr ‘creek bank’

arnkarr-arnkarr ‘small drainage lines, gutters’.

2.6.2 Pre-bases

Three reduplicative morphemes may precede the verb root, Frequentive and Attenuative and

Plural -erl.ew (§3.7.3) but discussion in this section is restricted to the two aspectual pre-bases.

These pre-bases both involve iconicity where repetition of the form expresses the repetition or

extended duration of the activity. Strehlow (1944:173-174) apparently regarded the

corresponding RED.elp and RED.ep in Western Arrartna as alternatives in his list of

periphrastic verbs. All of his examples are with atw- ‘hit’ but he says that ‘not all of the

reduplicated verbs are frequentive in meaning’ and divides reduplicated verbs into regular and

irregular verbs. Examples of RED.elp forms in Strehlow’s Aranda grammar (Strehlow 1944)

have inceptive meaning as I claim for Alyawarr.

My analysis of these reduplicative types must be taken with caution as only about 20 of each

pattern have been found. I have attempted to characterize the kinds of verbs with which each

type of reduplication type occurs as shown in Table 13.

In this section I claim that the two aspectual morphemes in Alyawarr are in near-complementary

distribution. I have attempted to subcategorise the forms semantically in terms of their

Aktionsarten or aspectual types, chiefly according to the property of telicity or boundedness.

Frequentive occurs with statives and activity verbs and Attenuative occurs more frequently with

liminal verbs. As can be seen in Table 13, FREQ seems to indicate an undifferentiated, repeated

and durative activity whereas ATT indicates the beginning of a progression or action involving

less intensity. Frequentive tends towards action done to multiple indefinite objects whereas the

target of the Attenuative event is a single object. Similar to the situation reported for EC

Arrernte, Alyawarr appears to have a number of reduplication templates.Table 13 table shows

the distributions of FREQ and ATT with different bases.

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Table 13: Occurrence of verbs with FREQ and ATT

Root and meaning FREQ ATT

an- ‘sit, be’ anepanem ‘live, exist’ anelp-anerl-alhey10

‘sit

a while before going’

rtn- ‘stand, be’ rtnep-rtnem ‘live,

exist’

rtnelp-rtnem ‘stand for

while’

aynt- ‘lie, be’ ayntep-ayntem ‘live,

exist’.

akngan- ‘stay’ akngep-aknganeyel

‘stay’

alh- ‘go’

alp- ‘go to base’

alhep-alhem ‘going’

alpep-alpem ‘move

away’

alhelp-alhem ‘getting

ready to go’

alpelp-alpem ‘getting

ready to move away’.

ilkw ‘get shocked’ ilkwelp-ilkweyel

‘twitch’

amparrk ‘shine’ ampep-amparrkeyel

‘glisten’

ampelp-amparrkeyel

‘twinkle’

aytn ‘fall’ aytnelp-aytneyel

‘stagger’

atw ‘hit’ atwelp-atweyel ‘tap,

knock, pat’

aw ‘hear’ awelp-aweyel

‘overhear’

ar ‘see’ arelp-areyel ‘catch

glimpses’

antelh ‘meet up with’ antelp-antelheyel

‘visiting’

arlw-il- ‘encircle, muster’ arlwelp-arlwileyel

‘round up’

10

This is the best example in the data of an- ‘sit’ with Attenuative. An Attenuative verb that directly

contrasts with anepaneme would be better though at least this demonstrates that they can both occur with

the same root.

64

ilterr- ‘tear’ iltelp-ilterreyel ‘rip up’

ngan- ‘climb’ ngelp-nganeyel ‘start

to climb’

anterr- ‘run’ antelp-anterreyel

‘running around’

angk- ‘say’ angkep-angkem ‘keep

saying’

ipar- ‘clean, wipe’ ipep-ipareyel ‘clean

fruit’

thak- ‘make hole’ thep-thakeyel ‘make

holes’

rak- ‘grab’ rep-rakeyel ‘grab

many’

arn- ‘touch’ arnep-arneyel ‘touch

continuously’

akalth- ‘break off’ (tr) akep-akaltheyel ‘break

off many’

I have tried to elicit other potential forms but have not been able to, e.g. *atwepatweyel

‘knocking’. Although both morphemes occur with Basic Stance forms, it is apparent that

different meanings come out with FREQ vs ATT. In the case of the motion verb stems alh- and

alp-, these forms only occur with Potential and not the full range of TAM morphology. Each

reduplicating subtype is described in greater detail in the following sections.

2.6.3 RED.elp Attenuative

Attenuative has a monosyllabic template involving copying from the right a VC(C) syllable

which is followed by -elp. In each case the exact meaning of a reduplicated form will depend

upon the base verb. This raises the issue of whether it is more derivational in character

inasmuch as it is not regular in meaning, or whether the overall meaning of the verb is

predictable given the meaning of the root. I will make a case that the meaning of the verb

depends upon the aspectual character of the root. The meaning covers an inceptive sense ‘be at

the beginning of the verb event’ and an attenuative sense ‘doing X repeatedly with less

intensity’ where a lesser degree of effort or force is involved.11

I will use the label ‘Attenuative’

for the morpheme regardless of which area of meaning might be in focus. Wilkins’ (1989:248)

label for the equivalent Arrernte morpheme is ‘continous inception’ which attempts to capture

both attenuative and inceptive senses. This is understood as ‘at no time could it be said that the

11

Attenuation is also characteristic of nominal reduplication (see §2.6.1)

65

action has happened’. However, for the Alyawarr data it’s not clear that there is an overall gloss

which takes account of both functions of the morpheme.

I have found limited examples of RED.elp with state and activity verbs. With telic verbs the

sense is attenuative. With verbs which involve duration the sense is inceptive. Examples of the

Attenuative can be seen in (48). The basic meaning of atweyel describes a strong or robust

action involving the movement of an arm. Atwelpatweyel describes a repeated action of lesser

force or intensity ‘patting, tapping’ as with tapping a damper, or patting someone lightly to

wake them up from sleep (Frank Holmes, p.c), an action which involves small movements of

hands and fingers.

(48) atweyel ‘hitting’ atwelp-atweyel ‘knocking, patting’

aynteyel ‘falling’ aytnelp-aytneyel ‘staggering’

In the following example text, the Subject begins to stagger and only gets part of the way along

the path of travel which is described as close up, angath-antey’ in (49). Later the Subject falls

down to the ground which is described by aytn-. With Attenuative, the Subject staggers.

Inception is in focus, in that he is continuing the beginning stage of falling but not reaching the

terminal point.

(49) Aytn-elp-aytn-eyn-ew=an angath=antey=anem

ATT-fall-RET-PP=FOC close=STILL=THEN

‘(He) then staggered repeatedly after only going a short distance’

We see the connection here between attenuation and inception: the beginning stage of an action

will often involve a reduced intensity of action. Some instances of Attenuative are strongly

associated in translation with the beginning of an activity. For example, speakers report that

ngelp-nganeyel means ‘begin to climb’.

In (50) the arrival of the emu is something which is noticed by the miner bird. The ‘seeing’ by

the miner bird involves repeated intermittent glimpses or glances. The miner bird glimpses the

beginning of the emu’s approach to the water where the hunter waits to spear it.

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(50) Aympaymp-el ar-elp-ar-eyel-aw “Atnelengkw

miner bird-ERG ATT-see-PRES-EMPH emu

ap-ey.alh-eyel kwaty-warl Arrer anem”

arrive-GO&DO-PRES water-ALL close=THEN

“The miner bird glimpses it! “The emu is coming to the water. Its close now”

In (51), information was heard from indefinite objects, ‘nobody in particular’ in the ‘general

area’ of the north, ayerrer-ampeny. Their hearing of the information seems to have occurred

over some time and from unstated subjects. There are an undefined and numerous group of

people (who are not quantified) who tell the news. The action occurs intermittently. In another

sentence example of awelp-aw in the data, people hear a herd of cattle which bellow

intermittently.

(51) Ratherr=an aw.elp-aw-ew ayerrer-ampeny-they=anem=arl

3DU=FOC ATT-hear-PP north-direction-ABL=THEN=SUB

‘Then they heard around the north’

The verbs in (52) involve the intermittent repetition of an event. The Attenuative verbs resemble

achievements and usually have an attenuative sense ‘doing in a diminished way’.

(52) ilkweyel ‘make a sudden

movement’

ilkwelp-ilkweyel ‘be twitching,

take a fit’

amparrkeyel ‘shine’ ampelp-amparrkeyel ‘glitter, glisten’

There is a possible parallel with other -elp forms which have inceptive senses involving a

change of state or progression. Roots which occur with Attenuative are likely to also have RUN

-ey.elp and -erl.elp forms, such as aytn- ‘fall’ and ngan- ‘climb’. (See §4.4.4) A comparison can

be made between aytnelp-aytneyel ‘staggering’ and aytneyelpew ‘run and fall’. In the case of

aytneyelpew, the subject has been running or moving fast and the verb describes the inception of

the falling event. An Inceptive meaning also occurs with RUN&DO ey.elp, for example

areyelpeyel (Green 1992:73), indicating the onset of an event. More research is necessary to

determine if there is a correlation between verbs occurring with reduplicated -elp and the other -

elp forms.

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2.6.4 RED.ep Frequentive

Frequentive has a monosyllabic (VCC) template which is copied from the right and followed by

-ep. Frequentive is of low frequency with approximately only 20 tokens in my data. Stative and

Basic Motion verbs with Frequentive have a sense of extended duration and continuous aspect

as with example (53). This analysis refines that of Green (1992:134): ‘shows that the action is

happening repeatedly or keeps happening’.

(53) Anyent-el=antey ayeng akng.ep-akngan-eyel

one-LOC=STILL 1S:NOM FREQ-stay in one place-PRES

‘I am staying in one place’

With intransitive stative verbs FREQ marks continuous aspect as in (54) and (55). One speaker

says that the dog in the second example would be ‘sleeping’ (Casey Holmes, p.c.) whereas the

dog in the first sentence is lying awake, suggesting that the activity of the second sentence

clearly involves an activity of longer duration. The two sentences also involve different verb

inflections as FREQ doesn’t appear to occur with the Present tense marker.

(54) arengk nhenh atyek aynt-eyel

dog this awake lie-PRES

‘this dog is lying awake’

(55) arengk yanh-el aynt.ep-aynt-em

dog that-LOC FREQ.lie-POT

‘the dog lies over there’

FREQ has a ‘backgrounding’ sense which indicates that the Subject usually lives at the location

but may not in fact be at the location at the reference time. Subjects are third person and less

definite. The distal nhak spatial deixis marker occurs, as with STAT (see §4.9.2). FREQ does

not occur with PRES but only modal POT. The source of the backgrounding sense could be the

POT morpheme. A person who is located at the speaker in (56) is contrasted with a person who

is located at another place in (57).

68

(56) Ayeng nhel an-eyel

1S:NOM here sit-PRES

‘I am here’

(57) Ingwer=an an.ep-an-em

other=FOC FREQ-sit/be-POT

‘Another lives (over there)’

In combination with the punctual verbs in Table 13, Frequentive signals iteration or repetition.

The following examples are telic verbs and are all transitive. In example (58), the subject

repeatedly holed a door with a revolver. The short duration of the events is further illustrated in

example (59) involving a repeated process of ‘cleaning’ desert raisins of the toxic chemicals

which their skins contain. Processing involves rubbing the desert raisins in earth and the process

must be repeated for all of the individual fruits which have been collected.

(58) Revolver-el-tangkwel=anem th.ep-thak-ew

revolver-INS-FIRST=THEN FREQ-make hole-PP

‘He holed it with his revolver’

(59) awenp ip.ep-ipar-eyew

fruit (stage) FREQ-clean-PURP

‘To process the ripe ones’

The FREQ event referred to could be a more long-term activity such as the removal of children

from their mothers in (60), a government policy which lasted many decades. The suggestion is

that there are many discrete ‘grabbing’ events involved in the systematic government policy of

removal of children which are an indefinite or unbounded group.

(60) R.ep-rak-enh arlengarr-ew=antey ingwerenty=an

FREQ-grab-IMPP coolamon-LOC=STILL other=FOC

ingwerenty=an rak-enh

other=FOC grab-IMPP

“They were grabbing (or: they would grab them) them while they were still

in their coolamons’

69

In Alyawarr STAT (§4.9.2) and Frequentive reduplication with stative verbs have similar

meanings and a ‘distant subjects’ interpretation. These two forms may be interchangeable and

reflect dialect variation. Further research is needed. Adjacent Arandic dialects have a

corresponding element of the same form, RED.ep, possibly with slightly different functions. In

Eastern Arrernte and Eastern Anmatyerr RED.ep appears to occur more frequently with stative

verbs. The label ‘frequentative’ to describe RED.ep originates with Strehlow (1944:179).

Wilkins (1989:244) labels it Frequentive ‘happens frequently’ and relates it to -rle.pe ‘do

continuously while in motion’ and the proto-Arandic form for ‘go’ ape-.

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3 Derivation and Number

3.1 Introduction

Suffixes of the Verb Derivation category and some suffixes of the Number category occur

immediately after the verb root.

3.2 Derivation

There are several types of verb derivation which can be classified according to the category of

the base and whether a transitive or an intransitive verb results. Transitive and intransitive verbs

can be derived from each other. As I claimed in §2.3, Alyawarr verbs are unambiguously

transitive or intransitive. Verb-deriving formatives follow the root. By contrast, nominal-

deriving formatives occur in the obligatory position. In the following sections I will describe the

verb-deriving morphemes.

Table 14: Derivational Suffixes

Label marker base

Intransitivising

Intransitive Verbaliser -irr nominals

Attribute Intransitive verbaliser -elh nominals

Mediopassive -elh transitive roots

Reciprocal -err transitive roots

Transitivising

Transitive verbaliser -il nominals, adverbs

-elhil intransitive roots

-ern restricted set of roots

3.3 Verbalising suffixes

The compound properties of the verbalising suffixes, IV -irr and TV -il have been introduced in

§2.5.3. Verbs are formed by the addition of verbalising morphemes to nominals and adverbs. In

all cases the IV verb will have a TV counterpart. The verbs formed by the addition of Transitive

Verbaliser -il and Intransitive Verbalisers -irr are somewhat ambiguous in morphological status

but are analysed as compounds in §2.5.2.

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3.3.1 Intransitive Verbaliser -irr

Yallop (1977:66) identified the Intransitive verbaliser –irr. IV productively derives intransitive

verb stems from nominals and adverbs, with the meaning ‘to become X’:

(61) ater ‘fear’ aterirreyel ‘become frightened’

mwerr ‘good, well’ mwerrirreyel ‘become well, better’

irrpwerl ‘dark, black’ irrpwerlirreyel ‘darken, become black’

(62) Ra ater-irr-ey.alh-enh arleng-they

3S fear-IV-GO&DO-IMPP distant-ABL

‘He was getting frightened, going a long way’

3.3.2 Attribute Intransitive Verbaliser -elh

The Attribute morpheme attaches to a nominal base. There are eight in my data. Mostly this is a

nominal which can be reduplicated and which describes the attributes of the Subject. These are

similar to the Physical Attribute Intransitive Verbaliser of Arrernte (Henderson 1998:362). The

Attribute Verbaliser seems to co-exist with the IV -irr intransitiviser and is applied to many of

the same verbs.

(63) alyelk ‘slippery’ alyelkelheyel ‘slip over’

atherrk-atherrk ‘green’ atherrkelheyel ‘become green’

arlwerr-arlwerr ‘curly’ arlwerrelheyel ‘become curly’

altyek-altyek ‘wizened, dry’ altyekelheyel ‘become wizened, dry’

amper-amper ‘around’ amperelheyel ‘go around’

aylemp ‘crooked, bent’ aylempelheyel ‘become crooked, bent’

inkwer ‘happy’ inkwerelheyel ‘get happy, rejoice’

iylpwer ‘empty’ iylperelheyel ‘become empty’

3.4 Mediopassive -elh

Mediopassive (MED) derives an intransitive stem from a transitive root and hence lowers

valency. It has a range of functions dependent upon the individual verb root as shown in Table

16 and discussed in the subsections below. Some verb roots occur with just one of these

functions in the Mediopassive, others have more than one. For example, akelheyel (Green

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1992:9) has the senses ‘break’ (middle) and ‘cut self’ (reflexive). Mediopassive is limited in the

number of verb roots with which it occurs. These are listed in Table 15.

Table 15: Verb roots which combine with Mediopassive (including compounds)

atw- ‘hit’

ak- ‘cut’

arrern- ‘place, put down’

tywen- ‘put up’

arertn- ‘tie’

aw- ‘hear, listen’

arntarnt-ar- ‘look after, watch over’

atyerr- ‘shoot’

il- ‘tell, do’

iw- ‘throw, leave’

art- ‘cover, bury, build’

iltew- ‘split, smash, break’

kwarn- ‘hurt something’

arrtyern- ‘shine’

tyerr- ‘extract, remove’

apern- ‘rub on’

ingkwern- ‘paint, write’

il- TV

thel- ‘pour’

akngartew- ‘turn over’

akng- ‘carry, take’

alth- ‘pluck’

rlkwen- ‘wash’

lhew- ‘wash’

rnkern- ‘stand something up’

rtern- ‘straighten something’

nak- ‘praise someone’

intwererremew- ‘comb, brush’

ipm- ‘leave’

irrnyew- ‘peel’

irrtyertew- ‘hide something’

iylkw- ‘swallow something’

aylertn- ‘twist’

arreyn- ‘scratch something’

73

arrkern- ‘try’

atak- ‘dismantle’

arlengkew- ‘hide something’

antw- ‘call something’

in- ‘get’

The traditional handling of MED in Alyawarr is to label it as ‘reflexive’ with the central

interpretation of ‘do to self’, a characterization which has sometimes gone along with a less

detailed analysis of its functions. Strehlow (1944: 198) labelled the -elh verbs in Arrernte as

‘reflexive’. He maintained that there is no clearly passive marking in Arandic languages as there

is no cultural or pragmatic need for the passive. Both Yallop (1977:57) and the AED have

followed this definition: ‘goes on verbs to show that someone or something is doing the action

to themself’ (Green 1992: 133).

Table 16: Mediopassive functions

Label Function

Reflexive S does V to self

Middle V happens to S spontaneously

Passive V is done to S

Antipassive S does V of perception or attempt

3.4.1 Reflexive

In a majority of cases Mediopassive has a reflexive interpretation ‘do V to self’, as in (64). The

Subject has both Actor and Undergoer roles.

(64) Irrtyertew-elh-eyel ayeng

hide-MED-PRES 1S:NOM

‘I am hiding myself’

With a transfer verb root, MED derives a type of motion verb as in (65).

(65) Kel thip-rnem ingkerr arrern-elh-ey.alh-enh

then bird-NPL:NOM all put down-MED-GO&DO-IMPP

‘Then all the birds were landing ’

In instances like (66), there is an issue of what case labels should be assigned to the arguments

of the clause. The issue arises because of case syncretism of the S and O arguments for full

74

nominals. There are other whole-part constructions for which both NPs appear in the same

grammatical function within the clause, so the simplest analysis in (66) is to assume that there

are two NPs in the same grammatical function. The same part-whole analysis would also be

required for clauses with non-derived intransitive verbs as in (67). This is the simplest analysis

and is preferred to one which sees one of the arguments as being in Object function within the

clause. This analysis could be seen as one in which both NPs are in the same grammatical

function but have different semantic roles.

(66) Artwa akapwert art-elh-eyel itwern-el amp-ekerr

man:NOM head:NOM cover-MED-PRES heat-LOC burn-APP

‘the man is covering his head so that he doesn’t get burnt in the heat of the sun’

(67) Akapwert ayeng arnt-eyel itwern-penh

head:NOM 1S:NOM hurt-PRES heat-SRC

‘my head is hurting because of the heat of the sun’

With reflexive transfer verbs, the whole may be in the agent role and the part in the source or

destination role as shown in (68). An interesting aspect of reflexive transfer verbs in Alyawarr is

that a source or destination argument can be in Ablative or Allative case as in (69). The

reflexive transfer verb co-exists with the more standard transitive verb. The Mediopassive is not

obligatory in reflexive transfer situations as the transitive verb arrern in (70) is also used to

describe the process of placing an object on one’s head.

(68) Iyterlarr arrern-elh-eyel akapwert

headband:ACC put down-MED-PRES head:NOM

‘(you) put the headband on your head’ (AED:178)

(69) Kwey amerterr arrern-elh-ew akapwert-warl

girl:NOM headdress put down-MED-PP head-ALL

‘the girl put the headdress on her head’ (AED: 36).

(70) Iylarnt akapwert-warl arrern-etyek apmer-warl akng-eyn-etyek

headring:ACC head-ALL put-PURP camp-ALL carry-RET-PURP

‘You put the head-ring on your head to take the things back to camp’

The distinction between these constructions is lost in some contexts due to argument ellipsis

(and the syncretism of cases for full nominals). For example in (71) two analyses are possible:

(i) the spear is both the (purported) agent and the patient and the construction is therefore of the

first type, or (ii) the spear is the patient and an ellipsed argument is the agent, in which case the

75

construction is of the second type. This highlights the very important question as to the

distinction between these functions. It is most likely that the spear is the S of the clause in (71).

(71) Ingwer irrtyart=an tyerr-elh-enh-ew

other spear:NOM=FOC extract -MED-POINT-PP

(i) ‘Another spear:NOM pulled itself out’

(ii) ‘(Someone) pulled another spear:ACC out of themself’

Reflexive verbs may be formed by the addition of -ilelh to a nominal. They are not common

with around ten examples in the data. Usually S has some control over the action of the verb and

the reading can be autocausative ‘make self like the attribute of the nominal’ with an auto-

causative as in (72). The two anaynt marked forms in (73) constitute evidence that -ilelh could

be composed of Transitive Verbaliser -il and Mediopassive -elh. Further research is required to

investigate the identity between TV-MED and the Mediopassive verb ilelh ‘make self into

something, change self’ (Green 1992:143).

(72) Ra=arl apmw-il-elh-ew=arl irrtyart=arl athen-ew-el

3S=SUB wrong-TV-MED-PP=SUB spear=SUB lay down-PP-LOC

aketh-warl

open-ALL

‘He made a mistake by laying his spear down in the open’

(73) Artwa ra=an athen-ey.elp-ew irrtyart=arl=ap

man 3S=FOC lay down-RUN&DO-PP spear=SUB=CONJ

anaynt-il-ew=an. Anaynt-il-elh-ew=an=ap ra=antey.

clear-TV-PP=FOC clear-TV-MED-PP=FOC=CONJ 3S=still

‘He moved quickly and laid the spear down and exposed it. He left himself exposed’

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3.4.2 Passive

In many Australian languages, there is a single verbal morpheme which has both passive and

reflexive functions (Blake 1987:61). The focus is on the state of the Undergoer in an agentless

passive. Dixon and Aikhenvald (2000:25) claim that ‘the main effects of the passive are

drawing attention to the O, downgrading the original A and focussing on the state the original O

is in, as a result of the activity reported by the verb’. For example the intransitive verb artelh-

in (74) is derived from the transitive verb art- which has a meaning ‘to cover or to build’ and

thus has a meaning ‘to be covered’ or ‘to be built’. Mediopassive verbs occur disproportionately

with the subordination marker marking a dependent clause. There is a clear correlation between

passive and stativity. There is also an association between the passive construction and the -

ek=arl PP=SUB morphemes which are similar to past perfective forms of the verb.

(74) Warl nhaym=an art-elh-ek=arl

house that build-MED-PP=SUB

‘that house that was built’

3.4.3 Middle

The Middle12

has no suppressed agent, as in (75). With the ‘spontaneous middle’, the action of

the verb happens without an agent. The Subject typically refers to an inanimate entity.

(75) Arwerl=an ingkerr-antey-anem ak-elh-ew.

tree=FOC all-STILL-THEN break-MED-PP

‘Then all of the trees broke’

3.4.4 Antipassive

The antipassive function involves deletion of the patient or downgrading it to a dative-marked

object. Compare the accusative-marked and dative-marked objects in (76) and (77).

12

The term ‘Middle’ has had a wide range of applications (Kemmer 1993:1). I am using the term as a

semantic categorization for a limited number of Mediopassive verbs.

77

(76) Atha ngenh aw-eyel

1S:ERG 2S:ACC hear-PRES

‘I am hearing you’

(77) Ayeng ngkweng aw-elh-eyel

1S:NOM 2S:DAT hear-MED-PRES

‘I am taking notice of you’

It can be compared with the dative of attempt (Wilkins 1989: 180) and (78) although there is no

change of transitivity in that case.

(78) Anamerl ar-ey.elp-erl.an-a anwenger-ampeny aker-ew.

quickly see-RUN&DO-STAT-IMP.S other side-around game-DAT

‘You quickly go off and look for meat on the other side’

A small number of verbs of perception and experience occur with Mediopassive, examples of

which are listed in Table 17.

Table 17: Some verbs with antipassive interpretation

Transitive verb interpretation Mediopassive interpretation

aw hear, understand awelh listen out for, obey

arntarnt-ar look after, watch arntarnt-arelh look out for

artepang-ar look back and see artepang-arelh watch out behind

arrkern tempt, try out arrkernelh attempt

ayl sing someone aylelh sing

As noted above, Antipassive involves the demotion of the object/patient which is then marked

with the dative case. The properties of Antipassives are outlined in Table 18. The emphasis is on

the action of the verb not the agent or the object/patient which in some cases will become

nondefinite or non-referential. Dixon and Aikhenvald (2000:9) note that the ‘Antipassive

focuses on the activity itself (that is, on the agent’s performing the activity).’ Emphasis may be

on the ‘activity indulged in’ as opposed to the effect on the patient (Blake 1987:58). In

Alyawarr the O in an antipassive clause is similar to that reported for Diyari -thadi- (Austin

1981:155) which has a similar range of functions.

78

Table 18: Properties of Antipassives

Avoid mentioning the underlying O

Non-definite, non-referential O

Lack of success, failed attempt

Focuses on activity

The difference between transitive root aw ‘hear’ and derived Mediopassive stem awelh is seen

in (79). The men are listening out for something which is unmentioned. After they hear the

noise, the action is described in terms of the active transitive verb aw- and the Past Completed

tense marker.

(79)

Aw-elh-enh=anem rernem artwe-rnem-ey. Awer-ø=anem=ap

hear-MED-IMPP=THEN 3PL man-NPL-EMPH wind-ACC=THEN=CONJ

rernem aw-ek=an.

3PL hear-PP=FOC

‘The men were listening out. Then they heard the wind.’

In (80), the verb arntarnt-arelh is used in conjunction with a previous intransitive verb. There

could be differences in mood indicated by (80) where Mediopassive indicates an unrealized

event. Mediopassive interacts with aspect, indicating continuous aspect, that this is an ongoing

activity cf. Dixon (1994:148). Lack of completion of an activity can be conveyed by

imperfective aspect. Imperfective Past occurs with the Mediopassive awelh in (79) to indicate

imperfectivity rather than completed actions.13

The gloss ‘getting frightened by something’ in

(81) is close to the passive interpretation although a clearly distinct function can’t be

distinguished. There appears to be an aspectual meaning, possibly inceptive or inchoative

‘become’ which indicates that the activity is ongoing and uncompleted. Further research would

be needed to establish a correlation between Mediopassive and lack of result.

(80) Ratherr=ap ywarn=antey=anem mpwelh-enh=an. Arntarnt.ar-elh-enh.

3DU=CONJ unsuccessful=STILL=THEN wait-IMPP=FOC watch-MED-IMPP

‘They waited without success (for him) They were watching.’

13

Awelheyel is also translated (Green 1992:119) as ‘feel’ but this sense may only occur in combination

with a complement such as arntety ‘sick’ meaning ‘to feel sick’. This question needs further investigation.

79

(81) Ra=ap awey ater.anth-elh-eyn-enh

3S=CONJ boy frighten-MED-RET-IMPP

‘The boy was going along becoming scared’

3.5 Reciprocal -err

Reciprocal derives an intransitive stem from a transitive root. An exception is the intransitive

root angk- ‘speak’. Like Mediopassive, it lowers sentence valency as in (82). The interpretation

is ‘do V to each other’.

(82) Arengk tnhw-err-em

dog:NOM bite-REC-POT

‘Dogs attack each other’

Reciprocal is homophonous with the distinct -err Plural allomorph. Strehlow (1944:122)

doesn’t mention the reciprocal for Arrernte and some of his clearly reciprocal examples are

analysed as number marking. After reading Strehlow’s analysis, Capell (1962:75) subsumed

‘reciprocal’ under number marking. Yallop (1977:60) sees -err as a single morpheme with two

uses, reciprocal and plural. However the two morphemes can be distinguished on three grounds:

meaning, position in the verb structure and effect on transitivity.

Firstly, the two morphemes are distinguishable on the basis of the number of participants

involved in the activities which they describe. Reciprocal involves two or more participants

doing an action towards each other. In contrast Plural involves three or more Subjects who are

doing an activity which is not directed towards each other. Secondly, Plural can follow the root

but can also follow other post-obligatory morphemes including the –enhey element with

compounding forms (§3.7.1.) as in (84). Reciprocal immediately follows the verb root only as in

(83).

Thirdly, Reciprocal and Plural are distinct because the former derives an intransitive verb while

the latter does not alter the transitivity of the stem. Thus, with a transitive root, the Reciprocal

verb will take a Nominative-marked subject while the homophonous Plural verb will take an

Ergative-marked subject. Compare the following examples from the AED (Green 1992:136). In

(83), ergative-marking indicates that the verb is Plural. This sentence would have a reciprocal

interpretation if there was Nominative marking on the subject as in (84).

80

(83) Ampe-rnem-el atw-enh-ey-err-alp-eyel arelh-Ø

child-NPL-ERG hit-POINT-BASE&DO1-PL-BASE&DO2-PRES woman-ACC

‘All the kids are hitting the woman as they go along’

(84) Ampa atherr atw-err-enh-ey.alp-eyel

child two:NOM hit-REC-POINT-BASE&DO-PRES

‘The two children are hitting each other as they go along’

The Subject of (85) from Yallop (1977:60) has been ellipsed. Without knowing that, aherr

could be either the subject or object of the sentence, which is therefore ambiguous. Yallop

claims that, in that particular example, the meaning can be distinguished pragmatically because

the reciprocal sense could not apply with (herbivorous) kangaroos ‘in many if not all contexts’.

In the supposed real-world knowledge of the speaker kangaroos don’t eat each other so the

interpretation of the sentence is likely to be plural. A Plural reading of the verb is probable

because aherr can signify a generic, mass or non-count noun ‘kangaroo meat’ as in ‘we used to

eat kangaroo (meat)’. There is more specification for Number in Alyawarr than Yallop claims.

For further discussion see §3.7. There are examples of arlkw-err with a reciprocal meaning,

such as (86) which reports the purported cannibalism of the Kalkatungu people of Mt Isa. It is

also conceivable that mythological kangaroos might eat each other since mythological

characters frequently behave in ways that differ from their real-world counterparts. There is also

the possibility that the reciprocal reading is only possible with ament ‘by themselves’ and that

‘they eat’ is the usual meaning of the verb.

(85) Aherr-Ø arlkw-err-enh

kangaroo-ACC eat-PL-IMPP

‘(We) used to eat kangaroo’

(86) Ament=antey arlkw-err-enh

separate:NOM=STILL eat-REC-IMPP

‘(They) on their own used to eat each other’

Reciprocal occurs with only one intransitive root, angk- ‘speak’. A common context for the use

of angk-err is a gathering or a meeting and it is usually understood to mean ‘discussing, talking

with each other’. Yallop (1977) analyses angk-err as Plural rather than Reciprocal on the

grounds that angk- is an intransitive root. However as demonstrated in (87) from Yallop (1977:

60), angk-err can occur with a dual subject, in which case it is not Plural. Like other Reciprocal

verbs, angk-err is compatible with both dual and plural subject arguments.

81

(87) Angk-err-eyel alanth

speak-REC-PRES 3DU:NOM

‘The two of them are talking to each other’

3.6 Transitive Verbaliser

The Transitive Verbaliser derives transitive verbs from nominals and verb stems, predominantly

intransitive roots. I analyse the Transitive Verbaliser as having two central allomorphs, -il and -

elhil and a third more marginal one, -ern. For the sake of consistency, I will write the second of

these as -elhil, although it could also be written -elhel.

3.6.1 Nominal bases

Transitive verb stems are created with the addition of TV to a nominal with the resulting

meaning ‘make O have the attribute of the nominal’, as for example in (88) which is similar to

Factitive. In the majority of cases, the -il allomorph occurs, as in (89), but there are three

nominals (recorded so far) which require the -elhil allomorph (90). Further research is necessary

to determine which roots occur with -il and which occur with -elhil.

(88) Arrarntenh akngerr-il-enh thip ra arrakwerrakwerr-el-ey

bush plum many-TV-IMPP bird 3S honeyeater-ERG-EMPH

‘The bird was increasing the number of bush plums, the honeyeater’.

(89) arlpenty ‘long’ arlpentyileyel ‘lengthen’ .

anaynt ‘clear’ anayntileyel ‘to make clear, explain’.

iteth ‘alive’ itethileyel ‘make alive, revive’

arternp ‘slow’ arternpileyel ‘slow down’

(90) anyent ‘one’ anyentelhileyel ‘join, make into one’

rlterrp ‘rattle’ rlterrpelhileyel ‘rattle something’

arlwar ‘round’ arlwarelhileyel ‘blow up, inflate’

In two cases where -elhil occurs, shown in (91) , the base does not function as an independent

nominal but in both cases the same element also occurs with the Intransitive Verbaliser.

(91) akemelhileyel ‘raise, get up’

ahartelhileyel ‘shift’

82

3.6.2 Verb bases

The Transitive Verbaliser derives a transitive verb from a verb stem which is usually an

intransitive root, but is a transitive stem in one case (92). In the majority of cases the function is

causative, but is applicative with some intransitive roots. In this context, only the -elhil

allomorph occurs. As discussed in Chapter 2, this results in a type of compound verb. The -elh

and -il elements can be separated by intervening non-verb material, as in (42) in Chapter 2 and

the stem which ends in -elh is also subject to reduplication.

(92) Rwarr-el akngenh-elhil-eyel lywenty=an

wind-ERG move-TV-PRES bough shade=FOC

‘The wind makes the bough shade move’ (AED:14)

3.6.2.1 Causative function

In its causative function the Transitive Verbaliser derives a verb in which the A argument

causes the O argument to do the action of the verb stem, that is, the O argument of the causative

corresponds to the subject argument of the underived stem (Yallop 1977:61). This is an example

of causative marking within the verb (Elson and Pickett 1988: 32).

(93) Ntwa aytn-elhil-ek ayenh

2S:ERG fall-TV-PP 1S:ACC

‘You made me fall over’

3.6.2.2 Reduplicated TV

This involves a form of reduplication where the -elh stem is reduplicated to express a repeated

action as in (94). See discussion on reduplication in §2.6.1 A similar construction is reported for

other Arandic varieties, including Mparntwe Arrernte (Wilkins 1989:246).

(94) Pwelek nh-el-rnem=an arrangk-elh-angk-elhil-eyel

Cattle here-ERG-NPL=FOC cry-TV1-RED-TV2-PRES

‘These ones are causing these cattle to bellow!’

The reduplicated TV is uncommon and I have only recorded it with eight verb stems, as listed in

(95). The reduplication patterns involved here are mixed. The first case is ambiguous as to

whether the reduplication is of the whole-stem that ends with -elh or reduplication to a

83

disyllabic template. In the second case it is a compound, so it is also structurally ambiguous.

The simplest account of its structure is that the reduplicant is disyllabic.

(95) angkeyel speak angkelh-angkelhileyel ‘cause something to make noise’

wey-angkeyel breathe wey-angkelh-angkelhileyel

irrper-angkeyel stamp irrper-angkelh-angkelhileyel ‘make thudding sound’

arrangkeyel cry arrangkelh-angkelhileyel ‘make someone cry out’

akngelheyel move akngelhew-akngelhileyel ‘shake, buffet’

pweyel blow pwelh-pwelhileyel ‘cause wind to blow’

atneneyel gut atnelh-atnelhileyel ‘pull guts out’

altheyel pluck althelh-althelhileyel ‘pull hair out in a fight’

It may have a sense ‘distributed all about’, as might be the case in (96) where gusts of wind

buffet a sailing vessel. The fifth form listed above is unique in that it appears to have a

disyllabic reduplicant plus an unidentfied component -ew. As there is only one example of this -

ew, it is unclear whether it relates to the -ew element in the Plural allomorph in §3.7.4.

(96) Awer-el anwenhantherr akng-elh-ew-akng-elhil-ek

wind-ERG 3PL:ACC carry-TV1-PL-RED-TV2-PP

‘The wind buffeted us’ (Acts 27:4 translation)

3.6.2.3 Applicative function

A less common use of transitivising -elhil is the Applicative in which original S becomes A (not

O as with Causative) and an original peripheral argument becomes O. For example the

applicative arlk-elh.il ‘call out-TV’ in (97) has an Accusative-marked topic of communication

yanh. The underived verb would express the topic of communication in a peripheral NP. There

are only four such verbs in my data, listed in (98) and only a few tokens of these. Applicatives

are also found in Mparntwe Arrernte (Wilkins 1989:259, Austin 2005:12). The first two

Applicative verbs in the list are also common in other Australian languages (Dixon 2002:204).

(97) Yanh arlk-elhil-ew waylpel-ew-rnem=anem=arl

that:ACC call-TV-PP Whitefeller-DAT-NPL=THEN=SUB

‘(She) then told the whitefellers about that one’

(98) atherreyel ‘laugh’ atherrelhileyel ‘mock, laugh at’

artneyel ‘cry’ artnelhileyel ‘mourn with, cry with’

altyweneyel ‘crouch’ altywenelhileyel ‘sit on eggs’

arlkeyel ‘shout’ arlkelhileyel ‘shout out about’

84

3.6.3 Transitiviser -ern

The -ern suffix is in apparent complementary distribution with the -il and -elhil forms and so is

analysed here as an allomorph of the Transitive Verbaliser as in (99). Yallop (1977:124) does

not analyse -ern as a suffix but as an element of the root. He avers that most roots ending in -ern

are transitive but he doesn’t regard -ern as a morpheme and claims that it has ‘no productive

regularity’. Wilkins (1989) analyses the corresponding -ern in Arrernte as a non-productive

transitiviser. Compared with the other transitivizing forms -il and -elhil, the -ern morpheme in

Alyawarr is of limited productivity. As Wilkins (1989:259) proposes for Arrernte, Alyawarr

may have had a more widespread productive transitivising morpheme -ern at some earlier time.

(99) intransitive transitive

ampeyel ‘burn’ amperneyel ‘cook something’

ilweyel ‘die’ ilwerneyel ‘extinguish something’

inteyel ‘smell’ interneyel ‘smell something’

transitive transitive

arrtyeyel ‘light fire’ arrtyerneyel ‘shine’

The transitive verb arrtyern- ‘shine’ is an apparent exception as it is derived from transitive

arrty- ‘burn something’ but the addition of -ern doesn’t change the transitivity of the root. The

Arrernte tn- ‘stand’ is plausibly related to tnern- ‘stand holding/with something’ derived from

tn- ‘stand’ (Henderson 1998:364). In Alyawarr, rtn- ‘stand’ and tnern- appear to be separate

roots which differ in their initial consonant and tnern- is not apparently derived with -ern.

3.7 The Category of number

Subject number is marked in the verb by a diverse set of forms which occur in four structural

positions in the verb. See Table 19. The allomorphy is both grammatically and lexically

conditioned. Verb number has some parallels with number in the pronominal system but some

important differences. It is obligatory in the imperative mood (see Chapter 5) where singular,

dual and plural are distinguished. In non-imperative moods, number-marking is not obligatory

(Yallop 1977:61). The distinction there is unspecified vs more than two. Often a collective sense

is indicated- ‘doing something together’.

85

Yallop (1977:61) claims that plural marking is not obligatory and for example, angkeyel artwa

‘talk-PRES man’ can mean ‘the men are talking’. However, I have found that the pragmatics of

a situation describing typical ‘talking’ events require non-singular verbs, for example

angkerreyel ‘talking together’. I have identified angkerreyel as reciprocal rather than plural

where the context is that the men are having a conversation. See §3.5.

Table 19: Number marking on Alyawarr roots and derived stems

Simple

IMPERATIVE

SG

DU

PL

-Ø

-enh(err)atherr

-enh(err)arey

NON-

IMPERATIVE

most roots -err

rtn, ilw, w rtn

ilw

‘stand’

‘die’

-enherr

Basic Motion alh-

alp

‘go’

‘go away’

-erl.ew

action

stance/state

rntw

arlkw

aynt

an

‘dance’

‘eat’

‘lie’

‘sit’

RED.ew-

Certain intransitives rntw

anterr

‘dance’

‘run’

-elhelerr

arlk

artn

‘call’

‘cry’

-arlelherr

COMPOUND Verbal Compounds

Deictic Motion

-err (after roots and

derived stems)

-arr, -am (following V

without post-

obligatory

morphology.

No examples have been recorded of marking in more than one of these positions in a single

verb. Since number is obligatory in Imperative verbs, that takes precedence over other positions.

In compound verbs the final position of the pre-compound stem appears to be the preferred site

but other sites also occur:

86

(100) Ampa akngerr atw.ew-atw-err-erl.alp-eyel

child many PL-hit-REC-DO&RET-PRES

‘Lots of kids are fighting each other as they are going back’. (AED:136)

(101) Ampe-rnem arwerl-they aytn-em ngan-err-erl.an-enty

child-NPL tree-ABL fall-POT climb-PL-STAT-IRR

‘The children fall from trees when they climb up’

3.7.1 Plural -err and -arr

These two similar allomorphs are in complementary distribution, contra Yallop (1977:66) who

claims that they are in free variation. The -err allomorph occurs in (i) the post-root/derivation

position and (ii) following -enhey at the end of a pre-compound stem. The -arr allomorph

occurs only at the end of a pre-compound stem, except where the preceding stem ends with -

enhey on the verb root. The similarity of these two allomorphs suggests that they are historically

related, as presumably are the other allomorphs which have an -err element. This may also be

related to the -err in plural pronouns (Yallop 1977: 99).

3.7.2 -enherr

There are a few monosyllabic verb roots which select the -enherr Plural allomorph:

(102) ilweyel ‘dying’ ilwenherreyel ‘many dying’

rtneyel ‘standing’ rtnenherreyel ‘many standing around’

weyel ‘shooting at’ wenherreyel ‘many shooting at something’

This form may be related to the non-singular component of the Dual and Plural Imperative in

§5.2.1. Plural wenherrenh in (103) ‘were hitting something with a projectile’ is distinct from

Reciprocal werrenh ‘hitting each other with projectiles’. Similar forms are also reported for

Antekerrepenh (Breen 1982:30), -enirr and Mparntwe Arrernte -ernirr.

(103) Maket-el=anem w-enherr-enh r=arl rtn-ey.aynt-ek-warl.

gun-INS=THEN shoot-PL-IMPP 3S=SUB stand-UP-PP-ALL

‘They were shooting with rifles at the point where it had come up’

87

3.7.3 -erl.ew plural with Basic Motion verbs

There are two distinct but homophonous -erl.ew morphemes. SIDE erl.iw occurs with non-

Motion verbs and is discussed in §4.5.1. Plural -erl.ew (104) occurs with the Basic Motion verbs

alh- ‘go’ and alp- ‘go back’ (Strickland 1998:115).

(104) Thip-rnem alp-erl.ew-ek

bird-NPL back-PL-PP

‘The birds went away’

Two of Yallop’s (1977:62) -erl.ew examples involve plural subjects and yet he appears to

regard -erl.ew as an aspectual ‘continuous’ marker. While I regard this reading as unlikely,

more research may investigate whether there is an additional component of meaning such as

‘dispersed subjects moving’.

3.7.4 RED.ew-

This allomorph occurs only with mono-syllabic roots, It consists of a specified part -ew

preceded by a reduplicant which is mono-syllabic and therefore is identical with the verb root.

These include state verbs (an- ‘sit, be’ aynt- ‘lie, be’) and activity verbs (arlk- ‘eat’, rntw-

‘dance’):

(105) aneyel ‘sit, be’ anewaneyel ‘ a group sitting around, living’

aynteyel ‘lie, be’ ayntewaynteyel ‘a group lying around, staying’

arlkweyel ‘eat’ arlkwewarlkweyel ‘eating in groups’

rntweyel ‘dance’ rntwew-rntweyel ‘dancing in groups’

Interpretation of individual reduplicated forms depends upon the aspectual character of the base

verb. With stative verbs the interpretation is that there are several referents with a distributive

reading:

(106) Ngenty=an arrangkw artwerrety=arl. Kwaty-weny arwa

soakage=FOC nothing dry=SUB water-PRIV just

aynt.ew-aynt-ew arrangkw

PL-lie-PP nothing

‘The soakages were dry. They had no water in them, nothing’

88

Transitive activity verb roots occurring with RED.ew usually involve plural subjects and

multiple events:

(107) ntang=arl arlkw.ew-arlkw-enh kwaty artnwep-itwew

seed=SUB PL-eat-IMPP water soakage-LOC

‘They were eating seed tucker at the soakage in groups’

In this example, there is a pluractional sense involving episodes of eating which involve

separate groups of people which are distributed over an area. In the same text, arlkwerrenh

‘they used to eat’ with plural reference also occurs, referring to the habitual activity of people as

a whole. Arlkwew-arlkwenh is not only plural, but distributive, referring to dispersed groups

who are involved in discrete eating events in different places on the landscape. More than

merely plural, there is also a ‘spatial distribution’ and possibly a ‘separate groups’ component to

the interpretation although speakers claim that -err Plural and RED.ew have the same

interpretation of multiple subjects.

Plural -ew may be related to an unproductive -ew morpheme which appears with certain

reduplicated nominals:

(108) ament.ew-ament ‘in separate groups’

The -ew part may be related to -erl.ew which marks plural in other contexts such as with the

Basic Motion verbs alh- and alp- (§3.7.3).

3.7.5 -elhelerr

This form is taken as a distinct Plural number allomorph which has a reciprocal sense and which

occurs with less than ten verbs in the data, as in (109).

(109) rntweyel ‘dance’ rntwelhelerreyel ‘all dancing’

anterreyel ‘run’ anterrelhelerreyel ‘run off with each other’

rlkeyel ‘show eyes’ rlkelhelerreyel ‘make eyes at each other’

3.7.6 -arlelherr

The final allomorph, -arlelherr, is the most restricted. The two verb roots involved are similar in

number marking, and form Applicative verbs (§3.6.2.3) which allow intervening material to

occur between -elh and -il:

89

(110) arlkeyel ‘shout’ arlkarlelherrenh ‘all shouted out’

artneyel ‘cry’ artnarlelherrenh ‘all grieved’

3.8 Discrete -am

The Discrete morpheme appears on nominals and verbs. Discrete and -arr Plural number

marking occupy the same position in the morphological structure of compound verbs. Evidence

suggests that -arr and -am are in opposition and I have categorised Discrete with number

marking in a single category. My analysis is consistent with that of Strickland (1998:104) who

claims that it is as though the process is made up of small increments distributed over a period

of time.

When -am attaches to a verb stem, the apparent meaning is ‘discrete events’, separate but

related events ‘one by one’. Separate subjects each doing a discrete action is illustrated in (111).

Although the spearing events seem to have occurred on one occasion, (because the victim of the

spearing died), nevertheless the individual events of throwing the spears were discrete. A

possibility is that Discrete signals that each of the spear throwers was acting on his own

initiative and there isn’t the meaning of ‘doing in a group’ signalled by plural -arr.

(111) Nhanyem rntern-erl.elp-ew menty ahern

this spear-DO&RUN-PP leave it region

nhareny-el-rnem=an ap-ey-am-alp-em-el

this one-ERG-NPL=FOC arrive-BASE&DO1-DISC-BASE&DO2-POT-SS

‘They speared this one, then left it for the ones from this region who were coming’

The notion of discreteness may be applied to events or actors: discrete subjects acting

independently or discrete events. Applied to a singular S, in (112), it suggests that events occur

at intervals.

(112) Aynelikw=an altywen-elhil-eyel rtn.erl-am-ap-eyel

father.ERG=FOC crouch-CAUS-PRES stand-CONV1-DISC-CONV2-PRES

rtern-elh-em-el=an

straighten-MED-POT-SS=FOC

‘The father (emu) is crouching and standing up regularly, straightening itself out’

90

There are about 10 tokens of DISC occurring in my data. Most commonly it follows the

sequence morphemes -ey and –erl in verbal compounds and precedes the inflecting compound

element. In nominals and derived nominals it occurs with a reduplicated base:

(113) anyent-am-anyent ‘one by one’

akngerr-am-akngerr irreyel ‘building up numbers, becoming more’

In the following example DISC is attached to the preverb of a lexical compound:

(114) Aley=arl ra aynt-eyel anwenantherr amperl-am-ar-enh

now=SUB 3S exist-PRES 3PL.EX track-DISC-see-IMPP

yard-akerr ratherr art-ey.elp-ew

yard-CONJ 3DU build-RUN&DO-PP

‘It’s there now, we have seen the tracks/imprints (on a number of separate occasions)

and also the yards which they built’

In this case the Discrete marker –am indicates that there were many occasions on which the

tracks or imprints were seen. Another morpheme used to mark discrete events is Distributed -

erlenty.akngenh §4.6.2 although the latter seems to occur with different roots from those which

occur with -am.

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4 Motion and Aspect

4.1 Introduction

This chapter includes the category of Motion and the category of Aspect as marked in the non-

obligatory morphemes which follow verb roots and derived stems. Firstly I describe the

morphemes which occur in simple verbs. Then I describe complex elements which range in

semantic compositionality and productivity, from compounds to monomorphemic affixes.

In Alyawarr, complex verbs express a variety of grammatical categories. In this chapter I argue

that verbal compounds expressing Sequenced Motion are highly compositional. Aspect, vertical

motion and motion path are expressed by suffixes which are less analysable into combinations

of smaller units. There is likely to be a historical relationship between the less semantically

compositional complexes and free verbs, although I will not make a definite claim here.

There are six sections within this chapter:

Motion

1. Action along a path §4.3

2. Sequenced Motion §4.4

3. Rapid Motion §4.4.4

4. Habitual Action along Path §4.6

5. Vertical motion §4.7

6. Aspect §4.9

4.2 The category of Motion

As I mentioned in §1.2.1, the grammatical marking of motion events is important in Arandic

languages. Payne (1997: 248) claims that “many other (than European) languages

grammaticalise spatial grounding” and that spatial deixis is often ‘more central to the language

than temporal deixis’. Associated Motion was first proposed as a distinct category for Kaytetye.

Koch (1984:23) described the category thus: “the motional forms are largely distinguished

according to the direction of the motion and the time of the motion relative to that of the main

action”.

The category of Associated Motion has been described in other Arandic languages, Central and

South Australian languages, for example Breen (1976), Austin (1981), Tunbridge (1988) and

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Wilkins (1989). Wilkins (1991:212) follows Koch (1984) in regarding Associated Motion as a

separate grammatical category, distinct from Aspect.

The grammatical marking of motion is related to the issue of compounding which was

introduced in §2.5. Sequenced Motion compounds are semantically compositional forms

(§2.5.1.3) consisting of a sequence morpheme and a compounding verbal element. The latter

bears the obligatory morphology. I have opted for a compounding analysis in agreement with

Yallop (1977:61-66) who described compound verbs in Alyawarr, following Strehlow’s

‘periphrastic verbs’ (Strehlow 1944:172-179).

4.3 PATH morphemes

The two Path morphemes contrast in the same position within the verb and describe motion on a

path that is simultaneous with the primary action of the verb stem. Return and Point do not co-

occur and have the same ordering relative to other markers in the verb and are therefore taken to

occupy the same structural position. They describe complementary motions similar to the Basic

Motion roots and thus both involve a motion path which is anchored at one end. Neither of the

Path elements occurs with Basic Motion roots.

4.3.1 -eyn Return

Return has a primary sense of ‘to move to a base’, involving returning to a base or travelling to

a new base. A range of senses depending on the verb stem to which it is attached can be

summarized as follows:

move (away) to base

extended sense: move to implied endpoint

induced motion / transfer verbs: motion of Object (and Subject)

manual action along an object (without motion of whole Subject)

extended sense (‘base’ and ‘motion’)

physically extend on a path to an implied endpoint

a single object with elongated orientation or

a line of separate objects

change towards recognized end state

Return is similar to the cognate Arrernte Reversive -irtne ‘do while going back’ (Wilkins

1989:277). Return indicates that the action of the verb happens while returning to a base or

moving to a new base, as in (115). A close parallel exists between RET and alp- ‘move to and

stay at (new) base’ (§2.4.1.3) in that they both convey ‘move to base’. This motion takes its

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reference location from the base but is not inconsistent with motion towards the speaker. Things

which come to a final state of rest are categorised with things that are making a move back to

base.

(115) Alkwarrer aylenanth ak-eyn-enh

bush banana 1DU.EX cut-RET-IMPP

‘We two cut (were cutting) bananas as we went’ (Yallop 1977:61).

In (116) the particular transitive verb involves that both the Subject and the Object return to a

previous base of the Object (who is dragged back angkep to the place where he committed a

crime). There is a degree of ambiguity with Return in that it is sometimes not clear whether S or

O is moving to a final point. This sense is similar to Kaytetye ‘induced motion’ -eyne (Koch

1984), indicating that something is being carried or caused to move away from its original

location.

(116) Ratherr=ap angkep renh iytarr.akng-eyn-enh

3DU=CONJ back 3S:ACC drag-RET-IMPP

‘They (2) dragged him back’

The event of (117) is not necessarily happening all along the return motion path, but happens at

a point along the path. The opposite action - exiting the burrow - is described in the same text by

tyerrelh-enh- ‘exit-POINT’ which utilizes POINT (associated with an alh- motion away from

base).

(117) Ayl-ek=anem renh Kwerrenarr renh aylp-eyn-etyek=anem

sing-PP=THEN 3S:ACC rainbow snake 3S:ACC enter-RET-PURP=THEN

‘They sang the Rainbow snake so that it would re-enter (its burrow)’

Manual action occurs along an object with limited motion or without the motion of the whole S:

(118) Alerl atha angern-eyn-eyel,

wait 1S:ERG dig-RET-PRES

‘Wait while I dig along’

With bounded (telic) verbs the action happens along the path while the Subject is returning or

going away. Example (119) shows the distinction between what are activities (cutting, falling)

done at one location and an activity which necessarily involves the manual action along an

object: ‘stripping off leaves along the branch’.

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(119) Artern-em aytn-em alperr-rnem alperr-rnem alth-eyn-em

chop-POT fall-POT leaf-NPL leaf-NPL strip-RET-POT

‘They would chop and the branches would fall. They would move away stripping

off the leaves’

With State verbs, one or more objects can be configured in a line, as in (120), which recedes

away from the reference position. Objects recede away figuratively with a fictive motion which

is also mentioned in connection with alpeyel in §2.4.1.3.

(120) arla=nt nhanyem aynt-eyn-eyel.

root=JUST this lie-RET-PRES

‘There's only the (horizontal) root here’

RET can also refer to a line of separate objects, for example houses which are in a line, although

I don’t have any examples of this use in the text data.

Another function of RET involves a metaphorical return to a previous state of affairs, similar to

the re- prefix in some English verbs, for example ‘repay’ and ‘renew’. This sense is illustrated

in example where the meaning ‘repay’ arises with the root anth- ‘give’. This sense is similar to

that reported for Arrernte -irtne by Wilkins (1989:276, 2006:60). Another example is

mwerrirreyneyel ‘getting better again’, a metaphorical return to the state that someone was in

before they became sick. See Wilkins (1989: 276). I would not make the claim as Wilkins’

(1989:279) does for Arrernte that the figurative interpretation of RET is derivational.

An extended sense of RET is ‘move away to an (implied) endpoint’ which involves movement

away from the reference position which can be that of the speaker or Subject. Related to ‘move

away’ is ‘be dispersed or diminished’. This can be applied to objects which move to a final state

as with (121). There is ongoing activity, reinforced by the repetition of akely=anem ‘then a

lesser amount’ in example (122), which suggests that the flour diminished at a steady rate.

(121) Arrnga=an atyenh thel-elh-eyn-enh aleth=antey knife-penh

blood=FOC 1S:POSS pour-MED-RET-IMPP always=STILL knife-SRC

‘My blood was flowing out after (being cut with) the knife’

(122) Flour=anem akely=anem akely=anem irr-eyn-enh

flour=THEN less=THEN less=THEN IV-RET-IMPP

‘The flour was becoming less and less’

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The use of Return with areyirr ‘to build up’ in (123) can be related to the apparently irreversible

buildup of the funds, reaching a point of no return, similar to small objects and body parts which

are involved in Return motions. Return is used to describe a recognized endstate in (124).

(123) Areyirr-eyn-enh=arl=ap maney angkep

accumulate-RET-IMPP=SUB=CONJ money back

anth-eyn-ey.angenh=antey akngerr=anem irr-ew ikwerenh

give-RET-NEG=STILL many=THEN IV-PP 3S:POSS

‘It kept building up! He couldn’t repay the money, his bookup (account)

kept increasing’

(124) Aylpaty rlengk=ant ra ilkw-irr-eyn-eyel

breast now=JUST 3SNOM big-IV-RET-PRES

alakenh-anyem il-eyel aylpaty akarnterrng

like-around Call-PRES breast akarnterrng

‘Breasts that have just started to get bigger, they are called akarnterrng’(AED: 7)

Previous descriptions of Return -eyn have followed Strehlow (1944:172), for example Yallop’s

(1977:60) description of an ‘iterative’ stem-formative which has a sense of ‘an action performed

while moving or an action maintained or repeated’, perhaps over-generalising from

interpretations such as (115). However, I conclude that repetitive action is not basic to its

interpretation. There are other morphemes which have iterative readings such as Frequentive

and Distributed.

4.3.2 -enh Point

POINT describes a distinct event which occurs at a point along a motion path. Typically the

motion is resumed after the event. Without POINT the verb is unspecified for location and

motion. The difference between the verb with and without POINT for the verb areyel ‘seeing’ is

shown in (125) and (126).

(125) ar-ek

see-PP

‘saw’

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(126) ar-enh-ek

see-POINT-PP

‘saw while going along a motion path’

The speaker’s choice of whether a POINT form is used may be subtle, depending upon whether

the action is judged by the speaker to have occurred along a motion path. When I first recorded

the text Atyetyakwerleny (1996), my informant used altyewey-alhemel as in (127). Viewed as a

whole motion event, the action can be seen as part of a journey. In 2005 upon reflection the

informant changed the verb to include POINT and the sentence was changed to (128).

(127) Parrik=anem altyew-ey.alh-em-el

fence=THEN rollover-GO&DO-POT-SS

‘While going and pushing the fence down’

(128) Parrik=anem altyew-enh-ey.alh-em-el

fence=THEN rollover-POINT-GO&DO-POT-SS

‘While going and pushing the fence down on the way’

The analysis of the verb in (128) as POINT followed by DO&GO provides evidence that

POINT and DO&GO are not in the same structural position in the verb.

In contexts like the above where the motion is separately expressed, the semantic contribution

made by POINT may go unnoticed and probably for this reason Yallop (1977:62) follows

Strehlow (1944) in claiming that it is ‘impossible to associate any specific function’ with it.

Strehlow (1944:177) stated that the putative anama suffix (which I take to be equivalent to -

enh-em POINT-POT in Alyawarr) ‘is a common termination in lieu of the -ma suffix of the

present indicative tense in the non-W.A. (Western Arrarnta) verbs, although it is not unknown

in W.A. It has no special force’. There are similarities with Austin’s (1981:79) ‘prolative’ in

Diyari. See also Breen (Dixon 1976:752) and examples from Wunambal (Vaszolyi in Dixon

1976:629-46). POINT is homophonous with IMPP, but is distinguished from it because IMPP

occurs in the obligatory suffix slot in the verb and can co-occur with POINT. The analysis taken

here is different from the entry for POINT in the AED (Green 1992:134) which reads ‘goes on

verbs to show that the action is happening while the actor is going past somewhere or moving

along.’

The action and the motion are concurrent (but not necessarily co-terminous)’. A single event

occurs at a point within the motion path. Often the site of the POINT activity will be a natural

boundary as in (129) where a car passes through water. The boundary is a gateway in (130). A

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discrete activity occurs which involves a temporary suspension of the motion in (131). In the

case of riverbeds and gates, a reference position is obvious but in many narratives the exact

location at which POINT occurs is not evident.14

(129) Kwaty-angkwarr alh-ew apeylp.atw-enh-eyel mwetek-el

water-PERL go-PP splash-POINT-PRES car-ERG

‘The car went through the water, making it splash’ (AED:66)

(130) Keyt atherr weth=an iterl.ar-eyel. yanh-angkwarr=anem

gate two that=FOC know-PRES there-PERL=THEN

rwaylp-enh-ek

pass-POINT-PP

‘(We) know those two gates. Then we passed through them’

(131) Mwetek-weny alh-erl.ew-enh nantew-el-ant mail-warl.

vehicle-PRIV go-PL-IMPP horse-INS-JUST mail-ALL

Arleng-ey. Anyent.inger apek aynt-enh-em-el.

distant-EMPH once maybe camp-POINT-POT-SS

Atherr-inger apek aynt-enh-em-el.

two-times maybe camp-POINT-POT-SS

‘Without cars they would go by horse to (get) the mail. A long way!

And camping maybe one or maybe two nights’

Some POINT verbs are almost lexicalized as seen in Table 20. An example is anpenh-

apparently involving a root anp-, for which there are no other forms except for anperl-alh,

DO&GO. See §2.5.3.2.

14

For this reason I have not used the gloss ‘PAST’. There will be no difference between the points of

view of the narrator and the protagonists in the story and therefore no need to distinguish between ‘text

internal and text external reference points’.

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Table 20: POINT-marked verbs

anpenh ‘depart, start out’

rwaylp pass rwaylpenh ‘pass something on the road’

ywerr finish ywerrenh ‘pass out of sight’

artarnp cross artarnpenh ‘make a creek crossing’.

aylp enter aylpenh ‘enter, dive into, (sun) set’

4.4 Sequenced Motion compounds

In this section I describe the compounds which are formed with the Basic Motion verbs which

are discussed in §2.4.1 and then the -elp forms which are discussed in §4.4.4. The sequence

morphemes convey the relative temporal sequence of the motion and the action of the initial

verb. They indicate that the activity occurs before the motion DO&MOTION (-erl) or that the

activity occurs after the motion MOTION&DO (-ey). The Sequenced Motion compounds shown

in Table 21 are semantically compositional, that is, predictable from the sum of their component

parts. Although their meanings are also determined or constrained by their accompanying verb

and other morphemes, these do not change the meaning significantly. Non-verbal material may

intervene between the stem and the compounded Basic Motion verb. The Motion compounds

are highly productive and have a high frequency of occurrence. Yallop (1977: 62) reports that

they are common in narrative style.

Sequenced Motion compound gloss reference

-ey.alh go and do §4.4.2.1

-ey.alp go to base and do §4.4.2.2

-erl.alh do and go §4.4.1.1

-erl.alp do and go to base §4.4.1.2

-ey.elp run and do §4.4.4.1

-erl.elp do and run §4.4.4.2

Table 21: Sequenced motion compounds

Motion before action Motion after action

-ey.alh

‘travel away from base and do V’

-erl.alh

‘do V at base and travel away’

-ey.alp

‘move (back) to base and do’

-erl.alp

‘(move from base to endpoint) to do V and

move (back) to base’

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4.4.1 DO&MOTION -erl

DO&MOTION indicates that the activity of the verb occurs either before a motion or a change

in stance. There is no evidence to relate -erl to participial or continuous aspect functions.Yallop

(1977:63) stated that ‘Neither is it entirely clear what distinctions, if any, are conveyed by the

different ligatives’, where his ‘ligatives’ include what I analyse as the sequence morphemes.

One possibility, in his view, is –erl having a participial function e.g. atwerl-alpek would be

atwel alpek ‘hitting, went away’. However, the motion and the verbal event are not happening

concurrently which is the case for the concurrent activity marker Same Subject -el15

. See for

example (265) in §5.3.5. Yallop has apparently selected the wrong participial form in the

translation of the example. The similarity would be with English past participles in a complex

sentence with an interpretation ‘having hit, went away’.

In contrast with activities marked by MOTION&DO, the DO&MOTION activity often appears

uncompleted and seems to refer to unrealised states or events. Yallop (1977:62) has taken a

‘present continuous’ analysis16

over from Strehlow (1944:178) who understands this morpheme

as ‘to be doing’.17

I disagree with the analysis of continuous aspect for -erl with Motion verbs. At the reference

time, the action of the -erl stem is concluded whereas the motion is not concluded (because the

verb action precedes the motion), giving the impression that the activity of the verb is ongoing

and continuous. The activity described may appear more continuous where it occurs with

stance-existence verbs which have an inherently continuous aspect. Some complex markers

such as -erl.iw, -erl.ayn and -erl.arrern involve activities of short duration and always occur

with PP in past reference. Other -erl complexes such as -erl.ap and -erlenty.akng only occur

with IMPP and refer to events of longer duration.

15

Yallop (1977:130) regards -erl as a participle and gives examples which are inconsistent.

16 Wilkins (1989: 253) regards Arrernte +rle as meaning ‘do continuously’ but that distinct +rle occurs in

continuous verbs only and not the +rle that occurs in Motion verbs. He regards them as distinct but

homophonous elements.

17 Wilkins (1989:287-288, notes 23-25) comments upon Strehlow’s analysis of these morphemes, finding

that they are insufficiently differentiated. For example, three forms attached to the verb tweme ‘hit’ which

have distinct interpretations in present day Western and Mparntwe Arrernte are glossed ‘hit while going

along’.

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A possible interpretation of -erl is ‘begin Ving at the reference time’. This differentiates -

erl.aynt ‘start doing V continuously at the reference time’ from -aynt ‘do V continuously at an

indefinite time’.

4.4.1.1 -erl.alh

‘do V and then move away from base’

The motion is subsequent to the verb action as in (132). The form is comparable to the account

of +rle non-concurrent verb action in Wilkins (1989: 287). A change in stance can also be

marked by -erl.alh, specifically a change from the sitting position to the standing position as

given in (133) where the crippled man is told to ‘get up!’ from a sitting position.

(132) Il-erl.alh-ek renh Iylpakepey an-erl.aynt-enh.atherr

tell-DO&GO-PP 3S:ACC Iylpakepey stay-CONT2-IMP.DU

mpwelanth=an aherr-ek=arl alh-em-kety

2D=FOC kangaroo-DAT=SUB go-POT-REAS

‘They told Iylpakepey before going, “You two stay here because we are going hunting for

kangaroo!” ’

(133) rtn-erl.alh-a!

stand-DO&GO-IMP.S

‘Stand up!’ (Alyawarr translation of Bible, book of Acts 3:6)

4.4.1.2 -erl.alp

‘do V and then move to base’

The Subject does an activity and then moves to a base:

(134) Kwaty=an kel=arl anwenantherr ar-erl.alp-ew apmer

water=FOC OK=SUB 3PL.EX see-DO&BASE-PP place

Arlkenty-el=an

place name-LOC=FOC

‘Then we went and saw the waterhole at Arlkenty (and came back)’

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4.4.2 MOTION&DO -ey

MOTION&DO indicates that the action of the verb occurs after the motion. The motion is

completed at the reference time. Strickland (1998:107) explains it as ‘the actor goes somewhere

before doing an action’ or the action should be done simultaneously. Wilkins (1989:287)

analyses the corresponding Arrernte tye- as ‘prior motion’.

4.4.2.1 -ey.alh

‘move from base and do V’

The sense of -alh here is similar to that of the free verb. The relation to the base is evidenced by

for example, ayntey-alhek ‘go and stay’ (Simon Ross, pers. comm.) which means ‘camped for

only one night’ in (135) and the location where the Subject stays will not be the final

destination. If the Subject stays in the new location without returning to the original base as part

of an extended journey, the motion is referred to with -alp. The -alh verb only refers to the

initial movement away from the base or deictic centre. The -alp verb indicates that the Subject

is either returning to the original base or taking up a new base, thereby shifting the deictic centre

to the new location, cf §2.4.1.3.

(135) Irrwelty-itwek apmer atyenh-itwek aynt-ey.alh-ek ra

place-LOC camp 1S:POSS-LOC lie-GO&DO-PP 3S:NOM

‘It went and stayed at my camp at Irrultja’

In (136) the Subject (Rainbow Snake) goes away from its base to a point where it then dries

itself in the heat of the sun.

(136) Tek.an-ey.alh-enh ra atwerrp=an.

dry out-GO&DO-IMPP 3S evening=FOC

‘He went and dried out in the evening’.

A number of the -ey.alh compounds have a ‘suddenly do upon arrival’ reading which probably

led to Yallop’s comment that they were ‘punctiliar’ with arey-alh which means ‘spotted,

discovered’, evident in (137). The lack of a fixed destination for compounding -alh can be

understood in the difference between arey-alpew ‘go away to or back to a final point and see’

and arey-alhew ‘go and see’ but also ‘discover’ where the ‘finding’ part of the activity can

occur anywhere along the journey and is not restricted to any fixed spatial reference point.

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(137) Atwaty-atwaty=an rernem ar-ey.alh-enh

gorge-RED=FOC 3PL see-GO&DO-IMPP

‘Then they would spot gaps’.

I concur with Wilkins (1989:287 footnote 23) that Strehlow (1944:172) doesn’t seem to indicate

‘prior motion’ for -tye which means that ‘three distinct forms seem to have the same meaning’.

Yallop followed Strehlow’s analysis and not surprisingly claimed that -ey had no independent

meaning.

4.4.2.2 -ey.alp

‘move to base and do V’

The -ey.alp compounds indicate ‘return to base or move to a new base and do an activity’. The

compounding verb -alp appears to have the senses of the independent Basic Motion verb. The

use of -ey.alp to indicate ‘move to a new place’ is evident in (138) where the Subjects referents

are making a new camp and have never lived in the area before.

For Arrernte, Wilkins (1989:286) correctly maintains that this means ‘arrival back at a place’

not ‘upon arrival’ as Strehlow (1944:172) claims, but for Alyawarr this must be qualified by

saying that the Subject’s final point of rest or destination is the critical factor here as alp has a

reading of ‘go (away) to a new base’.

(138) Waylpel ahelengkw-el-rnem apmer mpwar-ey.alp-ew

whitefeller aggressive-ERG-NPL camp make-BASE&DO-PP

yanh-ew-ey alalew-ey.alp-ew

there-LOC-EMPH shift-BASE&DO-PP

‘The aggressive whitefellers went and made their camp there. They went and shifted to

there’

In §2.4.1.3 I indicated that the free verb alp is used for situations where the Subject goes away.

It occurs in situations where there is an ‘exiting, moving away’ as some form of final

‘movement to a point of rest’ as in (139). A Rainbow Snake comes out of its burrow and then

continues its motion. The -ey.alp complex also occurs where objects are said ‘to be carried

away’ in a line of movement away from their point of origin or along the line of movement of

the Subject, in (140), the Rainbow Snake.

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(139) Arratyerr-ey.alp-ek=anem akapwert=anem ra akapwert-tangkwel=anem

straighten-BASE&DO=THEN head=THEN 3S head=FIRST=THEN

‘Then it straightened up, its head first’

(140) Awer-el awerrk-enh-ey.alp-ek=anem arwerl ingkerr

wind-ERG twist-POINT-BASE&DO-PP=THEN tree all

‘The wind went away, twisting up all the trees’

Yallop (1977:63) claims that the -erl.alh and -erl.alp compounds seem to indicate events that

last some time. Most of his examples consist of -erl.alp forms. Where the Subject of example

(141) was getting other horses along a motion path, the activity would continue. This example

seems to be different from my translation and analysis of DO&BASE in §4.4.1.2.

(141) Yarraman ingwer-rnem anterrkw-erl.alp-ek

horse other-NPL get-DO&BASE-PP

‘Then (we) went off getting other horses’

4.4.2.3 -enhey compounds

The MOTION&DO sequencing morpheme can be affixed to POINT, which was examined in

§4.3.2. Yallop (1977:63) notes the use of -enhey- but doesn’t assign any meaning to the -enh

POINT element. The Subject performs an action while moving along a motion path from a base

to a destination -enhey.alh (142) or to a base -enhey.alp

(142) Ampen-enh-ey.alh-enh nantew-akert atherr=an

track-POINT-GO&DO-IMPP horse-COM two=FOC

‘The two horsemen were tracking as they travelled along’

In (143) the boy presumably sees the birds before he arrives at his camp, but they are seen on

the return journey and ‘seeing’ is regarded as a discrete and distinct activity, before arriving

home. Ar ‘seeing’ is probably a special case in that it denotes an action which can be done

without interrupting the motion.

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(143) Ra awey ar-enh-ey.alp-enh Aley thip-rnem akarrerr-eyel

3S boy see-POINT-BASE&DO-IMPP now bird-NPL gather-PRES

arelh ampwa ikwer-itwek

old woman 3S:DAT-LOC

‘The boy saw (them) as he was returning, “Now the birds are gathering around the

old woman” ’

4.4.3 Reduplication and Motion compounding

The sequence morpheme reduplicates with Basic Motion and Deictic Motion compounds:

(144) Arrwekeleny-el arwa nantew-akert=an lat anth-erl-anth-erl.alp- enh

ancestor-ERG just horse-COM=FOC letter give-RED-DO&BASE-IMPP

‘The ancestors would go around with horses handing out letters’

The context of the reduplicated verb here is that the letters were given to a number of different

recipients in different places during a trip by the same Subjects, and the temporal ordering of -

erl ‘do and move’ applies. This meaning seems to be enhanced in combination with

Imperfective -enh with a habitual reading ‘to do V habitually’. In my data, reduplication only

occurs with Sequenced Motion compounds, SIDE -erl.iw and DO&RUN -erl.elp. In (146) it can

be seen that while monosyllabic roots involve the addition of –erl, disyllabic roots have no

joining morpheme. This could be a more general pattern. Evidence for this comes from

examples such as atnarnp-atnarnp-alp, ‘hopping’ a disyllabic root reduplication. At this stage

there are few examples and more evidence would need to be found to confirm that this pattern is

general.

Reduplication occurs with the Sequenced Motion forms in (145). A monosyllabic root and a

sequence morpheme are copied to the base. With telic roots the interpretation is ‘Subject does

the verb action in a number of places while going along a motion path’. The killers were going

from place to place killing people. The temporal sequencing of -ey ‘Motion and Do’ applies and

involves multiple instances of killing by the same Subjects in different places. Either -alh-or -

alp follows the base.

(145) Atw-ey-atw-ey.alp-ew

kill-BASE&DO1-RED-BASE&DO2-PP

‘(They) went and killed, went and killed (at Arrtyeler)’.

(Nugget Smith, Lake Nash history)

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The sense with atelic verbs is ‘to keep doing something continuously while going (away)’. The

reduplicated forms in (146) are from ampen ‘follow’ and intern ‘smell’ (trs).

(146) aleyart ra atwarr-enh-ew ampen-ampen-alp-em=anem

there 3S descend-POINT-PP follow-RED-back-POT=THEN

intern-intern-alp-em arrpemarl renh

smell-RED-back-POT again 3S:ACC

‘There it descended. They would follow it along, sniffing as they as they went along’

The reduplication of apey- in (147) indicates that many Subjects were involved in arriving.

(147) ap-ey-ap-ey.alh-ew=anem rernem. “Kel wenh!

arrive-GO&DO1-RED-GO&DO2-PP=THEN 3PL “OK QUOT

aley=an rernem ayl-elh-eyel=anem” wenh!

now=FOC 3PL sing-MED-PRES=THEN QUOT

‘They arrived and (others) arrived. Hey! now they are singing!’

4.4.4 RUN

-erl.elp ‘Do V and then move quickly away along a path’

-ey.elp ‘Moving quickly along a path and then do V, culmination’

These two forms involve the -elp marker which has a variety of interpretations including

‘attenuative’ and ‘inceptive’ with verbal reduplication in §2.6.3. It marks the beginning of an

event and has the bounded quality of an Achievement. There is no evidence that a single -elp

morpheme occurs in Attenuative and RUN constructions.

There is no indication of the overall direction of the movement in terms of a deictic centre,

source or endpoint of the motion. Motion between base and endpoint is not relevant or not

related to the action. The point which the Subject moves to is neither a base nor the endpoint of

travel. There is no major ‘turn’ or diversion from the motion path (as with SIDE -erl.iw) where

the activity occurs. The verbal event is preceded by rapid motion, in contrast with the vertical

motion complexes in which the Subject moves from one stationery stance to another stance

(Frank Holmes, p.c). Unlike the -enhey forms the motion is either prior to or subsequent to the

verbal action. There is a low number of tokens for these two forms (12). Both complexes

collocate only with the Past Perfective marker and describe a completed activity. So far I have

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not found stance/existence verbs with -erl.elp. Most of the -erl.elp forms involve transitive verbs

but there are also Basic Motion verbs. There is very limited overlap of the two forms occurring

with the same verb roots.

4.4.4.1 -ey.elp RUN&DO

‘Run along motion path and begin to do V’

Table 22: RUN&DO verbs and their interpretations

-ey.elp

an-ey.elp-eyew ‘rapidly move and sit’

rtn-ey.elp-eyew ‘rapidly stand, stop suddenly’

ak-ey.elp-eyew ‘run and pick’

aytn-ey.elp-eyew ‘move and fall’

ipmelh-ey.elp-eyew ‘cease doing activity’

an-ey.elp-eyew ‘rapidly move and sit’

apat-ey.elp-eyew ‘become amazed’

mwerrirr-ey.elp-eyew ‘become better’

akat-ey.elp-eyew ‘become quiet’

The -ey.elp complex marker appears to indicate ‘to move and do’ and that an activity is just

beginning which are shown in Table 22. The last three examples don’t involve actual motion

but a change of state. The focus is upon suddenness. The marker indicates inception, the initial

stage of an event.

The Subject has run or driven to the point where the action of the verb suddenly occurs.

Strickland (1998:109) reports that it has ‘the aspect of something occurring suddenly or

instantaneously’. With stance verbs there is a rapid movement to the point where a stance is

adopted. The vehicle travelled along to the position and then stood in (148) indicating ‘quickly

move and stand’. A motion leads up to a state. The motion activity may lead to an event

described by a transitive verb, indicating ‘quickly move and do’ in (149).

(148) Yanh Toyota rtn-ey.elp-ek

that Toyota stand-RUN&DO-PP

‘There the Toyota came to a halt’

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(149) Apwert atherr=anem ratherr in-ey.elp-ek

stone two=THEN 2DU get-RUN&DO-PP

‘Then they went quickly and got two stones’

The sense of ‘quick movement’ is perhaps reinforced by the fact that RUN&DO occurs with the

PP tense marker -ew or -ek which suggests fast, completed actions.

In (150) the Subject falls down before completing the journey. He falls off a galloping horse

angath-antey ‘close, not far’ without completing the motion. A hunter began to sit in the bird

hide waiting for emus to arrive in (151). The Subject in (152) runs to get the bush fruit before

the other children can get them.

(150) Aytn-ey.elp-ew angath=antey

fall-RUN&DO-PP close=STILL

‘He fell down after not running very far’

(151) Ingwepenh-antey an-ey.elp-ew intart artartey-ey.

morning-STILL sit-RUN&DO-PP bird.hide Granny-EMPH

‘In the morning he went quickly to sit in his bird hide. My granny’

(152) Reggie Camphoo-ey anterr-ew re-tangkwel ak-ey.elp-eyew

Reggie C.-EMPH run-PP 3S-FIRST pick-RUN&DO-PURP

altwerr-ey

bush.orange-EMPH

‘Reggie Camphoo ran so that he could start picking the bush oranges first’

4.4.4.2 -erl.elp DO&RUN

‘Do V and quickly move away’

Table 23: DO&RUN verbs and their interpretations

-erl.elp

arrty-erl.elp-ew ‘burn and move away’

iw-erl.elp-ew ‘leave and move away’

anth-erl.elp-ew ‘give and move away’

atw-erl.elp-ew ‘hit and move away’

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There are a limited number of tokens of this complex marker, which are shown in Table 23. All

examples suggest an action followed by a rapid move away along a motion path. In (153) the

action continues to have consequences which are relevant at the time of reporting. Although the

killing is a completed event, the ongoing drama and consequences are still unfolding from this

event at the time of the speaker’s reporting. The Subject has made a journey from the point

where he killed the victim, to the point where he has been apprehended. The event began with

the activity of the -erl.elp verb. The contrast with SIDE -erl.iw is that SIDE indicates a ‘turn’ in

the motion path which is not conveyed by -erl.elp. The brief motion is directly to the point

where the action occurs. As it doesn’t refer to a completed motion to another location, Basic

Motion verbs are usually needed to complete the picture of where the Subject has moved to.

DO&RUN occurs frequently with Achievement verbs, including anth- ‘give’. In (154) Frank

Dean is a policeman who is relieving Jack Kennett, a police colleague who is going away on

leave. Dean is at the beginning of his tenure after being appointed by his predecessor.

(153)

Nh=an ngenh irrkaty-warl akng-eyn-eyel

this=FOC 2S.ACC same-ALL take-RET-PRES

ntwa=rl atw-erl.elp-ek-warl.

2S:ERG=SUB kill-DO&RUN-PP-ALL

‘Take you back to where you killed (the other)’

(154)

Angwenh-el? Jack Kennett-el anth-erl.elp-ew renh Frank Dean=anem

who-ERG Jack K.-ERG give-DO&RUN-PP 3S:ACC Frank Dean=THEN

‘Who? Jack Kennett then appointed (literally: gave) Frank Dean’.

The DO&RUN marker is not mentioned in other accounts of the Alyawarr language. There is a

phonological similarity to -erl.alp ‘do V and then move to base’ which can lead to these forms

not being heard and recorded as a distinct form by researchers. The reason for accepting this

form as a distinct form is that it is a counterpart to the well-attested -ey.elp with the temporal

sequencing reversed, where the -erl component indicates ‘to move away after doing the verb

action’.

4.4.4.3 -erl.elp DO&RUN Reduplication

Basic Motion roots alh- and alp- form compounds with reduplicated initial elements and -erl.elp

(§4.4.4.2). The disyllabic reduplicant copies both the monosyllabic root and the sequence

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morpheme as in (155). There are no examples in the data of unreduplicated -erl.elp with Basic

Motion roots. The translation is ‘multiple Subjects move away from X rapidly’, and is typically

applied to groups of people and things like sheets of roofing iron and letters. I have not found

the corresponding RUN&DO with reduplication.

(155)

Ater-penh ingwerenty alh-erl.alh-erl.elp-ew Wave Hill-warl

fear-SRC other go-DO&RUN1-RED-DO&RUN2-PP Wave Hill-ALL

‘There were others who fled in fear to Wave Hill’

4.4.5 Compositionality and motion compounds

I have argued that Alyawarr Motion compounds are compositional. I now consider the handful

of specific verb forms which Yallop (1977:65) claims are more opaque in meaning and

therefore better analysed not as compounds but as single ‘opaque’ lexical items. The perceived

lack of compositionality could just result from translation effects though, because the meanings

of these compound verbs are predictable from the senses of their components if all the senses of

the individual lexemes are considered. I discuss arey-alhem, as in (156) ‘go and see, discover’

as a semantically predictable compound in §4.4.2.1. Iwerl.alp in example (157) has senses of

‘leave’ in common with other iwe- forms which Yallop recorded e.g for iw-enh-ek ‘left (a

place)’. Yallop (1977:164) has ‘drop, forget’. The ‘leave and go away’ interpretation is

semantically compositional. I discuss the compositionality of Deictic Motion verbs in §2.5.3.2

(156) ar-ey.alh-em

see-GO&DO-POT

‘come upon, find’

(157) iw-erl.alp-em

leave-DO&BASE-POT

‘leave behind on a trip’

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4.4.6 Compounding vs. morphemic complexes

In §2.5.1.3 I introduced semantic compositionality and argued that Alyawarr compounds are

compositional. In §4.4.5 I dealt with what appear to be non-compositional compounds in

Yallop’s analysis (1977:65). Now the arguments for compounding will be considered.

In relation to ostensible compounding elements within his category of Associated Motion in

Arrernte, Wilkins (1989:277) claims that ‘there is nothing to distinguish the functioning of the

complexes from the functioning of the monomorphemic suffixes’ - in terms of position within

the verb structure. He prefers the term ‘morphemic complex’, avoiding a verb compounding

analysis (Wilkins 1989, 1991). In his view ‘the meaning of these morphemic complexes is ‘not

the mere addition of the meaning of the morphemes but is more idiomatic’. These forms are

‘unified forms deserving their own definitions and their own entries in the lexicon’. Morphemic

complexes ‘convey a singular (idiomatic) meaning’ and therefore are not semantically

compositional’. His chief evidence is the interpretation of intye.lhe ‘DO COMING THRU’ and

intye.alpe ‘DO COMING BACK’ He compares these with the suffix -intye ‘DO COMING’.

According to Wilkins this suffix means ‘motion towards speaker’ but in the complex intye.alpe,

alpe ‘return’ would add a contrary ‘motion away from speaker’ component to the complex, and

therefore the complex cannot merely be the sum of intye and alpe. Wilkins’ further argument is

that ‘all the suffixal complexes in the category of Associated Motion’ are morphologically

equivalent to single suffixes. The morphemic complexes ‘take up the same position in the verb

as certain suffixes do, with the same inflection types following and the simplest analysis,

therefore, is to say they are both of the same category regardless of morphemic complexity’.

Alyawarr lacks morphemes which are equivalent in meaning to intye ‘come to speaker’. In

Alyawarr the ‘return to base’ translation of alp- is compatible with ‘come to speaker’ (§2.4.1.3)

in the situation where the location of the base and the speaker are the same. Thus there is no

negation of alp- ‘return to base’ as there is in Arrernte intye.alpe. Therefore alp- and alh- retain

their uncompounded meanings in compounds and are semantically compositional.

The degree to which the motion forms in Arrernte assume an ‘idiomatic’ meaning unrelated to

that of the uncompounded forms has been overstated. Even if the intye.lhe and intye.alpe forms

were non-compositional, there would be no reason why other combinations of morphemes

couldn’t be regarded as compositional and regarded as compounds, given that compositionality

is a cline phenomenon.

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4.5 Rapid actions

I have grouped the Rapid complex markers together because they include an -erl element and

describe an overall activity that is rapid in some sense. The Subject moves away rapidly from

the site of the verb action. The base and destination are unspecified. Rapid action complexes are

less semantically compositional and I regard them as complex markers rather than compounds.

Rapid morphemes haven’t been described in detail in previous accounts of Alyawarr. The Rapid

complex markers are shown in Table 24:

Table 24: Rapid complex markers

complex label meaning

-erl.iw SIDE Move rapidly to side and do V

-erl.ayn AWAY Do V rapidly and move away

Rapid complexes tend to combine with PP rather than IMPP in past reference (where -enh

occurs it will indicate past habitual). I will describe SIDE and AWAY in this section.

4.5.1 -erl.iw SIDE

‘move from the path rapidly to do V and then move back to the path’

Applied to non-Motion (usually transitive) stems, SIDE indicates a diversion from a point

located along a pathway between the base and destination. According to speaker Simon Ross

(pers. comm.) the motion involves ‘turn’ which I interpret as ‘deviate from the motion path’.

My analysis contrasts with the ‘continuous’ reading of Yallop (1977:62) which follows

Strehlow (1944:178) who analysed it as an eastern form equivalent to Western and Northern

Arrernte -la nama, usually described as Continuous18

. The sense of ‘continuous’ is not

applicable to SIDE. The semantics of the related root iw- ‘throw’ or ‘leave’ appears to be related

to the rapidity of the event. The same form iw- occurs in a number of lexical compounds.

Alyawarr speakers describe the event as ‘quick one’ and there is a typically short distance

between the path and the point where the verb action occurs. The related Arrernte -rliwe is often

translated as ‘like lightning, quick as lightning’ (Wilkins 1989:254). No specific prior or

subsequent motion is involved. The lack of duration of the activity is not a sufficient defining

property of SIDE as there are other complexes which involve lack of duration -‘quick’-

18

The -erl.iw marker in Yallop’s examples is analysed here as a homophonous allomorph of the Plural

(§3.7.3).

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movements which contrast with it. Wilkins (1989:269) notes the high frequency of the

corresponding morphemic complex in Arrernte narrative.

In (158), there is a kind of zig-zag motion from one waterhole to another to inspect them and

see whether they contain water. After quickly assessing their state, the Subject diverts back to

the motion path.

(158) Arrangkw=arl. aynterrk arrpemarl aylenak ar-erl.iw-ew

nothing=SUB dry too 1DU.EX.cp see-SIDE-PP

‘Nothing, we saw that it (waterhole) was dried up as well’

It is even possible to return to a base ‘camp’ as in (159), where the participant gets the rifle then

returns to the motion path, but unlike -erl.alp ‘do V and then move to base’, the location of the

base is not of concern to the speaker. SIDE relates the Subject to the motion path rather than

home or destination points as with the Sequenced Motion suffixes. The contrasting inerl.alp

would suggest that he was returning to a base and remaining there. In (159) for example, iw-

erl.alp ‘leave-DO&GO’ and iw-erl.iw ‘leave-SIDE’ may be described by speakers as ‘same’ but

events described by verbs inflecting with -erl.iw occur at an unspecified point along a motion

path. While iwerl.alp means ‘to go and drop something off and then return’, iwerl.iw can be

translated ‘go back to the motion path after making a brief diversion in another direction’.

(159) Waylpel anyent yarraman-enp alp-erl.ayn-ek apmer-warl=anem.

whitefeller one horse-WITH back-AWAY-PP camp-ALL=THEN

Maket=anem in-erl.iw-ek.

rifle=THEN get-SIDE-PP

‘One whitefeller went back to camp on a horse. He got a rifle’

There is also a figurative extension of SIDE from a spatial notion to a temporal sense to mean a

brief or temporary state:

(160) Itna=n atha iylpel-erl.iw-ew

name=FOC 1S:ERG forget-SIDE-PP

‘I forgot (its) name’

4.5.2 (-erl).iw Small Repetitive Reduplication

‘X does V repeatedly with small movements’

Reduplicated Repetitive occurs with verbs which are listed in the table below and are different

from those which occur with unreduplicated SIDE. I only have eleven tokens of the

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reduplication in the data and conclusions are drawn cautiously. The verbs describe bodily

movements which are repeated and in quick succession. Typically these movements are made

by a limb, involving the repeated extension or movement of the limb which is reflected in the

iconicity of reduplication. In the reduplication, the -erl.iw form occurs with monosyllabic roots

in which case only the single syllable of the root is reduplicated. See Table 25 and compare with

Reduplicated TV in §3.6.2.2. There is no evidence that the reduplicant is either prefixed or

suffixed to the base. Where the stem is disyllabic, the entire root is reduplicated and the -erl

element does not occur, as shown in (161) where the apparent meaning of the verb is ‘tie

something repeatedly, a number of times in quick succession’.

(161) Belt atyenh arertn-arertn-iw-ew atha renh

belt 1S:POSS tie-RED-REP-PP 1S:ERG 3S:ACC

‘I tied my belt around it (leg)’

Another use describing processes such as the processing of seeds is illustrated in (162). The

reduplication is formed from a monosyllabic root ath- ‘to grind seeds or make a damper’.

Reduplication is used for repetition of an event. The Repetitive reduplication is similar in

meaning to FREQ and ATT reduplication in describing small movements and attenuated

activities.

(162) Alerl ath-ath-erl.iw-eyel amern-tangkwel

wait grind-RED-REP-PRES damper-FIRST

‘Wait, I'll just prepare a damper first’ (AED2)

Table 25: Small repetitive Reduplication

Verb interpretation Reduplication Interpretation

Intransitive

itnwarnp- heart beat Itnwarnpitnwarnp.iw- heart beat fast, racing

atnarnp- jump atnarnp-atnarnp.iw- hop around

weyangk- breath wey-angk-angkerl.iw breathe fast

arerr- see each other arerr-arerr.iw- keep glancing at each other

rlkerl- eyes show rlkerl-rlkerl.iw- flash eyes at someone

Transitive

arertn- tie arertn-arertn.iw- tie around quickly

irrarlk- clean irrarlk-irrarlk.iw- clean quickly

alth- pluck althaltherl.iw- pluck rapidly

ath- make damper athatherl.iw- make a damper rapidly

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arreylp- chew, munch arreylp-arreylp.iw- chew, munch quickly

kwern- swallow kwern-kwern.iw- swallow quickly

There is also a similarity with one of the senses of RET -eyn (§4.3.1) which occurs with small

movements: the limbs are involved in making rapid repeated movements. This

SIDE+reduplication can be compared with atnarnp-atnarnp-alpeyel ‘hop along, skip along’

(Green 1992:110) and with E/C Arrernte (Henderson 1998: 240) ‘hurried repetition’ although

the E/C morpheme occurs with different roots.

4.5.3 -erl.ayn AWAY

‘do V and rapidly move away’

AWAY involves rapid motion ‘do something quickly and move away’. According to Strickland

(1998:113) this suffix ‘shows that the action happens suddenly, perhaps immediately or

spontaneously’. This analysis is tentative as there is a limited number of tokens (<10) within the

data. The exact difference between AWAY and DO&RUN is not clear. Like some of the other -

erl compounds the -erl here probably indicates that the action of the verb occurs before motion,

i.e it is DO&MOTION -erl. In (163) the cattle are described as nhantey ‘here’ and the

implication is that the action will happen at the location where the Subjects are. In view of the

illicit nature of the activity, there is a rapid move away from the scene.

(163)

Rernem-ap angkerr-erl.ayn-enh “Ngay pwelek rntern-erl.ayn-ey

3PL-CONJ discuss-AWAY-IMPP Hey cattle spear-AWAY-HORT

arrpemarl-aw! Pwelek-rnem nh-antey rtn-enherr-eyel!”

again-EMPH bullock-NPL here-STILL stand-PL-PRES

‘They used to discuss and move away, ‘Hey, lets spear cattle again! All the cattle are here!’

AWAY is plausibly related to Return with a similar sense of ‘move away’ but without the sense

of ‘return’. AWAY can combine with at least one Basic Motion verb and at least one Deictic

Motion verb:

115

(164)

Waylpel anyent yarraman-enp alp-erl.ayn-ek

whitefeller one horse-WITH back-AWAY-PP

apmer-warl=anem maket=anem in-erl.iw-ek Ap-ey.alp-erl.ayn-ek

camp-ALL=THEN rifle=THEN get-SIDE-PP arrive-RET-AWAY-PP

waylpel maket-akert-el

whitefeller rifle-COM-INS

‘One whitefeller went back quickly to camp on horseback. Then he got a gun.

He came back quickly with the gun’

Alyawarr anpenh- ‘depart’ anperl.alh and ‘depart and go somewhere’ usually refer to a rapid

departure. There are cognate verbs for ‘run’ or ‘hurry along’ in other languages which Wilkins

lists eg. arntpe ‘to run’ in Kaytetye. The -ayn part of AWAY could be cognate with E.C

Arrernte -artne- which ‘adds a component of speed’ (Wilkins 1989:291) except that -artne is the

first element of a morphemic complex in Arrernte. The Alyawarr form is consistent with this

analysis in having prepalatalization, corresponding to the retroflex consonant in Arrernte.

4.6 Action along a path

The markers in this class combine with verbs other than the Basic Motion verbs. They occur

exclusively with the IMPP tense-aspect marker and have an Imperfective aspectual reading.

Table 26: Habitual action along a path complex markers

-erl.ap CONV X does V, while moving along a path

-erl.enty.akng DISTR Distributed motion

4.6.1 -erl.ap Convey something along

‘X does V, while moving along a path’.

Convey has a range of senses involving motion in the data. The analysis here differs from that

of the AED (Green 1992: 136) in which -erl.ap has the meaning ‘do continuously while in

motion’. The problem with the AED definition is that other markers have the same or similar

glosses, e.g. RET in §4.3.1 and the actual differences are not clearly distinguished there. Unlike

RET which indicates ‘return’ or ‘away’, CONV appears to have no direction of motion. With

intransitive Stance verbs, CONV refers to activities which occur when the Subject is being

conveyed in a container of some kind as in a vehicle or a dish as seen in (165), since that allows

the essentially static stance to be maintained during motion.

116

(165) Aley-anyem kwey ankwaynt-erl.ap-enh

there-ROUND girl sleep-CONV-IMPP

‘From there the girl slept (being conveyed along in a car)’

The contrast with Return §4.3.1 and Stance verbs can be seen with:

(166) aynt-eyn-ek

lie-RET-PP

‘Camped on the trip home’

With transitive verbs, there are multiple instances of a verbal event which happen along the

motion path according to the aspectual character of the verb root. Activities indicated by

unbounded verbs will usually occur all along the motion path and achievements indicated by

bounded verbs will happen several times along the path. CONV is inherently imperfective and

combines with Imperfective or Present tense-aspect marking.

In (167), Aboriginal children are being picked up by the whitefellers as those whitefellers

travelled around. By contrast the direct object ‘food’ is ellipsed in (168). The spears were being

used to procure food as they were being carried by their owners and appear to be in Instrumental

function.

(167) Apekath=arl in-erl.ap-enh-aw. Waylpel-el atherr-ey

halfcaste=SUB get-CONV-IMPP-EMPH whitefeller-ERG two-EMPH

‘It was the halfcastes that the two whitefellers went around getting’

(168) Ikwer-el-ant anyent-el arlkw-erl.ap-enh=an maket-weny-el

3S:DAT-INS-JUST one-INS eat-CONV-IMPP=FOC rifle-PRIV-INS

‘A person would just eat with it (spear), (taking it along) before we had rifles’

Abstract entities such as stories are also conveyed:

(169) Re tangkwel=arl alh-enh arrwekeleny angka=arl il-erl.ap-enh

3S first=SUB go-IMPP first story=SUB tell-CONV-IMPP

‘He went around telling stories- the first one to do that’

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4.6.2 -erlenty.akng Distributed motion

‘X habitually moves back and forward along a path doing V’.

DISTR collocates only with the IMPP Imperfective past marker. It applies to activities which

involve travelling along a motion path doing V on a regular basis. Unlike reduplicated forms

which involve stationary iteration such as FREQ (§2.6.4), in this case the S regularly moves

backwards and forwards along the motion path. Distributed Among a list of ‘miscellaneous’ (i.e.

under-described or little understood) verbal operators Payne (1997:257) has a ‘distributive’ verb

operator found in some languages of the world (specific languages are not mentioned) which

has a sense of ‘all over the place’ or ‘with a back-and-forth motion’ which is comparable to

DISTR. A plausible link exists between Distributed and transitive akng- ‘carry’ as the action of

the verb is concerned with a whole motion path from one point to another, although DISTR

does not derive a transitive verb. Another possible link is with Irrealis -enty §5.3.3.

There are many situations involving such a distributed motion, for example where animate

Subjects travel along a pad19

or regular route to water and back again. The activity in (170)

involves the routine daily activity of going and getting horses and leading them to water.

Distributed Motion is plausibly related to the number of horses as much as to the number of

occasions of movement.

(170) Nantew-rnem in-erlenty.akng-enh kwaty-warl akng-ey.alp-enh

horse-NPL get-DISTR-IMPP water-ALL take-BASE&DO-IMPP

atwerrp-atwerrp

evening-RED

‘They would get the horses and lead them to water in the evening’

In (171) the action of the verb is being done repetitively and to a degree that is annoying. Given

this meaning, DISTR is possibly related to Arrernte ntye-iknge ‘do too much, too often’

(Henderson and Dobson 1994:351).20

Wilkins (1989:357) says of this that the speaker is

unhappy or sick of something. However the Arrernte examples of this construction have no

sense of ‘going back and forward doing X’ and may be marked by imperative and present tense

marking which doesn’t occur in the Alyawarr data.

19

A ‘pad’ is a track that has been worn by animals such as cattle.

20 Wilkins (1989:357) refers to iknge as a clitic to nominals and adverbs and says that the speaker is

unhappy or sick of something.

118

(171) Awey-ay! ilek-ek anngernt-irr-erlenty.akng-eyel

boy-EMPH what-DAT nuisance-IV-DISTR-PRES

kwaty-ek=an aylekenh-ek

water-DAT=FOC 1DU:POSS-DAT

‘Boy! Why are you always going back and forward and being a nuisance with our water?’

4.7 Vertical movement and ‘do while Y approaches’

The pair -ey.aynt UP and -erl.arrern DOWN indicate changes of posture, position in the vertical

plane and doing an action while someone else approaches. They appear to be only partially

compositional and I treat them as complexes. The ‘V change in posture’ sense of UP occurs

with intransitive stems while the ‘do while Y approaches’ sense of -ey.aynt occurs with

transitive verb stems as in Table 27.

The complexes account for a gap in the Arandic language data identified by Yallop (1977: 63),

in which Alyawarr appeared to lack ways to express verb action occurring while climbing or

descending. The number of tokens found in texts in my data is relatively low (less than 20) and

therefore caution is used in their interpretation. Vertical motion forms are also apparently rare in

Arrernte.21

Wilkins (1989: 286) admits that the two corresponding markers ‘are not attested in

my textual corpus at all.’22

These forms are not widely reported for other Arandic languages.

Goddard and Harkins (2002:215) mention the -katinyi ‘bring, take, fetch’ forms in

Yankuntjatjara as a morphological means of marking ‘active verbs marking a change of

position’.23

Table 27 shows the vertical motion markers.

21

Partly this is due to the semantic transparency between –ty.antye and the non-compounding form antye

which means ‘climb’. The corresponding Alyawarr verb is cryptic: aynt means ‘lie’ and the connection

between the stance verb and the compounding form is not as clear.

22 Wilkins (1989:286, 294) admits that for Arrernte ‘examples of –tye.kerle and –tye.antye have been

gleaned from conversational snippets and through elicitation. See my comments about elicitation in

§1.7.5.

23 Harkins claims that iwelheme, akemirreme and arrernelheme mean ‘lie down’, ‘stand up’ and ‘sit

down’ respectively. It’s not clear that they have this meaning in Alyawarr although the words have very

similar meanings. Yankuntjatjara is a language which is not closely related to Alyawarr.

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Table 27: vertical movement markers

complex sense Verb stems transitivity

-ey.aynt ‘V happens in upward

direction,

akemirr ‘rise’

rtn ‘stand’

intransitive

‘X do V while Y

approaches’

ar ‘see’

tnhw ‘bite’

transitive

-erl.arrern ‘V happens in a downward

direction’

iwelh, aynt ‘lie’

aytn ‘fall’

intransitive

Alyawarr uses vertical motion complexes to indicate a change of stance or body posture in the

vertical plane. The result is to change event classes (Aktionsarten in §4.9). These are bounded as

Achievements have an ‘idealised lack of duration’ (Kearns 2000: 203). Both vertical complexes

make Accomplishments from States and Activities and collocate with the Past Perfective tense

marker describing a rapid, bounded activity.

State verbs usually represent the event class of State as they are unchanging, atelic/unbounded

and have duration. Alyawarr takes the posture forms as basic, with the vertical movement

suffixes modifying the basic forms to indicate the adoption of a posture. Table 28 shows the

corresponding State, Posture and Agentive verbs.

Table 28 State, Adopt posture and Agentive forms

State Adopt posture Agentive

an ‘sit’ anerl-arrern ‘sit down’ arrern ‘put down’

aynt ‘lie’ aynterl-arrern ‘lie down’ athen ‘lay down’

rtn ‘stand’ rtnerl-alh ‘stand up’(from sitting)

rtney-aynt ‘stand up’ (from lying)

rnkern ‘stand up’

4.7.1 -ey.aynt ‘UP’

‘V happens in an upward direction’.

With intransitive verbs UP involves a change of stance or posture ‘get up and V’. The action

involves a rapid upward movement and a change of posture from lying to standing as in (172). I

will take a different analysis from the AED (Green 1992:129) and Strickland (1998:106) who

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label -ey.aynt ‘continuous’, probably relating it to CONT1 -aynt and CONT2 -erl.aynt.

Apparently a different sense of aynt is in focus in CONT. The complex is not easy to recognize

and further analyse because, unlike the Kaytetye and E/C Arrernte forms, uncompounded aynt-

‘lie’ has no association with ‘rise, move upwards’, leading Yallop (1977: 63) to conclude that

there were no vertical motion complexes in Alyawarr. However, it may be a case of sequential

‘lie and then V’. The effect can be that of ‘springing up’, ‘striking’ or ‘bursting forth’ from a

more horizontal position to a more vertical position. In all examples recorded so far, UP occurs

in situations in which the Subject is ‘lying’ in its usual posture, such as snakes in (173).

(172) Ingwe-penh anantherr akemerr-ey.aynt-ew

night-SRC 1PL:NOM rise-UP-PP

‘We rose early in the morning’

(173) Alpentew-ey.aynt-ew nhak=anem antekerr=anem

burst-UP-PP there=THEN south=THEN

tyerrelh-ey.aynt-ew

exit-UP-PP

‘Then it (snake) burst out on the south side, it came out’

The aynt part of UP is likely to be historically related to the other Arandic language markers.

Holmer (1963:45) and Strehlow (1944:76) comment upon the variation between Southern

Arrernte irnteme ‘climb’ and other Arrernte dialects ntyeme, which is recognized as the regular

correspondence between prepalatalised and palatal consonants across varieties. The

prepalatalised Alyawarr aynteyel ‘lying’ closely resembles Southern Arrernte compounding root

-irnteme ‘do while ascending an elevation’ (Strehlow 1944:76). This usage is comparable with

Arrernte +tye-antye 'DO UPWARDS' (Wilkins 1989:285 and Henderson and Dobson 1994:

563). UP in Alyawarr corresponds to Eastern and Central Arrernte +tye-antye ‘do something

while moving upwards’ and Kaytetye -y.ayte- ‘get up’ which ‘have different nuances depending

upon the main verb’. According to Koch (1984: 26), ‘with stance verbs like atne- ‘stand’, it

contributes to the notion of vertical movement, hence ‘get up’’. The compounding form [ie ayt-]

is ‘identical to the verb root that by itself means ‘rise, come up, and grow (of hair and plants)’.

4.7.1.1 ‘Do V when X arrives’.

Another sense of UP involves the subject doing an action to someone who is approaching or

arriving24

. It occurs only with transitive verb stems and intransitive verbs that select a dative

24

Compare with English ‘come up’.

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marked core argument. In (174) the two Subject referents of the sentence had been waiting to

grab the other man. Their previous stance doesn’t seem as relevant as for the UP sense of

ey.aynt although it apparently occurs with Subjects which exist in a horizontal or extended

manner as for two snakes waiting to strike in (175).

(174) Ratherr=ap renh anterrkw-ey.aynt-ew=anem

2DU=CONJ 3S:ACC grab-UP-PP=THEN

‘Then they got up and grabbed him when he arrived’

(175) “Alerl!” wenh “Artnarp-ey.aynt-eyew ikwer-warl”

“wait!” QUOT jump-UP-PURP 3S:DAT-ALL

‘Wait! (we will) jump up on him when he arrives!’

The most common TAM inflection taken by UP is Past Perfective.

Upwards motion is not a necessary component of the meaning, noticeable in the Alyawarr Bible

translation of Acts 3:10 where the Subject is lame and yet would beg for money from the people

who are arriving: arlkarew-ey.aynt-enh ‘ask, humbug-UP-IMPP’. Again there is a

correspondence between Alyawarr UP with Arrernte +tye-antye ‘do something to someone as

they are coming towards you or when they arrive’ (Henderson and Dobson 1994:565). Wilkins

(1989:293) says that the equivalent Arrernte form -ty-intye ‘do on Z’s arrival’ indicates that the

object or focus moves to the place where the Subject is and then the Subject does the verb action

to the object/focus on his/her/its arrival. This construction ‘differs from all other associated

motion forms because it attributes motion to the object or focus dative-marked core argument

rather than the Subject’.

As Wilkins (1989:294) says ‘in all of these examples the subject of the action is human and s/he

has been consciously waiting for the object/focus in order to do the verb action to them’. A

similar situation prevails in Alyawarr where all of the examples of UP involve animate Subjects

and a ‘conscious waiting’, evident in (176). I asked an informant about the difference between -

ey.aynt and the verb without the complex -ey.aynt. The informant indicated that the difference is

that when the complex is used, the implication is that the action is intentional; the snake was

waiting to strike the man.

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(176) Rtnwem-el artwa renh tnhw-ey.aynt-ek

snake-ERG man 3S:ACC attack-UP-PP

iwerr-el=arl aynt-enh-el

track-LOC=SUB lie-IMPP-LOC

‘The snake attacked the approaching man when it was lying on the road’

4.7.2 -erl.arrern ‘DOWN’

‘do V in a downward direction’

DOWN appears to be partially compositional as the transitive free verb arrern has a downward

motion component meaning ‘put down, place down’ (and is in contrast to tywen ‘place up’).

Transitive arrern occurs in this construction with intransitive stems, where the Subject changes

position, but it does not affect the transitivity of the stem. It’s not clear why -arrern occurs in

DOWN rather than its intransitive Mediopassive derivation arrern-elh. Given the limited

semantic compositionality and the transitivity, I treat -erl.arrern as a monomorphemic complex.

DOWN can combine with verb roots which also convey downward motion such as aytn ‘fall’,

evident in (177). DOWN with State verbs conveys ‘change posture downwards’. The

combination creates Achievements, enabling the speaker to describe an Achievement of moving

from a standing posture to a lying posture, as with iwelh- in (178). This partially accords with

Strickland (1998:116): ‘the actor puts himself in a set body position’ but my analysis also

includes a downward component of motion. DOWN can occur with derived intransitive stems

with IV and the Mediopassive.

(177) Pwelek aytn-erl.arrern-enh altywen-erl.arrern-enh

cattle fall-DOWN-IMPP roll-DOWN-IMPP

rterrng=anem rernem atw-enh

neck=THEN 3PL.NOM hit-PP

‘The cattle used to fall down and roll over. They would spear them in the neck’

(178) Ankw-ew-arrpantey iwelh-erl.arrern-ew atwerrp-atwerrp

sleep-DAT-MOCK lie.down-DOWN-PP evening-RED

‘He lay down as if he was going to sleep in the evening’

In (178) DOWN seems to involve an involuntary sudden activity of downward movement, or

where the Subject has less agency. This is the case even when the action seems to have been

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initiated by the Subject. Often DOWN is associated with final states and death. A number of

Antekerrepenh examples in Breen (1982) have been glossed with ‘finally, in the end’.

The Alyawarr examples appear to be different in function from Wilkins’ (1989: 284) examples

of Arrernte tye.kerle which involve the Subject’s change in stance. An exception is (179) which

involves the ingan ‘climb’ and DOWN.

(179) Ingan-erl.arrern-ew apwert ikwer-warl arrpemarl Wakerl-warl

climb-DOWN-PP hill 3S:DAT-ALL again place-ALL

‘He climbed down the hill to Wakerl’

Compare with Arrernte tye.akerle (Wilkins 1989: 285) which indicates the downward motion of

the Subject in (180).

(180) Artwe-le arrwe re-nhe twe-tye.kerle-ke.

man-ERG wallaby 3sg-ACC hit-DO DOWNWARDS-pc

‘The man killed the rock wallaby on his (the man's) way down (the hill)’

Many of the forms in Carl Strehlow’s (1909) Aranda (Arrernte) wordlist (Table 29) have senses

including motion in the vertical plane and changes of posture, similar to those recorded for

Alyawarr.25

Table 29: Downward motion forms in the C. Strehlow wordlist

C Strehlow wordlist gloss Current Arrernte orthography

renalitjikalama ‘sit down’ arrernelhetye-kerleme

tnanbutjikalama ‘jump down’ atnarnpetye-kerleme

irbutjikalama

‘go into the water,

sun set’ (N. dialect)

irrpetye-kerleme

25

In a footnote Wilkins (1989:286 footnote 19) says that T Strehlow 'claims that there is a verb form

'kalama' meaning 'to descend from a height'. Wilkins claims "that the verb does not presently exist in any

of the Arandic languages" and "I have not found anywhere else in Strehlow's writing an example of this

verb's use". Clearly Wilkins hadn't considered the C Strehlow wordlist (C Strehlow 1909). I have found at

least ten examples of kalama as a free verb in the wordlist. There is also an entry akerleme in ECAED

(Henderson and Dobson 1994:63). T.G.H Strehlow analysed kalama as a bound form or 'periphrastic

verb' as he labels them in his 1944 work (Strehlow 1944:172). On the available evidence, it would appear

that akerleme is more compositional than Wilkins claims.

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4.8 Cultural explanation for complex motion verbs

The motion elements can only be understood in terms of the typical lifestyle and movement of

Alyawarr speakers, or at least the traditional lifestyles that are presumed to be the setting for the

historical development of the language. The contrastive oppositions which exist within the verb

motion category characterise typical movements which are made by speakers of the language.

As I discussed in §2.4.1.1, the location is unrelated to the position of the speaker. There is a

more important factor for Alyawarr and that is the location of the base which is the hearth or

place conceived of as a base. Alyawarr are highly mobile and make temporary base camps,

apmer. In the Alyawarr Region where there is a low rainfall and a low resource base, it was

necessary to range over a very wide area to obtain food. They would shift camp regularly.

Referring to another Central Australian language group, Ngaanyatjarra, Glass (1980:123)

observes that ‘travel was an intrinsic part of their daily life’. I say ‘a’ base camp because in

traditional hunter-gatherer societies the base camp shifted frequently. Alyawarr views the

endpoint of the Subject’s journey as the determiner of what verb is used. The semantics of Basic

Motion verbs alh ‘go’ and alp ‘move (away) to a base’ §2.4.1.3 relate to essentially two kinds of

motion. One was the day trip awangk where food would be gathered, that is described as

alheyel. Another kind of motion alpeyel involves moving to a base, either the original base or a

new one. The move to a new base is a frequent occurrence despite the more sedentary nature of

modern Indigenous lifestyles on the larger communities. The language accommodates this

reality with the semantics of alpeyel.

Wilkins (1991:228) claims that in Arrernte ‘one is only compelled to represent the present

spatial perspective on the event and its associated motion path if they choose to use one of these

associated motion forms’. In Alyawarr, there is little evidence that the use or non-use of the

forms has anything to do with the present spatial perspective. Non-use of the forms is not

‘uncooperative’ or ‘children’s speech’, but the additional information encoded in the compound

is often redundant and not required to describe the event. In Alyawarr the choice of which form

is to be used to describe a particular motion cannot be said to be ‘dependent on the spatial

relation between the place where the report is being made and the motion path of the Subject of

the action’ as suggested by Wilkins (1989:268) and diagram 6-1 (Wilkins 1989:281).

Consequently, there are not ‘several possible and mutually exclusive reports which make use of

the ‘concurrent motion’ forms’. Rather the forms used are dependent upon the base and the

motion path of the speaker.

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4.8.1 Example of Motion

The following is a description of an actual event, showing how the motion forms are used in

Alyawarr to describe a variety of movements26

. The motion events from this description are

seen in Figure 2.

I stayed at the Ampilatwatja clinic and went to see one of the senior men. We talked briefly and

then I took him to the council office. While I was talking with the town clerk of the Aherrenge

Association at the council office, I indicated to him that we needed to attend a meeting of the

health service board and that I should take him there. He went to the arnkenty single men’s

quarters, saying to me before he went,

(181) Ayenh ntwa in-enh-etyek

1S:ACC 2S:ERG get-POINT-PURP

‘You pick me up on the way’

He wanted to be picked up from the single men’s quarters’ in order that we attend the health

service meeting. POINT -enh represents a discrete and ‘bounded’ activity that occurs along a

motion path.

When I arrived at the arnkenty I met a Kemarr man whom I call mwerey (mother in law

generation) who asked me if I wanted to buy a pmwar, a wooden dish which was traditionally

used as a shovel to excavate soakages to obtain water. My response was:

(182) Store-warl ayeng alh-em man atha in-erl.alp-etyek

store-ALL 1S:NOM go-POT money 1S:ERG get-DO&BASE-PURP

‘I might go to the store, get money and bring it back’

I decide to go quickly anamerl to the store mwerey arralty aneyelarl-wety arwerl arterneyew

‘because mwerey is anxious to go and cut more (artefact) wood’.

I go to the clinic and stop. I tell the clinic administrator where I’m going -ilelhenhetyek- which

is the POINT form of ilelheyel ‘say what you are doing, what you’re plans are’. Here POINT -

enh is used because I am doing the activity of the verb on my way.27

26

I confirmed the appropriateness of all of my utterances with native speakers.

27 This has nothing to do with the speaker’s perspective, contra Wilkins 1989. It has to do with the

movement of the Subject in relation to their base.

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At the clinic another Kemarr asks me for a lift to the store, to go shopping before returning to

the clinic meeting. We go to the store. I want to divert (solid line in Figure 2) back to the

arnkenty because I have promised to return quickly so I say to Kemarr

(183 ) man atha mwerey renh anth-erl.ew-ey

money 1S:ERG relation 3S:ACC give-SIDE-HORT

‘I will go and give money to my relation’

Figure 2: Example of motion suffixes

In this case I use the -erl.iw SIDE form of anth- ‘give’. In this case the trip back to the arnkenty

is a deviation from the motion path from the base to the store so I don’t use –alh or -alp

compound forms which mark the overall direction of travel. A deviation represents a move to do

an activity and return to the motion path. This can even involve a deviation to the original

starting point or even the termination point but there is a return to the original motion path. The

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critical distinction between the transitive -erl.iw forms (non-number marking) and Motion

compounding forms is that -erl.iw motions involve a movement from a pathway or non-base

and don’t end at the base camp. Rather, there is a verb activity at a point away from the main

motion path which involves the Subject’s movement to that point, the doing of the activity and

the return to the motion path. If the journey is a brief move away, AWAY or simply the simple

verb forms would be used to indicate brief activity at the base.

I returned to the store. Kemarr asked me for a lift to her home which is between the store and

the clinic, “Ayenh iweyna!”- ‘drop me off’ which is the Return form of iweyel ‘drop off’. In this

case RET is used to indicate that we are going back towards my base on my return journey.

4.9 ASPECT

Aspect is a grammatical category which is marked in a number of places within the Alyawarr

verb. The main aspectual distinction in the verb is between completed and imperfective which is

not marked more than once in a single verb. Separate aspectual markers exist for past tense: Past

Perfective §5.1.3 and Imperfective §5.1.4. The morphological processes of reduplication FREQ

§2.6.4 and ATT §2.6.3 convey iteration and inception respectively. A property relating to

aspectuality and interacting with it is Aktionsart, a semantic categorisation of verb roots as

distinct from grammatically marked aspect. Aspectuality is part of the intrinsic lexical meaning

of verb roots (Talmy 2007:108).

The overall interpretation of verbs is determined by the Aktionsart of the verb root together with

grammatical aspect. The critical Aktionsart distinction for Alyawarr is between telic and atelic

roots. Telic or liminal verbs represent Achievements and Accomplishments. Atelic or non-

liminal verbs represent States and Activities. Aktionsart determines how verb roots interact with

grammatical morphemes. For example the verb root an- ‘sit, be’ has the Aktionsart of a State

and most frequently occurs in past reference with the IMPP imperfective aspect marker. The

Aktionsart characterization of Alyawarr verbs is preliminary.

CONT and STAT (Table 30) are imperfective and have ‘continuous or durative aspect’ (Yallop

1977:64). They are partially compositional and I have handled them as complexes. The CONT

and STAT complex markers have senses which are extensions of the respective independent

copular stance-existence verbs, aynt- ‘lie’ and an- ‘sit, be’ as in §2.4.2. e.g. CONT -erl.aynt

represents extension through time as aynteyel ‘lying’ represents horizontal extension through

space. The continuousness of ‘lie’ and ‘sit’ is based upon the static behaviour of humans. The

relative abstractness of these senses is probably why the aspectual compounds are less

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semantically compositional than the Sequenced Motion compounds. I will discuss in detail the

aspectual complexes in the following sections.

Table 30: Imperfective Aspect markers

CONT

CONT1 -aynt ‘V continuously’

CONT2 -erl.aynt ‘start V and do continuously’

STAT -erl.an ‘State’

The complex markers shown in Table 31 occur with a restricted subset of TAM elements.

CONT combines with Intentional mood markers and the future tense marker. STAT occurs with

mood markers and non-realised tense markers. STAT is individual, subjective and used more of

third persons whereas CONT is used of first and second persons. Further research and more data

are necessary.

4.9.1 Continuous Aspect

All examples of (-erl).aynt in the data combine with Intentional Mood markers and the Future

tense marker as outlined in Table 31. My analysis of Continuous Aspect markers is speculative.

I have not been able to determine the value of -erl in CONT2 in order to distinguish between

CONT1 and CONT2. For this reason I have treated them as monomorphemic complexes and

labelled them CONT1 and CONT2 as a tentative analysis. I outline the apparent differences

between the two complexes and suggest a possible difference in the following sections.

Table 31 Continuous Aspect with modal markers.

IMP POT PURP HORT SUBS FUT

CONT1

-aynta -ayntem -aynteyew -ayntey -ayntey.alkenh -aynteyenh

CONT2

-erl.aynta -erl.ayntem -erl.aynteyew -erl.ayntey -erl.ayntey.alkenh -erl.aynteyenh

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4.9.1.1 CONT1

CONT involves extension through time of an event ‘continue doing V’. A reference temporal

indicator appears not to be evident with -aynt in the data, with the exception of temporal

expressions like ingwer-inger ‘another time’ as in (184) where -aynt indicates that the action

will continue over a period of time. Generic events can occur with CONT1, involving non-

referential or less referential arguments and Imperfective aspect.

(184) Rernem ilpatil-enh. Ingwer-inger akatyerr lyap-aynt-eyew

3PL burn-IMPP another time desert raisin grow-CONT1-PURP

‘They would burn so that desert raisins would grow’

4.9.1.2 CONT2

CONT2 appears to have a meaning of ‘start doing X and to continue doing it’ although this

analysis is tentative and requires further research. A contrast between CONT1 and CONT2

complexes is shown in example (185). The addressee is already staying at the location.

Semantically the critical distinction appears to be that -erl involves the commencement of an

activity. Critically, the -aynt suffix enables a stem because a distinction to be drawn between

“sit!” and “stay!” The form anaynta! indicates ‘stay, as you are!” The apparent meaning is ‘keep

doing V’. The form anerl-aynta would indicate “move to stay here!” The latter has a reading of

‘start doing V and continue doing it’. This contrast could be one of ‘inception’, -erl.aynt

indicates that the speaker intends for the action to commence from the reference time and to

continue. CONT2 can occur with Basic Motion verbs as in (186). CONT2 also occurs with

temporal indicators such as rlengk ‘today’, atwerrp ‘evening’ and =anem THEN. The activity

of going in (186) commences at the reference time, atwerrp ‘evening’. The speaker intends for

the activity of the verb to start and to continue.

(185) “Nga=an an-aynt-a artwamp! Nhenh akar-erl.aynt-a! warl

2S=FOC sit-CONT1-IMP.S old man this care-CONT2-IMP.S house

atyenh rlwenh-angketyarr. Ingkerr.” An-enh ratherr

1SPOSS tucker-LOTS everything sit-IMPP 3DU:NOM

‘ “You stay here old man! Look after my camp and all of the tucker! Everything!”

Those two stayed there’

(186) Artwe-rnem=an angk-err-enh “atwerrp-ant alh-erl.aynt-eyew wenh!”

man-NPL=FOC talk-REC-IMPP evening-JUST go-CONT2-PURP QUOT

‘The men were just talking together, “Let’s go in the evening”!’

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CONT1 has the sense that the speaker intends for the action to happen sometime but there is no

definite start to the verbal event. Compare the forms in (187) and (188).

(187) Ilkelh-enh arlkw-aynt-eyew mwerrangker pwelek.

want-IMPP eat-CONT1-PURP nice beef

‘(They) wanted to keep on eating nice beef’

(188) Pwelek=anem=arl rernem arrkern-ew mwerrangker arlkw-erl.aynt-eyew

beef=then=SUB 3PL try-PP nice eat-CONT2-PURP

‘Then they tried the beef, to find out if they would start to eat it and keep eating it’

4.9.2 -erl.an State

The primary function of STAT is to indicate imperfective aspect. The effect on the verb

Aktionsart is to create states. I characterise the inflectional markers which occur with STAT as a

class of tense, modal and clause connection markers (see Table 31) given in detail in §5.4.2.

These include non-past tense, Habitual2 and all mood and clause connection markers.

The functions of STAT are unlike those reported for the corresponding forms in other Arandic

languages, often referring to states of affairs, habitual actions and characteristic behaviours.

Yallop (1977:130) analysed Arrernte rle-an (Wilkins 1989) as equivalent to the Alyawarr PRES

-eyel (§5.1.1.). Alyawarr -erl.an has different senses from the cognate Arrernte rle-an. Although

there are similarities in that both involve imperfectivity, in Alyawarr STAT also encodes modal

remoteness (Lyons 1977: 719) and spatial remoteness. The uncertain status of objects is seen

with STAT in combination with modal POT (§5.2.4.4). in which the Subject of the clause is

remote from the speaker and there is no absolute certainty about the Subject’s location. The

Subject is not visible or accessible at the reference time. Subjects are not in the vicinity of the

speaker and are nhak ‘over there’ (distant) as shown in (189). STAT appears to be incompatible

with both first and second persons in the present, as in (190). STAT can refer to prohibited or

hidden objects or activities which are secret as in (191), where the Subject of the sentence will

take the meat from the meathouse back to a distant place where he can cook it in safety.

131

(189) Nhak aynt-erl.an-em

over there

Lying over there’

lie-STAT-POT

(190) *Nhenh aynt-erl.an-em

here lie-STAT-POT

‘Lying here’

(191) Aylpwer.akng-eyn-enh salt meat ampern-erl.an-eyew ater-el-ey.

carry.shoulder-RET-IMPP salt meat cook-STAT-PURP fear-ADV-EMPH

Arlkw-enh ra arleng-ew.

eat-IMPP 3S distant-LOC

‘He was carrying the salt meat away on his shoulder so that he could cook it as he

was frightened. He was eating it at a distance’

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5 Obligatory verb marking

In this chapter I discuss the morphemes which occur in the final obligatory position of the verb:

tense, aspect, mood (TAM) and clause joining morphemes. The obligatory morphemes have a

range of functions, summarized in Table 32. The labels which I have adopted aim to capture the

most central function of each morpheme or the most general to describe diverse functions.

Glosses for these remain tentative – caveat lector.

Table 32 Alyawarr Obligatory Verb Markers

Label form Section

Tense-Aspect

Present -eyel §5.1.1

Future -eyenh §5.1.2

Completed -ek, ew §5.1.3

Past Imperfective -enh §5.1.4

Past Habitual -eyartingkerr §5.1.6

Past Habitual2 -ey.inkwern §5.1.7

Mood

Imperative -Ø, -enh(err)-atherr, -enh(err)arey §5.2.1

Hortative -ey §5.2.2

Purposive -etyek §5.2.3

Purposive2 -etyek.an §5.2.3.1

Potential -em §5.2.4

Negation -ey.angenh, -eyang §5.2.5

Clause connection

Purposive in complex clauses -etyek §5.3.1

Subsequent -ey.alkenh §5.3.2

Irrealis -enty §5.3.3

Subjunctive -emer §5.3.4

Same subject -el §5.3.5

Apprehensive -ekerr, -ewerr §5.3.6

Before -ekerr-awaty §5.3.7

Characteristic -ey.angker §5.3.8

5.1 Tense and Aspect

Tense can be understood as relating an event to the ‘deictic centre’, a reference time which is

usually the present or the time of utterance. In the following subsections I will outline the basic

system of oppositions within the Alyawarr tense system. This involves getting at the essential

meaning of the tenses and distinguishing tense from implicature (Comrie 1985: 28). Tense and

aspect are closely associated in the final inflections in Alyawarr, making it necessary for me to

discuss both categories together in this section.

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5.1.1 -eyel Present

The primary function of PRES is to indicate the event is occurring at the time of utterance

which is the reference time. The events ‘hold at the present moment’ (Comrie 1985:38). In

Yallop’s (1977:52) account Present and Potential (§5.2.4.1) are analysed as present tense. A

consideration of the full range of uses of Potential -em in §5.2.4 reveals that it is a modal rather

than a temporal marker. Yallop analyses -eyel (PRES) as Present continuous and notes that it is

preferred for the description of present happenings and -em (POT) for statements concerning the

future and as the default citation form for verbs. The latter was labeled ‘non-continuous

present’. His ‘present’ analysis of -em (POT) was probably based upon pseudo-similarity with

the Arrernte -me marker, labeled ‘present’ (Yallop 1977:58). Whether the temporal extension of

the event relates to PRES or whether it’s a property of the verb stems themselves is critical to

determining the temporal range of this marker. Rather than analyzing PRES as continuous

aspect (Yallop 1977:49), I support Stanham’s (1972:46) analysis of present tense without an

aspectual contrast. Comrie (1976:66) states, ‘as the present tense is used to describe rather than

to narrate, it is essentially imperfective’. It is most natural with states and activities but not

liminal predicates (Timberlake 2007:315). Present perfective doesn’t occur in languages except

in unusual circumstances (Langacker 1991:252). The label ‘continuous’ is therefore

unnecessary for -eyel.

PRES can refer to the extension of an event until after the reference time. The reference time is

the time of utterance: for example in the sequence of clauses in (192) and (193) it is a Friday. A

temporal qualifier or adverbial may specify temporal extension beyond the immediate present as

with (193), but is not necessary for this, as demonstrated by (194). The temporal range of the

woman’s stay in town is extended to the following Monday by the use of an adverbial.

(192) Ayeng an-eyel

1S:NOM live-PRES

‘I’m sitting/ staying’

(193) Ayeng an-eyel Monday-ek.atwety

1S:NOM live-PRES Monday-UNTIL

‘I’m staying until Monday’

PRES can refer to an expected event in the immediate future. Yallop (1977:51) regards PRES in

example (194) as referring to the immediate future, like the English present progressive.

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(194) Alheyel ayeng Mount Is’-warl

go-PRES 1S:NOM Mount Isa-ALL

‘I’m going to Mount Isa’

5.1.1.1 Generic events in the present

Another sense of PRES is to describe events which typically happen. Most often reference is to

indefinite Subjects. In (195) PRES contrasts a generic or omnitemporal statement with POT

which indicates a possible event. Sometimes the sense is closer to a general or gnomic statement

and is very similar to POT generic, as in (196). Most instances of PRES generic refer to

customary activities. Often a contrast is being made between events which happened in the past

and current ways of doing things where the reference time is ngwangk-ngwangk or rlengk-

rlengk ‘nowadays’.

(195)

Thip-rnem-el il-eyel. Kerlakwek, itey.itey, alkwarrer.arrpwernenh

bird-NPL-ERG say-PRES dove mudlark stormbird

rernem il-eyel “Kwaty apety-em”

3PL say-PRES rain come-POT

‘The birds, the dove, the mudlark and the stormbird say, ‘Rain will come’

(196)

Artwa irrpwerl alp-eyel rim-el-ant tay atw-enty-el=an

Aboriginal man back-PRES rim-INS-JUST tyre hit-IRR-LOC=FOC

‘Aboriginal people get back on a rim whenever their tyres are punctured’

5.1.1.2 Historical present

PRES can also be a historical present (Timberlake 2007:313) as in (197). When the reference

time frame of the event is already established, it’s acceptable to use PRES to describe a past

event. The time of the event is not the same as that of the time of utterance. Cross-linguistically

there is nothing unusual about the use of present tense markers to describe habitual events and

the historical present. The corresponding Non-past Progressive -me in Arrernte has a similar

function (Wilkins 1989:230).

135

(197)

Artwamp=an apety-enh ilep-akert awey aylelh-eyel apal-antey

old man=FOC approach-IMPP axe-COM boy sing-PRES unaware-STILL

‘The old fella was approaching, carrying an axe. The boy is singing and still unaware’

5.1.2 -eyenh Future

FUT indicates that the action will occur at a time after the reference time. Only 10 tokens appear

in my data. Neither Stanham (1972) nor Yallop (1977) recorded FUT. Stanham (1972:46)

analysed POT, HORT and PURP as future. Yallop (1977:58) labels HORT as future tense in his

table of Arandic forms. The similarity between FUT and modal morphemes which have also

been labelled ‘future’ by these previous researchers reflects the similarity between FUT and the

category of Mood. The state of affairs described by FUT hasn’t occurred at the time of utterance

and so the future describes an unreal state of affairs, similar to irrealis mood (Fleischman 1982).

The analysis is somewhat tentative, but from the examples below it is clear that the use of FUT

occurs when the speaker is referring to an event which occurs in the non-immediate future, but

as early as later on the same day as in (198) and (199). Turtle (n.d, sentence 887) labeled FUT

as ‘future continuous’ apparently in opposition to PURP which was glossed ‘future’ and also

‘future abbreviated’. Turtle (n.d. sentence 717) also analyses FUT as ‘intentive’. Wilkins

(1989:227-230 footnote 8) claims to have found an aspectual contrast between future-marking

morphemes in Arrernte: ‘the tense suffix -tyenhe 'non-past-completive (npc)' contrasts with -me

'non-past progressive (npp)’. I have found no contrast between a progressive and completive

aspect for the future tense in the Alyawarr data. Stative imperfective is expressed by the use of

STAT -erl.an. In Alyawarr the difference between FUT and POT is one of mood vs tense, i.e a

tense-mood distinction of likelihood that the event will occur is more apparent than an aspectual

distinction.

(198)

Atwerrp-atwerrp wenh rlengk=arl rernem akarrerr-eyenh-warl wenh

evening QUOT today=SUB 3PL gather-FUT-ALL QUOT

‘Later in the evening today, to where they will be gathering’

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(199)

Irrtywerr-em-el=anem “Irrepern nga alp-eyenh

tell lie-POT-SS=THEN sorry 2S:NOM back-FUT

arleng-el wenh!”

long-LOC QUOT

They said dishonestly, ‘Sorry to hear that you will be going away to a distant

place!’

Other events such as those of (200) are probably more temporally distant from the reference

time, which is the time of the reported utterance. A letterstick has been sent ordering the

execution of two murderers. Presumably there is some time duration before the men act on the

instructions of the letterstick.

(200) Nhatherr-anyem anwantherr atw-erl.alp-eyenh wenh

those two-ROUND 3PL kill-DO&BASE-FUT QUOT

‘We will kill those two!’

An example of ambiguity between future and mood is shown in (201). FUT appears as the

apodosis of a conditional sentence (usually only POT occurs). A possible interpretation is that

Irrealis is being used for ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ and in that case the FUT tense morpheme occurs

with the verb in the second clause. Also -ap CONJ occurs in the second clause which indicates a

sequence of activities so that these may be seen as sequential rather than strictly conditional.

This example shows the ambiguity of IRR which can indicate ‘when’ or ‘if’ and in this case it is

the former.

(201) Ayeng alh-enty Alice Springs-warl atha=ap ngkweng

1S:NOM go-IRR Alice Springs-ALL 1S:ERG=CONJ 2S:DAT

in-ey.alh-eyenh

get-GO&DO-FUT

‘When I go to Alice Springs I will get it for you’ (Turtle n.d, sentence 875)

5.1.3 -ek/-ew Past Perfective

The Perfective is in contrast with IMPP, as reported by Yallop (1977:49-50). The choice of

which past marker depends upon the whether the events described are perfective or a continuing

state of affairs at the past reference time. The events in example (202) may have been of long

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duration as the narrator indicates that there was ‘a lot of rain’ so presumably rain fell for a long

time but had stopped falling at the reference time.

(202) Kwaty=anem rntw-ey.alh-ew apmer Ipmangker-el-ey

water=THEN rain-GO&DO-PP place Murray Downs-LOC-EMPH

‘Rain fell at Murray Downs’

The adverbial awangkarl ‘day trip’ in (203) indicates an event with the duration of one day

whereas IMPP in the preceding sentence indicates a habitual movement. There is apparently a

high degree of correlation between Past Perfective and liminal or telic verbs. Punctual actions

which are completed such as ‘spearing, grabbing and placing something’ are only or typically

described with Past Perfective. Some verb stems, such as that in (204), only occur with Past

Perfective, because they are achievements.

(203) Arrtyeler-angkwarr alh-enh. Arrwekel awangk=arl alh-ew

Arrtyeler-PERL move-IMPP first day trip=SUB go-PP

ra apmer Pwerrperreny-warl-tangkwel

3S camp Pwerrperreny-ALL-FIRST

‘He used to go through Arrtyeler. Then he would go on a day trip to Pwerrperreny

first’

(204) akngan-ew

originate-PP

‘originated, was created’

5.1.4 -enh Past Imperfective IMPP

IMPP indicates past tense with imperfective aspect and has progressive and habitual senses.

Yallop (1977:50) claims that it means‘an action continued for some time or has continued up to

the present.’ I claim that the action continues to a reference time, which may be the present.

Two different suffixes could be used to describe the same event, depending upon how the event

was viewed by the speaker, whether Past Perfective or IMPP. Unlike other related languages

and dialects, cf Arrernte Past Habitual -tyarte (Wilkins 1989:227), Alyawarr marks no formal

distinction between progressive aspect and habitual aspect in currently spoken language. The

situation for Alyawarr appears to be that described by Comrie (1976:26) in which a language

often has a single category to express ‘imperfectivity as a whole’.

138

With the Progressive sense of IMPP, an event continues and is uncompleted at the reference

time. Some atelic verbs characteristically occur with IMPP:

(205) nthwenh ‘were searching for’

mpwelhenh ‘were waiting for’

IMPP is especially common with stative verbs which describe existence. For example, the state

described in (206) continued up to the time of the discovery of the body. Within the story,

events of lying, bloating, waiting and tracking utilize IMPP. Ongoing and repetitive processes

such as cleaning fruit are described with IMPP. When a telic verb such as arrern- ‘place down’

occurs with IMPP, multiple instances of the verb action took place. IMPP and PP are contrasted

in (207), an example from Yallop (1977:50). Yallop says that whether the speaker uses -ek or -

enh depends upon their ‘focus of attention.’ In (207) the interval of time described by IMPP is

the motion event and the action occurs throughout the interval.

(206)

Artwa ra aynt-enh. Arlwar.rtn-enh

man 3S lie-IMPP bloat-IMPP

‘The (dead) man was lying there and was bloating’

(207)

Ap-ey.alp-enh-anem anwenantherr ampep-el anwenantherr iltyerr-ek

arrive-GO&RET-IMPP-THEN 1PL.EX mid-LOC 1PL.EX rest-PP

‘Then we were coming back and on the way we had a rest’

The reference time may be the time of the utterance or an antecedent time, already defined in

(208) and marked by Past Perfective. The telic root arlkw- in combination with IMPP suggests

that there were a number of ‘eating of conkerberries’ events, distributed over a period which

occurred up to the reference time.

(208)

Nhanyem=anem atha atw-ek awey renh

this=THEN 1S:ERG kill-PP boy 3S:ACC

arnwekety=arl ra ingkerrenh arlkw-enh

conkerberry=SUB 3S all eat-IMPP

‘This then is the boy that I killed, the one who had been eating all of the

conkerberries’

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5.1.4.1 -enh Habitual

Another sense of IMPP is the habitual, including customary and characteristic behaviour. Yallop

(1977:58) uses the term ‘usitative’. Turtle (n.d) and Strickland (1998:75) use the term

‘customary’. Although other markers -eyartingkerr and –ey.inkwern also signify habitual aspect,

the majority of speakers use IMPP to express habitual aspect with past tense.

IMPP describes characteristic behaviour in (209). The Subject is described as characteristically

moody and aggressive. Another use of IMPP is to describe traditional or customary activities

which occurred in the remote past as in (210). The adverbial awank ‘long ago’ defines the

reference time as the remote past. IMPP may alternate with POT which also may have a

habitual reading and is usually describes non-past but may also be used to describe past habitual

events- see example (222) and discussion in §5.2.4. Both are concerned with events which are

not restricted to one point in time.

(209) Ra=n ahelengkw innga=rl artwerrety irr-enh

3S=FOC vicious really=SUB moody IV-IMPP

‘He was really vicious. He used to get moody’

(210) Wimperr-warl tywen-enh awank=an arrwekeleny-el=an

platform-ALL place high-IMPP long ago=FOC ancestor-ERG=FOC

‘Long ago, the ancestors used to put (dead) people on tree platforms’

IMPP is plausibly related to Reduplicated -enh which creates nominals from reduplicated verb

roots §5.3.8.

5.1.5 Relative Past Tense

SUB marks the finite verb of a dependent clause in a complex sentence and in this context the

tense is relative. Past tense markers occur with SUB to indicate the time at which an event

happened relative to the reference time of the matrix clause. For example, the event of the

dependent SUB-marked clause is antecedent to the reference time which is established by the

main clause in (211). My analysis agrees with that of Yallop (1977:51) who describes -ekarl as

perfect and possibly a combination of PP and SUB. For example, when SUB occurs with IMPP

-enh as in (212), the event continues to the reference time of the main clause and -penh further

indicates that the relationship between the clauses is one of the temporal succession of the main

clause.

140

(211) Ahart-el renh ar-enh-ey.alh-ew akemerr-ey.aynt-ew=arl=an

Ahart-ERG 3S:ACC see-POINT-GO&DO-PP rise-UP-PP=SUB=FOC

‘Ahart went and saw where (another) had previously arisen’

(212) Irrtyart ra=n amety=anem-irr-ew ra=rl angern-enh=arl=penh.

spear 3S=FOC blunt=THEN-IV-PP 3S=SUB dig-IMPP=SUB=SRC

‘His spear became blunt after he had been digging’

5.1.6 -eyartingkerr Past Habitual

HAB occurs in older language and is used by older speakers with a low frequency of

occurrence. The number of instances in my data of -eyartingkerr is 10. IMPP has replaced it in

many if not all contexts. An informant said of a recently deceased person arlkeyartingkerr ‘used

to shout out’ and then rephrased this to arlkenh (Jacky Beasley, p.c.). Hale (cited in Yallop

1977:58) reported -eyart and -etyart for the Macdonald Downs (southern) dialect of Alyawarr.

The AED (Green 1992) has one example of -eyart without -ingkerr following. I would expect -

eyart to be the equivalent of Arrernte Past Habitual -etyart (Wilkins 1989) and yet neither form

occurs in my data. The longer form here may derive from -eyart and -ingkerr ‘all’. I conclude

that HAB is a single suffix, especially as ingkerr doesn’t carry the primary stress of an

independent word. The single instance of Past Habitual -eyart in the AED may be a

transcription error. What is interesting in (213) is the juxtaposition of IMPP with HAB which

presumably involves an event with the same regularity of occurrence.

(213) Horsetailer=an ra=arl nantew arlwerr-eyartingkerr=an

horsetailer=FOC 3S=SUB horse round up-HAB=FOC

ingwepenh apelem-il-enh=an

morning hobble-TV-IMPP=FOC

‘The horsetailer used to round up the horses in the morning and hobble them’

5.1.7 -ey.inkwern Past Habitual2

HAB2 indicates habitual action and appears to be an allomorph of HAB and functionally

equivalent to the habitual use of IMPP. There are less than 10 examples in my data. Two verbs

in the data are examples of HAB2 occuring with aspectual STAT. In addition, most examples of

HAB2 occur with first person Subjects who are talking about activities which they have done.

There is a possibility that HAB2 is less about the remote past and describes events which

141

happen until recent times, judging from examples such as (214). My analysis agrees with that of

the AED (Green 1992:153) in which HAB2 ‘shows that the action used to happen’. Arrernte

+tyunkerne (Henderson and Dobson 1994:578) and Antekerrepenh past habitual tye.nkwern

(Breen 1982:48) are probably related.

(214) Inmenth-el=ap nhelkwer arlkw-ey.inkwern ngkwerlp-apeny=antey

ashes-INS=CONJ like this eat-HAB2 tobacco-SEMB=STILL

‘(We) used to chew this one with ashes, like wild tobacco’

5.2 Mood

Mood is concerned with the degree of realisation, desirability or knowledge of the state. In

writing this chapter, I am aware of the difficulty of defining mood and it is application to

Australian languages along with a lack of standard terminology for modal markers of verbs

(Sutton and Walsh 1979:29). One of the problems of establishing modality as a cross-linguistic

grammatical category is that the semantics is often unclear and ‘there is no single semantic

feature with which modality can be correlated in the way that tense can be regarded as the

grammatical expression or grammaticalisation of time’ (Asher and Simpson 1994: 2535).

5.2.1 Imperative

Imperative morphemes are affixed to the verb stem. The singular, dual and plural forms of the

imperative are arranged in the following table:

Table 33: imperative markers

singular dual plural

Ø -enh(err)atherr -enh(err)arey

The singular imperative is marked with Ø to the stem of the verb as in (215). Yallop (1977:53)

regards the singular as an imperative but apparently didn’t record the dual and plural forms.

Number is discussed in §3.7.

(215) Nga=n mpwelh-erl.aynt-a aker ngkweng-akert atw-erl.alp-ey.akenh

2S=FOC wait-CONT2-IMP.S meat 2S:DAT-COM kill-DO&BASE-FIRST

‘You wait! I will kill meat for you first’ (PM, hunting story)

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5.2.2 -ey Hortative

HORT occurs only in main clauses. Yallop (1977:58) and Hale (n.d) list the morpheme under

‘future tense’. Yallop (1977:54-55) also analyses HORT as ‘permissive’ with a number of uses

as first, second and third person imperative and also has uses as a ‘declarative future or as an

intentional suffix’. Yallop claims that part of the difficulty with understanding the use of -ey is

that there are differences among the Arandic dialects and possibly within Alyawarr. I disagree

with the analysis of HORT as tense and agree with that of Strickland (1998:87-89) who analyses

it as imperative and permissive mood. The speaker seeks agreement as in (216).

(216) Nh-angkwarr aylanth=an alh-erl.aynt-ey

this-PERL 1DU=FOC go-CONT2-HORT

‘Let’s keep going this way…’

In some cases, such as (217), there is an interrogative use in which HORT seems to be

interchangeable with POT (§5.2.4.3).

(217) Nthakenh il-ey anantherr nhenh-atherr-ey?

what do-HORT 1PL this-two-EMPH

‘What are we going to do to these two?’

5.2.3 -etyek, -eyew, -eyek Purposive

PURP has allomorphs -etyek, -eyew and -eyek, reflecting regular Arandic sound

correspondences in suffixes.28

It has different functions in main and dependent clauses (§5.3.1).

Earlier researchers such as Stanham (1972: 46) regarded PURP as indicating future tense, along

with -em and -ey. Turtle (n.d) glosses the morpheme as FUT ‘future’, INT ‘intentional’ and DES

‘desiderative’ My analysis agrees with that of the later researchers who analysed PURP as

modal. Yallop (1977:53): analysed its meaning as ‘want to’ or ‘must’: AED (Green 1992:136)

has “‘must’ or ‘ought’ to happen, in order to (do something), so that (something can happen)”.

Strickland (1998:83) distinguishes between intentional, obligative and purposive senses of

PURP claiming that, ‘it is uncertain whether native speakers distinguish notionally between

them.’ Purposive is the third of Wilkins’ broad semantic functions (Wilkins 1989:237) of the

cognate Arrernte morpheme. Wilkins says that the construction arises historically from the

dative suffix +ke with the nominaliser +tye. Purposive is a label also used by other

Australianists e.g. for Yidiny (Dixon 1977:345-6, Palmer 1986:180).

28

A fourth form, -etyew, that might be possible given these sound correspondences has not been recorded.

143

5.2.3.1 -etyek an- Time of intention

An auxilliary verb an- can occur with PURP. In (218) a state of affairs nearly occurred but

didn’t eventuate, similar to Wilkins’ ‘time of intention’ (1989:236) construction with the

Purposive in EC Arrernte. The an- may be related to the root an- ‘sit, be’ (§2.4.2.2). The latter

is seen in an Arrernte example (219) ‘where the -tyeke 'purposive' indicates that the S/A

intended to do the verb action but, for some reason, never got around to doing it.’ I have no

example in the data in which auxillilary an- can be used with a non-past tense.

(218) Lake Nash-warl alp-etyek an-ek r=antey waylpel

Lake Nash-ALL back-PURP be-PP 3S=STILL white person

apmw-il-elh-ek

wrong-TV-MED-PP

‘The whitefella himself made a mistake and failed to get back to Lake Nash’

(219) Re alhe-tyeke ne-rne (Arrernte)

3sgS go-PURP be-p.immed

‘She was just about to go (but she got held up)’

5.2.4 -em Potential

POT has a range of senses. The primary sense is that that an event is possible or likely but not

inevitable. This often involves the speaker’s intentions. In the following sections I discuss the

function of POT in Alyawarr and differentiate its function from that of the temporal marker

PRES.

Yallop (1977:52) notes that PRES -eyel is preferred to POT for the description of present

happenings, e.g ‘he is sleeping’. In his table of verb suffixes (1977:58) POT corresponds to

present tense in the other Arandic languages. There is a similarity in form alone with the

Arrernte present tense marker -me (Strehlow 1944) of the ‘false friend’ kind that I mentioned in

§1.3.1. Consequently, Yallop analysed -em as ‘present tense’ while labelling -eyel as the

‘present continuous’ tense marker in order to differentiate the two markers. In §5.1.1 I argued

that the aspectual ‘continuous’ label is unnecessary.

144

The morpheme is glossed variously by previous researchers: ‘future’ (Stanham 1972: 46),

‘future, ‘desiderative’, ‘present’, ‘customary’, ‘intentive’, (Turtle n.d) 29

and ‘normative’

(Strickland 1998:78). The disparity and lack of a uniform interpretation for this form shows the

need to examine its meaning more closely. POT appears to be similar in meaning to the

Kaytetye Potential -me/-mere (Turpin 2000:115).

The distinction between POT and PRES can be subtle and in some cases they can appear to be

almost interchangeable, as in (220), especially where both markers can indicate generic senses.

In some instances this may be dependent upon the speaker’s preference and should be tested

further to see whether this is the case.

(220) Aley=arl aynt-em ngenty-ey atha=arl renh

now=SUB exist-POT soakage-EMPH 1S:ERG=SUB 3S:ACC

ar-eyel-angker. Aley=arl aynt-eyel ngenty ra=n

see-PRES-CHAR1 now=SUB exist-PRES soakage 3S:NOM=FOC

‘The soakage that I see would be there. The soakage is there now’

With questions about the future, POT is used in preference to PRES according to Yallop

(1977:52). POT frequently occurs in future temporal environments30

, as in (221), owing to the

close relationship between future tense and the category of mood. Future is a semantic category

where tense and mood merge because of the inherent uncertainty about whether events in the

future will happen (Lyons 1977, 2:181ff; Chung and Timberlake 1985: 243). Similarly Comrie

(1985: 44) regards the future as more speculative and less definite than the other tenses.

(221) Malewik atherr iw-enh-em

pay day two leave-POINT-POT

‘After two pay days from now’ (literally ‘leaving two pay days behind’)

POT is independent of the temporal context, describing potential rather than actual events. It is

non-deictic and therefore not a part of the system of tense oppositions of the language (Lyons

1977:688). POT occurs in all temporal environments. For example, POT would seem to be

expressing habitual in the past in (222).

29

The translations are not consistent. Turtle’s sentence 800 for example uses ‘present’ for ‘will tell’.

30 Bybee et al (1994) claim that Alyawarr has two ‘present tense grams’. Bybee bases this claim on

Yallop (1977) in which -em and -eyel are both analysed as present tense.

145

(222) Artern-em=an=anem ar-em-el=anem renh awey. alperr

chop-POT-FOC=THEN see-POT-SS=THEN 3S:ACC boy leaf

ingkerr alth-em “Nhaym-ip ra alperr-el aynt-eyel awey!”

all strip-POT this-there 3S leaf-LOC lie-PRES boy

‘Then they would see him as they were chopping. They would strip all of the leaves,

‘There’s the boy lying in the leaves!’

Further evidence that POT is modal is that it can occur with CONT aspectual markers (Table

31) which occur with other markers of Intentional Mood. POT collocates with a number of

suffixes and adverbs such as apek ‘maybe’ and nthakenh ‘how’ which reinforce the non-

actualness of an event. The juxtaposition of apek ‘maybe, possibly’ enables POT to substitute

for other modal suffixes such as IRR.

5.2.4.1 Generic

Generic clauses are less realis and refer to events which are ‘instantiated from time to time by

actual events’ (Payne 1997:245). A generic or habitual reading is a part of the system of mood

interacting with that of aspect. Comrie (1985:40) states, ‘habitual meaning lies on the boundary

of tense, aspect and mood’. Another term for ‘generic’ is ‘gnomic’. Lyons (1977:681) maintains

that the gnomic is related to mood and matters of opinion rather than fact. POT tends to involve

non-definite Subjects in expository and hortatory texts, similar to Arrernte Present -me and the -

rle suffix which is often used to describe a ‘generic event in oratorical-hortative texts’ (Wilkins

1989:231).

Yallop had doubts about his analysis of -em as present tense when he realized that it occurs as

the default citation form of verbs, for example when speakers are asked “how do you say V?”

This reflects the generic nature of POT which can occur in statements involving non-definite

entities or events as in (223) and (224). rather than ‘specific referential objects’ (Payne

1997:245).

(223) Thip irrarnt-el arlkw-em arlkerl.

black cockatoos-ERG eat-POT prickles.

‘Black cockatoos eat prickles’

146

(224) Ingwer.inger=an tyerrelh-em=anem ra yanh-el-ey

another time=FOC exit-POT=THEN 3S there-LOC-EMPH

‘Sometimes it comes out at that place’ OR ‘another time it might come out at

that place’

This meaning of POT refers to possible activities, accompanied by apek ‘maybe’ in (225),

similar to the Conditional function in §5.2.4.5.

(225) Ingwerenty apek pwerlperr-eyew alh-em=an artewentyel=antey

another maybe swim-PURP go-POT=FOC a lot=STILL

pwerlperr-eyang

swim-NEG

‘If someone goes to swim, he shouldn’t stay in for too long!’

Related to the habitual or generic sense is the customary sense found in procedural texts such as

in (226) which outlines the typical or normal way to do an activity.

(226) Arwerl kwenkart ak-em Ikwer-they=an kwenkart renh

turkey bush pick-POT 3PL:DAT-ABL=FOC bush 3S:ACC

arrern-em pwarlerr-eyew=anem

place-POT boil-PURP=THEN

‘(You) pick some turkey bush. After that you put it there for boiling’

5.2.4.2 Authority

POT conveys potential in the form of social conventions relating to the right to tell stories. A

frequent occurrence of POT in Alyawarr discourse is the formula at the beginning of a story

where the speaker indicates that they are qualified or allowed to tell a story as with (227).

(227) Angka nhaym=an atha il-em

story this=FOC 1S:ERG tell-POT

‘I’ll tell this story’

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5.2.4.3 Interrogative sentences

Alyawarr uses POT rather than PRES in interrogative clauses about the future and possibility, a

use of mood which is common in languages of the world (Payne 1997:245). The only

interrogative clauses of this type in the data involve wh-interrogatives. POT and HORT (§5.2.2)

appear to be interchangeable in interrogative sentences which are about future events. POT

occurs where people are undecided or trying to make up their minds. The speaker is enquiring

about the time that an event will occur in (228). POT also occurs where people are uncertain

about something as in (229).

(228) Ilenger nga alp-em?

when 2S:NOM back-POT

‘When are you returning?’

(229) Nthakenh il-em anwantherr? althen-em=an

what do-POT 1PL:ERG exterminate-POT=FOC

anwantherr renh-rnem

1PL:ERG 3PL:ACC

‘What are we going to do? We should wipe them out’

5.2.4.4 Spatial proximity and evidentiality

POT-marked verbs refer to less certain and less actualized situations with a low level of

certainty on the part of the speaker as to the factivity of a state of affairs (Palmer 1986:140). I

discuss POT with STAT in §4.9.2. STAT encodes modal remoteness and spatial remoteness,

involving third person and non-referential Subjects. Subjects are commonly described as staying

in a place distant from the speaker’s location. The Subject may in fact have gone on a brief trip

away from the remote location where they are said to be residing and the exact location of the

Subject may not be pinpointed at the reference time. In (230) the men are trying to catch the

boy. He has eluded them and is beyond their reach. He is remote from the perspective of his

pursuers and the use of STAT and POT reinforces that remoteness. The particles weth ‘that one,

that we know about or aforementioned’ and nhak ‘that one, distant’ are used in contexts where a

referent is not present, not visible or unreachable. The hill referred to in (231) is in the distance

and is only just visible.

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(230) Nhak=arl=ap ra awey weth-ey rtn-erl.an-em

there-SUB=CONJ 3S:NOM boy that-EMPH stand-STAT-POT

‘Over there is that boy’

(231) Arekapengk aley altywen-erl.an-em

place now crouch-STAT-POT

‘Over there is Arekapengk’

Literally: ‘Arekapengk (a hill) exists/crouches over there’ (stance-existence verb)

5.2.4.5 Conditional sentences

Further evidence that POT signals mood in Alyawarr is that it can occur in the apodosis of a

conditional construction, in which Irrealis -enty occurs in the protasis as in (232). PRES doesn’t

occur in this type of conditional clause. A common pattern in languages of the world is for

information in the protasis and apodosis to be non-factual according to Palmer (1986:189).

(232) Nga alh-enty ntwa atyeng in-em

2S:NOM go-IRR 2S:ERG 1S:DAT get-POT

‘If/when you go, you might get (something) for me’

5.2.5 -ey.angenh, -eyang Negation

NEG attaches to verbs to form negative clauses (Payne 1997:282). According to Yallop

(1977:56) NEG expresses a ‘neutralisation of all other inflectional categories of the verb’, that

is, it is in the same structural position as TAM markers and therefore it is in opposition to TAM.

I claim that, similar to EC Arrernte (Wilkins 1989:235), NEG indicates general negation

including the category of mood. The indicative function of NEG is shown in (233). Yallop gives

examples of negated forms which include tense and imperative readings. Strickland (1998:90)

agrees with Yallop and gives examples of the negative imperative function which is seen in

(234). The AED (Green 1992:45), definition has ‘the action is not happening, did not or will not

happen’ which restricts its function to the tenseless indicative. Modal PURP and POT co-occur

in (235), and NEG has a modal sense of ‘shouldn’t’ with a temporal adverbial or habitual

marker as with STAT in §4.9.2. Two allomorphs -ey.angenh and -eyang are used by the same

speakers and are difficult to distinguish on any grounds. The difference may reflect dialect

variation. The -eyang variation of NEG appears in all examples from Yallop (1977) which

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represents the Southern or Lake Nash dialect. David Blackman (p.c) says that -eyang is rare in

recordings of Alyawarr from Epenarra (northern dialect).

(233) Atnert=akerr renh w-ew. Arrangkw ilw-ey.angenh

gut=CONJ 3S:ACC shoot-PP nothing die-NEG

‘They shot it in the stomach. Nothing happened. It didn’t die’

(234) Arralty.an-ey.angenh kwang arternp-el il-eyn-a

rush-NEG obvious slow-ADV do-RET-IMP

‘Don’t rush, go along slowly’

(235) Ingwerenty apek pwerlperr-eyew alh-em=an artewentyel

another maybe swim- PURP go-POT=FOC a lot

=antey pwerlperr-eyang

STILL swim-NEG

‘Someone going for a swim shouldn’t swim around for too long!’

The use of the post-inflectional clitic -antey STILL seems to give this construction the sense in

(236), ‘still hasn’t done V even though they should have’. The suggestion is that the Subject

should have known what Iylpakepey was like, the post-inflectional clitic -antey STILL

suggesting characteristic behaviour and an enduring state of affairs, not merely an isolated

incident of aggression. He was in contact with Iylpakepey over a long period of time but had

failed to realise that Iylpakepey was a psychopath.

(236) Iylpakepey renh=an iterl.ar-ey.angenh=antey Iylpakepey

name 3S:ACC=FOC know-NEG=STILL name

ra=n=ap alem pweth=arl ahelengkw

3S=FOC=CONJ aggressive=SUB dangerous

‘He still didn’t realize (or: should have been aware) that Iylpakepey was aggressive

and dangerous’

5.2.5.1 -erl.aney.angenh Negative STAT

A bounded verb is transformed into a habitual or typical situation with STAT marking. With

NEG the result has a sense of ‘shouldn’t keep doing X….’ as evident in (237) and (238) where

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it indicates the speaker’s disapproval of a state of affairs. The Subject didn’t persist in doing the

verbal activity.

(237) Angath-angath-irr-enh-ey.alp-ay arleng an-erl.an-ey.angenh

close-RED-IV-POINT-DO&BASE-IMP distant be-STAT-NEG

‘Come back in close, you can't keep sitting a long way away’

(AED:44)

(238) Pwelek=arl rntern-enh irrtyart-el apmwil-elh-ew

cattle=SUB spear-IMPP spear-INS do wrong-MED-PP

areyneng=ant arlkw-erl.an-ey.angenh

euro=JUST eat-STAT-NEG

‘They made a mistake by spearing the cattle and not keeping on eating euro meat’

5.2.5.2 Negative causative construction

A negative causative construction consists of NEG and TV -il. The following is an example of

‘to make someone not do something’ with a series of negative causative verbs:

(239) Weth-ilkwer alh-ey.angenh-il-enh arrpemarl tyerrelh-ey.angenh-il-enh

that-SEMB go-NEG-TV-IMPP again exit-NEG-TV-IMPP

weth-ilkwer outside alh-ey.angenh-il-enh

that-SEMB outside go-NEG-TV-IMPP

‘Causing them to not go anywhere, to not go out like that and not go away like that’

5.3 Complex Sentences

Markers used to indicate complex clause types are dealt with in this section. Some

subordinating elements also have distinct functions in independent clauses. In Alyawarr as with

other languages there are links between complex sentences and the coding of mood e.g the

connection between mood and subordination (McGregor 1988:37, Verstraete 2006). Complex

sentence markers include Same Subject doing separate activities, where the activity is

contingent upon that of the main verb, and Different Subject where the state of the subordinate

clause is contingent on the perception of the Subject of the first clause.

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5.3.1 Purposive in complex sentences

Purposive in independent clauses is described in §5.2.3. A complex sentence may be formed

with a complement or adjunct dependent clause where the verb is marked as PURP, indicating

the event which is the intended purpose, focus or endpoint result of the main verb action, as in

(240). The outcome is what is intended by the Subject of the main clause, commonly translated

as ‘to’ or ‘in order to’. The dependent clause does not need to have a co-referential subject, as

shown in (241).

(240) Kel rernem=ant angk-ew pwayn anth-eyew=an

then 3PL=JUST say-PP poison give-PURP=FOC

‘Then they talked about giving (him) poison’

(241) Aylepelengkw anantherr ilkwelhel-ey arwa-arrpantey

young man 1PL initiate-HORT nothing-pretend

apwelh-warl ratherr ap-ey.alh-eyew

ceremony-ALL 3DU arrive-GO&DO-PURP

‘We will pretend that we are initiating a young man so that those two (men) will come!’

5.3.2 -ey.alkenh, -ey.akenh, Subsequent

SUBS has allomorphs -ey.alkenh and -ey.akenh and conveys temporal succession of clauses.

SUBS marks a dependent clause, as in (242). There does not appear to be a restriction on the

marking of the verb of the main clause. HORT and PP occur in the examples below. Previous

researchers of Alyawarr have analysed SUBS as mood. Turtle (n.d) labelled -ey.alkenh as

‘obligative’. AED (Green 1992:24) has ‘an action which will happen soon, going to do

something soon’. SUBS is regarded as an emphatic form of the suffix -ey in Yallop (1977:54)

and used in a future or intentional sense in ‘announcing an intention’. Yallop appears to regard -

ey.alkenh as interchangeable with -ey in the ‘permissive’ use. Yallop only has examples of

SUBS in simple clauses, whereas it is strictly limited to dependent clauses in my data and it is

not possible to tell whether any of his examples had an antecedent clause in the original source.

There are markers in Arrernte which have similar senses to SUBS. In Strehlow (1944:124)

phonologically similar eikanha (Strehlow’s orthography) is labeled ‘optative’ a modal suffix,

meaning ‘may’. Optative expresses a desire, a hope or a wish (Crystal 1997:271).

While the S/A argument may be shared between the two clauses, often the two activities are

unrelated. Alternatively, the same Subject can be involved in two activities which are not

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naturally or conventionally connected with each other, as in (243). Wilkins (1989:239) argues

that the closest Mparntwe Arrernte equivalent, -tyenhenge ‘subsequent’, occurs where the two

events are related in a very general sense, there are no necessary causal or conditional relations

between them. Other apparently related morphemes such are +yame, +yamenge (Henderson

and Dobson 1994:633) which have the sense that the Subject or Agent is hoping to do the verb

stem action, do something so that this will happen or to do something so that you can do

something else. Further research needs to be done with more data to understand the difference

between SUBS and PURP.

(242) Apwert-warl anwantherr alh-erl.iw-ey aker-then amern-then

hill-ALL 1PL:NOM go-PL-HORT meat-CONJ damper-CONJ

amp-ey.akenh

cook-SUBS

‘Let’s go up the hill, until the meat and damper is cooked’

(243) Waylpel ilenh-el-atherr apmer-they anenhantherr

whitefella that-ERG-two place-ABL 1PL:ACC

irrent-ey.alp-ek ratherr an-ey.alkenh apmer nhel-ey

evict-DO&BASE-PP 3DU stay-SUBS place this-EMPH

‘The two whitefellers have evicted us from our place so that they could stay here!’

Further evidence of SUBS as a temporal sequence marker is that it collocates with other

temporal markers for example -tangkwel ‘first’ and the verb ahayleyel ‘do something first’ in

(244).

(244) Athe-tangkwel ahayl-ey ntw-ant=anem antyw-ey.alkenh

1ERG-FIRST do first-HORT 2ERG-JUST=THEN drink-SUBS

‘I will do it first and then you can drink it after’(AED:1)

5.3.3 -enty Irrealis

IRR marks hypothetical statements in independent clauses and functions as a clause connector

and marker of irrealis in dependent clauses. There is a connection in Alyawarr between

subordination and mood marking which has been made for other Australian languages by

McGregor (1988). This type of clause connection involves action nominals, which I will explain

in the following sections.

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5.3.3.1 Hypothetical

IRR can describe a hypothetical possibility in complex clauses. Strickland (1998:93) has

analysed this morpheme as an irrealis marker which can function in a conditional clause in

addition to participial and nominaliser uses. McGregor’s (1988:64) view is that the occurrence

of non-indicative (modal) forms in certain types of subordinate clauses can be explained by

saying that the verb activity of the subordinate clause is a matter of the speaker’s perception and

not of factual propositional content. In a conditional sentence, the usual pattern of verb-marking

is IRR in the protasis and POT in the apodosis as in (245).

(245)

String ntwa arertn-enty aleth=arl=ap nga

string 2S:ERG tie-IRR forever=SUB=CONJ 2S:NOM

alp-em=an apmer=ant-warl

back-POT=FOC camp=JUST-ALL

‘If you tie string on (to a tyre tube), you will be able to go all the way home’

5.3.3.2 ‘If’ conditional and ‘when’ temporal clauses

Complex clauses may be conditional or temporal and the ambiguity in their interpretation is

quite common in languages of the world (Thompson et al 2007:256). Morphemes other than

POT can appear in the verb of the apodosis for example FUT with a reading of ‘when’ rather

than hypothetical ‘if’. An adverbial time clause occurs in (246). Sometimes IRR is used to

denote a seasonal occurrence with an omnitemporal interpretation as in (247).

(246) Antywer arrty-eyenh arrpem kwaty apety-enty-el

grass burn-FUT again rain come-IRR-LOC

‘We will burn grass whenever it rains’

(247) Arwengerrp anter-irr-em kwaty rntw-enty-penh=arl

turkey fat-IV-POT rain rain-IRR-SRC=SUB

‘Turkeys fatten up after rain’

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5.3.3.3 Perception complements

IRR functions as a Different Subject (DS) marker, marking the complement of a perception

verb. The Subjects of the two clauses are not co-referential. The O of the main clause is the S or

A of the dependent clause. The Object of the main clause controls the S/A of the dependent

clause. The events of the main clause and the subordinate clause occur simultaneously, that is,

the temporal reference of the verb in the subordinate clause is the same as that of the main

clause. One of Turtle’s (n.d) labels for IRR is ‘participle formative four’. Yallop (1977: 131)

describes it as a participle which functions as a clause connector. Wilkins (1989:138 footnote

38) says that Alyawarr can ‘mark the complements of perception verbs’ quoting Yallop

(1977:131-32) although this is not Yallop’s term as he labels the morpheme a ‘participle’.

(Wilkins regards the Arrernte equivalent complement perception to be -rlenge but I can’t find

any examples of this usage elsewhere- maybe it is -marlenge).

The verb in the main clause is a perception verb such as in (248) and is marked with a tense

marker, most often Past Perfective. The ‘seeing’ and the activity of the dependent clause take

place concurrently. (See Wilkins 1989:279 and the comment on angkintyeke). My data and

nearly all of Yallop’s -erl.anenty examples (10 out of 11) involve main verbs of perception

related to ‘seeing’ e.g areyel ‘seeing’, intwareyel ‘see something moving away’. Often -ek-

athen ‘mistaken belief’ and -arrpantey ‘thwarted intention’ occur with -erl.an-enty STAT-IRR

to indicate that something was wrongly perceived, as in (249). The addition of these suffixes

highlights the irrealis nature of this construction (Strickland 1998:93).

(248) Arengk-rnem iytwar-enh-ek anterr-err-enty

dog-NPL see across-POINT-PP run-PL-IRR

‘(We) looked across at the dogs (which were) running’ (Yallop 1977:131)

(249)

Rernem=an arrthaw-enh=arl waylpel-el ilt-erl.an-enty-arrpantey

3PL=FOC mishear-IMPP=SUB whitefella-ERG growl-STAT-IRR-thwart

‘They would mishear the whitefellow, as though he was growling at them’

5.3.3.4 Nominalisation

IRR can give a verb stem nominal-like properties, that is, it can occur with nominal case

marking, nominal modifiers and other nominal inflections. Previous analysis focuses upon these

nominalising properties, though as we will see, there are no sharp distinctions either in the

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syntactic category involved or in the associated functions. Strehlow (1944: 62) regarded

Arrernte as deficient in abstract nouns and lists ‘secondary nouns’ which are abstract nouns

derived from verbs by the addition of -intja, for example tjontintja ‘beginning’ derived from

tjontama ‘to begin’. This and a number of other nominalisations have apparently come from the

Hermannsburg Arrarnta church context and are not consistent with the native Alyawarr

functions of the corresponding IRR -enty form. Yallop (1977: 89), following Strehlow

(1944:62), claims that -enty forms a nominal from a verb stem. He then translates IRR, as in

(250), in a way that suggests he sees them as a type of action nominal. The AED (Green

1992:135) similarly describes this function of -enty as ‘goes on the main part of a verb and turns

it into a noun’ but contains only one example of a verb nominalised with IRR, aylelhenty ‘song’

from the derived stem aylelh- ‘sing’. However, as we see in (251), it is not straightforward to

distinguish aylelhenty as a nominalised argument of a clause versus marking a subordinate

clause in a complex sentence. The latter analysis is proposed here. The Subject of aylelhenty in

the subordinate clause in (251) is ellipsed, which makes it indistinguishable from an O of a

simple clause. An explicit subject with the appropriate case-marking is however possible.

(250) Arnar-a ap-ey.alp-enty

watch-IMP.S arrive-DO&BASE-IRR

‘Watch out for (his) return, look out for (his) coming back’

(Yallop 1977: 89, re-presented in modern orthography but

preserving the original translation.)

(251) Aw-etyek akwel aylelh-enty.

hear-PURP apparently sing-IRR

‘Apparently they will hear (them) sing’

Warlpiri has constructions which are similar to those in Alyawarr, corresponding to examples

like (251). An appropriate label for these deverbalised nominals is ‘action nominals’

(Nordlinger 2002). Koptjevskaja-Tamm (1993:6) reports that the ‘intermediate nature’ of action

nominals of the kind found in Warlpiri is reflected in their syntactic behaviour. They occupy a

position which is intermediate between prototypical verbs and prototypical nouns. According to

Comrie and Thompson (2007:344) the action nominal is a ‘non-finite’ verb form without TAM

markers. Action nominals generally take a limited range of case marking, less than for regular

non-derived nominals. The nominalised verb in Alyawarr exhibits some prototypical nominal

properties, because it can bear a limited range of case marking, for example, the dative in (252)

which appears to parallel the dative marking of non-derived nominal ‘goals’.

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(252) Waylpel-el ar-enh=arl alh-enty-ew=an

whitefellow-ERG see-IMPP=SUB go-IRR-DAT=FOC

‘The whitefellows were looking out to see if they were going’

5.3.3.5 -erl.anenty

The combination of STAT and IRR indicates that the event of the subordinate verb was a state

or habitual activity at the time that it was perceived by the S of the main clause. STAT thus

serves a similar function in the dependent clause as IMPP serves with a free verb. My analysis

differs from that of Yallop in assigning an aspectual value to the -erl.an component of the

construction. Yallop (1977:132) appears to regard ayntenty ‘lie-IRR’, ayntanenty ‘lie-?-IRR’

and aynterl-anenty ‘lie-STAT-IRR’ alike as ‘lying’ with no distinction in meaning between the

three forms. However he also claims that ‘the incorporation of the auxiliary root an- overtly

marks the participle as stative or non-completive’ marking ‘ongoing activity’. The most

common forms in my data are -enty and -erl.anenty. There are less than five examples of -an

affixing directly to a verb root (Yallop 1977:132) in my data.

I also differ from Yallop (1977:136) where he maintains that there is no difference between a

SUB marked clause with an IMPP verb (253) and the -erl.anenty STAT-IRR in (254). The SUB

subordinate marker is used where the actions of the two clauses do not occur concurrently

(§5.1.5). I understand IMPP=SUB in (253) as ‘I found a possum which had (previously) been

sitting in a hollow tree until now’. The action of the dependent verb is antecedent to that of the

main verb. The IMPP event continues to the reference time.31

Therefore -enharl does not

indicate ‘concurrent activities’. By contrast, in (254) the verb actions are occurring

concurrently. Further testing and analysis is necessary.

(253)

Antenh=anem ar-ey.alh-ek iylpwer-el-arl an-enh

possum-THEN see-GO&DO-PP hollow-LOC=SUB sit-IMPP

‘I found a possum which had been sitting in a hollow tree’

31

The free verb an can be interpreted as either ‘sit’ or ‘live’, the latter having a more stative character.

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(254)

Antenh=anem ar-ey.alh-ek iylpwer-el-arl an-erl.an-enty

possum=THEN see-GO&DO-PP hollow-LOC=SUB sit-STAT-IRR

‘‘I found a possum which was living in a hollow tree’

STAT refers to a state which holds at the reference time. In (255) the draught horses were tame

and would keep approaching people. STAT suggests their tameness and their habit of

approaching humans. In (256) it is a state of affairs in which there are a lot of cars compared to

earlier times.

(255) Nantew atherr=anem-art rernem arnar-ew-awel nantew

horse two=THEN-EMPH 3PL see coming-PP-SUPP horse

atherr ap-ey.alp-erl.an-enty=anem

two arrive-DO&BASE-STAT-IRR=THEN

‘Then they saw the horses that would keep on coming back’

(256) Ngwangk-ngwangk atha=n ar-eyel mwetek

these days-RED 1SERG=FOC see-PRES car

anterr-err-erl.an-enty akngerr=anem=arl

run-PL-STAT-IRR lots=THEN=SUB

‘These days I see lots of cars driving around’

5.3.4 -emer Subjunctive

SBJV appears in main and subordinate clauses. It is uncommon in text, with less than 10 tokens

in my data. Strehlow (1944) labels this morpheme ‘conditional’ for Arandic dialects. Agreeing

with Strehlow, Yallop (1977:56) sees this suffix as potential or conditional in a general sense

with the reading, ‘something might happen’. The AED (Green 1992:134) has ‘if only (the action

had happened or could have happened)’. Strickland (1998:89) analyses it as ‘should’ i.e the

speaker thinks something ought to happen or is desirable. With the exception of Turtle, previous

researchers of Alyawarr don’t analyse this as a contrafactual in complex sentences. Examples

610, 686, 687 and 756 in Turtle’s (n.d) section on complex clauses have examples of this kind.

Turpin (2000:115) describes +mere in Kaytetye as having a meaning ‘if something happens

then.’ There is apparently no distinction between +me and +mere in Kaytetye (Harold Koch,

p.c). Wilkins (1989:233) reports that in Mparntwe Arrernte -mere may occur either as a simple

utterance or in a complex conditional construction.

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5.3.4.1 Main clauses

SBJV occurs on verbs in simple clauses to indicate that something might or possibly should

happen. This is a mild form of intention, evident in (257). The informant also said that he might

lywa artetyek using PURP which suggests that there is some overlap between Purposive and

Subjunctive. SBJV occurs with nthakenh ‘how, what’ in (258) as if to emphasise the tentative

nature of the activity. The interrogative with SBJV in (259) highlights the hypothetical and

uncertain nature of the action.

(257) Lywa new one art-emer

shade shelter new one build-SBJV

‘(I) could build a new bough shelter’

(258) Alakenh.anyem=anem rernem doem-il-enh ikwer

like that=THEN 3PL do-TV-IMPP 3S:DAT

Artwamp-ey nthakenh rernem w-emer=an

old man-EMPH how 3PL shoot-SBJV=FOC

‘That is what they were doing about the old man, how they could shoot him’

(259) Artwa ra-amathen=anem aylpeny=anem-irr-ew “Ilek-ew

man 3S-doubt=THEN sick of=THEN-IV-PP what-DAT

ayeng irrtyert-irrtyert alh-erl.an-emer?”

1S:NOM hidden-RED go-STAT-SBJV

‘Then the man apparently got tired of it, “Why do I have to keep going

along hiding?”’

5.3.4.2 Complex Clauses: Contrafactual

Subjunctive appears in conditional sentences which describe a past state of affairs. Subjunctive

does not itself mark contrafactuality. The past contrafactual involves an implicature of

contrafactual meaning involving potentiality and past tense (Verstraete 2006:72). A course of

action could have been taken but it wasn’t. Strehlow (1944:108) discusses contrafactuality in the

Aranda (Arrernte) New Testament text of John 11:21 and the difficulty with expressing

contrafactual sentences in Arandic languages. As shown in (260), contrafactual sentences in

Alyawarr may have both verbs marked with Subjunctive.

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(260)

Ra=rl irrtyert.iw-emer irrtyart-then mwerr=arl ra an-emer

3S=SUB hide-SBJV spear-CONJ good=SUB 3S be-SBJV

‘If he had hidden his spear away, he would have been all right’

The Arrernte equivalent of Subjunctive functions in a contrafactual clause in (261) from

Wilkins (1989:233).

(261)

Unte apmwerrke peke petye-ke arratye unte re-nhe are-mere

2sgS yesterday maybe come-pc true 2sgA 3sg-ACC see-HYPO

‘If you had come yesterday , then you certainly would have seen her’

5.3.5 -el Same Subject

Same Subject marking on a verb indicates that a clause is dependent and that its S or A is co-

referential with the S/A of the clause that it is dependent upon, as in (262). Same Subject

follows POT or tense. POT (§5.2.4) appears to have a habitual sense ‘would happen’.

STAT+SS -erl.anemel occurs when the activities are habitual or characteristic. IMPP marks the

verb of the main clause in (263) in harmony with the stative or habitual aspect of STAT.

(262) Yarraman-warl ngan-erl.alh-em alwern-em-el pwelek

horse-ALL mount-DO&GO-POT chase-POT-SS cattle

arternp-il-em-el

quieten-TV-POT-SS

‘I would mount a horse, chasing the cattle and settling them down’

(263) Arrwekeleny=arl an-enh yanh-ilkwer arlkw-erl.an-em-el=arl

ancestor=SUB sit-IMPP there-SEMB eat-STAT-POT-SS=SUB

‘That is how the ancestors were living and eating’

According to Yallop (1977:131), it may be the case that -emel is equivalent to -el, which he

labels a participle marker. He identifies -el with the locative which he says can occur on verb

160

forms. Yallop’s analysis is plausible because -el the Locative marker LOC forms temporal

adverbial phrases. So, a possible alternative analysis is that it is not a distinct SS suffix but that

the Locative marker follows POT and IMPP.32

SS marks the verb of an adverbial clause in

(264). Two events happen simultaneously and are done by the same subjects. SS indicates that

the events of the verbs occur concurrently and probably have the same temporal range.

(264) Arengk renh atnwen-enh arrpemarl arwengalker=arl

dog 3S:ACC lead-IMPP again honey=SUB

artern-enh-el=an.

chop-IMPP-SS=FOC

‘(We) would take the dog as well, whenever (we) were chopping for honey’

I have not found an example like that of Yallop (1977:130) seen in example in which he

equates -el with a participle formative, quoted in Goddard (1988:185). His example is

anomalous. Usually -el is not affixed directly to the verb stem but occurs after tense suffixes.

Although ayntila could be analysed as aynterl, the -arlkw part has not been found as a

compounding element - see footnote 15 in §4.4.

(265) antimirna ayntila alkuka.

wild.honey-NOM lie-participle eat-PAST

'I ate the wild honey while lying down'

5.3.6 -ekerr/-ewerr Apprehensive

APP is found in independent clauses such as in (266) which function as warnings. In dependent

clauses APP indicates a potential or actual negative situation to be avoided, as in (267). The

Reason marker -wety occurs with nominals and has a similar function to the Apprehensive.

Yallop (1977:55) and Turtle (n.d) labels APP as ‘admonitive’ because it generally suggests a

warning or risk although Yallop notes that there ‘are some contexts where it suggests no more

than an unpleasant possibility or a warning’.

32

I have not found examples of -el occurring with the Past Completed suffix or other tense suffixes.

Although Yallop (1977:131) analyses -ikala as ‘past + locative’, he also appears to label similar

constructions as either a single past perfect suffix (page 51) or as a combination of past -ika and the

clausal connective -ala (page 137).

161

(266) aytn-ewerr ‘might fall’

fall- APP

akelh-ewerr ‘might break’.

break- APP

(Stanham 1972: 46)

(267) Artwe-rnem warrkirr-enh menty=arl maket-wety

man-NPL work-IMPP leave=SUB rifle-AVERS

ater-el w-ewerr

fear-ADV shoot-APP

‘They would keep working, afraid of the rifles, of getting shot’

5.3.7 -ekerr-awaty Before

BEFORE is similar in form to APP plus -awaty ‘while, during’ and is probably diachronically

related to APP. The event is usually something that the speaker doesn’t want to happen, similar

to Apprehensive. The interpretation is ‘do something before something else happens’ which

seems to parallel the -ketye-athathe (Wilkins 1989:374) construction in Arrente. Breen (p.c)

indicates that a similar construction occurs in Western Queensland languages:

(268) store mart-elh-ekerr-awaty

store close-MED-APP-BEFORE

‘before the store closes’

5.3.8 Characteristic -ey.angker and -enh.RED

Characteristic nominalises or deverbalises a verb and gives it some nominal properties, similar

to Agentive –er nominalisation in English and similar to IRR §5.3.3. Although -enh.RED occurs

in Alyawarr texts, it is limited in productivity and less common than in other Arandic languages.

CHAR is used to describe characteristic behaviour as the examples in (269) show. In (270)

CHAR is also used for inanimate objects. (270) CHAR occurs with a limited range of nominal

case marking as in (271).

162

(269) anterr-ey.angker ‘escaper, escape artist’ from anterreyel ‘run (away)’

tnakelh-erl.an-ey.angker ‘one who always boasts, skites’ from tnakelheyel ‘boast’

(Alyawarr Bible: Genesis 37:14 )

(270) lher-weny=arl iylpay-weny=arl kwaty ilw-ey.angker=arl nhenh-ey

river-NEG=SUB creek-NEG=SUB water finish-CHAR=SUB this-EMPH

‘Not a river and not a creek- the water keeps disappearing’

(271) Anterr-ey.angker-wety ikwer-warl arrern-ew ingkety-warl tyeyn=anem

run-CHAR-REAS 3DAT-ALL put-PP foot-ALL chain=THEN

‘They put chains on his feet because he was an escape artist’

-enh.RED is plausibly related to IMPP (§5.1.4), and creates nominal. It is marked by an -enh

suffix plus disyllabic reduplication:

(272) Arriper=an ahelengkw im-ek=antey tnhw-enh-tnhw-enh

taipan=FOC dangerous corpse-DAT=STILL attack-enh.RED

‘The Taipan (snake) is dangerous, a killer’ (AED:92, my translation)

An Arrernte morpheme (Wilkins 1989:139)33

in (273) has a habitual activity meaning similar to

Alyawarr CHAR and probably also DISTR §4.6.2. The formally similar IRR nominalisation in

Alyawarr can’t be modified in the same manner.

(273) Re angke-ntye kngerre.

3sgS speak-NMZR big

‘He's always speaking (or he's a big talker)’

5.4 An alternative classification

A tentative alternative classification is proposed for the non-obligatory markers. This forms the

basis for future research. Aspect (§4.9) can only be marked once in a verb, with the exception of

Past Habitual2. In Table 36 the obligatory markers are divided into three categories on the basis

of their occurrence with specific aspectual markers in the pre-obligatory positions in the verb.

Only the past tense categories of Category One include aspectual distinctions. Category Two

inflections co-occur with both CONT and STAT markers. Category Three is less well-defined.

33

Wilkins appears to analyse -kngerre synchronically as an ‘adjectival nominal’ which modifies the

deverbal noun, e.g. ‘big eater’.

163

The markers combine with STAT and all other modal and clause- joining morphemes, but not

CONT.

Table 34: Aspectual classes of Alyawarr verbs

CATEGORIES OF OBLIGATORY

MARKERS

CO-OCCURING PRE-OBLIGATORY

ASPECTUAL MARKERS

Category One

None

Category Two: Intentional -aynt, (CONT), -erl.aynt (CONT2) future

-erl.an (STAT)

Category Three: Alternative -erl.an (STAT)

5.4.1 Aspectual Category Two: Intentional Mood

Intentional mood categories form a distinct class based upon their distribution, combining with

both CONT and STAT. The markers in Table 35 express a speaker’s intention. Semantically,

they are all similar to the Imperative which is the most typical member of the group.

Table 35: Intentional Mood markers

IMPerative -ø, -enherr-atherr, -enherrarey §5.2.1

HORTative -ey §5.2.2

PURPosive -etyek §5.2.3

SUBSequent -ey.alkenh §5.3.2

POTential -em §5.2.4

5.4.2 Aspectual Category Three

The morphemes listed in this section are those which can combine with aspectual STAT

(§4.9.1.1) in addition to all non-past tense and Intentional Mood morphemes. STAT codes

stative or habitual aspect in clauses. The Alternative State morphemes are given in Table 36.

164

Table 36: Alternative State Markers

Non-actual state (NEG)

Possible states (IRRealis, SBJV Subjunctive, POTential, PURPosive, HORTative)

States which the speaker judges to be undesirable (APP)

Complement clauses involving different Subjects (DS) where the actuality of state of

affairs V2 is contingent upon the perception of S1.

States involving a Subject doing V2 which is contingent upon the occurrence of a

habitual activity V1 (SS)

State of affairs in which characteristic behaviour is unusual or different from that of

others (CHAR)

On functional grounds, I propose a modal category of Alternative State as a tentative analysis

which needs to be confirmed with more research. Alternative State involves polarities which are

based upon a variety of criteria, emphasising discrete Subjects, events or realities. Negation and

subjunctive are prototypical examples of Alternative State, involving unreal states, uncertain

states, separate realities and alternative realities. Alternative State is similar to Contingency

which has been described by Timberlake (2007:329) who claims that Contingency mood

‘examines the conditions under which a situation has one polarity or the other as a function of

some other situation’. Contingent states are closer to irrealis along the continuum from realis to

irrealis. A question which remains to be answered is whether Alternative State marks an explicit

relation between clauses, especially between the protasis and apodosis in conditional clauses.

There needs to be explanation of why STAT is used in particular contexts, as illustrated in the

following two examples. PURP combines with STAT in (274), describing alternative states of

affairs, indicating a situation which is undesirable and against the Subject’s wishes. The use of

the interrogative indicates the speaker’s uncertainty about the current state of affairs.

(274) Ilek anwantherr=an arlkw-erl.an-eyew irrkaty=an wenh

why 1PL:NOM=FOC eat-STAT-PURP same=FOC QUOT

‘ “Why should we keep eating the same (food)?” ’

HORT combines with erl.an STAT and has a reading of ‘S does something which is away from

other people’ in (275). The S in the example is a fugitive and wants to remain in a secretive

state, away from his pursuers.

165

(275) Nh-el=antey ayeng aynt-erl.an-ey arlkarl-irr-em-el wenh!”

here-LOC=STILL 1S:NOM lie-STAT-HORT cool-IV-POT-SS QUOT

‘ “I will stay here and keep cool”’

166

6 Future Research

This thesis has explored a number of issues in the description of the Alyawarr verb. I have

confirmed that the Alyawarr verb differs from that of other Arandic languages. A number of

conclusions have been tentatively drawn and further work needs to be done. The precise

functions of a number of verbal morphemes still require further investigation. Some morphemes

have been described which were not in previous descriptions of Alyawarr grammar. Verbal

Reduplication has been described in Chapter 2. The relationship between Attenuative and RUN

needs to be investigated.

Additional derivational and number morphemes have been described in chapter 3. The full

range of derivational and number suffixes could be further investigated through the use of more

data. The functions of the Mediopassive require further attention.

Morphemes which were previously undescribed appear in Chapter 4, for example the Vertical

Motion suffixes. Other motion suffixes could be researched further through the use of texts and

elicitation.

Additional TAM morphemes have been described in chapter 5. Further research needs to be

done of aspect in Alyawarr and its relationship to the categories of tense and mood.

I would hope to refine and extend research as more data becomes available, particularly for

those morphemes which have a low frequency in texts. Further elicitation could be conducted to

get a more nuanced understanding of the function of verbal morphemes.

167

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