Grammaticalization of Demonstratives as Subordinate Complementizers in Ngumpin-Yapa*

Author: McConvell, Patrick

Source: Australian Journal of Linguistics, Volume 26, Number 1, April 2006 , pp. 107-137(31)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

Demonstratives have grammaticalized as subordinate, including relative, complementizers in a number of language groupings around the world, including Germanic. This paper provides evidence for this type of grammaticalization in the `adjoined relative clause' in Australian Aboriginal languages, in particular in one Pama-Nyungan subgroup, Ngumpin-Yapa, where there has been a series of parallel grammaticalizations of various demonstratives in different languages. There are two main types of outcomes involved: (1) paradigm type: choice among a set of demonstratives in initial position, followed in some cases by a separate or adjoined complementizer; and (2) specialized type: a single complementizer descended from one demonstrative in initial or second position. The common explanations for demonstrative?>?complementizer grammaticalization in other language groups have been a transition between parataxis and hypotaxis, and the interpretation of the demonstrative as cataphoric. It is argued that these explanations require modification for the Ngumpin-Yapa case, and a different analysis is proposed in which the demonstrative is located in Spec-CP at some stage in the process, and in some cases (especially of the specialized type) ends up in C as a result of Spec-Head reduction.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07268600500531669

Affiliations: 1: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies

Publication date: 2006-04-01

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