2009/08/20 by Alice Gaby · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Australian Indigenous Culture and History #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Categorization, perception, and language #Linguistics #Sociology #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1749-818x.2009.00162.x
openalex publication_date 2009/08/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Author’s Introduction At the end of the eighteenth century, between 250 and 700 languages were spoken on the Australian continent. No genetic link has been proven between these languages and those elsewhere, and there was remarkably little contact between speakers of Australian aboriginal languages and others during the tens of thousands of years that intervened between the first occupation of the continent and the arrival of English speakers. Although there are many hallmarks of Australian phonologies, morphology and syntax, as well as recurrent themes in semantic categorization and the linguistic reflexes of cultural preoccupations, there is considerable current debate over which of these may be attributed to shared inheritance from a common ancestor and which to more recent contact between linguistic groups. A course on the aboriginal languages of Australia might cover: (i) the structural features typical of Australian languages (highlighting those that are atypical in global perspective); (ii) whether and how these can be related to typical features of Australian cultures; (iii) the particular challenges Australian languages have posed to linguistic theories and typologies developed on the basis of other languages; and (iv) the genetic relationships between Australian languages and how well these are modelled by traditional methodologies. Author Recommends The five books and articles listed below include a general overview of Australian aboriginal languages (Dixon 2002), an overview of Australian phonologies (Evans 1995), a work of particular significance to morphosyntactic theory (Austin and Bresnan 1996), a chapter considering the significance of Australian languages in the post‐colonial context (Bell 2003) and two books with opposing takes on the applicability of the comparative method to the Australian context (Bowern and Koch 2004 and Dixon 2002). Those interested in other topics or further sources relating to these topics are directed to the references given throughout the sample syllabus below. Austin, Peter and Joan Bresnan. 1996. Non‐configurationality in Australian aboriginal languages. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 14, 215–268. Since Hale’s (1983 and elsewhere) description of Warlpiri as a non‐configurational language (i.e. possessing free word order, discontinuous noun phrases and null anaphora), debate has raged as to how best to integrate such languages into existing syntactic theories. This article reviews the arguments made in support of two key analyses; the dual structure hypothesis and the pronominal argument hypothesis. On the basis of data from eight Australian languages, Austin and Bresnan argue in favour of the dual structure hypothesis. Advanced students may also wish to read Pensalfini (2004) for an updated typology of (non)configurationality. Bell, Jeanie. 2003. Australia’s indigenous languages. Blacklines: contemporary critical writing by indigenous Australians , ed. by Michele Grossman, 159–170. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press. Bell considers the social, cultural and historical significance of language and linguistic work from two perspectives; as a linguist and as a Murri woman. This chapter stresses the importance of language maintenance and revitalization in indigenous communities, especially in cases where languages have been wrongly dismissed as ‘dead’. Bell also addresses the often sensitive relationship between members of these communities and outsider linguists. Bowern, Claire, and Harold Koch. (eds) 2004. Australian languages: classification and the comparative method . Current issues in linguistic theory. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins. This volume comprises 12 chapters that apply the comparative method to various putative subgroups of Australian languages, as well as two introductory chapters focusing on the methodology under examination. The volume was compiled largely in response to Dixon’s (2002 below, and elsewhere) provocative claim that the genetic relationships between most Australian languages cannot be gleaned through the application of the comparative method (used to reconstruct the form of languages no longer spoken on the basis of descendent languages). The chapters herein also evaluate the framework’s ability to model language change involving both descent and diffusion. Dixon, Robert M. W. 2002. Australian languages: their nature and development (Cambridge language surveys) . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. The most comprehensive overview of the structures found in Australian aboriginal languages is Dixon’s (1980), now sadly out of print. Though Dixon’s (2002) Australian Languages may be considered an updated version of his 1980 monograph, this more recent volume weighs heavily on the (in)appropriateness of the comparative method to the Australian context. As such, this book (and in particular Chapter 2) makes an excellent counterpoint to Bowern and Koch (2004). Evans, Nicholas. 1995. Current issues in the phonology of Australian languages. The Handbook of Phonological Theory . J. Goldsmith. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 723–761. This chapter gives an extremely clear overview of the most theoretically significant features of various Australian phonologies, outlining several of the important contributions these languages have made to the development of phonological theory. Evans provides a description of the typical Australian phonological system and the more noteworthy departures from it, including discussions of phonotactics and syllable structure, stress and metrical structure, prosodic domains and reduplication. He also discusses some theoretical issues these languages raise, including proposals for a flat syllable structure, and arguments that some Australian languages organize syllable structure on a VC basis – preferring closed syllables with codas over those with onsets – contrasting with the proposed universal preference for CV syllable structure. Additional references Dixon, Robert M. W. 1980. The Languages of Australia . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kenneth Hale. 1983. Warlpiri and the grammar of non‐configurational languages. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory , Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 5–47. Robert Pensalfini. 2004. Towards a typology of configurationality. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory , Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 359–408. Online Materials There are few websites directly addressing the academic interests of Australianist linguists other than the homepages and blogs of those linguists themselves and several research project websites The Aboriginal Child Language Acquisition project: http://www.linguistics.unimelb.edu.au/research/projects/ACLA/ The Murriny Patha Song Project: http://azoulay.arts.usyd.edu.au/mpsong/ Austkin: http://austkin.pacific‐credo.fr/ . Blogs of particular note to students of Australian languages (though not concerned with Australian languages exclusively) are as follows: <jats:l