Towards a grammar of Takivatan Bunun

Selected Topics

Submitted by

Rik L.J. De Busser

MA

A thesis submitted in total fulfilment

of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Research Centre for Linguistic Typology

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

La Trobe University

Bundoora, Victoria 3086

Australia

April 2009

For Pima,

who tried to make this world a better place

but left it far too soon

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions,

perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

Let him step to the music which he hears,

however measured or far away.”

Henry Thoreau, Walden

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 8

List of Tables 16

List of Figures 18

List of Maps 19

Lists of Abbreviations 20

List of Interlinear Glosses 20

Markers of the predicate argument structure 25

A. Values for subscript n and m 26

B. Values for subscripts A and B 26

List of markers used in the transliteration 27

List of markers used in the translation 27

Summary 28

Statement of Authorship 30

Acknowledgements 32

Chapter 1. Introduction 35

1.1. Austronesian people in Taiwan 35

1.1.1. Geography and demography 35

1.1.2. Taiwan and the Austronesian dispersal 37

1.1.3. A short history of Taiwanese indigenous groups 39

A. Early Chinese sources 40

B. The Dutch period (1624 to 1662) 41

C. Koxinga and the Qing dynasty (1662-1895) 45

D. The Japanese era (1895-1945) 50

E. Modern Taiwan (1945 to present) 55

1.2. The Bunun people 60

1.2.1. The Bunun and their five clans 60

A. Isbukun 64

B. Takbanuað 65

C. Takivatan 65

D. Takibakha and Takituduh 66

1.2.2. The Takivatan Bunun in Hualien 66

1.2.3. Traditional Bunun culture and society 69

1.2.4. Modern Bunun society 75

1.3. The Takivatan Bunun language 78

1.3.1. Austronesian languages in Taiwan 78

1.3.2. Bunun dialects 83

A. Isbukun 84

B. Takbanuað and Takivatan 86

C. Takituduh and Takibakha 86

1.3.3. Number of speakers and language fluency 87

1.4. A typological profile of Takivatan 89

1.4.1. Phonology 89

1.4.2. Morphology and syntax 89

1.4.3. Argument alignment 92

1.5. Existing literature on Bunun 98

A. Vocabularies 98

B. Text collections 99

C. Phonology 100

D. Morphology and syntax 100

E. Cultural and anthropological descriptions 101

1.6. Research methodology 102

1.6.1. Fieldwork 102

1.6.2. Data recording 103

1.6.3. Fieldwork methodology 104

1.6.4. Language description 105

1.6.5. Spelling conventions 107

Chapter 2. Phonology 108

2.1. Consonants 108

2.1.1. Inventory 108

2.1.2. Realization and allophony 111

2.1.3. The glottal stop 116

A. Glottal stops in Cʔ or ʔC clusters 116

B. Root-initial glottal stops 117

C. Intervocalic glottal stops 119

2.1.4. Consonant clusters 120

A. C1 more restricted than C2 121

B. C2 more restricted than C1 123

2.2. Simple vowels 123

2.3. Vowel sequences 127

2.3.1. Inventory 127

2.3.2. Allophonic variation 128

A. Change of vowel quality and monophthongisation 128

B. Intervocalic /ʔ/-insertion 129

C. Glide-formation 131

2.4. Syllable structure 131

2.4.1. Canonical syllable structure 131

2.4.2. Syllabic structure of roots 132

A. Monosyllabic roots 132

B. Disyllabic roots 135

C. Polysyllabic roots 136

2.4.3. Syllabic structure of affixes 136

A. Prefixes 136

B. Infixes 137

C. Suffixes 138

2.5. The phonological word 138

2.5.1. Vowel length 138

2.5.2. Word stress 139

2.5.3. Morphophonemic processes 140

A. Vowel contraction with -aŋ and -in 141

B. Vowel deletion with ma-/pa-/ka- 142

C. Metathesis /ia/ > /ai/ 142

D. Vowel epenthesis 143

Chapter 3. Words, affixes and word classes 145

3.1. Words 145

3.1.1. The grammatical word 145

3.1.2. Morphological complexity of verbs 148

3.1.3. Morphological complexity of nouns and other word classes 151

3.2. Affixes 153

3.2.1. Introduction 153

3.2.2. Affixation vs. cliticisation 154

A. Fusion 155

B. Stress shift 157

C. Pause insertion 158

D. Idiosyncratic use 161

E. Grammatical independence 162

3.2.3. Overview 164

3.3. Word classes 166

3.3.1. Nouns and verbs 166

A. Referential function 167

B. Arguments vs. predicates 168

C. Focus marking 169

D. TAM marking 170

E. Bound pronouns 170

F. Definiteness markers 171

G. Verbal prefixes 171

H. Reduplication 172

3.3.2. Intermediate word classes 173

Chapter 4. Compounding 178

4.1. Introduction 178

4.1.1. Frequency and characteristics 178

4.1.2. Criteria for identifying compounds 180

4.1.3. Compounding vs. idiomatic paraphrastic constructions 182

4.2. Noun-noun compounds 183

4.2.1. Taxonomic compounds 183

4.2.2. Instrument-affect compounds 184

4.3. Noun-adjective compounds 186

4.4. Noun-verb compounds 187

4.4.1. With post-nominal modifier 187

4.4.2. With pre-nominal modifier (verb-noun compound) 188

4.5. Compounded proper names 190

4.5.1. First name – previous name 190

4.5.2. First name - place name 190

4.5.3. First name - name of wife 191

4.5.4. First name - moniker 191

Chapter 5. Tense-aspect-mood affixes 194

5.1. The irrealis prefix na- 194

5.1.1. Futurity 194

5.1.2. Consequence 197

5.1.3. Volition 198

5.1.4. Imperatives 200

5.1.5. Boundedness issues 200

5.2. The progressive suffix -aŋ 202

5.2.1. Progressive aspect 202

5.2.2. Simultaneity 204

5.2.3. Optative usage 205

5.2.4. -aŋ in idiosyncratic constructions 206

5.3. The perfective suffix -in 207

5.3.1. Completion 207

5.3.2. Resultative meaning 208

5.3.3. Change of state 210

5.3.4. Anteriority 211

5.3.5. Previous analyses of Bunun -in 212

5.4. The past/resultative infix ‹in› 213

5.4.1. Past 215

5.4.2. Past/present contrast 217

5.5. The past infix ‹i› 218

5.5.1. Non-agent-focus forms with /a/ in the root-initial syllable 218

5.5.2. PST ‹in› and ‹i› in prefixes 220

5.6. Combinations of tense-aspect affixes 222

5.7. Aspect on nouns 223

5.7.1. Progressive -aŋ 223

5.7.2. Perfective -in 223

5.7.3. PST ‹in› in resultative nominalisations 224

Chapter 6. Focus suffixes 226

6.1. The status of focus in Takivatan 226

6.2. Grammatical function of focus marking 228

6.3. Nominalising functions of focus markers 233

6.4. Nominalisations with LF -an 233

6.4.1. Locative nominalisations 234

A. Locations used for a purpose 234

B. Geographical names 235

6.4.2. Locative-instrumental nominalisations 236

A. Unmarked cases 236

B. Body parts 236

6.4.3. Meteorological phenomena 237

6.4.4. Temporal nominalisations 237

6.4.5. Locus-of-event nominalisations 238

A. Persons as the locus of event 238

B. Groups of people as locus of event 239

C. Abstract results 239

6.4.6. Double locative focus marking with -an-an 240

6.5. Nominalisations with UF -un 242

6.5.1. Patientive derivations 242

6.5.2. Instrumental derivations 242

Chapter 7. Verbal prefixes 244

7.1. Introduction 244

7.1.1. Previous work on verbal prefixes 244

7.1.2. Traditional analysis of the Austronesian focus system 245

7.1.3. Theoretical arguments against the traditional analysis 247

7.1.4. Verbal prefixes and focus suffixes: similar or different? 249

A. Morphosyntactic behaviour 249

B. Mutual exclusivity 250

C. Diachronic relationship 251

D. Affix omission 252

E. Derivational uses 255

F. Semantic similarities 257

7.2. A classification of verbal prefixes 258

7.3. Types and variants 265

7.3.1. Basic types 265

7.3.2. Neutral, causative and associative variants 269

A. Neutral variants 270

B. Causative variants 272

C. Associative variants 274

7.3.3. Extended types 276

7.4. Locative prefixes 279

7.4.1. Stationary locative i- 284

A. Neutral variant 284

B. Derived meaning: possessive marking 285

7.4.2. Itinerary atan- 285

7.4.3. Itinerary pan- 286

7.4.4. Itinerary pana- 286

7.4.5. Allative mu- 286

A. Neutral variant 287

B. Classificatory/patient-incorporating meaning extension: FALL.DOWN 287

C. Classificatory meaning extension: NEG.EV 288

D. Causative variant pu- 288

E. Classificatory meaning extension of causative pu-: APPLY 289

F. Patient-incorporating meaning extension of causative pu-: HUNT 289

G. Associative variant ku- 290

7.4.6. Allative mun- 290

A. Neutral variant 290

B. Causative variant pun- 291

C. Ordinal numerals with pun- 292

7.4.7. Terminative allative sau- 293

7.4.8. Directional tan- and tana- 293

7.4.9. Viative in- 294

A. Basic meaning 294

B. Extended meaning: COURSE 294

7.4.10. Viative/directional malan- 295

7.4.11. Perlative tauna-/tun-/tuna- 295

7.4.12. Ablative maina-/maisna-/main-/mina- 295

A. Neutral variant 296

B. Causative variant paisna-/paisqa- 297

7.4.13. Temporal ablative maisi- 298

7.4.14. Ablative taka- 298

7.5. Event type prefixes 299

7.5.1. Dynamic event prefix ma- 303

A. Basic meaning 303

B. Patient-incorporating meaning extension: APPLY/AFFECT 306

C. Causative variant pa- 307

D. Semantically specific extension of pa-: high agency 310

E. Pa- in fused and/or lexicalised forms 310

F. Associative variant ka- 311

G. Semantically specific extension of ka-: high agency 312

H. Classificatory/patient-incorporating meaning extension of ka-: MAKE 312

I. Patient-incorporating meaning of associative ka-: BLOOM 313

7.5.2. Stative event prefix ma- 313

A. Neutral variant 314

B. Causative variant pi- 314

7.5.3. Stative prefix mi- 315

7.5.4. Stative prefix a- 315

7.5.5. Stative paŋka- 316

7.5.6. Result-state prefix min- 316

A. Basic meaning 316

B. Causative variant pin- 317

C. Participatory variant kin- 318

D. Classificatory meaning extension of associative kin-: PLOP 318

7.5.7. Participatory pain- 318

7.6. Participant orientation prefixes 319

7.6.1. Instrumental orientation is- 322

A. Basic meaning 322

B. Classificatory meaning extension: TRANSFER 324

C. Causative variant pis- 326

D. Semantically specific meaning extension of causative pis-: RETURN 326

E. Patient-incorporating meaning extension of pis-: FLOW 326

F. Patient-incorporating extension of pis-: PLAY 327

7.6.2. Resultative object orientation sin- 327

7.6.3. Beneficiary orientation ki- 329

7.7. Classificatory prefixes 329

7.7.1. GRASP kat- 331

7.7.2. BURN mis- 331

7.7.3. FORK pala- 332

7.7.4. SEPARATE pasi- 332

7.7.5. SHOCK tin- 332

7.8. Semantically specific prefixes 332

7.8.1. Emotive-to-dynamic prefix matu- 334

7.8.2. Agitative paka- 335

7.9. Patient-incorporating prefixes 335

7.9.1. LIGHTNING bit- 337

7.9.2. WEAR kun- 337

7.9.3. SPEAK malas- 337

7.9.4. USE maqu- 338

7.9.5. WALK muda- 338

7.9.6. SPIT pas- 338

7.9.7. DRINK qu- 338

7.9.8. SEE sa- 339

7.9.9. WASH tal- 339

7.9.10. HAVE.TRAIT tapu- 340

7.9.11. BELONG tastu- 340

7.9.12. GIVE.BIRTH taus-/tus- 340

7.9.13. HARVEST tin- 341

7.9.14. DRIVE tum- 341

7.10. Overview: basic and extended prefixes 341

7.11. Disyllabic prefixes and prefix combinations 343

7.11.1. Disyllabic prefixes 343

7.11.2. Prefix combinations 344

7.12. Anticipatory constructions 346

Chapter 8. Reduplication 351

8.1. Introduction 351

8.2. Historical reduplication 352

8.3. Intensifying reduplication 354

8.4. Aspectual reduplication 355

8.4.1. Habitual reduplication 356

8.4.2. Continuative, durative and iterative reduplication 359

8.4.3. Distributive reduplication 360

8.5. Generic reduplication 361

8.6. Plural and recursive reduplication 363

8.7. Reduplication expressing human reference 365

8.8. Irregular reduplicative patterns 367

8.9. Harmonic reduplication 369

8.10. Overview 372

Chapter 9. Deictic words and pronouns 374

9.1. Definiteness markers 374

9.1.1. The distance dimension: proximal, medial and distal 375

A. Spatial deixis 376

B. Temporal deixis 379

C. Empathy 381

D. Phoricity 383

9.1.2. Referential vs. situational definiteness 384

A. Referential definiteness markers 385

B. Situational definiteness markers 387

C. Justification for the analysis 389

9.2. Personal pronouns 397

9.2.1. Argument marking on pronouns 398

A. Bound pronouns 399

B. Free focused agent forms 400

C. Free neutral forms 401

D. Possessive constructions 402

E. Absence of genitive pronouns 404

9.2.2. Variant forms 405

A. Variants of bound forms 405

B. Short vs. long forms of the neutral second-person pronouns 405

C. Variants of other free form pronouns 406

9.2.3. Third-person pronouns 407

9.2.4. Pronominal roots and a comparison with Isbukun Bunun 408

9.3. Demonstrative pronouns 409

9.3.1. Singular aip- 410

9.3.2. Vague plural aiŋk- 412

9.3.3. Paucal aint- 412

9.3.4. Inclusive generic ait- 413

9.3.5. Meaning extensions of the distance and visibility dimension 414

A. Animacy 415

B. Endorsement 416

9.4. The place words ʔiti / ʔitun / ʔita 417

9.5. The anaphoric marker sia 420

9.5.1. Attributive uses of sia 422

A. Bare attribute 422

B. Siatu 423

C. Isia 424

9.5.2. Nominal uses of sia 425

9.5.3. Verbal uses of sia 425

9.5.4. Sia as a hesitation marker 426

9.6. Duma ‘other(s)’ 427

9.7. Honorific itu 428

9.8. Overview of meaning extensions of deixis 429

Appendix 1: Sample Texts 433

Appendix 2: Word List 29

Bibliography 175

List of Tables

Table 1 – Taiwanese aboriginal groups ordered according to population size. 36

Table 2 – Takivatan villages 70

Table 3 – List of Formosan languages 79

Table 4 – List of texts used for grammatical analysis 106

Table 5 – Chart of phonemic consonants 109

Table 6 – Consonant inventory, allophones and graphemic representation 111

Table 7 – Possible consonant clusters C1C2 120

Table 8 – Vowel inventory, allophones, and graphemic representation 123

Table 9 – Inventory of vowel sequences 127

Table 10 – Order of prefixes and suffixes on verbs 150

Table 11 – Indicators for boundedness of affixes 165

Table 12 – Criteria for the distinction between nouns and verbs. 173

Table 13 – Criteria for word class distinctions in intermediate word classes 175

Table 14 – Open and closed word classes 176

Table 15 – Distribution of compounded and non-compounded forms 178

Table 16 – Typical focus-related verbal morphology 245

Table 17 – Verbal affixes traditionally associated with focus in Bunun 247

Table 18 – A comparison of verbal prefixes in five Formosan languages 248

Table 19 – Variants of common verbal prefixes 270

Table 20 – Subtypes of locative prefixes 279

Table 21 – Forms and meanings of LOC i- 284

Table 22 – Forms and meanings of ALL mu- 287

Table 23 – Forms and meanings of ALL mun- 290

Table 24 – Forms and meanings of viative in- 294

Table 25 – Forms and meanings of ABL maina- etc. 296

Table 26 – List of event type prefixes 303

Table 27 – Forms and meanings of DYN ma- 303

Table 28 – Forms and meanings of STAT ma- 313

Table 29 – Forms and meanings of BECOME min- 316

Table 30 – List of participant orientation prefixes 319

Table 31 – Forms and meanings of INSTR is- 322

Table 32 – Forms and meanings of RES.OBJ sin- 327

Table 33 – Forms and meanings of BEN ki- 329

Table 34 – List of semantically specific prefixes 334

Table 35 – Properties of basic and extended types of verbal prefixes 342

Table 36 – List of disyllabic verbal prefixes in 7.4-7.10 344

Table 37 – Forms and functions of reduplication 373

Table 38 – Definiteness markers 375

Table 39 – Isbukun bound demonstratives according to Zeitoun (2000) 389

Table 40 – Personal pronouns 398

Table 41 – Third person personal pronouns 398

Table 42 – Roots of personal pronouns 408

Table 43 – Taitung Isbukun Bunun personal pronouns 409

Table 44 – Demonstrative paradigm with root aip- 410

Table 45 – Demonstrative paradigm with root aiŋk- 412

Table 46 –Demonstrative paradigm with root aint- 413

Table 47 – Demonstrative paradigm with root ait- 414

Table 48 – Meaning extensions of deictics 430

Table 49 – Semantic extensions of the distance dimension 431

List of Figures

Figure 1 – Example of a Bunun lunar calendar. 72

Figure 2 – Classification of Formosan languages according to Blust (1999). 80

Figure 3 –Classification of Formosan languages according to Li (2006) 81

Figure 4 – Subgrouping of Bunun dialects 83

Figure 5 – Distribution of consonant types 110

Figure 6 – Vowel chart for simple vowels and their allophones 124

Figure 7 – Chart of vowel sequences and their allophones 127

Figure 8 – A classification of verbal prefixes in Takivatan Bunun 260

Figure 9 – Distribution of definiteness markers per word class in a sample text. 393

Figure 10 – Verbs vs. nouns 395

Figure 11 - Demonstratives 409

List of Maps

Map 1 – Approximate distribution of the fourteen recognized indigenous tribes of Taiwan 37

Map 2 – Distribution of the Bunun in Taiwan 63

Map 3 – Administrative boundaries in the County Hualien with Ma-yuan and Qi-mei marked in gray. 67

Map 4 – Location of the Takivatan settlements in Hualien 69

Lists of Abbreviations

List of Interlinear Glosses

??? meaning uncertain

1E first person exclusive

1I first person inclusive

1S first person singular

2P second person plural

2S second person singular

3P third person plural

3S third person singular

ABL ablative locative prefix, indicating movement away from: maisna-, maisna-, main , …, taka-

ABL.TEMP temporal allative prefix: maisi-

AF agent focus: -ø (only marked for contrastive reasons)

AFCT classificatory prefix indicating that something is affected: pas-

AG agentive case (in Siraya, not Takivatan)

AGIT verbal prefix indicating agitation

ALL allative locative prefix, indicating a direction towards: mu-, mun-

ANAPH anaphoric marker: sia

APPLY classificatory prefix indication the application of an object for a specific purpose: pu-

AS anticipatory sequence

ASSOC.ALL associative form of the allative locative prefix: ku-, kun-

ASSOC.BECOME
associative form of the inchoative prefix: kin-

ASSOC.DYN associative form of the dynamic verbal prefix: ka-

ASSOC.INSTR
associative form of the instrumental orientation prefix: kis-

AT.SIDE verbal prefix indicating ‘at the … side’: pan-

ATTR attributive marker: tu

BE prefix indicating a stative event that expresses that somebody has a certain capacity or property expressed by the root: mas-

BECOME inchoative prefix: min-

BELONG patient-incorporating prefix indicating belonging: tastu-

BEN beneficiary orientation prefix: ki-

BLOOM patient-incorporating prefix indicating the production of flowers or fruits

BURN verbal prefix indicating an event involving burning

CAUS causative form

CAUS.ABL causative form of the ablative locative prefix: paina-, paisna-, paisqa-

CAUS.ALL causative form of an allative prefix: pu-, pun-

CAUS.BECOME
causative form of the inchoative orientation prefix: pin-

CAUS.DYN causative form of the dynamic verbal prefix: pa-

CAUS.INSTR causative of instrumental prefix: pis-

CAUS.STAT causative of stative prefix (adjectives): pi-

CL classifier

COMPL complementizer tu

CONS consequence: particle na

CONT continuative reduplication

COVER verbal prefix indicating act of covering: la-

DEF definiteness marker (subclass SIT/REF): -ti, -tun, -ta, -ki, -kun, -ka

DEFIN participle marking a definitional clause

DIR directional locative prefix: tan-, tana-

DISC discourse marker

DIST distal (property of DEF, DEM and locatives): -ta, -ka

DRINK patient-incoporating prefix indicating acts of drinking

DRIVE patient-incoporating prefix indicating acts of driving

DYN dynamic verb marker: ma-

DYN.EMO verbal prefix that turns an emotive event into a dynamic action: matu-

EMOT emotive marker: dau, -du

EMPH emphatic marker

ENUM enumerator: -a

F female (property of PersName)

F focused argument

FALL.DOWN classificatory or patient-incorporating prefix indicating downward, falling move-ments: mu-

FLOW patient-incorporating prefix indicating a flow of fluids

FORK verbal prefix indicating a forking movement

GeoName toponym, geographical name

GIVE verbal prefix indicating acts of giving (in Siraya, not Takivatan)

GIVE.BIRTH patient-incorporating prefix indicating acts of giving birth

GL glottal ligature consonant

GNR generic reduplication

GRAB verbal prefix indicting grabbing movements: mati-

GRADE numeral prefix indicating progressive levels (n-th grades): pun-

GRASP classificatory prefix indicating a grasping movement: kat-

HABIT habitual reduplication

HARVEST verbal prefix indicating acts of harvesting: ka-, tin-

HAVE.TRAIT patient-incorporating prefix indicating distinctive characteristic or trait: tapu-

HI.AG semantically specific prefix indicating high agency: ka-, pa-

HON honorific pronoun: itu

HR harmonic reduplication

HUM human reduplication

HUNT patient-incorporating prefix indicating an act of hunting: pu-

IG inclusive generic (property of DEM)

INSTR instrumental orientation prefix: is-

INTENS intensifying reduplication

INTENS intensifying reduplication

INTER interjection

IRR irrealis marker: na-

ITIN itinerary locative prefix: pan-, pana-

KICK verbal prefix indicating kicking movements: kan-

LDIS left-dislocating topicalizer: -ʔa, -a

LF locative focus: -an

LIGHTNING verbal prefix indicating lightning

LNK linker, general linking particle: -a

LOC stationary locative prefix: i-, man-

M male (property of PersName)

MAKE verbal prefix indicating an action that involves making or constructing something: ka-

MED medial (property of DEF, DEM and locatives): -tun, -kun

MOT prefix indicating motion (in Siraya, not Takivatan)

N neutral form of the personal pronoun

NEG negator: ni

NEG.EV classificatory prefix marking negative, destructive events: mu-

NFA non-focused agent form of the personal pronoun: -ʔuk

NMZ nominaliser

NOM nominative case (not in Takivatan)

NVIS non-visual (property of DEM)

OBL oblique case (not in Takivatan)

PA paucal (property of DEM)

PERL perlative locative prefix, indicating a movement through or into: tauna-, tuna-, tun-

PersName proper name, first name

PERSON nominalising suffix creating a person: -ʔað

PL plural reduplication

PLAY verbal prefix indicating an action that involves playing an instrument or game: pis-

PLOP verbal prefix marking actions that involve a plopping sound: kin-

POSS possessive case of personal pronouns or possessive prefix: i-

PREPARE verbal prefix expressing acts of preparing: kit-

PRODUCE verbal prefix expressing that something is produced: ka-

PROG progressive marker: -aŋ

PROX proximal (property of DEF, DEM and locatives): -ti, -ki, ʔiti

PRT particle: -i

PRTC participatory prefix: pain-

PRV perfective marker: -in

PST past/resultative marker: ‹in›, ‹i›

PURP purposive marker: tu

PV vague plural (property of DEM)

REC recursive reduplication

RECIP reciprocal: paka-

REF referential definiteness marker (property of DEF): -ti, -tun, -ta

REP repetitive reduplication

RES resultative infix: ‹in›

RES.OBJ resultative object orientating prefix: sin-

RETURN verbal prefix indicating an action that causes the return to an original state: pis-

S singular (property of DEM)

SEE patient-incoporating prefix indicating acts of seeing

SEPARATE verbal prefix indicating a movement involving separation

SHOCK verbal prefix indicating that an action involves a (often repeated) shocking movement or a swift radiating movement from a center: tin-

SIT situational definiteness marker (property of DEF): -ki, -kun, -ka

SPEAK patient-incorporating prefix indicating acts of speaking

SPIT patient-incorporating prefix indicating acts of spitting

STAT stative verb marker: ma-, a-, panka-

SUBORD subordinator: -ʔa

TERM terminative locative prefix, indicating a movement until: sau-

THINK verbal prefix marking acts of thinking

TRANSFER verbal prefix indicating a transfer: is-

UF undergoer focus suffix: -un

USE patient-incorporating prefix indicating acts of using

USPEC underspecified for distance (property of DEM)

VBZ verbaliser

VERY verbal prefix indicating a superlative

VIA viative locative prefix, indicating a movement along: in-, malan-

VIS visual (property of DEM)

VL vocalic ligature

WALK patient-incorporating prefix indicating acts of walking

WASH patient-incorporating prefix indicating acts of washing

WEAR verbal prefix expressing wearing of clothing: kun-

Markers of the predicate argument structure

{ }n predicate; verb phrase

[ ]m argument; noun phrase or phrase nested within an NP

[…] an irrelevant segment has been omitted from the example

( ) optional element

A|B clause boundary between clause A and B

A.Values for subscript n and m

AG agent (core argument)

ATTR attribute, NP modifier (for phrases nested within an NP)

AUX auxiliary verb

COM peripheral phrase expressing commutative / accompaniment (adjunct with sin)

CSE cause (core argument)

CSR causer (core argument)

FOC focused participant (e.g. UN:PAT/FOC)

LO locative phrase (core argument)

MNR manner phrase (adjunct or auxiliary, e.g. AUX/MANR)

NFOC non-focused participant (e.g. UN:PAT/NFOC)

PLACE place phrase (adjunct or auxiliary)

PSR possessor (noun phrase)

TIME time phrase (adjunct or auxiliary)

UN undergoer, subtype left unspecified (core argument)

UN:BEN undergoer, beneficiary (core argument)

UN:INSTR undergoer, instrument (core argument)

UN:PAT undergoer, patient (core argument)

LDIS left-dislocated argument (e.g. AG/LDIS)

B.Values for subscripts A and B

Cn main clause n (e.g. C1|C2 ‘clause C1 is followed by a coordinated clause C2)

COMPLn complement clause n (e.g. C1|COMPL2‘C1 has a complement clause COMPL2)

PURPn purposive clause n (with tu ‘PURP’; e.g. C1|PURP2 ‘C1 is followed by a purposive clause C2)

SUBORDn subordinate clause n (with -ʔa ‘SUBORD’; e.g. SUBORD1|C2 ‘C1 is a subordinated clause of the main clause C2)

List of markers used in the transliteration

<pause> normal pause or hesitation

<backtrack> backtracking; pause or hesitation after which part of the preceding utterance is repeated

List of markers used in the translation

[ ] (1) ellipted or otherwise implied element added in the translation by

the translator

(2) translation of a relevant text segment not given in source text

[…] an irrelevant segment has been omitted from the example

( ) optional element

Summary

Bunun is a language spoken by one of the Austronesian minority groups on the island of Taiwan. Its most marked characteristics are its complex verbal morphology and its unusual argument alignment system. Takivatan Bunun is the third-largest of its five extant dialects and is spoken by a number of small settlements in two counties in the central mountains and at the east coast of the island.

Based on more than one year of field work data, this dissertation explores aspects of the grammar of Takivatan as spoken by the people of the villages Ma-yuan and Qi-mei in Hualien County. It is intended as a preliminary to a full descriptive grammar. After an introductory chapter and an overview of Takivatan phonology, Chapter 3 discusses how words and affixes can be defined in Takivatan and gives a general overview of word building processes. Chapter 4 is a concise treatment of compounding, an uncommon and unproblematic process in Takivatan. Chapter 5 discusses TAM affixes. Chapter 6 concisely describes the grammatical and derivational uses of focus suffixes. Chapter 7 is an elaborate discussion and classification of the large set of verbal prefixes in Takivatan. The final chapter concludes with an overview of definiteness markers, personal pronouns, demonstratives and other pronominal forms.

Statement of Authorship

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma.

No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis.

The thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree of diploma in any other tertiary institution.

(Signature) (Date)

Rik De Busser

Acknowledgements

None of this work would have been possible without the Bunun communities in Taiwan that have supported and tolerated me for such a long time. I especially wish to thank the Bunun people of Bahuan and the Bunun Presbyterian Church for letting me live in their village, especially to my Takivatan father and mother, Liban Tanapima and Uli Ululuŋku, and their entire family, who took me into their home as a family member when I first can into Ma-yuan. I have learned a lot from them as a linguist and as a human being. I also want to thank my father-in-law and main Bunun teacher, Vau Taisnunan, and his family for not only treating me as family but also for becoming my family. I am grateful for their continuing support and help. I further want to thank Tulbus Manququ and Maia Istanda for sacrificing their valuable time and being such excellent teachers.

In Tauŋkuan, my special thanks go to pastor Tiaŋ Istasipal, who spent long afternoons with me sharing his knowledge. In Qi-mei, I want to thank the whole Takivatan community, but especially pastor Pima Tanapima, my dear friend, who sadly passed away long before his years and before this thesis had been completed.

In Hualien, Iluŋ Naŋavulan spent many weeks answering my often boring questions on Takbanuað Bunun. When I arrived in Taiwan, I spent almost a month in the Isbukun village of Pasikau, in Taidong County, where I was received like a family member by Moa Takisvilainan and her family, especially her two daughters Niwa and Ibu. Although she might have forgotten, it was Niwa who first gave me the idea to choose Bunun for a PhD topic five years ago. In Pasikau, the unforgettable duo Tommie Williamson and Nabu helped me with a number of administrative problems at the beginning of my first field trip. In Taipei, I received a lot of good advice from Elizabeth Zeitoun at the Academia Sinica and, while it was Niwa that pointed out the Bunun language to me, it was Elizabeth who helped me to narrow my field of study down to the Takivatan dialect.

The Research Centre for Linguistic Typology at La Trobe University has been a most stimulating environment to write this work. I want to thank Bob Dixon and Sasha Aikhenvald for bringing me there and guiding me throughout the first two years of my dissertation. I am also very grateful to my supervisor Randy LaPolla, who has led me through the final one and a half year, and has been a great help, not only on an academic but also on a personal level. He has been a great inspiration to me and many of my colleagues. My two co-supervisors Sander Adelaar and František Kratochvil have sacrificed much of their precious time reading through the drafts of all my chapters and offered me lots of support. Their input has greatly improved the work you have lying in front of you, but they are obviously not responsible for any of the remaining errors. A word of thanks must also go to Roger Wales, who steered the RCLT ship through difficult seas and made sure we all survived the trip.

RCLT would not have been quite the interesting place it is without its members and I am grateful to them for all the advice, support and interesting conversations they have offered me. Special mentions go to Gerd Jendraschek, who allowed me to yell at him repeatedly; Seino van Breughel, who made sure I did not forget my mother tongue and with whom I had many fruitful conversations; and Simon Overall, who rekindled my interest in some long-extinct languages that had absolutely nothing to do with Bunun. I also want to mention Jo Taylor and Randy LaPolla (again) for reading through the thesis at such short notice. Special thanks must go to Siew-Peng Condon, the heart of RCLT, who made all of our lives a lot more pleasant and our studies a lot easier.

Finally, I want to thank my mother, father and little sister, who have always supported me during my studies, no matter which strange decisions I made, and last but not least my wife, whom I met during my time in the field. She has put up with me even during the most difficult parts of this journey and has always given me her unwavering support.

Chapter 1.Introduction

This work is a description of Takivatan Bunun, the language of the Bunun people as it is spoken by the Takivatan clan on the island of Taiwan. The Bunun are one of the fourteen officially recognized aboriginal tribes[1] that live on the island of Taiwan as minority groups alongside three distinct Sinitic linguistic groups – Southern Min, Hakka and Mandarin Chinese. The aboriginal languages of Taiwan, which are often subsumed under the term Formosan languages, all belong to the Austronesian language family.

This introductory chapter will concisely describe the Bunun people and their environment (1.2) and give a genetic and typological profile of the Takivatan Bunun dialect (1.3). Section 1.5 is a concise overview of important publications on the Bunun language. The final section justifies the scientific methodology for data gathering and linguistic description that underpins this work.

1.1.Austronesian people in Taiwan

1.1.1.Geography and demography

According to the latest population statistics, there are around half a million aboriginals in Taiwan. Together, they make up around 2.1 % of the total population of Taiwan.[2] At the time of writing, the Taiwanese government officially recognizes fourteen groups, although the exact number of tribes still is a matter of much political and ideological dispute and might not have been settled yet.

Tribe

Population

Tribe

Population

Amis

178,067

Sediq

(10,000)3

Paiwan

85,718

Tsou

6,585

Atayal

71,452

Saisiyat

5,698

Bunun

50,156

Yami

3,513

Truku

24,578

Kavalan

1,172

Rukai

11,684

Thao

647

Puyuma

11,367

Sakizaya

343

TOTAL

494,318

Table 1 – Taiwanese aboriginal groups ordered according to population size.[3]

Table 1 gives the population numbers of each of the fourteen recognized tribes. Although no precise figures are available, it is certain that the actual number of speakers of the Austronesian languages associated with each group is much lower, depending on the local situation and the definition of language fluency probably between 10 and 60 % of the actual population number.

Map 1 marks the approximate geographical distribution of each tribe. More detailed geographical information can be found on Academia Sinica (s.d.-b). At the moment, most indigenous settlements are either in the Central Mountain Range of Taiwan or at the east coast, both places with a relatively low population density.

Map 1 – Approximate distribution of the fourteen recognized indigenous tribes of Taiwan[4]

1.1.2.Taiwan and the Austronesian dispersal

All indigenous tribes of Taiwan speak Austronesian languages and have been living in Taiwan for at least 5000 years (Bellwood (1997)). The dust has still not settled in the ardent discussions about how they exactly came there and whether they are at the historical source of the dispersal of the Austronesian people throughout the Pacific, eventually resulting in their settlement of most of the Pacific area from present-day Malaysia to Hawai’i and with outlying settlements as far west as the island of Madagascar. The discussion tends to revolve around two extreme hypotheses about the colonization of the Pacific by the Austronesian people.

The first, often referred to as the out-of-Taiwan hypothesis, postulates that the Austronesian expansion in the Pacific was a relatively swift process that started about 6000 BP with the Asian ancestors of the present-day indigenous people of Taiwan crossing the Taiwan Straight from Southern China. Around 5000 BP, after a gestation period of a millenium, the original colonists had probably split up into a number of separate population groups and some of them had developed the necessary seafaring technologies to make the cross-over to Luzon in the Northern Philippines. Their settlements slowly expanded into the Southern Philippines, where they mixed with pre-existing non-Austronesian populations, and around 4000 BP they started their expansion into the unpopulated islands of Oceania. Originally, the out-of-Taiwan scenario was mainly based on evidence from historical linguistics and archaeology (e.g. Bellwood (1984-1985), Bellwood (1997), Blust (1999), Rollett et al. (2000), Bellwood & Dizon (2005) , Gray et al. (2009)), but especially during the last few years an increasing amount of evidence from population genetics was found to prove additional support (e.g. Trejaut et al. (2005), Moodley et al. (2009), Renfrew (2009)).

The contrary position, termed the slow boat hypothesis after Oppenheimer & Richards (2001), assumes that the Austronesian expansion in the Pacific was a much more gradual process and started from somewhere in Island Southeast Asia. In general, its proponents (e.g. Meacham (1995), Terrell & Welsch (1997), Oppenheimer & Richards (2001), Terrell (2004), Hill et al. (2007), Kayser et al. (2007)) are relatively vague about the exact temporality of the sequence of events, but most assume a much greater time-depth than the out-of-Taiwan hypothesis.

The outcome of this ongoing academic battle will have some implications for the status of Bunun and the other Austronesian languages of Taiwan. In the out-of-Taiwan hypothesis, the Formosan languages are spoken in the homeland of the Austronesian people and have as a result a special status as the oldest remnants of proto-Austronesian at the trunk of the Austronesian language tree. In the slow-boat model, Taiwan is merely “an Austronesian backwater” (Oppenheimer & Richards (2001:164)), its Austronesian population a result of back-migration from the Philippines, and the status of its languages not very different than that of other Austronesian languages of the Philippines.

It is fair to say that a considerable majority of scholars are presently inclined towards the out-of-Taiwan scenario and the combined body of evidence from archaeology and linguistics as well as other sciences has been growing in recent years. We cannot go into detail here, but the distribution of Austronesian languages across the Pacific was one of the main reasons behind the out-of-Taiwan hypothesis (see Bellwood (1984-1985), Blust (1984-1985), and Bellwood (1997: Ch. 4 & 7)). Most Austronesianists would agree that it would be hard to explain the present distribution of Austronesian languages across the Pacific without assuming that some kind of eastward expansion similar to the out-of-Taiwan model has taken place.

1.1.3.A short history of Taiwanese indigenous groups

When exactly modern humans first arrived on Taiwan is not entirely clear, but it is generally assumed that it should have been at the latest between 6000 and 5000 B.P. Spriggs (1989) mentions a single pottery-associated radiocarbon date of 6300 B.P. from the east coast of Taiwan as the oldest evidence for the existence of a modern human society, but there appears to be no definitive proof that this is associated with an Austronesian people.

A.Early Chinese sources

Taiwan was known to the Chinese at least since the 3th century B.C., but subsequent Chinese emperors do not seem to have taken a great interest in the island and accounts in the imperial chronicles were few and far between. Two additional problems for historians are that Chinese navigators often confused the islands to the east of Fujian Province and that in early times at least a dozen names were used to refer to Taiwan (Hsu (1980b)).

In the spring of 230 A.D., the ruler of Wu, Sun Quan (孫權), is reported to have sent an expedition to the island Yi-zhou (夷洲), which is believed to refer to Taiwan but might as well have been another island east of Fujian. During the Sui dynasty (581-618 A.D.), imperial ships were occasionally sent to the island of Liú-qiú (流求), a name that was inconsistently used to refer to one or more of the islands east of Fujian. In the case of the Sui dynasty expedition it might have referred to Taiwan, but it could equally well have been present-day Okinawa (Hsu (1980b:5-6)).

The description of the islanders in the Annals of the Sui Dynasty (Wei-Zhi (s.d.:book 81, bio. 46) is somewhat at odds with later accounts and with what we know about Taiwanese aboriginal culture. It gives an account of a relatively stratified society with a king, ministers and military commanders, while most aboriginal tribes in Taiwan had and have a relatively egalitarian society, and various aspects of material culture (cave dwellings with protective palisades, the use of iron, the use of palaquins shaped like animals, etc.) do not agree well with our knowledge of Taiwanese aboriginal culture.

Next is Wāng Dà-yuān (汪大淵), who in the first part of the 14th century, during the Yuan dynasty, travelled by boat to two countries, Liú-qiú (流求) and Pí-shè-yé (毗舍耶), which are both believed to refer to locations in present-day Taiwan. In his relatively short Brief Accounts of the Island Barbarians (島夷誌略), written around 1350, he describes encounters with inhabitants that were unlike the Chinese and – from their description – might very well have been ancestors of the present-day Taiwanese aborigines (see Thompson (1964) for a translation).

More than 200 years later, in 1603, The Ming official Chén Dì (陳第) was sent to Taiwan as a military commander in a campaign against Japanese pirates that used the island as a base to ravage the Southern Chinese coast. In his Account of the Eastern Barbarians (東番記),[5] he paints an idyllic picture of a diversified social landscape of many different tribes living in large villages of up to a thousand people. Many of the cultural characteristics he mentions – such as head-hunting, the absence of a central leader, a ten-month moon calendar and marriage customs – are reminiscent of what we know about the history of the Austronesian tribes that today inhabit Taiwan, but it is impossible to identify any ethnic groups in his account.

B.The Dutch period (1624 to 1662)

The Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company) landed on the Penghu islands west of Taiwan on 27 July 1622, but under the Chinese pressure they soon withdrew to Taiwan, where they built Fort Orange (later named Fort Zeelandia) on a sandbank close to present-day Tainan. They extended their control over a considerable portion of the south-western plains by the mid-1630s. As Hauptman & Knapp (1977) point out, they were primarily interested in opening up trade with China and Japan and they intended to use Formosa in the first place as a trading post. Besides a number of Chinese farmers, they found on their arrival that the landscape was dotted with villages inhabited by Austronesian people belonging to at least five different tribes (Ferrell (1971) mentions Siraya, Taivoan, Makatau, Pangsola-Dolatok and Lungkiao). They were aware of the presence of other tribal populations in the mountainous interior beyond the Western Plains, but – probably out of well-grounded safety concerns – they restricted their territorial expansion to the Western Plains and never attempted to establish any real contact or venture into the more mountainous territories of Central Formosa.

Dutch relations with the aboriginal populations came only second to the trade with China and the East India Company actively encouraged Chinese farmers from Fujian and the east of Guangdong to settle under their command in the western plains of Taiwan. There are quite some indications that relationships with the local population, both aboriginal and Chinese, were often strained, mainly due to the often insensitive mercantile attitude of the Dutch and their one-sided imposition of rules and regulations. Nevertheless, they had a relatively profitable trade in hides with the aboriginals and often recruited aboriginal warriors to suppress uprisings of other tribes or Chinese farmers.

Especially the Siraya seem to have been eager to establish friendships with the Dutch colonists. Already when the Dutch first came to Taiwan on a reconnaissance mission from the Penghu islands to the mainland in October 1623, they were invited to the village of Soulang to conclude bonds of friendship. The Dutch military commanders sent over two trade emissaries, who wrote down a short account of their contact with Siraya culture, and later that year another – anonymous – writer made a trip to the same village (English translations of both accounts are in Blusse & Roessingh (1984)).

They paint a picture of a society without any significant social stratification and centralized leadership. Its Austronesian inhabitants lived in large towns and built wooden houses “more or less like an upturned ship” (Blusse & Roessingh (1984:72)) and elevated on a clay foundation more than a meter high. Many aspects of their society and culture (egalitarianism, council of elders, frequent inter-village warfare, headhunting, skull altars, shamanism) are reminiscent of how Bunun and Atayal society was till the end of the 19th century, but it is an open question to what extent the observations of the Dutch visitors are accurate reflections of their actual observations and to what extent they just repeated other sources or the general ideas that their Chinese guides had of the aborigines.

The Dutch occupiers made a priority of establishing an orderly system of government in their patch of South Taiwan. They commanded the aborigines to appoint one or more headmen for each village, forbade migration between villages, and regulated and taxed land use. From very early on, they also brought missionaries to Taiwan in order to convert the Taiwanese aborigines to Christianity. The first was George Candidius, who in 1627 established himself in the Siraya village of Sinkan and tried to educate them and convert them to Christianity. After 16 months, he wrote his ‘Discours ende cort Verhael van 't Eylant Formosa’ (‘A short account of the Island of Formosa’)[6], a short treatise, based on his personal experiences, of the inhabitants of eight Siraya villages two days travel north of the Dutch settlement.

In contrast to many other Dutch accounts of aboriginal populations, his is remarkably neutral in tone. It describes a good-natured people who lived in large seaside villages, inhabited impressive houses made of bamboo and decorated with skulls of hunted animals and of human enemies, and had a non-stratified social order in which decisions were made by general consent of all the village members after consultation with a council of twelve elders. Women worked in the fields and went fishing, while man spent much of their time hunting and waging wars. The valour of warriors was measured by the number of human skulls they could bring back to their family altar. Men and women lived separately and remained childless after marriage until the woman was 35 years old. If the wife became pregnant before that time, she was forced to have a mandatory abortion (see Shepherd (1995) for a detailed analysis of this unusual practice). Like many indigenous groups in Taiwan, they buried their deceased inside the family house. They had an animist religious system with exclusively female shamans, but unlike what is known about the past practices of present-day aboriginal tribes, they appear to have had a pantheon of distinct gods rather than the conception that all objects in nature are endowed with some kind of spirit (qanitu in Bunun).

Of particular interest to linguists is that many of the missionaries that followed Candidius to Taiwan were instructed to produce various language materials, in part to enable them to better fulfil their missionary tasks but also by the order of the administrative powers to establish a written language for administrative purposes. One of these missionaries, Gilbertus Happart, was in the 1640s stationed in the district of Favorlang in the central western plains of Taiwan, where he died in 1647 (van Toorenenbergen (1892:56)). His Woord-boek der Favorlangsche Taal (Dictionary of the Favorlang language) is dated 1650, but the dictionary was only published in the 19th century (Happart (1840) in English and Happart (1842) in Dutch). His successor, Jacob Vertrecht, translated the Articles of Christian Instruction into Favorlang (published in Campbell (1896)), giving us some idea of what the language might actually have looked like.

We have a fair amount of knowledge of Siraya, the language spoken by the aboriginal group that were in closest contact with the Dutch. Unfortunately, a Siraya wordlist compiled by Candidius is now no longer extant. In 1647, Daniel Gravius was sent to the Siraya village of Soulang, but he was forced to leave the country in 1651 because of his explosive relationship with the Dutch authorities on the island. Upon his return to Holland, he published a Siraya translation of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John (Gravius (1661), recently republished by Campbell (1996); an interlinear version of Matthew is available in Chen (2007)) and ‘t Formulier des christendoms, met de verklaringen van dien, inde Sideis-Formosaansche Tale (The Christian Formulary, with Annotations, in the Sidean-Formosan Language; Gravius (1662), republished in Chen (2005)).

C.Koxinga and the Qing dynasty (1662-1895)

On 30 April 1661, Zheng Cheng-Gong (鄭成功), a rebel pirate bent on overthrowing the Qing dynasty and known to the West as Koxinga, landed near the Dutch Fort Zeelandia with an army of several thousands of soldiers. His main aim was to wrestle Taiwan from the Dutch to use it as a base for his naval raids against the Qing dynasty. His army, reportedly helped by 25,000 settlers and a sizeable force of Siraya braves, greatly outnumbered inhabitants of Zeelandia and Zheng did not even bother to attack them but simply settled in the city of Tainan (Hsu (1980b)). Only after nine months were the Dutch able to buy their way out of what effectively was a siege and they left the island in the beginning of 1662. Zheng Cheng-Gong died in the summer of the same year, but his son and grandson continued his military dynasty for another twenty years. In 1683, Taiwan was ceded to the Qing court and the island would be part of the Chinese empire for the next two centuries.

The Zhengs installed a harsh military regime and crippling taxes, but nevertheless managed to attract poor Chinese farmers, mainly from the coasts of Fujian, who desperately wanted to escape the even harsher regime of the Manchus. During their 21-year reign, the Chinese population doubled. Mainly in order to maximize tax revenues, agricultural land reclamation of the Western Plains in areas inhabited by indigenous populations was actively promoted. This caused some plains aborigines to migrate to central Taiwan or to the east coast (Wang (1980:40,42)), but most were gradually assimilated into the Chinese population.

When the Qing administration took over Taiwan, they initially restricted migration from the mainlaind, but these restrictions were lifted in 1760 and from that moment on Chinese population numbers gradually grew from 100,000 around 1660 to more than 3 million in 1887 (Wang (1980:43)). Chinese expansion into the central and northern plains already led to a number of conflicts with the relatively benign aborigines in the plains, but as soon as Chinese farmers started to encroach on the territory of the mountain aborigines, they met with fierce resistance. To prevent a potential escalation of the situation, the government set up a demarcation line in 1739 and forbade any Chinese to enter the mountain areas, which were considered to be beyond the pale and inhabited by people that were barely human. This ban effectively isolated the aborigines living in the mountains from Chinese incursions and lasted for almost one and a half centuries. In the final years of the Qing government in Taiwan, the ban was lifted, resulting in a rapid expansion of Chinese farmers into the mountain regions and, as a result, a large number of violent aboriginal uprisings, especially by the Atayal and Paiwan.

In 1770, Chinese colonists also attempted for the first time to move into the fertile plains around present-day Yi-lan (宜蘭) on the north-east coast of Taiwan. Initially, they met with strong resistance from the indigenous population and it would take almost three decades, the lives of hundreds of Chinese soldiers, the building of three forts, and a small-pox epidemic before a stable peace was reached (Hsu (1980a)). From the beginning of the 19th century, the number of Chinese colonists in the Yi-lan plain gradually increased, prompting a portion of the Kavalan people that were living there to migrate southwards. Others chose to stay under Chinese rule and gradually became Sinicized.

Our knowledge of aboriginal society during the first Chinese period is considerably more fragmentary than under the Dutch, as is the contribution that the Chinese settlers made to the documentation of aboriginal languages. The explanation for this change in attitude is probably twofold. Whereas the Dutch had the explicit goal to document aboriginal languages and develop written variants in order to use them as languages of local administration and of the church, the Chinese administration was mainly interested in developing the plains into agricultural land for their settlers. They built some local schools in aboriginal villages, but these used Chinese as a language of instruction.

A second reason for the different attitude of Dutch and Chinese administrators to aboriginal culture and language might be connected to the nature of their interactions with the indigenous inhabitants. The Dutch administration tended to send soldiers and Protestant missionaries into aboriginal settlements and of these two, only the latter were actually stationed in the villages and were in continued close contact with the aborigines. These men had usually received a good education and were motivated by idealism. Gravius, for example, even got into serious trouble with the Dutch authorities when he tried to protect the indigenous population from exploitation by the East India Company (see e.g. Campbell (1903:270-6)).

Contact between the Qing administration and the aborigines, on the other hand, happened through Chinese middlemen who functioned as translators. They were usually adventurers, often with a shady background, who had come to Taiwan in search for fortune and were mainly interested in maximizing their own profit. It was therefore in their interest to keep the other parties, the aborigines and the Chinese officials, as uninformed as possible in order not to undermine their own position.

This is clear from the accounts of Yu Yong-he (郁永河), an official and business man that in 1697 started on a dangerous trip from Tainan to the north-western plains and wrote his adventures down in the Small Sea Travel Journal (裨海記遊; see Thompson (1964:183-199) for an English translation of relevant passages). After a lengthy description of the different kinds of Barbarians he encountered on his trip, he raises the issue of the maltreatment of aborigines by opportunistic Chinese “village bullies”, as he calls them (Thompson (1964:197-198)), and states that most conflicts between Chinese officials and aborigines are actually caused by the deceptive behaviour of these individuals.

Yu Yong-he was not the earliest Qing official that wrote about the Formosan aborigines. That honour goes to Lin Qian-guang (林謙光), who went to Tawain just after it was transferred to the authority of the Qing court, and in 1685 wrote his Sketch of Peng-hu and Taiwan (澎湖臺灣紀略). He includes a sizeable section on the Taiwanese barbarians, a “stubborn, stupid people, without family names or ancestral sacrifices” (Thompson (1964:180)). Interestingly, in his description the influence of Dutch colonization on aboriginal culture is still clearly visible, most notably in the fact that some aborigines now apparently developed the habit to tattoo themselves “all over with their writing, which is in the characters of the Redheads [i.e. the Dutch]” (id.). Another interesting fact is that he talks about going to Da-wu Qun-she (大武群社), a village in the present-day County Ping-dong (屏東縣) that was inhabited by Paiwan.

Another long account of Taiwanese aboriginal life is the Record of Inquiry into the Savage Customs (臺海使槎錄; see Thompson (1969) for an English translation), written by Huang Shu-jing (黃叔璥) in 1724 and first published in 1736. In it, the author gives elaborate summaries of aboriginal material culture, and to a lesser extent social habits, as observed in more than a hundred aboriginal settlements. Most of his accounts concern the pacified aborigines living in the western and northern plains (on the basis of village names, Thompson identifies seven groups: Babuza, Hoanya, Ketagalan, Papora, Siraya, Taivoan and Taokas) and appear to be based on personal observations. For descriptions of the more dangerous mountain areas, where the present-day Bunun must have lived, he relies on hearsay. Unfortunately, it is not possible to identify with certainty any of the mountain tribes on the basis of his account, although typical aspects of Atayal, Amis and maybe Rukai culture catch the eye in some passages. Most of his descriptions are supplemented by quotations of previous Chinese works and often also by transliterations and translations of indigenous songs. Apart from these three works, our knowledge of aboriginal culture during the Qing period is mainly restricted to side notes in historical annals that mainly focus on the Chinese matters on the island.

D.The Japanese era (1895-1945)

On 17 April 1895, at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing court was forced to cede Taiwan to the Japanese empire in the Treaty of Shimonoseki. This caused widespread outrage among the Chinese inhabitants of Taiwan and during the first year of their occupation of the island, the Japanese administration had its hands full suppressing widespread Chinese revolts. After about five months the situation settled down, but disturbances were never very far below the surface for most of the Japanese period (see Lamley (1999)).

The simmering antagonism to the Japanese overlords had much to do with the strict and often discriminatory attitude of the Japanese administration which alienated its Chinese subjects. Especially before 1920, Taiwan was effectively governed as a colony and the Taiwanese treated as second-rate citizens. They were subjected to even higher taxes than under the Qing administration, had limited access to educational resources, intermarriage with Japanese was forbidden, Taiwanese companies needed to have Japanese partners, and an ever-changing and often draconian legislative system was installed to keep unruly elements under control. It was especially the coming and going of restrictive and often unreasonable rules and legislation that created a lot of anxiety among the Taiwanese about their eventual fate in Japanese hands. This was itself caused by the changing attitudes of subsequent governor-generals towards Taiwan’s function within the Japanese empire, which wavered from a colonialist two-tier model in which Taiwan would forever be a subservient society of second-class citizens to a vision of total assimilation, in which all inhabitants of Taiwan would eventually be turned into Japanese citizens.

Despite all the friction and ambiguities, the beginning of the 20th century saw the rise of a young generation of urbanized Taiwanese that became gradually acculturated to the way of living that was introduced by the Japanese occupier. As a result, Japanese rule became much more moderated during the 1920s and some of the more discriminating rules, such as the segregation of Japanese and Taiwanese in education, were lifted. In the 1930s, a growing nationalist attitude in Japan and the resulting expansionist plans of the Japanese military caused the return of full-blown military rule to Taiwan, as the island and its inhabitants were prepared to fulfil their function in the Imperial army. During the Second World War, the island was turned into a southerly operating base for attacking enemy positions in the Philippines and Southeast Asia and many Taiwanese, including several thousand aboriginal inhabitants, would fight for the Japanese emperor.

It must be stressed that, however harsh and paternalistic the attitude of the Japanese military administration, Japan’s intentions towards its ‘first colony’ (Hishida (1907)) was in general relatively humanistic and well-intended within the historical context. They developed the educational system and in later years even attracted Taiwanese to study in Japan. The Japanese occupiers also went to great effort to modernize Taiwan’s infrastructure. In an impossibly high tempo, they planned and built the road and railway network that would enable Taiwan to turn into an efficient market economy. In 1895 alone, during the first year of their occupation, they had already constructed 428 kilometers of roads, and by 1925 their road and rail network completely encircled the island (Hsu et al. (1999:171-174)). Admittedly, this was done in the first to maximize economic return for the motherland, but it nevertheless had far-reaching effects for the development of many parts of Taiwan, especially in previously inaccessible regions.

The combination of ideological and economic thinking had far-reaching implications for the aboriginals. Unlike the Qing administration, who tried to minimize conflict between Chinese settlers and the aboriginal tribes whose land they encroached upon by isolating the mountain areas, the new military administration actively tried to submit the rebellious tribes to Japanese control. One economic aspect that had a great impact on the aboriginal tribes living in the Central Mountain Range was the Japanese interest in timber harvesting and especially the exploitation of precious camphor wood.

Often, this meant the intrusion into the territory of high-mountain tribes and triggered violent attacks from the latter, in which many – often Chinese – lumber workers were killed and valuable property was destroyed. Especially the Atayal, but also some Bunun and Paiwan groups resisted violently. The Japanese retaliated by sending military expeditions into the mountains, which led a considerable amount of bloodshed on both sides. From 1889 till 1901, more than 500 people per year died on the Japanese side as a result of aboriginal attacks (Anonymous (1911:45)); we have no exact data on aboriginal casualties but the 1911 Report on the Control of the Aborigines in Formosa (Anonymous (1911)) mentions twelve large punitive expeditions against aboriginal groups between 1909 and 1911, which could take up to two months and in many of which entire villages were razed to the ground.

Attempting to prevent extreme violence from overflowing into pacified areas, the Japanese also built police stations in many relatively peaceful areas and constructed a defensive guard line around the more problematic areas, which consisted of a walking path through the jungle with guard posts at regular intervals and in some areas protected by mines or even electric fencing (see Wang (1980:46-47) and Anonymous (1911)). From 1897 till about 1915, they gradually advanced this protective border into aboriginal territory, thus restricting the movement of their enemies. At the same time, they tried to encourage the groups that still offered resistance to move into Japanese-controlled territory in exchange for trading rights and medical care, built schools near police outposts to educate aboriginal children, and offered help with agricultural development.

Eventually, this carrot-and-stick approach proved successful and violence seems to have been drastically reduced after 1901. In the 1920s, the situation was sufficiently stable for the administration to impose an aboriginal reservation system that was designed to definitively protect the aboriginal tribes against unwanted Chinese intrusions. Many aboriginal groups, especially those living in small groups in inaccessible regions, were forced to resettle in designated villages, built around Japanese police stations. This led to another isolated but serious incident in 1930, when an Atayal group attacked a police station in Wu-she (霧社), killing over a hundred people and wounding more than 300.

In answer, the Japanese intensified their efforts to resettle the entire aboriginal population to easily controllable areas and to open up the inaccessible centre and east coast of Taiwan. Wang (1980:48) mentions that between 1920 and 1935, more than 35,000 aborigines were reported to have relocated. Among them, the Bunun formed a disproportionately large group: by 1929, 62 percent of the entire population had been relocated from small family groups high up in the mountains to villages under Japanese control. The Japanese introduced wet-rice cultivation and other modern agricultural methods, made villages more accessible by constructing roads, built schools in which aboriginal children were educated in Japanese, and developed modern medical facilities.

A very interesting development during the Japanese era was the emergence of the first modern studies of the indigenous communities and languages of Taiwan. Valuable information can already be gleaned from military reports such as the Report on the Control of the Aborigines in Formosa mentioned above, but great breakthroughs came when anthropologists like Kanori Ino (伊能嘉矩) came to Taiwan and for the first time studied aboriginal and Chinese culture and language for their own sake rather than with a political or economic motive in mind. As early as 1900, he published the Stories of Taiwanese Aborigines (台灣蕃人事情) with Awano Denojo (粟野伝之丞) and his research in subsequent years would include a diverse array cultural and linguistic aspects of Taiwan’s Chinese and aboriginal population. In linguistics, most memorable are the publications of Naoyoshi Ogawa (小川尚義) and Erin Asai (淺井惠倫), culminating in their monumental The Myths and Traditions of the Formosan Native Tribes (Ogawa & Asai (1935)), a work containing almost 800 pages of interlinearlised translations of traditional stories in twelve Taiwanese indigenous languages, with linguistic introductions. The fact that this work is today, more than 70 years after its appearance, still frequently quoted says a lot about the academic rigour with which it was compiled.

E.Modern Taiwan (1945 to present)

The end of World War II meant another great turn in Taiwan’s history. On 25 October 1945 Japan, by then a defeated nation, handed Taiwan officially back to the Nationalist government in China, headed by Chiang Kai-Shek (蔣介石). Taiwan’s inhabitants looked upon the shift of power with ambivalence and apprehension. On the one hand, most Taiwanese were glad to get rid of what effectively was a brutal dictatorship in which they were treated like second-class citizens. On the other hand, they soon became aware of the fact that Japanese rule had brought them a level of educational, economic and societal development that was not going to be matched by the Chinese newcomers. The relatively well-educated Taiwanese (in 1943, primary school attendance was 81% for males and 61% for females)[7] were dismayed to see what they perceived as backward, unorganized and corrupt riffraff take the place of the strict but organized Japanese police state or, as it was put then, “the dogs left but the pigs came” (狗去豬來). This dismay would grow in the following years when mainlanders monopolized the political and economic system and set as its main political goal the eradication of all Japanese influences and political opposition in Taiwan.

By the end of the 1940s, the Kuomintang (KMT) was loosing the Chinese civil war against Mao’s army and this led to an evacuation of all Nationalists from the mainland to Taiwan between 1948 and 1950. Chiang Kai-shek was appointed President of the Republic of China and would remain so until his death in 1975. Under his rule, Taiwan was effectively a military dictatorship and access to political positions was severely restricted for native Taiwanese, both Chinese and aboriginal. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Taiwanese economy, which was almost in tatters after the loss of the war in China, was rebuilt and drastically modernized and Taiwan became one of the economic powerhouses of Asia (see Wang (1999:326-335)).

It was only under Chiang Kai-shek’s son Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), who was president from 1978 until 1988, that military rule relaxed somewhat and it became possible for native Taiwanese to move into higher political offices. His successor, Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), himself a native Taiwanese, finally transformed Taiwan into a full democracy in 1991. In 2000, he was also the first leader in the history of Taiwan that allowed himself to be succeeded by a democratically elected president from an opposition party, Chen shui-bian (陳水扁).

During the post-war period and much of Chiang Kai-shek’s reign, political focus was on turning Taiwan into a unified Chinese nation under a unified national language and culture. This left little room for cultural or linguistic diversity: education was all in Mandarin Chinese and speaking other languages – Chinese or Austronesian – in public could even be severely punished. Oral and written language competence in Mandarin became a sign of adherence to the cultural norms of the republic. In this view, aborigines were defective citizens and Hsieh (1994:405) indicates that until the 1980s the main discussion points between ideologues was whether the indigenous population should be actively assimilated or whether the pressure of a superior Chinese culture would automatically ‘naturalize’ the Austronesian inhabitants of the mountains.

During this period, aboriginal groups continued to live in reservations, which were officially designed to restrict Chinese intrusions into their territory. Nevertheless, contact between the aboriginal populations and the Chinese, often to the detriment of the former, increased due to the construction and improvement of the road network in central and east Taiwan, the resettlement of retired veterans from the Chinese civil war in mountainous areas, often in aboriginal territory, and illegal land developments in protected aboriginal territory. Nominally, the aboriginal population had the same political and legal rights as the Taiwanese population, but in the practical reality of a militaristic dictatorship this amounted to very little. On top of all that, the discriminatory attitude of many Chinese towards the aboriginal population was a widespread problem. Since aborigines make up not much more than two percent of the population of Taiwan, this made it as good as impossible for any attempts to raise aboriginal issues in the political arena to get widespread support.

Two organizations which each in their own way had a considerable positive influence on the aboriginal population were the Catholic Church and the Scottish Presbyterian Church. Catholic missionaries had been coming to the island since the second decade of the 17th century, when a number of Spanish Dominican missionaries landed in the north of the country (Borao (2001)). In the second half of the twentieth century it appears to have been especially French missionaries that were active in aboriginal territory, especially on the east coast of the country. Protestant missionaries first came to the country around the same time with the Dutch East India Company, but the Presbyterian Church of England started operating in Taiwan from 1865 onwards (Johnston (1897)).

The Chinese received them rather sceptically and sometimes were even openly hostile, but the missionaries had great success once they moved into aboriginal territory (see e.g. Johnston (1897:177ff) for a contemporary account). Both groups were (and often still are) in direct competition with each other. One can debate about what the introduction of Christianity meant for the demise of traditional aboriginal life styles, but both churches had a decidedly positive influence on the development of an aboriginal self-image and the preservation of aboriginal languages. It became a widespread habit to conduct mass in the local aboriginal language, and priests, ministers and members of the indigenous congregation often went to great lengths to translate religious works in the local language.

The influence of the Presbyterian Yu-Shan Theological College and Seminary (玉山神學院), on the east coast in Hualien County, was particularly strong and the new generations of indigenous ministers that had received their education there played an important role in the rise of the aboriginal rights movement in the 1980s. Together with indigenous graduates from National Taiwan University, they founded the Alliance of Taiwan Aborigines on 29 December 1984 (Hsieh (1994)). Its membership turned to the streets to make the wider population aware of aboriginal problems and started to campaign for political recognition for the indigenous population. They lobbied for the ideologically and racially charged Chinese term for Taiwanese aborigines 山胞 (shān baō ‘mountain compatriots’) to be replaced by the more neutral 原住民族 (yuán zhù mín zú ‘indigenous people’, lit: ‘original inhabitants’); they argue that the aboriginal reservation system, in which government-owned land is rented out to aboriginal groups, should be reformed and indigenous groups should have actual land rights; and they wanted a high-level government agency to be established to enable aboriginal people to have some form of self-government (see Stainton (1999)).

The wider appeal of this movement among the general aboriginal population was rather limited, partly because its Mandarin-educated members were perceived as elitist and out of touch with daily aboriginal life and partly because efficient communication among the multiple ethnic groups that all spoke different languages and had sometimes conflicting goals proved difficult. Nevertheless, their incessant campaigns started to yield tangible political results in tandem with the democratisation movement of the early 1990s and in December 1993 the Taiwanese government officially recognized that Taiwan was a multi-ethnic state in which aboriginal people should be “involved in the planning and policy-making, out of respect for their sovereignty” (Stainton (1999:426)). Aboriginal land rights were acknowledged and in 1996 the Council of Indigenous Peoples (原住民委員會) was established under the Executive Yuan and was given the right to formulate policies regarding the administration of indigenous peoples (CIP (2003:9)).

Originally, the ten groups traditionally distinguished by Japanese and Chinese scholars were granted official status, but there is a legal provision that allows smaller groups to argue that they are culturally and linguistically distinct ethnic entities and therefore deserve official recognition. As Table 1 above indicates, fourteen tribes are presently recognized. The two last tribes to be added to the official list, the Sakizaya (formerly known as Nataoran Amis) and the Sediq, got their recognition only in 2007 and 2008 (see Tsai (2007) and Shih & Loa (2008) respectively). At the moment, an effort is underway to give the descendants of the Siraya official status.

For most of the smaller tribes any future political recognition might come too late, since over the last half century most tribes, and especially those living in the densely populated west, have assimilated with the Chinese majority and have lost most – if not all – of their culture and language. The larger aboriginal groups, mostly living in the sparsely populated east Taiwan, have managed to resist the cultural onslaught up to this day, but at the present day younger generations are educated in Mandarin-Chinese only and are drawn towards the cities in search of job opportunities and a better life. Tsukida & Tsuchida (2007)’s assertion that most people under twenty have completely lost knowledge of their mother tongue, while only the elderly over sixty years still regularly use it in daily life seems from my personal experience not be too far off the mark.

1.2.The Bunun people

1.2.1.The Bunun and their five clans

With 50,156 ethnic members, the Bunun are the fourth-largest of the Taiwanese indigenous tribes. Traditionally, the Bunun lived in the deep mountainous interior of Taiwan and small family groups roamed the Central Mountain Range that runs from north to south through the island. In the past, they had a reputation as skilful hunters, and head-hunters, and were fierce warriors hostile towards almost all outsiders. Of all aboriginal tribes they and the Atayal were the last to succumb to the pacification campaigns of the Japanese government, but in the end they were forced to come down from the high mountains into lowland villages, so that they could be more easily subjected to the control of the colonial government.

Many modern Bunun still feel a connectedness to the mountains and live in villages in central or east Taiwan, but in recent years a gradual shift to the cities has taken place. Map 2 gives an indication of how the Bunun population is distributed across Taiwan. Note that indigenous population figures in Taiwan should be taken with a pinch of salt. For many years, aboriginal populations were considerably underreported in the statistics but recent governments try to rectify this situation and population statistics are as a result not completely stabilized yet. Also, many aborigines are officially registered in their home village, but actually spend most of their time in Taipei or one of the other big Taiwanese cities in order to secure a fixed job.

The Bunun heartland (the black area on the map) stretches from the township Ren-ai (仁愛鄉; no. 54 on Map 2) in the county Nantou in the north to Yan-ping (延平鄉; no. 75 on the map) in the county Taitung in the South. All of these areas are in or at the base of mountains, have a low population density and were until recently relatively inaccessible. The three light gray clusters in the north and west of Taiwan are the result of modern Bunun migrations into Taiwan’s big industrial centres: Taipei (台北; cluster 1-30 on Map 2), Taichung (台中; 31-40) and Kaohsiung (高雄; 78-87).

The Bunun tribe is subdivided into five clans (Isbukun, Takbanuað, Takivatan, Takituduh and Takibakha) that have settled throughout central Taiwan and speak five distinct dialects (see Figure 4 on p. 83 below) that are to a varying extent mutually understandable. Bunun culture, however, has remained fairly unified due to intensive intermarriage between clans and most tribe members generally consider themselves to be members of the Bunun tribe rather than of a particular clan.

It is believed that originally the Bunun tribe was all settled in the Xinyi District of the County Nantou (南投縣信義鄉; Map 2 no. 58). From there, the various Bunun clans gradually expanded their territory south- and eastwards from the end of the 17th century onward (see Li (2001) and Palalavi (2006)).

Map 2 – Distribution of the Bunun in Taiwan[8]

Map 2 – Distribution of the Bunun in Taiwan (place name index)

A.Isbukun

The Isbukun are presently the largest clan and live in the southern regions of the Bunun heartland. One dialectally distinct group lives in the inaccessible mountainous districts San-min (三民鄉) and Tao-yuan (桃源鄉), in the east of Kaohsiung County (高雄縣; Map 2 nos. 66 and 67); another large group lives in the adjacent districts of Yan-ping (延平鄉) and Hai-duan (海端鄉) in the mountains to the east and north east of Taitung city. Both originally came from a settlement in the south of the Central Mountain Range to which they had come from Nantou probably sometime in the 18th century (Palalavi (2006:169-170)). A number of Isbukun families live in the County Nantou (南投縣), usually in mixed villages with other clans, with the exception of one village in the north-east of Xin-yi District (map no. 58).

B.Takbanuað

The Takbanuað are the second largest Bunun clan and speak a conservative dialect that is distinctly different from Isbukun, but closely related to Takivatan. Together with the Takivatan, they were probably the first to migrate out of the original Bunun settlements in Xin-yi District. According to Palalavi (2006), a number of Takbanuað families decided around the end of the 17th century that they would migrate to the east and south east, deep into the Central Mountain Range of the County Hualien and the northern part of the County Taitung (台東縣). During the Japanese era, most families still living up in the mountains were forced to resettle in low-land villages. Today, a sizeable group of Takbanuað still lives in Xin-yi in the County Nantou (Map 2 no. 58). Most of the group that migrated to the east ended up in the southern part of the County Hualien, more particularly in a number of remote villages in Zhuo-xi District (卓溪鄉; no. 59). Another segment lives now in between Isbukun in the north of Taitung County (nos. 68 and 75).

C.Takivatan

The Takivatan are the third-largest clan. Linguistically, they are very closely related to the Takbanuað. At the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, they started moving eastward from their original villages in Xin-yi (Map 2 no. 58) to a number of settlements deep in the mountains of Hualien. Again, it was the Japanese that resettled this eastern group into villages in the plains and today they mainly live in two villages in Hualien, Ma-yuan in Wan-rong District (no. 55) and Qi-mei in Rui-sui District (no. 60), the latter being a mixed village of Bunun and people from the Amis tribe. Some isolated families are dispersed in small settlements all over Hualien County. In Xin-yi district, three villages still have Takivatan populations, all of them mixed with other clans.

D.Takibakha and Takituduh

The Takibakha and Takituduh are both smaller clans. Relatively little is known about their dialects, except that they are closely related, are quite different from the adjacent Takbanuað dialect, and are probably nearly extinct due to the influence of Takbanuað and Chinese. The Takituduh live in three villages in the south of the Ren-ai District (仁愛鄉) in Nantou County (Map 2 no. 54) and in one or two mixed villages in Xin-yi (no. 58). There is still one village in Xin-yi that is exclusively inhabited by Takibakha families and a second in which the Takibakha live together with Takbanuað, Takibakha and Takivatan families.

1.2.2.The Takivatan Bunun in Hualien

This work will be primarily concerned with the Bunun language as it is spoken by the Takivatan that are living in the county Hualien in two villages, Ma-Yuan (花蓮縣萬榮鄉馬遠村) and Qi-Mei (花蓮縣瑞穗鄉奇美村). Both are indicated on Map 3; they are part of Map 2 nos. 55 and 60 respectively.

Map 3 – Administrative boundaries in the County Hualien with Ma-yuan and Qi-mei marked in gray.

As I mentioned above, the Takivatan lived in the County Nantou until the beginning of the 17th century, in the same geographical area as the Takbanuað, Takibakha and Takituduh. Historically, it is very likely that together they branched off from the proto-Bunun with the Takbanuað clan and later split into two distinct clans (and dialects). Exactly when this happened is not entirely sure, but it certainly happened well before the 17th century, since Palalavi (2006:143ff) gives indications that the clan distinctions might already have existed during the Dutch occupation.

I already mentioned that some Takivatan started migrating to the mountains to the west of present-day Ma-yuan from the end of the 17th century onward. These groups were fairly small and settled in locations fairly high up in the mountains. In the first half of the twentieth century, part of the clan moved from the mountains in east Nantou to Hualien County to escape overpopulation and in search of new hunting grounds. They were initially told by the Japanese occupiers to settle around Liliq, a settlement with a Japanese police station and school approximately three kilometres north of present-day Ma-yuan. Eventually, they moved down to Ma-Yuan village in the plains at the foot of Taiwan’s Central Mountain Range, where they spread out to two new hamlets: Dong-guang (東光) and Da-ma-yuan (打馬遠). Some decades later, a small group of hunters moved to the mountains bordering the Pacific Ocean and settled in Qi-Mei village, where they now peacefully coexist with a prior population of Amis, another aboriginal tribe.

The Takivatan dialect is one of the minor Bunun dialects and is closely related to Takbanuað. Whereas all minor clans in Nantou are slowly being assimilated into the larger Takbanuað community, the Takivatan communities in Hualien have been living in relative isolation and have been remarkably resilient to outside influences from other dialects. Table 2 below gives an overview of all main settlements with Takivatan inhabitants in Hualien and Nantou, their Bunun names and – wherever available – the number of Takivatan inhabitants. Most data is based on Palalavi (2006), except for Qi-mei, which is from Xie (2005).

Map 4 – Location of the Takivatan settlements in Hualien

There are considerable dialectal variations among the five Bunun clans, but Bunun people will usually refer to themselves as Bunun and to their language as malasbunun ‘the Bunun language’. We will follow them in this habit, as far as cultural issues are concerned and no finer distinctions are required.

1.2.3.Traditional Bunun culture and society

In the days before the Japanese, the Bunun were semi-nomadic and lived in small family groups in loosely structured villages scattered across the Central Mountain Range. Intertribal warfare involving headhunting used to be very common, as in other indigenous tribes of Taiwan, but this habit has died out with the coming of Christianity. Bunun society is patrilineal and patrilocal.

County

Romanized name

Chinese full name

Bunun name

TVN inhab.

Hualien

Ma-yuan

three hamlets:

花蓮縣萬榮鄉馬遠村

Bahuan / Kunuan

1456

Ma-yuan

馬遠

Bahuan

Da-ma-yuan

打馬遠

Tamaian

Dong-guang

東光

Dauŋquan

Qi-mei

花蓮縣瑞穗鄉奇美村

Kivit

129

TOTAL H

1585

Nantou

Di-li

南投縣信義鄉地利村

Tamaðuan

?

Tan-nan

南投縣信義鄉潭南村

various[9]

?

Shuang-long

南投縣信義鄉雙龍村

Tibaun

?

Xin-xiang

南投縣信義鄉新鄉村

Sinabalan

86

TOTAL N

± 100

TOTAL H+N

± 1685

Table 2 – Takivatan villages

Hunting took then – as it still does – a central place in Bunun life, not only as a food resource, but also as an important cultural activity. Participation in the hunt was restricted to the male members of the population and it was a strict taboo for women to be involved in any hunting activities. Besides game, they relied for their food supplies on the cultivation of millet, yams, sweet potatoes, beans and peanuts; on gathering wild plants and fruits; and on breeding chicken and domestic pigs. Both men and women tended to work in the field and domestic work was usually done by women.

Many Bunun lived in loosely organized, semi-permanent settlements that were abandoned when overpopulation, conflict or depletion made it necessary to move to new hunting grounds. They had a preference to live in relatively inaccessible mountainous areas and villages were usually stretched out over a relatively large area. Traditionally, Bunun preferred to build their houses from slates and – uncommon among Taiwanese aborigines – even the roof was constructed from large slabs of shale. When stone was not available, houses were build from bamboo with thatched roofs (see Anonymous (2003: ch. 2 & 3) for some examples). There was no strong concept of individual land ownership: although land was inherited in the male line, arable land could be redivided yearly according to the needs and abilities of individual families and if anyone owned more land than he could till, the excess could be utilized by other tribal members.

The Bunun did not have a stratified society or centralized leadership, but – like the Siraya as described by the Dutch (B) – made important decisions by concensus, after consultation with a selected group of elders. For war and hunting expeditions, leadership was taken up by the most experienced person, whose status depended on his success as a warrior or hunter and was usually derived from the number of human or animal skulls he had acquired in previous expeditions (Huang (1995b) refers to this as the great man model). This leader made decisions which needed to be approved by common consent and could be replaced if his decisions turned out ineffective.

In the absence of strong centralized authority, social order was maintained through a very strict system of social taboos (samu) that governed every aspect of life from the selection of marriage partners to rules about what could and could not be eaten at a certain time during the year and when you could wash yourself. Transgression of a taboo was believed to bring death or adversity on the family or group, was considered to be a mortal sin, and could be severely punished. Many acts related to agriculture or the hunt could not be performed unless a number of fixed rituals were followed. For instance, it was forbidden to start preparing the field in the beginning of the agricultural calendar before a certain ritual was performed by the (male) head of the family to avert adversity. The Bunun are unique among the indigenous groups of Taiwan in that they independently developed a writing system to note down lunar calendars with important periods in each year. These calendars were originally carved in strips of wood. An example, based on a mural at Ma-yuan’s Presbyterian Church, is given below; each triangle represents one day, the triangular arches refer to times of the month when hunting is allowed, geometrical figures on sticks indicate that certain agricultural actions are allowed or forbidden.

Figure 1 – Example of a Bunun lunar calendar.

All taboos and rituals were embedded in an animist religion that centred on moon worship (see Text 2 in Appendix 1) and a belief that all creatures and objects in the universe are possessed by an immortal soul (qanitu ‘spirit’). There seem to have been few other distinct deities in the Bunun pantheon: most natural phenomena were seen as the result of impersonal forces of nature. Central to Bunun religious experience was the concept of matibahi, the interpretation of prophetic dreams performed by elders before every significant moment in one’s life. Before one went out to work, before a hunting expedition, before building a house, etc., elders had to wait till they had a prophetic dream to determine whether one could go ahead as planned or should postpone one’s plans to avoid impending adversity. Before the coming of Christianity and modern medicine, there used to be a special group of female shamans (witches) that mediated between men and the supernatural and worked as healers.

The family group (tastulumaq ‘family’) was the main social unit in Bunun structure and most settlements consisted of one or a small number of extended families. Although individual groups had relatively great autonomy, family relationships across settlements were (and still are) considered extremely important, as can be seen from the centrality of the concept of taisʔan ‘relative’, which literally refers to a group of people from the same paternal lineage, but also includes good friends and anybody who is accepted in the group. In the absence of social classes, seniority was the primary determinant of a person’s status in the group. Elders played a crucial role in passing on traditions to younger generations, in enforcing social rules, and in interpreting prophetic dreams. It was – and still is – considered very bad form to treat the elders of the community with disrespect and up to this day, children are taught to be respectful and obedient to everybody older than them, whatever their family relationship. Conversely, raising children was seen as the responsibility not only of the parents but of all senior members (including older children) in the village.

Bunun personal names consist of a first name and one or two family names (the second referring to the family and the first to a subgroup within that family). In recent times, some people tried to promote the habit of adding the clan name (in the case of my informants usually Takivatan), but since it is usually clear to which clan a family belongs, clan names are almost never expressed. Interestingly, there are only a limited number of first names in Bunun, which are handed down from the paternal male or female relatives to sons and daughters respectively in order of seniority. The oldest son will get the first name of his paternal grandfather, the second son of his oldest paternal uncle, the third of the second-oldest paternal uncle, and so on. If all male candidates on the father’s line are exhausted, the naming system skips over to the maternal grandfather. Daughters are named according to an analogous system starting from the paternal grandmother. In pre-Christian times, the first name of a person was changed by a shaman in case of life-threatening illness in order to deflect the evil influence of a disease, and some people over sixty still have two first names. Family names are inherited in the paternal line. They indicate the family’s lineage and either refer to an illustrious common ancestor or to a location associated with the family. For instance, one of the more famous family names within the Takivatan clan, Tanapima, is derived from the prefix tana- ‘at the side of’ and Pima, a male first name, and probably refers to a group of people that at a decisive point in Bunun history sided with Pima or lived in the neighbourhood of Pima’s house.

The family name of both father and mother played an important role in determining a potential marriage partner, since Bunun are prohibited from marrying anybody that was related to them until the third degree on mother’s or father’s side to prevent inbreeding. Marriages were normally agreed upon by the parents and older brothers of the two parties, and girls generally wedded into their husband’s family, sometimes from a very young age on. Marriage scenarios in which eight-year olds were sent to their future husband’s home and raised by him and his family till they reached an appropriate age, are not uncommon among the elderly women in Ma-Yuan village.

All the above is a sketch of traditional Bunun life as it was before modernity and Christianity made their entrance. The twentieth century has radically transformed all Taiwanese ethnic groups, even though the Bunun, and especially the Takivatan, have always been quite conservative in comparison to other indigenous tribes and many values and customs still survive in some form today.

1.2.4.Modern Bunun society

The earliest recollection the Takivatan have of their own migration history is that somewhere at the beginning of the twentieth century, a sizeable group amongst them decided to leave their former homes in the mountains of Nantou and go to the County Hualien on the other side of the Central Mountain Range that crosses Taiwan from north to south. The elders of Ma-Yuan still fondly recall how in 1931 the final and largest troop of settlers crossed the impenetrable Central Mountain Range in only five days, on foot and carrying their children on their backs. In accordance with the wishes of Japanese authorities, the migrants settled in Liliq, a now-abandoned settlement on the mountain slopes three kilometers south of Ma-Yuan village. According to Palalavi (2006) this was the last of a number of movements of Takivatan that had started at the end of the 17th century, but the earlier groups were much smaller. It is certain that Bunun hunters already knew the site from their long hunting expeditions throughout the interior of Taiwan. The Takivatan were not the first settlers in the area: the Amis tribe had a number of settlements in the nearby plains and the Atayal were living on the mountain slopes north of Ma-yuan.

The Takivatan settlement in Bunun was concentrated around the Japanese police post and school, and all Takivatan children were compelled to receive Japanese education. The Takivatan became de facto second-class citizens of the Japanese empire and were subject to the severe colonial government for the next decades. However, Japanese strictness brought advantages and, strange as it may seem, some of the older people remember the period with some nostalgia. After countless ages of tribal warfare, the Japanese brought law-and-order, started infrastructure works, and greatly improved sanitation and medical standards. All in all, living conditions for the Takivatan improved drastically. Agriculture became increasingly important in the lives of the Takivatan. The Japanese introduced wet rice culture and over the next decades white rice would gradually replace millet and yams as a main food source. Hunting was severely restricted, mainly because the Japanese wanted to control the use of fire arms. However, it was too deeply ingrained in the cultural awareness of the Bunun and even today many Bunun men proudly call themselves hunters.

The beginning of the twentieth century brought another major change to Takivatan society with the arrival of a new wave of Christian missionaries. While animism was still dominant in the first two decades of the 20th century, almost all Takivatan would be gradually converted to either Roman Catholicism or the Presbyterian Church. While it goes beyond doubt that Christianity was a deathblow for traditional religion and culture, the missionaries incorporated some elements of traditional culture in their local religious practices and, in strong contrast with the Japanese and especially the Kuomintang government, churches in Taiwan have always been staunch protectors and supporters of the aboriginal languages. At present, all aboriginal churches in Taiwan are fully indigenized and work with local people and in the local language. At the time of writing, almost all Bunun in Ma-Yuan village either belong to the Bunun Presbyterian Church (布農基督長老會) or to the Catholic Church (at a 50/50 ratio). Qi-Mei only has a Presbyterian church, as does Dong-guang.

The last century has radically transformed Bunun society. Under the military dictatorship of the Kuomintang and later under Taiwan’s democratic governments, the Bunun – as with most aboriginal groups – became gradually modernized, but this happened much more slowly than one might have expected. Even 15 years ago, there were still people in Ma-yuan who lived in bamboo houses, although at present most new buildings are made of concrete and stone or of the typical Taiwanese mix of concrete, wood and corrugated iron. All people have access to electricity, cable television, telephone, the mobile phone network and high-speed internet, and most families have their own car.

Nevertheless, there are still many social disparities between Bunun and other aboriginal groups on the one hand and mainstream Taiwanese society on the other. According to Wen et al. (2004), for example, the average life expectancy at birth for a person living in an aboriginal village was still considerably lower than that of the general Taiwanese population (an average difference of 13.5 years for males, 8.4 years for females), despite a considerable increase over the preceding two decades. The same study found that infant mortality was about twice as high as in the general population. In most aboriginal villages, alcoholism has in recent decades grown into a serious problem. There are indications that this situation has somewhat been changing in recent years, as more and more young people have access to higher education, churches have started to put health issues on their agenda, and governments and medical institutions have gone to great lengths to bring healthcare into the villages and educate the general population.

The Bunun have become part of modern society and many aspects of their traditional culture have disappeared or changed beyond recognition. In search of better job opportunities or higher education, many people have moved to the cities in recent decades. This has considerably increased their standard of living, but it also meant that they came into close contact with the Sinitic population of Taiwan and that their culture and language has further eroded. Despite this flight to the cities, many Bunun maintain close bonds with their village of origin and all Bunun villages in Hualien are almost mono-ethnic. Bunun and other aborigines living in rural settings have a tendency to remain culturally and socially distinct from the surrounding Sinitic population. This is partly a relic of the politics of segregation in the past, partly also a result of an almost inborn distrust of the Sinitic groups, after centuries of conflict and strained relationships, and partly because of the relatively large proportion of mono-ethnic marriages.

1.3.The Takivatan Bunun language

1.3.1.Austronesian languages in Taiwan

The Bunun language is one of the Austronesian languages spoken on the island of Taiwan. The Taiwanese government currently recognizes fourteen population groups, but more languages are still in existence and a lot more are known to us from the historical records. Below is a list of languages that commonly comes up in the literature; data on some of the extinct languages is often scarce or non-existent and their status as separate languages is sometimes in dispute. Some linguists are inclined to classify Truku as a dialect of Sediq and in the past both would be considered to be dialects of Atayal, although it has been argued that Sediq and Atayal are quite distinct from each other. Similarly, The Sakizaya language was previously classified as the Nataoran dialect of Amis, but it has recently been argued that the two are in fact separate languages.

These languages are often commonly referred to as Formosan languages, although there is quite some doubt as to whether they should be grouped together in a single Formosan language group or just be considered as individual branches on the Austronesian language tree. Except for the Yami language, which is refered to as Tao by its speakers and is related to the Batanic languages spoken in the Northern Philippines (see Rau & Dong (2006)), the Austronesian languages of Taiwan are in all likelihood the oldest remaining descendants of Proto-Austronesian.

Amis*

Makatao‡

Seediq*

Atayal*

Paiwan*

Siraya†

Babuza / Favorlang‡

Pazeh‡

Taivoan‡

Basay‡

Popora‡

Tao / Yami*

Bunun*

Puyuma*

Taokas‡

Hoanya‡

Qautqaut‡

Thao*

Kanakanabu†

Rukai*

Trobiawan‡

Kavalan†

Saaroa†

Tsou*

Ketagalan‡

Saisiyat*

Truku / Taroko*

Liulang‡

Sakizaya*

(*: officially recognized / †: moribund (less than 10 speakers) / ‡: extinct)

Table 3 – List of Formosan languages

Attempts to classify the Formosan languages often focus on the wider context of the Austronesian language family (an overview of a number of influential classifications up to 1995 can be found in Tryon (1995)). The present consensus among most scholars is that the Austronesian languages of Taiwan belong to a number of first-order subgroups of proto-Austronesian, although the debate continues about the exact number of subgroups, their internal relationships, and their relationship to the rest of the Austronesian family. One of the most influential classifications is Blust (1999), who, based on shared phonological innovations, posits that the Formosan languages constitute nine subgroups at the trunk of the Austronesian language tree, the tenth being the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian branch that was the source of all other Austronesian languages.

Figure 2 – Classification of Formosan languages according to Blust (1999).

Blust indicates that classifications like that cannot be more than an approximation of historical reality, but his main point is that the Formosan languages constitute a disproportionately large number of primary sub-branches of the Austronesian language tree and that there is little evidence for the existence of higher-order nodes and especially not for a hypothetical Proto-Formosan branch which would subsume all Austronesian languages in Taiwan as a separate subgroup of proto-Austronesian. He also believes that Proto-Malayo-Polynesian is a primary subbranch of Proto-Austronesian, in contrast with people like Starosta (1995), who had tried to argue – mainly on the basis of morphosyntactic evidence – that what is called the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup might actually be the result of a number of Formosan migrations to the Philippines.

Figure 3 –Classification of Formosan languages according to Li (2006)

Li (2006) accepts some of Blust’s conclusions, but objects that Blust only takes into account phonological evidence and is sceptical that proto-Formosan would have immediately split up into nine basic subgroups. He tries to incorporate morphosyntactic data and ends up with a preliminary classification that is not unlike the one proposed by Starosta, with proto-Formosan reinstated as a hypothetical ancestor of all Taiwanese Austronesian languages (note that, like Blust, he explicitly states the preliminary nature of his classification).

Various other classifications have been attempted, some looking similar to the two above and others quite different. Given the relative scarcity of linguistic data on some of the Formosan languages and the fact that few or none of the classifications takes into account the sometimes considerable dialectal variation within some of the languages, it is not surprising that none can be considered definitive. Ross (1995a) has questioned the validity of a neat genetic classification for the Formosan problem and argues that it might be more appropriate to see the Formosan languages as some sort of dialect continuum or area.

He also correctly remarks that most reconstructions involving the comparative method do not – or only cursorily – take into account contact phenomena. This is problematic for the Austronesian languages of Taiwan, since they have been crammed into a very restricted geographical area for at least 5000 years and it is certain that there must have been a large amount of linguistic contact. The importance of contact becomes clearer if we consider that even in the last four centuries, many tribes have undertaken considerable migrations, sometimes leading to mixed tribal villages, and that tribes like the Bunun and the Atayal were traditionally semi-nomadic and swarmed out all over the island.

As far as it is useful now or in the future to cram all Formosan languages into a neat tree-shaped cabinet, we should probably refrain from trying to do so at the moment, given the present lack of evidence. All we can say today is that Formosan languages are Austronesian and that, with the exception of Yami, they are probably more closely related to each other than to other Austronesian languages outside Taiwan.

1.3.2.Bunun dialects

The Bunun language is traditionally subdivided in five distinct dialects (see Figure 4), corresponding to the five Bunun clans discussed in 1.2.1.[10]

Figure 4 – Subgrouping of Bunun dialects

Traditionally, the dialects are grouped into a northern, a central, and a southern dialect branch, as indicated above. This classification was made in Ogawa & Asai (1935), probably based on a combination of linguistic information and stories about the clan movements of the Bunun, although – as far as I am aware of – no extensive comparative study has so far been conducted to confirm or refute it (apart from the relatively concise Li (1988)).

Lexical, phonological and grammatical dialect differentiation is considerable and dialects are only to a certain degree mutually understandable. Most other clans are able to understand the Isbukun dialect, but this is mainly because it has developed to some extent into a super-dialectal standard and has been the major influence for two recent Bible translations. Isbukun speakers tend to have difficulties understanding other dialects.

A.Isbukun

Isbukun is the largest Bunun dialect and is spoken in the counties Kaohsiung and Taitung. Speakers indicate that there are substantial differences between the Isbukun dialects spoken in Taitung and Kaohsiung, probably due to the relative isolation of the Kaohsiung subgroup. Lexical, phonological and morphosyntactic divergences between Isbukun and the other four dialects are considerably larger than the mutual divergence between the other dialects. Lexical differences are manifold, but it would take us too far to go into detail. Some of the most striking phonological differences include:

•  Isbukun often has a uvular fricative /χ/ or zero in final and post-consonantal position and a glottal fricative /h/ in initial and intervocalic positions where Takivatan and Takbanuað have the uvular stop /q/.[11]

Isbukun Takbanuað Takivatan Takituduh Takibakha

bitvaχ bitvaq bitvaq bitvaq bitvaq ‘thunder’

dihanin diqanin diqanin diqanin diqanin ‘sky, heaven’

haisiŋ qaisiŋ qaisiŋ ? ? ‘rice, food’

•  Intervocalic glottal stops that are obligatory or optional in other dialects are often not present in Isbukun.

Isbukun Takbanuað Takivatan Takituduh Takibakha

mapais mapaʔis mapaʔis mapaʔis mapaʔis ‘bitter’

su suʔu / su suʔu / su suʔu suʔu ‘you’

•  On the other hand, Isbukun sometimes has a glottal stop where other dialects tend to have a glottal fricative /h/.

Isbukun Takbanuað Takivatan Takituduh Takibakha

luʔum luhum luhum luhum luhum ‘cloud’

ʔuknav huknav kuknav huknav huknav ‘leopard’

•  Isbukun often has /ʤ/ were Takbanuað and Takivatan have /t/.

Isbukun Takbanuað Takivatan

ʤina tina tina ‘mother’

aʤikis atikis atikis ‘small’

At present, a lack of accurate data means that we have no good overview about the exact morphological and syntactic differences between the various Bunun dialects, but there are marked morphological and syntactic differences between Isbukun on the one hand and Takivatan and/or Takbanuað on the other. Some of these are:

•  Isbukun has hai for left-dislocation marker, whereas Takivatan and Takbanuað have a. The exception is the Nantou variety of Isbukun, where both hai and a occur (cf. Zeitoun (2000:66)).

1. Isbukun: kasu hai maun haisiŋ

Takivatan: suʔu a maun qaisiŋ

2S.N LDIS eat rice

‘As for me, I am eating’ (constr.)

•  The pronominal paradigms of Isbukun and Takivatan are markedly different (as exemplified by kasu vs. suʔu in the example above) and Isbukun still appears to have a full set of bound personal pronouns, whereas Takivatan has lost the third-person forms. (No information is presently available for Takbanuað.)

•  Takivatan has an elaborate set of bound deictic markers on nouns and verbs (see 9, section 9.1). These are absent in Isbukun. (No information is presently available for Takbanuað.)

•  Isbukun has noun-phrase-initial particles a for marking subject and mas for marking oblique case (see Zeitoun (2000:70-72)). These are completely absent in Takivatan and Takbanuað.

B.Takbanuað and Takivatan

The central dialects Takbanuað and Takivatan are mainly spoken in geographically adjacent or partially overlapping regions in the counties Nantou and Hualien. They are closely related and are to a large degree mutually understandable. From my limited observations, I have not been able to distinguish systematic phonological differences between the two, but there are quite a number of lexical differences.

C.Takituduh and Takibakha

The northern dialects Takituduh and Takibakha are spoken in a small number of villages in the county Nantou. Both are in danger of imminent extinction due to the pressure of Takbanuað and Mandarin-Chinese, and Takibakha is almost entirely assimilated by Takbanuað. Unfortunately, we have very little information on either of the two dialects, but informants told me that they sound significantly different both from Isbukun and from the central dialects and that they are hardly understandable for outsiders. From the examples in Li (1988), I could extract one systematic phonological difference: Takituduh and Takibakha often have /ʤ/ were the three other dialects have /s/:

Isbukun Takbanuað Takivatan Takituduh Takibakha

las las las laʤ laʤ ‘red meat’

susu susu susu ʤuʤu ʤuʤu ‘breast’

1.3.3.Number of speakers and language fluency

Table 2 on page 70 indicates that the upper limit for the number of Takivatan speakers is lower than 1700. I already indicated above that this study will not include the Takivatan as it is spoken by approximately 100 people in villages in Nantou, because of the long interaction mainly with Takbanuað speakers. The remaining 1600 Takivatan live in the County Hualien, which means that they are unlikely to have undergone a dialect shift to the Takbanuað dialect. There is no difference between the Takivatan dialect of Ma-Yuan and that of Qi-Mei.

Unfortunately, not all members of the Takivatan clan still speak their ancestral tongue. To get an indication of the number of fluent speakers, one has to take into account several social factors such as age and education. As far as I know, there are no monolingual speakers of Takivatan (or Bunun in general) anymore. In Ma-yuan and Qi-mei, only some elders over eighty have no knowledge of Mandarin-Chinese at all and use Takivatan as their main means of communication. However, most grew up during the Japanese occupation and where therefore educated in Japanese.

People between 50 and 75 were usually educated in Mandarin, but would still only have spoken Takivatan at home and would generally not have had the opportunity to move out of the village in search of a better job. As a result, they speak their mother tongue fluently, although most might use a mixture of Bunun and Mandarin, even among family and friends. The population group between 40 and 50 is worse off and a significant portion will use Mandarin when speaking with peers, although they are usually able to converse in Bunun with elders.

It is rare for people in the age group between 30 and 40 to consistently use Bunun in conversations with peers, although they might still speak it at home with their parents and other elders. Fluency in Bunun among this class varies. I have met thirty-year-olds than can still hold a complex conversation in Bunun (although their language is usually impoverished), but other people – especially those that are higher educated – might only have a passive knowledge of Bunun. The youngest generations have no active knowledge of their ancestral tongue anymore, except for some isolated vocabulary and simple sentences. They exclusively use Mandarin-Chinese in daily conversation and have little interest in the language of their parents and grandparents. Depending on how language fluency is exactly defined, I would estimate that not more than fifty to sixty-five percent of the Takivatan have still an active knowledge of their dialect.

There are no official figures on the number of Bunun speakers in general. If we accept that competence in the native tongue per age group for the Bunun language as a whole is similar to that of the Takivatan dialect, we can assume that there are presently between 25,000 and 32,500 Bunun speakers left. This might be an optimistic estimate, since in comparison to the Takivatan villages in Hualien, many other Bunun settlements are geographically less isolated and culturally less conservative.

1.4.A typological profile of Takivatan

1.4.1.Phonology

Takivatan Bunun has four phonemic vowels /i e u a/. These can occur in six vowel combinations that on a phonetic level often behave like diphthongs but are distinct phonemes from a morphological and phonotactic point-of-view (see 2). There are seventeen consonants: the plosives /p t k q ʔ/, the implosives /ɓ ɗ/ (represented in the examples below as <b d>), the nasals /m n ŋ/, the fricatives /v ð s h/, an affricate /ʤ/ and a lateral /l/. Apart from rare instances of vowel contraction and deletion and, even more rarely, of metathesis or epenthesis, very few morpho-phonemic processes occur. There are three dominant types of reduplication. Stem-reduplication and word-initial CV-reduplication occur frequently, while word-initial Ca-reduplication is more uncommon. In general, words have penultimate word stress. Takivatan Bunun is uncommon compared to other Bunun dialects in that it tends to have rising intonation even in declarative clauses.

1.4.2.Morphology and syntax

Takivatan Bunun is an agglutinative language and is predominantly head-marking. As in all Bunun dialects, most of its morphological complexity is on the verb and I have so far recorded more than 250 distinct verbal affixes, the vast majority of which (over 200) are prefixes. The rest is a mixture of suffixes, infixes and circumfixes.

There are three open word classes: nouns, verbs, and adjectives. The latter can be analysed a subclass of stative verbs. There is a larger number of closed word classes, including pronouns, prepositions, question words, numerals, discourse markers, and conjunctive particles. Apart from the discourse markers and the conjunctive particles, most other word classes can be defined in terms of how nominal or verbal they are and most lexical items in Takivatan can occur as the head of arguments or predicates or – more commonly – both. There is no class of adverbs. Concepts that are in a language like English typically expressed by adverbs (time, manner, degree, similarity, etc.), many temporal, aspectual and modal concepts, and also negation are in Takivatan and other Bunun dialects expressed by a large class of auxiliary verbs. At the moment, it is not clear whether auxiliaries form an open or a closed word class.

2. Daukdaukʔas mudadan!

{daukdauk}AUX[-ʔas]AG {mu-‹da›dan}

slowly-2S.F ALL-‹REP›-go

‘You have to go slowly.’ (i.e. ‘you have to drive slowly when you go.’)

3. Muqnaŋ sak laupaku taquki […]

{muqna-aŋ}AUX [sak]AG [laupaku]TIME {taqu-ki}

next-PROG 1S.F now tell-DEF.SIT.PROX

‘And next I will tell [a little bit about how my life was in the old days.]’ (TVN-006-001:2)

As has been observed for many Austronesian languages (see e.g. Himmelmann (2006) on Tagalog or Gil (1994) on Riau Indonesian), word class distinctions are rather fluid in Takivatan. It is for instance possible for words that one would think of as nominal to occur in verbal slots or vice versa.

Takivatan has a free and a bound paradigm of personal pronouns, four distinct demonstrative paradigms, and a separate marker sia for general anaphoric reference, which can be used both in nominal and verbal slots (see 9.5). Personal pronouns distinguish between a 1st, 2nd and 3rd person in the singular and between a 1st inclusive, 1st exclusive, 2nd and 3rd person in the plural. Third person reference is often expressed by demonstrative pronouns or by the anaphoric marker, and third person personal pronouns are relatively uncommon.

Takivatan has verb-initial argument order and, like most Austronesian languages in Taiwan, an unusual argument alignment system that is often called a Phillipine-style voice system or a focus system (see 1.4.3below for a concise discussion, and 7.1.2 and 7.1.3 for a discussion of why prefixes are best not analysed as part of the focus system in Takivatan Bunun). There is a fairly productive system of topic left-dislocation with the marker a.

4. Akia mataðin.

[aki-a]AG {matað-in}

grandfather-LDIS die-PRV

‘Grandfather, he has died.’ (TVN-xxx-xx1:230)

Ellipsis, both of constituents and of affixes, occurs frequently, especially in information registers and in the right pragmatic context it is often possible to strip a clause of all its content except for the verbal root and still have a grammatical sentence. For instance, if all speech participants would be aware that the person talked about is grandfather in the above sentence, the same proposition could be expressed simply as Matað. Only personal pronouns are marked for case. The syntactic status of all other noun phrases is indicated by their position in the clause or by pragmatic inference.

There is a generic complement clause marker tu, which is used by complement-taking verbs, such as verbs of speech and thought, and also occurs with some auxiliaries.

5. Tupa tu naʔasa maupata

{tupa} tu C1|COMPL {na-asa}AUX {maupa-ta}AUX

say COMPL IRR-must thus-DEF.REF.DIST

‘And he said: “You have to do it like that.”’ (TVN-012-001:32)

6. Asa tu mananulu miqumis

{asa}AUX tu {ma-nanulu}AUX {m-iqumis}

must COMPL STAT-attentive DYN-live

‘You have to live attentatively.’ (TVN-013-001:3)

Causative and purposive complementation strategies do not require any overt marking and are typically realized as serial verb constructions. Adjectives and stative verbs can also occur in serial verb constructions.

7. Itaʔina kidŋain minpantu

{ita-in-a} SUBORD1|C2 {kitŋa-in}AUX {min-pantu}

there-PRV-SUBORD start-PRV BECOME-student/study

‘When we had arrived there, we became students (or: we started to study)’ (TVN-008-002:14)

The two prevalent clause linking mechanisms in Takivatan are apposition, often in combination with time auxiliaries, and the subordination marker a, which is mainly used for temporal clauses expressing anteriority. An example of the latter is given in 1.4.2.

1.4.3.Argument alignment

As mentioned above, Takivatan has a Philippine-style focus system and is typically verb-initial. This thesis will assume that argument alignment in Takivatan cannot be reduced to either a nominative-accusative or an ergative-absolutive system (contrary to the approaches of Liao (2004) and Ross & Teng (2005)). I think I have solid arguments for such an approach, but unfortunately time and space limitations mean that it is not possible to work them out in detail within the scope of this dissertation. Note that the term ‘focus’ does in this work not refer to the concept of pragmatic focus as it is used in many branches of modern linguistics, but goes back to an old tradition in Austronesian linguistics and refers to a system of verbal affixes that is used in many Austronesian languages of Taiwan and the Philippines to cross-refer to a set of syntactic-semantic participant roles associated with the verb.

Takivatan Bunun distinguishes three focus types: agent focus (AF), undergoer focus (UF; includes patient, beneficiary and instrument), and locative focus (LF). Focus is marked on the verb by suffixes, -Ø for AF, -un for UF and -an for LF (see 6 for an elaborate discussion). One example for each focus type is given in 1.4.3-1.4.3below.

8. Siða malŋaŋausta maduqta.

{siða-Ø} [malŋaŋaus-ta]AG [maduq-ta]UN

take-AF shaman-DEF.REF.DIST millet-DEF.REF.DIST

‘The shaman took millet.’ (adapted from TVN-012-001:69)

9. Siðaʔun asik.

{siða-un} [asik]UN

take-UF shrub

‘they gathered the shrubs’ (adapted from TVN-012-001:24)

10. Maqtu pasiðaʔanin ŋabul, vanis.

{maqtu pa-siða-ʔan-in} [ŋabul vanis]UN

can CAUS.DYN-take-LF-PRV antler wild.boar

‘We could [in that place] catch deer and wild boar.’ (TVN-008-002:47)

I will discuss in 7 why I do not analyse certain prefixes, such as INSTR is-, as belonging to the focus system (see especially 7.1.2-7.1.3). Focus marking on the verb cross-references the pragmatically most prominent argument in a clause. We will say that this argument is in focus and call it the focused participant. This participant may or may not be explicitly expressed and, in fact, the focused participant is commonly omitted because it can often be inferred from the context. This is clear from 1.4.3, where the verb has a locative focus marker, but the locative argument is not expressed because it is clear in the story where the hunters wanted to go to catch deer and boar.

All arguments that have the potential to be cross-referenced by focus suffixes are core arguments of the verb, in the sense that they are constituents in a clause that are seen as required by a verb (cf. Matthews (2005:24)). Only core arguments can be topicalized with the left-dislocation marker a. Interestingly, this means that locative participants are also core arguments of the verb, since they can be cross-referenced on the verb (see 1.4.3above) and it is grammatically possible – though relatively rare – to left-dislocate them. This happens in the example below, where kahaŋ ‘grass’ is the topicalized locative argument of saduan ‘see’.

11. Kahaŋa ma nei saduan

[kahaŋ-a]LO ma {ni}AUX {sadu-an}

high.grass-LDIS INTER NEG see-LF

‘In the high grass, I did not see [the deer] there.’ (TVN-008-002:201)

In contrast, other locative phrases are peripheral constituents that do not belong to the intrinsic valency of the verb and are therefore not core arguments. In Takivatan, place, time and manner phrases (PTM phrases) belong to this category. For instance, peripheral place phrases accompanying locative verbs are always peripheral arguments: they cannot be cross-referenced on the verb with LF -an and they cannot be left-dislocated with LDIS -a, as the examples below illustrate.

12. (a) munhanin ʔasaŋta

{mun-han-in} [ʔasaŋ-ta]PLACE

ALL-go-PRV village-DEF.REF.DIST

‘[The people] had gone to the village.’ (TVN-012-002:28)

(b) * mun-han-an-in asaŋ-ta

ALL-go-LF-PRV village-DEF.REF.DIST

(c) * ʔasaŋ-a mun-han-in

village-LDIS ALL-go-PRV

Free personal pronouns distinguish between a neutral form and a focused agent form. The neutral form marks (1) focused and non-focused undergoers, (2) non-focused agents, (3) left-dislocated arguments, and (4) possessors in post-nominal positions (see 9.2). Below are examples with the neutral forms su and suʔu of the second person singular (there are no examples in the corpus of a left-dislocated second person singular).

13. 2S.N suʔu = focused undergoer:

Antalamun ðaku suʔu

{antalam-un} [ðaku]AG [suʔu]UN

answer-UF 1S.N 2S.N

‘I answer you.’

14. 2S.N su = non-focused undergoer:

Maðimaʔak su.

{maðima}[-ʔak]AG [su]UN

like-1S.F 2S.N

‘I like you.’ (TVN-xx2-007:58)

15. 2S.N suʔu = non-focused agent:

Duq ludaqun suʔu?

duq {ludaq-un} [suʔu]AG

whether hit-UF 1S.N

‘Did you maybe/by any means hit it?’ (TVN-xx2-001:97)

16. 2S.N su = post-nominal possessor:

Lumaq su

[lumaq su]

house 2S.N

‘your house’ (TVN-xx2-004:11)

If there is a single bound pronoun on a verb, it typically marks the focused agent, as 1S -ʔak does in 1.4.3above. The only systemic exception is the form -uk, which marks non-focused first person agents in undergoer focus constructions. Very exceptionally, two bound pronouns are stacked onto the same verbal root. In these cases, the first normally refers to the agent and the second to the undergoer.

17. Nadasukʔas han daiða.

{na-das}[-uk][-ʔas] [han daiða]PLACE

carry-1S.NFA-2S to over.there

‘I take you to that place.’ (TVN-xx2-005:20)

The syntactic function of other arguments is determined by their position in the clause and by pragmatic inference. For free noun phrases, the unmarked constituent order is typically as below (although it is not uncommon for the locative argument to move to a position closer to the verb, i.e. to the left):

Agent – Beneficiary/Instrument – Patient – Location

However, it is very uncommon that more than one free noun phrase argument occurs on a single predicate and it is almost impossible to express more than two arguments on the same verb. Two or more arguments can more easily occur when one is a bound pronoun or when one is left-dislocated. An example of the former can be found in 1.4.3; speakers would find it awkward if -ʔak would here be replaced by a free form equivalent sak.

18. Namasaivʔak aiŋkun tilas.

{na-ma-saiv}[-ʔak]AG [aiŋkun]UN:BEN [tilas]UN:PAT

IRR-DYN-give-1S DEM.PV.MED cereal

‘I want to give them rice.’ (TVN-xx2-003:52)

In complex predicates, the agentive argument is often not expressed on the main verb but on a preceding auxiliary; in some instances, this is also a mechanism to reduce the argument complexity on any single verb.

19. Aupa nakitŋa sak laupaku baðbað tu [...]

aupa {na-kitŋa}AUX [sak]AG [laupaku]TIME {baðbað} tu C1|COMP

thus IRR-start 1S.F now talk COMPL

‘And thus I will start now to tell [how the Bunun came into existence...]’ (TVN-012-001:10)

1.5.Existing literature on Bunun

Taking into account the special status of the Formosan languages as the oldest relics of Proto-Austronesian, it is surprising that relatively little research has been done on some of them; even less is available to the international linguistic community. As far as I know, no publications on the Takivatan dialect are readily available to the linguistic community, although Li (1988) mentions the dialect in his article-length comparative study of the five Bunun dialects. Duris (1987) is a Bunun-French word list of Takivatan as it is spoken in Ma-Yuan, but it has never been published.

There is some material generally available on the other Bunun dialects. During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, a number of researchers developed an interest in the indigenous people of Taiwan. A number of publications on Bunun appeared, all in Japanese and none easily available.

A.Vocabularies

A number of Bunun vocabularies were produced by Japanese researchers. Nihira (1988) compiled them into a useful English translation. Unfortunately the work was privately published, spread only in a small circle of researchers and is now certainly not available to the general public. Two French Catholic missionaries who lived in Ma-Yuan with the Takivatan produced Bunun-French word lists (Flahutez (1970) and Duris (1987)). Both works are only available as manuscripts.

B.Text collections

During the Japanese occupation, Ogawa & Asai (1935) published a groundbreaking collection of texts from various aboriginal groups preceded by a short linguistic introduction. It includes 77 pages of interlinearized Bunun texts from the Takbanuað, Takivatan, Takibakha and Isbukun dialects with Japanese translation and a short linguistic introduction to the language.

In recent years, a number of literary publications in Bunun have appeared. Two Bunun Bible translations have so far been published. I have no access to the oldest one, but general consent is that the quality of its translation was rather bad. The new Bunun Bible (Bible Society (2000)) is a very handsome translation of the entire New Testament and a selection of the Old Testament in a simplified version of the Isbukun dialect. Its language is somewhat removed from spoken Isbukun, but it is influential among Protestant Christians, who make up at least 50% of the Bunun population.

An amazing piece of work is Lin et al. (1998), a story collection of more than 450 pages in Isbukun Bunun with informal glosses and translations in Mandarin Chinese. These texts are now available as a part of the Formosan language archive, which aims at compiling a comprehensive text corpus of Austronesian languages in Taiwan (Academia Sinica (2007)). At the moment, these are the only texts available for Bunun.

A number of publications with Bunun song texts are available. Lin (1998) is most interesting here, not only because it is the best edited volume, but also because it records songs of the Takbanuað and Takivatan from the County Hualien and Nantou. All songs have musical notation and Bunun and Chinese texts. Lin (1997), by the same author, is a similar collection with songs of all but the Takivatan dialect. Linguistically less interesting is Lin (1999). It contains a rather random set of Bunun proverbs and songs, some of the latter only in Chinese translation.

C.Phonology

Li (1987) published a study of pre-glottalized stops in all five Bunun dialects. Li (1988) is a short comparative study of the phonology of the five Bunun dialects. In recent years, Hui-chuan Huang published a number of detailed phonological studies, all in the framework of optimality theory (Huang (2004a); Huang (2004b); Huang (2005a); Huang (2005b); Huang (2006) and Huang (2008)). They are mainly about the Isbukun dialect, but the last publication also contains information on Takituduh Bunun.

D.Morphology and syntax

A larger variety of work has been published on Bunun morphology and syntax but up to this date Jeng (1977) is the only linguistic monograph on Bunun available in the English language. Jeng (1999) is an analysis of the Bunun tense and aspect system. It is a generative account of predicate-argument structure of the Takbanuað dialect. There are two descriptive sketch grammars of Bunun, Zeitoun (2000) and He et al. (1986), the former based on Takbanuað Bunun data and the latter on Isbukun Bunun. Both are in Mandarin Chinese, contain useful information, but are rather concise.

Nojima (1996) is an often-quoted article on anticipation of prefixes on auxiliaries preceding the main verb, which I discuss in section 7.12. Lin et al. (2001) is a book-length work in Mandarin on the morphology of Isbukun Bunun as spoken in the county Kaohsiung, but contains not much more than a superficial overview of reduplicative patterns and affixes with examples. Zeng (2006) is an article, also in Mandarin, also on Isbukun Bunun, and much in the same vein as the previous work.

Li & Mahasang (1990) is an article in Mandarin on the derivational functions of the locative focus suffix -an. As the two previous articles, it is rather short and superficial.

E.Cultural and anthropological descriptions

Especially in recent years, a number of cultural and anthropological descriptions of the Bunun people or some aspects of their culture have appeared. Useful for historical linguistic research is Palalavi (2006), which is written in Chinese and contains amongst other things a very thorough overview of the clan migrations of the Bunun. An English-language publication on the social structure of traditional Bunun society is Huang (1995b). Chung (2002) is an anthropological study of a Bunun village school and its struggle to integrate traditional knowledge into the curriculum.

Here is not the place for a comprehensive overview of all popular descriptions of the Bunun people. As far as I am aware, all are written in Mandarin Chinese and there is a considerable overlap of content between many publications. During the last two decades, some educational materials in Bunun have been published, but most are for primary school and none go beyond basic vocabulary and simple sentences.

1.6.Research methodology

1.6.1.Fieldwork

The research on which this work is based was conducted between June 2005 and April 2009 while based at the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University, Australia. All data was collected in Ma-Yuan and Qi-Mei village during two long field trips in Taiwan, the first one from October 2005 till August 2006 and the second from October till December 2007.

I spent the first month of the first field trip (October 2005) in Pasikau (台東縣海端鄉桃源村), an Isbukun Bunun village in the county Taitung, trying to get in touch with the Takivatan community and recording some Isbukun data. For the remaining nine months of the trip, I lived with a Takivatan family in Ma-yuan village (花蓮縣萬榮鄉馬遠村), but I made regular trips to Qi-mei village (花蓮縣瑞穗鄉奇美村), where there was another Takivatan community. Since all Bunun dialects are in steady decline and younger generations exclusively use Mandarin-Chinese, real language immersion was impossible, but after a while older people found it appropriate to speak Bunun to me. During this first fieldtrip I mainly focused on eliciting a vocabulary list, recording real-world texts, and interlinearizing some of the texts with the help of my informants.

The main part of my second fieldtrip in 2007 was spent on interlinearizing and interpreting a number of other texts and on the elicitation of examples concerning grammatical problems that had arisen when writing a first draft of this thesis. I also spent a considerable amount of time generating a first draft of a Takbanuað Bunun vocabulary, with the help of Iluŋ Naŋavulan (F; 53 y.) a Takbanuað Bunun informant who lived near Hualien.

My main Takivatan informants during the two field trips were:

1. Vau Taisnunan, male, 75 y.

2. Tulbus Manququ, male, 75 y.

3. Uli Ululuŋku, female, 65 y.

4. Liban Tanapima, male, 65 y.

5. Maia Istanda, female, ± 75 y.

6. Tiaŋ Istasipal, male, ±45 y.

7. Pasuq Manququ, male, 42 y.

The majority of the recordings used in this work are by Vau, Tulbus and Uli. Group recordings were made in Qi-mei church and by the Taisnunan family. Uli and Liban have been of great help in generating an initial word list, but many others in Ma-yuan and Qi-mei have contributed as well. Most of the linguistic interpretation and translations were done with the help of Vau, my father-in-law and main informant, Tiaŋ, Maia and Pasuq.

1.6.2.Data recording

Audio recordings were made with a high-definition MiniDisc device (Sony Hi-MD RZ-MH10) in an uncompressed wave format (PCM wave at 1411kbps, 44.1kHz, 16 bits). In most cases, I used a study-grade recording microphone (Røde NT3), although for some recordings a smaller semi-professional microphone (Sony EMC-MS907) was used. Before or after each recording, informants were asked for oral permission to disseminate the audio data and were informed that:

1. The data would be disclosed to third parties.

2. They have the right to revoke their permission or alter its conditions at any time.

3. If they revoked their permission, the data would be destroyed.

4. They could ask for copies of the recordings at any time and use them as they saw fit.

In the case of group recordings, the main actor was asked for permission. None of the informants had any problems with a full disclosure of the recorded material. All recordings have an associated introductory file containing basic metadata and information about permissions of use.

At the end of a field trip, a number of copies of the recordings were given to the informants and the village. After the completion of this research, all recorded material will be freely available for non-commercial purposes, with the exception of (1) material that would violate the privacy of any of the parties involved and (2) songs, which will only be released with explicit permission of the performers or their representatives.

1.6.3.Fieldwork methodology

For learning the language and interpreting the data, I largely relied on a handful of largely elderly informants (see 1.6.1). The first two months in the village were mainly spent on constructing a base vocabulary. Afterwards I started working on recorded material. I followed a fixed procedure:

•  The recorded material was transcribed and interlinearized, and a partial translation was produced.

•  The transcription was presented to an informant. He or she was asked to translate or explain the text and problematic words and constructions into Mandarin Chinese. Notes on grammar are added.

•  New vocabulary was entered into the vocabulary database for future interlinearizations. The partial translation and notes from the informants are consolidated and a full translation is produced. Notes on grammar are added.

•  The second and third step was repeated once or twice until the quality of the transcription was satisfying.

During most vocabulary and grammar elicitation sessions, I used both Takivatan and Mandarin-Chinese, except for the recording sessions, which were obviously in Takivatan Bunun. A number of general principles were adhered to:

•  Except for some of the initial vocabulary elicitation sessions, I always translated from Bunun to Mandarin and never the other way around. As far as I am concerned, direct elicitation from a helper language into the language of study is only reliable and useful for the translation of individual lexemes referring to concrete concepts for which synonymy is restricted.

•  Informants were asked to improvise and given as much creative freedom as possible. Even in the case of vocabulary sessions, I found it most productive to engage in some kind of role play, of the kind: “If you meet a friend in the street, how would you talk to each other?” Such an approach makes the outcome of individual sessions unpredictable, but it prevents data from getting skewed towards the researcher’s expectation patterns and in the end, serendipity will produce most of the necessary data anyway.

1.6.4.Language description

The analyses in this work are all inspired by the general descriptive framework of basic linguistic theory (see Dixon (to appear) and Dryer (2006)) and has also profited from the principles laid out in Payne (1997). This implies that as much as possible I have tried to work largely inductively, on the basis of real-world textual data, and without making prior assumptions about the language. Also importantly, my description of Takivatan is solely based on primary data that I myself have gathered. I have tried not to use linguistic data from other researchers, except for comparison with my own. For writing the grammar, I mainly rely on the following language materials:

•  Recorded material; this is the main part of the language material in the grammar. Below is the list of texts that were used as a stable core for analysis.

Descriptor

Title

Narrator

Length

TVN-003-xxx

Tina Uli introduces herself

Uli Ululuŋku

08:01

TVN-006-xxx

Bunun eating habits: past and present

Uli Ululuŋku

09:55

TVN-008-001

The Life of Vau, Introduction

Vau Taisnunan

05:35

TVN-008-002

The Life of Vau, Part 1

Vau Taisnunan

45:30

TVN-008-003

The Life of Vau, Part 2

Vau Taisnunan

49:19

TVN-012-001

On Bunun Customs

Tulbus Manququ

20:56

TVN-012-002

The Road from Nantou

Tulbus Manququ

29:28

TVN-012-003

How the Bunun became Christians

Tulbus Manququ

14:05

TVN-012-xxx

The Social Etiquette of the Bunun

Tulbus Manququ

04:39

Table 4 – List of texts used for grammatical analysis

•  Any example sentences that the informants produced in one of the interpretation sessions and that were not the result of translations from Mandarin Chinese.

•  Example sentences jotted down from daily conversations.

•  In situations where no easily interpretable examples were available, I have sometimes constructed examples or adapted existing examples. This is always indicated.

Except for lexicon construction, I have at all times avoided using material that is the result of direct translations from Mandarin into Takivatan Bunun.

1.6.5.Spelling conventions

The spelling in this work is not entirely conforming to the spelling conventions that the Taiwanese government has in recent years formulated to provide a uniform description of all Austronesian languages of Taiwan (see CIP (2005)). Discrepancies are minimal and mainly motivated by having a transparent phonetic notation for a general audience of linguists:

•  For the glottal stop, this work has <ʔ> where the official notation has <’>

•  For the voiced dental fricative, this work has <ð> where the official notation has <z>

•  For the velar nasal, this work has <ŋ> where the official notation has <ng>

•  For the voiced alveolar affricate, this work has <ʤ> where the official notation has <c>

Chapter 2.Phonology

This chapter gives an overview of Takivatan Bunun phonology. Section 2.1 gives an overview of Takivatan consonants and their allophonic variation. Two special subsections are reserved for the glottal stop (2.1.3) and consonant clusters (2.1.4). Section 2.2 discusses simple vowels and their allophones. In section 2.3, we will take a look at vowel sequences, their allophonic variants, and say something more about the possibility of inserting non-phonemic glottal stops into the sequence. Section 2.4 describes the syllable structure of roots and affixes in Takivatan. The final section discusses vowel length and word stress and gives an overview of morphophonemic processes occurring in Takivatan.

2.1.Consonants

2.1.1.Inventory

Takivatan Bunun has 17 phonemic consonants, all given in Table 5 below. All consonants listed below are indigenous to Takivatan, except for /ɡ/ and /ʤ/ which only occur in a small number of loan words, mainly from Isbukun Bunun and Japanese.

Bilabial

Labiodental

Dental

Alveolar

Velar

Uvular

Glottal

Plosive

p

t

k

(ɡ)

q

ʔ

Implosive

ɓ

ɗ

Nasal

m

n

ŋ

Fricative

v

ð

s

h

Affricate

(ʤ)

Lateral

l

Table 5 – Chart of phonemic consonants

Consonants make up slightly more than 50 percent of all phonemes realized in Takivatan real-world text. There is a marked difference between how individual consonants and consonant groups are represented (see last column of Table 6 and Figure 5a). When dividing the consonant inventory according to manner of articulation, voiceless plosives (38% of all consonants) and nasals (32%) are by far the two most commonly occurring groups of consonants. This changes when we look at individual consonants: the occurrences of /n/ constitutes more than 17% of consonants in an average text, followed by /t/ with almost 14%, and /m/ with slightly less than 12%. Together, these three constitute 43% of all appearances of consonants in Takivatan text. Especially for /n/ and /m/, their high occurrence can at least be partially explained by their occurrence in a small number of high-frequency affixes. The phoneme /n/ shows up in some of the most common suffixes in Takivatan: the undergoer focus form -un, the locative focus marker -an, perfective -in; /m/ occurs in the two homophonous prefixes ma- ‘dynamic verb markers’ and ma- ‘stative verb marker’ (see 7.5.1 and 7.5.2 for a discussion of both prefixes).

Figure 5 – Distribution of consonant types[12]

Looking at the place of articulation (Figure 5b), one can observe that alveolars (/t ɗ n s ʤ l/) make up almost half of the consonants realized in text, something that is not surprising given that they consist of seven distinct phonemes. Bilabials (/p ɓ m/) take up another 23%, which leaves only a bit more than a quarter of total realizations of consonants for labiodental, dental, velar, uvular and glottal consonants combined.

Table 6 gives an overview of all phonemic consonants in Takivatan Bunun, their place and manner of articulation, allophonic variation, graphemic representation, and (in the last column) their relative frequency in relation to the total occurrence of consonants in an average text (based on the same sample as Figure 5).

Articulation

Phoneme

Allophones

Graphemes

% in text[13]

Plosive

Bilabial

/p/

[p p̚]

<Pp>

8.79

Alveolar

/t/

[t d t̚]

<Tt>

13.77

Velar

/k/

[k k̚]

<Kk>

5.39

Velar voiced

/ɡ/

[ɡ]

<Gg>

0

Uvular

/q/

[q]

<Qq>

5.32

Glottal

/ʔ/

[ʔ]

<ʔʔ>

5.11

Implosive

Bilabial

/ɓ/

[ɓ β]

<Bb>

2.25

Alveolar

/ɗ/

[ɗ ɗ̚]

<Dd>

5.25

Nasal

Bilabial

/m/

[m]

<Mm>

11.72

Alveolar

/n/

[n]

<Nn>

17.45

Velar

/ŋ/

[ŋ]

<Ŋŋ>

2.73

Fricative

Labiodental

/v/

[v v̚]

<Vv>

1.77

Dental

/ð/

[ð ð̚]

<Ðð>

4.57

Alveolar

/s/

[s s̙ ʃ]

<Ss>

8.93

Glottal

/h/

[h x χ]

<Hh>

3.27

Affricate

Alveolar

/ʤ/

[ʤ]

< ʤʤ>

0

Lateral

Alveolar

/l/

[l ɬ l̚]

<Ll>

3.68

Table 6 – Consonant inventory, allophones and graphemic representation

2.1.2.Realization and allophony

All consonants except for the fricatives /s/ and /h/ and the plosives /q/ and /ʔ/ are typically unreleased in word-final position (/ʤ/ and /ɡ/ never occur in final position). This is illustrated in contrastive examples of four of the consonants above in final and intervocalic position (the left and right example respectively).

/p/: silup ‘intestine’ [ˈʃilup̚] ↔ Sipun ‘Japanese’ [ʃiˈpuːn]

/ɗ/: lapad ‘guava’ [ˈlapaɗ̚] ↔ madas ‘carry’ [ˈmaɗas]

/ð/: ivuð ‘snake’ [ˈivuð̚] ↔ ðaku ‘me’ [ˈðaku]

/l/: hiqul ‘back’ [ˈhiqul̚] ↔ halaŋ ‘disease’ [ˈhalaŋ]

As a result, the distinction between consonants with a similar place of articulation is less pronounced, or sometimes disappears almost completely in word-final positions, most notably between /t ɗ ð l/ and between /p v/. This is not only a problem for outsiders: native language speakers occasionally have problems identifying the correct underlying consonant in word-final position.

The velar plosive /ɡ/ is the only egressive plosive voiced stop in Takivatan. It has so far only been attested in the word Ingilis [ˈɪŋɡiliʃ], which is obviously an English loanword. All other plosives are typically voiceless.

Some speakers, however, have a tendency to voice instances of alveolar plosive /t/ in word-initial contexts where the syllable containing it receives word stress. The most common example is tama ‘father’, which can sometimes be realized as [ˈdama].

The uvular stop /q/ is not notable for the changes it undergoes, but rather for its influence on adjacent vowels (see 2.2, p. 124 onward). In contrast to most other plosives, /q/ is never pronounced unreleased when it occurs in word-final position (i.e. dalaq ‘ground’ is always pronounced [ɗalɑq], never [ɗalɑq̚]).

The glottal stop /ʔ/ is somewhat problematic in all Bunun dialects and will be discussed separately in 2.1.3 below.

Takivatan Bunun is unusual in that its two ‘indigenous’ voiced stops are both implosives (note again that /ɡ/ only occurs in loan words). The bilabial implosive /ɓ/ does not occur in word-final position and is relatively rare (it represents only 2.25% of all consonants realized in actual text). In a small number of intervocalic positions, it is sometimes realized as a bilabial voiced fricative. This variant has only been observed in the following two words:

20. Liban ‘male proper name’ [ˈliɓan] or [ˈliβan]

qabaŋ ‘blanket’ [ˈqaɓɑŋ] or [ˈqaβɑŋ]

The alveolar implosive /ɗ/ is considerably more common than /ɓ/. It shows no notable variation, except for the loss of release in final position.

The status of the two implosive stops /ɓ/ and /ɗ/ is somewhat problematic. They were first mentioned in Li (1987), who describes them as preglottalized stops, but admits that – unlike with true preglottalisation – they “require an almost simultaneous closure of the two points of articulation, the glottal plus another supraglottal closure” (Li (1987:381)). While it may be true that <b> and <d> are in some Bunun dialects realized as egressive preglottalized plosives (/ˀb ˀd/), their Takivatan correlates require simultaneous constriction of the glottis and closure of the mouth cavity and typically involve an ingressive airflow. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:84-5) indicate that in most languages, though not all, implosives involve some form of glottal restriction.

The realizations of the bilabial nasal /m/ and the velar nasal /ŋ/ are rarely problematic and do not involve any form of allophonic variation. Word-internally, the alveolar nasal /n/ is velarised to /ŋ/ before /k/ and /q/, as in the examples below.

21. sin-kuðakuða [ʃiŋkuðaˈkuða]

RES.OBJ-work

‘work to be done’

22. pin-qansiap [piŋqanˈʃiap̚]

CAUSE.BECOME-understand

‘make (somebody) understand’

The voiced labiodential fricative /v/ is one of the least-common consonants in actual texts, but occurs in slightly over 12% of all words in the Takivatan lexicon[14] (i.e. /v/ is more common in low-frequency words). It exhibits no notable variation, except for the unreleased allophone in word-final position. This is also the case with the more common dental fricative /ð/.

The alveolar fricative /s/ is the only consonant in Takivatan with allophonic variation conditioned by the vocalic environment. When followed by /i/, /s/ is consistently retracted and becomes a postalveolar /ʃ/.

23. ma-sihal ‘STAT-good’ [maˈʃihal̚], never [maˈsihal]

siŋki ‘lunatic’ [ˈʃinki], never [ˈsinki]

ma-pisiŋ ‘STAT-afraid’ [maˈpiʃiŋ], never [maˈpisiŋ]

When /i/ precedes /s/, a similar retraction can occur, but the degree to which this happens varies. In some words, as in the first example below, it is realised as a full-blown post-alveolar [ʃ], but typically retraction is much less pronounced than in /si/ sequences, leading to a lightly retracted [s̙]. In some cases, no retraction occurs at all.

24. iskan ‘fish’ [iʃˈkaːn] (normal retraction)

Valis ‘female proper name’ [ˈvalis̙] or [ˈvalis], never [ˈvaliʃ]

tis-hutan ‘harvest yams’ [tis̙hutan] or [tishutan]

Postalveolarization does not occur at morpheme boundaries with the stationary locative prefix ʔi- ‘at, in.’ It also does not happen with the locative question word ʔisaq, which from a synchronic viewpoint is monomorphemic, but might be traced back to an earlier Bunun form *ʔi-saq.

25. ʔi-san ‘be at’ [ʔiˈsaːn], never [ʔiˈʃaːn]

ʔi-saq ‘where’ [ˈʔisaq], never [ˈʔiʃaq]

Light retraction of /s/ to [s̙] sometimes occurs when it is preceded by /u/, as in:

26. lusʔan ‘holiday’ [ˈlusʔan], sometimes [ˈlus̙ʔan]

muskun ‘do together’ [ˈmus̙kun], sometimes [ˈmuskun]

ŋusul ‘nasal mucus’ [ˈŋus̙ul], sometimes [ˈŋusul]

The glottal fricative /h/ stands somewhat apart from other consonants in that its phonological realization can be conditioned by its location in the syllable. In syllable onsets, /h/ does not change.

27. munhan ‘go towards’ [mun.ˈhaːn]

banhil ‘cypress’ [ban.ˈhil̚]

hilav ‘door’ [ˈhi.lav̚]

On the rare occasions that /h/ appears in offset positions, it is normally realized as a velar (/x/) or a uvular fricative (/χ/).

28. laihlaih ‘car’ [ˈlɛiχlɛiχ], [ˈlɛixlɛix]

ahlutun ‘trail’ [aχˈlutun]

In some words, word-final /h/ remains unchanged or is dropped altogether.

29. matuah ‘open’ [maˈtuaχ], [maˈtuah], [maˈtua]

Takituduh ‘Bunun clan’ [takiˈtuɗuχ], [takiˈtuɗu]

This also happens in Takbanuað Bunun with the word laihlaih ‘car’, which is often pronounced [ˈlɛiχli].

The alveolar affricate /ʤ/ is not native to Takivatan Bunun and occurs in loanwords from Isbukun Bunun (first two examples) and Japanese (third example), which do have a native /ʤ/.

30. ʤulu ‘elder in the Presbyterian church’

ʤakaŋ ‘geographical name’

Tataʤiaŋ ‘proper name’

The alveolar lateral approximant /l/ is sometimes pronounced as [ɬ], but this is relatively uncommon (unlike some other Bunun dialects where it is typically realized like this) and subject to free variation.

31. luvluv ‘wind’ [ˈluv̚luv̚], rarely [ˈɬuv̚ɬuv̚]

malʔu ‘rest’ [malˈʔuː], rarely [maɬˈʔuː]

maqulpiq ‘fat’ [maˈqulpɪq], rarely [maˈquɬpɪq]

In word-final position, /l/ tends to drop its release phase, as many other consonants do.

32. haval ‘flying squirrel’ [ˈhaval̚]

kansul ‘grape’ [ˈkansul̚]

masihal ‘good’ [maˈsihal̚]

2.1.3.The glottal stop

The glottal stop /ʔ/ is problematic, because it has phonemic status in some environments but is a non-phonemic ligature in others. Its distinctive function as a phoneme can be attested in minimal pairs like the following:

33. ʔasaŋ ‘village’ ↔ asaŋ ‘be wanting’ < asa ‘want’ + -aŋ ‘PROG’

maʔmaʔ ‘tongue’ ↔ mama ‘carry on one’s back’

maðʔav ‘embarrassed’ ↔ maðav ‘how come!?’

A.Glottal stops in Cʔ or ʔC clusters

Root-internally, /ʔ/ is obviously a phoneme when it is flanked by a consonant. The glottal stop can occur both in VCʔV and VʔCV sequences, but the former is considerably more common than the latter. In these two environments it is clearly pronounced and obligatory (i.e. its omission consistently creates interpretative problems for native speakers).

34. isʔaŋ ‘breath (noun)’ malaʔnu ‘to punch’

lusʔan ‘holiday’ masuʔnuq ‘to hate’

B.Root-initial glottal stops

Root-initially, the situation is more complex, since vowel-initial free words are typically pronounced with a prothetic glottal stop. This makes it impossible to evaluate for isolated roots with an initial /ʔV/ sequence whether /ʔ/ is phonemic or an inserted prothesis. Contrast for instance the first two examples below, in which the glottal stop is a non-phonemic prothesis, with the last two, in which it is phonemic.

35. abuqan ‘(be) satiated’ [ʔaˈbuqan]

aupa ‘(be) thus’ [ˈʔaupa]

ʔita ‘be there (distal)’ [ˈʔita]

ʔasaŋ ‘home village’ [ˈʔasaŋ]

The distinction between phonemic and non-phonemic glottal stops in these instances only becomes clear at morpheme boundaries, when the roots are preceded by consonant-final prefixes. When prefixation by a consonant-final prefix preserves the glottal stop, this is an indication that it is phonemic, since there is no requirement for a non-phonemic glottal ligature in those contexts:

36. ʔita < mun-ʔita [munˈʔita]

ABL-there

‘go there’

37. ʔasaŋ < kat-ʔasaŋ [katˈʔasaŋ]

GRASP-village

‘erect a village’

When word-initial /ʔ/ is not obligatorily retained after a prefixal consonant, it must be non-phonemic prothesis.

38. abuqan < min-a-buqan [minaˈbuqan]

BECOME-STAT-satiated

‘become full’

39. aupa < min-aupa-ta [minˈaupata] or [minˈʔaupata]

BECOME-thus-DEF.REF.DIST

‘become like that’

In a number of cases, such as aupa above, the expression of /ʔ/ after a prefixal consonant is subject to free variation and it is therefore not possible to determine with certainty whether the glottal stop is a phoneme or a prothetic ligature.

The fact that vowel-initial words are consistently pronounced with a prothetic glottal stop led Li (1988:483) to the conclusion that Bunun has no vowel-initial words, which would imply that word-initial glottal stops are always phonemic. His assumption is inaccurate for three reasons. First, as I have demonstrated above, glottal constriction in word-initial position is only preserved in a subset of stems after consonant-final prefixes. In a language like Takivatan Bunun, in which environmentally conditioned consonant elision is non-existent, one would expect root-initial phonemic consonants to be retained in word-medial environments.

Secondly, glottalization of word-initial vowels is far from uncommon among the world’s languages, even in languages that do not have a phonemic glottal stop. Thirdly, there are some rare minimal pairs of glottal-stop-initial and vowel-initial words, for instance ʔasaŋ ‘village’ vs. asaŋ ‘be wanting’. Native speakers indicate that these two words ‘sound different’ although their pronunciation appears to be identical. The distinction between phonemic and non-phonemic realizations of the glottal stop has implications for the analysis of the canonical syllable structure of Takivatan Bunun (see section 2.4 on p. 131).

C.Intervocalic glottal stops

Intervocalic glottal stops can be phonemic or non-phonemic. At morpheme boundaries, a non-phonemic glottal stop is often inserted between vowels.

40. pinvai ‘win; defeat’ → pinvai-un ‘be defeated’ [pinˈvɛiʔun]

uvaðʔað ‘child’ → maisi-uvaðʔað ‘from childhood onwards’ [maiʃiʔuˈvaðʔað]

daŋi ‘put’ → daŋi-an ‘location where something is put’ [ɗɑˈŋiʔan]

Intervocalic non-phonemic glottal stops can be omitted, especially in fast speech. In these contexts, the final vowel of the first element sometimes develops into a glide, as in the examples below.

41. pinvai-un [pinˈvaijun]

daŋi-an [daˈŋijan]

maisi-uvaðʔað [mɛiʃijuˈvaðʔað]

As we will see in 2.4 below, monosyllabic roots always have vowel lengthening when they contain a simple vowel and this lengthening is typically retained when they occur in complex words. Interestingly, a glottal stop can be inserted in monosyllabic roots with a long simple vowel or with the vowel sequences /au ua/ when these roots are pronounced emphatically.

42. maun ‘eat’ [maun] emph: [maˈʔun]

dun ‘thread’ [ɗuːn] emph: [ˈɗuʔun]

han ‘go to; be at’ [haːn] emph: [ˈhaʔan]

ma-suað ‘to grow’ [maˈsuað̚] emph: [maˈsuʔað̚]

2.1.4.Consonant clusters

Consonant clusters in Takivatan Bunun consist of maximally two consonants (C_1C_2) and never occur word-initially or word-finally. Table 7 gives an overview of all possible consonant clusters consisting of C_1 (columns) and C_2 (rows) and indicates whether they only occur at morpheme boundaries (M-) or only root-internally (-R), or both (MR). The boundary between two reduplicated stems is always considered to be a morpheme boundary, even if the form is synchronically unanalysable. Note that the table gives an overview of the consonant combinations that are possible, it does not say anything about their frequency.

↙

C_1

p

t

k

q

ʔ

ɓ

ɗ

m

n

ŋ

v

ð

s

h

l

C_2

p

MR

--

M-

--

--

--

MR

MR

MR

--

--

MR

--

MR

t

M-

MR

MR

--

--

--

M-

MR

M-

M-

--

MR

--

MR

k

--

--

--

-R

--

--

--

MR

MR

--

M-

MR

-R

MR

q

--

MR

--

--

--

M-

--

MR

MR

--

M-

MR

--

M-

ʔ

MR

MR

MR

MR

--

-R

M-

MR

MR

--

MR

MR

--

MR

ɓ

--

MR

MR

MR

MR

-R

-R

MR

--

M-

MR

MR

--

MR

ɗ

M-

--

M-

-R

--

--

--

MR

MR

--

M-

MR

-R

M-

m

--

-R

-R

MR

M-

--

M-

MR

MR

--

-R

MR

--

MR

n

M-

--

-R

-R

MR

--

MR

--

-R

--

-R

MR

--

--

ŋ

--

MR

--

--

--

--

MR

--

--

--

--

MR

--

M-

v

--

M-

-R

MR

--

--

--

M-

MR

-R

M-

MR

--

M-

ð

--

--

MR

MR

--

--

-R

M-

MR

-R

--

-R

--

--

s

-R

MR

MR

MR

-R

--

--

M-

MR

-R

--

--

--

MR

h

M-

M-

MR

MR

--

--

--

--

MR

-R

M-

-R

MR

M-

l

--

MR

MR

MR

MR

--

MR

--

MR

MR

M-

MR

MR

M-

Columns indicate C1; Rows indicate C2; M = at morpheme boundaries; R = root-internally

Table 7 – Possible consonant clusters C_1C_2

Two identical consonants at morpheme boundaries are always realized as one normal-length consonant:

43. kukulut ‘knife’ + -ti ‘DEF.REF.PROX’ > [kuˈkuluti]

This process can only be attested at morpheme boundaries.

Clusters with more than two consonants have not been observed in Takivatan Bunun, except for the following two words (one of which is a loan from Japanese):

44. tinsʔan ‘millet harvest festival’

pintsi ‘clippers’ (Jap. loan)

On the basis of Table 6, two interesting observations can be made.

A.C_1 more restricted than C_2

Most consonants that have a restricted number of combinatory possibilities in C_1C_2 clusters tend to be more restricted in C_1 position than in C_2 position. Bilabial implosive /ɓ/ never occurs as the first element of a binary consonant cluster C_1C_2, but it can appear in a diverse range of clusters as the second element, for instance:

/-tɓ-/: lutbu ‘body’ /-sɓ-/: isbai ‘run away’

/-qɓ-/: laqbiŋin ‘tomorrow’ /-lɓ-/: talbinauʔað ‘girl’

/-mɓ-/: kumbu ‘inside’

Labiodental fricative /v/ appears in a small number of words as C_1, but only in reduplicated stems or at morpheme boundaries or reduplicative boundaries (as a consequence, these combinations are not truly consonant clusters).

reduplication: hivhiv ‘breeze, gust of air’

luvluv ‘wind’

morpheme boundary: i-hapav-ti ‘at-outside-DEF.REF.PROX’

Its combinatory possibilities are a lot less restricted as a second element.

root-internal + /-ŋv-/: diŋva ‘telephone’

+ /-qv-/: daqvas ‘tall’

reduplication + /-qv-/: vuqvuq ‘shake’

morph. bound. + /-nv-/: pin-vai ‘win’

+ /-sv-/: Is-vatan ‘clan name’

So far, the glottal fricative /h/ has only been attested in C_1 position in four Takivatan roots:

45. ahlutun ‘trail’

Kuhku ‘geographical name’

dahda ‘spread out’

laihlaih ‘car’

It is considerably more common and occurs in more combinations in C_2.

root-internal + /-nh-/: sinhav ‘yellow’

+ /-ðh-/: qaðhav ‘cold’

reduplication + /-kh-/: Hukhuk ‘geographical name’

morph. bound. + /-nh-/: mun-han ‘go to’

+ /-sh-/: pis-hutan ‘plant yams’

The three consonants mentioned above (/ɓ/, /v/ and /h/) only very rarely occur in word-final position.

B.C_2 more restricted than C_1

The three nasals /m n ŋ/ go against this trend and occur considerably more often as the first than as the second element of a C_1C_2 sequence. Although bilabial /m/ has more combinatory restrictions in C_1 position than in C_2 position (it can occur in C_1 with /p t ʔ ɓ v ð s/ and in C_2 with /t k q ʔ ɗ n ŋ ð s l/), its frequency of occurrence in C_1 in the lexicon is actually twice as high as its occurrence in C_2.

The phoneme /s/ can be followed by all possible consonants when it occurs in C_1 position, but it cannot be preceded by implosives or fricatives (including /h/) in C_2. In the lexicon, however, /s/ appears three times more often in C_1 than in C_2.

2.2.Simple vowels

Takivatan Bunun has four phonemic vowels. The three most common ones are the unrounded close front vowel /i/, the unrounded open front vowel /a/ and the rounded close back vowel /u/. The front-mid vowel /e/ only occurs in a small set of loan words.

Articulation

Phoneme

Allophones

Graphemes

% in text[15]

Front

Close

Unrounded

/i/

[i ɪ ɛː ɛi]

<Ii>

23.89

Front

Open

Unrounded

/a/

[a ɑ]

<Aa>

52.95

Front

Mid

Unrounded

/e/

[e ɛ]

<Ee>

0

Back

Close

Rounded

/u/

[u o ɔ]

<Uu>

23.16

Table 8 – Vowel inventory, allophones, and graphemic representation

Figure 6 gives a schematic overview of the allophonic realizations of simple vowels that are native to Takivatan. Phonemic vowels are marked in shaded grey; other symbols represent allophonic variants.

Figure 6 – Vowel chart for simple vowels and their allophones

Simple vowels in Takivatan are relatively stable. Wherever there is phonetically conditioned variation in the realization of individual vowels, this variation is usually small and often goes undetected by native language speakers. In most cases, close vowels are lowered and front vowels retracted in the following contexts:

22. when preceded or followed by a uvular /q/.

23. when followed (but not preceded) by a velar nasal /ŋ/ or – less commonly – a alveolar nasal /n/.

This process tends to be optional and to what extent retraction/lowering takes place depends on individual words and speakers.

The close front vowel /i/ is sometimes lowered to [ɪ] in the two environments mentioned above. Some speakers alternatively or additionally insert a short schwa after /i/, especially when the consonant triggering the change follows /i/.

1. /i/ → [ɪ] / ___ q
[ɪ] / q ___

diqanin ‘heaven’ [dɪˈqanin], [dɪə̆ˈqanin], [diə̆ˈqanin], often also [diˈqanin]

madiqla ‘bad’ [maˈɗɪqla], [maˈɗɪə̆qla], [maˈɗiə̆qla],

almost never [maˈɗiqla]

haqil ‘book’ [ˈhaqɪl], almost never [ˈhaqɪə̆l], [ˈhaqiə̆l], [ˈhaqil]

24. /i/ → [ɪ] / ___ ŋ

makiŋkiŋ ‘donate to the church’

[maˈkɪŋkɪŋ], [maˈkɪə̆ŋkɪə̆ŋ], never [maˈkiŋkiŋ]

diŋki ‘electricity’ [ˈɗɪŋki] or [ˈɗiŋki]

In one particular case only, /i/ can undergo more unusual transformations. The negator ni is normally realized as [niː] or [nĭ]. However, when used as a discourse particle in emphatic context, it can be realized as a long drawn-out [nɛː] or [neː], or [nɛːiː].

Front central [e] or [ɛ] can always be traced back to a phonemic /i/, except in drawn-out interjections of the kind eh /ʔɛː/ and in a small number of loan words, such as the ones below, where it has phonemic status.

46. Amelika [a.mɛ.li.ka] ‘America; foreign country’ < English

Iesu [iɛː.su] ‘Jesus’ < English

tanlei [tan.lɛi] ‘soy milk’ < Southern Min

The open front vowel /a/ can sometimes be realized as a back vowel [ɑ] in the same environments that trigger the lowering of /i/:

2. /a/ → [ɑ] / ___ q
[ɑ] / q ___

qabas ‘in former times’ [ˈqɑbas], equally often [ˈqabas]

mabaqis ‘warm, hot’ [maˈɓɑqis], equally often [maˈɓaqis]

3. /a/ → [ɑ] / ___ ŋ

ʤakaŋ ‘Geographical name’ [ˈʤakɑŋ], rarely [ˈʤakaŋ]

qaðmaŋ ‘be random’ [ˈqɑðmɑŋ], almost never [ˈqaðmaŋ]

The phoneme /a/ is the most common vowel in Takivatan and occurs as often as all other vowels taken together (52% of all vowel occurrences in real-world text; see Table 8).

The rounded back vowel /u/ can be lowered when it is followed by a velar /k ŋ/, a uvular /q/ or a glottal /h/ (but never with a glottal stop /ʔ/).

/u/ → [ɔ] / ___ {k,ŋ,q,h}

luqai ‘new-born child’ [ˈlɔqai], only rarely [ˈluqai]

buŋqa ‘break’ [ˈbɔŋqa], equally often [ˈbuŋqa]

duduk ‘ginger [ˈdudɔk], but more often [ˈduduk]

As with the other vowels, whether or not lowering occurs is dependent both on individual words and on speaker preferences. With some words, /u/ is never lowered, for instance:

47. iðuq ‘orange’ [ˈiðuq], never [ˈiðɔq]

bukðav ‘plains’ [ˈbukðav], never [ˈbɔkðav]

The rules described in this section are only applicable to simple vowels; an overview of allophony in vowel sequences is given in section 2.3.2.

2.3.Vowel sequences

2.3.1.Inventory

Six vowel sequences are possible in Takivatan (Table 9 and Figure 7). The inventory of vowel sequences exploits all possible combinations that are possible with the vowels /a i u/.

Phoneme

Allophones

Graphemes

/ai/

[ai æi ɛi]

<ai>

/au/

[au ɔ]

<au>

/ia/

[ia]

<ia>

/iu/

[iu]

<iu>

/ua/

[ua]

<ua>

/ui/

[ui]

<ui>

Table 9 – Inventory of vowel sequences

Figure 7 – Chart of vowel sequences and their allophones

All vowel sequences can appear both root-internally and at morpheme boundaries. One might be inclined to analyse the former as diphthongs and the latter as two separate vowels, but for reasons discussed in B on p. 129 this would be problematic.

Only two vowel sequences have so far been attested with more than two vowels, both root-internally and at morpheme boundaries: /aiu/ and /aia/.

/aiu/: tan-qaiu ‘steal’

pin-vai-un ‘be defeated’

/aia/: laian ‘green pea’

Taial ‘Atayal’

Other triple-vowel sequences occur, but only at morpheme boundaries.

2.3.2.Allophonic variation

A.Change of vowel quality and monophthongisation

The quality of vowels in combinations is more stable than that of single vowels. Only /ai/ and /au/ show a tendency towards allophony.

The sequence /ai/ can be realized as /æi/ or /ɛi/ in environments where it is followed by a consonant. To what extent the first vowel /a/ is raised is subject to free variation and in some contexts it is not raised at all by some speakers. Some examples:

48. vaivi ‘several’ [ˈvɛivi], [ˈvæivi], more uncommonly [ˈvaivi]

haiða ‘have’ [ˈhaiða], [ˈhæiða], more uncommonly [ˈhɛiða]

If /ai/ occurs in a word-final CV syllable, its quality does not normally change, unless it is preceded by /q/, as in the third example.

49. bai ‘grandmother’ [ɓai], never [ɓæi] or [ɓɛi]

musbai ‘run away’ [musˈɓai]

ma-visqai ‘abundant with fruits’ [maˈvisqɛi]

In loan words, /ai/ is also retained without any raising.

50. lihai ‘mass’ [liˈhai]

Maia ‘first name’ [ˈmaia]

The change is always blocked at morpheme boundaries with prefixes or suffixes. Segments belonging to infixes, however, can be involved in /ai/-raising. In the example below, /a/ in the first syllable of the root combines with /i/ in the infix ‹in›; their combination is not pronounced [ai] but [ɛi].

51. laqaiban ‘route, trajectory’ [lɑˈqɛiɓan]

↓

la‹in›iqaiban ‘‹PST›-route > road traversed; road of life’ [lɛiniˈqɛiɓan]

The sequence /au/ can monophthongise to [ɔ] in front of velar or uvular consonants, especially /ŋ/ and /q/, but – again – this is subject to free variation.

52. tauŋku ‘noon’ [ˈdauŋku] or [ˈdɔŋku]

masauqbuŋ ‘heavy’ [maˈsauqɓuŋ] or [maˈsɔqɓuŋ]

This process is always blocked at morpheme boundaries and has so far not been attested with infixes.

B.Intervocalic /ʔ/-insertion

At morpheme boundaries with prefixes or suffixes, a glottal stop is often inserted between the two vowels of any sequence, including identical vowel sequences (i.e. /a/+/a/, /u/+/u/ or /i/+/i/). Between identical vowel sequences, the epenthetic glottal stop is always expressed, except for the case described in A-Bbelow. Whether and how strong it is expressed between non-identical vowels depends on the individual speaker’s choice, the tempo of the utterance and possibly also the degree of boundness of the affix (see 3.2.2). Examples of this phenomenon where given in C on page 119. Some examples with different inflectional suffixes:

53. bahi-an [ɓaˈχiʔan] or [ɓaˈχian]

prophetic.dream-LF

‘prophetic dream’

54. pas-vali-un [pas̙vaˈliʔun] or [pas̙vaˈliun]

AFCT-sun-UF

‘be exposed to the sun’

55. ni-in [niʔin], never [niːn]

NEG-PRV

‘not anymore’

Interestingly, a glottal stop can also be inserted in root-internal vowel sequences. This happens in two situations. Firstly, the vowel in monosyllabic free (i.e. non-affixal) roots is always realized long (see A). When such a root has a CV(C) structure and is pronounced emphatically, its vowel is often interrupted by a glottal stop (see p. 119 of C above and 2.4.2below).

56. bav ‘up in the mountains’ [ɓaːv̚] → emph: [ˈɓaʔav̚]

dan ‘(n.) road; (v.) walk, go’ [ɗaːn] → emph: [ˈɗaʔan]

dun ‘thread, string’ [ɗuːn] → emph: [ˈɗuʔun]

mu ‘2P.UN/NFOC’ [mu] → emph: [ˈmuʔu]

The same phenomenon occasionally happens with the vowel sequences /au/ and /ua/ when they occur root-internally in mono-syllabic roots which are pronounced emphatically.

57. buan ‘moon’ [ɓuan] → emph: [ˈɓuʔan]

maun ‘eat’ [maun] → emph: [ˈmaʔun]

So far, there are next to no attested examples of this phenomenon with other root-internal vowel sequences in bi- or polysyllabic roots. The only exception is daiŋ ‘big’, which I have heard to be pronounced [ɗaʔiŋ] rather than [ɗɛiŋ] when it was yelled at a deaf person.

C.Glide-formation

Huang (2005b) argues that non-initial vowel sequences in Isbukun Bunun are best analyzed as glides (i.e. /wa/, /aw/, /ja/ and /aj/). She argues this is necessary in order to prevent bi-moraic syllables. While it is certainly true that in some environments /i/ and /u/ tend to develop glide-like qualities, these never have an obvious phonemic status and can in most cases be alternated – especially in emphatic contexts – with a less glide-like pronunciation. For instance, the anaphoric marker sia is pronounced [ʃja] in fluent speech, with /i/ having greatly reduced vowel-length and the word stress on /a/. However, when emphasized, it can alternatively be pronounced [ʃia], or even [ʃija], with both vowels having roughly equal length, insertion of a non-phonemic glide between /i/ and /a/, and stress on the first vowel in the sequence. This work will consistently analyze /i/ and /u/ in vowel sequences as vowels.

2.4.Syllable structure

2.4.1.Canonical syllable structure

The canonical syllable structure in Takivatan Bunun is:

(C)V(V)(C)

Some examples:

V u ‘yes’ CV ni ‘not’

VV ai ‘interjection’ CVV bai ‘grandmother’

VC is- ‘instrumental orientation’ CVC ŋan ‘name’

VVC aip ‘singular demonstrative’ CVVC ŋaus ‘first(ly)’

Consonant clusters only occur word-internally and (except for the two examples on p. 121) never consist of more than two consonants. The only word-initial consonant cluster so far attested occurred in the Japanese loanword skupu ‘shovel’. Bi-consonantal cluster only appear to be allowed when they span syllable boundaries or, in other words, when a sequence of two consonants occurs, they are necessary separated by a syllable boundary (__VC.CV__). This cannot be proven beyond doubt for root-internal CC-sequences, but it is the most logical and elegant explanation given the fact that CCC-sequences are impossible and that all CC-sequences at morpheme boundaries have the structure described above.

It has been argued, for instance in Li (1988:483), that there is no Bunun dialect in which words can be vowel-initial and that seemingly vowel-initial words are always preceded by a glottal stop. I have demonstrated in B on p. 117 that the word-initial glottal stop is not necessarily phonemic and that this can be proven by the existence of minimal pairs and by its behaviour in morphophonemic processes.

2.4.2.Syllabic structure of roots

A.Monosyllabic roots

Monosyllabic roots can have any structure possible in the canonical template (C)V(V)(C), but have a weak tendency to be consonant-initial CV(V)(C). Monosyllabic roots without a vowel sequence consistently show notable vowel lengthening, especially when they have a CVC structure. Vowel lengthening is strongest when roots occur without any suffixation.

58. dan ‘road’ [ɗaːn], not [ɗan]

dus ‘fly’ [ɗuːs], not [ɗus]

num ‘six’ [nuːm], not [num]

Historically, at least some of these cases are actually not cases of vowel lengthening but of the reduction of disyllabic to monosyllabic roots. Consider the following Proto-Austronesian roots, all of which have monosyllabic CV(V)C equivalents in Takivatan (PAN data from ABVD (2007)):

PAN Takivatan

‘road’ *zalan dan ‘road’

‘above’ *babaw bav ‘up in the mountains’

‘moon’ *bulan buan ‘moon’

In the three examples above, an intervocalic consonant in a Proto-Austronesian disyllabic root underwent lenition to a glottal stop and in some cases disappeared completely (e.g. zalan > daʔan > daan). If the word contained two identical vowels, this created a long vowel; if not, as in the last example, a vowel sequence was created. This explains why it is still possible to insert an optional /ʔ/ into a vowel sequence or a long vowel of a monosyllabic root (as in buan [buan] or [buʔan] or dan [daːn] or [daʔan]). /ʔ/-insertion then probably spread to monosyllabic roots that cannot be traced back to a Proto-Austronesian disyllable, such as the negative particle ni, which corresponds to the PAN reconstruction *ini (with a short /i/) but can nevertheless be realized as [niʔi]. From a historical perspective, it might therefore be justified to say that the canonical syllable structure of Takivatan is underlyingly (C)V(C) and the canonical root structure CVCV(C), in accordance with a commonly assumed Austronesian template. All monosyllabic roots with long vowels or vowel-sequences would actually be disyllables with a zero-realized intervocalic consonant (e.g. buan is [ˈbu.an]).

There is only one root in Takivatan Bunun where it could be argued that vowel length is contrastive. Han ‘be at; go to’ typically has a long vowel when it occurs as the main element in a content word, as in:

59. mun-han [munhaːn]

ALL-go

‘go to’

But when han occurs as an isolated root in preposition-like functions at the beginning of a locative or temporal phrase, its vowel is typically short.

60. Mudanʔak han Taihuku.

mu-dan-ʔak han [hăn] Taihuku

ALL-road-1S.F to Taipei

‘I go to Taipei.’

However, it is possible to lengthen the vowel in the example above and the form han can easily be analysed as the second element in a locative serial verb construction.

Only a small group of interjections can form free roots that consist solely of vowels, i.e. with a V(V) structure.

ai ‘exclamation of surprise’

a ‘interjection marking cause or consequence’

u ‘yes’

B.Disyllabic roots

There is a preference among disyllabic roots that are native to Takivatan to have the following structure:

CVCVC

Some examples:

61. davus ‘(adj.) sweet; (n.) alcoholic drink’

hapav ‘in front of; higher than’

hilav ‘door’

muŋuq ‘to snore’

However, disyllabic roots occur in almost all structures that are made possible by the canonical syllable template. A list of allowed structures is given below.

Structure Commonality Example

VCV common aki ‘grandfather’

VCVV rare akia ‘temple’

VCVVC very rare isiul ‘to spray’

VCVC common iðuq ‘orange, citrus fruit’

VVCV rare aivi ‘give’

VVCVC rare auqal ‘young of a wild pig’

CVCV very common babu ‘pig’

CVCVV common madia ‘many’

CVCVVC common siquis ‘falcon’

CVVCV common baiŋu ‘bean’

CVVCVV rare huahua ‘goose’

CVVCCVVC rare daukdauk ‘slow’

The last only occurs for roots that are inherently reduplicated (see 8.2). Two structures that are allowed by the canonical template but never occur in the corpus are VVCVVC and CVVCVVC.

C.Polysyllabic roots

Polysyllabic roots can take all forms and shapes as long as they comply with the canonical template. Compared to disyllabic roots there tend to be less root-internal consonant clusters. Non-reduplicated roots with more than five syllables have not been attested. Polysyllabic roots have a tendency to have CV-syllables, with or without a root-final coda consonant:

CV(CV)(CV)(…)(C)

2.4.3.Syllabic structure of affixes

A.Prefixes

Takivatan Bunun has an unusually large set of prefixes (more than 200), which are either monosyllabic or disyllabic. In terms of distinct lexical form, both occur in roughly equal proportions, but monosyllabic prefixes tend to be more common in actual texts. Some examples of monosyllabic and disyllabic prefixes:

Monosyllabic: i- ‘at, in; possessive’

ma- ‘common adjectival prefix’

kis- ‘marks a stabbing movement’

pain- ‘marks a collective action’

Disyllabic: pasi- ‘marks an action involving separation’

maisna- ‘from’

pasan- ‘marks an action performed in large groups’

Note that prefixes can also be stacked before a root (see 3.1.2 and 7.11.2). These constructions will be called prefix combinations in this work and they differ from genuine disyllabic prefixes in that they are synchronically analysable into their component parts.

The vast majority (more than 85%) of prefixes are consonant initial. The two largest groups, CVC- and CVCV-prefixes, together constitute two thirds of the distinct prefixal forms in the lexicon. CV- and CVCVC-forms each make up another ten percent.

B.Infixes

Compared to other affixes, infixes are relatively rare in Takivatan Bunun. So far, only seven forms have been attested, most of which have only been attested once. Based on this small sample, one could conclude that infixes have a V(C) structure. The following three infixes have been attested more than once.

‹al› ‘creates action verb from auxiliary’

‹i› ‘past marker; variant of ‹in›’

‹in› ‘past/resultative marker’

Infixes are inserted either into the first syllable of the root (first two examples of Bbelow) or into a prefix preceding the root (last two examples).

62. manaq ‘shoot’ → m‹in›anaq ‘‹PST›-shoot’

lusʔan ‘celebrate’ → l‹in›usʔan ‘‹PST›-celebrate’

dun ‘thread’ → k‹in›in-dun ‘‹PST›-USE-thread

> have worked with thread’

daŋað ‘(n. & v.) help’ → s‹in›in-daŋað ‘‹PST›-RES.OBJECT-help

> have helped (effectively)’

Infixes are typically inserted in a way that avoids the formation of consonant clusters, i.e. in a way that creates a CVCV or a CVVCV pattern. Normally, this results in a VC-infix being inserted after the root-initial consonant, as in the example below:

63. tupa ‘say’ → t‹in›upa ‘‹PST›-say’, never *tu‹in›pa

If its position in the word would lead to a CC-cluster, a ligature vowel is inserted. The choice of ligature vowel is often uncertain as the variational possibilities in the following example illustrates.

64. sadu ‘see’ → sa‹in›idu ‘‹PST›-see’

→ sa‹in›udu ‘‹PST›-see’

C.Suffixes

There are around thirty suffixes in Takivatan Bunun. Suffixes that are traditionally associated with verbal concepts, such as focus (-un, -an; see 6) and aspect (-in, -aŋ; see 5) are vowel-initial:

-VC

Other suffixes all have a -(C)V(C) structure, as exemplified by the definiteness markers (-ti, -tun, -ta, -ki, -kun, -ka; see 9.1) and the particles  i ‘PRT’ and  a ‘TPC’.

2.5.The phonological word

A phonological word minimally consists of a root syllable (see 2.4.1 and 2.4.2), which may or may not be reduplicated and which may or may not be preceded, interrupted and/or followed by bound syllables (see 2.4.3).

2.5.1.Vowel length

There are no minimal pairs in Takivatan of which the members contrast in vowel length. The only potential exception would be han, which is typically used as a verb ‘go’ when it is realized with a long vowel and as a preposition when realized with a short /a/. However, this is only a tendency and all prepositions in Takivatan transparently derive from verbal roots and can be interpreted as part of a serial verb construction.

That being said, there is a non-phonemic contrast between long and short vowels: vowels in monosyllabic roots are typically realized twice as long as vowels in disyllabic or polysyllabic roots (see A.). Stressed syllables have a tendency to be pronounced somewhat longer than unstressed ones, although not as long as monosyllabic roots.

2.5.2.Word stress

Words with disyllabic or polysyllabic roots typically have stress on the penultimate syllable of the root.

65. tulkuk ‘chicken’ [ˈtulkuk̚]

tibuqlav ‘stomach’ [tiˈɓuqlav̚]

The undergoer suffix -un and the locative focus suffix -an are the only affixes that typically trigger stress shift.

66. liskin ‘think (about), ponder’ [ˈliʃkin]

liskin-un ‘think-UF’ [liʃˈkinun]

in-liskin-an ‘-think-LF’ [inliʃˈkinan]

Other affixes have no influence on word stress.

67. dan ‘(n.) road; (v.) go, walk’ [ɗaːn]

mu-dan ‘ALL-walk > go to’ [muˈɗaːn]

mu-dan-in ‘ALL-walk-PRV’ [muˈɗaːnin]

mu-dan-in-ta ‘…-DEF.SIT.DIST’ [muˈɗaːninta]

sihal ‘good’ [ˈʃihal̚]

ma-sihal ‘STAT-good > good’ [maˈʃihal̚]

ma-sihal-in ‘STAT-good-PRV’ [maˈʃihalin]

(but: sihal-un ‘good-UF > be made good’

[maʃiˈhalun] )

Some Japanese loan words have a word-final stress pattern.

68. Sipun ‘Japanese’ [ʃiˈpuːn]

vinkiu ‘study’ [viŋˈkju]

vukusi ‘vicar’ [vukuˈʃi]

A very small set of disyllabic and polysyllabic indigenous roots appear to have word-final stress. It is very likely that these can be traced back to morphologically complex forms in older phases of the language that are synchronically unanalysable.

69. sadu ‘see’ [saˈɗuː], never [ˈsaɗuː]

Vilian ‘first name’ [viˈlian], never [ˈvilian]

The latter might derive from the root vili ‘right’ and the locative suffix -an and might etymologically mean something like ‘the one at the right hand side’. At present the form does not appear to be recognized as such. It has been argued that sadu can be traced back to a prefix sa- ‘see’ and a free form du ‘encounter’ (see Nihira (1988:73, 304, 306)).

2.5.3.Morphophonemic processes

The interaction between phonology and morphology is relatively weak in Takivatan, but a small number of morphological processes trigger some sort of phonological change. In most cases, these changes are transparent and their source components are still recognizable.

A.Vowel contraction with -aŋ and -in

Contraction of two identical vowels at morpheme boundaries only occurs when the small set of roots below is followed by the progressive suffix -aŋ (see 5.2).

70. asa ‘want, must’ + -aŋ ‘PROG’ → asaŋ [ˈasɑ̆ŋ]

haiða ‘have’ + -aŋ → haiðaŋ [ˈhaiðɑ̆ŋ]

kaupa ‘all together’ + -aŋ → kaupaŋ [ˈkaupɑ̆ŋ]

takna ‘yesterday’ + -aŋ → takna [ˈtaknɑ̆ŋ]

uka ‘have not’ + -aŋ → ukaŋ [ˈukɑ̆ŋ]

ʔupa ‘step’ + -aŋ → ʔupaŋ [ˈʔupɑ̆ŋ]

In all other situations and with all other vowels, a glottal stop is inserted between the two vowels or (in fast speech) the two vowels are pronounced as one long vowel.

As with PROG -aŋ, vowel contraction involving the perfective suffix -in only occurs with a small number of roots. Unlike -aŋ, vowels involved in contraction with PRV -in do not have to be homorganic and in many cases a non-contracted form exists alongside the fused form (forms attested in the corpus are indicated in the examples below).

71. haiða ‘have; exist’+ -in ‘PRV’ → haiðin [ˈhaiðĭn]

minuma ‘be destroyed’ + -in → minumin [miˈnumĭn]

muqna ‘be next’ + -in → muqnin [ˈmuqnĭn] / [muqnain]

uka ‘have not’+ -in → ukin [ˈukĭn] / [ukain] / [ukaʔin]

This phenomenon occasionally occurs with other roots, but these forms are rare and might not be universally accepted.

72. quma ‘land, field’ + -in → qumin [ˈqumin][16]

siða ‘take, grasp’ + -in → siðin [ˈsiðin] / siðain / siðaʔin

B.Vowel deletion with ma-/pa-/ka-

When the dynamic prefix ma- (see 7.5.1) combines with a number of vowel-initial roots, it is reduced to m-. Below are a number of examples.

73. alʔu ‘(n./v.) rest’ → m-alʔu ‘to rest’

iqumis ‘life’ → m-iqumis ‘to live’

isdul ‘urine’ → m-isdul ‘to urinate’

isʔav ‘drinking feast’ → m-isʔav ‘to hold a drinking feast’

C.Metathesis /ia/ > /ai/

When a root-final syllable containing a sequence of /ia/ is followed by a suffix, the vowel sequence is realized as /ai/. This change is only consistently attested with the roots siap ‘know’ and qansiap ‘understand’.

74. qansiap ‘understand’ → qansaip-un ‘understand-UF’

qansaip-an ‘understand-LF’

The generic anaphoric marker sia can undergo a similar change when it is followed by an attributive marker tu. These are normally two morphological and phonological words, but occasionally they can merge into a single form saitu.

75. sia ‘ANAPH’ + tu ‘ATTR’ → typically: sia tu

occasionally: saitu

D.Vowel epenthesis

As discussed in section B on p. 137, infixation can be accompanied by the insertion of a ligature vowel in order to maintain a CV-syllable structure. No other forms of non-phonemic vowel epenthesis have been documented.

Chapter 3.Words, affixes and word classes

In this chapter, I will discuss the status of grammatical words, affixes, and word classes in Takivatan. Section 3.1 gives a (language-specific) definition of grammatical word and discusses the internal complexity of words in Takivatan. Section 3.2 argues that it is not theoretically helpful to distinguish affixes and clitics in Takivatan. Section 3.3 gives criteria for distinguishing nouns and verbs in Takivatan and ends with a brief overview of the properties of other word classes in terms of their similarity to nouns or verbs.

3.1.Words

3.1.1.The grammatical word

Like all other Bunun dialects, Takivatan is an agglutinative language with a rich bound morphology, especially on verbs. Much of the remainder of this work will give an overview of how different types of affixes (5-7) and reduplication (8) function. Before going over to the specifics, we will first have a look at what Takivatan words are and how they are constituted. I define a grammatical word in Takivatan Bunun as:

The smallest conceptual unit consisting of a collection of a root and a number of affixes that is perceived by native speakers as referring to a conceptually united part of reality and can be used independently in a grammatically formed utterance without leaving any bound morphemes stranded in its immediate environment in the utterance.

In general, this definition is as straightforward for Takivatan as it is for most other languages in the world, though some problems remain because of the ambiguous status of some bound morphemes that are only loosely attached to their stems. Some examples of what can function as a word in Takivatan:

76. A bare root:

qabus

grease

‘grease’

77. A verb created by free root with a prefix:

mu-tutu

FALL.DOWN-pour

‘fall down one by one, be pouring down’

78. A noun consisting of a reduplicated root with a stative prefix and a nominalising suffix:

ma-‹da›daiŋ-ʔað

STAT-‹PL›-old-PERSON

‘the elders (generic)’

79. A verb consisting of a root with a dynamic prefix, two aspectual affixes, a bound pronoun, and a subordination marker:

na-ma-sabaq-aŋ-ʔak-ʔa

IRR-DYN-sleep-PROG-1S.F-SUBORD

‘I will be sleeping’ (constr.)

A Takivatan word minimally consists of a root. In most cases, this root is a free morpheme, but there are some exceptions. A small number of roots are bound and require one or more affixes to function as independent words. For instance, the verbal root -aqun ‘weed out’ never occurs in isolation but must always be preceded by a verbal prefix, as in:

80. m-aqun p-aqun

DYN-weed.out CAUS.DYN/HI.AG-weed.out

‘weed out’ ‘tell somebody to weed out / weed out with vigour’

Other examples of bound roots include:

81. -(a)das ‘carry’ ma-das ‘DYN-carry’ / adas-un ‘carry-UF’ /

das-un ‘carry-UF’ / …

aiŋk- ‘DEM.PV’ aiŋk-i ‘DEM.PV-PROX’ /

aiŋk-a ‘DEM.PV-DIST’ / …

-atað ‘die, kill’ m-atað ‘die’ / p-atað ‘kill’ / …

lum- ‘lock up, catch’ lum-un ‘catch-UF’ / lu-lum-an ‘prison’ / …

A small number of monosyllabic roots are meaningless by themselves and always occur in stem-reduplicated form (see also 8.2).

82. bauŋbauŋ ‘with a booming voice’ (*bauŋ)

dumdum ‘obscure, dark’ (*dum)

kuskus ‘finger or toe nail’ (*kus)

lautlaut ‘spine’ (*laut)

A small set of roots have distinct semantics when they are not reduplicated but nevertheless typically occur in a reduplicated form.

kuða ‘work’ (rare) kuðakuða ‘work; to work’ /

kuðkuðaun ‘work that needs to be done’ / …

bað ‘talk, converse’ baðbað ‘talk, have a conversation’

Apart from the root, a word can contain the following morphological elements:

•  Prefixes: Words can have a number of prefixes (see below)

•  Suffixes: Words can have a number of suffixes (see below)

•  Reduplication: Reduplication typically operates on the entire root or on a root-initial syllable and either stem-, CV- or Ca-reduplication. A word normally contains only one reduplicative pattern, but there are exceptions (see 8.9).

•  Infixes: Words can have only one infix, which is typically inserted in the first syllable of the root.

As far as I have observed, infixation and reduplication are always mutually exclusive. In general, verbs tend to be morphologically much more complex than nouns, and other word classes will normally take even less bound morphology.

3.1.2.Morphological complexity of verbs

The vast majority of the more than two hundred affixes occur primarily on verbs, i.e. they are either involved in verbalising or valency-changing derivational processes or in the modification of verbal concepts in one way or another (e.g. aspect). As a result, verbs and deverbal nominalisations are on average more complex than instances of other word classes and the maximal complexity of verbs is much higher than that of nouns or any other word class.

A verbal stem consists of a root or a root and a verbalising prefix, infix or suffix:

[ (VBZ-)ROOT ]VERBAL STEM

[ R(‹VBZ›)OOT ]VERBAL STEM

[ ROOT(-VBZ) ]VERBAL STEM

This stem can be modified by a host of affixes, as given in the schema below.

TAM- verbal0-n- TAM- STEM -focus -TAM -pron. -du -DEF -i -(ʔ)a

pref_2- pref_1- ‹inf›- -suf_1 -suf_2 -suf_3 -suf_4 -suf_5 -suf_6 -suf_7

In addition, the verbal root can be reduplicated, but only if there is no infixation. Note that this represents the maximal complexity of a verbal word; in reality, it will only rarely happen that all the slots in the schema above are filled for a single verbal word.

Table 10 below presents the same morphological structure and gives some example affixes for each of the slots. Column A indicates the number of morphemes that have been attested to occur in a particular slot. Column N indicates the number of morphemes that can possibly occur within one slot. For instance, there can 0 or 1 TAM prefix in the pref_2 slot. On the other hand, slot suf_2 can have from 0 to 2 focus suffixes (or, in other words, it is possible to stack two focus suffixes).

Value

Morphemes

N

A

Chapter

word-boundary

↑

pref_2

TAM

na-

0-1

1

5.1

pref_1

verbal prefixes

ma- ‘DYN’, ma- ‘STAT’, pa-, min-, is-, pin-, …

0-n

150+

7

‹RED›

1

‹inf›

1

7

STEM

1

suf_1

focus suff.

-un/an

0-2

2

6

suf_2

TAM

-in/aŋ

0-1

3

5.2-5.3

suf_3

bound pronouns

-ʔak/ʔas/is/ʔam/uk

0-2

5

9.2

↓

word-boundary

suf_4

emotive suff.

-dau/-du

0-1

2

suf_5

definiteness marker

-ti/tun/ta; -ki/kun/ka

0-1

6

9.1

suf_6

-i

0-1

2

suf_7

LNK/ LDIS SUBORD

-a/-ʔa

0-1

1

(N: maximal number of occurrences in one word; A: number of forms attested in the corpus)

Table 10 – Order of prefixes and suffixes on verbs

The most problematic slot is that of the verbal prefixes (pref_1), which contains more than 150 possible members. In addition, one verbal stem can stack up to 4 or 5 different verbal prefixes. Nevertheless, it makes little theoretical sense at the moment to postulate the existence of fixed-member slots for subsets of the verbal prefixes, since most of those prefixes are mutually exclusive and not all of them consistently occur in the same successive order.[17] In addition, I will try to argue in 7 that, functionally, they are in fact part of a consistent prefixal system. The order of suffixes is rigidly fixed but it is impossible for all suffixal slots to be filled in one verbal form, since bound pronouns block the realization of definiteness markers.

An example of how morphologically complex verbal forms can be created is given below.

83. siap ‘know’ → [qan-siap]STEM ‘VBZ-know’ > ‘understand’

→ pin-qansiap ‘CAUS.BECOME-understand’ > ‘make somebody

understand’

→ is-pin-qansiap ‘TRANSFER-…’ > ‘make somebody

understand by explaining’

→ is-pin-qansaip-un ‘…-UF’[18]

> ‘... oriented on the receiver of the information’

→ na-is-pin-qansaip-un ‘IRR-…’ > ‘... in the future’

→ na-is-pin-qansaip-un-ti ‘…-DEF.REF.PROX’ > ‘... this here’

→ na-is-pin-qansaip-un-ti-ʔa ‘…-SUBORD’ > ‘the clause containing the

verb is subordinate to the following clause’

The final result:

84. Naʔispinqansaipuntiʔa

na- is- pin- qansiap -un -ti -ʔa

IRR- TRANSFER- CAUS.BECOME- understand -UF -DEF.REF.PROX -SUBORD

pref_2- pref_1- pref_1- STEM -suf_1 -suf_5 -suf_7

‘After [I/you/…] have been made to understand this here by explanation, ...’ (constr.)

3.1.3.Morphological complexity of nouns and other word classes

All other word classes are markedly less complex than verbs. A typical nominal stem consists of a bare root or a root and a nominalising suffix. Other nominal stems are derived from verbs with a nominalising suffix.

[ ROOT (-NMZ) ]NOMINAL STEM

[ [VERBAL STEM] (-NMZ) ] NOMINAL STEM

There is only a small set of dedicated nominalising affixes, the most common of which is probably -ʔað, which derives persons from stative concepts.

85. ma-daiŋ-ʔað is-tamasað-ʔað

STAT-old-PERSON TRANSFER-powerful-PERSON

‘elder’ ‘especially powerful or skillful person’

The focus suffixes UF -un and LF -an sometimes also have nominalising functions, as do some of the verbal prefixes. The complexity of a typical noun in Takivatan will never be higher than:

TAM- STEM -TAM -du -DEF -i -(ʔ)a

However, aspectual affixes are only rarely expressed on nouns and not more than one can occur in the same form, the expression of TAM suffixes blocks the realization of the emotive suffix -du, definiteness markers block the realization of -i, and -i and -(ʔ)a tend not to co-occur (although it is grammatically possible).

All other word classes are less complex than nouns or verbs. Auxiliaries, question words, the anaphoric marker sia and the manner word maupa ‘thus’ can technically take the same morphology as verbs, but it rarely happens that they develop the same morphological complexity. Although forms like the one below are grammatical, I have not attested them in my corpus.

86. na-ma-kitŋa-in-ʔa

IRR-DYN-begin-PRV-SUBORD

‘After he will have begun to act, …’ (constr.)

Most auxiliaries, such as the deontic modal maqtu ‘can, is allowed’, never take any definiteness markers and many others, like asa ‘must’, only very rarely. Place and time words can take definiteness markers, the particle -i and the linker -a, but not much else. Personal pronouns and demonstratives normally do not take any marking other than PRT  i and LNK -a.

3.2.Affixes

3.2.1.Introduction

Bunun affixes have been the subject of a number of studies (Lin et al. (2001), Nojima (1996) and Zeng (2006)). This special interest exists in the first place because Bunun dialects have a typologically disproportionately large set: more than 200 different prefixes, suffixes, infixes and circumfixes have been attested for Takivatan and these can occur in many combinations. It would be impossible to treat them all here and this work will therefore restrict itself to an overview of the most important types of affixation:

•  TAM affixes are discussed in 5. There are five commonly used TAM markers: one prefix (IRR na-), two infixes (PST ‹in› and PST ‹i›) and two suffixes (PRV -in and PROG -aŋ).

•  Focus suffixes are discussed in 6. Takivatan has two focus suffixes: the undergoer focus suffix -un and locative focus -an.

•  Verbal prefixes are discussed in 7. There are more than 150 different verbal prefixes.

•  Definiteness markers are discussed in 9.1. Takivatan has a set of six definiteness markers.

Other groups of affixes that will not be described in this work include:

•  A small set of nominalising affixes.

•  A small set of nominal affixes, i.e. affixes that modify nouns semantically but have no influence on their syntactic status. An example is the prefix mai- ‘deceased’ as in mai-tama ‘my father, who is deceased’.

•  Numeral affixes, which create derived numerals from cardinal numeral roots.

•  Many other affixes occur that cannot be readily classified in larger groups.

3.2.2.Affixation vs. cliticisation

Table 10 suggests that bound morphemes – to the extent that they are not mutually exclusive – have a relatively strict order within a word and one would expect a correlation between the morpheme order and the degree to which particular affixes are bound to the word root. Morphemes occurring close to the root would be expected to be more strongly bound than more remote morphemes.

We will see below that this is largely true for Takivatan, but that a number of phonological, morphological and semantic factors somewhat complicate this picture. The following criteria (inspired by Aikhenvald (2002) and Creissels (2006:28-33)) are relevant for determining the degree of boundedness of affixes in Takivatan:

1. Fusion: the possibility of an affix to fuse with its host;

2. Stress shift: the ability of an affix to trigger a shift in word stress;

3. Pause insertion: the possibility to insert a pause between an affix and its host;

4. Idiosyncrasy: the use of an affix in idiosyncratic meaning extensions or derivational processes and whether or not it is class-defining;

5. Grammatical independence: whether or not an affix has a variant that is realized as an independent word.

Each of these criteria will be discussed in detail below.

A.Fusion

Fusion is the process whereby a bound morpheme is morphologically integrated into its host. This is an obvious indication that a close connection exists between affix and host. In Takivatan, this process involves vowel reduction and only happens at the morphological boundaries of word roots. All in all, fusion across morpheme boundaries is relatively unusual and even affixes that have the ability to fuse with their hosts will rarely do so.

The vast majority of prefixes never fuse with the word root. With a number of verbs, however, the dynamic verb prefixes ma-, pa- and ka- are fused on the root. In these cases, it is often not possible to retrieve the original free root of the verb. Some common examples include (note that pa- often but not always renders a causative reading):

87. m-atað ‘die’ / p-atað ‘kill’ / *atað

m-usbai ‘run away’ / p-usbai ‘cause to run away’ / k-usbai ‘fly away’ / *usbai

The focus suffixes -un and -an do not normally fuse with the verb root. There are two words in Takivatan that are in all likelihood the combination of a verbal root and the undergoer suffix -un, although they are synchronically unanalysable.

88. aun ‘it is prohibited; one cannot (in undergoer focus constructions)’

< (unknown)

paun ‘be called, be named’ < tupa ‘tell; name’ + -un ‘UF’

Aspectual suffixes, on the other hand, obligatorily fuse with some vowel-final roots.

89. perfective -in

muqna ‘again’ + -in ‘PRV’ > muqnin / * muqna(ʔ)in

minsuma ‘return’ + -in ‘PRV’ > minsumin / * minsuma(ʔ)in

tupa ‘tell’ + -in ‘PRV’ > patupin / *patupaʔin

90. progressive -aŋ

haiða ‘have’ + -aŋ ‘PROG’ > haiðaŋ / *haiðaʔaŋ

More elaborate lists are given in A. In only one case involving haiða ‘have’, the first person bound pronoun can fuse with its host.

91. haiða + -(ʔ)ak > haiðak

have 1S.F ‘I have’

The pronominal form -uk is somewhat special since it is probably a contraction of the undergoer focus suffix -un and the bound first person singular pronoun -(ʔ)ak. It marks a non-focused agent participant in an undergoer construction.

92. Tanʔauka hutuŋ buntu

{tanʔa-uk-a} [hutuŋ]UN:PAT [buntu]TIME

hear-UF+1S.NFA-LNK monkey continuously

‘I continuously heard [the sound of] monkeys.’ (TVN-008-002:179)

Other pronouns do not fuse with their hosts. For instance haiða ‘have’ plus -ʔas ‘2S.F’ is always haiðaʔas and never *haiðas. None of the other suffixes (positions suf_4 to suf_7 in Table 10 on p. 150 above) are involved in any process of fusion.

B.Stress shift

As discussed in 2.5.2, stress in Takivatan typically resides on the penultimate syllable of the word root and most prefixes or suffixes never cause a shift in stress. The only exception are the focus suffixes -un and -an, which cause stress to shift one position to the right. This happens both when they function as verbal markers, as in B, and when they have a nominalising function, as in B.

93. patað [ˈpatað] → patað-un [paˈtaðun]

‘kill’ kill-UF

‘get killed, be killed’

sapil [ˈsapil] → kun-sapil-an [kunsaˈpilan]

‘shoe’ WEAR-shoe-LF

‘wear shoes’

94. sabaq [ˈsabaq] → sabaq-an [saˈbaqan]

‘sleep’ sleep-LF

‘sleeping spot’

ˈqaisqais is-qaisqais-un [isqaisˈqaisun]

‘mop the floor’ INSTR-mop-UF

‘floor mop’

The closer prosodic integration of these suffixes in the word is an indication that they are perceived to form a close unity with the roots with which they combine.

C.Pause insertion

It is a fair assumption that a word is normally prosodically continuous and that, conversely, the possibility to insert a pause between two morphemes, especially when this would not necessitate backtracking to the beginning of a word, would be a strong indicator of relative morphological freedom.

Pauses that do not trigger backtracking before suffixes have only been observed for bound pronouns (except -uk, probably because it is a fused form of a pronoun and UF -un; see A on p. 399). In the example below, there is no hesitation between anak and ak, but the two are separated by a short pause and ak is pronounced as an independent prosodic unit.

95. [...] Anak ak tiŋkul

{anak}AUX [ak]AG {tiŋkul}

by.oneself 1S.F stumble

‘I fell down by myself [i.e. nobody else caused it].’ (TVN-xx2-008:33)

Note that it is always possible to construct a bound equivalent of constructions like the above.

96. Anak-(ʔ)ak tiŋkul

by.oneself-1S.F stumble

Id.

In actual texts, it is often very hard to distinguish between constructions like C and C, unless there is either a conspicuous pause or a bound marker following the pronoun that has clear scope over the verb.

We will see in point E below that a similar choice between a bound and a free form can also be made for the emotive marker dau/du, (slot suf_4 in Table 10 above) which expresses the emotional involvement of the speaker in the event described by the clause. However, it is only possible to freely alternate between a free and a bound variant when the emotive marker is immediately following a verb, as in C-C, but not, for example, when it is following a nominal, as in C-C.

97. Tupaduka Sipuʔun tu […]

{tupa-du-ka} [Sipun]AG tu

tell-EMOT-DEF.SIT.DIST Japanese COMPL

‘And, well have you, the Japanese said […]’ (TVN-012-002:38)

98. Tupa dau-ka Sipuʔun tu […]

99. Tupa Sipuʔun dau tu […]

100. * Tupa Sipuʔun-du tu […]

If vowel-initial suffixes are preceded by a vowel, a glottal stop is commonly inserted (see C), but these glottal stops never evolve into pauses. In the rare case when a hesitation pause appears before any suffix other than a bound pronoun or an emotive marker, this always causes backtracking, i.e. the word has to be repeated from the beginning, as in example C below.

101. Anak… <backtrack> anaka taisʔan madas kamaduq

{anak-...}AUX {anak-a}AUX [taisʔan]AG

by.oneself by.oneself-LNK relative

{m-adas ka-maduq}

DYN-carry HARVEST-millet

‘[You don’t have to cook for us, because] we relatives carry [the food] ourselves to the millet harvest.’ (TVN-012-003:43)

It is not possible to insert a deliberate pause between any prefix and its host, with the exception of the irrealis prefix na- in slot pref_2, which is largely similar to emotive dau/du above and will be discussed in Ebelow.

102. […] Na <pause> luqlas <backtrack> naluqlasa sak

na {luqlas} {na-luqlas-a} [sak]AG

then yell IRR-yell- LNK 1S.F

‘[if the deer happens to run away,] then I will yell.’ (TVN-008-002:145)

It can occasionally happen that a speaker hesitates after a verbal prefix (slot pref_1 in Table 10), but before uttering the entire word. In most cases, this will trigger backtracking to the beginning of the word.

103. Haiða paun tu min- <backtrack> min-kulau

{haiða} [paun tu min-min-kulau]AG

have call+UF COMPL BECOME-BECOME-full.grown

‘There was what is called ‘minkulau’ [i.e. the month of the full-grown crops].’ (TVN-012-001:47)

However, there are some rare cases in which the speaker will not backtrack and simply continue the clause where he left off.

104. […] Valituni ma <pause> via tu mapataði uvaðʔað.

[vali-tun-i]AG {ma-via}AUX tu {ma-patað-i}

sun-DEF.REF.MED-PRT DYN-why COMPL DYN-kill-PRT

[uvaðʔað]UN:PAT

child

‘[…] that sun, why did it kill our child?’ (TVN-012-001:16)

This type of hesitation phenomenon is very unusual, but it has been observed with different speakers.

Curiously, this appears to indicate that these prefixes have a tendency to constitute separate phonological words. However, the typical examples of discrepancies between grammatical and phonological properties involving bound morphemes are situations where two grammatical words are part of the same phonological form (see Dixon & Aikhenvald (2002:27-31)). It is much less common that two morphemes show signs of phonological independence but are nevertheless clearly part of the same grammatical word.

D.Idiosyncratic use

It has been observed that derivational morphemes typically occur closer to the stem than inflectional morphemes. In Takivatan, it is not possible to make a systematic distinction between inflection and derivation on syntactic or semantic grounds. It could be assumed that when an affix develops idiosyncratic meaning extensions, they are derivational, especially when these meaning extensions trigger a change of word class.

The focus suffixes UF  un and LF  an (see 6) have productive nominalising functions and we could therefore assume that they have developed a derivational function and as a consequence a new ‘meaning.’ However, it is not so clear that the nominalising function of the focus suffixes is semantically distinct from their verbal function. For example, UF  un puts stress on the undergoer of an event both when it occurs on verbs and creates a noun and, what is more, the verbs and nouns that it creates can be formally identical, as illustrated in D.

105. siða ‘take, grasp’ > siða-un ‘take-UF’

> siðaun (n.) ‘something that is or has to be taken’

> siðaun (v.) ‘something will or has to be taken’

The same happens with some verbal prefixes, such as the resultative object prefix sin- (see 7.6.2).

106. patas ‘scribble, write’ > sin-patas ‘RES.OBJ-write’

> sinpatas (n.) ‘letter, message; something that has been written’

> sinpatas (v.) ‘something has been written on a paper’

This is such a striking feature across Austronesian languages of Taiwan and the Philippines that Starosta et al. (1982) have argued that undergoer and locative focus predicates are historically nominalisations and, although their hypothesis is controversial, it highlights the problems one encounters when one tries to impose a hard opposition between inflection and derivation on languages like Bunun.

E.Grammatical independence

A final element influencing the relative degree of boundedness of an affix to its root is its ability to function as an independent phonological and grammatical word. This can mean two things. First, it is possible that there is free variation between the bound and free form of a morpheme which does not substantially influence its meaning. This is the case with some personal pronouns and with the emotive marker dau, both of which were mentioned in C above.

Second, an affix might have a homophonous equivalent that functions as an independent word in a clause and has developed a function that is distinct from – but similar to – its bound incarnation. For instance, the morpheme na  functions as an irrealis marker indicating futurity, volition or result when it is attached to a verb, but can also occur as a clause-initial particle, in which case it indicates consequence or result.

Example E contains both usages. On the first and last line of the example below, it is used as an irrealis prefix, indicating volition in the first line and result in the last. Na in line 2, however, behaves phonologically as an independent particle. It can only indicate consequence or result in these contexts, never futurity or volition.

107. Namaqun ʔita, maqai masihala bahia, tudip, na, sintupadu tu maqai ʔitun, asa namasihal kakaunun.

{na-m-aqun} [ʔita]PLACE C1|C2

IRR-DYN-cut.off be.there+DIST

‘And when they [wanted to] go there to harvest (lit: when they wanted to cut off things in that place), …’

maqai {ma-sihal-a} [bahi-a]AG SUBORD2|C3

if STAT-good-SUBORD dream-SUBORD

‘… if the dream was good, …’

{tudip} C3|C4

past.time

‘… in those days …’

na {sintupa-du} tu C3|COMPL4

CONS signify-EMOT COMPL

‘… then it meant that …’

maqai {ʔitun} C4|C5

if be.there+MED

‘… if you went there …’

{asa}AUX {na-ma-sihal}AUX {‹ka›kaun-un}

can IRR-STAT-good ‹PL›-eat+UF-UF

‘… you could eat very well.’ (TVN-012-002:39)

The irrealis marker na- will be discussed in 5.1; the discourse marker na is not further discussed in this work.

3.2.3.Overview

A schematic overview of all boundedness criteria is given in Table 11 on the next page. The order of the affixes corresponds to the schema on p. 149 (repeated below for convenience) and indicates their ‘physical’ distance from the word root.

TAM- verbal0-n- TAM- STEM -focus -TAM -pron. -du -DEF -i -(ʔ)a

pref_2- pref_1- ‹inf›- -suf_1 -suf_2 -suf_3 -suf_4 -suf_5 -suf_6 -suf_7

All other boundedness criteria are plotted in columns A-E.

It is clear that, although there are loose correlations between the physical distance from an affix slot to the root and the other criteria for boundedness, many of these correlations appear to be contradictory. For instance, focus markers are the suffixes closest to the verb root but they never fuse with it. Suffixes from slots suf_2 and suf_3 all occur further from the root than focus suffixes, but they can fuse with the root. On the other hand, focus suffixes are the only affixes that can cause stress shift in the word root and the only suffixes that are used in nominalising processes. A pause can be inserted after the irrealis marker na- (pref_2) and after ma/pa/ka- (pref1c) but has never been attested for any of the intermediate pref_2-prefixes, which occur further from the root than the ma/pa/ka-trio (e.g. in sin-ka-daidað ‘show Christian charity’), but closer than IRR na-.

A. Fusion

B. Stress shift

C. Pause Insertion

D. Idiosyncrasy

E. Grammatical independence

Prefixes

pref_2

na-

N

N

Y

N

Y

pref1a

others

N

N

N

N

N

pref1b

is/sin-

N

N

N

Y

N

pref1c

ma/pa/ka-

Y

N

Y

N

N

STEM

Suffixes

suf_1

-un/an

N

Y

N

Y

N

suf_2

-in/aŋ

Y

N

N

N

N

suf_3

-uk

always

N

N

N

N

-ʔak/ʔas/…

Y

N

Y

N

Y

suf_4

-dau/du

N

N

Y

N

Y

suf_5

DEF

N

N

N

N

N

suf_6

-i/a

N

N

N

N

N

suf_7

SUBORD

N

N

N

N

N

Evidence for:

Y=yes, can occur

Closely bounded to root

affix-like

N=no, cannot occur

Neutral

↕

always=always occurs

Relative independence

clitic-like

Table 11 – Indicators for boundedness of affixes

As a result it is impossible to determine an unambiguous cut-off point where affixation stops and cliticisation begins and I would argue it is therefore better not to make such a distinction, all the more because it does not add anything to the grammatical analysis of Takivatan. It would rather introduce a superfluous – and problematic – categorisation in the grammar and would be a gross simplification of how boundedness works in Takivatan.

3.3.Word classes

This chapter is a discussion of how word classes can be established in Takivatan, what these word classes are, and which properties and grammatical functions they have. The first question is particularly relevant in the wider context of Austronesian linguistics, where the usefulness of traditional word classes has repeatedly been questioned or even given up on (e.g. in Broschart (1997) and Himmelmann (2006)). In the remainder of this section, I will therefore first justify word class distinctions in Takivatan explicitly. We will see that Takivatan clearly distinguishes nouns from verbs and that most other word classes (except for some invariable words, like conjunctions or interjections) can be roughly classified depending on how much their behavior has in common with these two base categories.

3.3.1.Nouns and verbs

In 3.1 and 3.2 we talked about affixation that only applies to verbs, but so far it has been left unexpressed what a noun or a verb in Takivatan exactly is. Despite some doubts over the existence of a clear noun-verb distinction in some parts of the Austronesian language tree, Takivatan Bunun nouns and verbs can largely be defined along traditional lines, at least when one takes into account some of the grammatical particularities of the language.

One assumption I will make is that word classes are vague or fluid rather than discreet, i.e. class membership of nouns and verbs is determined by the behaviour of prototypical members of the category (cf. Taylor (1995:183-196)) and there is a fair amount of deviation from the prototype, in the sense that there are atypical members within each class and that typical members can sometimes exhibit atypical behaviour. This idea of word classes being somewhat vague is nothing new: Sapir (1921:117) already stated that he thought classical word class distinctions were “only a vague, wavering approximation to a consistently worked out inventory of experience.” Another assumption is that the word class of a lexical item can only be determined definitively from the moment that it functions in a grammatical context (cf. Croft (2000) and Lehmann (2008)).

A.Referential function

Nouns are words that prototypically refer to material referents (i.e. persons, things, places) in the real world. Typical nouns in Takivatan include:

108. Bahuan ‘Ma-Yuan village’

iðuq ‘orange; citrus fruit’

lukis ‘wood; tree’

Tiaŋ ‘male first name’

Verbs prototypically refer to events (i.e. action, processes and states) in the real world. Typical verbs in Bunun include:

109. masabaq ‘sleep’

mihalaŋ ‘be ill’

sislup ‘slurp; inhale’

tupa ‘speak’

Less typical members of the verb class are adjectives, which are a specific subclass of stative verbs in Bunun, and auxiliaries, which typically do not refer to an event by themselves but rather define a quality of the main event expressed in a clause.

B.Arguments vs. predicates

Syntactically, nouns prototypically function as the head of an argument or, in semantic terms, they express a real world entity that in some way participates in the event expressed by the clause as a whole. Verbs prototypically function either as predicates or as modifiers to a predicate (i.e. auxiliaries). In other words, they either express the central event in a clause (as tasʔi ‘build’ does in B) or adapt that event in some way (as kitŋa ‘begin’ does in B, where it modifies baðbað ‘talk’). Verbs that typically function as the central event in a clause will be called verbs proper, while those that typically modify another event will be called auxiliaries.

110. Namatasʔiʔak busul.

{na-ma-tasʔi}[-ʔak]AG [busul]UN

IRR-DYN-build-1S.F gun

‘I want to make a gun’ (TVN-xx2-004:20)

111. Nakitŋa sak laupaku baðbað.

{na-kitŋa}AUX [sak]AG [laupaku]TIME {baðbað}

IRR-begin 1S.F now talk

‘Now, I will start to talk’ (adapted from TVN-012-001:10)

A verb can have arguments, which express the participants in the event it expresses and which are typically expressed by nominal phrases. Nouns rarely function as predicate heads, and do so only in minor clause types like definitional or locative clauses.

112. Lumaqki akia.

[lumaq-ki]LO [aki-a]AG

house-DEF.SIT.PROX grandfather-LNK

‘Grandfather is at home.’ (BNN-N-002:239)

Verbs do not function as the head of an argument, unless they are nominalised (see below).

C.Focus marking

Focus and aspectual marking – which in many languages can be used to distinguish verbs from nouns (see e.g. Schachter (1985:10) or Evans (2000:712)) – can at first sight not be used as unambiguous criteria in Takivatan, since both nouns and verbs can take focus suffixes and aspectual affixes, with a number of restrictions. In Takivatan, focus marking on verbs cross-references the verb with the focused participant of the clause (see 6.2). UF -un indicates that it focuses on the undergoer, and LF -an indicates focus on spatial location. However, Takivatan focus markers are also productively used in derivational processes (see 6.3). In many cases, the same forms with UF –un or LF -an can be used both in nominal and verbal slots. For instance, the locative focus of babaliv ‘habitually sell/buy’ can be used both as a verb meaning ‘habitually sell in a particular location’ and a nominalisation meaning ‘shop; place where things are habitually sold’.

113. Babalivanʔak qaimaŋsuð

{‹ba›baliv-an}[-ʔak]AG [qaimaŋsuð]UN

‹HABIT›-sell-LF-1S.F thing

‘I am usually selling things in that place’ (constr.)

114. Haiða babalivan han ʔita

{haiða} [babalivan] [han ʔita]PLACE

have shop at there

‘There is a shop over there’ (constr.)

There is a transparent semantic relation between the cross-referencing and the nominalising function of focus markers (the latter probably has its origin in the former), but both are functionally distinct and have a different morphosyntactic effect. Nominalising focus markers are word-class-changing, whereas cross-referencing ones are not. This is illustrated by fact that the deverbal nouns created by focus markers cannot take arguments.

D.TAM marking

Tense, aspect and modality markers can attach both to verbs and to nouns (TAM marking on nouns is discussed in 7.7.). Below are two examples of aspectual marking: on a verb in D and on a noun in D.

115. maina-han-aŋ

ABL-go-PROG

‘still be coming from’ or ‘while coming from’ (TVN-008-002:6)

116. uvaðʔað-aŋ

child-PROG

‘when still being a child; during childhood’ (TVN-012-002:38)

There is no observable difference in function or semantics of the aspectual markers on verbs and on nouns. However, aspect is far more common on verbs than on nouns and its usage on nouns is largely restricted to two distinct nominal subclasses: (1) terms that classify humans according to the progression of life and (2) nouns referring to temporal concepts.

E.Bound pronouns

Verbs are unambiguously distinguishable from nouns in their ability to take bound pronouns (see e.g. 3.1.1 on p. 146, B on p. 168 and C on p. 169 above). Bound pronouns never bind to nouns, not even in equational sentences.

F.Definiteness markers

Unlike in most other languages, where definiteness is a typically nominal category, all definiteness markers in Takivatan can attach to verbs as well as nouns. There are distributional differences: the neutral markers  ti/ tun/ ta are more likely to occur on nouns, whereas the situational (i.e. encoding spatio-temporal location) markers  ki/ kun/ ka have a slightly stronger tendency to occur on verbs. However, these are only tendencies: it will become clear in 9.1 that both the k-paradigm and the t-paradigm readily occur with nouns, verbs and other word classes.

G.Verbal prefixes

Verbal prefixes primarily occur on verbs, i.e. they either combine with verbal hosts or have a verbalising function. It is possible that they crop up in deverbal nominalisations, but in those cases there is always a visible derivational process that derives the noun from the verb-and-prefix combination. For example, the stem daiŋ ‘big’ can be used as an adjective by adding the stative prefix ma-:

117. Mastaʔan tu madaiŋ

{mastaʔan}AUX tu {ma-daiŋ}

extremely COMPL STAT-big

‘It was extremely big’ (TVN-012-003:3)

This form cannot be used as a nominal concept. However, a nominalising suffix  ʔað can be added to create the noun madaiŋʔað ‘elder, old person.’

118. Maqi saduʔu madaiŋʔaða […]

maqi {saduʔu} [madaiŋʔað-a]UN

if see elder-SUBORD

‘If you see an elder, [you have to be respectful towards him or her]’ (TVN-013-001:22)

Interestingly, the nominalised form can also occur in contexts where it functions very much like a verb, as in G, where it is the second verb in a serial verb construction and has taken a perfective suffix.

119. Madiqla madaiŋʔaðin.

{ma-diqla} {ma-daiŋ-ʔað-in}

STAT-bad STAT-old-PERSON-PRV

‘It is bad to have become an old person.’ (TVN-xx2-001:168)

Words functioning as nouns can never contain the dynamic prefix ma- and if DYN ma- attaches to nouns, they invariably function as verbs (see A).

120. qanvaŋ ‘sambar’ > ma-qanvaŋ ‘behave like a sambar’

H.Reduplication

The function of the same type of reduplication is often different for nouns and verbs (see 8). An illustration is stem reduplication, which cannot be used productively with nouns (although there are instances of historical stem-reduplication on nouns). However, stem reduplication on verbs is productive and typically creates a generic event (‘whenever one performs action X’; see 8.5).

CV-reduplication occurs both with nouns and verbs, but it has distinctly different functions. With nouns, it typically indicates concepts such as plurality, whereas with verbs it is used for realizing different kinds of lexical aspect. Only in a small number of deverbal nominalisations, CV-reduplication can indicate habituality.

All criteria for distinguishing nouns from verbs are summarized in Table 12.

Noun

Verb

1

Can be head of a predicate

+

+++

2

Can be modifier in a predicate

―

+++

3

Can have arguments

(+)

+++

4

Can occur in serial verb constructions

―

++

5

Can be head of an argument

+++

―

6

Can be modifier in an argument

+

+

7

Can have focus affixes

++

+++

8

Can have aspectual affixes

+

+++

9

Can have bound pronouns

―

+++

10

Can have -ti/-tun/-ta

+++

++

11

Can have -ki/-kun/-ka

++

+++

13

Can have verbal prefixes

(+)

+++

16

Can be stem-reduplicated

―

+

17

Typical function of stem-RED

lexical aspect, generic

18

Can be CV-reduplicated

++

++

19

Typical function of CV-RED

pl, rec, habit

lexical aspect (habit, dur, iter, compl, distr), gnr

22

Refers to an event

+

+++

24

Refers to a referent

+++

+

(+++ : typically; ++ : often; + : rarely; ― : never; (+) : only specific members)

Table 12 – Criteria for the distinction between nouns and verbs.

It is clear from the table above that, although there are plenty of criteria that help us to establish a noun-verb distinction, most are not reducible to a binary contrast between presence and absence but rather observable as statistical distributions.

3.3.2.Intermediate word classes

Intermediate word classes are word classes that can roughly be defined by stating how noun-like or verb-like they behave in a syntactic context. They include all word classes (except for nouns and verbs), excluding conjunctions, interjections, discourse markers, and some invariable grammatical markers. Intermediate word classes are all closed, except maybe for the auxiliaries.

Table 13 gives an overview of criteria for distinguishing intermediate word classes from nouns and verbs, using an extended set of the criteria in Table 12. Unfortunately, it is impossible to give a detailed explanation of all criteria in this work, but most should be self-evident, possibly with the exception of 14 and 15. The phrase ‘without triggering word-class change’ is crucial in both cases. For instance, it is grammatically possible for nouns or pronouns to combine with a dynamic verbal prefix ma- or the stative prefix ma-, but in both cases, this will change the word class of the noun or verb (to a dynamic verb and an adjective respectively).

Table 14 shows us that only nouns, verbs and adjectives are open classes. Most word classes are closed. Numerals are not truly an open word class: despite the fact that it is theoretically possible to recursively create new numeral compounds, the largest indigenous numeral root is -saba for hundredfolds and even when using Japanese loans no forms larger than 10,000 have been attested.

Table 13 – Criteria for word class distinctions in intermediate word classes

Word class

Word class

Nouns

open

Time words

closed

Demonstratives

closed

Manner words

closed

Anaphoric pronouns

closed

Question words

closed

Personal pronouns

closed

Auxiliaries

closed

Numerals

closed

Adjectives

open

Place words

closed

Verbs

open

Table 14 – Open and closed word classes

Chapter 4.Compounding

In the first section of this chapter, we discuss the typical characteristics of compounds and the grammatical criteria that can be used for identifying them, although, as 4.1.3 illustrates, the boundaries between compounding and paraphrase are sometimes vague. Almost all compounds in Takivatan Bunun are nominal. Sections 4.2-4.4 discuss three types of compounds that are distinguished on the basis of the word-class of the modifying element (respectively nouns, verbs and adjectives). In section 4.5, we then turn to the somewhat special case of proper name compounds.

4.1.Introduction

4.1.1.Frequency and characteristics

In Takivatan Bunun, compounding is relatively rare, possibly because there is not much need for it given the abundance of derivational affixes. Table 15 is an overview of the proportion of compounded and non-compounded forms for nouns and verbs in the lexicon.[19]

Non-compound

Compound

Total

#

%

#

%

#

Nouns

909

89.56

106

10.44

1015

Verbs

1128

99.73

3

0.27

1131

Table 15 – Distribution of compounded and non-compounded forms

A large majority of compounds are head-initial, i.e. their head precedes the nominal, verbal or adjectival modifier. This corresponds to the typical word order for attributive modification of nouns in Takivatan, which in all likelihood was head-initial originally but has changed to a head-final construction under influence of Mandarin Chinese. Head-initial constructions are still commonly used with some high-frequency adjectives and with pronominal modifiers expressing inalienable possession.

Examples of the modern pre-nominal attributive construction are given in 4.1.1, with parallel examples in Mandarin. The examples in 4.1.1 illustrate the original post-nominal modifying construction in Bunun. Example 4.1.1 shows that the constructional template for compounding is identical to that of traditional Bunun compounding.

121. Pre-nominal attribution

[[ma-daiŋ]ATTR tu babalivan] [[大] ATTR 的 商店]

STAT-big ATTR shop dà de shāng.diàn

‘a large shop’ big ATTR shop

[[inak] ATTR tu tina] [[我] ATTR 的 母親]

1S.POSS ATTR mother wǒ de mǔ.qīn

‘my mother’ my ATTR mother

122. Post-nominal attribution

[babalivan [daiŋ/daiŋʔað] ATTR] [tina [nak] ATTR]

shop big mother 1S.N

‘a large shop’ (refers to any large shop) ‘my mother’

123. Compound

[babalivan [daiŋʔað] ATTR]

shop big

‘supermarket’

The vast majority of compounds are nominal, i.e. they are used in noun phrase slots, and have either nominal heads or ambiguous heads that can be interpreted either as nouns or verbs. Two of the three verbal compounds so far attested are mentioned in 4.4.1. All are primarily used as nominal compounds and occur only sporadically in verbal slots.

As far as I am aware, all compounds except one are endocentric, i.e. they describe a subtype of the concept described by their head. The only exception is tama tina (lit. ‘father mother’ > ‘parents’), which is a coordinate compound, i.e. a compound in which the two constituent parts are propositionally equal (see Aikhenvald (2007:30-31) or Fabb (1998:66-7)).

4.1.2.Criteria for identifying compounds

Aikhenvald (2007:24-28) identifies a number of criteria for identifying compounds, three of which are relevant here:

•  Compounds often form one phonological word and, as a consequence, have just one primary stress.

•  It is typically not possible to insert morphemes in between the compound’s constituent parts.

•  Compounds tend to develop non-compositional, idiosyncratic meanings.

Takivatan Bunun compounds tend to behave like one phonological word in discourse. Words tend to have penultimate stress (see 2.5.2) and in compounds this often results in the head of the compound becoming unstressed or taking secondary stress, and the main stress shifting to the modifying element.

124. baitu tiŋmut [ɓaituˈtiŋmut̚] rather than [ˈɓaitu ˈtiŋmut̚]

time morning

‘(in the) morning’ < lit: ‘(at) the time of the morning’

Another property of compounds is that it is impossible to insert a lexical word in between its component parts. For instance, while both baitu tiŋmut (lit. ‘time morning’ > ‘morning time’) and haip tiŋmut (lit. ‘today morning’ > ‘this morning’) exist as expressions in Takivatan, it is impossible to insert haip ‘today, now’ into the string baitu tiŋmut, although semantically this would be nonsensical.

125. *baitu haip tiŋmut

time today morning

Semantically, most compounds refer to idiosyncratic concepts. Often, they are no longer semantically fully compositional, i.e. the meaning of these compounds as a whole cannot be directly derived from the meanings of their component parts, but tend to refer to a specific subset of the set of referents which the compositional meaning would refer to. This is clear from the following example, in which iskan ivuð refers to a river eel and not, as its composing parts suggest, to any kind of snake-like fish.

126. iskan ivuð

fish snake

‘eel’

To avoid all confusion, we will define a compound as follows:

A complex form with a nominal head that is typically realized as a single phonological word and is commonly used to denote an idiosyncratic concept. The latter means that it is consistently employed for referring to a subset of the set of referents that would have been the potential target of the complex expression, if it were to be used with its fully compositional meaning.

4.1.3.Compounding vs. idiomatic paraphrastic constructions

A restrictive definition is useful because most Takivatan Bunun compounds are semantically transparent to fluent native speakers and they tend to be formed through productive grammatical processes, so in quite some cases it is difficult to choose whether a form should be considered as a compound or as a paraphrastic construction. This thin line between compounding and paraphrase is conspicuously present in Bunun dialects because paraphrase is a common way to denominate new concepts that enter the language. For instance, there is no traditional term to describe a rucksack or backpack, since they were not used by the Takivatan of old, but it is perfectly possible to describe them as amaun tu qavaŋ, literally ‘a bag that can be carried on one’s back.’ Similarly, a suitcase is an aŋkusun tu qavaŋ ‘a bag carried in one’s hands.’

127. ama-un tu qavaŋ aŋkus-un tu qavaŋ

carry.on.back-UF ATTR bag hold.in.hands-UF ATTR bag

‘rucksack’ ‘suitcase’

These forms cannot be considered to be compounds, since they are semantically fully compositional and they do not behave like one phonological word. However, in a number of cases with post-nominal adjectives, constructions that are semantically fully transparent and should therefore be treated as attributive constructions tend to be integrated into a single phonological word, as is apparent from the stress shift in the examples below.

128. quma daiŋað [qumɑˈɗɛiŋað] rather than [ˈquma ˈɗɛiŋað]

land big

‘big plot of land’

buan paqun-an [buampɑˈqunan] rather than [ˈbuan pɑˈqunan]

month weed-LF

‘weeding month’

4.2.Noun-noun compounds

All noun-noun compounds attested so far are head-initial. Two constructional subtypes can be distinguished.

4.2.1.Taxonomic compounds

A number of compound nouns consist of a nominal head followed by a nominal modifier that defines a semantic subclass of the head. For instance, ivuð ‘snake’ in iskan ivuð ‘eel’ defines that the fish in question is snake-like. The compound as a whole refers to a subtype of the concept describing the head in isolation. Below are a number of examples.

129. iskan ivuð baluku qaisiŋ

fish snake bowl rice

‘eel’ ‘rice bowl’

kaviað binanauʔað baitu tiŋmut

friend woman period morning

‘girlfriend’ ‘(in the) morning’

ma-daiŋʔað-in binanauʔað baitu tauŋqu

STAT-old-PRV woman period zenith

‘elderly woman, female elder’ ‘(at) noon’ (lit: ‘period of sun’s zenith’)

Madaiŋʔaðin binanauʔað ‘elderly woman’ is interesting in that its head is ambiguous, i.e. madaiŋʔað ‘elder’ is a nominalised form derived from the adjective madaiŋ ‘big’, but can still take verbal morphology such as the perfective suffix -in. Madaiŋʔaðin literally means ‘a person who has already become old’.

4.2.2.Instrument-affect compounds

Instrumental compounds are a group of compounds in which the head noun is always a deverbal nominalisation referring to the instrument (or receptacle) of an action and in which the modifier refers to the affected object of that action. In all forms so far observed, the nominalised head has habitual reduplication (as in both 4.2.2 and 4.2.2), an instrumental prefix is- (as in 4.2.2), or a locative focus suffix -an (as in 4.2.2).

130. Kukulut lukis

‹ku›kulut lukis

‹HABIT›-cut tree

‘wood saw’ (lit. ‘an object used for cutting trees’)

131. Iskukulut saŋlav

is-‹ku›kulut saŋlav

INSTR-‹HABIT›-cut vegetable

‘kitchen knife’ (lit. ‘an object used for cutting vegetables’)

132. Padaŋiʔan kasi

pa-daŋi-an kasi

CAUS.DYN-put-LF candy

‘candy box’ (lit. ‘an object used as a location to store candy’)

Note that the nominalised form kukulut is used as a general term for knives and saws. All three examples above can be used as full clauses, as illustrated in 4.2.2-4.2.2.[20]

133. Kukulut (tama) lukis.

{‹ku›kulut} [(tama)]AG [lukis]UN:PAT

‹HABIT›-cut father tree

‘(Father) cuts down trees.’ (constr.)

134. Iskukulut aipi saŋlav.

{is-‹ku›kulut} [(aipi)]AG [saŋlav]UN:PAT

INSTR-‹HABIT›-cut DEM.S.PROX vegetable

‘(This one here) is using [a knife] to cut vegetables.’ (constr.)

135. Padaŋiʔan aipi kasi

{pa-daŋi-an} [(aki)]AG [kasi]UN

CAUS.DYN-put-LF grandfather candy

‘Grandfather puts the candies in a box.’ (constr.)

4.3.Noun-adjective compounds

Adjectival modifiers in nominal compounds almost always follow the nominal head. As mentioned before, this corresponds to the more traditional post-nominal attribution strategy in Takivatan, which is at present largely replaced by pre-nominal attribution. Some examples:

136. hutan duqlas hutan daŋkas

yam/sweet.potato white yam/sweet.potato red

‘white yam’ ‘sweet potato’

dalaq daŋkas

soil red

‘red clay, red bricks’

Some combinations with the adjectives daiŋ(ʔað) ‘big’ and tikis ‘little’, both of which commonly occur in post-nominal attributive constructions, have developed specialized meaning connotations next to their normal compositional meaning:

137. iðuq daiŋ iðuq tikis

orange large orange small

‘large orange’ or ‘grapefruit; pomelo’ ‘small orange’ or ‘tangerine’

isiŋ daiŋʔað[21] isiŋ tikis

doctor large doctor small

‘large doctor’s practice’ or ‘hospital’ ‘small doctor’s practice’ or

‘apothecary’

4.4.Noun-verb compounds

4.4.1.With post-nominal modifier

A number of compounds, such as those referring to time periods such as months and holidays, have a post-nominal verbal specifier.

138. buan alʔu-an-in buan paqun-an

month rest-LF-PRV month cut.off-LF

‘resting month’ ‘weeding month’

139. lusʔan pasiða lusʔan min-kulau

holiday/celebrate marry holiday/celebrate BECOME-full.grown

‘wedding, wedding celebration’ ‘millet-harvest festival’

or or

‘X is celebrating his/her wedding’ ‘X is celebrating the millet harvest’

The fact that lusʔan in the two examples at the bottom of 4.4.1 has both a nominal and a verbal meaning does not set it apart from many other words in Takivatan (see e.g. D ex. D and D on p. 162); time words like lusʔan are a separate word class with both nominal and verbal characteristics. What is more unusual is that the compounds formed with lusʔan as a head can occur in both nominal and verbal slots.

4.4.2.With pre-nominal modifier (verb-noun compound)

Occasionally, nominal compounds occur that are right-headed and have a verbal modifier.

140. pan-hapav-un hulus

AT.SIDE-be.at.higher.location-UF clothes

verbal modifier nominal head

‘coat; outer clothing’

kan-tundaq mali

KICK-kick ball

verbal modifier nominal head

‘football’

These constructions are rare and tend to encode concepts that entered Bunun culture only recently. Traditionally, the Bunun only wore one layer of garments, and football – not a popular sport in Taiwan – has probably only been known to them for a couple of decades. Their relative youth might explain the deviant constructional template: Chinese influence on Bunun is likely to have become greater after the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945 and most compounds in Mandarin or Southern Min are right-headed.

141. Mandarin Southern Min

外 套 外 衣

wài tào gōa i

outside suit/jacket outside clothes

‘coat’ ‘coat’

足 球 足 球 or 腳 球

zú qiú chiok kiû kha kiû

foot ball foot ball foot/leg ball

‘football’ ‘football’ ‘football’

The examples in 4.4.2 show that only panhapavun hulus ‘coat’ might be a direct semantic calque from Chinese. Kantundaq mali could be interpreted as a constructional calque: it only borrowed the right-headed compounding construction and then fitted in a modifier that made sense semantically from a Takivatan point-of-view.

Both examples in 4.4.2 are on the surface formally identical to full clauses (panahapavun hulus can mean ‘the clothes are worn as an outer layer’, kantundaq mali ‘[one] kicks the ball’), somewhat like the examples 4.2.2-4.2.2 on p. 185.

142. verb-noun compound:

[[pan-hapav-un]ATTR hulus]

AT.SIDE-outside-UN clothes

Lit: ‘clothes that are being put at the outside’ > ‘coat; outer layer of clothing’

143. clause:

{pan-hapav-un} [Ø]AG [hulus]UN:PAT

AT.SIDE-outside-UN clothes

‘[Agent] wears these clothes as an outer layer’

In 4.4.2, the verbal form panhapavun functions as an attributive modifier of the head of the noun phrase, hulus. The construction as a whole is an unchangeable nominal phrase with an idiomatic meaning. In 4.4.2, on the other hand, panhapavun is the main predicate of a clause that has hulus as a patient argument and an unexpressed argument as an agent. The identification of the agent depends on the pragmatic context.

4.5.Compounded proper names

Given that Bunun first names are typically inherited from grandparent to grandchild (see 1.2.3, p. 73), it often occurs that their isolated use causes confusion. For instance, in my fieldwork village the female name Uli refers to at least four different people. First names, especially of males, can therefore be specified with a nominal post-head modifier. On the basis of semantics, four constructions can be distinguished, all of which are head-initial.

4.5.1.First name – previous name

Before the coming of Christianity, shamanic healers tried to avert the evil forces that had brought grave illness by changing the sick person’s name. The old name could not be used anymore as a term of address, but it was sometimes used to distinguish between individuals. Traditional shamanism largely fell into disuse during the course of the twentieth century and this type of proper name specification is today only found for people over the age of 60.

144. Liban Quas ‘Liban, who was formerly called Quas’

Muʔuð Bali ‘Muʔuð, who was formerly called Bali’

Vau Kavida ‘Vau, who was formerly called Kavida’

4.5.2.First name - place name

In some cases, a certain person is idiosyncratically associated with a particular location. So far, I have found only one example in the corpus, but constructions like this are not uncommon.

145. Tiaŋ Padlaiʔan ‘Tiaŋ from Padlaiʔan

Interestingly, the form above can be contracted to a single phonological and grammatical word. The first syllable then undergoes /ia/-metathesis (cf. C) and becomes Taiŋpadlaiʔan [tɛiŋpadˈlɛiʔan].

Most family names, clan names and subclan names are also place names or derived from place names with a locative suffix -an and therefore follow the same template (consider for instance the name of one of my informants:Vau Taisnunan). The difference with the example above is that they are conventional denominators for certain families and are inherited from father to son. Padlaiʔan in example 4.5.2, on the other hand, is an individual specifier for a certain person that lived in the mountains near present-day Qi-mei (奇美).

4.5.3.First name - name of wife

Males can also be specified by attaching the name of their wife. These combinations are idiomatic: they can only be used if the entire speech community is clear about the identity of the wife of the man in question.

146. Ali Mua ‘Ali, whose wife is Mua’

Hadul Laŋui ‘Hadul, whose wife Laŋui’

4.5.4.First name - moniker

A final way for disambiguating between two people with the same first name is by adding a term referring to a distinctive feature of one of the men in question. This moniker can be an adjective (as in the first example of 4.5.4), a noun (as in the second and fourth examples) or a historical form that is now in disuse (as in the third example).

147. Atul Daiŋ ‘Big Atul’

Lumav Lapa ‘Lumav the Trumpet’

Lumav Qaqatu ‘Lumav the Masterful’

Tiaŋ Pantu ‘Tiaŋ the Student’

The adjectival stem daiŋ is probably the most commonly used specifier of this kind. The form qaqatu means ‘skilful in handicrafts’, but it is presently not used in the Bunun language anymore and it is not clear to which word class it belongs. Lapa is a loan from Chinese 喇叭lǎ bā ‘trumpet’.

Chapter 5.Tense-aspect-mood affixes

Takivatan Bunun has a number of affixes that express tense, aspect and mood, but only four are used commonly: the irrealis prefix na- (5.1), the progressive suffix -aŋ (5.2), the perfective suffix -in (5.3), and the past infix ‹in› (5.4). A fifth, the past infix ‹i› occurs only occasionally (5.5). Tense-aspect affixes can combine with verbs, auxiliaries, adjectives, time, place and manner words and, more rarely, with nouns and pronouns.

The definitions of aspect and tense used here were inspired by and are by and large compatible with general linguistic reference works such as Matthews (2005), Brown (2006) and LiDo (s.d.), and with Comrie (1976a) and Comrie (1985). Wherever confusion is possible, the exact use of terminology is concisely mentioned at the beginning of the paragraph.

5.1.The irrealis prefix na-

The irrealis marker na- indicates that an event has not yet taken place but is expected or known to happen through the progression of a causal chain of events. It is typically used for expressing futurity, consequence, volition and imperatives.[22]

5.1.1.Futurity

The irrealis marker is used for expressing relative futurity, i.e. for referring to events that are posterior to a reference time, which might – as in 5.1.1 – or might not – as in the complement clause of 5.1.1 – be the time of utterance.

148. Nasiða qaimaŋsuð!

{na-siða} [qaimaŋsuð]UN:PAT

IRR-take thing

‘I will pick up the things [we just talked about].’ (TVN-xx2-001:82)

149. Na, asa baðbaði Kaliŋkuti sasbinaði, Nantu sasbinað tu [...] namaquaqa daŋiʔanan.

na {asa}AUX {baðbað-i} [Kaliŋku-ti sasbinað-i

CONS must talk-DEF GeoName-DEF.REF.PROX policeman-PRT

Nantu sasbinað]AG tu C1|COMPL2

GeoName policeman COMPL

{na-maquaq-a} {daŋi-an-an}

IRR-how-LNK put-LF-LF

‘And then, the policemen from Kaliŋku and the policemen of Nantou had to talk about how [the Bunun] would have to be settled.’ (TVN-012-002:34)

In narrative texts, na- normally expresses that an event is in the future relative to the time of another event that is expressed (or implied) in the text. This implies that it can refer to events that are in fact in the past relative to the time of narration. In these situations, the irrealis marker often has a connotation of consequence or volition, but it does not have to. In 5.1.1, one could assume a consequential relation between SUBORD1 and C2, but it is not necessary.

150. A maq a muki itiʔa, nadaŋaðan amu.

a maq a [mu-ki]AG/LDIS {iti-ʔa} SUBORD1|C2

INTER DEFIN LNK 2P.N-DEF.SIT.PROX be.here-SUBORD

{na-daŋað-an} [amu]UN:PAT

IRR-help-LF 2P.F

‘And as for you [plural], when you are here, you will receive help here.’ (TVN-012-002:40)[23]

In daily conversation, it occasionally happens that na- is used to expresses absolute futurity, i.e. futurity that has the time of utterance as a reference point. (See Comrie (1985:36-82) for a discussion of absolute and relative tense.)

151. Kavaʔa nabalivan mita hulus.

{kavaʔa na-baliv-an} [mita]AG [hulus]UN

immediately IRR-buy-LF 1I.N clothes

‘We will immediately go [there][24] to buy your clothes.’ (BNN-N-002:139)

However, examples like 5.1.1above are the exception rather than the rule: most irrealis markers in non-narrative texts tend to have clear overtones of consequence or volition and na- is never an obligatory marker of absolute futurity. It is perfectly possible to have a future event without explicit irrealis marking, as in the following examples (Ø- indicates the slot where na- would occur if it were present).

152. Matiŋmut munbaʔav

{ma-tiŋmut}AUX {Ø-mun-baʔav}

DYN-morning Ø-ALL-up.in.the.mountains

‘[Tomorrow] morning, [I will] go up in the mountains.’ (constr.)

5.1.2.Consequence

In many situations, the irrealis marker does not encode a purely temporal meaning, but also indicates a consequential relationship. Example 5.1.2 is taken from a story telling about the animist beliefs of the Bunun of yore. The narrator has just explained that before the millet harvest could begin, the family elders first had to evoke a prophetic dream. If the dream was auspicious, and the men went out in the fields (expressed by ʔitun in C2), they would have sufficient food for the entire year.

153. […] Na, sintupadu tu maqai ʔitun asa namasihal kakaunun

na {sintupa-du} tu C1|COMPL2

well signify-EMOT COMPL

maqai {ʔitun}AUX {asa} C2|C3

if be.there+MED want

{na-ma-sihal}AUX {‹ka›kaun-un}

IRR-STAT-good ‹INTENS›-eat+UF-UF

‘It meant that if you want to be there, [as a result] you would eat very well.’ (TVN-012-001:39)

Example 5.1.2 is interesting because, while the first clause (C1) should be read as an imperative, the second and third clauses (C2 and C3) do not express the consequence of what would happen when the command would be obeyed, but rather what would occur if it were not obeyed (that is, if you would marry one of your own blood relatives).

154. Nitu qaðmaŋ siðaei tuqsisia masðaŋ siduqi, namalatpu dau namatað.

{Ni-tu}AUX {qaðmaŋ}AUX {siða-e-i}

NEG-COMPL be.random take-VL-PRT

[tuq-‹si›sia masðaŋ siduq-a-i]UN:PAT C1|C2

speak-‹HUM›-ANAPH same clan-VL-PRT

{na-ma-latpu} C2|C3 dau {na-matað}

IRR-STAT-suffer.adversity EMOT IRR-die

‘You cannot randomly take [i.e. marry] the aforementioned woman that is from the same clan, because you will bring adversity upon yourself and you will die.’ (TVN-008-012:90)

5.1.3.Volition

Finally, IRR na- can also be used in main clauses or clausal complements to express volition or planning. (Altenatively or in addition, it is also possible to use the modal verb asa ‘want, must’.)

155. Namunhanʔak Taihuku.

na-mun-han-ʔak Taihuku

IRR-ALL-go-1S.F GeoName

‘I am planning to go to Taipei.’ (TVN-xx2-003:2)

In 5.1.3, IRR na- is ambiguous: it refers to an event that has not yet happened, but it appears to have a volitional undertone, since the narrator uses the clause as an immediate prelude to his introducing himself.

156. A, naŋausaŋ saikin taqu tu simaq sak

a {na-ŋaus-aŋ}AUX [saikin]AG {taqu} tu C1|COMPL2

INTER IRR-front.side-PROG 1S.F tell COMPL

{simaq} [sak]AG

who 1S.F

‘First, I will/want to tell you who I am.’ (TVN-012-001:4)

In the following example, na- in C2 must indicate volition, and not futurity, since the elders cannot know yet if they will be able to work on the land: they first need to determine whether their actions are appropriate by having a prophetic dream.

157. Maqai maqabasi tupa tu madaiŋʔaði namuqumaka taŋusaŋ matibahi.

maqai {ma-qabas-i}AUX {tupa} tu [madaiŋʔað-i]AG C1|COMPL2

if DYN-former.time-PRT say COMPL elder-PRT

‘If in the old days the elders said that …’

{na-mu-quma-ka} C2|C3

IRR-ALL-land-DEF.SIT.DIST

‘… they wanted to work on the land, …’

{taŋus-aŋ mati-bahi}

beforehand-PROG GRAB-dream

‘… they had to induce a prophetic dream beforehand’ (TVN-012-001:38)

5.1.4.Imperatives

In some situations, the irrealis marker can be used for commands. In 5.1.4, the irrealis marker expresses a consequence with a prescriptive undertone.

158. Haiða buan paqunana, namunqumaka […]

{haiða} [buan.paqunan]-a C1|C2

have weeding.month-SUBORD

{na-mun-quma-ka}

IRR-ALL-land-DEF.SIT.DIST

‘And when there is the weeding month, you must go to the field [in order to sow].’ (TVN-012-001:44)

Na- can also be used for first-person imperatives, equivalent to English let’s. In 5.1.4, it is obvious that the irrealis does not simply indicate a future event, but implies that the speaker invites the listener(s) to join him for dinner.

159. Namuskun ata maun

{na-muskun}AUX [ata]AG {maun}

IRR-do.together 1I.F eat

‘Let’s eat together!’ (TVN-xx2-001:65)

5.1.5.Boundedness issues

The irrealis prefix is the least bound of the tense-aspect affixes, and probably of all affixes in general. As has been indicated in E, IRR na- behaves like a bound morpheme in some constructions, but appears to be a free particle in others. In the following example everything indicates that na- is a bound morpheme: it is unstressed and it is pronounced with the following verbal form as one phonological group, as is apparent from the necessity to insert a glottal ligature between the two vowels.

160. [...] Naʔiskuðakuða muʔiti

{na-ʔ-is-kuðakuða} [mu-ʔiti]TIME

IRR-GL-INSTR-work ALL-here

‘… and you can use them to work here.’ (TVN-012-002:41)

In example 5.1.3 above, here repeated as 5.1.5, I analysed IRR na- as a bound morpheme. This is somewhat misleading: although it appears to be bound from a phonological point-of-view, the informant that produced the sentence felt that it was not clear whether the marker was bound or free (see 5.1.5).

161. Namunhanʔak Taihuku.

162. Na <pause> munhanʔak Taihuku.

{na mun-han}[-ʔak]AG [Taihuku]PLACE

IRR ALL-go-1S.F GeoName

‘I am planning to go to Taipei.’ (TVN-xx2-003:2)

At the free end of the spectrum, there are situations where the irrealis marker functions as a clause-initial particle with scope over the entire clause. It is clear that na is not bound to the verb, because it is followed by a non-verbal constituent (the demonstrative aiŋka).

163. Aupa, na, <pause> aiŋkai tupaikai hataltai kansisikiʔa daʔana […]

aupa, na [aiŋka-i]AG {tupa-i-ka-i} C1|COMPL2

because CONS DEM.PV.DIST-PRT tell-VL-DEF.SIT.DIST-DEF

[hatal-ta-i]PLACE {k-an‹si›siki-a}

bridge-DEF.REF.DIST-PRT DYN-‹CONT›-pass.by-SUBORD

[daʔan-a]AG

road-SUBORD

‘And thus, because they told that a road passed by that bridge, […]’ (TVN-008-003:69)

Since na- always occurs at the outer end of the prefixal string, we only have phonological tests to determine its boundedness status. Simply explaining this by saying that na- is a clitic misses the important point that the irrealis marker does not uniformly behave as a clitic-like morpheme: the more bound IRR na- is, the more likely it is to express futurity or volition and – conversely – the freer na- behaves, the more likely it is to express an overtone of consequence. On the other hand, the problem with postulating two homophonous forms, one a free particle and the other a prefix, is that those contexts where na- expresses consequence and where there is free variation between the bound and the free variant, these forms are functionally and semantically identical.

5.2.The progressive suffix -aŋ

The progressive marker -aŋ typically conceptualizes an event as being in progress or as having a certain duration. It is also used for expressing wishes and, in complex clauses, simultaneity.

5.2.1.Progressive aspect

The progressive marker -aŋ typically expresses that an event or state is in progress or has not yet come to an end. Many instances can be translated in English with ‘still’.

164. Taldanavaŋʔak laqais.

{tal-danav-aŋ-ʔak} [laqais]UN:PAT

WASH-wash-PROG-1S.F face

‘I am (still) washing my face.’ (TVN-xxx-xx1:163)

165. […] Isanaŋ Sipun

{i-san-aŋ} [Sipun]AG

LOC-be.at-PROG Japanese

‘[…] when the Japanese were still here.’ (TVN-008-002:30)

In certain cases, PROG -aŋ does not simply express that an event is in progress but also implies that it is going on for a longer time than expected or wanted. In the following example, the progressive marker stresses the fact that, according to Bunun tradition, it was forbidden for an extended period of time to eat foodstuffs with a sweet flavour.

166. A paqun ma sitmaŋaŋ ni maun hutan, […]

a paqun ma {sitmaŋ-aŋ}AUX {ni}AUX {maun} [hutan]UN

INTER indeed INTER endure-PROG NEG eat yam

‘And indeed we had to endure not eating yams for a long period, […]’ (TVN-012-001:63)

In a second example, the narrator explains how in their new village, harvests were always exceptionally good.

167. Tudip tu makitvaivi maqaqaidaŋa lasa

{tudip}AUX tu {makitvaivi}AUX

former.times COMPL be.exceptional

{ma-‹qa›qaid-aŋ-a}AUX [las-a]UN:PAT

STAT-‹INTENS›-ripe-PROG-LNK fruit-LNK

‘In those days, the harvest continued to be exceptionally full of fruits. (TVN-008-002:40)

Quite often, PROG -aŋ is combined with the negative marker ni ‘not’ to form niaŋ ‘not yet’.

168. […] Maq a tamakuna niaŋ mataða.

maq a [tama-kun-a]AG SUBORD|C2

DEFIN LNK father-DEF.SIT.MED-SUBORD

{ni-aŋ}AUX {matað-a}

NEG-PROG die-LNK

‘[And almost immediately afterwards, my younger sister died,] but as far as my father was concerned, he hadn’t died yet.’ (TVN-008-002:63)

5.2.2.Simultaneity

In subordinate clauses, a progressive marker is used for expressing simultaneity between two events.

169. Ilulusʔanaŋa madaiŋʔaða, a, qaðmaŋ baðbað.

{i-‹lu›lusʔan-aŋ-ʔa} [madaiŋʔað -a]AG SUBORD|C2

LOC-‹REP›-celebrate-PROG-SUBORD elder-SUBORD

a, {qaðmaŋ baðbað}

INTER be.random talk

‘When the elders were worshipping, they spoke vacuous talk.’ (TVN-008-002:130)

170. Maupa, maisisia atikisaŋ minqansiapa [...].

{maupa} C1|C2 {maisi-sia}AUX a-tikis-aŋ} C2|C3

thus from-ANAPH STAT-small-PROG

{min-qansiap-a}

BECOME-understand-LNK

‘And thus, from when I was still very small, I already understood [that my father did not have a wife anymore.]’ (TVN-008-002:07)

5.2.3.Optative usage

Apart from various usages that are related to the progressive, the marker -aŋ can also express wishes (optative use). A transparent example that is often heard in everyday speech is the politeness formula miqumisaŋ ‘may you live long’ (from miqumis ‘live, be alive’ and -aŋ ‘PROG’). Another is the fixed formula for thanking someone, uninaŋ, which is synchronically opaque but has a similar origin. It is probably related to the verb stem uni ‘be, exist’ and literally means something like ‘may it be so’ (cf. Nihira (1988:416)). The two formulae are verbal in nature and are often used together to express gratefulness or a parting wish, as in the example below.

171. […] Uninaŋ, miqumisaŋ amu!

{uninaŋ} C1|C2 {miqumis-aŋ} [amu]AG

thank.you live-PROG 2P.F

‘[And they would say:] thank you, may you live a long life!’ (TVN-012-001:119)

When -aŋ attaches to the auxiliary verb maqtu ‘can, be allowed’, the result maqtuaŋ often has the optative meaning ‘may’, although it can also be used as a progressive (‘still be allowed’).

172. [...] Maqtuaŋ nitu aitlalivaʔuna qaliŋa.

{maqtu-aŋ}AUX {ni-tu}AUX aitlaliva-‹ʔ›un-a} [qaliŋa]UN

can-PROG NEG-COMPL misunderstand-UF-LNK language

‘[…] May my words not be misunderstood.’ (TVN-008-002:240)

5.2.4.-aŋ in idiosyncratic constructions

When used in verbal time words, such as ŋausaŋ ‘first, in advance’, daŋusaŋ ‘first, before everything else’ and laupaŋ ‘now’, the progressive meaning of -aŋ is often not very clear. For instance, in 5.2.4, the progressive marker does not seem to have any semantic function.

173. Daŋusaŋ matumaskain, siatu, sasaipuk kamisama madaidað mapisðaŋ

{daŋus-aŋ}AUX {matu-masqaiŋ} siatu [‹sa›saipuk kamisama

first-PROG DYN.EMO-thank INTER ‹CONT›-help God

ma-daidað ma-pisðaŋ]UN:PAT

DYN-love STAT-impartial

‘First, I want to thank God for his help and impartial love.’ (TVN-012-001:2)

Historically, at least some of these forms can be traced back to regular progressive constructions.

174. ŋausaŋ ‘first, in the first place’

< ŋaus ‘front, first, head of’ + -aŋ (lit: ‘when still being at the head of’)

daŋusaŋ ‘first, before everything else’

< daŋus ‘front side’ + -aŋ (lit: ‘when still being at the front side’)

The progressive marker -aŋ is considerably less common than other tense-aspect affixes.

5.3.The perfective suffix -in

The perfective suffix -in is typically used for indicating that an event has been completed. Alternatively, it can mark an event that is the result of another event or a change of state. In the first clause of a complex clause, it sometimes indicates anteriority.

5.3.1.Completion

The perfective suffix -in typically expresses that an event has finished or that a certain endpoint has been reached.

175. Mei, mei kahaul duna uka duduma laqaiban aupa tuða, mapatupina.

mei mei {kahaul} [dun-a]AG C1|C2

already already come.from.below path-SUBORD

{uka} [‹du›duma laqaiban]AG C2|C3

NEG.have ‹INTENS›-other route

aupa {tuða}AUX {ma-patupa-in-a}

thus really DYN-discuss-PRV-LNK

‘When it already has come from below, there is no other route, really, I have already explained it.’ (TVN-008-002:134)

176. Laupaŋʔak taldanavin.

{laupa-aŋ}AUX[-ʔak]AG {taldanav-in}

now-PROG-1S.F wash-PRV

‘I just finished washing (part of my body).’ (TVN-xx2-003:168)

Combined with a negative auxiliary, it creates a meaning similar to English ‘not anymore’.

177. Ukin dau!

{uka-in} dau

NEG.have-PRV EMOT

‘There is none left anymore, what a pity!’ (when a shop sold out of rice; heard in conversation)

5.3.2.Resultative meaning

In some cases, -in has a resultative meaning, i.e. it marks an event as being the result of some other event. The second instance of -in in C2 of example 5.3.2 appears to have a resultative connotation, but it is hard to say whether this is the primary function of the suffix or an extension of change of state (5.3.3).

178. […] ʔitaʔina kidŋain minpantu, pantu Sipun

{ʔita-in-a} C1|C2 {kitŋa-in min-pantu} C2|C3

there-PRV-SUBORD just.started-PRV BECOME-study

{pantu} [Sipun]UN

study Japanese

‘from then on, we started to study, [we] studied Japanese.’ [lit: ‘when we had arrived at that time, as a result we started to study…’] (TVN-008-002:14)

The same holds for 5.3.2below, in which -in in C2 could be seen as a resultative rather than a change-of-state suffix.

179. Sanavanin masabaqin.

{sanavan-in} C1|C2 {ma-sabaq-in}

evening-PRV DYN-sleep-PRV

‘When the evening has come, [we should] go to sleep.’ (TVN-xxx-xx1:189)

Such ambiguities are quite common and many resultative perfectives can also be analysed in terms of change-of-state semantics. A similar correlation between resultative and change-of-state semantics has been observed in other languages, for instance by Bohnemeyer (1998:273) in Yukatek Maya and Lichtenberk (1991:487-88) in To’aba’ita, Fijian and Vangunu (all three Oceanic).[25] The link between completives and resultatives is discussed amongst others in Comrie (1976a:20) and is based on the fact that both focus on the completion of an event, the former by presenting the event as finished, the second by expressing the result state of the event.

5.3.3.Change of state

The previous section already indicated that in the second clause of a clause complex -in can sometimes be analysed as indicating change-of-state, but that there is almost always an alternative resultative analysis available. That is not the case in the following two examples, which were all uttered in isolation and not as the second element of a complex clause. In both, the perfective suffix clearly indicates that a certain action or state is initiated that is the opposite of what was going on before. For instance, 5.3.3 is a clause that is typically uttered in situations where the speaker was previously not able or not allowed to go home yet; and 5.3.3 implies that the first-person speaker was previously not used to living in Taiwan, but that he has got used to it at the time of writing.

180. Mudaninʔak mulumaq.

{mu-dan-in-ak} {mu-lumaq}

ALL-go-PRV-1S.F to-home

‘I want to go back home now.’ (TVN-xxx-xx1:53)

181. Minaminʔak han Taivan.

{minam-in}[-ʔak]AG [han Taivan]PLACE

be.used.to-PRV-1S.F in Taiwan

‘I am used to being in Taiwan now.’ (TVN-xxx-xx1:155)

Note that in the first example, the verb modified by a change-of-state perfective has allative semantics and expresses a dynamic concept. This is against a commonly-held assumption that change-of-state semantics in perfective markers occurs with stative verbs and corresponds with completive semantics on dynamic verbs (cf. Bybee et al. (1994:51ff)).

5.3.4.Anteriority

In subordinate clauses and binary clause complexes, a perfective marker in the first clause often develops a meaning of relative temporal precedence, i.e. anteriority relative to the event expressed by the following clause. Often, the implication is that the event in the first clause immediately precedes the one in the second clause and that the end of the former coincides or overlaps with the beginning of the latter. In 5.3.2above, the first occurrence of the perfective marker expresses temporal precedence with regard to the main clause. The same is true for 5.3.4.

182. [...] Munhanin ʔasaŋta, tantuŋu tupa tu [...]

{mun-han-in} [ʔasaŋ-ta]LO C1|C2

ALL-go-PRV village-DEF.SIT.DIST

{tantuŋu} C2|C3 {tupa} tu

visit tell COMPL

‘After they had gone [i.e. moved] to the village, they visited us and told us [...]’ (TVN-012-002:28)

183. Sanavanin masabaqin.

{sanavan-in} C1|C2 {ma-sabaq-in}

evening-PRV DYN-sleep-PRV

‘When the evening has come, go to sleep.’ (TVN-xxx-xx1:189)

5.3.5.Previous analyses of Bunun -in

Previously, different analyses have been proposed for the suffix -in in other Bunun dialects. Zeitoun et al. (1996:45) are convinced that the suffix indicates perfect tense, as opposed to the infix ‹in› (see 5.4below), which according to them marks perfective aspect. Their article does not elaborate on the issue and the motivation for their analysis is also not found in Zeitoun & Huang (1994), a previous work on the same topic by two of the authors. Jeng (1999:475) argues that -in indicates a ‘perfect aspect’, which he claims can either indicate completion or continuation.

Both analyses above would not cover the full range of behaviours that  in exhibits in Takivatan Bunun. Contrary to Jeng’s claim, Takivatan -in certainly never indicates continuation. Although it can express anteriority (see 5.3.4 above), this is not its main function and can be easily explained as a functional extension of completive aspect in complex clauses (‘after event X was finished, event Y happened’).

The term perfective aspect appears to align best with the function expressed by Takivatan -in, but it is certainly not impossible that the suffix behaves somewhat differently in other Bunun dialects. I believe it is wisest to avoid the concept of perfect, which appears to be problematic for many linguists and for which no consistent definition seems to exist. Perfectivity, on the other hand, is in most cases unambiguously accepted to be an aspectual dimension that interprets an event as a whole (cf. Bertinetto (2006) and Matthews (2005:271)). In this section it has hopefully become clear that most functions of -in can be easily interpreted either as instantiations (completion and result) or as functional extensions (anteriority and change of state) of perfective aspect.

5.4.The past/resultative infix ‹in›

As in other Bunun dialects, Takivatan distinguishes between the suffix -in and the infix ‹in›. Unlike Isbukun, where ‹in› and -in appear in almost equal numbers, the infix is actually relatively uncommon in Takivatan.[26] In this work, the infix ‹in› will be considered a past tense marker with resultative undertones.

Zeitoun et al. (1996) indicate that both ‹in› and -in indicate anteriority (i.e. relative tense), but that ‹in› in addition marks completive aspect, which prompts them to classify the infix as a perfective marker. Jeng (1999), on the other hand, argues that ‹in› is a past tense marker with the time of utterance as the reference time (i.e. absolute tense). The Takivatan data indicate that the infix does indeed refer to a past event, but that the reference time is not necessarily the time of utterance. It has been convincingly demonstrated in Bybee et al. (1994) that past tense reference can in some cases been seen as a diachronic extension of resultative aspect, but there are no indications in any of my data that ‹in› has any aspectual semantics in Takivatan. However, as mentioned at the end of the previous section, it is important to keep in mind that there might be differences between how aspectual markers are used between Bunun dialects.

In verbal forms, ‹in› tends not to co-occur with either of the focus suffixes  un or  an (although it is grammatically possible, see e.g. 5.5.1 on p. 220 below). This led Zeitoun et al. (1996:29) to the conclusion that, in the absence of any other explicit focus marking, the infix functions as an undergoer focus marker in Isbukun Bunun. As the following example demonstrates, this is not the case in Takivatan Bunun.

184. Tinindaŋkul ahlutuna […]

{t‹in›indaŋkul} [Ø]AG [ʔahlutun-a]LO

‹PST›-run trail-SUBORD

‘[the deer] ran away over a trail of flattened grass’ (TVN-008-002:149)

Within the textual context, it is not possible to interpret tinindaŋkul as an undergoer focus, since there is an unexpressed argument (‘the deer’) which functions as the most agentive participant accompanying the motion verb 5.4. Verbs expressing motion are able to occur in undergoer focus, but these forms always have causative semantics (although they typically do not allow the causer to be explicitly expressed):

185. Tindaŋkulun aipi

{tindaŋkul-un} [aipi]CSE

run-UF DEM.S.PROX

‘This one here was forced to run away.’ (constr.)

Note that the data in Academia Sinica (2007) suggest that the association between perfective ‹in› and the undergoer focus is stronger in the Isbukun dialects, although the first occurrence of the infix in 5.4below clearly indicates that it can be associated with agent focus constructions.

186. Masa sinaduin dau a put mas minatað [...]

masa {s‹in›adu-in} dau [a put]AG [mas m‹in›atað]UN:PAT

when ‹PST›-see-PRV EMOT Nom Chinese Obl ‹PST›-die

‘When the Chinese had identified the corpse, …’ [Lit: ‘When the Chinese had seen the one who had died’] (Academia Sinica (2007),[27] 47-003-f)

In the example, sinaduin clearly is an agent focus construction. In the rest of the Isbukun corpus, ‹in› overwhelmingly appears in undergoer constructions with explicitly expressed patients and covert agents. In addition, when Isbukun ‹in› is used as a nominaliser or in attributive constructions, it always expresses patient nominalisations. This is illustrated by the second occurrence of ‹in› in the example above. In general, it appears there are quite a few discrepancies between the behaviour of past/perfective infix in different Bunun dialects.

5.4.1.Past

In most situations ‹in› indicates that an event occurs in the past relative to a reference time, typically the time of narration (absolute past).

187. Aupa, masak amina, ni sak amin sainuduki inak tu tina.

aupa {ma-sak}AUX {amin-a} SUBORD1|C2

thus DYN-1S.F all-SUBORD

{ni}AUX [sak]AG {amin}MNR {sa‹in›udu-ki}

NEG 1S.F all ‹PST›-see-DEF.SIT.PROX

[inak tu tina]UN

1S.POSS ATTR mother

‘And as such, as far as my entire life is concerned [lit: being me entirely], I never caught any glimpse of my mother.’ (TVN-008-002:9)

188. Maqai maupata qainanupina mastaʔana bunun manaskali.

maqai {maupa-ta}AUX/MNR {qa‹in›anup-in-a} SUBORD1|C2

if thus-DEF.REF.DIST ‹PST›hunt-PRV-SUBORD

{mastaʔan-a}AUX [bunun]AG {ma-naskal-i}

very-LNK Bunun STAT-happy-PRT

‘And if the hunt had been like that, the Bunun were very happy.’ (TVN-012-001:125)

In both cases, informants consistently associated the presence of ‹in› with past tense semantics and never with any aspectual meaning.

Example 5.4.1below illustrates that unlike PRV  in, the use of the infix ‹in› is not associated with completiveness or resultativeness. In the example, the event marked by the infix, tasʔi ‘build’, is clearly not yet completed.

189. Niaŋ tu ihan paun tu sia daŋiʔanani tinasʔi kaku tudipʔað Sipunaŋ.

{ni-aŋ}AUX tu {i-han} [paun tu

NEG-PROG COMPL STAT-be.at call+UF ATTR

sia daŋiʔan-an-i]PLACE C1|C2

ANAPH location-LF-PRT

{t‹in›asʔi} [kaku]UN:PAT [tudip-ʔað Sipun-aŋ]TIME

‹PST›-build school that.time-PERSON Japan-PROG

‘We were not yet at that location, because the school was still being built when the Japanese were still there.’ (TVN-008-002:12)

5.4.2.Past/present contrast

From a pragmatic perspective, ‹in› often – but not always – expresses some sort of contrast between a past and a present event. For example, the past infix is often used to express the idea that some past event is meaningfully different from the present situation. In example 5.4.1above the narrator is explaining how the Bunun hunted in the days of yore, implying that things are different now, since the younger generations do not hunt anymore to sustain themselves, but rather for pleasure or money. In fact, a recurrent theme throughout his narration is that things have changed considerably during the course of his life.

In 5.4.2, the narrator expresses his amazement at my minidisc recorder by uttering that he never saw such a machine before in the past. The use of ‹in› here stresses the discrepancy between this suddenly acquired insight and his past ignorance.

190. Niaŋ sainidu maupatitu masihal tu qaimaŋsuð maqtu pinsumaei masihal tu qaliŋa!

{ni-aŋ}AUX {sa‹in›idu} [m-aupa-ti tu

NEG-PROG ‹PST›-see DYN-thus-DEF.REF.PROX ATTR

ma-sihal tu qaimaŋsuð]UN:PAT C1|C2

STAT-good ATTR thing

{maqtu}AUX {pin-suma-e-i} [ma-sihal tu qaliŋa]UN:PAT

can make-come-VL-PRT STAT-good ATTR language

‘Never before did I see such a nice thing record beautiful language.’ (TVN-012-002:1)

5.5.The past infix ‹i›

The infix ‹i› is relatively rare in Takivatan Bunun. It appears to be semantically identical to and in complementary distribution with the infix ‹in› (cf. Jeng (1999:458), Zeitoun (2000) and Lin et al. (2001)). There are two contexts in which ‹i› rather than ‹in› tends to be used.

5.5.1.Non-agent-focus forms with /a/ in the root-initial syllable

As we remarked in the previous section 213, ‹in› can normally not co-occur with undergoer focus suffix -un or locative focus -an. If a verb is marked by either of these two focus suffixes and the initial syllable of the verb root contains the vowel /a/, ‹i› rather than ‹in› occurs as a past tense infix and is inserted in the first syllable after the vowel /a/. Compare for instance sa‹in›udu in 5.4.1 215 with sa‹i›du-un in the example below. Whereas the former is an agent focus form of sadu ‘see’, and therefore gets ‹in› as a past infix, the latter form contains an undergoer suffix -un, which triggers the use of ‹i›.

191. […] Nei, nitu saiduʔuna.

ni {ni-tu}AUX {sa‹i›du-un-a}

no NEG-COMPL ‹PST›-see-UF-LNK

‘[…], no, I didn’t see [the monkey] yet.’ (TVN-008-002:80)

Below is another contrastive example with panaq ‘shoot’. In the first example, 5.5.1, it occurs in a nominalised locative focus form and, because of the presence of -an, has ‹i› instead of ‹in›. In the second example, 5.5.1, which is part of a description of hunting habits in the old days, the narrator uses an agent focus form of panaq and the past is indicated by ‹in›.

192. […] Tupa saduki painaqan tu

{tupa} C1|COMPL2 {sadu-ki} [pa‹i›naq-an]UN:PAT

tell see-DEF.SIT.PROX ‹PST›-shoot-LF

‘[The people were talking back and forth,] telling that they had seen the shooting [of the wild boar].’ (TVN-008-002:87)

193. Maqai haiða naip tu vaqaka naupaki, tumað pinanaqa, patisbuŋ.

maqai {haiða} [naip tu vaqa-ka]AG

if have DEM.S.USPEC.NVIS ATTR deer-DEF.SIT.DIST

[naupa-ki]MNR C1|C2

seemingly-DEF.SIT.PROX

[tumað]UN:PAT {p‹in›anaq-a} SUBORD2|C3

bear ‹PST›-shoot-SUBORD

{pa-tisbuŋ}

CAUS.DYN-explode

‘If there seemed to be a deer, or if they had to shoot a bear, [the hunters] had to use their guns [lit: make an explosion].’ (TVN-012-002:164)

If the root-initial syllable contains any vowel other than /a/, the default infix ‹in› is typically inserted after the root-initial consonant.

194. Linusʔanani maupata

{l‹in›usʔan-an-i} [maupa-ta]TIME

‹PST›-celebrate-LF-PRT thus-DEF.REF.DIST

‘Like that this holiday was celebrated.’ (TVN-012-001:81)

5.5.2.PST ‹in› and ‹i› in prefixes

In some constructions, a verbal root is preceded by a verbal prefix and speakers find it improper to insert a past infix in the verbal root. Because of the small size of the example set it is impossible to say what makes a root improper for past infix insertion, but it appears to happen primarily with some disyllabic roots with a CV(CV) structure. In those cases, an infix will be inserted either in or after the prefix and since many commonly used prefixes contain /a/, this infix will in most cases be ‹i›. In 5.5.2, PST ‹i› is inserted in the verbal prefix tal- preceding madia ‘be many’[28]; this happens when the prefix is consonant-final. In 5.5.2, the infix occurs between the prefix pa- and the verb root; this happens with vowel-final prefixes.

195. Maupata taiʔaðani madaiŋʔað tu natailmadia tu dikaŋa, tailmadia tu qaniʔanana.

{maupa-ta}AUX:MNR {ta‹i›ʔaðan-i} [madaiŋʔað]AG tu C1|COMPL2

thus-DEF.REF.DIST ‹PST›-realize-PRT elder COMPL

[[na-ta‹i›l-madia]ATTR tu dikaŋ-a]

IRR-‹PST›-VERY-many ATTR hour-ENUM

[[ta‹i›l-madia]ATTR tu qaniʔan-an-a]

‹PST›-VERY-many ATTR day-LF-ENUM

‘Thus, the elders realized that many hours, many days [had passed].’ (TVN-012-001:35)

196. […] Nanu paitupa tu, […]

{nanu}AUX {pa-‹i›-tupa} tu

verily HI.AG-‹PST›-say COMPL

‘[...] and when they had really decided, [they took her father with them.]’ (TVN-008-002:111)

In the rare case that a past infix would need to be inserted into a prefix that contains a vowel different from /a/, ‹in› will be used.

197. Haiða aupaka miniliskin tu maquaq maquaqa sia masihal, ni masihala.

{haiða}AUX [aupa-ka]MNR {m‹in›i-liskin} tu C1|COMPL2

have thus-DEF.SIT.DIST THINK-‹PST›-understand COMPL

{maquaq-a}AUX [sia]AG {ma-sihal} ni {ma-sihal-a}

how-LNK ANAPH STAT-good NEG STAT-good-SUBORD

‘When there is thus an understanding of how [my life] was sometimes good and sometimes not so good, [may my words not be misunderstood].’ (TVN-008-002:40)

5.6.Combinations of tense-aspect affixes

Tense-aspect affixes can easily co-occur on the same verb form. Some examples with the irrealis marker na- in combination with a progressive and a perfective suffix:

198. A, naŋausaŋ saikin taqu tu simaq sak.

a {na-ŋaus-aŋ} [saikin]AG {taqu} tu C1|COMPL

INTER IRR-first-PROG 1S.F tell COMPL

{simaq}[29] [sak]AG

who 1S.F

‘First, I will tell you who I am.’ (TVN-012-001:04)

199. [...] Namudanin [...]

{na-mu-dan-in}

IRR-ALL-walk-PRV

‘[The deer was not there anymore,] it had gone away, [...].’ (TVN-008-002:136)

200. [...] Natailmadia tu dikaŋa […]

[[na-ta‹i›l-madia]ATTR tu dikaŋ-a]TIME

IRR-‹PST›-VERY-many ATTR hour-LNK

‘[The elders realized that] many hours had passed, [that many days had passed.]’ (TVN-012-001:35; extract from 5.5.2 220 above)

Any restrictions on combinations seem to be motivated by semantic and pragmatic compatibility. For instance, no combinations of PRV -in and PROG -aŋ have so far been attested, but this is probably because the notions of perfective and progressive aspect are rather hard to reconcile semantically, rather than that their combination is impossible per se (e.g. because they are both suffixes in the same slot). Informants indicate that there is nothing grammatically wrong with forms like mu-dan-in-aŋ ‘ALL-go-PRV-PROG’, but that it is rather hard to imagine in what context you could use them.

5.7.Aspect on nouns

Apart from verbs, auxiliaries and adjectives, tense-aspect affixes in Takivatan can also occur on nouns, though this is relatively rare and they in practice only occur on a small number of semantically compatible lexical items. The resulting complex form is almost always semantically transparent (maybe with the exception of lainiqaiban in 5.7.3). Given the correct semantic and pragmatic preconditions, tense-aspect affixes can co-occur with members of almost any word class.

5.7.1.Progressive -aŋ

When the progressive suffix -aŋ occurs on nouns, they are interpreted as time words with the meaning ‘when still being…’ This has only been attested with uvaðʔað ‘child’:

201. Uvaðʔaðaŋ

uvaðʔað-aŋ

child-PROG

‘when still being a child; during childhood’

5.7.2.Perfective -in

The perfective suffix -in is routinely used in the deverbal nominalisation madaiŋʔaðin ‘elder’ (lit: ‘a person that is already old’).

202. Madaiŋʔaðin

ma-daiŋ-ʔað-in

STAT-big-PERSON-PRV

‘elder, village elder; old person, person that is already old’

Occasionally, it can be used on roots that are typically used as nouns. It tends to get a completive, resultative or change-of-state interpretation in these contexts. In the example below, the perfective suffix on quma ‘(arable) land’ indicates that the land Tiaŋ is going to was wilderness, but has just been designated to become arable land (change of state).

203. Han qumin laupaku Tainikuʔa.

{han} [quma-in]LO [laupaku]TIME [Tiaŋ Niku-ʔa]AG

go.to land-PRV now PersName.M PersName.F-LDIS[30]

‘And now, Tiaŋ of Niku went to the land.’ (TVN-012-002:64)

5.7.3.PST ‹in› in resultative nominalisations

The past infix ‹in› occurs in a small number of nominal forms that can all be traced back to locative focus constructions. This is interesting, because in the corpus, ‹in› co-occurs very rarely with any focus suffixes.

204. laqaiban → lainiqaiban

‘road, trajectory’ la‹in›‹i›qaib-an

‹PST›-‹VL›-trajectory-LF

‘trajectory that has been traversed;

life as a string of past events’

205. adiŋalan → adiniŋalan

a-diŋal-an a-d‹in›iŋal-an

STAT-neighbouring-LF STAT-‹PST›-neighbouring-LF

‘person that is sitting next to one’ ‘person that was sitting next to one’

In both examples above, the use of ‹in› is semantically transparent: its insertion adds past semantics to its host noun. Only in 5.7.3 has the infixed form developed idiosyncratic semantics: laqaiban can only mean ‘trajectory’, but lainiqaiban is typically used to refer to one’s life as it has unfolded in the past up to the present time.

Chapter 6.Focus suffixes

6.1.The status of focus in Takivatan

Bunun dialects, like many other Austronesian languages in Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia have an argument alignment system that is often characterized as a focus system or a Philippine-style voice system. It is important to note that the term ‘focus’ is in these contexts not used, as it is in general linguistics, to refer to new information in the information structure of a clause (cf. Lyons (1977:503), Van Valin & LaPolla (1997:201ff), and others), but goes back to an old terminological tradition that was introduced in the 1960s for the description of the Austronesian languages of the Philippines and Taiwan and has pervaded the field ever since.

A lot of debate has been going on about what focus exactly is (see French (1988) for an overview of many older approaches), but it is more or less clear what it does:

Focus is a system of verbal morphology that influences argument expression and argument alignment by cross-referring to a number (typically three to five) syntactic-semantic participant roles.

We will say that the semantic role (or its corresponding syntactic argument) that is cross-referenced by the verb is the focused argument and that it is ‘in focus’. The exact status of the focused argument is still a matter of heated debate, but it is probably uncontroversial to say that it receives some sort of pragmatic stress and is usually the topic of the clause.

In recent years, it has been argued repeatedly that focus systems are in fact atypical ergative alignment systems (see Starosta (2002), Reid & Liao (2004), Ross & Teng (2005), and others). Due to space and time limitations, I will have to sidestep this issue for now, but I have good arguments for analysing argument alignment in Takivatan as a system in its own right rather than an ergative or nominative system in disguise. Therefore, I will here hold on to the term ‘focus’.

In this work, none of the verbal prefixes (instrumental is- comes to mind) will be analysed as part of the focus system. Instead, it will be argued in 7.1.2-7.1.4 that it is more elegant to analyse argument alignment in Takivatan Bunun in terms of two interacting affixal systems which together determine how and which arguments can be expressed: a suffixal focus system and a prefixal system of valency-influencing verbal prefixes.

Takivatan Bunun distinguishes (1) agents, (2) undergoers and (3) locative arguments. Undergoer roles further distinguish between patients, beneficiaries and instruments in some syntactic environments, but not in the suffix-driven focus system. These roles reflect the constituents that can function as the core arguments in a clause (also see 1.4.3). Verbs in Takivatan can be marked for three types of focus:

•  agent focus (AF): -Ø

•  undergoer focus (UF): -un

•  locative focus (LF): -an

Below are three contrastive examples with the verb siða ‘take, grab’; in each, the focused argument is underlined in translation and (if explicitly expressed) marked with a subscript in the interlinearised text.

206. Nitu munʔasaŋ siða tilas

{ni-tu}AUX {mun-ʔasaŋ} C1|PURP2 {siða-Ø } [tilas]UN/NFOC

NEG-COMPL ALL-village grab-AF cereals

‘[They] did not go back to the village to take rice.’ (TVN-012-002:54)

207. Huduqa siðaʔun

[huduq-a]UN/FOC {siða-un}

sprouts-LDIS grab-UF

‘You had to take the young sprouts [of the reed].’ (TVN-012-001:44)

208. Nitu maqtu tudipa bahiʔa siðaʔani

{ni-tu}AUX {maqtu}AUX [tudip-a]TIME [bahi-a]LO/FOC {siða-an-i}

NEG-COMPL can those.days-LNK dream-LDIS grab-LF-PRT

‘In the old days, you couldn’t just interpret [lit: grab into] a dream by yourself.’ (TVN-008-002:59)

Another set of contrastive examples can be found in 1.4.3 ex. 1.4.3-1.4.3 on p. 94.

6.2.Grammatical function of focus marking

When occurring on the head of a verbal predicate, an agent focus form typically cross-refers to the agent of an action, an undergoer focus suffix typically to the undergoer of an action (usually a patient but, in some cases, a beneficiary or an instrument), and a locative focus suffix to a spatial or temporal location.

Sentences 6.2-6.2below are examples of each focus marker with the verb baliv ‘buy; sell’ (the focused argument has double underline in the translation). The first example has no overt focus marking and is as a result to be interpreted as an agent focus construction.

209. Kaupa laupadau siatu namabalivi tilasa sin siatu Sipal.

{kaupa}AUX {laupa-dau}AUX siatu {na-ma-baliv-Ø-i}MAIN

completely now-EMOT INTER IRR-DYN-buy/sell-AF-PRT

[tilas-a]UN:PAT [sin sia-tu Sipal]COM

husked.rice-LNK with ANAPH-ATTR PersName.M

‘And now we will buy all the rice at Sipal’s store.’ (TVN-010-015:59)

In example 6.2, an elderly female informant explains to me that her friend grew pomelos that were so beautiful that she decided not to put them up for sale but to keep them for herself and her friends. The undergoer focus suffix indicates that the pragmatic stress is on the patient of the action.

210. Nitu balivun!

{ni-tu}AUX {baliv-un}MAIN

NEG-COMPL buy/sell-UF

‘[The pomelos] were not to be sold.’ (TVN-xx2-001:169)

In the third example, a grandmother tells her restless granddaughter that they will go to the shop that she just nagged about in a minute. A locative focus is used because pragmatic stress is on the location, which was introduced as a pragmatically salient discourse theme in the previous sentence.

211. Kavaʔa nabalivan mita hulus.

{kavaʔa}AUX {na-baliv-an} [mita hulus]UN:PAT

immediately IRR-buy/sell-LF 1I.POSS clothes

‘[We] will go there immediately to buy your [lit: our] clothes.’ (TVN-xxx-xx1:139)

The focused participant does not have to be explicitly expressed, and it is in fact not expressed in any of the examples above. This is quite common in Takivatan and makes sense linguistically, since focus markers assign pragmatic stress to a certain participant. Pragmatically prominent participants are more easily recoverable from the discourse context and there is therefore less need to express them explicitly. In most cases, it is possible to explicitly express the core argument to which the focus marker refers. An example:

212. Nitu balivun iðuq daiŋ!

{ni-tu}AUX {baliv-un} [iðuq daiŋ]UN:PAT

NEG-COMPL buy/sell-UF orange large

‘The pomelos [lit: large oranges] were not to be sold.’ (constr.)

It is not equally easy for all focus types to occur on each individual verb, but all focus types can occur on almost all kinds of verbs. Below are examples of the undergoer suffix -un with: 6.2 the dynamic verb adas ‘carry’; 6.2 the locative verb han ‘go to’; and 6.2 the adjective sihal ‘good’.

213. [..] Niaŋ adasuni tama

{ni-aŋ}AUX {adas-un-i} [tama]AG

NEG-PROG carry-UF-PRT father

‘[My] father did not carry [me] around yet.’ (TVN-008-002:4)

214. Takivatan maqtu hanun Kunuʔanti

[Takivatan]UN/CSE {maqtu}AUX {han-un} [Kunuʔan-ti]LO

Takivatan can go-UF GeoName-DEF.REF.PROX

‘The Takivatan can [be told to] go to Kunu'an.’ (TVN-012-002:119)

215. [...] Sihalun aipi sia binanauʔað

{sihal-un} [aipi]AG [sia binanauʔað]UN:BEN

good-UF DEM.S.PROX ANAPH woman

‘[If the hunt had been good and he had good meat,] this [hunter] should store it well for his wife.’ (TVN-012-001:52)

The examples above illustrate that, whereas the pragmatic effect of focus markers is essentially topicalization, their syntactic behaviour is much less predictable. What happens in all three examples is the same: the participant that is put into focus is not seen as the primary agentive force of the event, but as a participant that in some way passively undergoes the event.

This is most obvious with verbs encoding transitive dynamic events,[31] such as adas un ‘carry UF’ in example 6.2. Here UF  un gives pragmatic prominence to the first person, which remains unexpressed, and indicates that this first person is the one being carried. The semantic effect is not unlike a passive construction in English, which also makes the undergoer of an action more prominent and demotes the agent, though syntactically it is impossible to analyse these forms as passives.

The head of the predicate in 6.2 is hanun, the undergoer equivalent of the allative form mun-han ‘ALL-go’, which most linguist would not interpret as a verb that encodes a typically transitive event. Nevertheless, it can occur with an undergoer focus suffix. In example 6.2above, UF -un does not introduce a new undergoer participant, but rather signals that the participants that would have been the agent of the corresponding agent focus construction (Takivatan) were not performing the allative action out of their own free will, but were somehow instructed or forced to do so. This construction is somehow similar to a causative construction, but (1) it does not necessarily introduce an explicit causer, (2) even if a causer can be identified from the surrounding discourse, it can normally not be explicitly expressed in the clause, and (3) there already is a prefix to derive morphological causatives from allative verbs (see B).[32]

The actor focus equivalent of sihal-un ‘good-UF’ in 6.2 would just indicate that the meat was of good quality. The addition of UF -un indicates that it is somehow made good or put away well (one could say that it is ‘gooded’). Syntactically, 6.2 and 6.2 do not change anything about the argument alignment of the clause. For instance, it is normally not possible to explicitly express an external agent in 6.2. This is possible in 6.2, and an additional beneficiary argument is even introduced.

6.3.Nominalising functions of focus markers

Takivatan focus suffixes are commonly used as verb-to-noun derivational markers, especially for modern concepts that have no dedicated vocabulary in traditional Takivatan society. Almost all derivations with focus markers are semantically transparent and in many constructions it is not even clear whether they are derived nouns or just verbs used in nominal slots. At least some of the forms that will be discussed below can be used in both nominal and verbal slots, although they tend to occur more often in nominal slots. The nominalising use of focus morphology is common in many Austronesian languages of Taiwan: it has been found – amongst others – in Paiwan (Egli (1990:204-252)), Kavalan (Chang & Lee (2002), Li & Tsuchida (2006))[33], Mayrinax Atayal (Huang (2002)), Pazih (Li (2002)), Thao (Blust (2003a:229-30)) and Puyuma (Teng (2007:196-213)). It has even been suggested by Starosta et al. (1982) – though this is still controversial – that Austronesian focus affixes originally had a nominalising function and that their syntactic function is a secondary development.

6.4.Nominalisations with LF -an

Of the two focus markers, the locative focus marker -an is derivationally most productive. It is typically used for expressing the physical location in which the event expressed by the verbal host takes place, but has also developed several metaphorical extensions of its straightforward locative meaning, such as temporal location (6.4.4) and abstract locus of event (6.4.5).

6.4.1.Locative nominalisations

A.Locations used for a purpose

LF -an is often used to refer to a specific location, be it a building, a room or an outside area, that is deliberately used for a specific purpose.

216. asabaqan ‘spot in the forest where a human is sleeping’

< a- ‘STAT’ + sabaq ‘sleep’ + -an

alukmuʔan ‘spot in the forest where an animal is resting’

< a- ‘STAT’ + lukmu ‘squat down’ + -an

pisqaitmalan ‘playground’ < pisqaitmal ‘play’ + -an

sapalan ‘sleeping room, bed’ (lit: ‘place where the fur is spread for sleeping’)

< sapal ‘fur’ + -an

Some of these forms can get a past infix ‹i› to indicate a location that was used in the past for a certain purpose.

217. aisabaqan ‘spot in the forest where humans were sleeping’

a- ‘STAT’ + ‹i› ‘PST’ + sabaq ‘sleep’ + -an

ailukmuʔan ‘spot in the forest where an animal was resting’

< a- ‘STAT’ + ‹i› ‘PST’ + lukmu ‘squat down’ + -an

So far, no forms with ‹in› have been attested for locative nominalisations. Insertion of ‹i› does not appear to be possible for all forms, even when they have /a/ in the first syllable (cf. 5.5.1). For instance, *saipalan does not appear to be a valid form.

In combination with CV-reduplication of the verbal root, -an nominalisation indicates a place that is habitually used for performing the action expressed by the verb (see also 8.4.1 ex. 8.4.1).

218. babalivan ‘store’ (lit: ‘place habitually used to buy and sell’)

< CV ‘HABIT’ + baliv ‘buy; sell’ + -an

dadaŋiʔan ‘location (of a certain event)’

< CV ‘HABIT’ + daŋi ‘be located; put, place’ + -an

luluman ‘jail’ (lit: ‘place habitually used to lock up people’)

< CV ‘HABIT’ + lum- ‘lock up’ + -an

pipitʔaiʔan ‘kitchen’ (lit: ‘place habitually used for cooking’)

< CV ‘HABIT’ + pitʔia ‘cook’ + -an

As three of the examples in A show, locative focus marking is seen as an attractive option to encode new concepts that were introduced to the Bunun through contact with modernity. Most examples in A, however, refer to traditional concepts in Bunun society, an indication that focus markers must have been productive as a derivational mechanism for quite some time and are not just used for derived words referring to modern concepts.

B.Geographical names

Many geographical names are constructed with a locative suffix -an, which can usually be translated as ‘a place that is known for X’.

219. Kabanhilan ‘location near the main Takivatan settlement where many

cypresses grow’ < ka- ‘HARVEST’ + banhil ‘Japanese cypress’

+ -an (lit: ‘the place where cypress wood was harvested’)

Kaputuŋan ‘former Takivatan settlement in Nantou County’

< ka- ‘HARVEST’ + putuŋ ‘cotton’ + -an

(lit: ‘the place where cotton was grown’)

Sinapalan ‘large plain in the mountains of Nantou County’

< ‹in› ‘PST’ + sapal ‘fur, hide’ + -an

(lit: ‘the place where the hides could be found’)

Some of these forms are still semantically transparent, but others go back to verbal or nominal stems that are uncommon or have fallen into disuse. Putuŋ in the second example in B refers to tufts of cotton, but it would not be recognized by any but the very old, since no such plants are found anymore in the area where the Bunun presently live. The root of Dahulan, dahul, was not recognized by my seventy-five year old informant as a form that is presently in use.

6.4.2.Locative-instrumental nominalisations

A.Unmarked cases

Occasionally, a locative focus marker is used in derivations which have both a locative and an instrumental meaning, i.e. they can typically be translated by ‘a place used to…’.

220. padaŋiʔan ‘container’ < pa- ‘CAUS.DYN’ + daŋi ‘put, place’ + -an

piskaðhavan ‘refrigerator’ (lit: ‘a place used to make things cold again’)

< pis- ‘RETURN’ + kaðhav ‘cold’ + -an

tambuŋʔan ‘head pillow’ (lit: ‘a place used to lean your head towards’)

< tan- ‘DIR’+ buŋu ‘head’ + -an

B.Body parts

A small number of names of internal body parts are referred to by derivations with LF -an. They conceptualize the body part as a location in the body with a certain function or property.

221. katluqaiʔan ‘uterus’ (lit: ‘the place that holds the unborn child’)

< kat- ‘grab’ + luqai ‘small baby’ + -an

maquhisan ‘small intestines’ (lit: ‘the place which is slender’)

< ma- ‘STAT’ + quhis ‘slender’ + -an

maqulpiqan ‘big intestines’ (lit: ‘the place which is fat/with a broad

circumference’) < ma- ‘STAT’ + qulpiq ‘fat’ + -an

6.4.3.Meteorological phenomena

Nouns referring to meteorological phenomena are also formed by adding -an to a verbal stem.

222. laniŋʔavan ‘flood’ < la- ‘COVER’ + niŋʔav ‘sea, expanse of water’ + -an

(lit: a place covered by a watery expanse)

luvluvan ‘typhoon’ < luvluv ‘wind; blow’ + -an

It is not clear whether these forms should be considered to be nominalisations, since they are commonly used in verbal slots.

6.4.4.Temporal nominalisations

Temporal nominalisations are structurally very similar to locative ones. This is no surprise since spatial concepts in Bunun can almost always be metaphorically extended to refer to time. Typically, temporal derivations refer to a period in which the event expressed by the host takes place or to which the event described by the host is somehow related. It is often used in names of holidays and months.

223. alʔuʔan[34] ‘resting period, spare time’ < alʔu ‘rest’ + -an

lusʔan uvaðan ‘child’s first birthday’ (lit: ‘holiday of the child’)

< lusʔan ‘celebrate’ uvað ‘child’ + -an

lusʔanan ‘holiday’ < lusʔan ‘celebrate’ + -an

buan alʔuan34 ‘resting month’ < buan ‘month’ alʔu ‘rest’ + -an

Just like locative nominalisations in A, some temporal nominalisations can be reduplicated or get a past infix ‹i› or ‹in›.

224. ailʔuʔan ‘spare time, time during which one was not busy’

< ‹i› ‘PST’ + alʔu ‘rest’ + -an

ailʔuʔuʔan ‘spare time (reduplication stresses duration or repetitiveness)’

<‹i› ‘PST’ + CV ‘REP’ + alʔu ‘rest’ + -an

6.4.5.Locus-of-event nominalisations

Locus-of-event nominalisations do not refer to a physical location or period in time in which the event expressed by their host takes place, but rather describe something or someone as the abstract locus or seat of a certain event.

A.Persons as the locus of event

Some derivations with LF -an can refer to human referents. Such words have no locative meaning but refer to a person as the seat of a quality or an action expressed by the host. Interestingly, none of the examples below can easily be interpreted as agentive derivations, since the person referred to is not the main actor of the action expressed by the verbal host but rather one of the participants in a collective (uskunan), a recipient (isnanavan) or someone endowed with a certain quality (adiŋalan and kinaŋnaʔan).

225. adiŋalan ‘neighbour; person sitting next to (you/me/…)’

< a- ‘STAT’ + diŋal ‘neighbouring’ + -an

isnanavan ‘student’

< is- ‘TRANSFER’ + CV ‘HABIT’ + nav- ‘instruct’ + -an

kiniŋnaʔan ‘successor’ (also adjective: ‘successive’)

< ‹in› ‘PST’ + kiŋna ‘succeeding’ + -an

uskunan ‘somebody with whom one does something together’

< uskun ‘(do) together’ + -an

B.Groups of people as locus of event

In a small number of nouns, a verbal stem followed by -an refers to a group of people who together perform a certain action.

226. susumsumanan ‘praying gathering’[35]

< CV ‘REP’ + sumsum ‘pray’ + -an + -an

udinunan ‘large gathering’ < udinun ‘gather’ + -an

The presence of two focus markers in susumsumanan will be discussed below in 6.4.6.

C.Abstract results

The suffix -an is used in some derivations for expressing the non-material result of an action encoded by the verbal host. These actions have a relatively low dynamicity in that they are either cognitive ‘actions’, such as dreaming (bahi) and thinking (liskin), or are underspecified and refrain from mentioning the exact nature of the action performed, such as doing something together (uskun) and traverse (laqaib-).

227. bahiʔan ‘(n.) dream’ < bahi ‘(n./v.) dream’ + -an

inliskinan ‘thoughts’

< in- ‘VIA’+ liskin ‘think’ + -an

inuskunan ‘things that have been done together’

< in- ‘VIA’ + uskun ‘together’ + -an

lainiqaiban ‘life’ (lit: ‘trajectory that has already been traversed’)

< ‹in› ‘PST’ + laqaib- ‘path, trajectory’ + -an

The level of abstraction that is inherent to the nominalisations above can be illustrated with lainiqaiban, which is interestingly never used to refer to a geographical trajectory, something that laqaiban, the form without the past infix ‹in›, can still do. It refers to human life in retrospect, i.e. as a trajectory of past events. For referring to one’s present or future life, a number of expressions are available, for instance iskuðakuða ‘life as a collection of daily toils’ or miqumis ‘life as the biological act of being alive’.

6.4.6.Double locative focus marking with -an-an

Curiously, some nominalisations are formed by double locative focus marking  an an. The third example below was already mentioned in Babove.

228. alʔasaŋanan ‘home village, seen as a collection as individuals’

< al- ‘belong to’ + ʔasaŋ ‘village’ + -an ‘LF’ + -an ‘LF’

daŋiʔanan ‘location’ < daŋi ‘put, place’ + -an ‘LF’ + -an ‘LF’

susumsumanan ‘praying place, prayer meeting’ (lit: ‘a place/time where

people habitually pray in a fixed location’)

< CV ‘HABIT’ + sumsum ‘pray’ + -an ‘LF’ + -an ‘LF’

It is not entirely clear why this happens, but one explanation could be that the suffix closest to the root is best analysed as a locative focus marker on a verbal host: it indicates that the action described by the verbal stem inherently involves a certain spatial (or temporal) location. The second LF suffix has a nominalising function and describes a place or time in which that action unfolds.

229. daŋi ‘put, place, locate’ (v.)

> daŋi-an ‘(v.) put/place/locate something somewhere’

> daŋi-an-an ‘(n.) a place where something is placed (somewhere)’

> ‘the place where an event is put/placed/located’ > ‘location of an event’

Double -an marking can also occur with a handful of concepts related to cognition or emotion.

230. kaiqansaipanan ‘(past) understanding’

< ka- ‘ASSOC.DYN’ + ‹i› ‘PST’ +qansiap ‘understand’

+ -an + -an

kainaskalanan ‘gladness’

< ka- ‘ASSOC.DYN’ + ‹i› ‘PST’ + naskal ‘happy’ + -an + -an

As with the examples in 6.4.6, the LF marker closest to the verb still functions as a verbal modifier: some verbs of cognition, perception and emotion can use locative focus marking to put pragmatic stress on low agentivity agents (perceivers, cognizers, emoters). The second -an functions more like a true nominaliser, deriving a concept that is the abstract locus of the event described by the verbal host.

6.5.Nominalisations with UF -un

The undergoer focus suffix -un is a much less productive source of nominalisations than the locative focus marker. However, some of its derived forms are extremely common in everyday use and it appears to be a major tool for deriving words describing modern concepts that were unknown to the Bunun until recently.

6.5.1.Patientive derivations

Most straightforwardly, the undergoer suffix is used in nominalisations expressing the patientive undergoer of the action expressed by the stem.

231. itlalivaun ‘things that have been misunderstood’

< itlaliva ‘be unclear, cause misunderstanding’ + -un

kaununkaunun ‘edible things, usually used for fruit’

< STEM ‘PL’ + ( kaun ‘eat+UF’ + -un )

kuðkuðaun ‘things that need to be done’

< CVC ‘REP’ + kuða ‘work’ + -un

siðaun ‘things that have to be taken’ < siða ‘take’ + -un

It is important to realize that verb-to-noun derivations like these are completely transparent to most Bunun speakers, and it is therefore not entirely clear whether they are true derivations with an idiosyncratic meaning or fully transparent verbal forms that appear in nominal slots. Many (e.g. iqdiʔun, itlalivaun and siðaun) can be used as verbs as well as nouns, with no obvious meaning differences.

6.5.2.Instrumental derivations

Two instances are attested in which UF -un is used in instrumental derivations, in which case it derives a noun describing an object that is the instrument used for performing the action expressed by the verbal host.

232. butiqun ‘object used for wrapping’ < butiq- ‘wrap’ + -un

isqaisqaisun ‘mop, thing used for mopping’

< is- ‘INSTR’ + qaisqais ‘mop’ + -un

Note that the instrumental character of the nominalisation is also expressed explicitly by the instrumental orientation marker is- in the second example, isqaiqaisun.

Chapter 7.Verbal prefixes

All Bunun dialects have exceptionally large sets of verbal prefixes. In Takivatan Bunun, more than 200 semantically distinct usages have so far been distinguished for more than 150 morphologically distinct forms. Some of these forms are very common, while others are fairly elusive. Their actual meanings, degree of semantic specificity, grammatical function and application domain vary widely. Some are semantically coherent; others are used in a number of seemingly unrelated contexts. Some are valency-changing, others are not. Some are semantically specific and could therefore be considered as derivational in nature; others are semantically opaque and seem more inflectional. What they all have in common is that in combination with their root they form a verb and that in doing so they provide some information about the meaning of the verb that they create (without necessarily altering the basic semantics of the verb).

7.1.Introduction

7.1.1.Previous work on verbal prefixes

Verbal prefixes in Bunun were first brought to attention in the Isbukun dialect (mainly the variant spoken in the county Kaohsiung) by Nojima (1996). A more elaborate – but less organized – set is discussed in Lin et al. (2001). Similarly elaborate systems of verbal prefixes have been described for at least two other Formosan languages: Siraya in Adelaar (1997), Adelaar (2004) and Tsuchida (2000); and Thao in Blust (2003a). Only 25 prefixes have been described for Siraya, but this relative scarcity might very well be the result of a lack of data. Blust (2003a) lists over 150 prefixes, which appear to have a set of functions not dissimilar to those found in Bunun. Tsuchida (1989) describes a set of prefixes in Tsou that appear to be functionally quite similar to some of those in Bunun dialects. It is not clear from his description how large the prefix inventory in that language is.

7.1.2.Traditional analysis of the Austronesian focus system

All Austronesian languages in Taiwan except Rukai and many languages in the Philippines and Indonesia have a so-called focus system or Philippine-style voice system. We have seen in 1.4.3 and 6 that such a system typically involves verbal morphology.[36] It has been popular practice to analyse verbal marking in such systems in terms of a mixed paradigm that combines suffixes, prefixes and infixes. Table 16 gives an overview of markers that are often associated with the focus system in Austronesian languages of Taiwan and the Philippines (adapted from Himmelmann (2002:9)).

Prefixes

Infixes

Suffixes

(s)i- (IF)

‹um› (AF)

-ən / -in (PF)

M- (AF)

‹in› (tense or mood+AF or PF)

-an (LF or RF)

Table 16 – Typical focus-related verbal morphology[37]

Quite similar affixal sets have been reconstructed for proto-Austronesian by Wolff (1973) and Ross (1995b), although especially the latter postulates a much more elaborate system that combines focus and TAM. Many works on Formosan languages use a similar analytical model that mixes prefixes and/or infixes with suffixes, although there is quite some variation in the actual realization of morphemes (a few representative examples are Cauquelin (1991:43ff) for Nanwang Puyuma; Huang (1995a:36-59) and Huang (2001) for Mayrinax Atayal; and Li & Tsuchida (2001:24-31) for Pazeh). A similar analysis has been applied to Bunun dialects. For instance, in Zeitoun (2000) the following affixes are analysed as part of the Isbukun Bunun focus system: m(a)- and Ø- for actor focus, is- for instrumental focus, -un for undergoer focus, and -an for locative focus.

In addition, it is not uncommon for analyses of Philippine-style voice systems to posit complicated interactions between the focus system and tense, aspect and mood. This can imply (1) that different sets of focus morphemes are used depending on the mood or (2) that one TAM or mood morpheme is only used in a particular focus type or (3) that the use of certain focus morphemes by default presupposes a certain TAM value, which might be overridden with other TAM morphology. In Bunun, the second type of relationship has been posited for the resultative/past infix ‹in›, which is by some considered to be a portmanteau form for perfect(ive) aspect and undergoer focus (Zeitoun et al. (1996:29)).[38] All the above would result in the following set of morphemes to be associated with focus in Bunun:

Prefixes

Infixes

Suffixes

ma-, m-, Ø- (AF)

‹in› (UF + PRF)

-un (UF)

is- (IF)

-an (LF)

Table 17 – Verbal affixes traditionally associated with focus in Bunun

7.1.3.Theoretical arguments against the traditional analysis

Table 17 brings Bunun (or in any case Isbukun) in agreement with what is often believed to be a ‘classical’ Western Austonesian focus system and which combines prefixes, infixes and suffixes. Below, I will try to argue that there are a number of problems with such an analysis. We will start with a number of general observations.

First of all, thinking in terms of a ‘prototypical’ Western Austronesian focus system probably puts too much stress on superficial similarities and creates the danger that functional dissimilarities between morphologically similar morphemes are ignored. As Reid & Liao (2004:434) remark “there is a wide range of typological variety to be found among the more than one hundred Philippine languages”, and the same holds for the Austronesian languages in Taiwan. It is perfectly possible that, on the basis of language-internal evidence, phonologically and diachronically similar affixes that are analysed in one way in one language should be analysed differently in another language.

Second, mixed paradigms, in which for example, some values are encoded by prefixes and others by suffixes, are theoretically conceivable and have been described for other language families in the past (an example is person agreement affixes in some dialects of rGyalrong (Tibeto-Burman) in van Driem (1993)). However, the incorporation of prefixes, infixes and/or suffixes in a single paradigm is unusual and is typically met with general scepticism. Unless there really is solid evidence that they truly operate in a single paradigm, it seems more prudent to separate them into a number of interacting but syntactically distinct systems. Himmelmann (2002) himself questions whether the focus system in Table 16 on p. 245 can be rightfully regarded as a unitary paradigm.

Third, in many Formosan languages, the prefixal members of the postulated focus paradigm are actually part of a much larger set of verbal prefixes. Many of these are morphologically and/or semantically constant across languages and they often behave very much like a coherent paradigm (see 7.3.2 below for an elaborate discussion of this paradigmatic behaviour in Takivatan). Below are some correspondences between attested forms in five Formosan languages.[39]

Meaning

Takivatan

Siraya

Thao

Kavalan

Pazeh

stative location

i-

i-

i-

i-

allative

mu-

mu-

mu-

mia-

causative allative

pu-

pu-

pia-

stative event

ma-

ma-

ma-

ma-

ma-

causative stative

pi-

paka-

pia-

paqa-

paka-

dynamic event

ma-

mai-, ma-

ma-

mu-, m-, ‹m›, ‹um›, …

ma-, mV-, m-

causative dynamic

pa-

pa-

pa-

pa-

pa-

instrument orientation

is-

―

ti-

sa-, si-

Table 18 – A comparison of verbal prefixes in five Formosan languages

In most languages, these prefixes tend to be mutually exclusive, which is an important aspect of paradigmatic behaviour, but it is often possible for them to co-occur with focus suffixes (see Bbelow). As the table indicates, there is a tendency in many languages to have systematic alternations between neutral and causative alternates of prefixes, the latter with an initial /p-/, and in individual languages such neutral-causative alternations can often be found for other prefixes. It is obvious that functionally and semantically these prefixes are similar. In addition, there is a tendency in many languages for certain prefixes to have very similar meaning extensions. For instance, instrumental is- is often also used as a marker for transfer events.

All these factors indicate that, across languages, the same prefixes tend to behave very much as a coherent paradigm and it would therefore be inappropriate to choose some (in most analyses dynamic event prefix ma- and instrumental is-) as part of the focus paradigm, while excluding others. Prefixes that behave as a coherent system should either be all included into the same paradigm, or they should all be excluded.

7.1.4.Verbal prefixes and focus suffixes: similar or different?

At least in Takivatan Bunun, there is evidence that the focus suffixes UF -un and LF -an on one the hand and verbal prefixes on the other do not behave in a sufficiently coherent way to justify their inclusion into a single paradigm and it is therefore best to treat them as two separate subsystems. There are at least six types of behaviour in which suffixes and prefixes differ.

A.Morphosyntactic behaviour

Part of the evidence is already implied in Table 18 above: many of the most commonly used verbal prefixes exhibit very similar morphosyntactic behaviour in that they tend to have regular causative alternates beginning with /p-/. In addition, some forms have alternate forms with an initial /k-/ that are probably best analysed as associatives and indicate that an event is performed together or results in things or persons coming together.

233. ma-daŋað pa-daŋað ka-daŋað

DYN-help CAUS.DYN-help ASSOC.DYN-help

‘help’ ‘cause to help’ ‘help by doing something together’

234. mu-lumaq pu-lumaq ku-lumaq

ALL-house CAUS.ALL-house ASSOC.ALL-house

‘go home’ ‘be told to go home’[40] ‘go home together’

These alternate forms are discussed in detail in 7.3.2below. Focus suffixes have no causative or associative alternations. Instead, a verbal form containing UF -un or LF -an is causativised or associativised by adding the appropriate causative or associative verbal prefix.

B.Mutual exclusivity

Although some verbal prefixes cannot co-occur with certain focus suffixes, others can or have to do so. For instance, despite the fact that the dynamic verbal prefix ma- co-occurs with focus markers only in exceptional circumstances, its causative form pa- often co-occurs with both UF -un and LF -an, as illustrated in examples B and B.

235. Maqi haiða pasbaiʔuna, […]

maqi {haiða}AUX {pa-isbai-un-a}

if have CAUS.DYN-run.away-UF-SUBORD

‘If it is so that [the deer] is chased away, [then I will yell.]’ (TVN-008-002:144)

236. Mataisaqdau tu, ma, paʔisʔavan, [...]

{ma-taisaq-dau} tu C1|COMPL2 ma, {pa-ʔisʔav-an}

DYN-dream-EMOT COMPL INTER CAUS.DYN-banquet-LF

‘He dreamt that he was participating at a banquet [lit: caused to be located at a banquet]’ (TVN-012-001:113)

Instrumental orientation prefix is- tends not to co-occur with focus suffixes, but the following example illustrates that it is grammatically possible.

237. Ispataðan aipa malamadaiŋʔað

{is-patað-an} [aipa]AG [mali-ma-daiŋʔað]UN

INSTR-kill-LF DEM.S.DIST.VIS VERY-STAT-big

‘She killed a very big [squirrel].’ (TVN-008-002:195)

The fact that prefixes and suffixes can co-occur (causative prefixes and UF -un even have a strong tendency to co-occur) indicates that they do not belong to the same paradigm. On the other hand, verbal prefixes and focus suffixes by themselves are typically mutually exclusive, except in combinations where one of them has developed a derived meaning (see 7.11 on p. 343).

C.Diachronic relationship

In many Western-Austronesian languages with mixed paradigms, a reasonably strong case can be made that certain prefixes and infixes occurring on verbs are historically conditioned variants of the same underlying morpheme or morpheme combination. For instance, Ross (1995b:741) asserts that the dynamic prefix ma- is derived from a verb-initial pa- and the dynamic infix ‹um› (e.g. PAN *paCay ‘die’ > *p‹um›aCay > *maCay) and, similarly, that the stative ma- is a development from PAN *k‹um›a-.[41] It is therefore not unreasonable to assume that, in languages where reflexes of the dynamic prefix ma- and the infix ‹um› have both remained in use, they constitute members of the same paradigm. On the other hand, a similar historical relationship does not appear to exist between verbal prefixes and focus suffixes.

D.Affix omission

In a number of other respects, the grammatical behaviour of focus suffixes and verbal prefixes is not indicative of a paradigmatic behaviour between the two. Some verbal prefixes can be ellipted when they are pragmatically recoverable from the linguistic or extra-linguistic context, without triggering any grammatical realign-ment in the predicate-argument structure.

For example, in the question below, an allative locative prefix mun- is explicitly expressed on the question word. In the answer, however, the allative prefix can be omitted, since it is clear from the question that the verbal stem han, which in isolation can both refer to a stationary event and a movement toward, in the context of the conversation expresses a movement towards.

238. Q: Munʔisaq amu?

{mun-ʔisaq} [amu]AG

ALL-where 2P

‘Where did you (pl.) go to?’

A: Tiŋmut hanin Kuhku

{tiŋmut}AUX {mun-han-in} [Kuhku]PLACE

morning ALL-go.to-PRV PlaceName

‘In the morning, [we] went to Kuhku.’ (constr.)

Since it is usually clear from the context whether an event is dynamic in nature, the same phenomenon often occurs with the dynamic prefix ma-. For instance, verbal form maludaq ‘beat’ in D will in colloquial speech often be realised as ludaq (see D), because it is usually clear that beating is a dynamic action. This deletion has no effect on the semantics of the utterance.

239. Anak aipa maludaq suʔu

{anak}AUX [aipa]AG {ma-ludaq} [suʔu]UN

by.oneself DEM.S.DIST DYN-beat 2S.N

‘He beat you by himself.’ (TVN-xx2-001:146)

240. Anak aipa ludaq suʔu

{anak}AUX [aipa]AG {ludaq} [suʔu]UN

by.oneself DEM.S.DIST beat 2S.N

id. (constr.)

This type of affix ellipsis can occur with many verbal prefixes, including many locative prefixes, the dynamic prefix ma- and its causative and associative alternates pa- and ka-, and the stative prefix ma- and its causative alternative pi-. In all these cases, deletion of a prefix from the verb does not result in any semantic change when the meaning of the verb is recoverable from the pragmatic context. However, not all verbal prefixes behave in this way: participant orientation prefixes cannot easily be ellipted because they trigger a change in the argument order (see 7.3.1).

On the other hand, the focus suffixes UF -un or LF -an can never be ellipted without resulting in a meaning change and a realignment of the argument roles in the clause or, turning it around, a clause can never be interpreted as an undergoer or locative focus construction when the undergoer or locative focus suffix is not explicitly expressed on the verb.

Example Dbelow contains an undergoer focus form of the verb antalam ‘answer’, with both the agent and undergoer explicitly expressed as pronominal forms.[42] When the focus suffix -un is dropped from the verb, the verbal form is reinterpreted as an actor focus equivalent of D. The agent is now in focus, which is signalled by the use of the bound form of the first person pronoun, and the undergoer suʔu is as a consequence demoted to non-focus position. (Note that the change in focus is only discernable in the pronouns by the case change of the first person expressing the actor from neutral to focused form; the undergoer is always expressed by a neutral form, both when it is in focus and when it is not.)

241. Antalamun ðaku suʔu

{antalam-un} [ðaku]AG/NFOC [suʔu]UN:PAT/FOC

answer-UF 1S.N 2S.N

‘I answer you.’ (TVN-xx2-001:2)

242. Antalamʔak suʔu

{antalam}[-ʔak]AG/FOC [suʔu]UN:PAT/NFOC

answer-1S.F 2S.N

‘I answer you.’ (TVN-xx2-001:3)

Contrast this with the examples below, which illustrate the ellipsis of the dynamic event prefix ma-. Here, no case realignment takes place: the focused agent is in both clauses expressed by the same form -ʔak.

243. Mabalivʔak qaimaŋsuð

{ma-baliv}[-ʔak]AG/FOC [qaimaŋsuð]

DYN-buy-1S.F thing

‘I am [going to] buy things.’ (constr.)

244. Balivʔak qaimaŋsuð

{baliv}[-ʔak]AG/FOC [qaimaŋsuð]

buy-1S.F thing

‘I am [going to] buy things.’ (constr.)

E.Derivational uses

In 6.3 we saw that the two focus suffixes -un and -an are productively used in nominalising constructions. Most verbal prefixes can occur in deverbal nouns, but they are normally not the morphological elements that trigger the nominalisation.

Two examples from 6.3 are here repeated as E and E to make this clear. Iskukulut ‘knife’ is a noun derived from the verbal root kulut ‘cut with a sawing movement’. Although the nominalised form in E appears to suggest that the instrumental prefix is- can have a nominalising function, kukulut ‘knife’ in E actually shows that the prefix is not the nominalising trigger in the construction: even without is-, kukulut can still be interpreted as an instrumental nominalisation, which indicates it is in fact a Ø-nominalisation.

245. Iskukulut saŋlav

is-‹ku›kulut saŋlav

INSTR-‹HABIT›-cut vegetable

‘kitchen knife’

246. Kukulut lukis

‹ku›kulut lukis

‹HABIT›-cut wood

‘wood saw’

This is different from focus suffixes, such as LF -an. The omission of -an from a nominalisation invariably triggers a reinterpretation of the resulting form as a verb.

247. babalivan babaliv

‹ba›baliv-an ‹ba›baliv

‹HABIT›-buy/sell-LF ‹HABIT›-buy/sell

‘(v.) buy/sell habitually in a location’ ‘(v.) buy/sell habitually’

‘(n.) shop’ *‘(n.) shop’

The only verbal prefix that appears to have developed a nominalising function is the resultative orientation marker sin- (see 7.6.2 on p. 327).

248. sinpatas < sinpatas (v. ‘write (stresses the end result)’)

sin-patas

RES.OBJ-write

‘book, scripture’ (lit: ‘the object that is created by the act of writing’)

Here, it is clear that RES.OBJ sin- functions as a nominaliser: when sin- is deleted, the remaining stem patas ‘write’ can never refer to a book.

F.Semantic similarities

From a functional and semantic point-of-view, however, one could argue that to some extent verbal prefixes (at least in their basic meaning; see 7.3.1) and focus suffixes are not entirely different. On a theoretical level, both suffixes and prefixes could all be analysed as referring to a particular facet of the event described by the verb root, whether this facet is a participant in the event or an inherent property of the event (e.g. whether it is static or dynamic).

However, there is no real proof that such an abstract analysis corresponds to any cognitive reality in the minds of Takivatan speakers. Even if it did, it would not explain the wide range of morpho-syntactic discrepancies between prefixes and suffixes that has been illustrated above.

Altogether, given the absence of strong evidence that verbal prefixes and focus suffixes behave as one coherent paradigm, the two are best analysed as two separate morphological systems. This will make it easier to explain the great internal consistency of the suffixal focus system on the one hand and the systematic – though more chaotic – correspondences between the different prefixes on the other. However, it is clear that the prefixal and suffixal systems interact (see e.g. Babove) and that, on a functional and semantic level, there are some similarities. These interactions are especially relevant at the level of the clause.

Although this chapter will attempt to give a classification of verbal prefixes as one coherent system, it should also be noted that it is not always clear whether they should be treated as such or whether they are in fact better analysed as part of multiple subsystems. We already saw in B, D and Eabove that among themselves, verbal prefixes exhibit a wide range of morphological and morphosyntactic behaviours, a fact that will become even more evident from their in-depth treatment below.

7.2.A classification of verbal prefixes

The remainder of this chapter will give a systematic account of verbal prefixes as an integral system. Exactly how focus suffixes, verbal prefixes and argument realization influence the realization of certain arguments and how all these morphological and syntactic systems interact to form a predicate-argument structure is unfortunately beyond the scope of this work. It is also not possible to give a detailed account of each of the more than one hundred verbal prefixes. Instead, I will focus on a sizeable set of prefixes which occur relatively frequently and for which sufficient data is available for a meaningful description.

Verbal prefixes are best classified according to the functional-semantic type they belong to. These functional types do not always accurately predict the grammatical behaviour of individual prefixes, but they do determine which hosts the prefixes can combine with. A fundamental distinction can be made between basic types and extended types. The distinction between basic and extended is relevant to subclasses of prefixes, but in many cases also to how different meaning specializations of some individual prefixes are related to each other. In the former case we will speak of basic and extended types of prefixes, in the latter of basic vs. extended meanings of a single prefix.[43] We will see in 7.3.3below that certain forms of basic prefixes can have meaning extensions, while other prefixes only have either one basic or one or more extended meanings.

Basic types of verbal prefixes tend to have very general semantic values, often to the extent that they have some sort of grammatical function. Typically, they are used for putting pragmatic stress on a certain facet of the event denominated by the verbal stem. There are three subtypes of basic prefixes: locative prefixes, event type prefixes and participant orientation prefixes. Basic prefixes are discussed in more detail in 7.3.1below. Their individual subtypes are treated in 7.4-7.6.

Extended prefix types typically have more concrete semantics, which can among other things often be derived from the fact that native speakers often find it easier to articulate what their semantics is. They tend not to focus on a particular facet of the event encoded by the verb stem but rather restrict the set of events to which their verbal host in isolation would have referred. There are three subtypes of extended verbal prefixes: classificatory prefixes, semantically specific prefixes and patient-incorporating prefixes. Properties of extended prefixes are discussed in more detail in 7.3.3 on p. 276. Individual extended subtypes are discussed in sections 7.7-7.9 (from page 329 onward).

One major difference between basic and extended types (or meanings) is that the former can have causative and associative morphological variants. Verbal prefixes of the extended type never have these variant forms, but isolated morphemes belonging to basic types can have one or more extended meaning specializations.

Figure 8 – A classification of verbal prefixes in Takivatan Bunun

A schematic representation of the entire system is given in Figure 8 above. For ease of reference, functional semantic prefix types are labelled 1-6; variant forms of basic prefixes are labelled with a two-letter code. Both codes will return in the examples below. The examples below give one example of each of the prefix types possible in Figure 8.

249. Locative (type 1):

L-N: mun-han Kaliŋku-ti

ALL-go GeoName-DEF.REF.PROX

‘[The Bunun] went to Kaliŋku.’ (adapted from TVN-012-002:2)

L-C: pu-dan-un pun-Kaliŋku-ti

CAUS.ALL-go-UF CAUS.ALL-GeoName-DEF.REF.PROX

‘They were made/forced to go to Kaliŋku’ (adapted from

TVN-012-002:36)

L-A: ku-han-un sapuð-a

ASSOC.ALL-go-UF fire-LNK

‘[the pieces of rope] were together scorched into the fire’ [lit: ‘they

were put together towards the fire’] (adapted from

TVN-008-002:168)

250. Event type (type 2):

E-N: ma-suað maduq

DYN-grow millet

‘[They] grew millet’ (TVN-012-002:7)

E-C: pi-sihal-un pa-luŋku

CAUS.STAT-good-UF CAUS.DYN-sit

‘You have to be good to him and give him a seat’ (lit: ‘[He] has

to be good-ed and made to sit down’ (adapted from

TVN-013-001:15)

E-A: ka-lumaq naipa

ASSOC.DYN-home DEM.S.DIST.NVIS

‘He went home’ [lit. something like: ‘went home to be together with

his family’] (adapted from TVN-012-001:119)

251. Participant orientation (type 3):

P-N: saduʔu-ki sin-‹su›suað bunuað

see-DEF.SIT.PROX RES.OBJ-‹REP›-grow plum

‘They saw that they had grown plums [so that the tree was laden

with fruits]’ (adapted from TVN-012-001:41)

P-C: mu-ŋaus ʔiti pis-hutan-a

ALL-first here CAUS.INSTR-yam-LNK

‘They first came here to grow yams’ [lit: ‘to cause yam-sprouting by

using the soil here’] (adapted from TVN-012-002:50)

P-A: ―

252. Classificatory (type 4):

tin-vuqvuq-a kahaŋ

SHOCK-move.back.and.forth-LNK high.grass

‘The high grass was moving vigorously back and forth’

(TVN-008-002:199)

253. Semantically specific (type 5):

ni maqtu pa-siða

NEG be.allowed HI.AG-take

‘They were not allowed to marry.’ (TVN-012-001:98)

254. Patient-incorporating (type 6):

nanu-dau pu-qanvaŋ saupa

really-EMOT HUNT-sambar in.that.direction

‘And now we really went hunting for sambar in the direction [of the

village of the Amis].’ (TVN-008-002:106)

The prefix pu- in 7.2 L-C and in 7.2 illustrates that some prefixes can have a basic (in the case of pu-, a causative allative) meaning and extended meanings (pu- is used as a patient-incorporating prefix with the meaning ‘to hunt X’). As a general rule, verbal prefixes can have many extended meanings but never more than one basic meaning.

Few causative and no associative variants of any participant orientation prefix have so far been attested. This is also the case for many causative or associative variants of individual prefixes of the two other basic types.

The absence of some of the forms postulated in Figure 8 can mean a number of things. In some cases, it might indicate that the forms do not exist. In the case of participant orientation prefixes, one might interpret this as weakening the argument in 7.1.4above that they should be treated differently from focus suffixes. At the very least, it strengthens the argument that participant orientation prefixes should be treated differently from other basic prefix types, despite their commonalities. In other cases, the non-attestation of forms might just be due to low frequency. For instance, causative variants of instrumental orientation prefixes are expected to have a much lower frequency than causative forms of dynamic or static verb markers.

Despite the fact that the form pishutan ‘grow yams’ in 7.2 C3 derives a verb from a nominal stem and expresses an event in which the nominal stem functions as a patientive undergoer of the event expressed by the derived verb as a whole (i.e. semantically hutan ‘yams’ is the patient of the action pishutan), the construction is not classified as a patient-incorporating prefix. This is because patient-incorporating prefixes have semantically specific meanings that native speakers immediately recognize as referring to specific actions (see 7.9, p. 335).

In example 7.2 C3, on the other hand, pis- is semantically vague and its specific interpretation is context-dependent. Pishutan literally means something like ‘cause to do something with yams’. Its specific interpretation ‘grow yams (in fertile soil)’ is only derived from the preceding story, in which the Takivatan wanted to move to new lands and first sent in a small group to live there and check out whether the soil was suitable for agriculture by planting yams there. If pis- would idiosyncratically combine with crop names and in those contexts always refer to the action of planting crops, one could argue that it had developed a patient-incorporating meaning extension. This is not the case, but it has a number of non-related patient-incorporating functions, which are discussed in D-F on page 326ff.

In the second paragraph of this section, it was mentioned that the classification above is based on functional-semantic criteria. Three syntactic phenomena that have so far not been addressed are whether or not a verbal prefix changes the argument order in a clause, whether or not it changes the number of participants, and whether or not it changes pronominal case marking. We will see in the remainder of this chapter that there is a considerable amount of variation among individual prefixes (between subclasses and within the same subclass) as to how they interact with these three factors. As a result, they are not particularly useful for categorization.

When all is taken into account, it is clear that Figure 8 is not a perfect classification. One should see it as an idealised representation of how a paradigm of verbal prefixes might look if it were not defective, a fact that is not likely in most Formosan and many Philippine languages, which are riddled with defective paradigms.

7.3.Types and variants

7.3.1.Basic types

Verbal prefixes of the basic type are characterized by the fact that they do not fundamentally alter the semantics of the verbal stem they combine with or, more precisely, the addition of a basic prefix to a verbal stem does typically not alter the set of events which the stem in isolation has the potential to refer to (this characteristic will be referred to as semantic neutrality).

This is most obviously the case with event type prefixes like stative ma- (see 7.5.2). From the example below, it is clear that STAT ma- does not really add anything to the semantics of tamasað ‘powerful’, but rather emphasizes the fact that it is to be interpreted as a stative event. Matamasað means exactly the same as tamasað and it has the potential to refer to exactly the same set of events in discourse.

255. ma-tamasað ↔ tamasað

STAT-powerful powerful

‘powerful, full of vigour’ ‘powerful, full of vigour’

In 7.3.1, the instrumental participant orientation prefix is- (7.6.1) does not fundamentally change the meaning of the stem lusʔan ‘celebrate’. It merely focuses attention on the objects that are used in the process of celebrating. This semantic neutrality is less obvious from the English translation than in the previous example, but native speakers consistently consider islusʔan and lusʔan to be ‘the same word’ and are unable to indicate any meaning differences.

256. is-lusʔan ↔ lusʔan

INSTR-celebrate celebrate

‘(use something to) celebrate something’ ‘celebrate something’

In any case, both forms have the potential to refer to the same set of events, the only difference being that islusʔan in 7.3.1 focuses on what the celebration is performed with or through and lusʔan simply on the act of celebrating.

Another indication of the semantic neutrality of a prefix like INSTR is- is the fact that in real-world discourse or texts, the instrument that is stressed by the infix is very rarely explicitly expressed as an explicit argument and there are even clauses containing INSTR is- where native speakers strongly object to inserting an instrumental undergoer. The form in 7.3.1 is extracted from the text segment in 7.3.1below. In the example, the instrument referred to by INSTR is- is mentioned in the preceding sentence, so it clearly is conceptually implied, but it is not explicitly expressed as an argument of islusʔan and expressing it would be considered to be awkward, even if it had not been mentioned in the previous clause.

257. Palaiqluʔuna titiʔa, aupa na islusʔan [...]

{pala‹i›qlu-un-a} [titi-a]UN:PAT C1|C2

‹PST›-preserve-UF-LNK meat-LNK

aupa na {is-lusʔan}

because thus INSTR-celebrate

‘The meat was preserved and it was used in celebrations.’ (TVN-012-001:51)

Basic verbal prefixes do not have a consistent effect on the syntactic argument expression of the clause. Prefixes of any basic type – including causative and associative variants – typically do not change the argument order in the clause.

The only exceptions are the resultative object orientation prefix sin- and the beneficiary orientation prefix ki-, both participant orientation prefixes that are rare in normal discourse (see 7.6.2 and 7.6.3 respectively). Example 7.3.1 is a typical example of an agent focus construction with a dynamic event type prefix ma- and a standard argument order (a bound focused agent), a beneficiary undergoer and a patient undergoer. In almost all situations, this would be the normal order: agents come before undergoers, who come before locative arguments. This is not the case in 7.3.1, where the beneficiary orientation prefix ki- causes the order of agent and beneficiary to be switched around.

258. Masaivʔak su tilas

{ma-saiv}[-ʔak]AG [su]UN:BEN [tilas]UN:PAT

DYN-give-1S.F 2S.N cereal

‘I give you rice’ (constr.)

259. Kisaivʔak su tilas

{ki-saiv}[-ʔak]BEN [su]AG [tilas]UN:PAT

BEN-give-1S.F 2S.N cereal

‘[You] give me rice!’ (TVN-xx2-003:46)

RES.OBJ sin- is the only other verbal prefix that causes a similar change in argument order, but then between resultative object and agent. None of the other verbal prefixes, including other participant orientation prefixes, have the ability to reshuffle the argument structure.

Rather than influencing the semantics of the verb or altering the grammatical realization of the predicate-argument structure, a function that all verbal prefixes have is that they put pragmatic stress on a particular facet of the event. We will see below that that facet can be a segment of the action flow (as with stative ma- in 7.5.2 or inchoative min- in 7.5.6) or it can be a particular participant that is particularly salient in the event described (as the INSTR is- in 7.6.1 or RES.OBJ sin- in 7.6.2). This makes them functionally somewhat similar to focus suffixes, which put pragmatic focus either on an undergoer or on a locative participant, although their morphosyntactic and grammatical behaviour tends to be different.

In contrast to verbal prefixes of the extended type, class membership of the subtypes of basic prefixes is usually well-delineated, i.e. despite their semantic vagueness it is easy for an observer to say to which subclass they belong. Based on the nature of the facet of the event which the prefix stresses, three subtypes of basic prefixes can be distinguished:

•  Locative prefixes describe the spatial or temporal locative properties of an event. Locative prefixes are discussed in 7.4 on p. 279.

•  Event type prefixes say something about what kind of event the verbal stem refers to (active, stative, inchoative, etc.). Event type prefixes are discussed in 7.5 on p. 299.

•  Participant orientation prefixes put pragmatic stress on a particular participant in the event expressed by the verb. Participant orientation prefixes are discussed in 7.6 on p. 319.

7.3.2.Neutral, causative and associative variants

As Figure 8 on page 260 above indicates, only basic prefixes can have variant forms. All prefixes at least have a neutral form. In addition, some locative and event type prefixes also have causative and associative variants, although not all variants are attested for all prefixes.[44]

Causative forms are normally derived from neutral variants by replacing the prefix-initial consonant with /p/ or, for vowel-initial prefixes, by adding an initial /p/. Associative forms are derived by replacing or adding /k/. /p/-initial causative variants are a widespread phenomenon in Formosan and Malayo-Polynesian languages (see e.g. Blust (2003b:14ff)). Much less information is available on associative variants, but they do exist (e.g. Tagalog ka-; Randy LaPolla pers. comm.). Table 19 gives an overview of some common neutral/causative/associative alternations in Takivatan.

Type

Neutral

(N)

Causative

(C)

Associative

(A)

Locative

(1)

Allative (ALL)

mun-

pun-

(kun-)

Allative (ALL)

mu-

pu-

ku-

Ablative (ABL)

maisna-

paisna-

—

etc.

Event type

(2)

Dynamic (DYN)

ma-

pa-

ka-

Stative (STAT)

ma- / mi-

pi-

ka-/(ki-)

Inchoative (BECOME)

min-

pin-

kin-

Participant orientation (3)

Instrumental
orientation (INSTR)

is-

pis-

(kis-)

Beneficiary

orientation (BEN)

ki-

—

—

Resultative object
(RES.OBJ)

sin-

(pin-)

—

Table 19 – Variants of common verbal prefixes

So far, there is little unambiguous proof for the existence of non-neutral forms of participant orientation prefixes. One instance of pis- has been attested that could be interpreted as a causative instrumental prefix (see ex. 7.6 on page 322) and a number of prefixes have the formal characteristics of causative and associative variants of participant orientation prefixes. The lack of data is not unsurprising, since the functional need for these forms is much less than that for causatives of verbal forms that are agent-oriented. Attested morphemes that are formally identical to putative causative or associate variants of certain verbal prefixes, but for which the evidence is at present still insufficient or ambiguous, have been added in the table in brackets.

A.Neutral variants

Neutral variants typically indicate internal control or, in other words, that the participant that is typically the most agentive force of the event is in fact fulfilling that function. For instance, the attachment of the allative prefix mu- to the dynamic stem suqais ‘go back’ in A encodes that (1) the event expresses a movement towards and (2) the most agentive participant in the process, namely the people walking back (expressed by naiŋka), is the agent of the clause.

260. Musuqaisin naiŋka

{mu-suqais-in} [naiŋka]AG

ALL-go.back-PRV DEM.PV.DIST.NVIS

‘They went back’ (TVN-012-001:34)

Internal control also holds true for neutral prefixes indicating stative events such as ma- ‘STAT’ in A, in which the agentive force of the only argument in the event is low.

261. Maqanuasin madadaiŋʔað

{ma-qanuas-in} [ma‹da›daiŋʔað]AG

STAT-envious-PRV ‹PL›-elders

‘The elders were envious’ (TVN-012-002:93)

Neutral variants are, unsurprisingly, considerably more common in real-world discourse than causative or associative variants. The most common locative and event type prefixes all have /m/-initial neutral variants. Participant orientation prefixes and some (mainly low-frequency) locative and event type prefixes have no such restrictions. Below are examples of a neutral variant of a locative prefix, an event type prefix, and a participant orientation prefix.

262. Locative prefix:

Mainahan ʔata Banuað

{main-han} [ʔata]AG [Banuað]PLACE

ABL-go 1I.F GeoName

‘We went to Banuað’ (adapt. from TVN-012-002:4)

263. Event type prefix:

Minbukðavin aipa

{min-bukðav-in} [aipa]AG

BECOME-flat-PRV DEM.S.DIST

‘It [the area] became level’ (TVN-012-002:59)

264. Participant orientation prefix:

Sinsusuað bunuað

{sin-‹su›suað} [bunuað]UN:PAT

RES.OBJ-‹INTENS›-grow plum

‘The plums had grown’ (TVN-012-001:41)

B.Causative variants

Causative variants always are /p/-initial and typically indicate external control, i.e. they stress that the argument which is syntactically encoded as the agent and which is the main agentive force in the event is not the main instigator of the event. Rather, an external participant incites or causes the agent to participate in the event. Causative variants of prefixes are considerably less common than neutral variants but considerably more common than associative variants. Some examples:

265. Locative prefix:

Pusaupata muʔu

{pu-saupa-ta} [muʔu]UN:PAT

CAUS.ALL-direction-DEF.REF.DIST 2P.N

‘They sent you to that place’ (lit: ‘[they] made you go in the direction [of that place]’ (TVN-012-002:48)

266. Event type prefix:

Madaidað ʔita tuða pinmasðaŋin amin

{ma-daidað} [ʔita]LO C1|C2

STAT-love there.DIST

{tuða}AUX {pin-masðaŋ-in} [amin]

verily CAUS.BECOME-same-PRV all

‘That place was full of love [lit: it was loving in that place] and really made [us] all become the same.’ (TVN-012-002:176)

Cross-linguistically, one of the prototypical properties of causative constructions is that they introduce a new argument, the causer, in the clause; the original subject is either demoted or omitted (see Comrie (1976b) and Dixon & Aikhenvald (2000)). Although causative prefixes in Takivatan do imply that an external causer brings about an event, this participant is typically not expressed. In most constructions with causative prefixes, such as B and Babove, it is highly problematic or even impossible to explicitly express the causer of the action. For instance, none of the 28 examples of pa- ‘CAUS.DYN’ in the corpus explicitly expressed the participant that causes the agent to perform the event marked by pa-.

Causative variants can both express direct and indirect causation (see Shibatani (2002:11ff)), although the latter appears to be much more common. A direct causative interpretation is more likely to occur in constructions with agent focus verbs and inanimate patients. In the second clause of Bbelow, punhan has no UF -un or LF -an and is therefore to be interpreted as an AF construction. The patient of punhan is not explicitly expressed in C2, but it is clear from C1 that it cannot be anything else than qaimaŋsuð ‘thing’.

267. Nasiðaun ðaku qaimaŋsuðti punhan daða paŋka.

{na-siða-un} [ðaku]AG [qaimaŋsuð-ti]UN:PAT/FOC C1|C2

IRR-take-UN 1S.N thing-DEF.REF.PROX

{pun-han-Ø} [Ø]UN:PAT/CSE [daða paŋka]PLACE

CAUS.ALL-go.to-AF top table

‘I want to take this thing and put it on the table.’ (TVN-xx2-003:11)

Causative variants can co-occur with either of the focus suffixes UF -un and LF -an. For example, pakaunan in B has a dynamic causative pa- and a locative focus suffix -an. Again, it is hard to render the exact meaning of this combination in English, but it might be translated as ‘[he] must be caused to eat in this location’ (the imperative ‘must’ is a contextual interpretation).

268. Pakaunan

{pa-kaun-an}

CAUS.DYN-eat-LF

‘[If you have a visitor, he must be seated down comfortably and be entertained with talk] and he must be given something to eat’ (TVN-013-001:15)

C.Associative variants

Associative variants always are /k/-initial and typically indicate joint control of events, i.e. they indicate that an event is performed or undergone together, either because the prototypical agent of the event is in some way assisted by an external source, as in C, or because a number of participants are partaking in the event as a group, as in C.

269. Event type prefix:

Kadaŋað baðbað

{ka-daŋað} {baðbað}

ASSOC.DYN-help talk

‘I help you to talk.’ [lit: ‘I will help you by talking together.’] (TVN-xx2:001:25)

270. Locative prefix:

Kuhanun sapuð

{ku-han-un} [sapuð]LO

ASSOC.ALL-go-UF fire

‘[The strings] were put together in the fire.’ (TVN-008-002:168)

Associative variants are considerably less common than both neutral and causative variants. Interestingly, the link between causation and association has previously been asserted by Shibatani & Pardeshi (2002), although they interpret associativity as an intermediary functional stage between direct and indirect causation, which is obviously not the case in Takivatan Bunun, since associative variants are morphologically distinct from causatives, and causative /p/-variants can indicate both direct and indirect causation.

It is important to realize that, although the neutral/causative/associative alternation is clearly systematic, it does not create complete paradigms. As said before, not every prefix has causative and associative forms. Also, as we will see in 7.3.3 and below, it is not uncommon for existing forms to develop meaning extensions. In addition, some causative and associative forms of certain verbs seem to be fully lexicalized. For example, the causative form of saduʔu ‘to see’[45] is pasaduʔu. In reality this form is never used as a causative verb, but rather means ‘to meet (somebody)’. Another example is the variant forms of ALL mu- on the verbal stem isbai ‘flee, fly’.

271. neutral: musbai (< mu-isbai) ‘run away, flee, fly’

causative: pusbai (< pu-isbai) ‘cause to flee’ > ‘chase away’

associative: kusbai (< ku-isbai) ‘fly (in a plane)’

The verb with the neutral m(u)- is semantically fully transparent, as is the causative pusbai. The associative, on the other hand, has developed the meaning ‘fly, e.g. in a plane’. One can understand how this meaning could have developed from a transparent associative usage (‘fly in a plane’ < ‘fly together in the air’), but kusbai is fully lexicalized and its reduplicated form has even been nominalised to kusbabai ‘plane’ (< ‘something that is habitually used for flying’).

7.3.3.Extended types

Extended prefix types typically have more concrete semantics than basic prefix types. This can be deduced from the fact that native speakers often have a clear opinion about what an extended prefix means, while they are almost never able to articulate the semantics of prefixes of the basic type (with the exception of locative prefixes). Extended prefix types do not put any pragmatic stress on a particular facet of the event encoded by the verb stem, but rather define a subset of the set of events to which their verbal host in isolation would have referred.

Based on their semantic behaviour, three extended subtypes can be distinguished:

•  Classificatory prefixes assign the event expressed by the verbal stem to a semantic subclass, which is often quite narrow and based on observational similarities. Classificatory prefixes are discussed in 7.7 starting on p. 329.

•  Semantically specific prefixes derive a verb from a verbal stem. However, in contrast to basic and classificatory prefixes, which do not alter the basic semantics of verbal stems they combine with, the form derived by a semantically specific prefix has a meaning that is clearly distinct from that of the verb stem in isolation. Semantically specific prefixes are discussed in 7.8 on p. 332ff.

•  Patient-incorporating prefixes derive an action verb from a nominal stem. In the resulting form, the nominal stem always encodes the patient of the action and the action itself is indicated by the prefix. Patient-incorporating prefixes are discussed in 7.9 on p. 335ff.

Based on their interrelation with other prefixes, we can distinguish two kinds of extended prefixes:

•  Extended prefixes that are in no obvious way correlated to any variant of a basic prefix. An overview of this category of extended prefixes can be found in 7.9.

•  Extended prefixes that are morphologically identical to a neutral, causative or associative variant of a basic prefix, but that are functionally and/or semantically distinct. Both pis- and ka- below are examples of this category.

Because the delineation of extended subtypes relies on semantic factors, a number of prefixes are best classified as belonging to more than one extended subtype or have a number of clearly distinct functions within one subtype. For example, the prefix pis- has two distinct usages as a patient-incorporating prefix and it can also be used to indicate a return to a previous state. The latter case is probably best classified as a semantically specific prefix; it always turns a stative event into a dynamic event, and it can only occur with an undergoer suffix -un.

272. semantically specific patient-incorporating 1

pis-baqais-un pis-usaq

RETURN-white-UF FLOW-tear

‘repaint something white’ ‘shed tears’

[lit: ‘let return to white’]

patient-incorporating 2

pis-latuk

PLAY-music.bow

‘play the music bow’

The two patient-incorporating meanings of pis- exclusively combine with nominal stems. In a number of cases, however, a prefix can be interpreted as classificatory when it combines with a verbal stem and as patient-incorporating when it combines with a nominal stem, but it otherwise has the same meaning. One of the best examples is ka- ‘MAKE’ (see H), which can combine with the verbal stem ʔuni ‘come into existence, become’ but also with some nominal stems, such as lumaq ‘house’. Its semantics is identical in both contexts, as is illustrated in the example below.

273. classificatory patient-incorporating

ka-ʔuni ka-lumaq

MAKE-exist MAKE-house

‘build’ ‘build a house’

Such forms will be classified as classificatory prefixes here.

7.4.Locative prefixes

Locative prefixes focus on the spatial or temporal properties of a motion event or a stative locative event expressed by their hosts. Table 20 is an overview of the most common locative prefixes in Takivatan.

Subtype

Meaning

Gloss

Prefixes

Stationary

‘at, in’

LOC

i- (7.4.1)

Itinerary

‘arrive at’

ITIN

atan- (7.4.2), pan- (7.4.3), pana- (7.4.4)

Allative

‘to’

ALL

mu- (7.4.5), mun- (D)

Terminative

‘until’

TERM

sau- (7.4.7)

Directional

‘toward, in the direction of’

DIR

tan-, tana- (7.4.8)

Viative

‘along, following’

VIA

malan- (7.4.10)

Perlative

‘through, into’

PERL

tauna-, tuna-, tun- (7.4.11)

Ablative

‘from’

ABL

maisna-, maina-, …[46] (7.4.12), maisi- (7.4.13), taka- (7.4.14)

Table 20 – Subtypes of locative prefixes

Some examples:

274. i-han-aŋ Liliq-tun

LOC-go.to-PROG GeoName-DEF.REF.MED

‘while [we/you/they] were in Liliq’

275. sau-han ʔasaŋ

TERM-go.to home.village

‘arrive at the home village’ or ‘go until the home village’

Locative prefixes typically combine with verbal stems indicating motion or location, as in 7.4, 7.4 and 7.4; nouns that have a locative meaning or temporal implication, as in 7.4; and place and time words, as in 7.4.

276. maisna-han

ABL-go.to

‘come from (a certain place)’ or ‘go on from (a certain time onward)’

277. maisna-Taivan

ABL-GeoName

‘come from Taiwan’

278. maisna-ʔitun

ABL-there.MED

‘from there’ or ‘from then on’

However, given the correct context, locative prefixes can combine with almost any kind of word that is semantically compatible with a locative meaning. In 7.4 and 7.4, for instance, the host of the locative prefix is a first person singular personal pronoun and an anaphoric word respectively.

279. mun-ðaku

ALL-1S.N

‘come to me’

280. maisi-sia

ABL.TEMP-ANAPH

‘from the aforementioned time on’

As examples 7.4-7.4 indicate, many locative predicates formed with a locative prefix can have a temporal as well as a spatial interpretation, unless one of the interpretations is blocked by the semantics of the host as in 7.4. All these forms are verbs: they occur in the predicate slot, can take TAM affixes and can have arguments.

Verbs formed with locative prefixes normally take no more than one core argument, which will be analysed as an agent, and potentially a peripheral place argument.

281. Namunhanʔak Taihuku

{Na-mun-han}[-ʔak]AG [Taihuku]PLACE

IRR-ALL-go.to-1S.F GeoName

‘I am planning to go to Taipei’ (TVN-xx2-003:2)

Locative verbs that have a noun, place word or time word as stem, as in 7.4 and 7.4, only have an agent and can normally not have a place argument, since the goal or source of the event is already semantically explicit in the verb root itself.

282. Muntaihuku amu

{mun-Taihuku} [amu]AG

ALL-GeoName 2P.F

‘You are going to Taipei.’ [lit: ‘You are Taipei-going.’] (TVN-xx2-001:27)

Interestingly, the goal or source of the locative event is never expressed as a locative core participant, but always as a peripheral place phrase: it always appears in clause-final position and, unlike core participants, cannot be topicalized with the left-dislocator -(ʔ)a (cf. 1.4.3, p. 94). For instance, in 7.4above the location Taihuku cannot be topicalized by moving it in front of the verb with a topicalizing particle a, but it is possible to topicalize the first person singular agent.[47]

283. *Taihuku a na-mun-han-ʔak

Taipei LDIS IRR-ALL-go.to-1S.F

284. Ðaku a namunhan Taihuku

[Ðaku]AG a {na-mun-han} [Taihuku]PLACE

1S.N LDIS IRR-ALL-go.to Taipei

‘As for me, I am going to Taipei.’ (constr. based on 7.4)

Also, verbs formed with neutral variants of locative prefixes can normally not take the locative focus suffix -an. This means that it is impossible for them to focus on a locative core argument and, as a consequence, that the goal or source of the action is considered to be a peripheral argument.

Causative variants of locative prefixes can co-occur on the same host as UF -un. In fact, this is actually preferred in most situations, although causative locative forms with no suffixal marking (i.e. agent focus forms) are grammatically possible. In example 7.4below, the causative allatives pu- and pun- both occur in the same sentence, the first with an undergoer focus suffix and the second with a zero-marked agent focus form.

285. Madadaiŋʔaða pudanun pun-Kaliŋkuti

[ma‹da›daiŋʔað- a]CSE {pu-dan-un}

‹PL›-elder-LDIS CAUS.ALL-walk-UF

{pun-Kaliŋku-ti}

CAUS.ALL-GeoName-DEF.REF.PROX

‘As for the elders, they were forced to go to Hualien.’ (TVN-012-002:36)

Many locative prefixes, especially commonly used ones, can be ellipted when they can be recovered from the context. For example, 7.4above is often abbreviated to 7.4below, since it is usually quite clear from the context what the directionality of han is (if the speaker is in the village, it is clear that he is going to and not coming from Taipei).

286. Hanʔak Taihuku

{han}[-ʔak]AG [Taihuku]PLACE

go.to-1S.F GeoName

‘I am planning to go to Taipei.’ (constr.)

As we will see below, causative forms have been attested in discourse for some high-frequency locative prefixes and informants indicate that at least some associative forms are possible. Two examples have already been given in 7.2 on p. 261 and in 7.4above: pun-, the causative variant of allative mun-, and ku-, the associative variant of allative mu- (see 7.4.6 and 7.4.5 respectively).

In the subsections below we will discuss the usages of the most common locative prefixes and – where relevant – their causative and associative variants.

7.4.1.Stationary locative i-

Form

Basic meaning

Meaning extension

Neutral

i-

‘in, at’

→

‘POSS’

Causative

―

Associative

―

Table 21 – Forms and meanings of LOC i-

A.Neutral variant

LOC i- is the most commonly used stationary locative prefix and expresses a stationary presence at or in a certain location. Forms with i- can refer either to spatial or temporal location; the choice between the interpretations is context-dependent. LOC i- most commonly occurs in combination with place words, as in A, and a relatively restricted number of locative verb stems, as in A.

287. ibaʔav ‘be in the mountains’

< i- + baʔav ‘the mountains, a high geographical location’

iðaða ‘be in the top of (e.g. a tree)’ < i- + ðaða ‘top of’

ihaul ‘be at the low spot’< i- + haul ‘geographically low location, riverside’

iŋadaq ‘be at a location lower than the reference point’

< i- + ŋadaq ‘location lower than the reference point’

iʔita ‘be there’ < i- + ʔita ‘there’

iʔiti ‘be here’ < i- + ʔiti ‘here’

288. ihan ‘be at/in’ < i- + han ‘go to’

isan ‘be at/in’ < i- + san ‘go to’

It is also fully productive with nouns that refer to a location, in which case it can be interpreted as some sort of patient-incorporating prefix (see 7.9 on p. 335).

289. ikaku ‘be at school’ < i- + kaku ‘school’

ilumaq ‘be at home’ < i- + lumaq ‘house’

More unusually, LOC i- occurs in verbal forms created with a pronoun and the locative suffix.

290. iðakuʔan ‘be here with me’ < i- + ðaku ‘1S.N’ + -an ‘LF’

iðamiʔan ‘be here with us’ < i- + ðami ‘1E.N’ + -an ‘LF’

B.Derived meaning: possessive marking

The locative prefix i- is also used as a possessive marker when attached to the neutral form of any personal pronoun or the anaphoric marker sia (see 9.2 and C).

291. Isu quma

[[i-su]ATTR quma]

POSS-2S.N land

‘your land’ (TVN-012-003:62)

292. Isia daqais

[[i-sia]ATTR daqais]

POSS-ANAPH face

‘the aforementioned one’s face’[48] (TVN-012-003:33)

7.4.2.Itinerary atan-

Itinerary locative prefixes express that a certain location is reached and are usually translated in English as ‘arrive at/in’. They can either stress the itinerary that precedes reaching a destination or the act of reaching the destination itself.

The prefix atan- expresses that a fixed and unchangeable position has been reached. It always implies that this location is the result of a previous movement.

293. atanhan ‘be exactly at, be settled in, reached’ < atan- + han ‘go to, go until’

atandan ‘arrive at (a destination)’ < atan- + dan ‘road’

7.4.3.Itinerary pan-

The prefix pan- is an itinerary prefix expressing ‘arrive at’.

294. panhan ‘arrive at’ < pan- + han ‘go to; be at’

panʔita ‘arrive there, arrive at that place’ < pan- + ʔita ‘there’

Alternatively, it can mean ‘on the …. side’.

295. panhapav ‘at the outside’ < pan- + hapav ‘front of; slightly higher than'

pankumbu ‘at the inside’ < pan- + kumbu ‘the inside’

panʔaminan ‘be all together’ < pan- + amin ‘all’ + -an ‘LF’

panðamiʔan ‘be here with us’ < pan- + ðami ‘1E.N’ + -an ‘LF’

7.4.4.Itinerary pana-

Pana- is a fairly uncommon variant of pan-. It has only been attested in the meaning ‘arrive at/in’.

296. panadan ‘arrive at or in’ < pana- + dan ‘road’

panaŋaduq ‘pass beneath, go beneath’ < pana- + ŋaduq ‘below, under’

7.4.5.Allative mu-

Allative prefixes describe a motion towards a certain location. There are two commonly used allative prefixes in Takivatan, mu- and mun-, which are in complementary distribution, with the exception of very rare cases such as the one mentioned on p. 291.

Form

Basic meaning

Meaning extension

Neutral

mu-

‘toward’

→

classificatory:

‘downward movement’

‘negative event’

Causative

pu-

‘CAUS.ALL’

→

classificatory:

‘place for a purpose, apply’

‘hunt’

Associative

ku-

‘ASSOC.ALL’

→

―

Table 22 – Forms and meanings of ALL mu-

A.Neutral variant

The allative mu- expresses a movement toward a certain destination. Representative examples are:

297. mudan ‘go, walk towards’ < mu- + dan ‘walk’

mudadan ‘have a walk’ < mu- + ‹da› ‘CONT’ + dan ‘walk’

mulumaq ‘go home’ < mu- + lumaq ‘house, home’

ALL mu- tends to mark events with a low volitionality or intentionality and/or a lack of goal-directedness. Often, it is not really relevant whether the destination is actually reached or not. This non-volitional meaning component is present in all three examples A, but it is usually only relevant in the very rare cases where mu- and mun- are not in complementary distribution (see A p. 291 for a discussion of mulumaq vs. munlumaq).

B.Classificatory/patient-incorporating meaning extension: FALL.DOWN

ALL mu- has a classificatory meaning extension that combines with a variety of stems to form verbs that all express a downward, falling movement, often of a fluid or something that behaves like a fluid.

298. muðaðað ‘hang down in droplets from a surface (of fluids)’

< mu- + ðaðað ‘top of’

mutaq ‘vomit’ < mu- + *taq ‘vomit’

mutaki ‘have a shit, defecate’ < mu- + taki ‘excrement’

mututu ‘fall down one by one (of droplets or grains)’

< mu- + tutu ‘fall down’

Mu- is also used in a number of verbs referring to sudden or unexpected downward movements that are often involuntary and often have a negative result.

299. muliŋku ‘roll down, fall down rolling’ < mu- + liŋku ‘roll’

muqalqal ‘fall down’ < mu- + qalqal ‘fall’

mutiŋkul ‘stumble’ < mu- + tiŋkul ‘stumble’

C.Classificatory meaning extension: NEG.EV

In a small number of cases, the spatial dimension and the implication of a falling movement disappear completely and mu- just refers to an event that is perceived as extremely negative.

300. muliqliq ‘break, destroy’ < mu- + liqliq ‘destroy’

muliva ‘do something wrong’ < mu- + liva ‘do wrong’

This association of downwards movements with negative events (or conversely, of upward movements with positive events) is not unsurprising: think of the English words feeling down or upbeat.

D.Causative variant pu-

The causative variant of ALL mu- has been attested repeatedly in the corpus and in elicitation, although it is not very common. ALL.CAUS pu- means ‘cause to move toward’ but it is semantically vague and its interpretation is depending on the context. Two examples have already been given above: pusaupata ‘be sent in that direction’ in B on page 273 and pudanun ‘be told to go’ in 7.4 on page 283. An additional example is given in Dbelow. (Note that the combination of two bound pronouns on the same verb is unusual, but not ungrammatical.)

301. Pudanukʔas

{pu-dan}[-uk]CSR/NFOC[-ʔas]CSE/FOC

ALL.CAUS-walk-UF+NFA-2S.F

‘I force you to run away.’ [lit: ‘You are made to run away by me.’] (TVN-xx2-001:8)

The causative variant of the allative prefix has developed two meaning extensions.

E.Classificatory meaning extension of causative pu-: APPLY

Pu- can refer to events that involve applying something on or placing it in a location for a specific purpose. For instance, pudaku refers to a traditional Bunun ritual in which a ritual object (a daku) was put on a field before planting to ensure a good harvest.

302. pudaku ‘put a ritual token on a field’ < pu- + daku ‘ritual token’

pusaqsaq ‘tell lies’ < pu- + saqsaq ‘???’ (possibly: < saq ‘smell, stink’)

pususuk ‘give an injection’ < pu- + CV ‘REP’ + suk ‘needle’

F.Patient-incorporating meaning extension of causative pu-: HUNT

With nominal stems referring to animals, pu- means ‘to hunt’.

303. puqanvaŋ ‘hunt for sambar’ < pu- + qanvaŋ ‘sambar’

puvanis ‘hunt for wild pig’ < pu- + vanis ‘wild pig’

In these forms, pu- has clearly lost its original causative allative semantics. For instance, when someones goes hunting for pigs, there is no external causer that somehow compels him to perform that action.

G.Associative variant ku-

So far, the associative variant of ALL mu- has only been unambiguously attested once. Example C on page 275 is here repeated for convenience.

304. Kuhanun sapuð

{ku-han-un} [sapuð]LO

ASSOC.ALL-go-UF fire

‘[The strings] were put together in the fire.’ (TVN-008-002:168)

7.4.6.Allative mun-

Form

Basic meaning

Meaning extension

Neutral

mun-

‘toward’

―

Causative

pun-

‘CAUS.ALL’

→

numeral prefix:

‘…th grade’

Associative

―

―

Table 23 – Forms and meanings of ALL mun-

A.Neutral variant

Like ALL mu-, the allative prefix mun- also describes a movement towards a certain destination, but in contrast to the former prefix it typically refers to an intentional or goal-directed movement and it usually implies that the destination is reached. ALL mun- can be used with place words and with the locative verb han ‘be at; go to’.

305. munbaʔav ‘go into the mountains, go to work on the field’ < mun- + baʔav ‘high location’

munʔita ‘go there’ < mun- + ʔita ‘there’

munʔiti ‘come here’ < mun- + ʔiti ‘here’

munhan ‘go to a certain location’ < mun- + han ‘go’

Unlike mu-, mun- commonly combines with a large number of nouns expressing a location.

306. munkaku ‘go to the school’ < mun- + kaku ‘school’

mundalaq ‘go to a certain plot of land’ < mun- + dalaq ‘land, ground’

munlibus ‘go to the hunting ground’ < mun- + libus ‘forest, hunting ground’

munvaŋlað ‘go to the riverside’ < mun- + vaŋlað ‘riverside’

Together with the ablative prefix maisna-, it is also one of the few locative prefixes productively used in combination with toponyms.

307. mun-Kaliŋku ‘go to Hualien’ < mun- + Kaliŋku ‘Hualien’

mun-Taihuku ‘go to Taipei’ < mun- + Taihuku ‘Taipei’

mun-Taivan ‘go to Taiwan’ < mun- + Taivan ‘Taiwan’

I have found no combinations with nouns that do not have an inherently locational meaning.

The functional difference between the volitional and the non-volitional allative prefix is often not as clear-cut as I presented it above. Most stems combine either with mu- or mun- but almost none with both. The only contrastive example that clearly illustrates the difference between the two involves the root lumaq ‘home’. Whereas mulumaq is a common form meaning ‘go home’, the much more uncommon form munlumaq indicates that a person is going to a house with a specific intention (which is usually bad).

B.Causative variant pun-

Previous examples of causative allative variant pun- are in 7.2 on p. 261 (repeated as B), B on p. 274 and 7.4 on p. 283. CAUS.ALL pun- can express direct causation, as in B, but is much more commonly used for indirect causation, as in B.

308. Punhanun diàn shì-un hikuta

{pun-han-un} [diàn.shìMAN-un]UN:PAT/FOC [hiku-ta]PLACE

CAUS.ALL-go-UF TV-EMPH backside-DEF.REF.DIST

‘[I] put the TV in the back [of the house]’ (TVN-xx2-003:4)

309. Nanu punʔitaʔun, palusʔan inta

{nanu}AUX {pun-ʔita-un} C1|C2

really CAUS.ALL-there-UF

{pa-lusʔan} [inta]UN:PAT

CAUS.DYN-celebrate 3P. DIST

‘All the people went there and celebrated them (because they were instructed to do so).’ (TVN-012-001:79)

Informants indicate that CAUS.ALL pun- in combination with an undergoer focus can be used as an imperative.

310. Punʔitiʔun!

{pun-ʔiti-un}

CAUS.ALL-here-UF

‘Come over here!’ (TVN-xx2-001:13)

No other causative forms have so far been attested in similar imperative constructions.

C.Ordinal numerals with pun-

The prefix pun- can be used with numerals to indicate progressive levels, for example grades in a school curriculum.

311. puntasʔa ‘the first grade’ < pun- + tasʔa ‘one’

pundusa ‘the second grade’ < pun- + dusa ‘two’

etc.

This usage is probably not just a homonym of CAUS.DYN pun-, but rather a metaphorical extension: getting to the first grade in school always involves that someone in authority allows you to reach it.

7.4.7.Terminative allative sau-

The terminative allative prefix sau- expresses a movement in a certain direction that ceases when the end-point has been reached. In English, it is normally translated as ‘until’. In a majority of cases, it is used for expressing time, but it can also refer to spatial location. Although it is quite common, it only combines with verbal roots in the following two words.

312. sauhan ‘go until, go to a certain destination’ < sau- + han ‘go to; be at’

sausan ‘go to’ < sau- + san ‘go to’

It also affixes to certain time words and words of location when they are used for temporal location.

313. saulaupa ‘until now’ < sau- + laupa ‘now’

sauqabasqabas ‘until eternity’ < sau- + qabasqabas ‘eternity’

(< qabas ‘former/future time’)

sauʔita ‘until then’ < sau- + ʔita ‘there’

In a rare case, it combines with a noun expressing a spatial location. I only found this one example in the corpus.

314. sauʔasaŋ ‘go to the village’ < sau- + ʔasaŋ ‘village’

Despite the fact that sau- has a relatively high token frequency in text, no causative or associative forms have been attested.

7.4.8.Directional tan- and tana-

The directional prefix tan- and its variant tana- express an inclination towards (‘inclining/pointing towards’), as in 7.4.8, or a location relative to a reference point (‘at the … side’), as in 7.4.8.

315. tanbaʔav ‘northerly’ < tan- + baʔav ‘high location, up’

tanhuluŋ ‘be at a high location’ < tan- + huluŋ ‘back; back of’

tantakna ‘the day before a reference day’ < tan- + takna ‘yesterday’

316. tanavanan ‘on the right-hand side’ < tana- + vanan ‘right’

tanavili ‘on the left-hand side’ < tana- + vili ‘left’

tanaŋaus ‘in the front’ < tana- + ŋaus ‘front, head’

As the examples show, tan- and tana- are both typically used with location words and time words.

7.4.9.Viative in-

Form

Basic meaning

Meaning extension

Neutral

in-

‘path or trajectory’

→

Classificatory:

‘string of events’

Causative

―

Associative

―

Table 24 – Forms and meanings of viative in-

A.Basic meaning

The viative prefix in- expresses a movement along a certain trajectory or path. Its basic meaning only combines with verbal roots.

317. inqaivan ‘go down, disappear (e.g. of the sun)’ < in- + *qaivan ‘???’

insuma ‘come up, rise (e.g. of the sun)’ < in- + suma ‘rise’

inadas ‘take sb with you’ < in- + adas ‘take sb somewhere’

B.Extended meaning: COURSE

With some stems, in- indicates a temporal or abstract movement along a course of events. In these cases, it is often used together with the nominalising locative focus marker -an.

318. ininqaiban ‘course of events’ < in- + in- ‘RES’ + qaiban ‘trajectory’

inliskinan ‘thoughts’ < in- + liskin ‘think’ + -an ‘LF’

inuskunan ‘common experiences, things one went through together’

< in- + uskun ‘together’ + -an ‘LF’

7.4.10.Viative/directional malan-

The prefix malan- expresses either a movement in a certain direction or a movement following (or alongside) a certain reference point.

319. malansan ‘follow somebody’ < malan- + san ‘go to’

malansaupa ‘go in the direction of’ < malan- + saupa ‘direction’

7.4.11.Perlative tauna-/tun-/tuna-

The perlative prefix tauna-/tun-/tuna- indicates a movement through or into a certain location. It can also be used with an allative meaning, but usually implies then that the destination is not only reached but also entered. The three forms are functionally equivalent and can usually be swapped randomly.

320. taunahan / tunahan / tunhan ‘arrive at’ or ‘pass through’

< tauna- + han ‘go to; be at’

taunataluq / tunataluq ‘come down from a mountain’

< tauna- + taluq ‘mountain top’

taunaʔiti / tunaʔiti / tunʔiti ‘settle in this area, come here to live’

< tauna- + ʔiti ‘here’

taunadan / tunadan / tundan ‘cross a road’ < tuna- + dan ‘road’

7.4.12.Ablative maina-/maisna-/main-/mina-

Form

Basic meaning

Meaning extension

Neutral

maina-

mina-

main-

maisna-

aisqa-

‘from’

―

Causative

paina-

paisna-

paisqa-

―

Associative

―

―

Table 25 – Forms and meanings of ABL maina- etc.

A.Neutral variant

Takivatan has a disproportionate variation in ablative prefixes. So far, five neutral forms have been attested (see Table 25), all of which express a movement originating in or away from a certain location or point in time. Most forms can be used both for spatial and temporal reference.

ABL maina- and the variants maisna-, main- and mina- primarily occur with a handful of verbal roots, time words and some locative words.

321. mainahan / mainhan / minahan / maisnahan ‘come from’

< maina- + han ‘go to’

mainaqabas ‘since ancient times’ < maina- + qabas ‘old days’

mainaʔita / maisnaʔita ‘from that place on / from then on’

< maina- + ʔita ‘there’

All variants are semantically and functionally identical and can be used interchangeably.

Like ALL mun-, ABL maina- and variants can attach to toponyms, but this happens much less often than with their allative counterparts.

322. maisna-Taivan ‘(come) from Taiwan’ < maisna- + Taivan ‘Taiwan’

maisna-Kaliŋku ‘(come) from Hualien’ < maisna- + Kaliŋku ‘Hualien’

No examples of the ablative prefixes with common nouns referring to a location have been atttested.

The prefix aisqa- appears semantically and functionally identical to the other forms, but is only used for temporal reference. It is relatively rare.

323. aisqaʔita ‘from then on’ < aisqa- + ʔita ‘there’

aisqatudip ‘from then on’ < aisqa- + tudip ‘then’

B.Causative variant paisna-/paisqa-

Three causative forms for the ablative prefixes have so far been attested (paina-, paisna- and paisqa-), all examples of which indicate temporal reference and the majority of which are used with the locative word ʔita ‘there; then’ or the time word tudip ‘then (relative to a point of reference)’.

324. paisqatudip ‘having arrived at that moment’ < paisqa- + tudip ‘past time’

paisqaʔita ‘having arrived at that point in time’

< paisqa- + ʔita ‘there (distal)’

They are not strictly causative in the sense that they introduce an external causative force, but rather indicate that a preceding event was directly responsible for the occurrence of the situation expressed by their stem. For instance, in C2 of Bbelow, the use of the causative form expresses the salience of the causal link between C1 and C2 on the one hand and C3 on the other.

325. Minmauduka paisqaʔita masia bununa lusʔanana sia buan

{min-maudu-ka} C1|C2 {paisqa-ʔita} C2|C3

BECOME-round-DEF.SIT.DIST CAUS.ABL-there.DIST

{ma-sia}AUX [bunun-a]AG {lusʔan-an-a} [sia buan]UN:BEN

STAT-ANAPH Bunun-LNK celebrate-LF-LNK ANAPH moon

‘When the moon became full, when they arrived at that moment in time, the aforementioned Bunun worshipped the moon.’ [i.e. Bunun have to worship the moon because the time of the full moon has come.] (TVN-012-001:32)

Curiously, paisqa-, the causative variant with the highest token frequency in the corpus, corresponds to the least commonly occuring neutral variant, aisqa-.

7.4.13.Temporal ablative maisi-

Ablative maisi- expresses a movement starting at a certain moment in time and continuing for some time. In comparison with the ablative prefixes above, it is relatively versatile and can attach to any word that has a temporal meaning, as the examples below show.

326. maisiqabas ‘from previous times on’ < maisi- + qabas ‘past time’

maisisia ‘from that point on’ < maisi- + sia ‘ANAPH’

maisiʔatikis ‘from a young age on’ < maisi- + a- ‘STAT’ + tikis ‘small’

maisiʔita ‘from then on’ < maisi- + ʔita ‘then.DIST’

maisiʔuvaðʔað ‘from when one was a child’ < maisi- + uvaðʔað ‘child’

7.4.14.Ablative taka-

Finally, taka- is an ablative that stresses the origin of a movement. It is best translated as ‘originate from’ or ‘have one’s origins in’. So far, it has only been attested with two stems:

327. takahan ‘come from, originate from’ < taka- + han ‘be at, go to’

takaʔita ‘originate from there’ < taka- + ʔita ‘there (distal)’

7.5.Event type prefixes

Event type prefixes say something about (an aspect of) the action flow of the event. This either means that they define what type of event their host refers to or that they focus on a particular segment of the event.[49] Event type prefixes have the highest frequency of all prefix types in actual discourse. Three of the most commonly used forms are the marker of dynamic events DYN ma-, the (homophonous) stative event marker STAT ma-, and the result state marker BECOME min-.

328. ma-tasʔi lumaq

DYN-build house

‘build houses’

329. ma-diqla bahi

STAT-bad dream

‘the dream is bad’

330. min-qansiap ‹ba›baðbað malas-bunun

BECOME-understand ‹HABIT›talk SPEAKING-Bunun

‘come to understand how to talk the Bunun language’ (lit: ‘reach a state of understanding...’)

These and other event type prefixes are discussed in detail below in 7.5.1-C. Event type prefixes most often attach to verbal stems, but in a suitable discourse context they can combine with almost any type of host, as long as it is semantically compatible with the meaning of the prefix. This is elegantly illustrated with the prefix min-, which is glossed ‘BECOME’ but actually means ‘reach/come into a state of’. In the examples below it is combined with the dynamic verbs daŋað ‘help’ and haiða ‘have’, with the manner word maupa ‘thus’, with the numeral dusa ‘two’, and the noun pantu ‘student.’

331. min-daŋað min-haiða

BECOME-help BECOME-have

‘start to help; come over and help’ ‘come in possession, become rich’

min-maupa min-dusa

BECOME-thus BECOME-two

‘become thus/like this/like that’ ‘become two; become a group

of two, …’

min-pantu

BECOME-student

‘become a student’

In the majority of examples I have come across, the application of event type on non-verbal stems restricts the use of the resulting form to auxiliary slots, especially in cases involving the dynamic prefix ma- or its stative homonym.

It is very hard to say what influence event type prefixes have on the transitivity or valency of a verbal stem. In general, one can say that prefixes that indicate that an event is stative have a tendency to imply at least one participant, as in 7.5. We will analyse this participant as an agent if the stative verb is in agent focus and as an undergoer when it is in undergoer focus (i.e. when it has UF -un). Prefixes encoding dynamic concepts typically imply an agent participant and possibly one or more undergoers: a patient, a beneficiary and/or an instrument. In 7.5, only a patient (lumaq ‘house’) is expressed, but it is clear that there has to be an ellipted agent who did the building. It is quite common for a clause not to have any explicitly expressed arguments, in which case one often has to make an educated guess as to the presence or absence of certain participants.

Neutral variants of event type prefixes get omitted when an UF suffix -un or LF suffix -an is present.[50] This tendency is especially pronounced with the dynamic event marker ma-. In 7.5, DYN ma- is expressed on a verb without focus marking; in 7.5, the same verbal stem appears in the undergoer focus, without ma-. As 7.5 illustrates, almost all informants consider it ungrammatical to express both at the same time on the same verb stem.

332. haiða bunun ma-ludaq ðaku

exist people DYN-beat 1S.N

‘there are people beating me up.’ (TVN-xx2-001:141)

333. *ma-ludaq-un-ʔak Bantalaŋ

334. ludaq-un-ʔak Bantalaŋ

beat-UF-1S.F Bantalang

‘I am beaten up by Bantalang’ (TVN-xx2-004:35)

It is quite common, however, for causative variants of event type prefixes to co-occur with undergoer or a locative focus suffixes.

335. pa-ʔisʔav-an

CAUS.DYN-have.banquet-LF

‘he had a banquet’ (lit. something like ‘he was caused to be located at a banquet’) (TVN-012-001:113)

336. pi-sihal-un

CAUS.STAT-good-UF

‘cause something to be good; treat something well, ...’ (many sources)

Most event type prefixes can be ellipted when they can be inferred from the context. Their omission does not have any influence on semantics, argument order or case marking. For example, it is perfectly possible in informal speech to drop DYN ma- in 7.5above:

337. haiða bunun ludaq ðaku

have people beat 1S.N

‘there are people beating me up.’

Table 26 gives an overview of all event type prefixes that will be discussed in the subsections below. Causative and associative variants are mentioned when they have been attested in the corpus or by elicitation; round brackets indicate variants that are expected to exist but have not yet been attested in the corpus. The second column from the right (marked C) gives an idea of how common each prefix is in actual usage.

Function

Gloss

CAUS

ASSOC

C

Sec.

ma-

Marks dynamic events

DYN

pa-

ka-

+++

7.5.1

ma-

Marks stative events

STAT

pi-

―

+++

7.5.2

mi-

Marks stative negative events

STAT

―

―

++

7.5.3

a-

Unproductive stative prefix

STAT

―

―

++

7.5.4

paŋka-

Marks material properties

STAT

―

―

+

7.5.5

min-

Marks result states

BECOME

pin-

kin-

+++

7.5.6

pain-

Participatory; marks group actions

PRTC

―

―

+

C

C = commonality

+++: very common

++: common

+: uncommon

Table 26 – List of event type prefixes

7.5.1.Dynamic event prefix ma-

Form

Basic meaning

Meaning extension

Neutral

ma-

marks dynamic events

→

patient-incorporating:

‘APPLY/AFFECT’

Causative

pa-

CAUS.DYN

→

semantically specific:

lexicalized forms

Associative

ka-

ASSOC.DYN

→

classificatory:

‘MAKE’

patient-incorporating:

‘BLOOM’

Table 27 – Forms and meanings of DYN ma-

A.Basic meaning

The dynamic prefix ma- is the most frequently used verbal prefix in Takivatan. It is a general marker for dynamic events. DYN ma- typically binds to verbal stems, but it can combine with stems of almost all word classes, as long as they do not inherently refer to stative events.

A contains some examples of DYN ma- with (a) dynamic verbal stems, (b) a stem typically used as an auxiliary verb, (c) place and time words, (d) pronouns and (e) nouns, but many other word classes not mentioned here can combine with ma- to express a dynamic event.

338. (a) mabaliv ‘sell’ < ma- + baliv ‘sell, buy’

masumsum ‘pray’ < ma- + sumsum ‘pray’

(b) mahamu ‘take together; do as a selected group’

< ma- + hamu ‘together’

(c) masaupa ‘go in the direction of’ < ma- + saupa ‘in the direction of’

matudip ‘do something in the past’ < ma- + tudip ‘former times’

(d) masak ‘I am being (in a certain situation)’ < ma- + sak ‘1S.F’

(e) mabusul ‘carry a gun’ < ma- + busul ‘gun’

maqanvaŋ ‘behave like a sambar’ < ma- + qanvaŋ ‘sambar’

maludun ‘go up a mountain’ < ma- + ludun ‘mountain’

When a stem that does not inherently refer to a dynamic event combines with DYN ma-, as in examples (c)-(e), addition of the prefix typically creates a dynamic event in which the stem is a central element. This is evident with examples such as masaupa ‘go in the direction of’ in A(c), which creates an action from saupa ‘in the direction of’.

It is harder to understand how pronouns or nouns could be transformed into a dynamic event, and the English translations in (d)-(e) above should be taken to be only indicative of the true meaning of each word. Both with pronouns and nouns, it could be argued that DYN ma- functions as a verbalising derivational prefix, but the meaning change it triggers is context-dependent.

The form ma-sak ‘DYN-1S.F’ is not uncommon in formal speech. It is often used in a complex predicate, typically indicates that the pronoun is highly topical, and conveys a meaning ‘I am operating in the situation that’. Sentence A is best analysed as a bi-clausal construction, in which masak functions as an auxiliary verb in the complex predicate masak haiða ‘I have got to the stage that I have gained possession of’.

339. Masak laupakuka, haiða tu mapitun qan num qamisan.

{ma-sak} [laupaku-ka]TIME (C1|C2)

DYN-1S.F now-DEF.SIT.DIST

{haiða} tu [mapitun qan num qamisan]UN

have COMPL seventy and six year

‘I am now at that stage in time that I have reached seventy six years of age.’ (TVN-012-001:9)

The effect of the dynamic prefix on nouns, of which examples are given in (103e), is less consistent. In general, it changes the referent expressed by the noun into an event to which the referent is somehow central. The most predictable ma-N derivation is probably of the type ‘dynamically being X’ or ‘behave like X’. Derivations like this are uncommon, but according to informants can be productively constructed given the correct textual context.

In other instances, the attachment of DYN ma- to a noun creates a dynamic event, but its exact semantic effect is less predictable and appears to be heavily context-dependent. Abelow is part of a hunting story, in which the narrator explains that in the good old days it was no problem at all to take a gun onto a train.

340. Mamaŋun namabusul.

{ma-maŋun}AUX {na-ma-busul}

‹INTENS›-be.no.problem IRR-DYN-gun

‘It was no problem to carry a gun’ (TVN-008-002:115)

It is very clear from the context that mabusul refers to an action (a dynamic event). It is also clear that the dynamic event created by DYN ma- has a context-sensitive interpretation: DYN ma- cannot be productively used with nouns to create verbs meaning ‘carry X’ and mabusul only means ‘carry a gun’ because of the narrative context (if you would say mabusul to a person in the street, they would ask you what exactly you mean).

Unlike its causative and associative variants, DYN ma- can not co-occur with the focus suffixes -un and -an.

341. ma-baliv-Ø ↔ baliv-un ↔ *ma-baliv-un

DYN-buy-AF buy-UF DYN-buy-UF

↔ baliv-an ↔ *ma-baliv-an

buy-LF DYN-buy-LF

B.Patient-incorporating meaning extension: APPLY/AFFECT

The action type prefix ma- also has a patient-incorporating reflex, which is used for actions in which the nominal host of the prefix is applied, ordered or otherwise used in a controlled or systematic way: mapatas ‘write’ is actually applying patas ‘scribbles’ in a systematic way and makusu ‘to tickle’ is an action in which the armpits (kusu) are affected in a controlled manner to attain a certain goal.

342. mapatas ‘write’ < ma- + patas ‘scribble’

makusu ‘tickle’ < ma- + kusu ‘armpit’

Maludun in Aabove could be classified in this section (‘climb a mountain’ < ‘affect a mountain’), but not maqanvaŋ ‘behave like a qanvaŋ’, since qanvaŋ ‘samber’ can in no way be construed as the affected object of the event.

C.Causative variant pa-

CAUS.DYN pa- is the causative variant of the dynamic prefix ma- and is prototypically used with dynamic verbal stems, as in the examples below.

343. pa-luŋku ↔ ma-luŋku

CAUS.DYN-sit.down DYN-sit.down

‘let somebody sit down’ ‘sit down’

344. pa-tisbuŋ ↔ ma-tisbuŋ

CAUS.DYN-explode DYN-explode

‘let explode; shoot (a gun)’ ‘explode’

345. pa-vuqvuq ↔ ma-vuqvuq

CAUS.DYN-shake DYN-shake

‘(cause to) shake’ ‘shake’

Sometimes, the causative dynamic prefix can occur with other types of stems. Locative verbal stems and place words normally take locative prefixes, which have their own causative alternates. For instance, the place word ʔiti ‘here’ typically occurs with locative prefixes like allative mun-, as in C, and its causative variant pun-, as in C.

346. Maisnaʔisaq amu munʔiti?

{Maisna-ʔisaq}AUX [amu]AG {mun-ʔiti}

ABL-where 2P.F ALL-here

‘From where did all of you come to this place?’ (TVN-xxx-xx1:51)

347. Punʔitiʔun!

{pun-ʔiti-un}

CAUS.ALL-here-UF

‘[You have to] come here’ (see B on page 292 above)

However, it is also possible for ʔiti to occur with a CAUS.DYN pa-:

348. Paʔiti aipun [...]

{pa-ʔiti} [aipun]AG/CSE

CAUS.DYN-here DEM.S.MED

‘he was sent here [to understand how we Bunun live]’ (TVN-008-001:11)

A construction like this creates a verb that involves a higher degree of involvement of the causer than a form with a causative allative prefix. For instance, in C, the allative causative pun- occurs on a predicate expressing a command. The implication is that the causer – in this case the speaker – is not physically involved in the action (e.g. by dragging the addressee over to the place were he stands). In C, on the other hand, the use of the dynamic causative pa- indicates a strong involvement of the causer in the execution of the event: in coming ‘here’, the agent expressed by aipun does not act by his own force, but received external material help and guidance.

Something very similar happens when CAUS.DYN pa- combines with adjectival stems. Typically, stative verb roots like sihal ‘good’ take the causative variant pi- of the stative prefix ma- (see B on page 314). When they combine with the causative dynamic pa-, this indicates that the adjectival stem is to be interpreted as a dynamic action in which the causer (which often remains unexpressed) functions as a strongly involved agentive force.

349. Pasihalun titi

{pa-sihal-un} [titi]AG/CSE

CAUS.DYN-good-UF meat

‘The meat was preserved in a good place [by the hunter].’ (adapt. of TVN-012-001:50)

Literally, pasihalun titi would mean something like ‘the meat was caused to be well’. Its exact interpretation is context-dependent. In this case, the utterance refers to what happens to the meat after the hunter has shot a deer: he takes it home and preserves it well for later use. In contrast, an equivalent form with a stative causative would indicate a much weaker involvement of a causative force. In the example below, for example, it is clear that the causer does not use force to make the causee sit down.

350. Pisihalun paluŋku

{pi-sihal-un}AUX {pa-luŋku}

CAUS.STAT-good-UF CAUS.DYN-sit.down

‘Let him sit down comfortably’ (TVN-013-001:15)

With nominal stems, CAUS.DYN pa- creates verbs in which the referent functions as a patient or instrument.

351. pasasiŋ ‘take a photograph’ < pa- + sasiŋ ‘photograph’

pasusu ‘breastfeed’ < pa- + susu ‘breast’

These forms are best analysed as allative causatives rather than as patient-incorporating prefixes, because the latter typically have very specific semantics that are consistent across instances. Here, on the other hand, the meaning of pa- appears to be vague and variable.

D.Semantically specific extension of pa-: high agency

In a number of verbal forms, pa- only indicates high agency without having any causative semantics (i.e. no external causative force is introduced or implied by the addition of pa- to the stem). In D, the Japanese government officials are in a position of dominance and there is no external causative force that incites or forces them to talk. The prefix pa- rather seems to be used to indicate that the saying was done vehemently.

352. Siatu Sipuna patupin tu […]

[sia-tu Sipun-a]AG {pa-tupa-in} tu

ANAPH-ATTR Japanese-LDIS HI.AG-say-PRV COMPL

‘The aforementioned Japanese said [that that was not possible]’ (TVN-012-002:34)

In all attested combinations of pa- and a verb of speech and in a number of other constructions, it is impossible to interpret pa- as a causative dynamic prefix; it simply indicates heightened agency.

E.Pa- in fused and/or lexicalised forms

Some constructions of dynamic verb stems with CAUS.DYN pa- can be analyzed as causative constructions from a theoretical-semantic point-of-view but have in real usage clearly developed idiosyncratic meanings. A borderline example was already given in Cabove: pa-tisbuŋ ‘CAUS.DYN-explode’ can be used with a meaning ‘let something explode’, but it usually refers specifically to the shooting of a gun. The two examples in E are unambiguously lexicalized causative forms.

353. pasiða ‘marry’ < pa- + siða ‘take, grasp’

pasadu ‘meet with somebody’ < pa- + sadu ‘see’

For example, pasiða typically means ‘marry’, although one can understand how it evolved from a causative (‘cause a bride to take you as her husband’) or from HI.AG pa- (‘take a wife in a very deliberate and intense way’). Note that it is possible – though occurrences are rare – to use pasiða in its original causative meaning ‘cause to grab’.

Takivatan has a modest number of verb pairs in which ma- and pa- are fused to the verb root. Three examples are given below.

354. m-anaq ‘shoot’ ↔ p-anaq ‘shoot’ but no: *naq

m-atað ‘die’ ↔ p-atað ‘kill’ but no: *tað

m-atisʔauq ‘penetrate’ ↔ p-atisʔauq ‘penetrate’ but no: *tisʔauq

In these cases, the p-forms are almost never straightforward causative equivalents of the m-forms, but rather seem to imply a more highly agentive/volitional/deliberated action. Even patað, which historically in all likelihood derives from a causative construction ‘cause to die’, is fully lexicalized and can not be used, for instance, for indirect causation.

F.Associative variant ka-

The associative variant ka- typically indicates that an event is dynamic and that it either involves a group of agents performing an action together or a group of patients undergoing an action together. It is markedly less common than DYN ma- and CAUS.DYN pa-.

355. kadaŋað ‘help somebody by doing something together; assist’

< ka- + daŋað ‘help’ (see C, p. 275)

kahan ‘arrive together; guide into’ < ka- + han ‘go’

katansiki ‘pass by in a group’ < ka- + tansiki ‘pass by without entering’[51]

G.Semantically specific extension of ka-: high agency

Like pa- in DDabove, a considerable number of instances with ka- do not have a straightforward associative meaning, but rather indicate heightened agency (volitionality, intensity of action, etc.). In general, it appears that events marked with ka- involve more physical exertion than corresponding constructions with HI.AG pa-.

356. kahau ‘argue, scold’ < ka- + hau ‘scold’

kasʔaŋ ‘believe’ < ka- + isʔaŋ ‘breathe > think, feel, have emotions’[52]

This is evident from stems that can combine with ma- and with ka-, as is the case with the stem hau ‘scold’. Both mahau and kahau mean ‘to scold’ or ‘to argue’. However, the form with ma- will be used more often in situations were people vocally express their dissatisfaction with something somebody else has done, for example a mother scolding a child for doing something wrong, whereas the form with ka- is more appropriate in situations where people are screaming and yelling at each other.

H.Classificatory/patient-incorporating meaning extension of ka-: MAKE

The previous subsection already mentioned ka- as an action type prefix. As a classificatory prefix it defines a heterogeneous subclass of verbs that all refer to creating or constructing something. Some examples are:

357. kadan ‘construct a road’ < ka- + dan ‘road’

kalumaq ‘build a house’ < ka- + lumaq ‘house’

kasihal ‘produce a good product’ < ka- + sihal ‘good’

kaʔuni ‘build something’ < ka- + ʔuni ‘build’

With nominal stems refering to field crops, ka- can mean ‘to grow’ or sometimes ‘to harvest’:

358. kamaduq ‘grow millet’ < ka- + maduq ‘millet’

katilas ‘grow rice or other cereals’ < ka- + tilas ‘cereal’

This meaning should not be confused with ka- ‘BLOOM’ immediately below: forms like the ones in H always refer to a transitive event.

I.Patient-incorporating meaning of associative ka-: BLOOM

With flowering and fruit-bearing plants, ka- means ‘to bloom; produce fruits’. These forms are always intransitive, e.g. kapuaq means ‘flowers are blooming’ and never ‘someone is growing flowers’.

359. kalas ‘grow fruits (of plants)’ < ka- + las ‘fruit; meat’

kahana ‘bloom’ < ka- + hana ‘flower’

kapuaq ‘bloom’ < ka- + puaq ‘flower’

7.5.2.Stative event prefix ma-

Form

Basic meaning

Meaning extension

Neutral

ma-

marks states

―

Causative

pi-

CAUS.STAT

―

Associative

―

―

Table 28 – Forms and meanings of STAT ma-

A.Neutral variant

The most commonly occurring stative prefix is ma-, which is homophonous with DYN ma-, but has a clearly distinct functional distribution, has a different causative form (pi-) and no associative. It appears mainly with stative verbal roots, as in A, but occasionally binds to nominal roots that have stative semantics, as in A.

360. mabaqis ‘hot’ < ma- + baqis ‘hot’

masihal ‘good’ < ma- + sihal ‘good’

mataqduŋ ‘black; dark’ < ma- + taqduŋ ‘black, dark’

361. mabuqul ‘round’ < ma- + buqul ‘grain, granule’

masamu ‘be taboo’ < ma- + samu ‘taboo’

The prefix STAT ma- can be easily omitted when its presence can be inferred from the discourse context, especially in colloquial speech.

B.Causative variant pi-

The prefix pi- functions as the causative variant of the stative prefix ma-. It typically creates a transitive verb from a more stative verb and expresses that a causer has caused the causee to reach the state expressed by its host.

362. pihaiða ‘acquire’ < pi- + haiða ‘have’

pisihal ‘make sth good’ < pi- + sihal ‘good’

Very often, CAUS.STAT pi- co-occurs with the undergoer focus suffix -un.

363. pidaiŋun ‘make something big’ < pi- + daiŋ ‘big’ + -un ‘UF’

pisaŋlavun ‘make something green or blue’

< pi- + saŋlav ‘green/blue’+ -un ‘UF’

It also readily combines with the prefix TRANSFER is- (Bbelow), for instance in:

364. ispisihal ‘make something good or better, be a help to’

< is- ‘transfer’ + CAUS.STAT pi- + sihal ‘good’

7.5.3.Stative prefix mi-

The prefix mi- is used to mark a subclass of stative events that are generally perceived as negative or unwanted. It can be omitted in colloquial speech, just like the more common stative prefix ma-.

365. mihalaŋ ‘ill’ < mi- + halaŋ ‘ill’

miluqluq ‘be recalcitrant, be obstinate’ < mi- + luqluq ‘recalcitrant’

miluʔluʔ ‘wounded, hurt’ < mi- + luʔluʔ ‘wounded, hurt’

7.5.4.Stative prefix a-

Whereas ma- is fully productive and is used with the vast majority of adjectival roots in Takivatan, the stative prefix a- has so far mainly been attested with the following two high-frequency stative roots:

366. atikis ‘small’ < a- + tikis ‘small’

abuqan ‘satiated’ < a- + buqan ‘satiated; full (after a meal)’

As with other stative prefixes, it can be ommited in colloquial speech. STAT a- can be used in combination with the result-state prefix min-, unlike STAT ma-, which is always dropped when BECOME min- occurs (the two are contrasted in 7.5.4 and 7.5.4). This is an indication that a- is in the process of being reinterpreted as part of the adjectival root.

367. Minabuqan

min-a-buqan

BECOME-STAT-satiated

‘become satiated’

368. (a) *Minmasihal (b) Minsihal

min-ma-sihal min-sihal

BECOME-STAT-good BECOME-good

‘become good’ ‘become good’

7.5.5.Stative paŋka-

The stative prefix paŋka- is only used in a small number of idiosyncratic constructions and refers to the properties of furniture.

369. paŋkalauqpus ‘rectangular and elongated’ < paŋka- + lauqpus ‘rectangular’

paŋkadaipuk ‘soft (of sofas)’ < paŋka- + daipuk ‘soft’

7.5.6.Result-state prefix min-

Form

Basic meaning

Meaning extension

Neutral

min-

reach a state

→

―

Causative

pin-

CAUS.BECOME

→

―

Associative

kin-

ASSOC.BECOME

→

―

Table 29 – Forms and meanings of BECOME min-

A.Basic meaning

The prefix min- expresses that the idea that a stable state or end-point of the event expressed by the stem has been reached. It is one of the most frequently used verbal prefixes and certainly one of the most versatile. It can occur with stative as well as dynamic verbal roots (A and A respectively); with auxiliary verbs A; manner words A; the anaphoric marker sia A; nouns A; and with most other word classes, as long as the resulting combination makes sense semantically and pragmatically.

370. mindiqlaʔin ‘broken, out of order’ < min- + diqla ‘bad’ + -in ‘PRF’

minpuhuq ‘become rotten’ < min- + puhuq ‘rotten’

371. mindaŋað ‘help in, assist’ < min- + daŋað ‘help’

minliskin ‘come to an understanding’ < min- + liskin ‘think, believe’

372. minhamu ‘select together, be chosen to do sth together’

< min- + hamu ‘(selected) together’

373. minmaupa ‘become thus’ < min- + maupa ‘thus’

374. minsia ‘succeed’ < min- + sia ‘ANAPH’

375. minpantu ‘become a student’ < min- + pantu ‘student’

min-Taulu ‘become a Chinese’ < min- + Taulu ‘Chinese’

In general, derivations with min- are semantically transparent, but occasionally they might develop a slightly more ideosynchratic meaning.

376. minhaiða ‘come into a state of having’ / ‘become prosperous’

< min- + haiða ‘have’

B.Causative variant pin-

Pin- is the causative variant of BECOME min-. It has been attested with stative and dynamic verb stems, but can potentially combine with roughly the same set of hosts as its neutral variant min-.

377. pindiqla ‘cause to become bad; harm, have a bad influence on’

< pin- + diqla ‘bad’

pinqansiap ‘make somebody understand’ < pin- + qansiap ‘understand’

pinmasðaŋ ‘cause to become the same; make equal’ < pin- + masðaŋ ‘same’

pinsuma ‘make return’ < pin- + suma ‘return’

C.Participatory variant kin-

The participatory variant of the inchoative prefix has so far only been attested in one form, but it is clear from the context and from the presence of an associative allative form in the second clause of the example that kin- can here only be interpreted as having an associative function:

378. haiða kinduʔuna, hanu kunhanun sapuða

{haiða}AUX {kin-duʔun-a} C1|C2

have ASSOC.BECOME-thread-LNK

{ku-han-un} [sapuð-a]PLACE

ASSOC.ALL-go-UF fire-LNK

‘Threads were intertwined [lit: there was togethering of threads], and they were put in the fire together’ (TVN-008-002:168)

D.Classificatory meaning extension of associative kin-: PLOP

The prefix kin- has a classificatory meaning extension that is used to refer to events that involve a sudden plopping sound. The examples below speak for themselves. So far, only two forms have been attested.

379. kintaki ‘have a shit’ < kin- + taki ‘excrement’

kintuhuq ‘stamp one’s feet’ < kin- + tuhuq ‘stamp one’s feet’

7.5.7.Participatory pain-

Pain- is a participatory prefix, i.e. it indicates that an action is done together by a group of participants. It is so far only attested in the following two examples.

380. paintaivtaiv ‘match, game; have a match’ < pain- + taivtaiv ‘compete’

paintasʔa ‘work together, cooperate’ < pain- + tasʔa ‘one’

7.6.Participant orientation prefixes

Participant orientation prefixes orient the event expressed by the verb towards a particular participant, typically by altering its pragmatic and syntactic status. Compared to locative and event type prefixes, they tend to be rare in discourse.

Function

Gloss

CAUS

ASSOC

C

Sec.

is-

instrument orientation

INSTR

pis-

(kis-)

+

7.6.1

sin-

resultative object orientation

RES.OBJ

―

―

++

7.6.2

ki-

beneficiary orientation

BEN

―

―

~

7.6.3

C = commonality

++ : common

+ : uncommon

~ : not attested in real-world text

Table 30 – List of participant orientation prefixes

So far, only the instrumental orientation prefix is- and the resultative object prefix sin- have been attested in real-world discourse. An example of each:

381. is-ludak bunun ↔ ma-ludaq bunun

INSTR-beat people DYN-beat people

‘[use one’s fists] to beat people’ ‘to beat people’ (without stress

on what you beat with)

382. sin-suað iðuq ↔ ma-suað iðuq

RES.OBJ-grow orange DYN-grow orange

‘grow oranges’ (implies that the ‘grow oranges’ (but the result is not

oranges are already full-grown) certain yet)

(The description of ki- in 7.6.3 is based on data constructed by my informants. Other participant orientation prefixes exist but at the moment I have insufficient data to describe them in a meaningful way.)

Participant orientation prefixes have only been attested on verbal stems. A majority combines with action type events that conceptually imply an agent and at least one undergoer, as in the two examples above. However, this is not always the case. Below is an example of RES.OBJ sin- on kuðakuða ‘work’, which is here used as a verb and can never have any explicit undergoer.

383. Diptu sinkuðakuðaki maupata

{dip-tu}AUX {sin-kuðakuða-ki} [maupa-ta]MNR

then-COMPL RES.OBJ-work-DEF.SIT.PROX thus-DEF.REF.DIST

‘In those days, we worked like that.’ (TVN-012-001:77)

The same prefix has also been attested on adjectives, auxiliary verbs and question words.

The resultative object prefix sin- and the beneficiary orientation prefix ki- are exceptional in that they are the only affixes in Takivatan Bunun that trigger a change in the argument order.[53] Example 7.6 is a typical example of an agent focus construction with DYN ma- and unmarked argument order: a bound focused agent, a beneficiary undergoer and a patient undergoer. This is typical: agents come before undergoers, who come before locative arguments.

384. Masaivʔak su tilas

{ma-saiv}[-ʔak]AG [su]UN:BEN [tilas]UN:PAT

DYN-give-1S.F 2S.N cereal

‘I give you rice’ (constr.)

In 7.6, however, the beneficiary orientation prefix ki- causes the order of agent and beneficiary to be switched around. The beneficiary has all the syntactic characteristics of a focused agent (i.e. it is the bound focused agent form), while the agent is demoted to the syntactic slot of the beneficiary undergoer.

385. Kisaivʔak su tilas

{ki-saiv}[-ʔak]UN:BEN [su]AG [tilas]UN:PAT

BEN-give-1S.F 2S.N cereal

‘You give rice to me!’ (TVN-xx2-003:46)

INSTR is- does not trigger a similar change in the argument order.

It is uncommon for participant orientation prefixes to co-occur with focus suffixes. So far, only two forms have been attested, a locative focus form with INSTR is- and an undergoer focus form with BEN ki-. (No forms of RES.OBJ sin- with any focus suffix have been attested.)

386. Ispataðan aipa malamadaiŋʔað

{is-patað-an} [aipa]AG [mali-ma-daiŋʔað]UN:PAT

INSTR-kill-LF DEM.S.DIST.VIS VERY-STAT-big

‘There, she slaughtered a very large one [i.e. a squirrel]’ (TVN-008-002:194)

387. Kisaivun ðaku tilas

{ki-saiv-un} [ðaku]UN:BEN [tilas]UN:PAT

BEN-give-UF 1S.N cereal

‘(You should) give rice to me’ (xx2-003:47)

It is not clear whether all participant orientation prefixes have causative or associative forms. If they do, these variants are very rare. The only form so far attested in real-world discourse is a causative form of INSTR is-, given in 7.2 C3 on p. 262 and here repeated in 7.6.

388. pis-hutan

CAUS.INSTR-yam

‘grow yams’

Other forms occur that might be – or originally were – participant orientation causatives, but these forms have so far only been attested with extended meanings. It is worth stressing that the absence of corpus examples for causative and associative variants of participant orientation prefixes does not imply their non-existence or ungrammaticality: one would expect that forms like causative instrumental orientation prefixes are rather rare in actual discourse and that they are hard to elicit outside an appropriate discourse context. Participant orientation prefixes can not be ellipted.

7.6.1.Instrumental orientation is-

Form

Basic meaning

Meaning extension

Neutral

is-

instrumental orientation

→

Classificatory:

TRANSFER

Causative

pis-

CAUS.INSTR

→

Classificatory:

RETURN

Patient-incorporating:

FLOW

PLAY

Associative

(kis-)

ASSOC.INSTR

→

―

Table 31 – Forms and meanings of INSTR is-

A.Basic meaning

In much of the literature on the Austronesian languages of Taiwan and the Philippines, the prefix is- or one of its reflexes is unambiguously analysed as part of the focus system and usually gets an instrumental reading (cf. Wolff (1973), Ross (1995b), Liao (2004), and others). I explain in 7.1.3 on page 247 why I think it is problematic to include both prefixes and suffixes in the analysis of the Austronesian argument alignment system and I therefore opt for treating verbal prefixes separately from the focus suffixes.

Is- in Takivatan Bunun can be used as an instrument orientation prefix, in which case it stresses the instrument of an event. Some examples have already been given in 7.3.1 on p. 267, 7.6 on p. 319 and 7.6 on p. 321. In all three examples, the instrument is not explicitly expressed but must be inferred from the context. So far, I have not found any example of a verb with an instrumental prefix which is accompanied by an explicitly expressed instrumental argument in the same clause, and very few examples in which the instrument is explicitly expressed in the immediate textual context (e.g. the previous clause). Abelow is the only example of a clause with both INSTR is- and an explicitly expressed instrumental participant (tutuʔa ‘key’), but even here the instrumental argument is not expressed with the main verb istuʔa, but with the preceding auxiliary haiða (see 1.4.3 p. 97 on the expression of focused arguments on the auxiliary verb).

389. Haiða tutuʔa istuʔa lumaq

{haiða}AUX [tutuʔa]UN:INSTR {is-tuʔa} [lumaq]UN:PAT

have key INSTR-open house

‘There is a key to unlock the [door of the] house.’ (TVN-xx2-001:29)

Informants suggest it is grammatically possible to express the instrumental argument with the main verb, but find a construction like the one below awkward.

390. ? Istuʔa tutuʔa lumaq

{is-tuʔa} [tutuʔa]UN:INSTR [lumaq]UN:PAT

INSTR-open key house

‘Use a key to unlock the house.’ (constr.)

Since most instances in the corpus have no or only one overtly expressed participant, it is at the moment not entirely clear what exactly the influence of the prefix on argument realization is. It appears that, unlike other participant orientation prefixes such as RES.OBJ sin- (7.6.2) and BEN ki- (7.6.3), the instrumental orientation prefix does not change the order of the arguments following the main verb, but rather – like UF -un and LF -an – influences the case assignment of personal pronouns.

B.Classificatory meaning extension: TRANSFER

More commonly than instrumental orientation, the prefix is- expresses that an event involves a unidirectional transfer of goods, ideas, or other concrete or abstract objects.

391. isbaliv ‘spend money’ < is- + baliv ‘buy, sell’ (transfer of money)

isnanava ‘teach; bestow instruction upon’ < is- + CV ‘REP’+ nava ‘teach’

(transfer of knowledge)

istaqu ‘tell (a story)’ < is- + taqu ‘tell’ (transfer of knowledge)

TRANSFER is- very often binds to verbal roots referring to dynamic events. The only exceptions that I am aware of are stative verbal roots with the undergoer focus suffix -un or the locative focus suffix -an.

392. iskaðhavun ‘be exposed to extreme cold’ < is- + kaðhav ‘cold’ + -un ‘UF’

isvaliʔun ‘be exposed to extreme amounts of sunlight’

< is- + vali ‘sun’ + -un ‘UF’

isluvusan ‘be exposed to extreme humidity’ < is- + luvus ‘wet’ + -an ‘LF’

The resulting forms invariably indicate that the participant focused on by the UF or LF suffix is negatively affected by exposure to a natural state expressed by the root. Interestingly, the affected participant of these forms is not encoded as an undergoer but as an agent. For instance, the affected first person in the example below is not expressed by the neutral form ðaku or nak (as would be expected from an undergoer form), but by the bound focused agent form -ʔak.

393. Isluvusanʔak mihalaŋ

{is-luvus-an-ʔak} {mi-halaŋ}

TRANSFER-humid-LF-1S.F NEG.EV-ill

‘I am ill because I was wet for too long.’ (TVN-xxx-xx1:128)

Unlike most other verbal prefixes, which tend not to occur in prefix combinations, TRANSFER is- quite readily combines with causative variants of basic prefixes.

394. ispatanʔa ‘give (somebody) to hear’

< is- + pa- ‘CAUS.DYN’ + tanʔa ‘listen’

ispinqansiap ‘make somebody understand’

< is- + pin- ‘CAUS.BECOME’ + qansiap ‘understand’

ispisihal ‘make sth good or better, be a help to’

< is- + pi- ‘CAUS.STAT’ + sihal ‘good’

C.Causative variant pis-

As mentioned on page 321, no causative variant of any participant orientation prefix, including INSTR is-, has so far been unambiguously attested in the corpus. Only one possible candidate of CAUS.INSTR pis- on a dynamic verbal stem has been found in the corpus. It was given in 7.2 C3 on p. 262, mentioned on p. 321 and is repeated here for convenience.

395. pis-hutan

CAUS.INSTR-yam

‘grow yams’

D.Semantically specific meaning extension of causative pis-: RETURN

There are certain combinations of pis- with a small set of stative verbal stems that indicate that pis- has a causative meaning. They obligatorily occur in the undergoer or locative focus (i.e. with UF -un or LF -an) and express that a causer causes the causee to reach a state that it had previously attained but then lost again.

396. pisbaqaisun ‘reheat’ < pis- + baqais ‘hot’ + -un ‘UF’

pisduqlasun ‘make something white again’

< pis- + duqlas ‘white’ + -un ‘UF’

piskadbaun ‘let something become hard again’

< pis- + kadba ‘hard’ + -un ‘UF’

piskaðhavan ‘refrigerator’ < pis- + kaðhav ‘cold’ + -an ‘LF’

E.Patient-incorporating meaning extension of pis-: FLOW

Pis- is also used in combination with nouns referring to bodily fluids. In these contexts, it indicates that these fluids flow or are excreted from the body.

397. pisusaq ‘shed tears’ < pis- + usaq ‘tear’

pisŋusul ‘have snot coming out of one’s nose’

< pis- + ŋusul ‘snot from nose’

pisŋuŋus ‘bleed from one’s nose’ < pis- + ŋuŋus ‘blood from nose’

pisqaidaŋ ‘bleed’ < pis- + qaidaŋ ‘blood’

F.Patient-incorporating extension of pis-: PLAY

In combination with instruments and with the stem qaitmal the prefix pis- can be translated as English ‘play’.[54]

398. pislatuk ‘play the mouth bow’ < pis- + latuk ‘mouth bow’

pisqaitmal ‘play’ < pis- + *qaitmal ‘blunt’

pisqaŋqaŋ ‘play the mouth harp’ < pis- + qaŋqaŋ ‘mouth harp’

The form pisqaitmal is of special interest. Qaitmail ‘blunt’ is an obsolete form. An informant indicated that the relationship between qaitmal ‘play’ and qaitmal ‘blunt’ was that in the old days, Bunun children practiced hunting and fighting by playing with blunt weapons. Even if this is not true, it is a beautiful example of folk etymology.

7.6.2.Resultative object orientation sin-

Form

Basic meaning

Meaning extension

Neutral

sin-

focus on the resultative object

→

―

Causative

―

Associative

―

Table 32 – Forms and meanings of RES.OBJ sin-

The prefix sin- focuses on a concrete or abstract object that is created as the result state of a certain action. It is most commonly used with dynamic verbal roots and also often with verbs that imply the transfer of an abstract property, such as knowledge or help.

399. sinsaduʔu ‘acquire knowledge by visual perception’ < sin- + saduʔu ‘see’

(knowledge is the result of the act of seeing)

sinsaipuk ‘raise, bring up’ < sin- + saipuk ‘take care of’

(grown-up children or animals are the result of care taking)

sinsaiv ‘grant, bestow on’ < sin- + saiv ‘give’

(a gift or thing granted is the result of the act of giving)

sindaŋað ‘help (with a concrete result)’ < sin- + daŋað ‘help’

(help is the result of the act of helping)

sintupa ‘signify’ < sin- + tupa ‘say, call’

(meaning is the result of the act of speaking)

Sin- also occurs in deverbal nominalisations that refer to the result of the event expressed by the verbal root.

400. sinkuðakuða ‘work to be done, work that has been done’

< sin- + kuðakuða ‘(n./v.) work, labour’

sintakunav ‘junk, litter’ < sin- + takunav ‘throw away’

siniqumis ‘life’ < sin- + iqumis ‘(n.) life; (v.) live’

I already mentioned on page 320 that RES.OBJ sin-, together with BEN ki-, is one of two affixes in Takivatan that trigger a change in the argument order. In 7.6.2below, the verb saiv ‘give’ in combination with the prefix DYN ma- results in a neutral word order in which the agent (bunun ‘people’) immediately follows the verb and the undergoer (in this case the patient aipi) follows the agent. In 7.6.2, replacement of DYN ma- by the resultative object orientation prefix triggers an argument order shift in which the undergoer encoding the resultative object occurs in the first argument slot, a position normally taken by the agent.

401. Masaiv bunun aipi

{ma-saiv} [bunun]AG [aipi]UN:PAT

DYN-give people DEM.S.PROX

‘People give/gave it [to me].’ (constr.)

402. Sinsaiv aipi bunun.

{sin-saiv} [aipi]UN:PAT [bunun]AG

RES.OBJ-give DEM.S.PROX people

‘People have given it [to me].’ (TVN-xx2-003:42)

Note that it is very hard to attest argument order shifts like the one immediately above in actual discourse since the vast majority of clauses have only one explicitly expressed argument.

7.6.3.Beneficiary orientation ki-

Form

Basic meaning

Meaning extension

Neutral

ki-

focus on the beneficiary

→

―

Causative

―

Associative

―

Table 33 – Forms and meanings of BEN ki-

The beneficiary orientation prefix ki- stresses the beneficiary of an action. It is relatively rare in normal discourse. Like RES.OBJ sin- in the previous subsection, it triggers a change in argument order, as illustrated on page 320.

7.7.Classificatory prefixes

Classificatory prefixes classify events into semantic subclasses that share observable similarities. The delineation of these semantic subclasses tends to be vague and irregular. For instance, the classificatory meaning extensions of kin- (D on p. 318) is used for events that produce a plopping sound, but creates verbs as varied as the two examples below.

403. kintaki ‘defecate’ < kin- ‘PLOP’ + taki ‘excrement’

kintuhuq ‘stamp one’s feet’ < kin- ‘PLOP’ + tuhuq ‘stamp one’s feet’

Classificatory prefixes are rarely fully productive but typically combine with a restricted number of verbal and sometimes nominal stems and form idiosyncratic combinations.

Unlike prefixes of the basic types, they do not alter the pragmatic or grammatical behaviour of the verbal stem in any way, i.e. they do not put stress on a particular aspect or participant of an event, nor do they have an influence on case marking or argument order. They can be ellipted, but only if their omission does not cause ambiguities.

When classificatory prefixes combine with nominal stems, they usually behave like patient-incorporating prefixes: the nominal stem is functionally a patientive undergoer of the event expressed by the verbal form which was created by adding the classificatory prefix (cf. 7.9below).

Classificatory prefixes can either be independent prefixes or they can be meaning extensions from variants of basic prefixes. The latter are all discussed under their respective basic meanings in 7.4-7.6. An example is the associative dynamic prefix ka- that also has a classificatory meaning ‘MAKE’, as in the following examples.

404. kalumaq ‘build a house’ < ka- ‘MAKE’+ lumaq ‘house’

kaʔuni ‘build’ < ka- ‘MAKE’ + ʔuni ‘develop’

Below are six classificatory prefixes that have no basic equivalents.

7.7.1.GRASP kat-

Kat- indicates an action that involves holding something in a tight and encircling grip.

405. katʔasaŋ ‘found a village’ < kat- + ʔasaŋ ‘village’

katluqaiʔan ‘uterus’ < kat- + luqai ‘baby’ + -an ‘LF’

katvaqan ‘(in wrestling) throw somebody down by grabbing him by the knee’

< kat- + *-vaq- ‘knee?’ + -an ‘LF’

katpapiaq ‘a large group of people’

< kat- + CV ‘HUM’ + piaq ‘how many’

Katluqaiʔan literally means ‘the location that holds the [unborn] baby’ and is best analyzed as a locative focus nominalisation of a form that was originally verbal in nature (in line with A).

7.7.2.BURN mis-

Mis- attaches to a subclass of verbs that mean ‘burn’.

406. misbusuq ‘drunk’ < mis- + busuq ‘drunk’

misnuduʔ ‘warm oneself at the fire’

< mis- + nuduʔ ‘warm oneself at the fire’

mistabað ‘burn down’ < mis- + tabað ‘burn down’

The inclusion of misbusuq ‘drunk’ is somewhat unusual at first sight, but is likely to be motivated by an association of alcohol with heat (think of English firewater). Incidentally, many other Austronesian languages have cognates of busuq that mean ‘satiated’, e.g. Tagalog busog ‘satiated, full’.[55]

7.7.3.FORK pala-

The prefix pala- affixes to roots referring to a subclass of actions that involve splitting or setting apart into two directions.

407. palavaðan ‘branch off, fork (of roads)’ < pala- + vaðan ‘branch (in a road)’

palavaivi ‘set apart’ < pala- + vaivi ‘different’

7.7.4.SEPARATE pasi-

Pasi- is similar, but appears to refer to a subclass of events that involve separating or removing an object from a point of reference, rather than splitting it up.

408. pasihalas ‘far away’ < pasi- + halas ‘away from’

pasihaul ‘go to a geographically lower location’

< pasi- + haul ‘low location; river, swamp’

pasiqaniŋu ‘take a picture’ < pasi- + qaniŋu ‘picture’

7.7.5.SHOCK tin-

Finally, the classificatory prefix tin- refers to events that involve a sudden or repeated shocking movement.

409. tindaŋkul ‘run’ < tin- + daŋkul ‘run’

tindiŋki ‘get an electric shock’ < tin- + diŋki ‘electricity’

tinpalavaʔað ‘branch out’ < tin- + palavaʔað ‘fork out, branch out, split off’

tinvuqvuq ‘move back and forth’ < tin- + vuqvuq ‘shake’

Tin- is also used as a patient-incorporating prefix meaning ‘to harvest’ (see 7.9.13).

7.8.Semantically specific prefixes

Semantically specific prefixes exclusively combine with verbal stems and derive verbs referring to a set of events that is semantically more restricted than the set to which the verbal stem in isolation would have. In other words, semantically specific prefixes are always semantically restrictive, unlike classificatory prefixes and event type prefixes. This is illustrated by the three examples in 7.8below.

410. Event type: daiŋ ↔ ma-daiŋ

STAT-daiŋ

‘big’ = ‘big’

Classificatory: busuq ↔ mis-busuq BURN-drunk

‘be drunk’ = ‘be drunk’

Semantically specific: siða ↔ pa-siða

HI.AG-take

‘take, grab’ ≠ ‘marry’

Adding the stative event type prefix ma- to the adjectival stem daiŋ ‘big’ does not cause any meaning shift: on a denotational level daiŋ and madaiŋ mean exactly the same thing. The only difference is that the prefixed form explicitly expresses that its host should be interpreted as a stative event. Similarly, the stem busuq ‘drunk’ is denotationally identical and can be used in exactly the same syntactic environments as the complex form with the classificatory prefix mis- ‘BURN’. On the other hand, when HI.AG pa- (D on page 310) is added to siða ‘grasp’, the resulting form pasiða has a more narrow interpretation than the verbal stem siða in isolation: pasiða refers to a subset of events that involve acts of taking (marrying is taking a wife).

Semantically specific prefixes mainly combine with verbal stems and occasionally with nominal stems referring to events (an example of the latter is matukumis in 7.8.1below). Semantically specific prefixes can be ellipted if they can be recovered from the context. For example, in 7.8below the first sentence makes it clear that the conversation is dealing with marriage. As a result, pa- (and all arguments) can be stripped from the answer to the question.

411. Q: Pasiðaʔas binanauʔað? ― A: Siða.

{pa-siða}[-ʔas]AG [binanauʔað]UN:PAT

HI.AG-grab-2S.N wife

{siða}

grab

‘Did you already marry? ― Yes, I already married.’ (constr.)

In a sense, semantically specific prefixes are extended prefixes that can be classified neither as classificatory, nor as patient-incorporating prefixes.

Prefix

Meaning

Gloss

Basic equivalent

pa-

high agency

HI.AG

pa- ‘CAUS.DYN’

D

ka-

high agency / physical involvement

HI.AG

ka- ‘ASSOC.DYN’

G

pis-

let return to previous state

RETURN

pis- ‘CAUS.INSTR’

D

matu-

turns an emotive event into a dynamic event

DYN.EMO

―

paka-

Indicates that an agent brings about a certain state

AGIT

―

Table 34 – List of semantically specific prefixes

Most are meaning extensions of basic prefixes. So far, I have only found one prefix that is not an extension of a basic prefix.

7.8.1.Emotive-to-dynamic prefix matu-

Matu- is a prefix that turns a root expressing an emotive event into an action in which the emotion is communicated or otherwise transferred to a recipient.

412. matukumis ‘bestow grace upon’ < matu- + -kumis ‘grace, luck’

matumasqaiŋ ‘behave grateful toward’ < matu- + masqaiŋ ‘grateful’

matunaskal ‘behave happy toward’ < matu- + naskal ‘happy’

7.8.2.Agitative paka-

The prefix paka- can be used with stative (adjectival) roots, in which case it generally indicates that the agent has a certain influence (with properties expressed by the verb root).

413. pakadiqla ‘be a bad influence’ < paka- + diqla ‘bad’

pakasihal ‘be a good influence’ < paka- + sihal ‘good’

7.9.Patient-incorporating prefixes

Patient-incorporating prefixes are verbalising prefixes that behave morphologically like prefixes but have main verb semantics. They combine with nominal stems and derive verbs that express events in which the nominal stem functions as a patient. An example is the prefix pu- ‘HUNT’:

414. puqanvaŋ ‘hunt for sambar’ < pu- + qanvaŋ ‘sambar’

puvanis ‘hunt for wild pig’ < pu- + vanis ‘wild pig’

It is tempting to interpret this process as the inverse of noun-incorporation, in which it is not a noun that is incorporated into a verb, but a prefix with verbal semantics into a nominal stem. Noun incorporation involves verb-noun compounding that results in a verbal form in which the verb is the head and the status of the noun as an independent syntactic argument and/or word is somehow reduced (see e.g. Mithun (1984)). Prefixation with patient-incorporating prefixes also results in a verbal form, but through adding a prefix with event semantics (in the examples above pu- ‘HUNT’) to a nominal head.

In a number of cases, patient-incorporating prefixes are reduced forms of full verbs and are recognized as such by native speakers. This is the case for muda- (7.9.5) ‘go’ which clearly derives from the verb mudan ‘go, walk’; qu- ‘drink’ (7.9.7), which can be used as an independent verb; and sa- ‘see’ (7.9.8), which in present-day Takivatan cannot be used as an independent verb but which historically derives from saduʔu ‘see’.

In the majority of cases, however, they are the result of meaning specializations of the semantically more general classificatory prefixes discussed in the previous subsection. For instance, although adding pu- to a noun referring to an animal can create a derived form meaning ‘to hunt for X’, as shown in the examples 7.9above, pu- has no verbal semantics in isolation: there is no independent or bound verbal stem *pu(-) in Takivatan.

I mentioned on page 330 that when classificatory prefixes combine with nominal stems, they behave like patient-incorporating prefixes, i.e. the nominal stem functions as a patientive undergoer of the event expressed by the verbal form as a whole. In other respects, patient-incorporating prefixes are different from classificatory prefixes. First of all, they are highly selective and only combine with nominal stems (except for sa-, see 7.9.8), unlike classificatory prefixes, which can combine with verbal and sometimes with nominal stems (see 7.7above). Secondly, patient-incorporating prefixes are semantically specific and have clear event semantics, whereas we saw that most classificatory prefixes are semantically vague. Thirdly, classificatory prefixes can be ellipted when they are recoverable from the discourse context. This is never the case for patient-incorporating prefixes.

Patient-incorporating prefixes cannot occur in the undergoer focus and are never accompanied by undergoer arguments, which makes sense because a patient is already encoded as a part of the verb. However, a small number of forms inherently occur in the locative focus (see kunsapilan in 7.9.2 and samaskainan in 7.9.8). Below is a list of commonly occurring patient-incorporating prefixes.

7.9.1.LIGHTNING bit-

The patient-incorporating prefix bit- refers to the occurrence of lightning.

415. bitvaqan ‘produce lightning’ < bit- + -vaqan ‘lightning’

Not surprisingly, only one derived form with bit- ‘LIGHTNING’ has been attested in Takivatan and -vaqan is a bound stem which only occurs in this one derived form. It still makes sense to analyse bit- as a prefix, since it occurs in other Bunun dialects with different stems. Nihira (1988) mentions the following forms in other dialects: bit-vah ‘lightning, bi-liva ‘lightning (with rolling thunder)’ and bit-huŋ ‘lightning’.

7.9.2.WEAR kun-

The prefix kun- signifies ‘wear’ and is only used for shoes.

416. kunsapilan ‘wear shoes’ < kun- + sapil ‘shoe’ + -an ‘LF’

7.9.3.SPEAK malas-

Malas- ‘(be able to) speak’ combines with nouns referring to languages. It creates intransitive stative verbs that are often used in combination with transitive speech verbs. It might be related to the adjectivizing prefix malas-, which means ‘be like, approximate the properties of’.

417. malasamelika ‘speak English’ < malas- + Amelika ‘America(n)’

malasbunun ‘speak Bunun’ < malas- + Bunun ‘Bunun’

malasput ‘speak Taiwanese’ < malas- + Put ‘Taiwanese’

malastaulu ‘speak Chinese’ < malas- + Taulu ‘China, Chinese’

7.9.4.USE maqu-

The prefix maqu- expresses that the object expressed by the nominal stem is utilized as an instrument.

418. maquhima ‘use one’s hands’ < maqu- + hima ‘hand’

maqulukis ‘use wood (e.g. to make fire) < maqu- + lukis ‘tree’

maquqaqtis ‘use chopsticks’ < maqu- + qaqtis ‘chopstick’

7.9.5.WALK muda-

I only found one occurrence of muda- ‘go, walk’. It is clearly related to the motion verb mudan ‘go, walk’.

419. mudavili ‘go to the left’ < muda- + vili ‘left side’

7.9.6.SPIT pas-

The prefix pas- seems to mean ‘spit out’ or ‘throw out’. The first example below is a beautiful verb-to-noun zero-derivation.

420. pasninibu ‘female duck’ (lit: ‘she that spits out eggs habitually’)

< pas- + CV ‘HABIT’ + nibu ‘egg’

pasnipaq ‘spit’ < pas- + nipaq ‘saliva’

7.9.7.DRINK qu-

The patient-incorporating prefix qu- means ‘to drink’.

421. qudan ‘drink (water)’ < qu- + dan[um] ‘water’

qudanum ‘drink water’ < qu- + danum ‘water’

quvus ‘drink liquor’ < qu- + vus ‘sweet; millet wine’

Historically, qu- originates from a full verb meaning to drink. It could be a shortened form of qudan or, alternatively, qudan could be a reduced form of qudanum. The present status of qu- as a prefix is somewhat problematic, since on the one hand it is often perceived by speakers as a bound form, but on the other hand it can occur as a free morpheme in colloquial speech in some restricted contexts (e.g. as an imperative Qu! ‘Drink!’).

7.9.8.SEE sa-

The prefix sa- means ‘see, observe’. It is an atypical patient-incorporating prefix in that it binds to adjectives and auxiliaries.

422. samantuk ‘keep close watch on’ < sa- + mantuk ‘genuine’

samaskainan ‘be proud of’ < sa- + maskain ‘pride’ + -an ‘LF’

Nihira (1988:304) remarks that the high-frequency verb saduʔu ‘see’ also is a morphologically complex form consisting of the prefix sa- ‘see’ and the now obsolete root du ‘encounter’. This would explain why sadu has final stress and a long final vowel ([saˈɗuː]) instead of penultimate stress like all other disyllabic roots: prefixes in Takivatan never alter word stress (see B). There is documentary evidence for the existence of a root du that is related to the expressing of encounter or visual perception.

7.9.9.WASH tal-

Tal- is a patient-incorporating prefix meaning ‘wash’ and is exclusively used for body parts.

423. talaqais ‘wash one’s face’ < tal- + laqais ‘face’

talbantas ‘wash one’s feet’ < tal- + bantas ‘leg and foot’

talhima ‘wash one’s hands’ < tal- + hima ‘hand’

7.9.10.HAVE.TRAIT tapu-

Tapu- creates a stative verb and indicates that the nominal stem to which it attaches is a distinctive characteristic of the agent of the stative verb.

424. taputaki ‘prone to defecating, like to shit’ < tapu- + taki ‘excrement’

taputian ‘big-bellied, have a big belly’ < tapu- + tian ‘belly’

7.9.11.BELONG tastu-

Tastu- creates stative verbs that indicate that the focused argument of the verb inherently belongs to the entity expressed by the nominal stem. This is clear for tastulumaq and tastuʔasaŋ below. Tastumiqumis is a time word and is verbal in nature.

425. tastulumaq ‘belong to a certain household’ < tastu- + lumaq ‘house, home’

tastumiqumis ‘in one’s life, during one’s lifespan’ < tastu- + miqumis ‘life’

tastuʔasaŋ ‘belong to a certain village’ < tastu- + ʔasaŋ ‘village’

7.9.12.GIVE.BIRTH taus-/tus-

The prefix taus- (sometimes reduced to tus-) means ‘give birth to’.

426. tausʔusʔan ‘first-born child’ < taus- + *ʔusʔan[56]

tausʔuvað ‘give birth to a child’ < tus- + uvað ‘child’

The large number of examples in Nihira (1988:385) indicate that this prefix is productively used in all Bunun dialects.

7.9.13.HARVEST tin-

Tin- as a patient-incorporating prefix means ‘harvest’. We already saw in 7.7.5above that tin- is a classificatory prefix referring to sudden shocking movements. That might have been the basis for its use as a patient-incorporating prefix meaning ‘harvest’ (harvesting typically involves pulling, cutting or snapping off crops with a quick sudden movement).

427. tinhuduq ‘pick bamboo sprouts’ < tin- + huduq ‘bamboo sprout’

tinhutan ‘harvest yams’ < tin- + hutan ‘yam’

tinlukis ‘cut trees’ < tin- + lukis ‘tree’

7.9.14.DRIVE tum-

The prefix tum- means ‘drive’ or ‘ride’ and is exclusively used used for vehicles.

428. tumlaihlaih ‘drive a car’ < tum- + laihlaih ‘car’

tumvasu ‘take the bus/train’ < tum- + vasu ‘bus/train’

tumʔutuvai ‘ride a motorcycle’ < tum- + utuvai ‘motorcycle’

7.10.Overview: basic and extended prefixes

Table 35 gives a contrastive overview of the main properties of basic and extended types of prefixes. Basic prefix types and classificatory prefixes are typically semantically non-restrictive, i.e. the set of events to which the resulting form refers is equal to the set of events of the verbal stem in isolation. Semantically specific prefixes, on the other hand, are semantically restrictive: the forms they create specify a subset of the events to which the stem in isolation has the potential to refer. This has been demonstrated on page 333. Semantic restrictiveness is not relevant for combinations of prefixes with nominal stems.

BASIC

EXTENDED

Locative

Event type

Participant orientation

Classificatory

Semantically specific

Patient-incorporating

Semantically non-restrictive

+++

+++

+++

+++

―

―

Causative and associative forms

++

++

+

―

―

―

Focus on segment of the event

+++

+++

―

―

―

―

Focus on participant in the event

―

―

+++

―

―

―

Change argument order[57]

―

―

++

―

―

―

Change case marking57

―

―

+

―

―

―

Can be ellipted

++

+++

―

++

++

―

Takes verbal hosts

++

+++

+++

++

++

―

Takes nominal hosts

++

+

+

+

+

+++

Takes other hosts

++

+

―

+

+

+

+++ : almost always

++ : often

+ : sometimes

― : never/not applicable

Table 35 – Properties of basic and extended types of verbal prefixes

Only basic prefixes have causative or associative variants, but not all forms have been attested for all prefixes and it is not clear that participant orientation prefixes have causative or associative forms at all (see Table 19 on page 270). Extended prefixes never have variant forms. A considerable number of extended prefixes are derived from individual variants of basic prefixes (e.g. pa- ‘HI.AG’ from pa- ‘CAUS.DYN’; see D).

Basic prefixes always have some pragmatic-syntactic function: they draw attention to a segment of the event described by the stem (in the case of locative and event type prefixes) or to a participant associated with the event (in the case of participant orientation prefixes). Extended prefixes, on the other hand, do no such thing.

Addition of a verbal prefix typically does not change the argument order or case marking of the arguments expressed in the clause, with the exception of the three participant orientation prefixes. As discussed in 7.6, INSTR is- influences case assignment to person pronouns and RES.OBJ sin- and BEN ki- change both the argument order and pronominal case.

A typologically uncommon feature of verbal prefixes in Takivatan is that they can be ellipted when they are recoverable from the discourse context. Ellipsis tends to occur in informal contexts and high-frequency prefixes are more likely to get ellipted than low-frequency prefixes. Participant orientation prefixes and patient-incorporating prefixes never get ellipted for obvious reasons: the former have a syntactic effect which would be cancelled when they are not expressed; the latter combine with nominal stems and their omission would cause bare noun stems to occur in predicational slots, something that is only allowed in equational clauses.

Most types of prefixes can combine with verbal and nominal stems. Except for patient-incorporating prefixes, combinations with verbal stems are much more common. Interestingly, some prefixes productively combine with other word classes such as pronouns or numerals.

7.11.Disyllabic prefixes and prefix combinations

7.11.1.Disyllabic prefixes

Although there is a tendency for verbal prefixes to be monosyllabic, disyllabic prefixes are not uncommon in Takivatan. Below is a list of disyllabic prefixes discussed in this chapter.

Subtype

Prefix

Meaning

Section

Locative

atan-

itinerary event; ‘arrive at’

7.4.2

pana-

itinerary event; ‘arrive at’

7.4.4

tana-

directional event; ‘toward’

7.4.8

malan-

viative; ‘following’

7.4.10

tauna-

perlative event; ‘pass through’

7.4.11

maisna-

ablative event; ‘from’

7.4.12

Event type

palaŋ-

stative event

7.5.5

paŋka-

stative event

7.5.5

Classificatory

pala-

splitting event

7.7.3

pasi-

separating event

7.7.4

Semantically specific

matu-

turns emotive into dynamic event

7.8.1

paka-

indicates agent brings about stative event

7.8.2

Patient-incorporating

malas-

‘speak (a language)’

7.9.3

maqu-

‘use’

7.9.4

muda-

‘walk’

7.9.5

tapu-

‘have as a trait’

7.9.10

tastu-

‘belong to’

7.9.11

Table 36 – List of disyllabic verbal prefixes in 7.4-7.10

In most cases, there is no solid evidence that these forms go back to historical complex forms and certainly from a synchronic point-of-view most forms appear to be non-compositional.

One possible exception is the semantically specific prefix paka-. In many Austronesian languages, this form is analysed as a stative causative and there is ongoing debate as to whether this form is monomorphemic or a composition of causative pa- and a stative prefix ka- (cf. Zeitoun & Huang (2000) and Blust (2003b)). In Takivatan Bunun, paka- has so far not been attested as a causative and there is therefore no sound reason to analyse the presently existing form as morphologically complex, although it is possible that diachronically it derives from a bimorphemic sequence.

7.11.2.Prefix combinations

Many verbal prefixes are mutually exclusive. For instance, the majority of locative prefixes discussed in 7.4 can normally not occur with any other verbal prefixes. The only attested exceptions are CAUS.ALL paisna- and ITIN pana- preceded by ma-. An example of pana- is given below.

429. [....] Mapanahan dalaq

{ma-pana-han} [dalaq]PLACE

HI.AG-ITIN-go ground

‘[You shot below the boar, and the bullet went under it, and] it plunged into the ground.’ (TVN-008-002:89)

Combinations of verbal prefixes on the same stem are relatively rare but not impossible. In general, it appears that prefix combinations can at most contain one basic prefix. If more than one apparent basic prefix occurs, all except one are best interpreted as meaning extensions. This is for instance the case in 7.11.2: both ma- and pana- could be interpreted as basic prefixes (respectively a dynamic verb marker and an itinerative prefix), but it would be hard to explain why an event would be marked both as dynamic and as locative. From the context, it is much more likely that ma- indicates a hightened agency. 7.11.2 is part of an exciting hunting sequence which ends in two people scrambling for a shot at the same wild boar. One of the hunters then tells the other one that his shot went under the boar and into the ground (mapanahan dalaq ‘it went into the ground’). A flying bullet hitting the soil is a more violent event than panahan ‘arrive into’ would typically be used for, hence the use of a prefix indicating high agentivity.

A second example of the restriction of one basic prefix per prefix combination could be is-pin-, a prefix combination commonly occurring in the lexeme ispinqansiap ‘make somebody understand (with somebody being the topic)’. It is clear that is- here does not indicate instrument orientation, which is its basic meaning (A), since verbs of cognition do not normally take instruments. Rather, is- is here used as an extended prefix indicating that an abstract transfer, in this case of knowledge, is involved (see B).

430. qansiap → min-qansiap

BECOME-understand

‘understand’ ‘come to an understanding of’

→ pin-qansiap

CAUS.BECOME-understand

‘be made to understand’

→ is-pin-qansiap

TRANSFER-CAUS.BECOME-understand

‘be made to understand (by being explained)’

Interestingly, informants are hesitant to approve forms containing ispin- in which is- is interpreted as INSTR is- and not as an indicator of a TRANSFER verb.

7.12.Anticipatory constructions

Anticipatory sequences seem to be an exclusive characteristic of a small number of Formosan languages. They were first described for Isbukun Bunun in Nojima (1996) and were later documented for Siraya in Adelaar (1997), Adelaar (2004) and Tsuchida (2000) and for Tsou in Tsuchida (1989). Anticipation is a syntactic phenomenon in which the main verb in a complex verb phrase is foreshadowed by a bound morpheme on a verbal element that precedes it (typically on the first auxiliary verb of the clause). This bound morpheme can be:

1. A classificatory or event type prefix identical to the one on the main verb (Type 1 AS)

2. A classificatory or event type prefix that is semantically compatible with the event expressed by the main verb (Type 2 AS)

3. A non-morphemic initial segment of the main verb, often the first syllable (Type 3 AS)

So far, Siraya is the only language for which all three options above have been documented. 7.12 is an example of the first option: the anticipatory paka- is simply a repetition of the causative prefix on the main verb. In 7.12, the anticipatory sequence pää- ‘give, transfer’ corresponds semantically to the main verb pudaäux, although there is no formal similarity between the two (option 2). In 7.12, the non-morphemic initial CCV-sequence of kmĭta is copied onto the preceding auxiliary verb (option 3).

431. paka-lpux-kaw paka-kuptix ĭau-an-da

AS-can-2S.AG CAUS-purify 1S-LOC-adversative

‘[If you wish] you are able to purify me.’ (Adelaar 2004:339)

432. pää-ĭməd-ey-(m)au-kaw p-u-daäux

AS(give)-all-IR-1S.UN-2S.AG CAUS-MOT-payment

‘I will pay you everything’ (Adelaar 2004:342)

433. ka Raraman-uhu ka kmi-dung k‹m›ĭta

LNK Father-2S.OBL LNK AS-do.in.secret ‹AF›-look

pää-vli-a ĭmhu-an tu rämäx

GIVE-do.in.return-IR 2S-LOC LOC light

‘and your Father Who sees in secret will reward you openly’ (Adelaar 2004:341)

In Isbukun Bunun (Nojima (1996)), only the first two types have been attested. In sentence 7.12, a classificatory prefix on the main verb is copied onto the preceding auxiliary (option 1). In 7.12, the anticipatory sequence is selected based on semantic similarity with the main verb (option 2). Note that the exact nature of this semantic relationship is quite irregular: although si- means ‘to pull’ according to Nojima (1996), there is no verb form *si-kulut ‘to saw’, only ma-kulut.

434. mis-utmag mis-busuk

AS-carelessly BURN-drunk

‘He carelessly became drunk’ (Nojima 1996:17)

435. si-pusan-un ma-kulut

AS(PULL)-twice-UF DYN-saw

‘cut something two times’ (Nojima 1996:19)

Anticipatory sequences appear to be relatively common in Isbukun Bunun and it is therefore strange that they are relatively rare in Takivatan Bunun. So far, only two examples have been attested of a Type 1 AS. The first appears in 7.12. The second is given below in 7.12, where the dynamic event marker ma- on the main verb matisbuŋ ‘explode’ is foreshadowed by literal repetition on the auxiliary verb tiŋna ‘another time’.

436. [...] Matiŋna tinpusa matisbuŋ

{ma-tiŋna}AUX [tin-pusa]TIME {ma-tisbuŋ}

AS(DYN)-another.time time-second DYN-explode

‘[…], again there was a second explosion.’ (TVN-008-002:155)

All other cases of anticipatory constructions in Takivatan are of the second type, i.e. a morpheme that is semantically compatible with the event expressed by the main verb is foreshadowed on the first auxiliary of the clause. In example 7.12 below, the prefix ma- on the auxiliary duanaʔan ‘almost’ foreshadows the main verb isbuʔan ‘graduate’. DYN ma- on the auxiliary indicates that the main verb is a dynamic event, although the form ma-isbuʔan itself does not exist.

437. Maduanaʔan tudip taunhan isbuʔana, […]

{ma-duanaʔan}AUX [tudip]TIME {taun-han}AUX {isbuʔan-a}

AS(DYN)-almost past.time PERL-go.to graduate-SUBORD

‘When we would almost graduate, [the war would soon be over.]’ (TVN-008-002:29)

The same happens in 7.12, where ma- on the time word qabas anticipates the status of qanup ‘hunt’ as a dynamic event. Again, the form maqanup is not normally used.

438. Maqabas madaiŋʔað qanupa, [...]

{ma-qabas}AUX [madaiŋʔað]AG {qanup-a}

AS(DYN)-old.times elder hunt-SUBORD

‘When the elders went hunting in the old days, […]’ (TVN-012-002:92)

In 7.12, the allative locative event expressed by munhaul ‘go down’ is anticipated by ALL mu- on the auxiliary verb. Interestingly, the allative prefixes on auxiliary and main verb are different: mu- is typically used for low-volitional allative events; mun- tends to be used for highly volitional allatives. In this particular example, the choice of mu- on the auxiliary might have been motivated by the fact that ŋaus has an initial nasal and the sequence [nŋ] does normally not occur in Takivatan.

439. Muŋausin munhaulti ʔisaq […]

{mu-ŋaus-in}AUX {mun-haul-ti} [ʔisaq]PLACE

AS(ALL)-first-PRV ALL-below-DEF.REF.PROX where

‘they first had to go down there [to grow yams].’ (TVN-012-002:50)

These constructions are rare in Takivatan; the examples above form in fact the majority of attested occurrences of AS in the corpus used in this study.

One explanation for the disappearance of anticipation in Takivatan – or its appearance in Isbukun – is that the Isbukun variant in Nojima (1996) is spoken in the county Kaohsiung on the west coast of Taiwan, relatively close to the area where Siraya was spoken. Language contact with Siraya could have been a trigger for the development of anticipation in Isbukun. Another possibility is that anticipation was originally present in all Bunun dialects, but disappeared in Takivatan for some reason. Takivatan has a very active system of affix omission, in which bound morphemes can be omitted when they are deemed pragmatically redundant. Anticipatory sequences are always redundant and are therefore especially prone to omission, which might have led to erosion and eventually complete loss. Affix omission appears much less common in Isbukun Bunun than in Takivatan.

Chapter 8.Reduplication

This chapter gives an overview of reduplicative processes found in Takivatan Bunun. After a short introduction, sections 8.2-8.7 discuss the various functions of typical reduplicative patterns in Takivatan Bunun. Section 8.8 discusses a number of irregular reduplicative patterns. In section 8.9, we will have a look at an unusual process in which multiple reduplicative patterns are used in combination on a clausal level. Section 8.10 contains an overview of all reduplicative patterns and their functions.

8.1.Introduction

As in many Austronesian languages, reduplication is a very productive phenomenon in Bunun dialects. Reduplication in the Isbukun Bunun dialect has been previously described by Lin et al. (2001). A comparative overview of reduplication in most Formosan languages, including Isbukun Bunun, is given in Zeitoun & Wu (2006).

Apart from a small number of exceptions reduplication in Takivatan always operates on the root and never includes any affixes. There are three main formal reduplication patterns, here given in order of commonality:

25. In CV-reduplication, the initial CV of the root is reduplicated (C_1V_1 → C_1V_1 C_1V_1).

26. In root-reduplication, the root of a lexeme is reduplicated (√ → √ √).

27. In Ca-reduplication, the initial consonant is reduplicated and followed by /a/ (C_1V_1 → C_1/a/-C_1V_1).

In a number of cases discussed in 8.8 the stem (i.e. the root plus a focus suffix) minus the coda consonant is reduplicated (C_1…VnCn → C_1…Vn-C_1…VnCn) and it is also possible for certain suffixes to get drawn into the reduplicated pattern, with or without deletion of the coda. Based on the data in Zeitoun & Wu (2006), it appears that such patterns, which are unusual in Takivatan, are not uncommon in a number of other Formosan languages.

In terms of grammatical function, reduplication seems to interact only weakly with grammatical phenomena in the language (e.g. it does not seem to restrict or control the realization of affixes). It is therefore best treated as a separate process rather than, for instance, part of the aspectual system, even though some forms of reduplication might have an aspectual meaning.

8.2.Historical reduplication

A number of roots in Takivatan exclusively occur in a reduplicated form, although it is likely that historically most of them can be traced back to simple roots. I will refer to them here as historical or inherent reduplications. Quite a large number of stem-reduplicated verbs are onomatopoeic. Reduplication here indicates a repeated sound corresponding to the action expressed by the verb. Some examples:

440. badaqbadaq ‘make the sound of falling water’

qaisqais ‘wipe, mop’

tauktauk ‘hit a nail’

tuktuk ‘cut off using an axe’

tuŋtuŋ ‘bump against’

qaŋqaŋ ‘traditional mouth harp’

In some cases, these verbs have corresponding nominal derivations or a repeated action is expressed by a sound-symbolic noun:

441. hivhiv ‘breeze’

luvluv ‘wind’

tauktauk ‘an (iron) nail’

tutuŋtuŋ ‘hammer’ < CV ‘HABIT’ + tuŋtuŋ ‘hit something with a hammer’

Historical reduplication also occurs in a number of onomatopoeic animal names:

442. vivi ‘duck’ ʔapʔap ‘big black frog’

quluqulu ‘frog’ ʔaupʔaup ‘small black frog’

The examples above can probably not be traced back to a indivisible root. A number of verbs are inherently reduplicated not because they are onomatopoeic, but because they convey an action that involves repetition of some sort, often a repeated back-and-forth movement:

443. pavuqvuq ‘shake (hands)’ vuqvuq ‘stir, move, budge’

vaðaqvaðaq ‘squirm’

Some forms of historical reduplication do not seem to be iconically motivated at all, for instance a small group of body part words with inherent root-reduplication:

444. kaskas ‘blood from head luʔluʔ ‘wound’

wound’ ŋisŋis ‘beard, moustache’

kuskus ‘finger or toe nail’ qauŋqauŋ ‘neck’

lala ‘rib’ susu ‘female breast’

lautlaut ‘spine’ suqsuq ‘backside of head and shoulders’

A small set of – mainly edible – plants and the word for ‘rice soup’ have inherent root-reduplication:

445. hakhak ‘glutinous rice’ sumsum ‘Chinese sorghum’

qasqas ‘kind of bamboo’ ʔulʔul ‘rice soup’

Some names of animals, especially smaller animals, show a tendency to be CV-reduplicated. In many cases, a diachronic analysis for these forms can be postulated:

446. babaŋu ‘bluebottle fly’ < CV ‘HABIT’+ baŋu ‘bluebottle fly’

kakalaŋ ‘crab (crustacean)’ < CV ‘HABIT’ + kalaŋ ‘bite’

kukulpa ‘kind of toad’ < CV ‘HABIT’ + kulpa ‘toad’

qaqapis ‘black millipede’ (no historical source for qapis)

sasanal ‘big worm living under tree bark’ (no historical source for sanal)

tinsusulpak ‘spectacled cobra’

< *tin- ‘SHOCK’ + CV ‘HABIT’ + sulpak ‘fold.open’

It is likely that both baŋu ‘bluebottle fly’ and kulpa ‘toad’ are onomatopoeic roots. Habitual reduplication would then indicate ‘an animal that makes sound X’.

8.3.Intensifying reduplication

The most common form of reduplication in actual texts is CV-reduplication of adjectives or auxiliaries with an intensifying meaning. Its occurrence is often quite idiosyncratic, involving stems like sihal ‘good’, as in 8.3below, or tuða ‘real, veritable’ and mantuk ‘real, genuine’ as in 8.3.

447. Pa na maqai masisihal titiʔa […].

Aupa na maqai {ma-‹si›sihal} [titi]AG-ʔa

thus IRR if STAT-‹INTENS›-be.good meat-SUBORD

‘And if the meat was very good, [the hunter should store it well for his wife.]’ (TVN-012-001:52)

448. Pa maisiʔita tutuða tu maqansiap tu u mamantuka Tama Diqanin tu.

[Au]pa {maisi-ʔita} C1|C2

thus from-there

{‹tu›tuða}AUX tu {ma-qansiap} tu C2|COMPL3

‹INTENS›-be.real COMPL DYN-understand COMPL

u {‹ma›mantuk-a}AUX [Tama Diqanin]AG tu

yes ‹INTENS›-be.genuine-LNK father heaven COMPL

‘And from that moment on, I really understand that the Father in Heaven was something real.’ (TVN-008-002:215)

However, this form of reduplication is fully productive and can be applied to almost any root expressing a stative event and to many auxiliaries.

449. Nanu saduan Bunun tudip tu ʔaðʔað matatamasað.

{nanu}AUX {sadu-an} C1|COMPL2

verily watch-LF

[Bunun]AG {tudip}AUX tu {ʔaðʔað}AUX {ma-‹ta›tamasað}

Bunun past.time COMPL all.equally STAT-‹INTENS›-powerful

‘You could really see that the Bunun in those days were all equally very powerful.’ (TVN-008-002:24)

8.4.Aspectual reduplication

CV-reduplication on verbs or verb-like word classes, such as auxiliaries or adjectives, often expresses lexical aspect (or Aktionsart) of some kind. There are no explicit syntactic cues as to which aspect is expressed and the exact interpretation of this type of reduplication usually depends on the semantics of the reduplicated verb in its context.

8.4.1.Habitual reduplication

Sentences 8.4.1 and 8.4.1 contain examples of verbal reduplication expressing habituality.

450. Ukaʔi saŋlav qaðmaŋin mamauni ismut.

{uka-i} [saŋlav]AG C1|C2

NEG.have-PRT vegetables

{qaðmaŋ-in}AUX {‹ma›maun-i} [ismut]UN:PAT

randomly-PRV ‹HABIT›-eat-PRT grass

‘when there weren’t any vegetables, we often just ate some grass.’ (TVN-006-001:16)

451. A maupata madadaiŋʔað qabas lulusʔan tu haiða tupaka mapataði babu.

A {maupa-ta}AUX [ma‹da›daiŋʔað]AG

INTER thus-DEF.REF.DIST ‹PL›-elder

{qabas ‹lu›lusʔan} tu C1|COMPL2

former.times ‹HABIT›-celebrate COMPL

{haiða}AUX {tupa-ka} C2|COMPL3 {ma-patað-i} [babu]UN:PAT

have tell-DEF.SIT.DIST DYN-kill -PRT pig

‘And like that, each time the elders in the old days had a celebration, it was proclaimed that a pig had to be killed.’ (TVN-012-001:71)

Often, habitual reduplication means ‘each time’ rather than ‘habitually’ and it is then typically used in the first clause of a construction of the type ‘each time when event A then event B’.

Habitual CV-reduplication is common in certain subtypes of deverbal nominalisations. When the Bunun came in contact with modernity during the last three generations, they needed names for the numerous new concepts that were introduced into their lives. Some loan words were introduced from Japanese – and to a lesser extent from Southern Min and Mandarin Chinese – but in a substantial number of cases, they chose to construct their own periphrastic derivations, following some fixed derivational pathways that were already productive at that time, and are still productively used at present. A first one derives a noun from a reduplicated verb in actor or patient focus and describes an object that habitually performs or is habitually used to perform the verbal stem, as in the examples below.

452. istitiŋas ‘tooth pick’, lit: ‘object habitually used to remove food residue’

< is- ‘INSTR’ + CV ‘HABIT’

+ tiŋas ‘food residue between one’s teeth’

iskukulut saŋlav ‘kitchen knife’, lit: ‘object habitually used to cut vegetables’

< is- ‘INSTR’ + CV ‘HABIT’ + kulut ‘cut by slicing’

& saŋlav ‘(green) vegetable’

kihihivhiv ‘ventilator’, lit: ‘object that habitually produces a fresh breeze’

< ki- ‘BEN’ + CV ‘HABIT’ + hivhiv ‘breeze’

kusbabai ‘airplane’, lit: ‘object that habitually flies’

< kusbai ‘fly’ < ku- ‘CAUS.ALL’ + is- ‘INSTR’

+ CV ‘HABIT’ + -bai ‘fly, flee’

A second type of nominalisation takes a verb in locative focus as a stem and expresses a location that is habitually used to perform the action described by the verb. The prototypical example is the Takivatan word for ‘location’ itself.

453. dadaŋiʔan ‘location’ < CV + daŋi ‘place; locate’ + -an ‘LF’

Other words of this type typically describe buildings or rooms that did not exist in traditional Bunun society.

454. babalivan ‘shop’ < baliv ‘buy; sell’

luluman ‘jail’ < -lum- ‘lock up’

pipitʔaiʔan ‘kitchen’ < pitʔia ‘cook’

sasabaqan ‘sleeping place’ < sabaq ‘sleep’

There are a few words that combine habitual CV-reduplication and locative focus to describe a person as the locus of some habitual action.

455. mabubuqan ‘rich person’, lit: ‘a person who habitually eats till he is satiated’

< buqan ‘satiated’

masnanava ‘teacher; to teach’, lit: ‘a person who habitually gives guidance

to others’ < nava ‘teach, give guidance’

The first of the two examples above has probably already been around for quite a long time, since wealth in pre-modern Bunun society was measured by the amount of food one had. The second is of more recent origins: traditionally, the Bunun had no real concept of formal education, and it was only during the Japanese occupation that schools were introduced. As a result, Bunun dialects introduced the Japanese loan sinsi ‘teacher’, but also derived the indigenous form masnanava, which is regarded as more pure and correct.

8.4.2.Continuative, durative and iterative reduplication

CV-reduplication and occasionally root-reduplication with verbs or auxiliaries is used to express continuative, durative or iterative aspect (there are no criteria besides semantics to distinguish between the three). In contrast to habituality, these three are not generally used in nominal derivations and do not occur on any nouns.

456. Saduan ðaku, […] ʔuat vuvuquq kahaŋi.

{sadu-an} [ðaku]AG C1|COMPL2

see-LF 1S.NFA

{ʔuat}AUX {‹vu›vuqvuq} [kahaŋ-i]AG

apparently ‹REP›-move.back.and.forth wild.grass-PRT

‘And I saw that the grass was moving (repeatedly/continuously/for some time).’ (TVN-008-002:82)

457. Babaðbaðin aiŋkun, […]

{‹ba›baðbað-in} [aiŋkun]AG

‹REP›-talk-PRV DEM.PV.MED.NVIS

‘After they had had a conversation [lit: had been talking continuously], […]’ (TVN-008-002:44)

On some occasions, these reduplicated forms conventionalize and develop their own specialized meaning, as in mudadan ‘have a walk’ from the still actively used mudan ‘go to’ (< mu- ‘ALL’ + dan ‘go’). The verb babaðbað in example 8.4.2 seems to be on the verge of this evolution: baðbað originally meant ‘to talk, to explain’, but in a context like 8.4.2, the reduplicated form with a plural subject seems to have the more specialized meaning ‘to have a discussion about, to discuss’. Emphatic continuative meanings can be expressed by full root-reduplication. In such cases, the boundary between a continuative and a generic interpretation is often context-dependent. In 8.4.2 below, the stem-reduplicated saipuk ‘help’ indicates that God’s help is continuous and eternal.

458. […] Maquaq amuqai isia Tama Diqanin tu sinindaŋað saipuksaipuk

{maquaq}AUX amuqai [i-sia Tama Diqanin]AG

how like.his POSS-ANAPH father heaven

tu {sin-‹in›daŋað} {‹saipuk›saipuk}

COMPL instill-‹PST›-help ‹CONT›-take.care.of

‘[I did not know yet] how the Father in Heaven bestowed his help like this upon us and continuously took care of us’ (TVN-008-002:235)

8.4.3.Distributive reduplication

A last – and relatively rare – type of aspectual reduplication with verbs and auxiliaries repeats either the first CV or the complete stem and has a distributive meaning, i.e. it indicates that the property expressed by the predicate containing the reduplication is equally relevant to all of its agents. In English, this type of CV-reduplication is typically translated as ‘all’ or ‘every’. Excerpt 8.3 on page 355, repeated here for convenience, already contained an example of distributive reduplication.

459. [...] Bunun tudip tu ʔaðʔað matatamasað

[Bunun]AG {tudip}AUX tu {ʔaðʔað}AUX {ma-‹ta›tamasað}

Bunun past.time COMPL all.equally STAT-‹INTENS›-powerful

‘[You could really see that] the Bunun in those days were all equally very powerful.’ (TVN-008-002:24)

The simplex form ʔaða ‘to the same extent’ does exist, but it typically occurs as a reduplicated form ʔaðʔað or ʔaðaʔaða meaning ‘all to the same extent’ or ‘everyone equally’. CV-reduplication can also be productively used on verbs with a similar effect, although this usage is rather rare.

460. Asa isan malulusqun

{Asa}AUX {i-san} {ma-‹lu›lusqu-un}

must LOC-go.to DYN-‹REP›-move-UF

‘We had to be there in order to all be moved to different places’ (TVN-008-002:14)

8.5.Generic reduplication

Stem reduplication of question words and verbs can have a generic implication. A typical example is root-reduplication with question words, which creates generic indefinite pronouns. Examples are given below for maq ‘what’, simaq ‘who’ and isaq ‘where’.

461. Ukai, maqmaq tu lumaq

{uka-i} [‹maq›maq tu lumaq]LO

NEG.have-PRT ‹GNR›-what ATTR house

‘There wasn’t any, whichever the house [you went to].’ (TVN-006-001:9)

462. Ana tupa tu simaqsimaq

ana tupa tu {‹simaq›simaq}AUX
no.matter ‹GNR›-who

‘No matter who.’ (d20060118:47)

463. Mininsuma tu maisnaʔisaqʔisaq masðaŋi pisihal sadu

{min‹in›suma} C1|COMPL2 tu [maisna-‹ʔisaq›ʔisaq] C2|C3

‹PST›-come.back COMPL from-‹GNR›-where

{masðaŋ-i}AUX {pi-sihal}AUX {sadu} C3|C4

same-PRT CAUS.STAT-good watch

‘Wherever they come from, it is equally good to see them’ (TVN-003-xxx:15)

With verbs, this type of reduplication is less common, but it does occur. In example 8.5 reduplication of the verbal stem generalizes the location in which the action takes place. Note that in the English translation, it is impossible to directly express the generic equivalent of madas ‘take somebody somewhere’.

464. Madasmadas suʔu mudadan.

{‹madas›madas} [suʔu]UN:PAT {mu-‹da›dan}

‹GNR›-take 2S.NFA ALL-‹REP›-walk

‘Wherever I go, I will take you for a walk.’ (TVN-008-vxxx:6; elicited)

Some rare instances of Ca-reduplication in verbs convert the verb into a generic reference to an action. Kalalumaq in C3 of the example below is in English translated as a deverbal noun with a generic meaning (‘housebuilding’).

465. Haiða mukalumaqa tudip, kalumaq, haiða aupa kalalumaqa [...]

{haiða}AUX {mu-ka-lumaq-a} [tudip]TIME SUBORD1|C2

have ALL-MAKE-house-LNK past.time

{ka-lumaq} C2|C3

MAKE-house

{haiða}AUX {aupa}AUX {ka-‹la›lumaq-a}

have thus MAKE-‹GNR›-house-SUBORD

‘There were people that went to a place to build a house, and houses were built, and thus there was house-building, […]’ (TVN-012-001:63)

8.6.Plural and recursive reduplication

CV-reduplication with nouns is mostly used for expressing plurality. This has nothing to do with a syntactic category of number, since it is optional and its occurrence does not influence the rest of the clause in any way. In fact, it tends not to be used for reference to delineated plurals, but rather for groups of referents of limited but undefined size. Some examples:

466. banananʔað ‘the men’ < CV + bananʔað ‘man’[58]

mailulusʔan ‘the former traditional rituals’

< mai- ‘former’ + CV + lusʔan ‘ritual’

Functionally, this kind of reduplication is similar to the expression of plurality in Paiwan, a neighbouring Formosan language, although in that language root-reduplication is used (see Egli (1990:31)).

With two kinship terms, plural reduplication in nouns developed a recursive meaning. In these cases, reduplicated nouns do not just refer to a group with multiple members, but create plurality by recursively adding future or past generations to the group of referents. Most often, this form of reduplication is used with uvaðʔað ‘child’ and kiŋna ‘descendant’. There is often some ambiguity in such cases, which can only be resolved by the context.

467. inak tu u‹va›vaðʔað

1S.POSS ATTR ‹PL/REC›-child

For example, uvavaðʔað in 8.6 can either mean ‘my children’ (the plural) or ‘my children, and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, etc.’ (the recursive). An interesting corpus example of this usage of CV-reduplication is sentence 8.9, which we will discuss on page 369. In the example below, it is not entirely clear whether the reduplicated form should be interpreted as a plural or a recursive, but in context the latter seems more likely.

468. [...] mainahanaŋ madadaiŋʔað qabas nanu itu Tama Diqanin sintuqumis […]

{maina-han-aŋ} [ma‹da›daiŋʔað]AG [qabas]LO C1|C2

ABL-go-PROG ‹PL/REC›-elder former.times

{nanu}AUX [itu Tama Diqanin]AG {sin-tuqumis}

really HON Father Heaven RES.OBJ-bless

‘[It should be understood that] from the elders in ancient times, the Father in Heaven really gave his blessing (to them) […].’ (TNV-008-002:6)

8.7.Reduplication expressing human reference

Ca-reduplication – i.e. the reduplication of the first consonant of the root, followed by /a/ – almost exclusively occurs with numerals and the question word piaq ‘how many’ and indicates that the reduplicated stem refers to a human referent, as it does in many other Formosan languages (see Li (2006); cf. Adelaar (2000:48) for Siraya).

Forms like this can be used independently or attributively. Occasionally, non-reduplicated cardinal numbers are used to refer to humans, but reduplication seems to be the preferred strategy. Numerals greater than nineteen cannot be Ca-reduplicated.

469. dadusa ‘two (human)’ < dusa ‘two’

tatau ‘three (human)’ < tau ‘three’

papat ‘four (human)’ < pat ‘four’

hahima ‘five (human)’ < hima ‘five’

haʔnum ‘six (human)’ < num ‘six’ (more uncommonly: ʔaʔanum)

papitu ‘seven (human)’ < pitu ‘seven’

vavau ‘eight (human)’ < vau ‘eight’

sasiva ‘nine (human)’ < siva ‘nine’

mamasʔan ‘ten (human)’ < masʔan ‘ten’

mamasʔan qan tasʔa ‘eleven (human)’

< masʔan ‘ten’ & qan ‘and’ & tasʔa ‘one’

The cardinal tasʔa ‘one’ does not seem to have a Ca-reduplicated equivalent; instead the form tatini is used, from the stem tini ‘alone, on one’s own’.

470. Haiða tatini tu masinauba binanauað

{haiða} [‹ta›tini tu masinauba binanauað]AG

have ‹HUM›-one ATTR younger.sibling woman

‘There was (i.e. we had) one younger sister.’ (TVN-008-002:10)

In contrast with other numerals, the non-reduplicated form tini is also used for human referents, as illustrated in example 8.7.

471. Tini Tiaŋ a haiða sia dusa pinanaq.

[tini Tiaŋ]AG a {haiða}AUX [sia dusa]UN:PAT

one PersName.M LDIS have ANAPH two

{p-‹in›anaq}

DYN-‹PST›-shoot

‘Tiang alone [lit: one Tiang] had managed to shoot two [pieces of game].’ (TVN-008-002:120)

Also unlike other cardinal numerals, neither tini nor tatini can be used as the independent head of a nominal phrase. However, both forms can be verbalized and then be used as a main verb or, as in 8.7, an auxiliary.

472. Mastatiniʔak madaiŋpusi inak tu masinauba binanauað.

{mas-‹ta›tini}AUX[-‹ʔ›ak]AG {ma-daiŋpus-i}

BE-‹HUM›-one-1S.F DYN-dig-PRT

[inak tu masinauba binanauað]UN:PAT

1S.POSS ATTR younger.sibling girl

‘I buried my younger sister all by myself.’ (TVN-008-002:66)

The only cardinal number besides tasʔa ‘one’ that does not have a regular Ca-reduplicated form is num ‘six’. When referring to human referents, the form haʔnum or (ʔa)ʔanum is used, a form going back to PAN *a-enem, Ca-reduplicated form of PAN *enem ‘six’ (see Blust (1998)).

The question word piaq ‘how many’ also has a Ca-reduplicated counterpart for human reference, papiaq.

473. Papiaq su uvað? — Dusa.

{‹pa›piaq} [su uvað]AG C1|C2 [dusa]

‹HUM›-how.many 2S.POSS child two

‘How many children do you have? (Lit.: How many are your children?) — Two.’ (BNN-N-002:21)

Note that in the example above, dusa ‘two’ is not Ca-reduplicated although it refers to human referents. It is probably ellipted because its status can be inferred from the immediate discourse context.

8.8.Irregular reduplicative patterns

The reduplicated patterns described above are mostly regular. Formal irregularities occur, however, in a very small number of lexemes. In a number of forms a suffix – or sometimes a sub-morphemic segment of a suffix – gets caught up in the reduplicated string. This has only been attested with the suffix UF -un (and with -uk, which derives from -un-ʔak).

An example is the stem taiv ‘compete’, which often appears as the regularly reduplicated form paintaivtaiv ‘compete’. In addition, the irregular forms paintaivtav and paintaivutaivun are attested. In both cases, the only reason for deviating from the normal reduplicative pattern seems to be euphony or stylistic variation. In paintaivutaivun, the stem and the patient focus suffix -un minus the coda are repeated, a reduplication pattern that also occurs in Isbukun Bunun (cf. Zeitoun & Wu (2006)). A regularly reduplicated form *paintaivtaivun has not been attested.

Another stem that occurs in a number of strange reduplicative patterns is the root (a)das ‘take along (somebody).’ Its patient focus form dasun often appears in stem-reduplicated constructions with a generic meaning ‘be taken along wherever that person goes’. In these cases, the stem and the patient focus suffix -un are both reduplicated, as in 8.8.

474. Dasundasun ʔas di mudadan.

{‹dasun›dasun} [ʔas]UN:PAT [di]LO {mu-‹da›dan}

‹GNR›-take 2S.F here ALL-‹REP›-walk

‘I will take you wherever I go.’ (TVN-008-vxxx:10)

A similar reduplicated form has been attested with the bound pronoun -uk.

475. Dasukdasukʔas mudadan.

{‹dasuk›das}[-uk]AG[-ʔas]UN:PAT {mu-‹da›dan}

‹GNR›-take-NFA-2S.AG ALL-‹REP›-walk

‘Wherever I go, I will take you with me for a walk.’ (TVN-008-vxxx:8)

It is also possible to delete the final consonant in the reduplicated segment and have a form as the one below.

476. […] Mainahan tu maqtuin dasudasun munhan, [...]

{maina-han} tu C1|PURP2

ABL-go PURP

{maqtu-in}AUX {‹dasu›dasun} {mun-han}

can-PRV ‹GNR›-take+UF ALL-go

‘… from that time on, I could go anywhere with them …’ (TVN-008-002:86)

The patient focus dasun can also be realized as adasun, and it is likely that the former developed from the latter. Curiously, reduplication only occurs with the truncated form. The actor focus equivalent of these forms is madas ‘to take somebody somewhere’ (a contraction of ma- ‘dynamic event prefix’ and adas). When this form is involved in generic stem reduplication, it is also both the stem and the prefix that are reduplicated.

477. […] Adasuni tama atikisaŋ madasmadas […]

{adas-un-i} [tama]AG C1|C2

take-UF-PRT father

{a-tikis-aŋ} C2|C3 {‹madas›madas}

STAT-small-PROG ‹GNR›-take.with

‘…my father took me with him, when I was still small, and carried me wherever he went …’ (TVN-008-002:4)

8.9.Harmonic reduplication

Reduplication is generally regarded as a morpho-phonological process and one would therefore expect it to operate on the level of individual words. In Takivatan, there are reduplicative patterns that operate on a higher level. Harmonic reduplication, or anticipatory reduplication, is the use of reduplication as a stylistic device that operates across word boundaries, rather than a derivational process on the word level. In such cases, reduplication on one lexical item is extended to other words to the left in order to further intensify the effect of the original reduplicative pattern. An example is given in 8.9.

478. […] Natudipʔuŋ minhaiðaʔa, diptu, bunun namamasisihala makikikiŋna [...]

{na-tudip-un}AUX {min-haiða-a} diptu [bunun]AG C1|C2

IRR-past.time-UF BECOME-have-LNK INTER Bunun

{na-‹ma›ma-‹si›sihal-a}AUX {ma-‹ki›‹ki›kiŋna}

IRR-‹HR›-STAT-‹INTENS›-good-LNK DYN-‹HR›-‹REC›-descendant

‘[…] afterwards (i.e. after they started worshipping the moon), the people prospered and got many descendants (lit: and were very lucky to get many descendants), […]’ (TVN-012-001:32)

The example is part of a Bunun myth explaining the origin of moon worship and states that it was only after the coming of religion that the Bunun started to prosper.

The fact that reduplication is used to express an intensive form of masihal ‘good’ and a recursive (or repetitive) form of kiŋna ‘descendant’ is not exceptional. However, it is unusual that in mamasisihal not only the stem, but also the stative prefix is CV-reduplicated and that in addition the initial CV of kiŋna is reduplicated twice. Double reduplication (or triplication) has been reported by Blust (2001) in Thao, but only with root-reduplication and Ca-reduplication.

8.9below contains a similar use of reduplication, but here the reduplicative patterns are morphologically fully regular.

479. Maduq kitmaun intaʔa, na, mahiavdu minʔukaʔa kakaununi maupata qaðmaŋ mamaʔuni madadavusun.

[maduq]UN:PAT {kit-maun} [inta-ʔa]AG SUBORD1|C2

millet PREPARE-eat 3P.DIST-SUBORD

na {ma-hiav-du}AUX {min-ʔuka-ʔa}

INTER STAT-short-EMOT BECOME-NEG.have-SUBORD

[‹ka›kaun-un-i]UN:PAT SUBORD2|C3

‹PL›-eat+UF-UF-PRT

{m-aupa-ta}AUX {qaðmaŋ}AUX {‹ma›maʔun-i}

DYN-thus-DEF.REF.DIST random ‹HR›-eat-PRT

[ma-‹da›davus-un]UN:PAT

STAT-‹PL/INTENS›-sweet-UF

‘They prepared to eat millet, and for a short while, they had nothing to eat anymore, and therefore one could not randomly eat sweet things.’ (TVN-012-001:74)

In both examples, it seems that reduplication is not merely used in a derivational process but as a stylistic device that operates across word boundaries.

In 8.9, it would have been sufficient to only reduplicate kiŋna once to convey the same denotational meaning (namasihal makikiŋa ‘they were lucky to produce many offspring’), but instead the narrator opted to construct a multiword reduplicative pattern to emphasize either the number of the offspring, or the great happiness associated with it, or both. Similarly, in the last line of 8.9 it would have sufficed to say mauni madadavusun, or even not to use any reduplication at all, to express a meaning that is identical to the reduplicated form (on a denotational level, at least), but again the narrator uses multiword reduplication for emphasizing the randomness of eating so many sweets.

Possibly, such constructions are influenced by Mandarin-Chinese where multiple reduplications of two-character sequences within the same word are quite common, especially in verb-modifying adverbs and adjectives. These patterns typically have an emphatic, intensifying or endearing effect.

480. 這是樁真真實實的故事。

zhè shì zhuāng ‹zhēn›-zhēn.‹shí›-shí de gù.shì

DEM.PROX be CL.item ‹EMPH›-real ATTR story

‘This is a real story (it really is).’ (Sinica Corpus 2007)

8.10.Overview

Table 37 is an overview of reduplicative mechanisms in Takivatan, their corresponding semantic functions, and the word classes on which they are applicable. For instance, the majority of Ca-reduplication expressing human referents involves numerals. If reduplication involves a word class change, the table indicates the word class of the resulting form.

From the table, it is clear that reduplication is an important phenomenon in Takivatan grammar, a fact that is also clear from its corpus frequency. For example, in its 129 sentences, the text On Bunun Customs (TVN-012-001) contains 110 reduplicated words, almost an average of one reduplicated form per sentence. Such frequencies are by no means atypical.

Reduplicative pattern

Gloss

Stem

CV

Ca

Irregular

historical (8.2)

―

all

N

intensifying (8.3)

INTENS

ADJ

AUX

aspectual (8.4)

V, N

habitual (8.4.1)

HABIT

V,

PTM, N

continuative (8.4.2)

REP

V

durative (8.4.2)

REP

V

iterative (8.4.2)

REP

V

distributive (8.4.3)

DISTR

AUX

generic (8.5)

GNR

Q, V

V

V

indefinite (8.5)

IND

Q, V

plural (8.6)

PL

N

recursive (8.6)

REC

N

human (8.7)

HUM

NUM

Table 37 – Forms and functions of reduplication

Chapter 9.Deictic words and pronouns

Most of this chapter is dedicated to personal pronouns and deictic paradigms that morphologically and syntactically behave quite differently, but all centre around a tripartite distance dimension based on an alternation between the morphs  i ‘proximal’,  un ‘medial’ and  a ‘distal’.

Section 9.1 starts with a discussion of two bound paradigms of definiteness markers. Since these paradigms appear to be absent from other dialects of Bunun (they are in any case not mentioned in Zeitoun (2000) or Jeng (1977)) and since in other languages subsets have been analysed as case markers, I will illustrate what their function is and try to explain how Takivatan has found a use for so many definiteness markers on so many word classes.

Section 9.2 gives a detailed overview of the more than 40 personal pronominal forms that have been attested in discourse. In section 9.3, four sets of demonstrative pronouns are discussed. At the end of the chapter, we will have a look at a number of words that function in isolation and could be considered pronominal in nature: section 9.5 gives an overview of the different uses of the anaphoric marker sia and its derived forms; section 9.6 discusses duma ‘other’; and 9.7 the honorific marker itu. Finally, section 9.8 gives a general overview of all meaning extensions of spatial deixis across paradigms.

9.1.Definiteness markers

Takivatan has two sets of bound morphemes that attach to nouns, verbs, and other word classes and indicate that a referent or event is definite, i.e. that it is identifiable in the context in which it is uttered.

Referential

Situational

Proximal

-ti

-ki

Medial

-tun

-kun

Distal

-ta

-ka

Table 38 – Definiteness markers

For reasons explained below in 9.1.2, we will call one set, the t-paradigm, referential definiteness markers and the other, the k-paradigm, situational definiteness markers. Both distinguish between a proximal form ending in -i, a medial form ending in -un, and a distal form ending in -a. Definiteness markers are always optional and mostly occur in narrative discourse.

9.1.1.The distance dimension: proximal, medial and distal

The distance dimension in definiteness markers distinguishes between proximal  i, medial  un and distal -a, a tripartition that will come back in third person personal pronouns, demonstrative paradigms, and the place words ʔiti/ʔitun/ʔita (see 9.2, 9.3, and 9.4 respectively). One particularity of Takivatan is that in almost all paradigms with a proximal/medial/distal contrast, some forms have developed rather unusual metaphorical meaning extensions. These extensions are very similar in all paradigms, although the extent to which they have developed may vary. Apart from spatial deixis, the distance dimension can express temporal deixis, animacy, empathy and endorsement. Animacy and endorsement are not valid for definiteness markers and only applies to demonstratives (see A and B on p. 415ff).

In actual text, distal markers (-ta and -ka) are about twice as common as proximal markers and thrice as common as medial markers (see Figure 9 on p. 393). It is therefore interesting that in relative numbers meaning extensions of the spatial dimension are more varied and more common with medial markers than with any other marker, although they are by far the least common in the corpus.

A.Spatial deixis

Prototypically, the alternation -i/un/a marks a contrast between proximal, medial and distal. Proximal and distal forms are unproblematic: proximal i-forms indicate that something is close to the deictic centre, distal a-forms that something is far from the deictic centre. In A, proximal referential -ti and distal referential -ta are used for marking a spatial deictic contrast.

481. Asa pisihalun itu Kaliŋkuti, pisihalunti, na asa tunhan Nantuta

{asa}AUX {pi-sihal-un} [itu Kaliŋku-ti]LO C1|C2

have.to CAUS.STAT-good-UF this.here GeoName-DEF.REF.PROX

{pi-sihal-un-ti} C2|C3

CAUS.STAT-good-UF-DEF.REF.PROX

na {asa} {tun-han} [Nantu-ta]PLACE

CONS have.to PERL-go GeoName-DEF.REF.DIST

‘You have to put everything in order here in Kaliŋku, and when it is in order here, you have to go over there to Nantou.’ (TVN-012-002:49)

In the preceding story a small group of Bunun moved from Nantou to Kaliŋku (the old name for present-day Hualien) without permission from the Japanese officials in Nantou. When the Japanese police in Nantou ordered them back to solve some administrative issues, a good-hearted policeman told them they could first put their fields in order in Kaliŋku (Kaliŋkuti, at the deictic centre) before going back to Nantou (Nantuta, a location far away from where the policeman was). Note that although pisihalunti in C2 is a verb, it gets a referential rather than a situational definiteness marker because the stress is on the affairs that have to be put in order, rather than on the place and time where the action takes place.

Medial forms are often thought of as referring to a distance in between close and far from the deictic centre. However, as Fillmore (1982:49-50), Diessel (2006:431) and Dixon (2003:26ff) all remark, medial forms often have a special subtext. All three authors mention three-way deictic systems where the medial form refers to a location away from the speaker (or deictic centre) but close to the hearer and this is in fact how medial forms have been analysed for Isbukun Bunun (see Table 43).

According to Dixon, another cross-linguistically common scenario is one where medial forms refer to a location at mid distance to the speaker. In Takivatan Bunun, the situation is somewhat different. Medial forms are not only encoding the distance to the deictic centre, but additionally indicate that the marked referent or event is situated at an identifiable distance (i.e. they indicate delineation). This means that it is located within visible range or in a space shared with the point of reference (typically the speaker). For example, in A the speaker is able to see where the deer has run because of the visible imprints in the grass and he therefore uses the situational medial form  kun.

482. [...] Malansaupa manakisʔa valaikun

{malan-saupa}AUX {manakis-ʔa} [valai-kun]LO

VIA-in.direction.of climb.up-LNK grass-DEF.SIT.MED

‘[I yelled again that] [the deer] had climbed up in that direction through the grass there.’ (TVN-008-002:152)

In A the narrator is telling a story from his home in Bahuan about him being in Damaian, a hamlet that was not visible to us at the time of narration but is still referred to with a medial form because it is a Bunun settlement that administratively belongs to Bahuan and is inhabited by people of the same clan.

483. Tudip tu ihan Damayuan-tun [...]

{tudip}AUX tu {i-han} [Damaian-tun]PLACE

in.those.days COMPL STAT-go GeoName-DEF.REF.MED

‘In those days I was in Da-Ma-Yuan [...]’ (TVN-008-002:66)

Dixon (2003:90-91) describes how in a number of languages deictic distinctions can encode information about visibility, and this would fit in with example Aabove. However, A shows that the contrast between medial and distal forms is not merely of medial expressing far and visible and distal far and invisible, but that the visibility contrast is a (non-necessary) consequence of the interpretation of medial forms expressing delineation. Thus, the spatial dimension in definiteness markers as well as all pronominal paradigms does not merely indicate spatial distance, but also encodes information about delineation and can contain information about visibility.

6. Proximal: ‘close’; near the deictic centre

7. Medial: ‘delineated’; not near the deictic centre but in a clearly delineated space, either in the same space as the deictic centre or within visible range

8. Distal: ‘far’; away from the deictic centre; typically outside the delineated space in which the deictic centre is situated and often but not necessarily outside visible range and in a vague, non-well-delineated distance

A contrastive example:

484. (a) han asaŋ-ti (b) han asaŋ-tun

at village-DEF.REF.PROX at village-DEF.REF.MED

‘in this village (here)’ ‘in this village (somewhere, not

necessarily within visual range.’

(c) han asaŋ-ta

at village-DEF.REF.DIST

‘in another village’

B.Temporal deixis

As Anderson & Keenan (1985:297-9) illustrate, metaphorical extensions of spatial to temporal deixis are very common cross-linguistically. In Takivatan, as far as I am aware, only proximal and distal definiteness markers are used for indicating time distance, which is usually relative to the time of narration or to a temporal reference point established in the preceding clause. Temporal reference is more common with situational (-ki, -ka) than with referential markers (-ti, -ta).

For example, in B, the distal situation definiteness marker indicates that the seventy year old speaker is talking about his father’s situation a long time ago, when the latter was still alive, and it makes no sense to interpret the distal form in this clause as having any spatial semantics.

485. [...] Manaka sia tamaka nanu ukina sia binanauað.

[ma-nak-a sia tama-ka]AG

STAT-1S.N-LNK ANAPH father-DEF.SIT.DIST

{nanu}AUX {uka-in-a} [sia binanauað]UN

verily NEG.have-PRV-LNK ANAPH wife

‘[And thus, from that time when I was still small, I realized that] my father did not have a wife anymore.’ (TVN-008-002:7)

The following clause contains a proximal referential marker indicating that the moment in life about which the speaker is talking is the one at the time of narration.

486. Isan tastumiqumisti maupa […]

{i-san} [tastu-miqumis-ti]TIME [maupa]MNR

LOC-go BELONG-life-DEF.REF.PROX thus

‘I am now at such a point in my life [that I clearly understand the unity with God the Redeemer in Heaven.]’ (TVN-008-002:1)

In some instances, the narrative context makes the distinction between spatial and temporal deixis irrelevant and thereby effectively neutralizes it. In B, the proximal situational -ki can be translated as ‘now and here’.

487. Manaka qaliŋakia maqðaŋi sauqaisauqaisa

[Ma-nak-a qaliŋa-ki-a]AG {maqðaŋ-i}AUX

STAT-1S.N-LNK language-DEF.SIT.PROX-LDIS same-PRT

{sauqaisauqais-a}

go.back.and.forth-SUBORD

‘But my language [i.e. the language that I speak now] is apparently going back and forth’ (TVN-008-001:12)

C.Empathy

Medial and proximal definiteness markers can express emotional closeness to the speaker. The medial markers -tun and -kun rarely occur on verbs (see Figure 9 and Figure 10 below) and are often used for expressing the speaker’s emotional affinity to someone or something he or she is talking about. This happens especially in combinations with words referring to persons or geographical locations. In C, the speaker refers to his father in an emotionally charged context (the premature death of his sister). The marker -kun adds empathy and could be translated in English as ‘dear father’ or ‘my poor father’.

488. Tamakuna niaŋ mataða

[tama-kun-a] {ni-aŋ}AUX {matað-a}

father-DEF.SIT.MED-LDIS NEG-PROG die+UF-SUBORD

‘[And almost immediately afterwards, my younger sister died, at a time when] my dear father had not died yet.’ (TVN-008-002:63)

Example C explains how one of the Takivatan families moved to Vatan, a place in the Central Mountain Range of Taiwan. The speaker expresses his respect for the Tanapima family by adding DEF.REF.SIT -tun, a signal of emotional (and in this case also genetic) closeness.

489. Tanapimatun aipadau paun tu Vatana [...]

[Tanapima-tun aipa-dau]AG

LastName-DEF.REF.MED DEM.S.DIST.VIS-EMOT

[paun tu Vatan-a]LO

call+UF ATTR GeoName-LDIS

‘This Tanapima [went to] what was called Vatan, [he went to a plot of land there.]’ (TVN-012-002:6)

Whereas medial markers typically express an emotional bond established by membership of a shared group, the referential proximal marker on proper nouns referring to people often indicates emotional involvement due to endearment or affection. In the example below the speaker stresses his friendship with Vau with a proximal referential marker, which is here similar in use to the English construction ‘my friend X here’.

490. Sia duki: “Vauti, …”

[sia]AG du-ki C1|COMPL2 [Vau-ti]

ANAPH EMOT-DEF.SIT.PROX PersName.M-DEF.REF.PROX

‘And he [said]: “My dear Vau here […].” ’ (TVN-008-002:94)

In C, a situational proximal marker -ki makes the expression of thanks warmer and less formal than it would have been without it.

491. Uninaŋ muki sa!

{uninaŋ} [mu-ki]UN sa

thank 2P.N-DEF.SIT.PROX DISC

‘Thank you (from the bottom of my heart)!’ (TVN-xxx-xx1:226)

We will see in B that in the demonstrative paradigm the use of distance to express empathy has extended to distal forms with -a, which indicate negative perception or dissociation. However, this has not been attested for definiteness markers.

In many languages, space is used as a metaphor for emotional distance, but to my knowledge the link with demonstratives and deictic words never got more than a cursory mention in most studies on deixis. Levinson (1983:81) mentions the existence of ‘empathetic deixis’. Dixon (2003:91-2) mentions that in some languages emotional attitude, personal interest or familiarity can be a meaning extension of distance contrasts in demonstratives. Wu (2004:135-6) speaks about the expression of ‘attitudinal commitment or emotion by means of demonstratives’, but while his English example convincingly illustrates the use of that for expressing emotional distance the Chinese example deals with the more general use of distal 那 nà ‘that’ as a marker of doubt. The only elaborate discussion of the emotive value of this and that in English that I have found is Lakoff (1974). The notion of empathy as a grammatically relevant concept was introduced in Kuno (1976) and Kuno (1987:203ff). In reference to Takivatan deixis, however, the term empathy is used in a more restricted way than implied by Kuno and only refers to emotional involvement of the speaker as it is expressed in the choice of deictic marking of a referent or event.

D.Phoricity

Many studies on spatial deixis put great stress on the use of deictic markers for anaphoric reference and discourse deixis (see e.g. Lyons (1977:657-677), Levinson (1983:54-96) and Himmelmann (1996)). In Takivatan, the distance dimension in any of the deictic paradigms is rarely used unambiguously for anaphoric reference, most likely because of the existence of the anaphoric marker sia (see 9.5).

Occassionally, the distance dimension in definiteness markers can have a contrastive anaphoric function, as in D, where the proximal marker -ti indicates that the anaphoric pronoun refers to an entity that has just been mentioned in discourse (taitaiŋus ‘first-born’) and is probably not to be interpreted as having any spatial-referential function.

492. […] Madas ta diptu taitaŋus manaqa siati taspunsanana

{madas} ta [dip-tu tai-taŋus]UN

take COMPL past.time-ATTR human.class-first

{manaq-a} [sia-ti taspunsanan-a]AG

hunt-LNK ANAPH-DEF.REF.PROX first.born-LNK

‘[And now, when at three o’clock the rooster crowed for the first time, they went there when it was still night time, and] they took the first one (the first-born) with them to hunt, this first-born, [the boy that was first given birth to.]’ (TVN-012-001:58)

Instances of this use of definitess markers are few and far between.

9.1.2.Referential vs. situational definiteness

Whereas the distance dimension in the definiteness paradigm is relatively straightforward, it is less obvious what the exact distinction is between the t paradigm and the k-paradigm. The two paradigms can occur both on nouns and verbs and are equally common in real-world texts. Below, I will argue on the basis of quantitative data (see C) that the formal distinction between t and k encodes a fundamental conceptual distinction between referentiality (i.e. pertaining to the material properties of a referent or event) and situationality (i.e. pertaining to the spatio-temporal aspects of a referent or event).

A.Referential definiteness markers

Referential definiteness markers (the t-paradigm) are unmarked compared to the situational markers. They typically express that the stem with which they combine should be considered in terms of its material and persistent properties (a ‘referent’, as opposed to an event). This is most straightforward with nominal hosts, as in the examples A-A. Note that in example A munhan is translated as ‘come to’ and not ‘go to’ exactly because -ti indicates that the house is close to the speaker.

493. Pian munhan inak lumaqti

[Pian]AG {mun-han} [inak lumaq-ti]PLACE

PersName.M DIR-go 1S.POSS home-DEF.REF.PROX

‘Pian came to my house (here)’ (TVN-008-001:2)

494. Haiða laupaku paun tu sia padantun maʔuvul […]

{haiða} [laupaku]TIME [paun tu

have now call.UF COMPL

sia padan-tun ma-ʔuvul]AG

ANAPH reed-DEF.REF.MED STAT-flexible

‘And now there is this flexible kind of reed [which is called taqnas]’ (TVN-012-001:44)

495. Paukin aipun tu: “Na, samuta.”

{pauk-in} [aipun]AG tu: C1|COMPL2

say-PRV DEM.S.MED.PROX COMPL

na {samu-ta}

INTER taboo-DEF.REF.DIST.VIS

‘He said: “well, that is forbidden.” ’ (TVN-008-002:189)

496. Siata.

{sia-ta}

ANAPH-DEF.REF.DIST

‘[The rules were] like the aforementioned.’ (refers to a past event) (TVN-013-001:4)

In combination with verbal hosts (see examples A-A) or nominal or pronominal hosts expressing events, referential markers appear to indicate that the spatio-temporal setting or development of the event is not of primary interest in the discourse context, but rather its material aspects, e.g. its material properties or material effect. This is illustrated most clearly with an example like A, in which the stress is on what has been said, rather than on the act of speaking or when it was spoken. It is not always clear in each context why verbs take referential rather than situational markers.

497. [...] Tunadanti ʔata

{tunadan-ti} [ʔata]AG

cross.road-DEF.REF.PROX 1I.FA

‘[And since it was over there,] we crossed this road.’ (TVN-008-002:178)

498. Namusaupata tuða

{na-mu-saupa-ta} {tuða}

IRR-ALL-go.in.direction-DEF.REF.DIST really

‘We will really go in that direction’ (TVN-008-002:142)

499. Haiða tupata, […]

{haiða}AUX {tupa-ta}

have tell-DEF.REF.DIST

‘Having said those things, [we will rely on God …]’ (TVN-003-xxx:18)

B.Situational definiteness markers

Situational markers (the k-paradigm) typically indicate that the event or object expressed by the stem represents a spatial and/or temporal setting or is situated in a particular spatio-temporal setting. This stress on temporality explains their preference for verbal hosts, as in examples B-B.

500. Na, muqnaŋ sak laupaku taquki [...]

na {muqna-aŋ}AUX [sak]AG {laupaku}AUX {taqu-ki}

INTER next-PROG 1S.FA now tell-DEF.SIT.PROX

‘And next I will tell now/here [about how my life was in the old days when I was still a child.]’ (TVN-006-001:2)

501. A tupaka maitama tu: [...]

a {tupa-ka} [mai-tama]AG tu

INTER say-DEF.SIT.DIST deceased-father COMPL

‘And then my now-deceased father said: […]’ (TVN-012-003:20)

502. Maqtudu maqansiap tu maquaqa sinkuðakuðaka

{maqtu-du}AUX {maqansiap} tu C1|COMPL2

can-EMOT understand COMPL

{maquaq-a}AUX {sinkuðakuða-ka}

how-LNK work-DEF.SIT.DIST

‘May [he] understand how difficult those lives [of us] were [lit: how we laboured]’ (TVN-003-xxx:25)

However, situational discourse markers also commonly combine with nouns. In B, -ki attaches to a nominal host that functions as the head of a locative verbless clause. Although this type of verb-less clause is rare in Takivatan, it is a good illustration of the situational use of -ki with nominal hosts.

503. Lumaqki akia.

[lumaq-ki]LO [aki-a]AG

home-DEF.SIT.PROX grandfather-LNK

‘Grandfather is at home (here).’ (BNN-N-002:239)

504. Na maq a siðikuna, [...]

na maq a [siði-kun]AG-a

INTER DEFIN LNK mountain.goat-DEF.SIT.MED-SUBORD

‘As far as that mountain goat is concerned, [it moved to the drinking spot.]’ (TVN-xx2-003:24)

505. Maqai haiða qumaka, […]

maqai {haiða} [quma-ka]AG

if have land-DEF.SIT.DIST

‘If there is a plot of land (over there), [you cannot randomly transgress its boundaries]’ (TVN-013-001:24)

The only exception to this general schema is medial situational -kun, which is almost always used as an empathic deictic (see C) and as a result tends to occur only on nouns, although forms on verbs are grammatically possible.

C.Justification for the analysis

The two paradigms of definiteness markers do not show up in the account in Jeng (1977) of Takbanuaz, the dialect most closely related to Takivatan. Zeitoun (2000:76-77) mentions two sets of three definiteness markers each in Isbukun Bunun but associates them with case.

Nominative

Oblique

Proximal

speaker-oriented

-in

-tin

hearer-oriented

-ʔan

-tan

Distal

-aʔ

-tiaʔ

Table 39 – Isbukun bound demonstratives according to Zeitoun (2000)[59]

The formal correspondences with the Takivatan definiteness markers in Table 38 are obvious: the oblique forms almost correspond to the t-paradigm and the nominative forms could easily be historically related to the Takivatan k-paradigm. The selection of demonstratives based on case (or argument type) is consistent with the Isbukun data in the Formosan Language Archive (Academia Sinica (s.d.-a)) and also occurs in a number of other Formosan languages (see Tang (2006a) for examples). No trace of such a mechanism is to be found in Takivatan.

This should already be clear from the fact that definiteness markers can occur on verbs as well as nouns (see C), but even when they mark nominal heads, the same definiteness marker can occur on most core and peripheral arguments, both focused and non-focused. This is illustrated in the following examples with occurrences of the distal referential -ta in different syntactic environments.

506. -ta marks (part of) a focused agent (a core argument)

Dusain sam Tiaŋta.

{dusa-in} [sam Tiaŋ-ta]

two-PRV 1I.F PersName.M-DEF.REF.DIST

‘There was only Tiang and me in front (lit.: We, [me and] Tiang, had become two.)’ (TVN-008-002:77)

507. -ta marks a non-focused patient undergoer (a core argument)

Siða maduqta

{siða} [maduq-ta]UN

take millet-DEF.REF.DIST

‘[Go there when it is still small and] take some/the millet’ (TVN-012-001:69)

508. -ta marks a (peripheral) place argument

Munhandu pauntu, diptu, dalaqta

{mun-han-du} paun tu diptu [dalaq-ta]PLACE

ALL-go-EMOT call+UF COMPL INTER land-DEF.REF.DIST

‘They went to – as it is called – the [arable] land.’ (TVN-012-002:6)

509. -ta marks a (stative) predicate

Samuta

{samu-ta}

be.taboo-DEF.REF.DIST

‘It is a taboo.’ (TVN-008-002:189)

Similarly, there does not appear to be a fixed relationship between definiteness markers and topicality. As we saw above, definiteness markers appear on both focused and non-focused arguments, and from clauses like Cbelow it is clear that they are not obligatory on focused arguments, which are typically the clausal topic.

510. Panʔita bunun

{pan-ʔita} [bunun-Ø]AG

ITIN-there.DIST people

‘People went and settled there’ (TVN-012-002:104)

Also, definiteness markers are often omissible and semi-fluent younger speakers rarely use them at all. For example, all definiteness markers in C-C can easily be dropped without any change in the propositional meaning of the clauses:

511. (a) Baiðbaðani buan tu […]

(b) Siða maduq

(c) Munhandu pauntu, diptu, dalaq

(d) Samu

For instance, C(c) is identical to C, the only difference being that the referential distal marker -ta has been omitted. Older speakers indicate that such stripped utterances are still perfectly understandable and grammatical, although they also say that the use of definiteness markers is a mark of language fluency and that it is appropriate to use them in proper discourse.

In addition, there are situations where native speakers indicate that both sets (t and k) are mutually exchangeable. For example, C could also be realized with a situational marker, as shown in C.

512. Samu-ka

be.taboo-DEF.SIT.DIST

‘It is a taboo’

One could argue that C stresses the spatio-temporal location of the taboo and C focuses more on the material properties of the taboo, but such semantic differences are subtle and native speakers will generally indicate that the propositional meaning of C is identical to that of C.

Since both paradigms can occur on nouns, verbs and other word classes, one might wonder about the validity of the distinction between referential and situational definiteness. Figure 9 illustrates that there are clear distributional differences between referential and situational definiteness markers.

Figure 9 – Distribution of definiteness markers per word class in a sample text.[60]

The figure gives an overview of the distribution of each definiteness marker across word classes in a single text in my Takivatan corpus. The data are all from a single text by a fluent speaker. Although some markers, particularly medial -kun, have too low a frequency to make the conclusions that I draw from them statistically valid, the text sample used for Figure 9 is in no way unusual compared to other texts I have in my possession and can be seen as representative of narrative discourse in Bunun.

The fact that definiteness markers occur with a wide variety of word classes, both noun-like and verb-like, is unusual, but there are no prima facie reasons why definiteness could not be a relevant category for events, i.e. verbs. In English, for example, events expressed by nouns or nominalised verbs can take definite and sometimes indefinite articles.

513. The making of the atomic bomb

A coming of age

From a typological perspective, it is also unusual that definiteness markers can mark events in predicate position, but again there is no good functional reason why this would be impossible. The correlation between certain verb classes (in particular motion verbs) and deixis has been pointed out in the literature (see e.g. Fillmore (1982) and Levinson (1996:362)).

When only verbs (excluding adjectives and auxiliaries) and nouns are compared, as in Figure 10, it becomes clear that the t-paradigm is strongly biased towards nouns and the k-paradigm – less strongly – towards verbs. This is only so if we disregard medial situational  kun for a moment, a not unreasonable thing to do since there are only 6 examples in the entire corpus, all of which are on nouns and appear in idiosyncratic contexts that is discussed in Cabove.

Figure 10 – Verbs vs. nouns[61]

In linguistic terms, this is best explained by making a fairly abstract differentiation between situational and referential (or non-situational) definiteness markers.[62] The former (the k-forms) describe their hosts as events or processes as they unfold in a spatio-temporal setting and therefore focus on their changeable qualities. The latter (the t-forms) focus on the material and consistent properties of their hosts, for instance by conceptualising them as tangible objects or in terms of the material results they produce. This explains why t has a preference for nouns, and k for verbs, but also why this preference is not black-and-white: it is sometimes necessary to interpret nouns as events in a spatio-temporal setting and, conversely, to reify events and consider them in their materiality. Native speakers sometimes try to express this difference by saying that the forms with k refer to a location and the forms with t do not.

Another observation that can be made from Figure 9 is that the idiosyncratic behaviour of individual forms or parts of the paradigm in Table 38 is one of the main causes why it is often difficult to discern more than a vague pattern in the paradigm as a whole. There are three main categories of idiosyncrasies. First, some words developed an idiomatic – and as a consequence synchronically unmotivated – relationship with a single definiteness marker. For instance, the manner word maupa ‘thus’ overwhelmingly combines with the distal -ta into maupata ‘like that’; other forms such as maupati, maupaki and maupaka are grammatically possible but extremely uncommon. Similarly, kaupa ‘all’ normally occurs with -ka, as in the fixed term of address kaupaka taisʔan, which literally means ‘all relatives (here present)’.

Second, the distance dimension expressed by the -i/un/a opposition has in some forms developed metaphorical meaning extensions. For instance, the proximal marker -ti can be used for expressing endearment. Such metaphorical uses are clearly motivated, but they have become detached from the spatio-temporal meaning domain. Metaphorical meaning extensions of the distance dimension of definiteness markers are discussed in 9.1.1.

In a number of contexts, the selection of definiteness markers is not semantically motivated. For instance, one would expect place arguments accompanying motion verbs to take situational definiteness markers, since they always per definition encode a spatial setting. As C illustrates, this is not the case and place arguments invariably take referential definiteness markers.

514. […] Asa tunhan Nantuta

{asa}AUX {tun-han} [Nantu-ta]PLACE

must PERL-go GeoName-DEF.REF.DIST

‘[When it is in order here,] you have to go to Nantou.’ (TVN-012-002:49)

This is in contrast with locative arguments, such as lumaq ‘house’ in B on p. 168, that can combine with situational markers. One could explain the difference in terms of grammatical economy. The presence of a locative verb in C does away with the need for a situational marker and as a result triggers the use of referential  ta to avoid redundancy, whereas in B the situational nature of the event is only encoded through the use of DEF.SIT.PROX -ki and its omission or replacement by -ti would make the clause more ambiguous.

9.2.Personal pronouns

Takivatan personal pronouns distinguish between first, second and third person in the singular; and between first inclusive, first exclusive, second and third person in the plural. Free first and second personal pronouns distinguish between neutral, focused agent, locative, and possessive forms. A fairly complete set of bound forms exist, but only the first and second person singular are used regularly. An overview of all attested forms is given in Table 40; a horizontal bar indicates that the form does not occur in the corpus and could not be elicited. Third person pronouns have no argument-based distinctions, but – like demonstratives – do distinguish between proximal, medial and distal forms (see Table 40).

Bound

Free

Foc. Agent

Non-foc. agent

Neutral

Foc. Agent

Locative

Possessive

(F)

(NFA)

(N)

(F)

(LO)

(POSS)

1S

-(ʔ)ak

-(ʔ)uk

ðaku, nak

sak, saikin

ðakuʔan

inak, ainak, nak

2S

-(ʔ)as

―

suʔu, su

―

suʔuʔan

isu, su

3S

-(ʔ)is

―

<<<< See Table 41 >>>>

―

1I

―

―

mita

ʔata, inʔata

mitaʔan

imita

1E

-(ʔ)am

―

ðami, nam

ðamu, sam

ðamiʔan

inam, nam

2P

-(ʔ)am

―

muʔu, mu

amu

muʔuʔan

imu, mu

3P

―

―

<<<< See Table 41 >>>>

―

Table 40 – Personal pronouns

All forms exc. possessive

Singular

Plural

Proximal

isti

inti

Medial

istun

intun

Distal

ista

inta

Table 41 – Third person personal pronouns

9.2.1.Argument marking on pronouns

Takivatan has an argument alignment system that is traditionally called a Philippine-style focus system and can put stress on the agent, undergoer (typically a patient, but sometimes also includes other semantic roles), instrument, beneficiary or locative argument of a clause.[63] This focused argument is typically, but not always, the topic of the clause. Personal pronouns are the only constituents in Takivatan that get any form of argument marking. All other noun phrases are normally unmarked and are recognized by their fixed position in a clause and by inference. For free noun phrases, the unmarked argument order is normally:

agent – undergoer (beneficiary/instrument – patient) – locative argument

All arguments in a clause can be easily ellipted when they are recoverable from the context and it rarely happens that more than two free NP arguments are expressed on the same predicate. It is considered normal, however, to have two free NPs and a bound pronoun. All examples below are with first person pronouns, but all other persons and numbers, except for the third-person forms, are used in a similar way. For a discussion of the third person singular and plural, see 9.2.3.

A.Bound pronouns

The only bound pronouns that are regularly used are the first and second person singular. Bound pronouns typically mark a focused agentive argument and consequently only occur in agent focus constructions. Two examples of a first person singular form, one with a typical transitive event and another with an intransitive allative event, are given below.

515. Maunʔak qaisiŋ.

{maun}[-ʔak]AG/FOC [qaisiŋ]UN/NFOC

eat-1S.F rice

‘I am eating.’ (constr. ex.)

516. Namunhanʔak Taihuku.

{na-mun-han}[-ʔak]AG/FOC [Taihuku]PLACE

IRR-ALL-go-1S.F Taipei

‘I am planning to go to Taipei’ (TVN-xx-003:2)

The only exception is the bound form -(ʔ)uk, which is a contraction of the undergoer focus suffix -un and the first person pronoun -ʔak and marks first person non-focused agentive subjects in undergoer focus constructions (since the undergoer is in focus in such constructions, the agent is not).

517. Panaquk vanis

{panaq}[-uk]AG/NFOC [vanis]UN/FOC

shoot-1S.NFA boar

‘The boar was shot by me.’ (constr. ex.)

When marking 1S, 2S and 1E agents in agent focus constructions, bound pronouns are normally preferred, although it is normally not possible to have more than one bound pronoun per clause.

The third person singular bound pronoun -is is not used productively anymore in the Takivatan dialect and has only been attested in the construction in A.

518. Nitu maqtuis nitu.

{ni-tu}AUX {maqtu-is}AUX {ni-tu}AUX

NEG-COMPL can-3S NEG-COMPL

‘It must be like that.’ (lit: ‘it is not possible that it is not’)

B.Free focused agent forms

For all other persons, numbers and situations, free focused agent forms are normally used. However, it is also possible to use a free form to mark 1S, 2S and 1E focused agents, as in B.

519. Muliva sak sinpatas.

{muliva}AUX [sak]AG/FOC {sin-patas}

err 1S.F RES.OBJ-write

‘I wrote it wrongly.’ (TVN-xx2-007:9)

These forms tend to appear more in higher textual registers and in complex verb phrases where the pronoun appears on the auxiliary instead of the main verb (as in the example above), but they can be freely exchanged for their bound forms. For instance, Babove can also be realized as B without any change in meaning, except for the fact that the example below would generally be considered to belong to a low register.

520. Mulivaʔak sinpatas.

{muliva}AUX[-ak]AG/FOC {sin-patas}

err-1S.F RES.OBJ-write

‘I wrote it wrongly.’ (TVN-xx2-007:9)

C.Free neutral forms

The neutral forms of the personal pronouns are used for marking all other agentive and undergoer forms and in certain situations also for locative and possessive arguments. If undergoer arguments are explicitly expressed, they are always marked by neutral forms, whether or not they are in focus. Example C has first-person singular non-focused undergoer, in this particular case a beneficiary, realized as the neutral form nak.

521. Tupaka tama nak tu [...]

{tupa-ka} [tama]AG/FOC [nak]UN:BEN/NFOC tu

tell-DEF.SIT.DIST father 1S.N COMPL

‘Then father told me […]’ (TVN-008-003:115)

A neutral form also marks non-focused agents, such as in C, where UF -un on the main verb triggers the use of the neutral form ðaku for the first person agent. The forms ðaku and nak can be used interchangeably in all contexts where they are the head of an argument; possessors can only be expressed by nak.

522. Lusquʔun ðaku inak haqu punhan baʔav.

{lusqu-ʔun} [ðaku]AG/NFOC [inak haqu]UN/FOC

move-UF 1S.N 1S.POSS snare

{pun-han} [baʔav]PLACE

CAUS.ALL-go.to up.in.mountains

‘My trap, I moved it up into the mountains.’ (Said by a hunter who put his traps too low and therefore didn’t catch any animals.) (TVN-xx2-003:23)

Another situation where the neutral case is always used is in topicalization with the left-dislocation marker a. When this happens to an agent in an agent focus construction, the neutral form rather than the focused agent form appears. In example Cbelow this is the form ðaku rather than the free focused agent sak or the bound form -ʔak.

523. Ðaku a maun qaisiŋ.

[ðaku]AG/FOC a {maun} [qaisiŋ]UN/NFOC

1S.N LDIS eat rice

‘I am eating.’ (constr.)

D.Possessive constructions

There are two types of possessive constructions involving personal pronouns. A first construction is pre-nominal and involves the possessive pronominal form (in effect the neutral form prefixed by i-) followed by the attributive marker tu.

524. [[inak]PSR tu tina]

1S.POSS ATTR mother

‘my mother’ (constr. ex.)

Alternatively, one can use a post-nominal construction without any attributive marking. In this case, the neutral form of the pronoun is used.

525. [tina [nak]PSR]

mother 1S.N

‘my mother’ (constr. ex.)

To some extent, the choice between the two constructions is free. Post-nominal possessives are prevalent for inalienable possession and in informal registers. Pre-nominal constructions must be used for complex combinations of attribution and possession. For instance, a construction like D is impossible.

526. * manaskal tu binanauʔað nak

STAT-beautiful ATTR wife 1S.N

‘my beautiful wife’ (constr. ex.)

Instead, a pronominal possessive has to be used.

527. [[inak]PSR tu manaskal tu binanauʔað]

1S.POSS ATTR STAT-beautiful ATTR wife

‘my beautiful wife’ (constr. ex.)

Locative forms of personal pronouns occur very rarely in actual text and their use tends to be rather idiosyncratic. I will not further discuss them here.

E.Absence of genitive pronouns

Many Austronesian languages of Taiwan and the Philippines have bound genitive pronouns that mark both possession and agents. Dyen (1974) and Blust (1977) reconstructed these forms to proto-Austronesian and their reflexes pop up in many Formosan languages and Austronesian languages in the Philippines. For example, both in Puyuma and Kavalan (Teng (2007:42-43) and Liao (2004:243-245) respectively) preclitic bound genitive markers are used for marking possession as well as cross-referencing transitive agents and contrast with a set of postclitic nominative pronouns.[64] Below are contrastive examples from Puyuma. In E, the genitive third person tu= cross-references the non-focused agent of the clause (kan Senayan); in E, the same form tu= is used for marking possession.

528. tu=pa-karun-ay kan Senayan

3.GEN=CAUS-work-LV SG.OBL PersName

‘She (Senayan) made them work.’ (Teng (2007:43))

529. tu=Tanguru’

3.GEN=head

‘his head’ (id.)

Takivatan Bunun is atypical from an Austronesian perspective in that its bound paradigm does not correspond with any recognisable genitive marking: possession is expressed either by the neutral form in post-nominal possession or by the i-initial possessive pronoun in pre-nominal position, as we saw in Dabove.

9.2.2. Variant forms

A.Variants of bound forms

As the first column in Table 40 on p. 398 above shows, all bound pronominal forms have two formal variants: -ʔVC and -VC. These are simply phonological variants and their selection depends on:

•  The speed of utterance: in slow speech, the glottal stop is more likely to be realized than in fast speech.

•  Emphasis: The glottal stop will be more pronounced in emphatic speech or when emphasis is put on the bound pronoun or its accompanying verb.

•  The phonological environment: the glottal stop almost always appears in intervocalic position, but can be omitted after a consonant.

•  Individual speaker variation

In this work, most forms are transcribed with glottal stop.

B.Short vs. long forms of the neutral second-person pronouns

The neutral forms of the second person singular and plural have a long form (suʔu ‘2S.N’ and muʔu ‘2P.N’) and a short form (su and mu). They are semantically and syntactically identical. Long forms tend to be used for emphasis and in more formal speech. For instance, in a polite request, here introduced by duq ‘whether’, a long form is more likely to appear.

530. Duq hamuʔak muʔu paintaivtaiv?

duq {hamu}AUX[-ʔak]AG [muʔu]UN {paintaivtaiv}

whether together-1S.F 2P.N compete

‘Would it be possible that I have a competition together with you (against someone else)?’ (TVN-xx2:001:69)

Interestingly, possessive forms derive from the short form (isu/*isuʔu and imu/*imuʔu) while locative forms derive from the long form (suʔuʔan/*suʔan and muʔuʔan/*muʔan), so it is not clear which form is older.

C.Variants of other free form pronouns

Other variants of free form pronouns have mostly been borrowed from other dialectal varieties of Bunun.

•  Native speakers indicate that the first person singular sak ‘1S.F’ and nak ‘1S.N/POSS’ and the first person exclusive sam ‘1E.F’ and nam ‘1E.N/POSS’ are not native to Takivatan but originate from the neighbouring Takbanuað dialect.[65]

•  Saikin ‘1S.F’ is a loan from Isbukun and might have entered the language through a strong Isbukun Bunun bias in the Bible translation used in Takivatan churches rather than through direct contact. Saikin is fairly rare in Takivatan, but is consistently used in Isbukun.

•  It is not entirely clear where the form inʔata ‘1I.F’ comes from. It is not mentioned for either the Isbukun dialect, which has the form kata, (see Zeitoun (2000:72, Table 4.3)) or Takbanuað, which only has ʔata (Jeng (1977:130)). It might be an archaic Takivatan form.

In general, borrowed personal pronouns sound more solemn and are therefore used in high registers. Some speakers use them quite regularly in narrative texts, but they do not show up very often in daily conversations. The selection of variants of a particular form in a particular register is strongly speaker-dependent and can even vary within one text or dialogue.

9.2.3.Third-person pronouns

As Table 41 shows, the third person singular and plural are the only forms that distinguish between proximal (isti, inti), medial (istun, intun) and distal (ista, inta). Also unlike other forms, third person pronouns use the same form for agent, undergoer and possessives (so far no instance in locative slots have shown up). They tend only to refer to undergoers or agents in low-agency events, such as sadu ‘see’ in 9.2.3below. Third person pronouns are mainly used for animate referents as all examples in this section illustrate.

531. Muskun sadu inta

{muskun}AUX {sadu} [inta]AG

together watch 3P.DIST

‘They read [lit: watched] [the book] together.’ (TVN-010-015:71)

Especially medial forms express either emotional closeness, e.g. to refer to friends or family, or politeness, e.g. to refer to a guest or dignitary. An example of the former is 9.2.3, where istun refers to the speaker’s father. The latter is illustrated in 9.2.3, in which the medial singular form refers to a foreign researcher who came to investigate the Takivatan language.

532. Nastuqas istuna

[nas-tuqas [istun-a]PSR]

deceased-older.sibling 3S.MED-LNK

‘his deceased older sibling’ (TVN-008-003:122)

533. Na, maupata nak istaqu istuna […]

na {maupa-ta}AUX [nak]AG {is-taqu} [istun-a]UN

INTER thus-DEF.REF.DIST 1S.N INSTR-tell 3S.MED-LDIS

‘And like that I explained those things to him [i.e. to me, the researcher]’ (TVN-008-001:13)

One might wonder why these forms are not interpreted as part of the demonstrative paradigm, given that they distinguish between proximal, medial and distal forms. It is quite clear that they derive from a combination of the – now largely obsolete – bound third person agentive form -is and the referential definiteness markers -ti/-tun/-ta, whereas all other demonstratives are formed from roots that are unrelated to any of the personal pronouns (see 9.3below). A second reason is that third person pronouns cannot take the non-visible prefix n-.

9.2.4.Pronominal roots and a comparison with Isbukun Bunun

At first sight, the personal pronoun paradigm in Table 40 is highly irregular. However, for all persons, forms for different cases appear to derive from a single root.

singular

plural

1st person

-ak-

incl.

-at-

excl.

-ðam-

2nd person

-su-

-(a)mu-

3rd person

-is-

-in-

Table 42 – Roots of personal pronouns

The different Bunun dialects show some discrepancy in their personal pronoun paradigms. It is clear that – even taking into account some regular sound changes – the personal pronoun paradigm of the Isbukun dialect spoken in Taitung County (Table 43 below) is different from the one in Takivatan (Table 40 on p. 398).

AG

UG

POSS

free

bound

free

bound

1S

saikin

-ik

ðaku

-ku

inak, nak

2S

kasu

-as

su

isu, su

3S

saia

saiʤa

isaiʤa, saiʤa

1I

kata

-ta

mita

imita

1E

kaimin

-im

ðami

inam

2P

kamu

-am

mu

imu

3P

naia

inaiʤa

naiʤa

Table 43 – Taitung Isbukun Bunun personal pronouns

9.3.Demonstrative pronouns

Takivatan has four demonstrative paradigms. All follow the same general pattern in which a root with an initial vowel cluster /ai/ combines with a prefix encoding visibility and a suffix encoding distance.

prefix-

ROOT

-suffix

Ø- ‘VIS’

aip- ‘singular’

-i ‘PROX’

n- ‘NVIS’

aiŋk- ‘vague plural’

-un ‘MED’

aint- ‘paucal’

-a ‘DIST’

ait- ‘inclusive generic’

(-Ø ‘USPEC’)

Figure 11 - Demonstratives

The prefix is Ø- when the referent is within visible range and n- when it is outside visible range. Suffixes can be -i ‘proximal’, -un ‘medial’, -a ‘distal’ and -Ø for underspecified forms. Among the demonstrative paradigms, only the ones with aip- and aiŋk- are used regularly. As far as semantic extensions of the distance dimension are concerned, all demonstrative paradigms largely follow the pattern of the definiteness markers (see 9.1.1 on p. 375 above). In addition, the aip-paradigm has two rare forms that are underspecified for distance, aip and naip.

9.3.1.Singular aip-

The demonstrative pronoun aip- is typically used for singular and animate reference, but it is occasionally used for collective or inanimate reference.

Visible

Non-visible

Underspecified

aip

naip

Proximal

aipi

naipi

Medial

aipun

naipun

Distal

aipa

naipa

Table 44 – Demonstrative paradigm with root aip-

Aip is the only demonstrative that has underspecified forms, although these forms are relatively rare. It is used in situations where it is not considered necessary or desirable to encode distance explicitly, as in 9.3.1, or in attributive constructions, as in 9.3.1.

534. Hanun aip minpantu [...] han Putulita

{han-un} [aip]UN {min-pantu} [han

go.to-UN DEM.S.USPEC.VIS BECOME-study to

Putuli-ta]PLACE

GeoName-DEF.REF.DIST

‘And she went (or: I sent her) to Putuli to commence her studies.’ (TVN-008-003:139)

535. Maqai haiða naip tu vaqaka naupaki [...]

maqai {haiða} [naip tu vaqa-ka]AG

if have DEM.S.USPEC.NVIS ATTR bull-DEF.SIT.DIST

[naupa-ki]MNR

seemingly-DEF.SIT.PROX.VIS

‘If it appeared from here that there was this/that deer over there, [… it would be shot.]’ (TVN-012-002:163)

Sentence 9.3.1 contains contrastive examples of a visible (aipa) and a non-visible form (naipa), both referring to the same referent (a deer) but from a different perspective. The first clause tells us that the deer is not anymore on the mountain slope where the hunters had previously seen it. This visual contact causes it to be expressed by the visual distal form aipa. In the second clause, the deer is not visible anymore because it ran away and it is therefore refered to by non-visible naipa.

536. Na, ukin aipa ʔita namudanin, musbai naipa maqmut

na {uka-in} [aipa]AG [ʔita]PLACE

INTER NEG.have-PRV DEM.S.DIST.VIS there.DIST

{na-muda-in}

IRR-walk-PRV

{musbai} [naipa]AG [maqmut]PLACE

run.away DEM.S.DIST.NVIS night

‘It [the deer, visible] wasn’t there anymore, it had gone, it [non-visible] had run away during the night.’ (TVN-008-002:135)

Native speakers indicate that the medial forms (n)aipun are to be used for human reference.

537. Mintun aipun minsumaʔa, [...]

{mintun}AUX [aipun]AG {minsuma-a}

sometimes DEM.S.MED.VIS come.here-SUBORD

‘From time to time this person comes here, […]’ (TVN-008-001:9)

9.3.2.Vague plural aiŋk-

Demonstratives of the aiŋk-paradigm are used exclusively for plural human reference and refer to a small group of people of indefinite size, but typically larger than two or three. All except for both underspecified forms have been attested for this paradigm.

Visual

Non-visual

Proximal

aiŋki

naiŋki

Medial

aiŋkun

naiŋkun

Distal

aiŋka

naiŋka

Table 45 – Demonstrative paradigm with root aiŋk-

Below is an example with a visual proximal plural demonstrative. The proximal form aiŋki here refers to a group of male family members that drastically improved living conditions for the family after they had moved to a new settlement.

538. Aituða aiŋki tu madadauk pakasihal

{aituða}AUX [aiŋki]CSR tu

be.real DEM.PV.PROX.VIS COMPL

{ma-‹da›dauk}AUX {paka-sihal}

STAT-‹INTENS›-slow CAUSE-good

‘And as such I could see that these men were really making things slowly better for us.’ (TVN-008-002:39)

9.3.3.Paucal aint-

The root aint- is only used for human plural reference and is only attested with distal suffixes.

Visual

Non-visual

Proximal

-

-

Medial

-

-

Distal

ainta

nainta

Table 46 –Demonstrative paradigm with root aint-

The aint-paradigm is typically used for indicating small groups of typically two or three people. In 9.3.3below, for instance, nainta and the verbalized form painanainta refer to three persons (father, mother and grandfather).

539. Tama tina akita, painanainta, na nainta tupa tu: [...]

[tama tina aki-ta] C1|C2

father mother grandfather-DEF.REF.DIST

{paina-nainta} C2|C3

rightfully.belong-DEM.PA.DIST.VIS

na [nainta] {tupa} tu

INTER DEM.PA.DIST.VIS say COMPL

‘there were his father and mother and grandfather, and he would give them their rightful share, [and they would say: thank you, may you live long.]’ (TVN-012-001:119)

9.3.4.Inclusive generic ait-

Forms of the generic inclusive ait-paradigm refer to a group of people of an undefined number that always includes the speaker or refers to a group that is special to the speaker. They are conceptualized as a homogenous collective rather than individual agents. In English, they are best translated as ‘our people’. It is used considerably less than both the aip-paradigm and the aiŋk-paradigm.

Visual

Non-visual

Proximal

aiti

naiti

Medial

aitun

naitun

Distal

aita

naita

Table 47 – Demonstrative paradigm with root ait-

Below are two examples. In both, the demonstratives are a collective reference to the Bunun in the old days.

540. Naitun qabas haqulka sia duʔun

[naitun]AG {qabas}AUX {haqul-ka}

DEM.IG.MED.NVIS old.times trap-DEF.SIT.DIST

[sia duʔun]UN:INSTR

ANAPH thread

‘In the old days, our people [i.e. the Bunun] used strings for setting hunting traps.’ (TVN-012-002:93)

541. Haiða aitun ludun tikisuna, [...]

{haiða} [aitun] [ludun tikis-un-a]UN

have DEM.IG.MED.VIS mountain small-EMPH-SUBORD

‘Our people had a small mountain, [where in the old days they would go hunting.]’ (TVN-012-002:162)

9.3.5.Meaning extensions of the distance and visibility dimension

The basic semantics of spatial deixis are the same for the four demonstrative paradigms as they are for the definiteness markers (9.1.1 on p. 375). As far as I can attest, demonstratives show no extensions of spatial into temporal deixis. Also, medial forms of demonstratives do not appear to have strong empathic connotations.

Interestingly, meaning extensions of spatial deixis interact in some demonstratives with metaphorical extensions of the alternation between visible (Ø-) and non-visible forms (n-), as will be discussed in Bbelow.

A.Animacy

Whereas most of the demonstrative paradigms almost exclusively refer to human referents, this is not always the case for the singular demonstrative ((n)aipi/un/a). Both distal (aipa/naipa) and proximal (aipi/naipi) forms commonly refer to non-human and even inanimate referents, as aipa in A and aipi in A illustrate.

542. Minbukðavin aipa

{min-Bukðav-in } [aipa]UN

BECOME-GeoName-PRV DEM.S.DIST.VIS

‘It [i.e. the new school building] moved to Bukðav.’ (TVN-012-002:59)

543. Sinkalatan aipi asu.

{sin-kalat-an} [aipi]UN:PAT [asu]AG

RES.OBJ-bite-LF DEM.S.PROX.VIS dog

‘This one [i.e. person or thing] is bitten severely by a dog.’

The medial forms of the singular demonstrative (aipun/naipun) have human referents in more than 90% of all instances in the corpus. An example is given below; another example can be found in 9.3.1above.

544. Na maqtu aipun maqansiap tu […]

na {maqtu}AUX [aipun]AG {ma-qansiap} tu

IRR can DEM.S.MED.VIS DYN-understand COMPL

‘May he understand [how we Bunun live.]’ (TVN-008-001:16)

B.Endorsement

One characteristic of all demonstrative paradigms is the distinction between visible and non-visible (Ø- vs. n-) forms. This distinction appears to be superfluous for proximal (and to a lesser extent also for medial) forms: when something is close to the speaker, it is typically within visible range. Still, proximal and medial non-visible forms do exist. This is mainly because, especially with forms referring to human referents, the visibility dimension has developed an emotive connotation: visible Ø- indicates that the speaker has a neutral or positive view of the person referred to by the demonstrative and endorses his or her actions, while the non-visible n-form expresses that the speaker rejects the referent’s actions and does not want to be associated with him or her.

This connotation of endorsement or rejection is the most obvious with proximal forms, as in the example below.

545. Tanqaiu naipi sui.

{tanqaiu} [naipi]AG [sui]UN

steal DEM.S.PROX.NVIS money

‘This person [i.e. the scoundrel] here has stolen money.’ (d20060519:6)

Native speakers consider the use of the visual demonstrative aipi in this context would be awkward at best, and most would say it would be incorrect. In the example below, the non-visual plural naiŋki indicates dissociation. The speaker is explaining that to avoid incest, it is forbidden for certain families to marry with each other.

546. Ni naiŋki maqtu siða

{ni}AUX [naiŋki]AG {maqtu}AUX {siða}

NEG DEM.PV.PROX.NVIS can marry

‘they cannot marry.’ (TVN-012-001:98)

The endorsement use of the Ø-/n- contrast also occurs with non-proximal forms. One consultant gave me the following two examples.

547. Minsumin naipun.

{minsuma-in} [naipun]AG

come.back-PRV DEM.S.MED.NVIS

‘That person (who I don’t like) has come back. (Oh no!)’ (constr. ex.; d20060519:4)

548. Minsumin aipun.

{minsuma-in} [aipun]AG

come.back-PRV DEM.S.MED.VIS

‘That person (who I like) has come back. (How nice!)’ (constr. ex.; d20060519:5)

So far, I have found no clear examples of this use of visibility with the other two demonstrative roots (ait- and aint-).

9.4.The place words ʔiti / ʔitun / ʔita

The forms ʔiti/ʔitun/ʔita are the most commonly used words for expressing place and time. They are often speaker-oriented and distinguish a proximal, medial and distal form. The medial form is used as a delineated medial (see 9.1, p. 377). Native speakers indicate that they express spatial location, but in the corpus texts they are commonly used for relative temporal reference.

ʔiti ‘here’ ‘at this moment’

ʔitun ‘there (medial)’ ‘at that moment (medial)’

ʔita ‘there (distal)’ ‘at that moment (distal)’

Diachronically, these forms go back to a combination of the stationary locative prefix i- ‘at, in’ and the referential definiteness markers -ti/ta/tun (see 9.1), but synchronically they have evolved into largely idiosyncratic forms. This is apparent from the fact that ʔiti/ʔitun/ʔita can now combine with the stationary locative prefix i- to form a verb, as in the example below.

549. Iʔitiʔak.

{i-ʔiti}[-ʔak]AG

STAT-here-1S.F

‘I am here.’ (BNN-N-002:52)

Most instances of the ʔiti paradigm in the corpus function as verbs. They readily combine with locative prefixes, as in 9.4, 9.4 and 9.4, but they can also function as motion verbs without the help of any prefixal marker, as in 9.4 and 9.4. Note that 9.4 is a stripped-down version of 9.4 above in which the locative prefix has been omitted.

550. Maisnaʔisaq amu munʔiti?

{maisna-ʔisaq}Q [amu]AG {mun-ʔiti}

from-where 2P.F ALL-here

From which places did you all come here? (BNN-N-002:51)

551. Maupa, sauʔitaʔina, mainaʔitaʔin tudip.

{maupa} C1|C2 {sau-ʔita-in-a,} C2|C3

thus TERM-then.DIST-PRV-SUBORD

{maina-ʔita-in} [tudip]TIME

ABL-then.DIST-PRV former.times

‘Like that, [those times] had come, and they had gone by.’ (TVN-008-002:62)

552. ʔitiʔak

{ʔiti}[-ʔak]AG

here-1S.F

‘I am here.’ (adaptation of BNN-N-002:52)

553. Siatia ʔitiʔak

{sia-ti-a}AUX {ʔiti}[-ʔak]

ANAPH-DEF.REF.PROX-LNK now-1S.F

‘This was my situation at that moment’ [lit: ‘I was now at this situation’] (TVN-008-002:228)

When members of the ʔiti paradigm occur as peripheral place or time arguments, they behave in a more noun-like fashion: they typically cannot take locative or other verbal prefixes, they do not take arguments, and they occur in the same slot as place, time and manner phrases. While the first instance of ʔita in example 9.4below occurs in an auxiliary verbal slot, the second instance occurs in a nominal slot and it is in fact possible to add a preposition han ‘at, in’ (han ʔita).

554. Munʔita madas pudaku atikisunaŋ ʔita

{mun-ʔita}AUX {madas} {pu-daku} [tikis-un-aŋ]MNR

ALL-there.DIST take place-ritual.object little-EMPH-PROG

[(han) ʔita]PLACE

at there.DIST

‘He [the priest] has to go there and take and put a little bit of the daku over there.’ (TVN-012-001:44)

9.5.The anaphoric marker sia

Unlike many other languages, in which the spatio-temporal deictic use of words like personal pronouns and demonstratives is extended to phoric and discourse deixis (see e.g. Lyons (1977) and Himmelmann (1996)), Takivatan Bunun has an invariant marker sia ‘aforementioned’ that is exclusively used for this purpose. Obviously, this does not mean that personal pronouns and demonstratives have no anaphoric power in text. They can refer back to referents or events previously mentioned in text – just as many full noun phrases do – but (1) they do not explicitly encode anaphoric distance, e.g. a distal form does not refer back further in a text than a proximal or medial form, and (2) when you want to encode an anaphoric relationship, rather than deictic distance or person, you would always use sia in Takivatan.

Sia is one of the most commonly used words in Takivatan, can combine with all the definiteness markers in 9.1 and can co-refer to referents (persons, objects) as well as events (states, actions, times, locations). Often, its scope is a single argument or predicate in a preceding sentence, but it might as well be an entire clause or a stretch of text. This implies that it is indiscriminately used for anaphoric as well as discourse-deictic reference, two applications of deixis that both Lyons and Himmelmann take pain to tease apart but that are formally realized in almost identical ways in Takivatan. For instance, the forms of sia in 9.5 and 9.5 are formally very similar, both take a referential definiteness marker, and both seem to have a very similar function, apart from the fact that sia in the first example refers to an entity and in the second one to a complex event.

In 9.5, the narrator is explaining how he kept track of a monkey in a palm tree in order to shoot it. Siatun encodes an undergoer participant and refers to the monkey that was mentioned in the previous sentence.

555. Ma, samantukandu siatun [...].

Ma, {samantuk-an-du} [sia-tun]UN

INTER spy.on-LF-EMOT ANAPH-DEF.REF.MED

‘I kept a close watch on it [in order to shoot it]’ (TVN-008-002:184)

In 9.5, on the other hand, it is obvious that siata ‘it is like that’ does not refer to any referent in the preceding utterance, but to the preceding sentence as a whole (here given in the translation). Note that it can be interpreted either as referring to the speech act (‘that is how the elders said it’) or to the content of the utterance (‘that is how you had to do things’). It is also not clear whether siata should be interpreted as nominal or a verbal constituent in a situation like this; both interpretations seem to be equally acceptable.

556. Siata.

sia-ta

ANAPH -DEF.REF.DIST

‘[I will now explain how we Bunun in former days were, how our elders said: if you want to grow up, you have to live attentively, if you see a one-eyed man, if there is a cripple, you cannot laugh, it is a taboo, you cannot make jokes about them.] It was like that.’ (TVN-013-001:4)

Sia can be used for textual reference as well as reference to an extra-linguistic reality that is considered to be shared knowledge or a commonsense truth (exophoric reference). The following utterance was not part of a story and the anaphoric marker does therefore not function as a textual anaphor. It rather refers to a man that was present in the room a moment ago and is therefore part of a shared discursive universe.

557. Na, han lumaq siata?

na [han lumaq]PLACE [sia-ta]AG

INTER toward house ANAPH-DEF.REF.DIST

‘Well then, did he [i.e. the one that was here a moment ago] go home?’ (TVN-xxx-xx1:21)

The very wide functional load of sia means it can occur both in nominal and verbal slots and is commonly used as an attribute to a nominal head.

9.5.1.Attributive uses of sia

A.Bare attribute

The form sia often occurs in pronominal possessive and attributive constructions without help from any bound morphemes. This deviates from normal pronominal attribution, which normally requires the presence of the attributive marker tu. Example A illustrates the problem this poses in some constructions. The anaphoric marker here refers to an extra-linguistic reality (‘the elders in the old days, you know who I am talking about’). It is possible here to analyze the relationship between sia and madaiŋʔað in two different ways, namely as a case of attribution (i.e. a ‘short’ version of siatu madaiŋʔað) or as an appositional construction (sia = madaiŋʔað).

558. [...] mavia sia madaiŋʔað qabas tu ni tu maqtu mapasʔaqa.

{ma-via}AUX [sia madaiŋʔað] {qabas}AUX tu

ACT-why ANAPH elder old.days COMPL

{ni-tu}AUX {maqtu}AUX {ma-pasʔaq-a}

NEG-COMPL be.allowed DYN-wash.clothes-LNK

‘[And it is good to remember] why the [aforementioned] elders in the old days were not allowed to wash their clothes.’ (TVN-012-003:3)

B.Siatu

It is not immediately clear whether the combination of anaphoric sia and the attributive marker tu constitutes one or two phonological words. Linguistic evidence does not rule out either. [66] Siatu is typically used as an attribute in a nominal phrase, as in B.

559. Haiðina siatu manauað lumaq

{haiða-in-a} [sia-tu ma-nauað lumaq]UN

have-PRV-LNK ANAPH-ATTR STAT-beautiful house

‘And now they had these beautiful houses.’ (TVN-012-002:174)

However, it can also occur in isolation with an ellipted or implied head, as in B.

560. Aupa, a, siatu naminsuma

{aupa} a [sia-tu] {na-minsuma}

thus INTER ANAPH-ATTR IRR-return

‘And thus he [i.e. the aforementioned one] has come here.’ (TVN-012-001:3)

C.Isia

In combination with a possessive prefix, the anaphoric pronoun can be used in two different ways. In C isia simply indicates the possessor of savis ‘bullet’.

561. Nei duka savisi isia.

{ni} du-ka [savis-i [i-sia]PSR]

NEG EMOT-DEF.SIT.DIST bullet-PRT POSS-ANAPH

‘No, that is not his bullet.’ (his = Vau, mentioned in the previous sentence] (TVN-008-002:93)

Similarly isiata in C is a possessive attribute of uvaðʔað ‘child’

562. [...] isiata tu uvaðʔaða

[[i-sia-ta]PSR tu uvaðʔað-a]

POSS-sia-DEF.REF.DIST ATTR child-LNK

‘[there was my older brother] and his [the aforementioned one’s] child.’ (TVN-010-009:4)

In C, on the other hand, isia functions in a more complex construction: it is at the same time an attributive modifier of tamatun ‘father’ and marking that the embedded noun phrase isia tamatun is a possessive attribute of taisʔan ‘relative’.

563. Maq a isia tamatun taisʔana, […]

maq a [[i-sia tama-tun]PSR taisʔan-a]

DEFIN COP POSS-ANAPH father-DEF.REF.MED relative-SUBORD

‘As far as the relatives of my [aforementioned] father where concerned, […]’ (TVN-008-002:37)

9.5.2.Nominal uses of sia

Forms of sia can occur as the head of core arguments. However, these occurrences are not as common as one might expect and they are outnumbered by attributive and verbal uses. In 9.5.2, anaphoric sia co-refers to lukis ‘the tree’ in the previous clause and is used without any modifying affixes as the main argument of a verbless locative clause.

564. Uka duma lukis, sia nastuʔa, […]

{uka} [duma lukis]AG C1|C2 [sia]AG [nastu-ʔa]PLACE

NEG.have other tree ANAPH beneath-SUBORD

‘There was no other tree, except for the one below.’ (TVN-008-002:81)

9.5.3.Verbal uses of sia

Sia regularly occurs in verbal slots. In 9.5.3, it has taken a stative verbal prefix and functions as an auxiliary referring back to the events explained in the preceding clauses.

565. Minmauduka paisqaʔita masia bununa lusʔanana sia buan

{min-maudu-ka} C1|C2 {paisqa-ʔita} C2|C3

BECOME-round-DEF.SIT.DIST ABL-there.DIST

{ma-sia}AUX [bunun-a]AG {lusʔan-an-a} [sia buan]UN

STAT-ANAPH Bunun-LNK celebrate-LF-LNK ANAPH moon

‘[..] and when the moon was full, the people celebrated the moon in the aforementioned way [i.e. in the correct way] from that time onward’ (TVN-012-001:32)

In 9.5.3, sia combines with the temporal ablative prefix maisi-. The derived form refers to a period of time expressed in the previous sentence.

566. Maisisia atikisaŋ minqansiapa, […]

{maisi-sia}AUX {a-tikis-aŋ}AUX {in-qansiap-a}

ABL-ANAPH STAT-small-PROG VIA-understand-SUBORD

‘From that [aforementioned] period on when I was still small, I gained the understanding […]’ (TVN-008-002:7)

9.5.4.Sia as a hesitation marker

Both sia and siatu are frequently used as hesitation markers. In the example below, the speaker is somewhat nervous because he has to speak in public and interlaces his explanation with a number of hesitation markers, amongst which is siatu.

567. A muqata, nama, siatu, xiaǒ huì-ta, siatu, a istupaki aupa ni taŋusaŋ ʔata […]

A muqa-ta nama siatu xiaǒ.huìMAN-ta

INTER next-DEF.REF.DIST HESIT INTER small.group-DEF.REF.DIST

siatu a is-tupa-ki

INTER INTER TRANSFER-say-DEF.SIT.PROX

aupa ni taŋus-aŋ ʔata

because NEG first-PROG 2I.F

‘And next, well, you know, the small group meeting, you know, well, it has to be explained because we are not first [going to be there]’ (TVN-010-015:9)

This usage is similar to, and maybe developed in analogy with, the hesitative use of Mandarin Chinese demonstrative 那個 nàge ‘that one’.

9.6.Duma ‘other(s)’

The form duma ‘others’ is invariable, cannot take any bound morphology and is mainly used as the head of a noun phrase, as in the two examples below.

568. Minsumina amina duma

{minsuma-in-a} [amin-a duma]

return-PRV-LNK all-LNK other

‘All the others had already returned’ (TVN-008-002:85)

569. A maq a duma ukin amin.

A maq a [duma]AG {uka-in} [amin]MNR

INTER DEFIN COP other NEG.have-PRV all

‘As for the rest, there weren’t any left.’ (TVN-012-002:98)

Duma can also occur as an attribute to a nominal head. In some cases, it occurs in immediate pre-nominal position without an attributive marker tu.

570. Uka duma lukis

{uka} [duma lukis]AG

NEG.have other tree

‘There were no other trees’ (TVN-008-002:81)

In cases where it occurs as an attribute in pre-nominal position with the attributive marker tu, as in 9.6, it is typically nominal rather than adjectival in nature (i.e. in the example below, duma refers to ‘other people’, and is not an attributive adjective to qaimaŋsuð ‘things’).

571. Isia duma tu qaimaŋsuð, ni qaðmaŋ siða.

[i-sia duma tu qaimamaŋsuð] {ni} {qaðmaŋ} {siða}

POSS-ANAPH other COMPL things NEG randomly take

‘As for other people’s possessions, one cannot take them randomly.’ (TVN-013-001:6)

9.7.Honorific itu

The marker itu only occurs in attributive position and has two seemingly unconnected meanings. As an honorific marker, it expresses reverence and occurs with nouns or pronouns referring to people or supernatural beings.

572. Itu Tama Diqanin tu isʔaŋ

[[itu Tama Diqanin]PSR tu isʔaŋ]

HON father heaven ATTR belief

‘The belief in the Father in Heaven’ (TVN-008-003:206)

573. Tama, simaq su itu bunun ŋan?

[tama] {simaq} [su itu bunun ŋan]

father who 2S.N HON Bunun name

‘Sir, what is your Bunun name?’

Note that 9.7 might be influenced by the Mandarin Chinese 您貴姓 nín guì xìng ‘your honourable name’, a formula commonly used for politely asking for someone’s surname.

In some rare instances, itu modifies nouns referring to objects. In these cases, it indicates that something should be interpreted as abstract or spiritual rather than as a concrete object. The following clause introduces a definition of the concept lumaq ‘house’.

574. Maq a itu lumaqa, […]

maq a [itu lumaq-a]

DEFIN COP HON house-SUBORD

‘As far as a house is concerned, [it is defined as a location in which one can live].’ (TVN-008-001:1)

9.8.Overview of meaning extensions of deixis

This final section gives a concise overview of the meaning extensions of all deictic paradigms. That deictics in Takivatan have non-deictic meanings is in itself not surprising. In fact, Himmelmann (1996) remarked that for demonstratives in other languages, such as Tagalog, deictic reference is not even the primary use. What is interesting is that in Takivatan individual members within the deictic paradigm (e.g. medial forms) have developed a number of metaphorical meaning extensions.

An overview of how common meaning extensions are in various deictic paradigms is given in Table 48. All are expressed by part of the proximal-medial-distal tripartition -i/un/a, except for endorsement, which is expressed by a contrast of the visibility prefixes Ø-/n-.

spatial deixis

temporal deixis

delineation

animacy

endearment

endorsement

definiteness markers

prox.

+++

+

―

―

+

―

med.

++

+

++

++

++

―

dist.

+++

+

―

―

―

―

place words

prox.

+++

++

―

―

―

―

med.

++

++

++

―

―

―

dist.

+++

++

―

―

―

―

demonstratives

prox.

+++

―

―

++

―

++*

med.

++

―

―

+++

++

++*

dist.

+++

―

―

++

―

++*

3rd person personal

prox.

+++

―

―

++

―

―

pronouns

med.

++

―

―

++

++

―

dist.

+++

―

―

++

―

―

(+++: almost always; ++: often; +: occasionally; ―: rarely or never;
*: realized by visibility (Ø-/n-) rather than distance)

Table 48 – Meaning extensions of deictics

A notable absentee from the Table above is phoricity. While definiteness markers, demonstratives and personal pronouns are obviously used for reference tracking, the proximal-medial-distal contrast itself does not normally express anaphoric distance (we saw a rare exception in D). In other words, whereas the triplet -i/un/a can occur in a contrastive setting to refer to ‘here’ / ‘a bit further away’ / ‘far’ or ‘now’ / ‘a while ago’ / ‘a long time ago’, I have so far not found any clear contrastive examples where -i unambiguously means ‘just mentioned’, -un ‘mentioned one or two clauses ago’ and -a ‘mentioned earlier in text’. The absence of the extension of spatio-temporal to anaphoric deixis in Takivatan can easily be explained by the presence of the dedicated anaphoric marker sia (9.5).

Definiteness has often been linked to topicality (cf. Li & Thompson (1976:461)), especially in Austronesian languages (see e.g. Schachter (1976:496) for Tagalog; Keenan (1976:252-253) for Malagasy; and many others). As far as I can see, there is no necessary link between the two in Takivatan. All definiteness markers and other deictics discussed above can occur both in topical and non-topical positions and definiteness markers can even occur on the head of verb phrases. In fact, constituent order and ellipsis are much stronger indicators of topicality than definiteness.

domain

meaning

section

proximal

medial

distal

space

close

medial

far

A

delineation

―

with boundaries

no boundaries

A

time

now

some time ago

long ago

B

animacy

―

human

―

A

empathy

loved

respected

―

C

endorsement

visual: approved / non-visual: rejected

B

Table 49 – Semantic extensions of the distance dimension

Table 49 provides another breakdown of the information in Table 48; it shows where different semantic extensions of distance are realized in the deictic triplet  i/un/a. One of the most obvious things is that, across paradigms, meaning extensions develop most readily in medial forms. This is not completely surprising since medial deictic reference is by nature a semantically vague and unstable transitional area between the black-and-white extremes of ‘here’ and ‘there’, which would make it a likely source of semantic innovation.

It is important to realize that the semantic extensions of distance described in this chapter are not fully grammaticalised, unlike in other languages, where words or morphemes that were historically deictics have developed well-delineated grammatical functions. For instance, Table 48 shows that medial definiteness markers can express delineation, humanness and empathy but which connotation is selected by speaker and listener depends on the discourse context. In some cases a medial might be unambiguously interpreted as expressing politeness; in other cases, there might be doubt or it might be possible to interpret a form in a number of different ways. Ambiguity does not undermine the existence of semantic extensions, but rather indicates that they are pragmatic tendencies rather than hard grammatical rules. It is clear that in many cases a purely spatial interpretation of deictic elements would be nonsensical; native speakers explicitly acknowledge the existence of deictic meaning extensions, and the meanings themselves can be identified objectively in examples which occur in a clear contrastive setting.

Appendix 1: Sample Texts

Appendix 2: Word List

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1 At the time of writing (March 2009), according to the Council of Indigenous Peoples, Executive Yuan (行政院原住民委員會). See http://www.apc.gov.tw for the most up-to-date information.

2 According to DGBAS (2009), the total population of Taiwan in January 2009 was 23,046,000 people.

3 Data from CIP (2009: Table 7). No separate data is as yet available for Sediq, but the Council of Indigenous Peoples says their population is around 10,000. Together with the Truku, they were previously considered to be Atayal, but got official recognition in 2008 (see Shih & Loa (2008)). I will therefore subtract their number from the Atayal population.

4 Loosely based on Li (2004), with the addition of Sakizaya, Sediq and Taroko (or Truku).

5 See Thompson (1964).

6 See Candidius (1732) for an English translation.

7 See Phillips (1999:279)

8 Based on CIP (2003).

9 Tan-nan and its hamlets are referred to by the following Bunun names: Laiðuan, Masulili, Malavi and Maŋudavan.

10 This distinction has been made since the Japanese era; see Ogawa & Asai (1935:585ff)

11 Data from Li (1988) and from my own data.

12 Based on a 3094 character sample taken from text TVN-008-002.

13 Represents the frequency of a consonant relative to the sum of all consonants.

14 As counted on 18 March 2008, my Takivatan lexicon contained 3314 lexical items.

15 Represents the frequency of a vowel relative to the sum of all vowels.

16 The perfective form of the noun quma ‘field’ is hard to render in English, but means something like ‘something that has turned into an arable field’ or ‘after [the land] was turned into an arable field’.

17 However, some pairs of verbal prefixes always occur in the same order, e.g. it is always is-pin-, as in example 3.1.2below, and never pin-is-.

18 Addition of -un triggers /ia>ai/ metathesis in siap (see C).

19 Counted on 15/05/2008 in a lexicon of 3467 entries (3198 words; 269 affixes).

20 Round brackets indicate arguments that are optionally expressed and can be ellipted without a change of meaning.

21 The suffix -ʔað is here not used as a nominaliser, but is an old, and presently unproductive, adjectivising suffix (see appropriate entries in the word list (Appendix 2).

22 It is not used for indicating that an event did not happen against all expectation or is unlikely to happen (pace Matthews (2005)).

23 The use of the focused form amu in C2 to express an undergoer with locative focus verbs is irregular.

24 The actual location referred to in this clause is left unexpressed, but is explicitly indicated by the locative focus marker -an on the main verb.

25 Lichtenberk uses the terms ingressive and inchoative, but from the examples in his grammar, it appears that his terms cover resultative and change-of-state; see also Heine & Kuteva (2002:74). In Siraya, another Austronesian language of Taiwan, the suffix -ato also conflates resultative and change-of-state semantics (Sander Adelaar; pers. comm.).

26 The perfective suffix is four times more common than the past infix (based on a corpus count). The Isbukun ratio is based on a count in the Formosan Language Corpus (Academia Sinica (s.d.-a)).

27 Generally accessible at Academia Sinica (s.d.-a). Interlinear glosses are mine, except for Nom (nominative) and Obl (oblique), which are labels often used in Formosan linguistics to mark Nominative and Oblique case.

28 Madia ‘many’ behaves very much like a verb in Takivatan Bunun and usually occurs in the auxiliary verb slot. In this example it is used twice as an attribute.

29 The question word simaq ‘who?’ is verbal in nature.

30 The use of the topicaliser -ʔa to right-dislocate clausal topics is very unusual.

31 I use transitive here in a functional-semantic sense: a transitive event is an event that the average language user would conceptualize as having an agent and an undergoer. Syntactic transitivity is a tricky concept in Takivatan and its treatment is beyond the scope of this work.

32 This prefix can combine with UF -un.

33 Examples with locative focus are found throughout the dictionary, e.g. pnapissan ‘shot wound (< pissa- ‘shoot’ + -an ‘LF’, p. 243), tinnunan ‘native cloth’ (< ‹in› + tnun- ‘weave’ + -an ‘LF’, p. 473).

34 The locative form of alʔu ‘rest’ has two commonly occurring variant forms, one with intervocalic glottal ligature (alʔuʔan) and one without (alʔuan).

35 Note that susumsumanan never means ‘church’, but is only used to refer to prayer meetings. Church buildings are refered to by the Japanese loan kiukai.

36 This is not always the case; see e.g. Shibatani (2008), who argues that Sasak and Sumbawa, two closely-related Western Malayo-Polynesian languages of Indonesia, have a focus system but no focus morphology.

37 M-=stem-initial nasal alternation; AF=agent or actor focus; IF = instrumental focus; LF=locative focus; PF=patient focus; RF=referential focus. Note that in Takivatan, patient focus marking is subsumed under undergoer focus marking, which additionally marks beneficiary and instrument.

38 Such portmanteau forms are not uncommon for languages in Taiwan and the Philippines. Other Formosan languages in which the infix ‹in› has been analyzed as a portmanteau form for past/perfect/perfective include Mayrinax (Huang (1995a:48)), Puyuma (Huang (2000a:117 ex. 1e)), Thao (Huang (2000b:101)) and Paiwan (Chang (2000:98)).

39 Siraya data comes from Adelaar (1997), Adelaar (2004) and Tsuchida (2000); Thao from Blust (2003a); Kavalan from Li & Tsuchida (2006); and Pazeh from Li & Tsuchida (2001). A long dash indicates a high likelihood that a certain form does not exist. Empty slots indicate a lack of accurate data. Underlined forms are prefixes that are often analysed as part of the focus paradigm.

40 English translations of causative forms can only be impressionistic. Causatives just indicate that an external force influences the agent and, depending on the context, can mean ‘be forced to’, ‘be told to’, ‘be influenced to’, etc.

41 Similar developments appear to have happened throughout the Austronesian language family: Blust (2003b), quoting from Himmelmann & Wolff (1999), mentions the development of the past and non-past alternate forms maka- and naka- from p‹um›aka- and p‹in›aka- in Toratán (Austronesian, Sulawesi).

42 Undergoer constructions with two explicitly expressed free pronouns are actually very rare in fluent discourse. Normally only one free pronoun would be explicitly expressed and the other would be implied. However, speakers do occasionally produce clauses like this when they are asked to explicitly express all important participants in the process and unanimously judge them to be grammatically correct.

43 Note that this is the only reason why basic prefixes are called ‘basic’: they can develop meaning extensions. The term does not refer to syntactic or functional properties of the prefixes.

44 There is also an uncommon /t/-initial variant, although it is not clear at the moment what its exact function is.

45 Saduʔu, like a number of other verbs, never occurs with the neutral dynamic prefix ma-. Two other common verbs that are always realized without ma- are siða ‘grab, take’ and haiða ‘have’.

46 The ablative prefix has many realisational variants; see 7.4.12.

47 Note that the pronoun changes into the neutral case form when it is topicalised.

48 Interestingly, the ‘aforementioned’ person in the story is actually the narrator, and the phrase could therefore be translated as ‘my face’.

49 The latter is similar to Aktionsart; cf. Sasse (2006).

50 The corpus contains only one attestation of BECOME min- with an undergoer suffix -un.

51 Tansiki is a normally dynamic verb and cannot take locative prefixes.

52 The seat of emotions in Bunun culture is not the heart, as in European culture (cf. English my heart is saddened), but the breath.

53 Note that even focus suffixes do not change the argument order of a clause, but only case marking of the personal pronouns.

54 The mouth bow and mouth harp are two traditional Bunun instruments.

55 Randy LaPolla pers. comm.; cf. Blust (1995).

56 *ʔusʔan is almost certainly a reduced form of taŋus ‘first, foremost’ and -an ‘LF’. The locative focus suffix nominalises the entire contruction, i.e. taus-taŋus ‘give birth to the first child’ + -an ‘LF: locus of action NMZ’ (see 6.4.5).

57 Refers to the behaviour of the neutral variant, not the causative and/or associative forms.

58 Although bananʔað is synchronically unanalysable, it goes back to the adjectival root *nanʔað ‘male’ and the presently unproductive prefix *ba-, hence the reduplication of the second instead of the first syllable of the form.

59 The distinction nominative/oblique (see Ross (2006), Rau & Dong (2006), Tang (2006b), Teng (2007) for examples, and Ross & Teng (2005) for a justification of the distinction) is not made in this work. Instead, arguments will be marked according to their semantic role (AG, UN, LO); see 1.4.3.

60 Based on sample text TVN-008-002 (3170 words); the X-axis indicates the number of occurrences (different for each graph); word classes are plotted on the Y-axis. Abbreviations: V=verbs, AUX=auxiliaries, ADJ=adjectives, Q=question words, Loc=place words, Time=time words, Man=manner words, Ppro=personal pronouns, Hnum=human numerals, Ana=the anaphoric marker sia, DPro=demonstrative pronouns, N=nouns

61 Based on the same sample as Figure 9.

62 Note that the term ‘situational’ is here not used as in Himmelmann (1996), where it is opposed to discourse deictic uses of demonstratives. Takivatan definiteness markers and demonstratives are rarely used for discourse deixis (see 9.8).

63 I want to stress again that the term ‘focus’ here does not refer to pragmatic focus, but rather to the verbal marking scheme that is particular to many Austronesian languages and allows a clause to put one of three to five different participant roles in topic position (see also 1.4.3).

64 The term nominative is used in a somewhat atypical way in both works and refers to what in many Western Austronesian frameworks has been called either topic or subject. See Ross & Teng (2005) for an in-depth treatment.

65 This appears to be confirmed by Jeng (1977:130-131), although he notes that nam and sam are only used as post-nominal possessives and he gives the forms that are indigenous to Takivatan as neutral forms. Note that Jeng mixes up inclusive and exclusive forms on p. 131.

66 The same problem occurs with a number of auxiliaries followed by tu, most notably the negator ni. In the corpus I have opted for an ad hoc approach, writing two words (sia tu or ni tu) or one word (siatu or nitu) depending on how each individual occurrence is pronounced. In the examples below, the combination of sia and tu is always analysed as a one-word unit.