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Article published In: Language Ecology
Vol. 1:1 (2017) ► pp.4–24

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The origins of a relative case system

 | Ngukurr Language Centre | University of Queensland
 | University of Queensland | ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language
 | Karungkarni Arts
Published online: 13 July 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/le.1.1.02van
Abstract
Gurindji Kriol, a mixed language spoken in northern Australia, combines a Kriol VP with a Gurindji NP, including case suffixes ( 2011a. Borrowing contextual inflection: Evidence from northern Australia. Morphology 21(1): 57–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). The Gurindji-derived case suffixes have undergone a number of changes in Gurindji Kriol, for example the ergative suffix -ngku/-tu now marks nominative case ( 2011b. Case Marking in Contact: The Development and Function of Case Morphology in Gurindji Kriol. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 2015. From absolutely optional to only nominally ergative: The life cycle of the Gurindji Kriol ergative suffix. In F. Gardani, P. Arkadiev and N. Amiridze, eds. Borrowed Morphology. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 189–218.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). This study explores a new innovation in case morphology among Gurindji Kriol-speaking children: the use of -ngku/-tu to mark possessors as well as subjects, i.e. the emergence of a relative case system. Although rare in Australian languages, syncretism between agents and possessors is not uncommon cross-linguistically, reported in Caucasian Eskimo-Aleut, Mixe-Zoquean and Yucatecan-Mayan languages (Allen, W. S. 1964. Transitivity and possession. Language 40(3): 337–343. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; 1994. Case. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Palancar, E. 2002. The Origin of Agent Markers. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). In the case of Gurindji Kriol, the relative case system found its origins in allomorphic reduction which led to syncretism between ergative and dative case forms. This syncretism was shaped by the syntactic grouping of subjects and possessors as dependents of verbs and possessums, respectively. Although partial syncretism between ergative and dative case is not unusual in Australian languages historically, it has gone to completion in Gurindji Kriol and can be observed in two other instances of rapid linguistic change in Australia: Ngiyambaa (Donaldson, T. 1980. Ngiyambaa: The Language of the Wangaaybuwan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and Dyirbal (Schmidt, A. 1985. Young People's Dyirbal: An Example of Language Death from Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). The re-organisation of the case system can be traced back to a small group of second-generation Gurindji Kriol speakers at Nitjpurru (Pigeon Hole) and this change has since been transmitted laterally through familial connections to other children at Daguragu. There are also indications that it has begun propagating to other children at Kalkaringi and is now being acquired by the next generation of Gurindji Kriol speakers.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The -ngku variant and its language ecology
  • 3.An emergent relative case system in Gurindji Kriol
    • 3.1Syncretism between nominative and dative allomorphs
    • 3.2Relative case systems cross-linguistically
  • 4.Morpho-syntactic origins of the relative case system in Gurindji Kriol
    • 4.1The development of relative systems cross-linguistically
    • 4.2Language shift and allomorphic reduction in Australia
    • 4.3The development of relative case in Gurindji Kriol
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations
  • References
References (43)
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