A grammar of Makalero : a Papuan language of East Timor

Author(s):
Huber, J.
Published
2011
Publication type
Doctoral Thesis

Abstract

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 grammarMakaleroEast TimorPapuanPhonologyWord classesSyntaxVocabularyIsolatingValency
Defense date
2011-06-01
Language
English
Supervisor(s)
Mous, M.P.G.M.
Advisor(s)
Engelenhoven, A.T.P.G. van
Qualification
Ph.D.
Degree granting institution
Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University, Leiden
hdl
1887/17684
ISBN(s)
9789460930607
Series
LOT dissertation series
Volume in series
279

Juridical information

Court
LEI Universiteit Leiden

Funding

Sponsorship
LUCL, LUF, SGfbS (Swiss society for endangered languages)