A grammar of Makalero : a Papuan language of East Timor

Huber, J. (2011)

Doctoral Thesis

This work is the first comprehensive description of Makalero, a language spoken by approximately 6,500 speakers in the Iliomar subdistrict, in the south-east of the Republic of East Timor. Makalero has been classified as belonging to the Trans-New Guinea family, making it one of the westernmost Papuan languages. While it retains scattered derivational and inflectional processes, it is largely isolating in structure. Underlying the organisation of discourse at a very basic level is the rigid structure of the Makalero clause, which allows for the expression of two verbal arguments at most. A characteristic feature of this clause structure is the presence of two distinct, mutually exclusive argument positions within the verb phrase, the first of which is reserved for undergoers, while the second may express either undergoers, or location and manner information. The description brought forward in this dissertation is not couched in a particular theoretical framework, although insights from several linguistic theories are adduced to support the analysis. The appendices provide transcripts of several Makalero texts as well as a Makalero-English and an English-Makalero word list.

• Descriptive grammar
• Makalero
• East Timor
• Papuan
• Phonology
• Word classes
• Syntax
• Vocabulary
• Isolating
• Valency

• All authors: Huber, J.
• Supervisor: Mous, M.P.G.M.
• Co-supervisor: Engelenhoven, A.T.P.G. van
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2011-06-01
• Title of host publication: LOT dissertation series
• ISBN (print): 9789460930607
• Name: 279
• Court: LEI Universiteit Leiden
• Sponsorship: LUCL, LUF, SGfbS (Swiss society for endangered languages)