Australian Journal of Linguistics

Vol. 19, no. 1 (1999)

Articles

Lexical replacement and cognate equilibrium in Australia Barry Alpher & David Nash 5-56
Ergativity: Some additions from Indonesia Mark Donohue & Lea Brown 57-76
Voiceless sonorants - Phonemes or underlying clusters? Bill Palmer 77-88
The minimum word in Warray Mark Harvey & Toni Borowsky 89-99

Book reviews

Rethinking language and gender research: Theory and practice (Victoria L. Bergvall, Janet M. Bing and Alice F. Freed, editors), Gender articulated: Language and the socially constructed self (Kira Hall and Mary Bucholtz, editors), and Women, men, and politeness (Janet Holmes) Scott Kiesling 101-109
The rise and fall of languages (R. M. W. Dixon) Terry Crowley 109-115
The handbook of morphology (Andrew Spencer and Arnold M. Zwicky, editors) Laurie Bauer 116-118
A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics (4th edition) (David Crystal) Alan R. Libert 118-120
Nominal classification in Aboriginal Australia (Mark Harvey and Nicholas Reid, editors) R. M. W. Dixon 121-123
Englishes around the world, volumes 1 and 2 (Edgar W. Schneider, editor) Kevin Ford 123-128
English and the discourses of colonialism (Alistair Pennycook) E. Annamalai 128-130

Abstracts

Lexical replacement and cognate equilibrium in Australia

Barry Alpher & David Nash

Abstract: We estimate the degree to which languages resort to borrowing as a means of lexical replacement, within a group of neighbouring languages of southwestern Cape York Peninsula, using several methods: (1) sound-correspondences and correspondence-mimicry; (2) the proportion of 'local' words in single-language lists; and (3) the creation of the vocabulary of special registers. We find that borrowing accounts for at most half of lexical replacement in these languages, and most usually is well below half. We demonstrate that this rate is crucial in the prediction of what fraction of vocabulary might in the long term be common to two neighbouring languages (the 'equilibrium percentage') in a model of lexical similarity that does not distinguish borrowings from common retentions. We then apply these findings to the case study, and compare determinations by lexicostatistical subgrouping (with and without recognition of loans), with results from classification by classical means. We find substantial agreement, and that the effect of 'borrowing to equilibrium' on lexicostatistical subgrouping is tolerably small.

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Ergativity: Some additions from Indonesia

Mark Donohue & Lea Brown

Abstract: Recent work on ergative phenomena has been summarized in Dixon (1994), where in addition to listing and categorizing many aspects of ergativity across languages, he also makes several generalizations about ergative phenomena. Research on languages of Indonesia has turned up data in different languages that extends, refutes, or corroborates Dixon's claims concerning case marking, ergativity splits, split-intransitivity, the primacy of morphological ergativity, and switch-reference systems. Data from four languages are presented supporting the claims made by the authors.

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Voiceless sonorants - Phonemes or underlying clusters?

Bill Palmer

Abstract: This paper examines the phenomenon of voiceless sonorants in Kokota (Oceanic, Solomon Islands). The phonemic status of these phones is examined in terms of the question - are they underlyingly phonemes or the result of the synchronic surface coalescence of underlying /h/ plus sonorant clusters? The relevant data from Kokota are presented, then two alternative models are briefly described - underlying voiceless sonorant phonemes in Iaai, and the surface coalescence of CC sequences in Lenakel. Evidence from within Kokota is then examined in an attempt to determine which model Kokota best fits. The paper concludes that these Kokota phones represent underlying voiceless sonorant phonemes, giving the language a consonant phoneme inventory in which every voiced phoneme has a voiceless counterpart.

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The minimum word in Warray

Mark Harvey & Toni Borowsky

Abstract: Words in Warray are minimally bimoraic, a constraint on minimum word size whose effects are evident in most languages of the world. We examine the differing satisfactions of this constraint for nouns and verbs from the perspectives of Optimality Theory. Nouns of the underlying shape /CVC/ appear with a long vowel [CVVC]. Verbs with the underlying shape /CVC/ appear without a long vowel [CVC]. We propose that this systematic difference is not categorially stipulated, but rather that it follows from another systematic difference between nouns and verbs. In nouns the coda consonant forms part of the root, whereas in verbs it is a separate suffix. We propose that final consonants are generally not moraic in Warray, and consequently the nouns appear as [CVVC]. However with verbs, the general requirement that root-level suffixes should align with the root prevents vowel lengthening, and requires that the final consonant should be moraic.

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Last update: 22 April 2000
Comments to Tim Curnow