Serial verb constructions in Austronesian and Papuan languages (review)

Several useful surveys of research on verb serialization in Oceanic languages have appeared regularly over the past decade. Crowley (2002) focused on the history and distribution of serial verb constructions (SVCs) in a selection of languages in Melanesia, including dialects of Melanesian Pidgin. Bril and Ozanne-Rivierre’s (2004) collection filled gaps in Crowley’s survey and extended coverage to languages in New Caledonia and Polynesia (but not Micronesia), examining complex predicates beyond the boundaries of Oceanic serialization, both geographically and typologically. Aikhenvald and Dixon’s (2006) typology of serialization included coverage of three Austronesian languages (Mwotlap in Vanuatu, Toqabaqita in the Solomons, and Tetun Dili in Timor) and one Papuan language (Dumo in Papua New Guinea). Senft’s collection (2008) now reaches even farther afield, geographically as well as typologically.

The lead article, by Miriam van Staden and Ger Reesink (S&R), proposes a broad typology of verb serialization in the Austronesian–Papuan contact zone of East Nusantara, which includes the Bird’s Head of New Guinea and Indonesian islands east of Bali. Their Papuan sample includes Hatam, Inanwatan, Maybrat, Moi, and Mpur in the Bird’s Head, and Tidore in Halmahera; while their Austronesian (An) sample includes Taba in Halmahera, Alune, Buru, and Ambon Malay in Maluku, and Kambera, Leti, and Tetun Fehan in the Lesser Sundas. Other contributors offer more in-depth coverage of individual languages: Louise Baird on Keo (An, Sumba), John Bowden on Taba (An, Halmahera), Catharina Williams-van Klinken on Tetun Dili (An, East Timor), David Mead and Scott Youngman on Tolaki (An, Southeastern Sulawesi), Volker Heeschen on Eipo and Yale (Papuan, West Papua), Andrew Pawley on Kalam (Papuan, Papua New Guinea), and Gunter Senft on Kilivila (An, Papua New Guinea). Senft’s introduction (1–15) helpfully summarizes each of the contributions.

The focus on eastern Indonesia holds interest for two reasons: (a) it looks farther up the Austronesian family tree than the Oceanic subgroup, and (b) it looks at an area of longterm Austronesian–Papuan contact. The volume amasses evidence of a rich variety of verb serialization, not just in languages of the South Halmahera-West New Guinea subgroup, but also in Central Malayo-Polynesian languages farther west, and in their neighboring Papuan languages as well. Most studies of An–Papuan Sprachbund phenomena have tended to focus on evidence that Oceanic languages in eastern New Guinea have been Papuanized to various degrees. Senft’s collection involves Papuan languages from western New Guinea and beyond that appear to have been Austronesianized to varying degrees. For instance, Papuan languages in the Bird’s Head tend to have SVO word order, subject prefixes on verbs (often with little additional morphology), verb serialization rather than switch-reference systems, and in most cases even inclusive-exclusive distinctions in the first person pronouns (Reesink 1996). Moreover, whereas the Oceanic languages of New Guinea spread into islands already populated with Papuan speakers, the Papuan languages of East Nusantara may well have spread back into islands already populated by Austronesian speakers. So the substrate languages were most likely to have been Papuan for Western Oceanic languages, but Austronesian for the Papuan languages of East Nusantara.

S&R (17–54) classify their sample of serial verb constructions into four broad types that roughly correspond to four types of multiverb constructions in nonserializing languages: coordination, subordination, complementation, and compounding. Independent serialization shows the full range of inflectional morphology on all verbs in structures distinct from asyndetic coordination. It is more common in their Papuan sample than in their An sample. Dependent serialization shows one fully inflected verb with reduced inflections on the remaining verb stems, which usually share at least one argument, often the subject. It is the most frequent type found in their An as well as their Papuan sample. In co-dependent serialization, the object of the first verb is the subject of the second, but...