Cover not available

Article published In: Diachronica
Vol. 31:3 (2014) ► pp.379–406

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Complex coordination in diachrony

Two Sogeram case studies

 | University of California, Santa Barbara
Published online: 14 November 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.31.3.03dan
This paper presents two innovations in the clause chaining system of the Sogeram languages of Papua New Guinea. In the first, chain-final morphology was reanalyzed as chain-medial morphology with different-subject switch reference meaning. In the second, common collocations of two verbs in a clause chain were reanalyzed as constituting a single compound verb stem. Previously, scholars held that increased structural integration of clauses necessarily results in structural asymmetry (that is, subordination), but the Sogeram data show that this need not always be the case. The cross-linguistic impulse towards increased integration is realized in both innovations, but the impulse towards asymmetry is only realized in the first. This paper thus argues that with coordinate source constructions such as these clause chains, one clause may become subordinate to the other, but the clauses may also retain their coordinate relationship as they become more integrated.
References (54)
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2009. Semantics and grammar in clause linking. In R.M.W. Dixon & Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (eds.), The semantics of clause linking: A cross-linguistic typology, 380–402. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Arcodia, Giorgio Francesco. 2012. Constructions and headedness in derivation and compounding. Morphology 22(3). 365–397. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bauer, Laurie. 1990. Be-heading the word. Journal of Linguistics 26(1). 1–31. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bradshaw, Joel. 1982. Word order change in Papua New Guinea Austronesian languages. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i dissertation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Braunmüller, Kurt. 1991. Die skandinavischen Sprachen im Überblick. Tübingen: Francke.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan. 2006. From usage to grammar: The mind’s response to repetition. Language 82(4). 711–733. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard. 1983. Switch reference in Huichol: A typological study. In John Haiman & Pamela Munro (eds.), Switch reference and universal grammar, 17–37. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crowley, Terry. 2002. Serial verbs in Oceanic: A descriptive typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Daniels, Don. 2010a. A preliminary phonological history of the Sogeram languages of Papua New Guinea. Oceanic Linguistics 49(1). 163–193. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010b. On the position of Manat within the Sogeram family. Paper presented at the Australian National University Department of Linguistics Seminar Series, Canberra, Australia, September 10.
. 2013. Proto-Sogeram serial verbs. Paper presented at the Workshop on the Languages of Melanesia 2013, Kioloa, Australia, May 25.
Donohue, Mark. 2005. Configurationality in the languages of New Guinea. Australian Journal of Linguistics 25(2). 181–218. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Foley, William A. 2000. The languages of New Guinea. Annual Review of Anthropology 291. 357–404. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Clause linkage and nexus in Papuan languages. In Isabelle Bril (ed.), Clause linking and clause hierarchy: Syntax and pragmatics, 27–50. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Franklin, Karl J. 1971. A grammar of Kewa. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Givón, Talmy. 1983. Topic continuity in discourse: The functional domain of switch reference. In John Haiman & Pamela Munro (eds.), Switch reference and universal grammar, 51–82. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1983. On some origins of switch reference marking. In John Haiman & Pamela Munro (eds.), Switch reference and universal grammar, 105–128. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haiman, John & Pamela Munro. 1983. Introduction. In John Haiman & Pamela Munro (eds.), Switch reference and universal grammar, ix–xv. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harris, Alice C. & Lyle Campbell. 1995. Historical syntax in cross-linguistic perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harris, Kyle. 1990. Nend grammar essentials. In John R. Roberts (ed.), Two grammatical studies (Data Papers on Papua New Guinea Languages 37), 73–156. Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea: Summer Institute of Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Manuscript. Nend texts. Electronic files, Pioneer Bible Translators.
Heine, Bernd. 1993. Auxiliaries: Cognitive forces and grammaticalization. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. & Elizabeth Closs Traugott. 2003. Grammaticalization, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ingram, Andrew. 2001. Anamuxra: A language of Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. Sydney: University of Sydney dissertation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keine, Stefan. 2013. Deconstructing switch reference. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 31(3). 767–826. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klinken, Catharina van. 2000. From verb to coordinator in Tetun. Oceanic Linguistics 39(2). 350–363. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mithun, Marianne. 1988. The grammaticization of coordination. In John Haiman & Sandra A. Thompson (eds.), Clause combining in grammar and discourse, 331–359. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moyse-Faurie, Claire & John Lynch. 2004. Coordination in Oceanic languages and Proto Oceanic. In Martin Haspelmath (ed.), Coordinating constructions (Typological Studies in Language 58), 445–497. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ohori, Toshio. 1994. Diachrony of clause linkage: TE and BA in Old through Middle Japanese. In William Pagliuca (ed.), Perspectives on grammaticalization, 135–149. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oosten, Jeanne van. 1986. Sitting, standing and lying in Dutch: A cognitive approach to the distribution of the verbs zitten , staan , and liggen . In Jeanne van Oosten & Johan P. Snapper (eds.), Dutch linguistics at Berkeley, 137–160. Berkeley: Dutch Studies Program, University of California at Berkeley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pawley, Andrew. 1987. Encoding events in Kalam and English: Different logics for reporting experience. In Russell S. Tomlin (ed.), Coherence and grounding in discourse: Outcome of a symposium, Eugene, Oregon, June 1984 (Typological Studies in Language 11), 329–360. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. The chequered career of the Trans New Guinea hypothesis: Recent research and its implications. In Andrew Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Jack Golson & Robin Hide (eds.), Papuan pasts: Cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples, 67–107. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Madang languages. In Keith Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics, 2nd edn, vol. 71, 429–432. Boston: Elsevier. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1987. Structures and their functions in Usan: A Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. (Studies in Language Companion Series 13). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roberts, John. 1987. Amele. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roberts, John R. 1988a. Switch-reference in Papuan languages: A syntactic or extrasyntactic device? Australian Journal of Linguistics 81. 75–117. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1988b. Amele switch-reference and the theory of grammar. Linguistic Inquiry 19(1). 45–63.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. Switch-reference in Papua New Guinea: A preliminary survey. In Andrew Pawley (ed.), Papers in Papuan linguistics No. 3 (Pacific Linguistics A–87), 101–241. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ross, Malcolm. 2005. Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages. In Andrew Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Jack Golson & Robin Hide (eds.), Papuan pasts: Cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples, 15–65. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vries, Lourens de. 1997. The rise of switch-reference in the Awyu languages of Irian Jaya. In Jadranka Gvozdanović (ed.), Language change and functional explanations (Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs 98), 89–108. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wade, Martha. 1997. Switch reference and control in Apalɨ. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia 28(1). 1–16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Manuscript a. A survey of the grammatical structures and semantic functions of the Apalɨ (Emerum) language. Pioneer Bible Translators.
. Manuscript b. Apalɨ texts. Electronic files, Pioneer Bible Translators.
Z’graggen, John A. 1971. Classificatory and typological studies in languages of the Madang District (Pacific Linguistics C–19). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1975. The Madang-Adelbert Range subphylum. In Stephen A. Wurm (ed.), Papuan languages and the New Guinea linguistic scene (Pacific Linguistics C–38), 569–612. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Gildea, Spike & Jóhanna Barðdal
2023. From grammaticalization to Diachronic Construction Grammar. Studies in Language 47:4 ► pp. 743 ff. DOI logo
Daniels, Don
2020. The history of tense and aspect in the Sogeram family. Journal of Historical Linguistics 10:2 ► pp. 167 ff. DOI logo
Daniels, Don
2021. The issue of arbitrariness in syntactic reconstruction. Folia Linguistica 55:s42-s2 ► pp. 393 ff. DOI logo
Daniels, Don
2022. The history of tense and aspect in the Sogeram family. In Development of Tense and Aspect Systems [Benjamins Current Topics, 123], ► pp. 21 ff. DOI logo
Daniels, Don, Danielle Barth & Wolfgang Barth
2019. Subgrouping the Sogeram languages. Journal of Historical Linguistics 9:1 ► pp. 92 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue