In:Person Reference and Interaction in Umpila and Kuuku Ya’u Narrative
Clair Hill
[Culture and Language Use 26] 2026
► pp. vii–x
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Table of contents
Acknowledgements
List of figures
List of tables
List of abbreviations
Transcription conventions
Part I.Introduction
Prologue “We give story”
Chapter 1.Introduction
1.1Narrative
1.1.1Narrative research in the Australian Aboriginal context
1.1.2Narratives and interaction
1.2Person reference
1.2.1Person reference in the Australian Aboriginal context
1.2.2Person reference and interaction
1.3Organisation of this study
1.4The Umpila and Kuuku Ya’u language
1.4.1Sketch of Umpila/Kuuku Ya’u
1.4.2Classical sociolinguistics
1.4.3Contemporary sociolinguistics
1.5Ethnographic and historical context
1.5.1People and contact history
1.5.2Previous linguistic and ethnographic work
1.6Data and methods
1.6.1Fieldwork
1.6.2Language experts and community collaborators
1.6.3Methods
Part II.Repertoires
Chapter 2.Narratives of the Umpila and Kuuku Ya’u
2.1Introduction
2.2Collaboration in narration
2.2.1Multiparty narration as the default
2.2.2Epistemic access versus epistemic rights
2.3Narrator roles
2.4Narrative genres
2.4.1Before time narrative
2.4.2Ngaachi narrative
2.4.3Custom way narrative
2.4.4Lawalawa ‘comedic’ narrative
2.5The circumstances of narration
2.5.1The interactants
2.5.2The sessions and launching of a story
2.6The corpus
2.6.1The broad corpus
2.6.2Focused corpus
2.6.3Older narratives
2.7Conclusion
Chapter 3.Person reference repertoire
3.1Introduction
3.2Lexical resources
3.2.1Kin-terms
3.2.2Bereavement kin-terms
3.2.3Referring to the deceased
3.2.4Human classificatory terms
3.2.5Personal names
3.2.6Nicknames
3.2.7Ethnonyms
3.2.8Denizen terms
3.3Pronominal resources
3.3.1Pronouns
3.3.2Demonstrative pronouns
3.4Conclusion
Chapter 4.The noun phrase
4.1Introduction
4.2Structure of Umpila/Kuuku Ya’u NP
4.2.1Pronominal and lexical NPs
4.2.2The NP as a syntactic constituent
4.3Determiners
4.3.1Strings of multiple determiners
4.3.2Pronouns functioning as a determiner
4.3.3Nga’alu functioning as a determiner
4.3.4Quantifiers functioning as determiners
4.3.5Possessive pronouns functioning as determiners
4.3.6Determiner combinatorial tendencies
4.4Modifiers
4.5Headless NPs
4.6Conditioning of pre-/post-head determiners
4.6.1Basic determiner placement
4.6.2Possessive pronoun placement
4.7Special constructions
4.7.1Dyadic NP
4.7.2Kuunchi NP
4.8Conclusion
Part III.Reference
Chapter 5.Initial person mentions
5.1Introduction
5.2Socio-interactional approach to person reference
5.2.1Person reference principles
5.2.2The application of person reference principles
to the narrative context
to the narrative context
5.3Analytical parameters
5.3.1What is an initial mention?
5.3.2Counts
5.4Unmarked initial mentions
5.4.1Plural pronouns and narrative perspective
5.4.2Human classificatory terms and other descriptive
expressions
5.4.3Ethnonyms in contact narratives
5.5Kin-terms support authority to talk
5.6Maxi-mentions: Recognition and beyond
5.6.1Cross-linguistic comments
5.6.2Form of maxi-mentions
5.6.3Collaborative co-telling
5.6.4Thematic highlighting
5.7Circumspection and name taboos
5.7.1Naming a non-present person
5.7.2Naming an initiation ritual relation
5.7.3Naming of a threatening or powerful person or being
5.8Conclusion
Chapter 6.Subsequent person mentions
6.1Introduction
6.2The basic pattern of anaphora and frequency counts
6.3Locally subsequent mention: Person reference and beyond
6.4Reported speech, interpretive cues and authority to talk
6.5Highlighting view-point
6.6Supporting narrators
6.6.1Elaboration
6.6.2Assessments
6.6.3Questions
6.6.4Other-initiated repair
6.7Conclusion
Chapter 7.Interactional narrative organisation and person mention
7.1Introduction
7.2Narrative organisation and background information
7.2.1Schematic-episodic approach to narrative structure
7.2.3Place transitions
7.2.4Identifying place transitions
7.3Launching a place transition
7.4Pre-place transitions
7.5Narrator roles and place transitions
7.6Atypical place transitions
7.5Conclusion
Chapter 8.Conclusion
8.1Person reference
8.2Narrative
8.3Implication and future directions
References
