Based on original fieldwork, this paper discusses reported speech and thought constructions in So... more Based on original fieldwork, this paper discusses reported speech and thought constructions in Solega (Dravidian). Following McGregor (1994) we claim that reported speech can only be comprehensively characterised if it is identified as a syntactic construction in its own right, a construction we label a framing construction. In natural discourse, elements of the framing construction, particularly clauses referring to the reporting event, may be left unexpressed. We term framing constructions without a matrix clause ‘defenestrated clauses’. While defenestrated clauses in Solega leave perspective shifts underspecified, they include several distinctive strategies that allow us to reconsider the role of morpho-syntactic marking in the expression of perspective shifts.
This study investigates the role of human agency in the gene flow and geographical distribu-tion ... more This study investigates the role of human agency in the gene flow and geographical distribu-tion of the Australian baobab, Adansonia gregorii. The genus Adansonia is a charismatic tree endemic to Africa, Madagascar, and northwest Australia that has long been valued by hu-mans for its multiple uses. The distribution of genetic variation in baobabs in Africa has been partially attributed to human-mediated dispersal over millennia, but this relationship has never been investigated for the Australian species. We combined genetic and linguistic data to analyse geographic patterns of gene flow and movement of word-forms for A. gregorii in the Aboriginal languages of northwest Australia. Comprehensive assessment of genetic di-versity showed weak geographic structure and high gene flow. Of potential dispersal vectors, humans were identified as most likely to have enabled gene flow across biogeographic barri-ers in northwest Australia. Genetic-linguistic analysis demonstrated congruence of g...
We present a first, broad-scale typology of extended reported speech, examples of lexicalised or ... more We present a first, broad-scale typology of extended reported speech, examples of lexicalised or grammaticalised reported speech constructions without a regular quotation meaning. These typically include meanings that are conceptually close to reported speech, such as think or want, but also interpretations that do not appear to have an obvious conceptual relation with talking, such as cause or begin to. Reported speech may therefore reflect both concepts of communication and inner worlds, and meanings reminiscent of ‘core grammar’, such as evidentiality, modality, aspect (relational) tense and clause linking. We contextualise our findings in the literature on fictive interaction and perspective and suggest that extended reported speech may lend insight into a fundamental aspect of grammar: the evolution of verbal categories. Based on the striking similarity between the meanings of extended reported speech and grammatical categories, we hypothesise that the phenomenon represents a p...
This thesis examines a polysemous construction in the North Western Australian language Ungarinyi... more This thesis examines a polysemous construction in the North Western Australian language Ungarinyin (Non-Pama Nyungan, Worrorran) that can express reported speech (x says p), reported thought (x thinks p) and reported intentionality (x wants p). Following Rumsey (1982) and McGregor (1994) it refers to this construction as the 'framing construction' and details its functions, specific forms, the discourse contexts in which it occurs and alternative expressions the construction alternates with. The analysis reveals how the expression of perspective interacts with key areas of Ungarinyin grammar. In doing so, this study aims to contribute to understanding the ways in which central aspects of sociality, like perspective taking and intention attribution can shape grammar, and to present desiderata for a linguistic theory of social cognition. After an introductory chapter introducing the Ungarinyin framing construction, a background and methodology, chapter 2 lays out the fundamentals of Ungarinyin grammar. The chapter describes the language as a non-configurational, head-marking language with a limited set of relational and locational case suffixes and an extensive verbal inflectional template. Most verbal constructions consist of combinations of a verbal particle (a coverb) and an inflecting verb. Like in other Australian languages the use of complex clause constructions is limited and word order is often variable. Chapter 3 contextualises the study within the literature on reported speech and looks at the functions of the Ungarinyin framing construction in detail (reported speech, thought, intentionality, causation-intention and naming). The chapter concludes that although there are prototypical construction types for each of these functions none of them unambiguously identifies a particular meaning. Chapter 4 introduces the notion of 'defenestration', viz. signalling the functions of a framing construction without a framing construction, and demonstrates that this can be achieved alternatively by elements in the cla [...]
The field of theoretical linguistics is broad and diversified but a direction is developing which... more The field of theoretical linguistics is broad and diversified but a direction is developing which seems to affiliate with a more ‘Bakhtinian’ view on language, mainly because of its interest in notions Bakhtin caught under the concept of ‘otherness’. After briefly sketching some main oppositions within current linguistic thinking, I identify the approaches with which a meaningful discourse with the Bakhtinian view on language could be opened. I then turn to two topical theories of grammar and apply the notions of ‘intentionality’ and ‘thematisation’ to the models the theories propose. I will conclude that the Bakhtinian approach to language may help us to understand these models and the differences between them in a more profound way. A second conclusion I will draw is that they might help us to bring the related Bakhtinian notions into perspective and make them more concrete.status: publishe
Notes from the field on perspective-indexing constructions : Irregular shifts and perspective per... more Notes from the field on perspective-indexing constructions : Irregular shifts and perspective persistence
This chapter introduces and examines the notion of “evidential fictive participants” and their gr... more This chapter introduces and examines the notion of “evidential fictive participants” and their grammatical expression in utterances of fictive interaction. It focuses on fictive direct speech constructions and draws on examples from the Australian Aboriginal language Ungarinyin and Russian. After presenting data from these languages the chapter suggests that through the notion of participants fictive interaction forms a framework for grammatical typology. This framework has both a strong philosophical and analytical foundation and allows for an integrated approach to grammatical categories based on their relation to the conversation frame.
Based on original fieldwork, this paper discusses reported speech and thought constructions in So... more Based on original fieldwork, this paper discusses reported speech and thought constructions in Solega (Dravidian). Following McGregor (1994) we claim that reported speech can only be comprehensively characterised if it is identified as a syntactic construction in its own right, a construction we label a framing construction. In natural discourse, elements of the framing construction, particularly clauses referring to the reporting event, may be left unexpressed. We term framing constructions without a matrix clause ‘defenestrated clauses’. While defenestrated clauses in Solega leave perspective shifts underspecified, they include several distinctive strategies that allow us to reconsider the role of morpho-syntactic marking in the expression of perspective shifts.
This study investigates the role of human agency in the gene flow and geographical distribu-tion ... more This study investigates the role of human agency in the gene flow and geographical distribu-tion of the Australian baobab, Adansonia gregorii. The genus Adansonia is a charismatic tree endemic to Africa, Madagascar, and northwest Australia that has long been valued by hu-mans for its multiple uses. The distribution of genetic variation in baobabs in Africa has been partially attributed to human-mediated dispersal over millennia, but this relationship has never been investigated for the Australian species. We combined genetic and linguistic data to analyse geographic patterns of gene flow and movement of word-forms for A. gregorii in the Aboriginal languages of northwest Australia. Comprehensive assessment of genetic di-versity showed weak geographic structure and high gene flow. Of potential dispersal vectors, humans were identified as most likely to have enabled gene flow across biogeographic barri-ers in northwest Australia. Genetic-linguistic analysis demonstrated congruence of g...
We present a first, broad-scale typology of extended reported speech, examples of lexicalised or ... more We present a first, broad-scale typology of extended reported speech, examples of lexicalised or grammaticalised reported speech constructions without a regular quotation meaning. These typically include meanings that are conceptually close to reported speech, such as think or want, but also interpretations that do not appear to have an obvious conceptual relation with talking, such as cause or begin to. Reported speech may therefore reflect both concepts of communication and inner worlds, and meanings reminiscent of ‘core grammar’, such as evidentiality, modality, aspect (relational) tense and clause linking. We contextualise our findings in the literature on fictive interaction and perspective and suggest that extended reported speech may lend insight into a fundamental aspect of grammar: the evolution of verbal categories. Based on the striking similarity between the meanings of extended reported speech and grammatical categories, we hypothesise that the phenomenon represents a p...
This thesis examines a polysemous construction in the North Western Australian language Ungarinyi... more This thesis examines a polysemous construction in the North Western Australian language Ungarinyin (Non-Pama Nyungan, Worrorran) that can express reported speech (x says p), reported thought (x thinks p) and reported intentionality (x wants p). Following Rumsey (1982) and McGregor (1994) it refers to this construction as the 'framing construction' and details its functions, specific forms, the discourse contexts in which it occurs and alternative expressions the construction alternates with. The analysis reveals how the expression of perspective interacts with key areas of Ungarinyin grammar. In doing so, this study aims to contribute to understanding the ways in which central aspects of sociality, like perspective taking and intention attribution can shape grammar, and to present desiderata for a linguistic theory of social cognition. After an introductory chapter introducing the Ungarinyin framing construction, a background and methodology, chapter 2 lays out the fundamentals of Ungarinyin grammar. The chapter describes the language as a non-configurational, head-marking language with a limited set of relational and locational case suffixes and an extensive verbal inflectional template. Most verbal constructions consist of combinations of a verbal particle (a coverb) and an inflecting verb. Like in other Australian languages the use of complex clause constructions is limited and word order is often variable. Chapter 3 contextualises the study within the literature on reported speech and looks at the functions of the Ungarinyin framing construction in detail (reported speech, thought, intentionality, causation-intention and naming). The chapter concludes that although there are prototypical construction types for each of these functions none of them unambiguously identifies a particular meaning. Chapter 4 introduces the notion of 'defenestration', viz. signalling the functions of a framing construction without a framing construction, and demonstrates that this can be achieved alternatively by elements in the cla [...]
The field of theoretical linguistics is broad and diversified but a direction is developing which... more The field of theoretical linguistics is broad and diversified but a direction is developing which seems to affiliate with a more ‘Bakhtinian’ view on language, mainly because of its interest in notions Bakhtin caught under the concept of ‘otherness’. After briefly sketching some main oppositions within current linguistic thinking, I identify the approaches with which a meaningful discourse with the Bakhtinian view on language could be opened. I then turn to two topical theories of grammar and apply the notions of ‘intentionality’ and ‘thematisation’ to the models the theories propose. I will conclude that the Bakhtinian approach to language may help us to understand these models and the differences between them in a more profound way. A second conclusion I will draw is that they might help us to bring the related Bakhtinian notions into perspective and make them more concrete.status: publishe
Notes from the field on perspective-indexing constructions : Irregular shifts and perspective per... more Notes from the field on perspective-indexing constructions : Irregular shifts and perspective persistence
This chapter introduces and examines the notion of “evidential fictive participants” and their gr... more This chapter introduces and examines the notion of “evidential fictive participants” and their grammatical expression in utterances of fictive interaction. It focuses on fictive direct speech constructions and draws on examples from the Australian Aboriginal language Ungarinyin and Russian. After presenting data from these languages the chapter suggests that through the notion of participants fictive interaction forms a framework for grammatical typology. This framework has both a strong philosophical and analytical foundation and allows for an integrated approach to grammatical categories based on their relation to the conversation frame.
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Papers by Stef Spronck