Absolute Directional System in Usen Barok - Jingyi Du RCLT, La Trobe University
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Absolute Directional System in
Usen Barok
Jingyi Du
RCLT, La Trobe University
1. Language background
• Barok is an Oceanic language spoken by
approximately 7000 people on the main
island of New Ireland Province in Papua
New Guinea (Map 1).
2
Map 1: New Ireland within PNG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Ireland)
3
• Barok in the Austronesian family (after
Lynch et al, 2002).
4
• Dialects: Nabo and Usen (also see
Wagner 1986: 4). The Usen dialect
(spoken by about 2000 people) is the
focus of my research.
5
• Usen Barok is a nominative-accusative
language with very limited morphology.
• The basic constituent order of verbal
clauses is AVO (transitive) or SV
(intransitive). Cross-referencing of the
subject within VP is obligatory.
6
2. Frames of spatial reference
• Levinson (2003: 38-50) proposes a typology of spatial
reference frames which distinguishes three major types:
• Intrinsic frame of reference
• e.g. He is in front of the house.
• Relative frame of reference
• e.g. He is to the left of the house.
• Absolute frame of reference
• e.g. He is north of the house.
• Usen Barok does not seem to have a relative system. It
makes a little use of an intrinsic frame and uses
predominately an absolute frame.
7
3. Directionals in Usen Barok
8• ‘Essive’ indicates ‘positions in a direction’ (following
Bowden 2001:277)
• ‘Allative’ prefix u- ‘towards’ indicates ‘motion towards a
direction’. The prefix u- is probably a reflex of POs *ua
‘go’ (Ross 2003b: 268).
• ‘Ablative’ prefix me- ‘from’ indicates ‘motion away from a
direction’. The prefix me- is probably a reflex of POs
*mai ‘come’ (Ross 2003b: 284)
• A ‘near’ form is used to indicate the same direction as
that of its unmarked counterpart, while suggesting a
shorter distance from the speaker.
9• Usen Barok employs a non-compass
absolute directional system which is
motivated by its local settings.
10Map 2: Enlarged map of New Ireland and its offshore islands
11• Longish island
• Offshore islands: Tabar, Lihir, Tangga,
Anir (Feni)
• Mountainous spine divides the Barok area
into the east coast and the west coast
regions. Data are gathered from Kolonoboi
(Map 3).
12Map 3: The directional system of Usen Barok
(map: World GPS Map Database) 13• Basic features of absolute spatial
reference in Oceanic languages
(Ross 2003a: 221; François 2004):
• Land-based subsystems: inland-seaward axis or
up-down axis.
• Sea-based subsystems: northwest-southeast
axis (using terms of winds or terms of vertical
axis).
14• The land-based axis in Usen Barok
• nuso ‘inland/up’ and nii ‘seaward/down’
• nuso ‘up’ and nii ‘down’ are also used in the vertical axis.
15nuso ‘up’
nii ‘down’
16Vertical axis
nuso ‘up’
nii ‘down’
17nuso ‘inland’ and nii ‘seaward’
nii ‘seaward’
nuso ‘up/inland’
18• The sea-based axis in Usen Barok
• nii ‘northwest’ and noo ‘southeast’
• This axis operates both at sea and on land.
19nii ‘northwest’ and noo ‘southeast’
nii ‘northwest’
noo ‘southeast’
20• This axis was probably motivated by the prevailing
seasonal winds aligned on a northwest-southeast basis
(Wagner 1986: 26-27; Ross 2003b: 127; Parkinson 1907
[1999]: 111). A few aged speakers at Kolonoboi are still
able to tell the association of noo ‘southeast’ and taubar
‘southeast trade wind’.
• The Boluminski Highway has been used as an axis.
• Wagner (1986: 25) reports that: “Traditionally the
southeast, or “Namatanai” direction was called mara bo,
the “eye” or “hole” of the pig; the northwest, or “Kavieng,”
direction was the mara mangin, the “eye” of the mis
(strung shell-disk currency).”
21nii or noo?
• Contradictory data have been collected
when the speakers are located far at sea.
nii nii
noo noo
22Beyond these two axes
• For an Usen speaker located on land in the
Barok area, ‘at sea’ is treated as a direction noo
‘at sea’.
• Within the Usen Barok system, depending on
their location, someone may be nii löxöön ‘down
at the beach’ or noo lömöö ‘at sea’, although
these can be exactly the same direction
according to the western cardinal directional
system.
23noo ‘at sea’
noo ‘at sea’ nii ‘seaward’
24• The direction nuso ‘up’ is also used to
indicate locations outside the main island
of New Ireland and its surrounding area
(i.e. the offshore islands).
25nuso ‘up’=beyond the familiar area
26nuso ‘up’=beyond the familiar area
‘I went from Rabaul to Port Moresby. I went up to Cairns.’ [p31-s5]
Abbreviations:1, first person; ABL, ablative; ALL, allative; SG, singular; SM, subject marker.
27Questions
• Why ‘southeast’ and ‘at sea’ are grouped
together in this system (using the term
noo)?
• It seems that the Usen speakers only
distinguish two directions nii and noo when
they are located far at sea. What do these
two terms really mean?
28References
• Bowden, John. 2001. Taba: description of a South Halmahera language. Canberra:
Pacific Linguistics.
• François, Alexandre. 2004. Reconstructing the Geocentric System of Proto-Oceanic.
Oceanic Linguistics 43, No.1: pp 1-31.
• Hyslop, Catriona. 2002. Hiding behind trees on Ambae: spatial reference in an
Oceanic language of Vanuatu. In Representing space in Oceania: culture in language
and mind, ed. Giovanni Bennardo, pp 47-76. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
• Lithgow, David. and Oren Claassen. 1968. Languages of the New Ireland district.
Port Moresby, T.P.N.G.: Dept. of Information & Extension Services
• Lynch, John, Malcolm Ross and Terry Crowley ed. 2002. The Oceanic Languages.
Curzon Language Family Series. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press.
• Palmer, Bill. 2002. Absolute spatial reference and the grammaticalisation of
perceptually salient phenomena. In Representing space in Oceania: culture in
language and mind, ed. Giovanni Bennardo, pp 107-157. Canberra: Pacific
Linguistics.
• Parkinson, Richard. 1999. Thirty years in the South seas: Land and People, Customs
and Traditions in the Bismarck Archipelago and on the German Solomon Islands.
Bathurst: Crawford House Publishing.
29• Pawley, Andrew. 2003. Locating Proto Oceanic. In The lexicon of Proto
Oceanic, The culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society. vol. 2
The physical environment, ed. Malcolm Ross & Andrew Pawley & Meredith
Osmond, pp 17-34. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
• Ross, Malcolm. 2003a. Meteorological phenomena. In The lexicon of Proto
Oceanic, The culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society. vol. 2
The physical environment, ed. Malcolm Ross & Andrew Pawley & Meredith
Osmond, pp 115-147. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
• Ross, Malcolm. 2003b. Talking about space: terms of location and direction.
In The lexicon of Proto Oceanic, The culture and environment of ancestral
Oceanic society. vol. 2 The physical environment, ed. Malcolm Ross &
Andrew Pawley & Meredith Osmond, pp221-283. Canberra: Pacific
Linguistics.
• Wagner, Roy. 1986. Asiwinarong : ethos, image, and social power among
the Usen Barok of New Ireland Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.
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