Kayardild : the language of the Bentinck Islanders of North West Queensland
Creators: name: Evans, Nicholas
Publisher: name: The Australian National University
Year: 1985
Subjects: subject: Kayardild Grammar

description: This is a reference grammar of Kayardild (K) . an Australian language spoken in the south Wellesley Islands. Gulf of Carpentaria. Chapter One sets the language In its broader cultural and linguistic perspective, including its genetic position in the Tangkic group and beyond, the linguistic evidence relating to its alleged long Isolation, and the contemporary position of languages on Mornington Island. The phonology is briefly introduced. Chapter Two introduces a number of descriptive concepts. Parts of spoech. word order, the grammatical relations Subject and Object, and the potential for disjunction of subject and pivot are discussed. Case use in K is highly complicated, and five functions must be distinguished: relational (relating an NP to the verb or clause) . adnominal (relating one NP to another) . modal (signalling tens e/mood) . associating (linking NPs with nominalized verbs) and complementizing (relating one clause to another) . I argue that constituent structure mediates case-assignment, and that K has a VP-constituent despite its free phrase order. Chapter Three discusses the nominal case system: form. sequence restrictions and meaning. Besides the twelve regular cases there are seven 'verbal cases', with case-like syntax and meanings but verbal in form. Nominal-nominal derivation, compounding and reduplicating are also discussed. Chapter Four examines the remaining nominal subclasses: pronouns, locationals. and manner, time and predicate nominals. The structure of the NP is discussed. Chapter Five deals with verbals: the form and function of verb inflections, verb-verb and nominal-verb derivations, preverbal particles, nominal prefixation, and 'verb complexes' - syntagms comprising several verbal words with identical inflection. Chapter Six discusses the syntax of the simple clause: nominal (verbless) clauses: basic, alternate and derived verbal argument structures: secondary predication: questions: negation: and particles and clitics. Chapter Seven focusses on the unusual 'modal case' system whereby tense/mood is signalled on nominals as well as verbals. I discuss different syntactic models, the semantics of modal case choice, the relation between modal and other case meanings, factors defining the domain of modal case, and the evolution of the modal case system (with comparative data from Yukulta. Yangkaal and Lardil) . Chapter Eight deals with non-finite subordinate clauses and lexical nominalizations. Chapter Nine discusses finite subordinate clauses. Their functions and morphosyntax are examined in detail, especially the unusual 'odd pivot' system which signals pivot sequences such as (Matrix) Object: (Subordinate) Instrument, in which the pivot is not subject of both clauses. I also examine their independent or 'insubordinated' use to show ellipsed main clause predicates, or to track thematically marked discourse sequences: and the evolution of the 'odd pivot' system from an antecedent-agreement system of the type found in Yukulta.