Urim grammar [draft]

267 Pages·1987·0.757 MB·English

by  Ritva Hemmilä, Pirkko Luoma

Urim grammar

by

Ritva Hemmilä and Pirkko Luoma
2
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................................7
1.1. BRIEF SUMMARY OF URIM PHONOLOGY...................................................................................................................7
1.1.1. Phonemic and Orthographic Inventory...............................................................................................................7
1.1.2. Consonants..........................................................................................................................................................7
1.1.3. Vowels.................................................................................................................................................................9
1.1.4. Syllable Patterns...............................................................................................................................................10
1.1.5. Stress in Urim....................................................................................................................................................10
1.1.6. About Orthography............................................................................................................................................11
1.2. URIM MORPHOPHONEMIC RULES............................................................................................................................11
1.2.1. Insertion Rules:.................................................................................................................................................11
1.2.2. Deletion Rules...................................................................................................................................................15
1.2.3. Assimilation Rules.............................................................................................................................................16
1.2.4. Dissimilation Rules:..........................................................................................................................................17
1.2.5. Re-syllabifications.............................................................................................................................................18
1.2.6. The Ordering of Rules.......................................................................................................................................18
1.2.7. About Application of Rules................................................................................................................................19
2. WORD CLASSES AND MORPHOLOGY.................................................................................................................20
2.1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................................20
2.2. VERBS AND THEIR MORPHOLOGY..........................................................................................................................21
2.2.1. Realis-Irrealis Mode..........................................................................................................................................22
2.2.2. Reduplication of Verb Stems to Encode Imperfective Aspect: i.e, Repeated, Continual, or Habitual Action...25
2.2.3. Imperfective Aspect Suffix -e.............................................................................................................................26
2.2.4. The Applicative Suffix-(e)n................................................................................................................................28
2.2.5. Applicative Construction Indicating Dative-Shift.............................................................................................29
2.2.6. Other functions of the applicative suffix -(e)n...................................................................................................29
2.3. NOUNS....................................................................................................................................................................31
2.3.1. Important Semantic Classes of Nouns...............................................................................................................31
2.3.2. Plurality.............................................................................................................................................................36
2.3.3. Lack of Nominalized Forms...............................................................................................................................38
2.4. PRO-FORMS.............................................................................................................................................................39
2.4.1. Pronouns (Pro-NPs)..........................................................................................................................................39
2.4.2. Interrogative Pro-forms....................................................................................................................................48
2.5. PREPOSITIONS.........................................................................................................................................................50
2.5.1. Paucity of Urim Prepositions Compensated for by Serialized Constructions...................................................51
2.6. ADJECTIVES............................................................................................................................................................58
2.6.1. Underived Adjectives.........................................................................................................................................58
2.6.2. Derived Adjectives.............................................................................................................................................60
2.6.3. Comparison of Adjectives..................................................................................................................................66
2.7. ADVERBS................................................................................................................................................................69
2.7.1. Temporal Adverbs.............................................................................................................................................69
2.7.2. Manner Adverbs and Frequentative Temporal Adverbs....................................................................................72
2.7.3. Locative Adverbs...............................................................................................................................................75
2.7.4. Negation............................................................................................................................................................75
2.7.5. Modal Adverbs..................................................................................................................................................77
2.7.6. Degree Adverbs.................................................................................................................................................79
2.7.7. Aspectual Adverbs and Other Aspectual Constructions....................................................................................79
2.8. QUANTIFIERS..........................................................................................................................................................82
2.8.1. Numerals...........................................................................................................................................................82
2.8.2. Non-Numeric Quantifiers..................................................................................................................................84
2.9. DEMONSTRATIVES..................................................................................................................................................90
2.9.1. The far demonstrative pa...................................................................................................................................90
2.9.2. The Near Demonstrative ti................................................................................................................................93
2.9.3. The Personal Pronoun kil as Demonstrative.....................................................................................................94
2.9.4. The Remote Demonstrative ai as a Pronoun and its Other Functions..............................................................94
2.9.5. Verb plus Demonstrative Adverb Constructions...............................................................................................99
2.9.6. A list showing some of the many possible combinations of the deictics pa, ti, kil, ai and indefinite ur with
various types of NPs:.....................................................................................................................................................100
2.10. CONJUNCTIONS AND OTHER CONJUNCTIVE FORMS..............................................................................................101
2.10.1. The Place of Conjunctions..........................................................................................................................104
2.11. INTERJECTIONS.....................................................................................................................................................105
3
2.12. COMPOUNDING.....................................................................................................................................................106
2.12.1. The Problem of Word Boundaries in Urim.................................................................................................106
2.12.2. Compound Nouns.......................................................................................................................................110
2.12.3. Compound Verbs........................................................................................................................................111
2.12.4. Other Types of Compounds........................................................................................................................113
2.13. REDUPLICATION AND REPETITION IN URIM..........................................................................................................114
2.13.1. The Forms of Reduplication.......................................................................................................................114
2.13.2. The Functions of Reduplication..................................................................................................................115
3. URIM PHRASE STRUCTURE.................................................................................................................................122
3.1. OVERALL STRUCTURE OF THE URIM NOUN PHRASE.............................................................................................122
3.1.1 Noun Complexes..............................................................................................................................................124
3.1.2. Adjectives and Quantifiers in the Noun Phrase...............................................................................................129
3.1.3. Appositional Noun Phrases.............................................................................................................................130
3.1.4. Relative Clause................................................................................................................................................130
3.1.5. Co-ordinated Noun Phrases............................................................................................................................138
3.2. OTHER NOMINAL PHRASES...................................................................................................................................138
3.2.1. Adjectival and Adverbial Phrases...................................................................................................................138
3.2.2. Numeral Phrases.............................................................................................................................................139
3.2.3. Pronoun Phrases.............................................................................................................................................140
3.2.4. Prepositional Phrases.....................................................................................................................................141
3.3. LINKING OF PHRASES............................................................................................................................................142
Additive Conjunction a..................................................................................................................................................142
Coordinated phrases (and words) without any markers................................................................................................143
Dual pronouns connecting NPs.....................................................................................................................................143
Accompaniment linking.................................................................................................................................................144
Disjunctive nominal phrases..........................................................................................................................................145
3.4. WHAT IS VERB PHRASE IN URIM?.........................................................................................................................146
3.4.1. Negation..........................................................................................................................................................146
3.4.2. Time words......................................................................................................................................................147
3.4.3. Modal particles...............................................................................................................................................148
3.4.4. Serial structures..............................................................................................................................................150
4. URIM BASIC CLAUSE TYPES................................................................................................................................152
4.1. INTRODUCTION AND CHART OF CLAUSE TYPES....................................................................................................152
4.2. INTRANSITIVE CLAUSES........................................................................................................................................155
4.2.1. Time Clauses...................................................................................................................................................156
4.2.2. Clauses Predicating Existence........................................................................................................................157
4.3. SEMITRANSITIVE CLAUSES...................................................................................................................................158
4.3.1. Directioned Motion Clause.............................................................................................................................159
4.3.2. Locative Clause...............................................................................................................................................160
4.3.3. Resultative Clause...........................................................................................................................................161
4.4. TRANSITIVE CLAUSES...........................................................................................................................................162
4.4.1. Monotransitive Clauses...................................................................................................................................162
4.4.2. Ditransitive Clauses........................................................................................................................................163
4.5. NOMINAL CLAUSES..............................................................................................................................................164
4.5.1. Equative Clause...............................................................................................................................................164
4.5.2. Descriptive Clause..........................................................................................................................................165
4.6. TOPIC CLAUSES....................................................................................................................................................166
4.6.1. Possessive Clause............................................................................................................................................167
4.6.2. Experience Clause...........................................................................................................................................168
4.7. TYPOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS..........................................................................................................................169
5. COMPLEX SENTENCES..........................................................................................................................................172
5.1. RELATIVE CLAUSES...............................................................................................................................................172
5.1.1. The form of relative clauses in Urim...............................................................................................................172
5.1.2. Syntactic role of the relative noun within the relative clause..........................................................................173
5.1.3. Functions of relative clauses in Urim..............................................................................................................175
5.2. COMPLEMENT CLAUSES........................................................................................................................................177
5.2.1. About lexical and clausal nominalization in Urim..........................................................................................177
5.2.2. Clausal objects................................................................................................................................................180
5.3. ADVERBIAL CLAUSES...........................................................................................................................................186
5.3.1. Time clauses....................................................................................................................................................186
5.3.2. Manner adverbial clauses...............................................................................................................................187
4
5.3.3. Locative adverbial clauses:.............................................................................................................................189
5.3.4. Purpose-reason clauses marked by eng..........................................................................................................189
5.3.5. Strong reason: eng ntei..................................................................................................................................193
5.3.6. ‘Negative’ reason: atnen (a) ‘because of, fault of’..........................................................................................194
5.4. SERIAL VERB CONSTRUCTIONS............................................................................................................................195
5.4.1. The four functions of serial verb constructions in Urim..................................................................................197
5.4.2. Serial structures and lexicalization.................................................................................................................206
5.4.3. Examples of complex serial structures:...........................................................................................................207
5.5. URIM CONJUNCTIONS............................................................................................................................................207
5.5.1. Additive conjunction (w)a...............................................................................................................................208
5.5.2. Non-serialized clauses conjoined without any overt conjunction....................................................................209
5.5.3. Disjunctive / Alternative conjunction aki ‘or’.................................................................................................210
5.5.4. Adversative / Contrastive conjunctions: ari and pake.....................................................................................211
5.5.5. Temporal connectives......................................................................................................................................216
5.5.6. Causative conjunctions pa, ti, and combinations............................................................................................222
5.5.7. The conditional conjunction pipa....................................................................................................................232
5.6. COMPARATIVE AND HYPOTHETICAL USES OF KOL, KOLEN.....................................................................................233
5.6.1. Kol(en) functioning as a preposition or complementizer expressing similarity..............................................234
5.6.2. Hypothetical kol and kolen in conditional sentences:.....................................................................................236
5.7. TAIL-HEAD LINKAGE.............................................................................................................................................239
6. ABOUT URIM DISCOURSE.....................................................................................................................................242
6.1. WORD ORDER VARIATIONS AND DISLOCATIONS..................................................................................................242
6.1.1. Moving of subject after verb............................................................................................................................243
6.1.2. Object fronting................................................................................................................................................243
6.1.3. Left Dislocation...............................................................................................................................................245
6.2. TRACKING OF PARTICIPANTS AND TOPICS—THE FUNCTIONS OF ANAPHORA.........................................................247
6.2.1. Introducing new participants and referents to discourse................................................................................247
6.2.2. Tracking participants and maintaining topics; anaphora...............................................................................250
6.2.3. The use of pa with pronouns to mark changing topic......................................................................................251
6.2.4. Uses of zero-anaphora in Urim.......................................................................................................................252
7. ‘THEY WERE ASHAMED, AND THEREFORE WENT ...’TEXTS....................................................................254
7. TEXTS..........................................................................................................................................................................255
7.1. WAMPUNG............................................................................................................................................................255
7.2. WAMPUNG............................................................................................................................................................258
7.3. DAVID KAI UKARUMPA......................................................................................................................................261
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................................................267
5
Abbreviations

ADJ adjective-forming suffix
ADV adverb-forming suffix

AP adjectival phrase

ATR attributive modifier

BEN benefactive

C conjunction

CMP completive aspect

CNT continuative aspect

D definite

DIM diminutive
DIR directional
EMP emphatic
FUT future
G genitive
HES hesitation word
HYP hypothetical

ID indefinite

IMP imperative

IN instrument

INT intention

IO indirect object

IR irrealis
L locative object

LOC locative/directional clitic
M/ MAN manner preposition
NEG negative
NP noun phrase

N.Past near past

O Object

OBL Oblique marker
P predicate
PERF perfective aspect
POS possessive
Prep preposition

PUR purpose
Quant quantifier

REL relative pronoun

REC reciprocative

RED reduplication

S subject
6
T topic

TR transitivizer

V verb
Vitr intransitive verb

Vtr transitive verb

Ve existential verb

Vm motion verb

Pronouns:
du dual

pauc paucal

pl plural

sg singular
Inc inclusive

Exc exclusive
7
1. Introduction
Urim is a non-Austronesian language spoken in Papua New Guinea. Laycock (1973) classifies it as a
stock-level isolate of the Torricelli Phylum. It is spoken by about 3400 people, who live in 16 villages
in the southern foothills of the Torricelli Mountains. Twelve of the villages are located south of the
Sepic Highway, and one is north of the highway, in the Maprik Sub-District of East Sepik Province. The
remaining three of the villages are located west of the Bongos River in the Nuku Sub-District of the
West Sepik Province. The villages west of the Bongos River speak the Kukwo dialect, and the villages
east of the Bongos River speak the main Urim dialect (also called Yangkolen by the Kukwo people).
The Urim language has also been called Kalp, which comes from the word kalpm ‘no’ in the Kukwo
dialect.

Earlier linguistic work on Urim was done by Glasgow and Loving (1964) and D.C. Laycock (1966 and
1973). The authors entered the area in 1979 under the auspices ot the Summer Institute of Linguistics
The data for this paper were collected mainly between 1980 – 1995 in the village of Laningwap. The
data includes a corpus of about 40 spoken and written texts along with some elicited material. The team
participated in a grammar analysis seminar at the S.I.L. center in Ukarumpa in 1981. Their consultants
were Robert Bugenhagen and Robert Conrad. Pirkko Luoma participated in a second grammar analysis
seminar in 1993 and was greatly helped by her consultant Robert Bugenhagen. Paul Heinemann also
provided many valuable suggestions and helped with the formatting of the paper.
This grammar consists of three parts that have been written independently from each other. The first
part, chapters 1 to 3, was written by Pirkko Luoma with some additions by Ritva Hemmilä. Chapter 4 is
an unpublished article written by Ritva Hemmilä in 1984. Chapters 5 and 6 were written by Ritva
Hemmilä with some corrections and additions by Pirkko Luoma.
1.1. Brief Summary of Urim Phonology
1.1.1. Phonemic and Orthographic Inventory
 : e e: i i: k l m pm n tn  k o o: p r s t u u: w j h
a a e e i i k l m pm n tn ng kg o o p r s t u u w y
A A E E I I K L M N Ng O O P R S T U U W Y
1.1.2. Consonants
Bilab LabDen Dental Alveo Postalv Retro Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn Glottal
Plosive p t k
Nasal m n 
Trill r
Tap/Flap
Fricative s h
Lateral
Fricative
Approx j
Lateral l
Approx
Ejective
Stop
Implos
/w/ voiced labial-velar approximant
/pm/ prestopped bilabial nasal
/tn/ prestopped alveolar nasal
8
/k/ prestopped velar nasal

p por 'story' r rep 'wild pandanus'
yapo 'to tie' tarel 'frog sp.'
wap 'tree sp.' yar 'sorcerer'
pringil 'part of a hook' krong 'mountain'
plulplel 'to turn around' arm 'to sow'
melp 'wasp' armpen 'to buy'
yaprekg 'smell' amprepm 'dry coconut leaf'
talpuk 'branch' arkul 'to catch'
makrep 'tree sp.'

pm -
paipmel 'badly' s sulm 'orange sp.'
kipm 'you (plural)' asen 'to ask'
kipmteng 'you (paucal)' wes 'stone'
arpmen 'to watch' pispus 'to pop'
walpm 'liver' kansim 'to sweep'

m ma 'milk, breast' l lan 'to boil (water)'
amo 'to die' male 'cave'
lim 'nose' wel 'bird'
ampen 'breadfruit' plan 'to show'
kirmai 'plant sp.' palk 'skin'
almpen 'to mash' plalplal 'hang swinging'
yelm 'earthquake' almpil 'to turn around'
anelkgen 'untie'
angkleikg 'count'
w wan 'house'
yawor 'pork'
- k ka 'grasshopper'
kwap 'work'
raku 'to give birth'
akwe 'to call'
wak 'plant sp.'
kalkwon 'to knock'
klak 'to wash'

werk 'feather'
t tam 'beetle sp.' akle 'to scold'
ata ‘only' karkuk 'to have a bath'
yat 'also, enough' angkli 'to throw'
trum 'silk cotton' tirktorket 'weak'
kotwang 'big axe'
manto 'pig' k -
yatman 'pairless'
wakget 'hot'

wakg 'fire'
tn - walkget 'hairy'
atnen 'because' takgni 'sun'
hatn 'walk, roam'
kruitnkruitn 'to crowl'  -

angen 'to win'
n nim 'slit drum' wang 'time'
wanukg 'greens' plalng 'finished'
yan 'father' elngen 'to stop'
wanteng 'rattan' angken 'to pick'
tulntul 'run' ungkwan 'to chase away'
kuin 'middle' plalngten 'all'

h or 'to come out or in'
(comp. or 'hit')
-
-
9
j yul 'fish' wanyun 'door'
wayu 'taro' wrikya 'things, belongings'
-
1.1.3. Vowels
i u

e o



/ii/ /ee/ // /oo/ /uu/ /ei/ /i/ /oi/ /ui/

Vowel length seems to be phonemic in one-syllable words. Minimal pairs have been found between
// - // and /e/ -/e/ and /i/-/i:/. Examples: /w/ 'time', /w:/ 'tree trunk, middle part
of', /n/ 'name', /n:/ 'ridge', /hen/ 'wild sago', /he:n/ 'outside', /pir/ ‘noon’, /pi:r/ ‘to run’.

i ilm 'to shoot (irrealis)'
ngko 'fall (irrealis)' ii inowis ’funny’ [hinowis]
kil 'he/she'
kin ’woman’
wapin 'lizard (generic)'
weti 'now' witnin ’louse’
io 'to droop from side to side'

wail 'big'
ee -
hen ‘outside’
e elng 'to put'
-
mel 'person'
akle 'to scold'
preul 'yam type'  al ‘eat’
meen 'slowly' [mehe:n]
wang ‘tree trunk, middle part of’

-
u ur 'indef. pronoun; one'
wris 'one'
mpu 'half, piece' [umpu] ei ei 'yes'
hul 'snake (generic)' keipmung 'tree sp.'
tu 'they' arein 'grieve, be sorry'
ampei 'vine (generic)'
atnuurng 'to leave' [tnuhur]

maur 'spirit'
i aimol 'banana sp.'
kaimung 'cococnut shell'
o ok 'mouth'
kainil 'moon'
ros 'tight, crowded'
mainmainen 'push to do something'
ko 'axe'
waiwai 'be hot, have fever'
io 'to droop from side to side'
kai 'to go'
moo 'pig trail' [moho]

ui muikgmayen 'sister'
 atne 'stay (habitually, long time); perform
muinwror 'brother'
magic'
komuin 'axe'
itna 'stand, stay'
melp kruruitn 'wasp grubs'
pal 'woven sago mat'

okipma 'food'
mai 'to gather into arms' [mhi] oi kroitnimpon 'grass sp.'
naurk 'mango' kwei poin 'yam type'
marmungkoin 'starfruit’
10
1.1.4. Syllable Patterns
V a 'gen.mk' a.kor 'to look for' ilpm.a.ak 'lazy' i.o 'to droop, slumber'
ai 'loc.mk' ai.mol 'banana sp.' wan.ai 'to the house'
VC ok 'mouth' al.meng 'broom' al.al.el 'tossed it' ma.ur 'spirit'
aip 'lid' aim.po 'coconut shredder' aur.aur 'al kinds of'
VCC elng 'put' arm.pen 'to buy' ak.alm.pe 'to pay back' u.pa.arng 'to cover'
CV yo 'tree' na.mung 'banana' ku.ku.la 'light' a.wi 'to take, get'
kai 'to go' kai.nil 'moon' am.pei 'vine, rope'
CVC lim 'nose' kam.pel 'cut branch' a.kupm.en 'mine' ta.por 'to break'
kuin 'middle' waim.plu 'vine sp.' keim.keim.pet 'plant sp.' a.rein 'to be sorry'
CVCC kirk 'grave' walm.popm 'blood' kirng.kirng.ket 'close to' ng.kark 'to be afraid'
CCV kla 'mark' kro.wis 'sour' n.tra.wel 'strike him' ang.kli 'to throw away'
kwei 'yam' klei.nuk 'meteor' ang.klei.wel ‘swallow it’ kwei.kwei 'things, pl.mk’

CCVC klak 'to wash' klom.pis 'numb' ung.kwan.tel 'chase him' ang.klin 'to help'
kraik 'plant sp.' klaing.kil 'shred, piece' ang.kweing.en 'insisting' am.preing 'distribute'
CCVCC plelng 'to turn' plalng.ten 'all' krirng.krurng.ket 'clattering' kwelng.kwelng 'to whine'

1.1.5. Stress in Urim
Stressed vowels are usually longer, louder and less ballistic than the unstressed vowels. (Stress
has to have at least two of these features.) Stress is assigned to the word on the basis on the relative
height of the vowels involved. The stress is assigned to the vowel in the word that is the most open,
or to the second/last vowel if they are equally open.
The phonetic components of word stress are length (of vowel or whole syllable) and intensity.
Pitch is not a component of stress but functions independently at the clause level. This makes it
somewhat difficult to analyse the stress of words in isolation in Urim. Usually stress falls on the first
or second syllable of the word. The suffixes ( –e, -en, etc.) never get stress.
/’topen/ <atopen> ‘to rejoice’
/’k:mu/ <ikgamu> ‘greens sp.’
/’tlpuk/ <talpuk> ‘tree branch’
/u’ri:pm/ <wripm> ‘wind’
/’tpon/ <tapon> ‘wring’
/ti’pon/ <tipon< ‘wring (irrealis)’1
Certain morphological and phonologial features seem to co-occur with word stress in Urim.
Morphemic length of vowels and glides usually occur only in stressed syllables, and the vowels of
stressed syllables often are phonetically long.
In unstressed syllables preceding the stressed syllables, all vowels nearly always get reduced.
Reduced means that the full vowel /e, , o, u/ becomes centralized, short, sometimes phonetically
non-existent or sometimes it takes on the qualities of the stressed vowel following. This reduction
rule only operates inside the morpheme not over morpheme boundaries (except in a few strongly

1 A phonetic analysis of tapon and tipon was made at Turku Univerity Phonetic Department 1984. It was found that in
irrealis form the vowel shortens so much that the vowel disappears altogether phonetically. The pitch and intensity
contours instead are similar in both words.