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Part of
The Diachrony of Classification Systems
Edited by William B. McGregor and Søren Wichmann
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 342] 2018
► pp. 315–352

The history of verb classification in Nyulnyulan languages

Most languages of northern Australia show a compound verb construction in which an uninflecting verbal element collocates with one of a small set of inflecting verbs. McGregor (2002) argues that this construction typically represents a system of verb classification in which the inflecting verbal root categorizes the uninflecting element. He proposes further that such systems of verb classification diffused areally across the northern part of the continent. For the languages of the Kimberley region, there is evidence that this diffusion predated the break-up of the proto-languages, and that systems of verb classification (or their precursors) can be reconstructed for the proto-languages. I argue that such a system can be reconstructed for Proto-Nyulnyulan, and that subsequent historical changes to this system gave rise to the modern systems of the daughter languages.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Aims and purposes
    • 1.2Nyulnyulan family
  • 2.Features of verbal lexemes and constructions in Nyulnyulan languages
  • 3.Broad comparison of PV-IV collocations in the Nyulnyulan family
    • 3.1Reflexes of some proto-PVs and their collocating IVs in Nyulnyulan languages
    • 3.2Reconstruction of PV-IV pairings in Proto-Nyulnyulan
    • 3.3PV-IV collocations in other Kimberley languages
  • 4.Comparison of CVC systems
    • 4.1Semantics of Nyulnyul and Warrwa systems of verb classification
    • 4.2Comparison of the extensions of the Nyulnyul and Warrwa categories
  • 5.The evolution of verb classification in Nyulnyulan languages
    • 5.1The Proto-Nyulnyulan CVC as a verb classification system
    • 5.2Subsequent evolution of verb classification in Nyulnyulan
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 May 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.342.11mcg
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