Cover not available

In:Investigating Language Isolates: Typological and diachronic perspectives
Edited by Iker Salaberri, Dorota Krajewska, Ekaitz Santazilia and Eneko Zuloaga
[Typological Studies in Language 135] 2025
► pp. 248–269

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

Baroque accretions and isolation

A case study of grammatical complexity in complex social situations in Solomon Islands

 | Australian National University
Published online: 16 January 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.135.08ter
Abstract
This paper presents a case study comparing two Papuan languages of Island Melanesia, Lavukaleve and Touo, with their Oceanic neighbours, exploring differing outcomes of language contact in micro-contact situations. Social/geographic isolation has been thought to preserve or enable structural complexity, measured using a complexity index. It is shown that each of the Papuan members of the contact situations to be described is structurally more complex than its Oceanic neighbours, but of these, the structurally more complex language is the socially/geographically more isolated. Among these languages, while there is a relationship between isolation and complexity, there is a less strong relationship between being isolates and being complex. Thus, in this case at least, isolates are not necessarily more complex through being isolates.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The Isolation Hypothesis and sociolinguistic factors leading to linguistic complexity
    • 1.2The languages of this study
  • 2.Operationalising structural complexity
    • 2.1Mature phemonena or baroque accretions in Lavukaleve
      • 2.1.1Exuberant allomorphy
      • 2.1.2Superfluous category marking
      • 2.1.3Multiple exponence
    • 2.2Structural complexity in Lavukaleve, Touo and four Oceanic languages
    • 2.3Morphological opacity
  • 3.Shared material and non-material culture as other evidence for contact
  • 4.Discussion and conclusions
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
  • Appendix
References (56)
References
Anderson, Stephen R. 2015. Dimensions of morphological complexity. In Understanding and Measuring Morphological Complexity, Matthew Baerman, Dunstan Brown, & Greville G. Corbett (eds), 11–26. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baechler, Raffaela. 2016. Inflectional complexity of nouns, adjectives and articles in closely related (non-)isolated varieties. In Complexity, Isolation and Variation, Raffaela Baechler & Guido Seiler (eds), 15–46. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baechler, Raffaela & Seiler, Guido. 2012. Simplification, complexification and microvariation: Towards a quantification of inflectional complexity in closely related varieties. In Morphology and the Architecture of Grammar. Online-Proceedings of the Eighth Mediterranean Morphology Meeting, Angela Ralli, Geert Booij, Sergio Scalise, & Athanasios Karasimos (eds), 22–40. Patras: University of Patras. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (eds). 2016a. Complexity, Variation and Isolation. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016b. Introduction. In Complexity, Variation, and Isolation, Raffaela Baechler & Guido Seiler (eds), 1–13. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baerman, Matthew, Brown, Dunstan, & Corbett, Greville G. (eds). 2015a. Understanding and Measuring Morphological Complexity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2015b. Understanding and measuring morphological complexity: An introduction. In Understanding and Measuring Morphological Complexity, Matthew Baerman, Dunstan Brown, & Greville G. Corbett (eds), 3–10. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bathgate, Murray A. 1985. Movement processes from precontact to contemporary times: The Ndi-Nggai, west Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. In Circulation in Population Movement: Some Concepts from the Melanesian Case, Murray Chapman & R. Mansell Prothero (eds), 83–118. London: Routledge/Kegan Paul.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bayliss-Smith, Tim P. & Hviding, Edvard. 2015. Landesque capital as an alternative to food storage in Melanesia: Irrigated taro terraces in New Georgia, Solomon Islands. Environmental Archaeology 20(4): 425–436. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bayliss-Smith, Tim, Prebble, Matthew, & Manebosa, Stephen. 2019. Saltwater and bush in New Georgia, Solomon Islands: Exchange relations, agricultural intensification and limits to social complexity. In Archaeologies of Island Melanesia: Current Approaches to Landscapes, Exchange and Practice, Mathieu Leclerc & James Flexner (eds), 35–52. Canberra: ANU Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Black, Robert H. 1963. The Russell Islanders of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. Diploma of Anthropology thesis, University of Sydney.
Braunmüller, Kurt. 2016. On the origins of complexity: Evidence from Germanic. In Complexity, Variation, and Isolation, Raffaela Baechler & Guido Seiler (eds), 47–69. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corston-Oliver, Simon. 2002. Roviana. In The Oceanic Languages, John Lynch, Malcolm Ross, & Terry Crowley (eds), 467–497. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cox, Murray P. & Mirazòn Lahr, Mirtha. 2006. Y-Chromasome diversity is inversely associated with language affiliation in paired Austronesian — and Papuan-speaking communities from Solomon Islands. American Journal of Human Biology 18: 35–50. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crowley, Terry. 2002. Gela. In The Oceanic Languages, John Lynch, Malcolm Ross, & Terry Crowley (eds), 525–537. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin (eds). 2013. WALS Online. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. <[URL]>
Dunn, Michael. 2005. Vernacular literacy in the Touo language of the Solomon Islands. Current Issues in Language Planning 6(2): 239–250. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eberhard, David M., Simons, Gary F., & Fennig, Charles D. (eds). 2022. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 25th edn. SIL International. <[URL]>
Fox, C. E. 1919. Social organization in San Cristoval, Solomon Islands. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 49: 94–179. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frostad, Benedicte Haraldstad. 2012. A Grammar of Ughele: An Oceanic Language of Solomon Islands. Urtecht: LOT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph H. 1971. The Indo-Pacific hypothesis. In Linguistics in Oceania [Current Trends in Linguistics 8], Thomas. A. Sebeok (ed), 807–871. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hammarström, Harald. 2017. Language isolates in the New Guinea region. In Language Isolates [Routledge Language Family Series], Lyle Campbell (ed), 287–322. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hill, Deborah. 1992. Longgu Grammar. PhD dissertation, The Australian National University.
. 2002. Longgu. In The Oceanic Languages, John Lynch, Malcolm Ross, & Terry Crowley (eds), 538–561. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hockett, Charles Francis. 1958. A Course in Modern Linguistics. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hogbin, H. Ian. 1938. Social organization of Guadalcanal and Florida, Solomon Islands. Oceania 8: 398–402. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keesing, Roger. M. 1988. Melanesian Pidgin and the Oceanic Substrate. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lindström, Eva. 2008. Language complexity and interlinguistic difficulty. In Language Complexity: Typology, Contact, Change, Matti Miestamo, Kaius Sinnemäki, & Fred Karlsson (eds), 217–242. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lynch, John, Ross, Malcolm, & Crowley, Terry. 2002. The Oceanic Languages. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McWhorter, John. 2001. The world’s simplest grammars are creole grammars. Linguistic Typology 5(2/3): 125–166. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miestamo, Matti. 2008. Grammatical complexity in a cross-linguistic perspective. In Language Complexity: Typology, Contact, Change, Matti Miestamo, Kaius Sinnemäki, & Fred Karlsson (eds), 23–41. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miestamo, Matti, Sinnemäki, Kaius, & Karlsson, Fred. (eds). 2008. Language Complexity: Typology, Contact, Change. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nichols, Johanna. 1992. Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Linguistic complexity: A comprehensive definition and survey. In Language Complexity as an Evolving Variable, Geoffrey Sampson, David Gil, & Peter Trudgill (eds), 110–125. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Obata, Kazuko. 2003. A Grammar of Bilua: A Papuan Language of the Solomon Islands [Pacific Linguistics 540]. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palmer, Bill. 2002. Kokota. In The Oceanic Languages, John Lynch, Malcolm Ross, & Terry Crowley (eds), 498–524. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Kokota Grammar. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pedrós, Toni. 2015. New arguments for a Central Solomons Family based on evidence from pronominal morphemes. Oceanic Linguistics 54(2): 358–395. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roe, David. 1993. Prehistory without Pots: Prehistoric Settlement and Economy of North West Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. PhD dissertation, Australian National University.
Ross, Malcolm. 2001. Is there an East Papuan phylum? Evidence from pronouns. In The Boy from Bundaberg: Studies in Melanesian Linguistics in Honour of Tom Dutton, Andrew Pawley, Malcolm Ross, & Darrell Tryon (eds), 301–321. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shaw, Ben, Hawkins, Stuart, Becerra-Valdivia, Lorena, Turney, Chris S. M., Coxe, Simon, Kewibu, Vincent, Haro, Jemina, Miamba, Kenneth, Leclerc, Mathieu, Spriggs, Matthew, Privat, Karen, Haberle, Simon, Hopf, Felicitas, Hull, Emily, Pengilley, Alana, Brown, Samantha, Marjo, Christopher E., Jacobsen, Geraldine, & Brooker and Panaeati Island communities, Papua New Guinea. 2022. Frontier Lapita interaction with resident Papuan populations set the stage for initial peopling of the Pacific. Nature Ecology and Evolution 6: 802–812. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sheppard, Peter, Walter, Richard, & Aswani, Shankar. 2004. Oral tradition and the creation of late prehistory in Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands. In A Pacific Odyssey: Archaeology and Anthropology in the Western Pacific: Papers in Honour of Jim Specht [Records of the Australian Museum Supplement 29], Val Attenbrow, Jim Specht, Richard Fullagar, & Australian Museum (eds), 123–132. Sydney: Australian Museum. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stebbins, Tonya, Evans, Bethwyn, & Terrill, Angela. 2017. The Papuan languages of Island Melanesia. In The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area, Bill Palmer (ed), 775–894. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Terrill, Angela. 2003a. A Grammar of Lavukaleve. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003b. Linguistic stratigraphy in the central Solomon Islands: Lexical evidence of early Papuan/Austronesian interaction. Journal of the Polynesian Society 112(4): 369–401.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Forthcoming. A sketch of Touo, a Papuan isolate of Solomon Islands. In Oxford Guide to the Papuan Languages, Nick Evans & Sebastian Fedden (eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Thomas, Tim. 2009. Communities of practice in the archaeological record of New Georgia, Rendova and Tetepare. In Lapita: Ancestors and Descendents, Peter Sheppard, Tim Thomas, & Glenn R. Summerhayes (eds), 119–145. New Zealand Archaeological Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Todd, Evelyn. 1975. The Solomon language family. In Papuan Languages and the New Guinea Linguistic Scene [Pacific Linguistics C-38], Stephan A. Wurm (ed), 805–846. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. 2009. Sociolinguistic typology and complexification. In Language Complexity as an Evolving Variable, Geoffrey Sampson, David Gil, & Peter Trudgill (eds), 97–108. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. Sociolinguistic Typology: Social Determinants of Linguistic Complexity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. The sociolinguistics of non-equicomplexity. In Complexity, Variation, and Isolation, Raffaela Baechler & Guido Seiler (eds), 159–170. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tryon, Darrell T. & Hackman, Brian D. 1983. Solomon Island Languages: An Internal Classification [Pacific Linguistics C-72]. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Walter, Richard & Sheppard, Peter J. 2017. Archaeology of the Solomon Islands. Honolulu: Otago University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wegener, Claudia. 2012. A Grammar of Savosavo. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue