The Languages of the Daly River Region (Northern Australia)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Nordlinger
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Verbal Morphology ◽  
Event Type ◽  
Linguistic Typology ◽  
Noun Incorporation ◽  
River Region

This chapter surveys the polysynthetic characteristics of the languages of the Daly River region of Australia’s Northern Territory. Although they are not all closely related, these languages share many typological features typical of polysynthesis, including the encoding of core arguments in the verbal word; noun incorporation; applicatives; and complex templatic verbal morphology. In addition the Daly languages exhibit complex verbal predicates composed of two discontinuous stems, one functioning broadly to classify the event type and the other providing more specific lexical semantics. These properties are surveyed across a range of Daly languages, considering both their similarities and their differences, and the implications they have for a cross-linguistic typology of polysynthesis.

Corrigendum to: Broad-scale environmental influences on the abundance of saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) in Australia

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuke Fukuda ◽  
Peter Whitehead ◽  
Guy Boggs
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Total Precipitation ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Landscape Modification ◽  
Geographical Variations ◽  
Crocodylus Porosus ◽  
Broad Scale

Saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) populations have recovered strongly across northern Australia over the 30 years since the species was protected from hunting. However, monitoring studies show large geographical variations in abundance across the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia. The Northern Territory has considerably higher densities, raising questions about constraints on recovery in the other states. We examined broad-scale environmental influences on population abundance by modelling the species.environment relationships across northern Australia. The hypothesis-based models showed strong support for the linkage to (1) the ratio of total area of favourable wetland vegetation types (Melaleuca, grass and sedge to total catchment area, (2) a measure of rainfall seasonality, namely the ratio of total precipitation in the coldest quarter to total precipitation in the warmest quarter of a year, and (3) the mean temperature in the coldest quarter of a year. On the other hand, we were unable to show any clear negative association with landscape modification, as indicated by the extent of high-impact land uses or human population density in catchments. We conclude that geographical variations in crocodile density are mostly attributable to differences in habitat quality rather than the management regimes adopted in the respective jurisdictions.

Studies in Australian Tettigoniidae: Australian agraeciine katydids, two new genera from northern Australia (Tettigoniidae; Conocephalinae; Agraeciini)

Zootaxa ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2417 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
D. C. F. RENTZ ◽  
YOU NING SU ◽  
NORIHIRO UESHIMA ◽  
MARTYN ROBINSON
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
The Other ◽  
New Genera ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Cytological Data ◽  
The Tropics

Two new agraeciine genera and five new species are described from northern Australia. Both genera have species that live in mixed woodlands in the tropics. Armadillagraecia Rentz, Su, Ueshima, Robinson gen. nov. is known from two species in the Northern Territory and one from Queensland. Kapalgagraecia Rentz, Su, Ueshima, Robinson gen. nov. is known from two species, one apparently widespread in the Northern Territory, the other from Groote Eylandt, NT. Cytological data are provided for all Armadillagraecia species but not for Kapalgagraecia. A table is presented documenting knowledge of the known cytology of all Agraeciini. The calling songs of both A. mataranka and A. yerilla Rentz, Su, Ueshima, Robinson gen. et spp. nov. are noted and documented by sonograms. Known biological, ecological and distributional data are presented.

scholarly journals The Acquisition of Murrinhpatha (Northern Australia)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Forshaw ◽  
Lucinda Davidson ◽  
Barbara Kelly ◽  
Rachel Nordlinger ◽  
Gillian Wigglesworth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Complex Predicate ◽  
Complex Morphology ◽  
River Region

This chapter reports on initial findings of an ongoing large-scale research project into the acquisition of Murrinhpatha, a polysynthetic language of the Daly River region of the Northern Territory of Australia with complex morphology. The complex verbal structures in Murrinhpatha, which can contain a large number of morphemes and bipartite stem morphology discontinuously distributed throughout the verbal template, raise a multitude of questions for acquisition. In this chapter we focus particularly on the acquisition of the complex predicate system in the verb, and the acquisition of subject-marking categories and tense/aspect/mood. Our findings are based on the language development of five Murrinhpatha acquiring children aged from 2;7–4;11 years.

Broad-scale environmental influences on the abundance of saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) in Australia

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuke Fukuda ◽  
Peter Whitehead ◽  
Guy Boggs
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Total Precipitation ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Landscape Modification ◽  
Geographical Variations ◽  
Crocodylus Porosus ◽  
Broad Scale

Saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) populations have recovered strongly across northern Australia over the 30 years since the species was protected from hunting. However, monitoring studies show large geographical variations in abundance across the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia. The Northern Territory has considerably higher densities, raising questions about constraints on recovery in the other states. We examined broad-scale environmental influences on population abundance by modelling the species–environment relationships across northern Australia. The hypothesis-based models showed strong support for the linkage to (1) the ratio of total area of favourable wetland vegetation types (Melaleuca, grass and sedge) to total catchment area, (2) a measure of rainfall seasonality, namely the ratio of total precipitation in the coldest quarter to total precipitation in the warmest quarter of a year, and (3) the mean temperature in the coldest quarter of a year. On the other hand, we were unable to show any clear negative association with landscape modification, as indicated by the extent of high-impact land uses or human population density in catchments. We conclude that geographical variations in crocodile density are mostly attributable to differences in habitat quality rather than the management regimes adopted in the respective jurisdictions.

Wspólnota semantyczno-leksykalna języków europejskich. O monografii: А.А. Кретов, О.М. Воевудская, И.А. Меркулова, В.Т. Титов, Единство Европы по данным лексики (Воронеж: Издательский дом ВГУ, 2016, ss. 413 [1])

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (XXIII) ◽  
pp. 121-133
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Wojan
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Research ◽  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Linguistic Typology ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Theoretical Linguistics ◽  
Research Concept ◽  
New Research

This article outlines the original research concept developed and applied by the Voronezh researchers, which brought both quantitative and qualitative results to the field of linguistic comparative research. Their monograph is devoted to the macrotypological unity of the lexical semantics of the languages in Europe. In addition, semantic stratification of Russian and Polish lexis has been analyzed. Their research concept is now known as the “lexical-semantic macrotypological school of Voronezh.” Representatives of this school have created a new research field in theoretical linguistics – a lexical-semantic language macrotypology as a branch of linguistic typology. The monograph has been widely discussed and reviewed in Russia.

scholarly journals Isomorphism and language-specific devices in comprehension of Korean suffixal passive construction by Mandarin-speaking learners of Korean

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gyu-Ho Shin ◽  
Sun Hee Park
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
The Other ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Verbal Morphology ◽  
Passive Voice ◽  
Passive Construction ◽  
Case Marking

Abstract Across languages, a passive construction is known to manifest a misalignment between the typical order of event composition (agent-before-theme) and the actual order of arguments in the constructions (theme-before-agent), dubbed non-isomorphic mapping. This study investigates comprehension of a suffixal passive construction in Korean by Mandarin-speaking learners of Korean, focusing on isomorphism and language-specific devices in the passive. We measured learners’ judgment of the acceptability of canonical and scrambled suffixal passives as well as their reaction times (relative to a canonical active transitive). Our analysis generated three major findings. First, learners uniformly preferred the canonical passive to the scrambled passive. Second, as proficiency increased, the judgment gap between the canonical active transitive and the canonical suffixal passive narrowed, but the gap between the canonical active transitive and the scrambled suffixal passive did not. Third, learners (and even native speakers) spent more time in judging the acceptability of the canonical suffixal passive than they did in the other two construction types. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the mapping nature involving a passive voice, indicated by language-specific devices (i.e., case-marking and verbal morphology dedicated to Korean passives), in L2 acquisition.

Be happy when your stomach is

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 184-208
Author(s):  
Dorothea Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
States Of Mind ◽  
Basic Emotions ◽  
Semantic Domain ◽  
Noun Incorporation ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
River Region

Abstract In this paper I provide a description of the role of body-part terms in expressions of emotion and other semantic extensions in MalakMalak, a non-Pama-Nyungan language of the Daly River area. Body-based expressions denote events, emotions, personality traits, significant places and people and are used to refer to times and number. Particularly central in the language are men ‘stomach’, pundu ‘head’ and tjewurr ‘ear’ associated respectively with basic emotions, states of mind and reason. The figurative extensions of these body parts are discussed systematically, and compared with what is known for other languages of the Daly River region. The article also explores the grammatical make up of body-based emotional collocations, and in particular the role of noun incorporation. In MalakMalak, noun incorporation is a central part of forming predicates with body parts, but uncommon in any other semantic domain of the language and only lexemes denoting basic emotions may also incorporate closed-class adjectives.

scholarly journals Typology and nuance: relativization

2020 ◽  
pp. 104-130
Author(s):  
Marianne Mithun
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
The Other ◽  
Stages Of Development ◽  
Linguistic Typology ◽  
The North

Much of linguistic typology is inherently categorical. In large-scale typological surveys, grammatical constructions, distinctions, and even variables are typically classified as present, absent, or embodying one of a set of specified options. This work is valuable for a multitude of purposes, and in many cases such categorization is sufficient. In others, we can advance our understanding further if we take a more nuanced approach, considering the extent to which a particular construction, distinction, or variable is installed in the grammar. An important tool for this approach is the examination of unscripted speech in context, complete with prosody. This point is illustrated here with Mohawk, an Iroquoian language indigenous to the North American Northeast. As will be seen, the two types of construction which might be identified as relative clauses are emergent, one less integrated into the grammar than the other. Examination of spontaneous speech indicates that the earliest stages of development are prosodic, as speakers shape their messages according to their communicative purposes at each moment.

The Wilding of Cape York Peninsula

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Neale
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
The Other ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Partial Failure ◽  
Hand Part ◽  
Cape York ◽  
The One ◽  
Colonial Encounters

In Chapter 1, I argue that ‘wildness’ is a product settler attempts to understand and thereby spatially remake the Northern Australia since the first colonial encounters in the 17th Century. For European explorers, a region like Cape York Peninsula was a wilderness to be surveyed, and through the misadventures and conflicts of inland expeditions it came to be understood as ‘wretched’ country populated with ‘treacherous’ peoples. Surveying subsequent uses of ‘the wild’ in this region, this chapter shows that if, on the one hand, part of the settler project has been to discursively and materially dictate the shape and texture of the region through such forms of wildness – ‘wilderness,’ ‘wild time,’ ‘wild blacks’ and ‘wild whites’ – then, on the other, the contemporary ‘wilderness’ should be understood not only as a product of the resistance and resilience of its Indigenous peoples, but also as the partial failure of this project.

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