Traditional Tiwi is a language isolate within the Australian language group, traditionally spoken... more Traditional Tiwi is a language isolate within the Australian language group, traditionally spoken on the Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin. This language exhibits the most complex verb structure of any Australian language. Altogether there are 18 distinct verb slots; 14 prefixes and 4 suffixes. They encode subject, object and oblique arguments, they inflect for tense, aspect and mood, the location and direction of events with respect to the speaker, and the time of day that an event takes place. They also take prefixes and suffixes denoting associated motion, can be argument-raised by a causative or detransitivised by derivational morphology, and can take incorporated nominals, incorporated verbs, and incorporated comitative or privative arguments.
Traditional Tiwi has not been adequately described. Previous descriptions are limited and do not cover verb morphology with enough detail. This thesis brings together previous descriptions, early recorded data, and adds newly collected data and findings to produce an updated description of the language, with special reference to the verb morphology.
I focus in particular on two aspects of the verb morphology: agreement and incorporation. The Traditional Tiwi agreement system of inflecting verbs shows a high degree of complexity due to the interactions between subject, object and tense marking. I argue for the occurrence of an otherwise unreported phenomenon by which agreement affixes can shift between various controllers depending on the morphosyntactic context. Incorporation is also highly complex, as with other northern Australian languages that exhibit this feature. There are four distinct types of incorporation including verb incorporation, comitative and privative constructions, body part incorporation and regular nominal incorporation. I describe these with reference to incorporation phenomena in other Australian languages.
Traditional Tiwi however, is no longer spoken; the last two speakers died in 2012. The majority of the data on which this thesis is based was collected with one of these two last speakers, and therefore represents possibly the last documentary linguistic record of this important language.
Language use of multilingual children from the Tiwi Islands does not neatly fit into theories of ... more Language use of multilingual children from the Tiwi Islands does not neatly fit into theories of bilingualism and code- switching such as the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model described by Myers-Scotton, 1993, 1998; Myers-Scotton & Jake, 1995, 2000. In particular, the notion that these speakers have a matrix language (ML) that provides a frame into which other languages are embedded (called ELs hereafter) is very difficult to maintain. Closer examination reveals that none of the three languages spoken in the community appears to be a dominant matrix language. Instead we argue that at this stage of their linguistic development, the children utilise a basic, fairly uniform, grammar alongside a repertoire of language-specific features that
they draw upon freely.
Owing to the disproportionately low level of literacy in remote Indigenous communities, especiall... more Owing to the disproportionately low level of literacy in remote Indigenous communities, especially in Indigenous languages, printed books are perhaps not the most appropriate form of delivering language-learning materials such as dictionaries. Electronic versions based on computers are more useful. However the availability of computers, and consequently computer literacy, in remote Australian communities is still very low. Mobile phones are a much more common form of technology. Unfortunately mobile phones generally only allow small applications, meaning that most content expected in a reasonable language learners’ dictionary must be jettisoned. This paper proposes and documents a method of dictionary delivery that takes advantage of the flexibility and usability of computer-based dictionaries, as well as the portability of mobile phones. This process entails maintaining a a single dictionary file that can be exported to dictionary visualisation programs and applications that can be installed on a mobile phone, as well as a number of other formats in various media. Computer- based resources may contain as much information as is necessary in a format that can be navigated easily, while a mobile phone-based version will contain only a reduced range of the original content, although it will be available to the user without the need of a computer.
Traditional Tiwi is a language isolate within the Australian language group, traditionally spoken... more Traditional Tiwi is a language isolate within the Australian language group, traditionally spoken on the Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin. This language exhibits the most complex verb structure of any Australian language. Altogether there are 18 distinct verb slots; 14 prefixes and 4 suffixes. They encode subject, object and oblique arguments, they inflect for tense, aspect and mood, the location and direction of events with respect to the speaker, and the time of day that an event takes place. They also take prefixes and suffixes denoting associated motion, can be argument-raised by a causative or detransitivised by derivational morphology, and can take incorporated nominals, incorporated verbs, and incorporated comitative or privative arguments.
Traditional Tiwi has not been adequately described. Previous descriptions are limited and do not cover verb morphology with enough detail. This thesis brings together previous descriptions, early recorded data, and adds newly collected data and findings to produce an updated description of the language, with special reference to the verb morphology.
I focus in particular on two aspects of the verb morphology: agreement and incorporation. The Traditional Tiwi agreement system of inflecting verbs shows a high degree of complexity due to the interactions between subject, object and tense marking. I argue for the occurrence of an otherwise unreported phenomenon by which agreement affixes can shift between various controllers depending on the morphosyntactic context. Incorporation is also highly complex, as with other northern Australian languages that exhibit this feature. There are four distinct types of incorporation including verb incorporation, comitative and privative constructions, body part incorporation and regular nominal incorporation. I describe these with reference to incorporation phenomena in other Australian languages.
Traditional Tiwi however, is no longer spoken; the last two speakers died in 2012. The majority of the data on which this thesis is based was collected with one of these two last speakers, and therefore represents possibly the last documentary linguistic record of this important language.
Language use of multilingual children from the Tiwi Islands does not neatly fit into theories of ... more Language use of multilingual children from the Tiwi Islands does not neatly fit into theories of bilingualism and code- switching such as the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model described by Myers-Scotton, 1993, 1998; Myers-Scotton & Jake, 1995, 2000. In particular, the notion that these speakers have a matrix language (ML) that provides a frame into which other languages are embedded (called ELs hereafter) is very difficult to maintain. Closer examination reveals that none of the three languages spoken in the community appears to be a dominant matrix language. Instead we argue that at this stage of their linguistic development, the children utilise a basic, fairly uniform, grammar alongside a repertoire of language-specific features that
they draw upon freely.
Owing to the disproportionately low level of literacy in remote Indigenous communities, especiall... more Owing to the disproportionately low level of literacy in remote Indigenous communities, especially in Indigenous languages, printed books are perhaps not the most appropriate form of delivering language-learning materials such as dictionaries. Electronic versions based on computers are more useful. However the availability of computers, and consequently computer literacy, in remote Australian communities is still very low. Mobile phones are a much more common form of technology. Unfortunately mobile phones generally only allow small applications, meaning that most content expected in a reasonable language learners’ dictionary must be jettisoned. This paper proposes and documents a method of dictionary delivery that takes advantage of the flexibility and usability of computer-based dictionaries, as well as the portability of mobile phones. This process entails maintaining a a single dictionary file that can be exported to dictionary visualisation programs and applications that can be installed on a mobile phone, as well as a number of other formats in various media. Computer- based resources may contain as much information as is necessary in a format that can be navigated easily, while a mobile phone-based version will contain only a reduced range of the original content, although it will be available to the user without the need of a computer.
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Theses by Aidan Wilson
Traditional Tiwi has not been adequately described. Previous descriptions are limited and do not cover verb morphology with enough detail. This thesis brings together previous descriptions, early recorded data, and adds newly collected data and findings to produce an updated description of the language, with special reference to the verb morphology.
I focus in particular on two aspects of the verb morphology: agreement and incorporation. The Traditional Tiwi agreement system of inflecting verbs shows a high degree of complexity due to the interactions between subject, object and tense marking. I argue for the occurrence of an otherwise unreported phenomenon by which agreement affixes can shift between various controllers depending on the morphosyntactic context. Incorporation is also highly complex, as with other northern Australian languages that exhibit this feature. There are four distinct types of incorporation including verb incorporation, comitative and privative constructions, body part incorporation and regular nominal incorporation. I describe these with reference to incorporation phenomena in other Australian languages.
Traditional Tiwi however, is no longer spoken; the last two speakers died in 2012. The majority of the data on which this thesis is based was collected with one of these two last speakers, and therefore represents possibly the last documentary linguistic record of this important language.
Talks by Aidan Wilson
they draw upon freely.
Book chapters by Aidan Wilson
Traditional Tiwi has not been adequately described. Previous descriptions are limited and do not cover verb morphology with enough detail. This thesis brings together previous descriptions, early recorded data, and adds newly collected data and findings to produce an updated description of the language, with special reference to the verb morphology.
I focus in particular on two aspects of the verb morphology: agreement and incorporation. The Traditional Tiwi agreement system of inflecting verbs shows a high degree of complexity due to the interactions between subject, object and tense marking. I argue for the occurrence of an otherwise unreported phenomenon by which agreement affixes can shift between various controllers depending on the morphosyntactic context. Incorporation is also highly complex, as with other northern Australian languages that exhibit this feature. There are four distinct types of incorporation including verb incorporation, comitative and privative constructions, body part incorporation and regular nominal incorporation. I describe these with reference to incorporation phenomena in other Australian languages.
Traditional Tiwi however, is no longer spoken; the last two speakers died in 2012. The majority of the data on which this thesis is based was collected with one of these two last speakers, and therefore represents possibly the last documentary linguistic record of this important language.
they draw upon freely.