Where to, from and through? On the distribution of Path in Motion descriptions in Jaminjung and Kriol

WHERE TO, FROM AND THROUGH? ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF PATH IN MOTION DESCRIPTIONS IN JAMINJUNG AND KRIOLThis paper deals with the distribution of path in motion events in two Australian languages, namely Jaminjung, a highly endangered Non-Pama-Nyungan Language and Kriol, an English-lexified Creole both spoken in the Victoria River area in the Northern Territory.Ever since TALMY (1985, 2000, 2007) introduced the existence of verb-framed and satellite-framed languages on the basis of the distribution of manner and path expressions in languages, the typology has been subject of debate. One major issue concerns a number of languages which seem to fall outside the typology in, for example, expressing path information in more than one lexical item within a clause. It has been observed by SCHULTZE-BERNDT (2007) that Jaminjung seems to fall outside the TALMY-typology. The language expresses (restricted) path information in an inflecting verb (-uga in example (1) and manner (mingib) as well as additional path information in an uninflecting coverb (burduj) accompanying the verb: 1) mingib=bung gang-kuga burduj crawl=RESTR 3SG>1SG-take.PST go.up 'he took us up crawling' (ES08_A04_06_0256)The concept of path is obligatory in any motion description (Slobin, 1996). However, languages differ regarding the degree of detailed path description in discourse (Ibarretxe-Antunano, 2009). A thorough analysis of path description in discourse must consequently be based on three complementary areas. First, the verb phrase can be distinguished in terms of ‘minus- and ‘plus’-ground clauses depending on the number of bare verbs (fall) or verbs with a satellite indicating the direction of movement (fall down) and verbs that additionally are complemented by a ground phrase (fall into the river) (Slobin, 1996). Jaminjung seems to prefer minus ground phrases. However, plus-ground expressions are also possible as in example (2). 2) buru -biya yirr- angga kul -bina janggagureturn =NOW 1PL.EXCL- go.PRS school -ALL up‘let's go back, up to the school!’(ES08_A13_01tt.045)Secondly, and moving away from the verb or clause alone as the unit of analysis, what Slobin (1996) calls a complex path or journey including milestones or subgoals and additionally optional trajectory (along a road), is taken into account. Such constructions are extremely rare in Jaminjung and a trajectory is never included in a single verb phrase. These restrictions, however, can also be accounted for by Bohnemeyer et al.’s approach of a typology of motion event segmentation which classifies languages according to their ability to include source and/or goal and/or trajectory into a single motion event clause (Bohnemeyer et al., 2007). An example is (3).3) -ngunyi=biyang bunburr bu-rrara-m there-ABL-NOW take.off.multiply 3PL-come-PRSlanginy yina-ngunyi ngiya-bina=biyangwood DIST-ABL here-ALL-NOW‘from there they come out, from these trees to here’(ES97_A03_01_102/103)Finally, motion event granularity looking across clauses identifies the frequency of path complements mentioned in discourse independent of the availability of complex clauses. Jaminjung seems to elaborate on a high number of such path segments. This paper aims to further investigate the distribution of path in Jaminjung using a number of Frog Story narrations (Mayer, 1969) as well as natural narratives by different speakers. Additionally, Kriol equivalents will be analysed and comparisons between the two languages drawn. Words: 403ReferencesBohnemeyer, Juergen, Enfield, Nicholas J., Essegbey, James, Ibarretxe-Antunano, Iraide, Kita, Sotaro, Luepke, Friederike, and Ameka, Felix Kofi. 2007. Principles of Event Segmentation in Language: The case of Motion Events. Language 83:495-532.Ibarretxe-Antunano, Iraide. 2009. Path Salience in Motion Events. In Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Psychology of Language: Research in the Tradition of Dan Isaac Slobin eds. Elena Lieven et al., 403-414. New York: Psychology Press.Mayer, Mercer. 1969. Frog, Where are You? New York: Dial Books for Young Readers.Schultze-Berndt, Eva. 2007. On manners and paths of refining Talmy's typology of motion events via language documentation. In Proceedings of the Conference on Language Documentation and Linguistic Theory, 7-8 Dec. 2007, eds. P.K. Austin, Bond O. and D. Nathan, 223-233. London: SOAS.Slobin, Dan I. 1996. Two ways to travel: Verbs of motion in English and Spanish. . In Grammatical Constructions. Their Form and Meaning eds. M Shibatani and S.A. Thompson, 195-219 Oxford: Clarendon Press.Talmy, Leonard. 1985. Lexicalization patterns: semantic structure in lexical forms. In Language Typology and Syntactic Description: Grammatical Categories and the Lexicon. ed. Shopen, 57-149. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Talmy, Leonard. 2000. Toward a Cognitive Semantics: Concept Structuring Systems vol. 1. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Talmy, Leonard. 2007. Lexical Typologies In Language Typology and Syntactic Description, ed. Timothy Shopen, 66-168. New York: Cambridge University Press.