The Concept 'Return' as a Source of Different Developments in Oceanic Languages

Abstract

Based on earlier work by Frank Lichtenberk and Bernhard Wälchli, where different paths of grammaticalization are identified in a small sample of Oceanic languages (Lichtenberk) and a general sample of 100 languages (Wälchli), taking the verb 'return' as a starting point and leading to targets like reditive directionals ('back'), repetition markers ('again'), prohibitive markers, additive markers ('also', 'too', 'as well'), and reflexive markers, this article aims to make some further contributions to this topic. Looking at a larger set of Oceanic languages, I found several other paths of grammaticalization for 'return'/ 'again'; that is, paths leading to nominal determiners ('another'), to contrastive or emphatic particles ('indeed', 'exactly'), to inclusive adverbial intensifiers ('-self'), to reciprocal markers, to prepositions ('until') or conjunctions ('then'), to exclamative markers, and even to tense-aspect markers. I first give various examples illustrating these developments, and then propose a diagram— as a first step toward developing a semantic map—summarizing and motivating these connections. Finally, I examine the distribution of the relevant uses in Oceanic languages, as well as possible and impossible coexistence of specific meanings in these languages.