Categories, Constituents and Constituent Order in Pitjantjatjara: An Ab-Original Language of Australia

TLDR

Pitjantjatjara syntax is examined in the context of non‑configurational language theory and typological studies, with detailed analyses of complex constructions and switch‑reference patterns. The study investigates whether Pitjantjatjara constituents follow a basic syntactic order. The analysis draws on extensive fieldwork and narrative texts collected by Heather Bowe in central Australia. Word usage in Pitjantjatjara is constrained, indicating syntactic significance, and these constraints differ markedly from the free word‑order patterns of neighboring Warlpiri.

Abstract

A description of the syntax of the Australian Aboriginal language Pitjantjatjara. This book looks at the relevant categories and constituents in the language and examines the question of whether the constituents exhibit a syntactically basic order. The data shows that word in a range of constructions is constrained and Heather Bowe argues that these facts would be consistent with an analysis of word being syntactically significant in Pitjantjatjara. The constraints on word are of particular interest in that they contrast significantly with word features reported for the neighbouring language Warlpiri, widely considered to be a canonical free word order language. The topics of syntactic constituency and word are relevant to current research on linguistic theory and the possible existence of non-configurational languages as addressed by Chomsky, as well as to the typological study of languages as addressed by Joseph Greenberg. The detailed descriptions of complex sentence constructions, including switch-references, will interest linguistics working within the generative tradition as well those working within a typological framework. Heather Bowe has lived in the Pitjantjatjara area in central Australia and her study is based on the extensive field data, including narrative texts, collected during this period.