APLL8 Olsson slides

Bruno Olsson

THE MARIND ABSCONDITIVEATTENTION ALIGNMENT AND KNOWLEDGE ASYMMETRIES IN A LANGUAGE OF SOUTH NEW GUINEA

APLL8, SOAS, London 2016

TODAY’S TALK• A new look at a set of Marind verb prefixes, earlier described as markers of

”Present Tense”

‣ Formally related to demonstratives, but clearly affixal (not clitics)

• My claims: although restricted to present time contexts, function is much narrower than just Present Tense

‣ Used when Spr wants to draw attention to something outside Adr’s visual focus

‣ Used by Spr to “update common ground” by denying Adr’s presuppositions

• These uses crucially involve attention alignment and knowledge asymmetries

• I invented the label Absconditive (<Latin absconditus “hidden, concealed”)

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND• Issues of intersubjectivity and joint attention

have been a mainstay of developmental and social psychology (Trevarthen & Hubley 1978)

‣ Most importantly for my purposes: research on demonstratives

• Özyürek (1998) on Turkish demonstratives: encode spatial contrast, but also whether addressee’s visual attention is on referent

from Gillespie-Lynch K. 2013.

• “Multiple perspective”: Evans (2007) on “the encoding of two perspectives at once”, especially within the realm of epistemic categories

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND• Some languages have grammatical markers reflecting Adr’s knowledge of a

proposition/state-of-affairs

‣ Andoke (Colombia; Landaburu 2007) “engagement markers” b- vs. kə͂-

páa b-ʌ ʌ-pó’kə͂-i ”Le jour se lève” (We are both watching it)

páa kə͂-Ø ʌ-pó’kə͂-i ”Le jour se lève” (Adr is asleep) (p. 26)

• My claim: in Marind the Absconditive prefix is used to establish joint attention, by instructing the Adr to ”align” her attention with Spr’s, and thereby get access to previously unavailable information

BACKGROUND: THE LANGUAGE

Western Coastal dialect

Marind: cover term for several varieties, spoken in a large area on the coast and in the swampy lowlands of south Papua• Anim family (Usher & Suter 2015); likely a divergent Trans New Guinea sub-group• On-going fieldwork on Western Coastal variety, ~2000-3000 speakers

• Substantial previous description by Dutch missionaries, Eastern Coastal variety

‣ Henricus Geurtjens: short grammar (1926), and an extraordinary dictionary (1933)

‣ Petrus Drabbe: grammar (1955)

‣ Drabbe p. 37: The Present forms of the verb


• Drabbe gives 2 paradigms, with prefix Vp- (I) before Actor prefixes, and without (II)

‣ ”Tussen de vormen […] konden we geen verschil van betekenis ontdekken.” (p. 38)


I beg to differ.

I II

1sg epano-izige no-izige ’I am sharpening’

2sg epo-izige o-izige ’you are sharpening’

3sg ep-izige a-izige ’s/he is sharpening’

etc. … …

• The Absconditive appears in the leftmost slot of the inflectional prefix complex

• The prefix complex is followed by the verb stem‣ I separate them by means of equal

sign: …=…

• The Absconditive consists of 2 substrings:

1. A vowel showing gender agreement:

2. A deictic element:

THE ABSCONDITIVE

sg plI e-

i-II u-III e-IV i-

males

females; animals

inanimates 1

inanimates 2

PROXimal -h-DISTal -p-

THE ABSCONDITIVE• 3d person verb paradigm: stem husebla (etc.) ’be hanging’

PROX DIST

sg pl sg plI eh=husebla

ih=husablaep=husebla

ip=husablaII uh=husebla up=huseblaIII eh=husukla ep=husuklaIV ih=husabla ip=husabla

”(He|she|it|they) (is|are) hanging”

• Compare the demonstratives, which are clearly related:

I eheihe

epeipe

II uhe upeIII ehe epeIV ihe ipe

”Here/this one” ”There/that one”

• Completely affixal status, i.e. not simply a cliticized demonstrative

‣ Shown by alternations in following prefixes, e.g. nak-(1.ACTOR) loses its /n/:

/ep-nak-e=hwil-e/ —> epake=hwile ’we go hunting’

• I provide no interlinear glosses in this talk since morphemic segmentation of Marind verbs tends to cause more confusion than it is of help…

THE ABSCONDITIVE

USES OF THE ABSCONDITIVE• Before fieldwork, I was surprised by the ubiquity of the

Absconditive in Drabbe’s (constructed) example sentences, compared to its absence in the texts collected by Drabbe

• First weeks of fieldwork: I tried to elicit vocabulary and simple sentences, but failed to get any Absconditive verb forms

‣ Maybe not ”Present tense” then?

• This changed when I started recording spontaneous language use

‣ 1st record of the Absconditive, participants:

Me, Mikaela (Spr), her daughter (Adr), several other kids

USES OF THE ABSCONDITIVE

me

Mikaela

M’s daugther

other kids

M and I are standing talking

…when M’s daughter starts dancing in front of some kids

1.


me

Mikaela

M’s daugther

other kids

I turn to watch the daughter

2.


me

Mikaela

M’s daugther

other kids

3.M says to daughter:

epap=ɣidihe!`He’s watching you!’


me

Mikaela

M’s daugther

other kids

4.

Daughter turns around, laughs.

!!!

USES OF THE ABSCONDITIVE• Two observations about the previous exchange:

‣ The face-to-back configuration of Spr (M)+Ref (me) versus Adr (daughter)

‣ The use of the distal form with p-, which does not correspond to the use of the distal demonstrative epe ’there’

• This led to two initial hypotheses:

‣ that the Absconditive has something to do with asymmetries in attention

‣ that the ”deictic” elements h-/p- are not straightforwardly deictic

• This picture was confirmed during subsequent fieldwork, and got more complicated

USES OF THE ABSCONDITIVEVideo 1: re-alignment of attention

USES OF THE ABSCONDITIVEVideo 2: re-alignment of attention

USES OF THE ABSCONDITIVE• What about the deictic contrast between PROX h- vs. DIST p-?

‣ Seem to be contrasted mainly when the location of an entity rather than a state-of-affairs is in focus

• Example: talking about the whereabouts of things


mother with child on her lap

Spr observes mucus under child’s nose(not visible to Adr)

1. Use of Distal p-


Spr observes mucus under child’s nose(not visible to Adr)

mom epo!`There’s snot (on her)!’

2. Use of Distal p-


Father, blind, searching for his tobacco

tobacco

1. Use of Proximal h-

Son, sitting with tobacco in front of him


Father, blind, searching for his tobacco

tobacco

2. Use of Proximal h-

Son, sitting with tobacco in front of him

rokok eham!`Your tobacco is here!’

USES OF THE ABSCONDITIVE• However, in many contexts there is no deictic meaning at all

• In such contexts the Distal p- is used

• Example: the Absconditive is used to deny assumption of the Adr

‣ Spr updates the common ground by stating that a state-of-affairs holds, despite Adr’s claim

USES OF THE ABSCONDITIVE1.

Old woman and I sitting talking

My brother-in-law comes walking

me

mbit

old woman


Stops in front of us,says to woman:

`You should talk to him!’ (so he learns)

me

old woman

mbit


epako-laɣe!’I am talking to him!’

me

old woman

mbit

ABSENCE OF THE ABSCONDITIVE• When is the Absconditive not used?

‣ Even in situations that seem to involve asymmetries in attention/common ground, non-Absconditive forms are often used

• A guess: in various situations where attention alignment is not at stake/not relevant/impossible

• Example: chicks spying on me

me

grandma

me eating breakfast

1.

chickswind shield from sago thatch, height ca 1.5 m

ABSENCE OF THE ABSCONDITIVE

me

grandma

me eating breakfast

2.


Grandma observes chickswatching me through holes in wind shield


me

grandma

3.


kan=ya ɣidihe!`They’re watching

you!’

Grandma says to me:


me

grandma

3.

chickswindshield from sago thatch, height ca 1.5 m

kan=ya ɣidihe!`They’re watching

you!’

Grandma says to me:

No Absconditive!

Possible interpretation (speculative): Spr does not use Absconditive because she is not urging me to align my gaze with hers; even if I did, I won’t see the chicks (hidden behind windshield)


• The Absconditive is not used…

‣ In situations where the state-of-affairs is in ”plain sight”, available to both Spr and Adr

The prefix (h)at- ’available to both me and you’

ekatap=mil ’he is sitting (as both you and I can observe)’

from the ”Family Problems” picture task


Video 3: state-of-affairs is in plain sight


• We find the Absconditive verb forms when there is an asymmetry in availability of information between Spr and Adr

• Spr uses Absconditive to urge the Adr to ”make an effort” to achieve joint attention, either by…

‣ physically re-aligning body and gaze to access referent/state-of-affairs

‣ taking information into account that contradicts some previous statement/presupposition of Adr, ”update common ground”

• The deictic Prox/Dist h-/p- distinction (inherited from the demonstratives?) is made when focus is on an entity, apparently neutralized elsewhere

• Absconditive is not used…

‣ for state-of-affair that is presented as mutually available

‣ when attention realignment is ”not relevant” (?)

‣ many other contexts, topic for future investigation…

CONCLUSIONS

• I would not have learned these things about the Marind Absconditive if I had restricted my research to

‣ elicitation

‣ recording of narratives

• Need for video recordings of spontaneous face-to-face interaction (or even better: face-to-back), i.e. what speakers use language for most

CONCLUSIONS

References

Drabbe, Petrus. 1955. Spraakkunst van het Marind. Wien-Mödling: St. Gabriël.

Evans, Nicholas. 2005. ”View with a View: Towards a Typology of Multiple Perspective.” Berkeley Linguistics Society 31, 93-120.

Geurtjens, Henricus. 1926. Spraakleer der Marindineesche Taal. The Hague: Nijhoff.

Geurtjens, Henricus. 1933. Marindineesch-Nederlandsch Woordenboek. Bandung: Nix.

Gillespie-Lynch K. 2013. Response to and initiation of joint attention: Overlapping but distinct roots of development in autism? OA Autism 2013 May 01;1(2):13.

Landaburu, Jon. 2007. ”La modalisation du savoir en langue andoke (Amazonie colombienne).” In Zlatka Guentchéva & Jon Landaburu (eds.), L’énonciation médiatisée II – Le traitment épistémologique de l’information: illustrations amérindiennes et caucasiennes, 23-47. Leuven: Peeters.

Özyürek, Asli. 1998. ”An analysis of the basic meaning of Turkish demonstratives in face-to-face conversational interaction”. In S. Santi, I. Guaitella, C. Cave, & G. Konopczynski (eds.), Oralité et gestualité: Communication multimodale, interaction: Actes du colloque ORAGE 98, pp. 609-614. Paris: L’Harmattan.

Usher, Timothy and Edgar Suter. 2015. ”The Anim Languages of South New Guinea.” In: Oceanic Linguistics 54:1, 110-142.

APLL8 Olsson slides

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