'Give' Constructions in the Papuan Languages of Timor-Alor-Pantar

This paper describes three-participant ‘give’ constructions in ten Papuan languages of the Timor-Alor-Pantar (TAP) family. Generally lacking a class of simple ditransitive root verbs, TAP languages express ‘give’ events by means of biclausal constructions (‘take X then give Y’), serial verb constructions (‘take X give Y’), or particle-verb constructions originating in serial verb constructions. In this paper, we focus on the syntactic treatment of the gift (T), since it, unlike the other participants in ‘give’ constructions, displays considerable diversity across the TAP languages. Through the study of the synchronic variation in TAP ‘give’ constructions, we reconstruct the syntactic constructions from which the various modern constructions have developed, and sketch the grammaticalization paths that have led to them.

[1]  Gary Holton,et al.  The Historical Relations of the Papuan Languages of Alor and Pantar , 2012 .

[2]  Juliette Huber.  Preliminary remarks on object-marking in Makalero , 2008 .

[3]  Anna Siewierska,et al.  Bound person forms in ditransitive clauses revisited , 2007 .

[4]  Geert Booij,et al.  The boundary between morphology and syntax : separable complex verbs in Dutch , 1990 .

[5]  Martin Haspelmath,et al.  Argument marking in ditransitive alignment types , 2005 .

[6]  Gert Webelhuth,et al.  A theory of predicates , 1997 .

[7]  Marian Klamer,et al.  The Semantics of Semantic Alignment in eastern Indonesia , 2008 .

[8]  Juliette Huber.  A Grammar of Makalero : A Papuan Language of East Timor , 2011 .

[9]  Martin Haspelmath,et al.  Studies in ditransitive constructions: a comparative handbook , 2010 .

[10]  A. Schapper.  Finding Bunaq: The homeland and expansion of the Bunaq in central Timor , 2011 .

[11]  Margaretha Anna Flora Klamer,et al.  A Grammar of Teiwa , 2010 .

[12]  Gary Holton.  Person-marking, verb classes, and the notion of grammatical alignment in Western Pantar (Lamma) , 2010 .

[13]  A. Schapper.  Crossing the border: Historical and linguistic divides among the Bunaq in central Timor , 2011 .

[14]  M. Dryer.  Primary Objects, Secondary Objects, and Antidative , 1986 .

[15]  František Kratochvíl,et al.  A grammar of Abui , 2007 .

[16]  Andrej Malchukov,et al.  Ditransitive constructions: a typological overview , 2010 .

[17]  Antoinette Schapper,et al.  Bunaq: A Papuan Language of Central Timor , 2009 .

[18]  Gary Holton,et al.  Conditions on pronominal marking in the Alor-Pantar languages , 2013 .

[19]  G. Booij,et al.  The diachrony of complex predicates in Dutch: a case study in grammaticalization , 2003 .

[20]  Andrej Malchukov.  Analyzing Semantic Maps: A Multifactorial Approach , 2010 .

[21]  Michael C. Ewing,et al.  One item, many faces : ‘Come’ in Teiwa and Kaera , 2010 .