SECOND SYMPOSIUM ON MALAY AND INDONESIAN LINGUISTICS
Abstracts

  • Gloria R. Poedjosoedarmo, Towards the Discovery and Description of Universals: Formal vs. Functional Explanations of Movement
  • Yap Foong Ha, The Relationship Between Event Inactivization, Agent-backgrounding and Patient-foregrounding in Malay Passive Constructions
  • Patrick A. Schindler, The Accessibility Hierarchy Revisited: The Syntax and Semantics of Resumptive Pronouns in Malay
  • Uri Tadmor, What is a phoneme? Two problems in in Malay/Indonesian Phonology
  • Jonny Tjia, The Semantics of Ambonese Malay Confirmative Particles
Towards the Discovery and Description of Universals:
Formal vs. Functional Explanations of Movement
(with reference to question formation and constituent movement
in Standard Indonesian and Singapore Malay)
Gloria R. Poedjosoedarmo
National Institute of Education
Nanyang Technological University
Singapore
Formal Grammars contain movement rules to describe the formation
of, among other structures, WH-questions in languages like English,
where the sequence of processes resulting in WH-question formation
include movement of the WH-word to clause-initial position. English
is, of course, not the only language in which such a process occurs.
WH-movement is found, in fact, in most if not all Indo-European
languages. Intrigued by this phenomenon, typologists in search of
language universals have attempted to identify similar processes in
other languages of the world which are not related to the Indo-
European family.
At the first symposium on Malay/Indonesian linguistics, data from
Singapore Malay was presented by a team of investigators who
interpreted their data as indicating that, at least in this variety of the
language, WH-movement was also a factor in WH-question formation.
The present paper will examine more extensive data in both
Singapore Malay and Standard Indonesian an attempt to show that,
though movement of elements is a common phenomenon in both
varieties, it is motivated by functional (discourse-related) factors,
applies equally to questions and statements, and is not a part of the
question formation process.
A more general conclusion of this study will be that though the
search for universals is a laudable endeavor, those engaged in it
should not allow their enthusiasm to distort their perceptions.
Finding a form in a language is only a first stage. Identifying and
describing that form correctly requires a deeper understanding of
communicative strategies in discourse organization within that
language than the collection of a few sample sentences out of context
can provide.

The relationship between event inactivization, agent-backgrounding
and patient-foregrounding in Malay passive constructions
Yap Foong Ha
UCLA
This paper examines a number of constructions in Malay that
are known to have passive interpretations, as illustrated in (1) to (5).
These constructions differ in terms of their lexical origins and their
degrees of grammaticization. (1') to (5') below present a diachronic
sketch of their developments as constructions with passive
interpretations. (Note that asterisked forms indicate fairly
productive contemporary uses.) It is noteworthy that these
developments are quite consistent with the grammaticization
patterns observed of passives in numerous other languages (see
Haspelmath 1990).
(1') general pronoun dia -> generalized subject -> desubjective ->
*passive -> *ergative
(2') *unintentional prefix ter- -> *(adversative) resultative ->
(adversative) passive
(3') *reciprocal/reflexive prefix ber- -> *anticausative ->
(resultative) -> passive
(4') *causative 'give' -> reflexive-causative -> *(adversative) passive
(5') *inactive auxiliary 'hit' -> *(adversative) resultative ->
*(adversative) passive
Despite differences in their diachronic histories, these passive
constructions all show evidence of the following functions that have
been identified in previous literature: patient-foregrounding (Givon
1979), agent-backgrounding (Shibatani 1985), and inactivization of
the situation denoted by the verb (Haspelmath 1990). The present
paper examines the relationship between these three functions with
respect to the aforementioned passive constructions and concludes
with the following observations: (i) the notion of event inactivization
is interpretable as a stativization or nominalization strategy (e.g.
Hopper & Thompson 1985), where focus is given to the resultative
rather than ongoing phase of an event, such that verbal predicates
easily assume a more attributive rather than eventive interpretation;
(ii) within this stativizing or resultative-oriented construction, the
affected patient inevitably gets foregrounded; (iii) nevertheless, a
passive interpretation does not emerge unless the construction is
transitive, which means that an agent must at least be implied; (iv)
event inactivization being a stativizing or nominalizing strategy, the
agent necessarily gets backgrounded, sometimes as a causee in a
complement clause as in the case of 'give' passives illustrated in (4),
or otherwise deleted from the construction as in (1), (3) and (5).
Consistent with Haspelmath's (1990) conclusion, these observations
suggest that event inactivization is a precondition for both agent-
backgrounding and patient-foregrounding.
This paper also examines the relationship between agent-
backgrounding and patient-foregrounding within these Malay
passive constructions in terms of dominance (i.e. primacy). The
grammaticization pattern of the di- passive as outlined in (1-1) to (1-
4) suggests that reanalysis of the topicalized object as a passive
subject is dependent on the desubjectivization of the general
pronoun dia, which lends support to Haspelmath's claim that agent-
backgrounding is necessarily a precondition for patient-focusing. To
illustrate with another example, the ambiguity between a causative
and passive interpretation in 'give' constructions such as (4) indicates
the availability of a choice between agent-foregrounding or patient-
foregrounding; nevertheless, a patient-foregrounding (i.e passive)
interpretation becomes possible only if the agent is not
foregrounded, that in fact it has to be backgrounded, a phenomenon
which again points to agent-backgrounding being a precondition of
patient-foregrounding in a passive construction. Passive 'give'
constructions such as (4), however, highlight the need to distinguish
between two different notions of primacy: (i) the primacy of agent-
backgrounding at the level of preconditioning, and (ii) the primacy of
either agent-foregrounding or patient-foregrounding at the level of
semantic and discourse-pragmatic motivation (with speaker-choice,
topic continuity, etc. being possible variables).
Malay constructions with passive interpretations:
(1) Rusa itu di-tembak tiga kali.
deer DEF PASS-shoot three time
"The deer was shot three times."
(6c) Bendera baru ter-pacak di tengah padang.
flag new TER-pierce LOC middle field
"A new flag was planted in the middle of the field."
(3) Seluar itu masih belum ber-jahit.
pants DEF still not-yet BER-sew
"The pants are/were still not sewn yet."
(4) Aku bagi dia tipu.
1SG give 3SG deceive
"I allowed him to cheat." (permissive causative)
"I was deceived by him." (adversative passive)
(5) Kita kena halau.
1PL hit drive-out
"We were driven out."

Possible grammaticization pattern of passive marker di- :
(1-1) Object-topicalization:
Ayah, dia marah. patient-foregrounding, some
father 3rdP scold degree of inactivization
of the
"Father, he/they scolded." situation denoted by the verb,
some degree of
agent-
backgrounding
 

(1-2) Passive construction:
Ayah di-marah. resultative focus yields high
Father PASS-scold degree of inactivization of the
"Father was scolded." predicate, phonologically &
semantically
reduced subject
reanalyzed as
passive marker,
underlying
patient reanalyzed as
subject,
predicate appears more
descriptive than
eventive
 
 
(1-3) Passive with oblique
agent phrase:
Ayah di-marah oleh Pak Abu. desubjectivized passive marker
father PASS-scold by Pak Abu allows optional use of oblique
"Father was scolded by Pak Abu." agent phrase, external means of
agent- upgrading
is thus possible
(1-4) Ergative construction:
Di-marah-nya ayah. event-focusing gives rise to
PASS-scold-3rdP:clitic father ergative construction, upgraded
"He/They scolded Father." agent signaled by 3rd person
clitic, patient
no longer
foregrounded

Reference
Givon, T. (1979). On understanding grammar. New York: Academic
Press.
Haspelmath, M. (1990). The grammaticization of passive
morphology. Studies in Language, 14, 25-72.
Hopper, P.J. & Thompson, S.A. (1985). The iconicity of the universal
categories "noun" and "verb". In J. Haiman (Ed.), Iconicity in
syntax. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Shibatani, M. (1985). Passives and related constructions: A
prototype analysis. Language, 61, 821-848.

Name: Yap, Foong Ha
Affiliation: Dept. of TESL & Applied Linguistics, UCLA
Email address: yap@ucla.edu
Mailing address: 700 Warren Road #23-3A
Ithaca, NY 14850, USA
Tel. no.: (607) 257-8465
The Accessibility Hierarchy Revisited: The Syntax and Semantics of Resumptive Pronouns in Malay
 
Patrick A. Schindler

Univ. Tuebingen, Germany

In this paper I will consider a range of familiar dependency constructions in Bahasa Melayu (Malay) such as relativization, yang-interrogatives and topic-comment clauses, and confront them with a revised look at the Accessibility Hierarchy (AH) (Keenan & Comrie (1977), which determines what type of NPs can form such a dependency by merely leaving a gap. I will show that in addition to this direct strategy there also exists a second strategy which has up to now not received adequate recognition in the syntactic literature on Malay. It involves the use of a resumptive pronoun and is available for those NPs not priviledged enough to partake in the direct gap strategy.

At first sight, Malay appears to fully observe the wide-spread restriction on relativization in Austronesian languages: only the subject (1a) or a possessor (2) may be relativized, but not a direct object (1b):

(1) a. Saya nampak musuh itu [yang _ membunuh raja itu]

'I saw the enemy who killed the king'

b.*Saya nampak musuh itu [yang raja itu membunuh _]

'I saw the enemy who the king killed'

(2) Saya nampak guru itu [yang anak-nya meninggal]

'I saw the teacher whose child died'

Nevertheless, various authors have reported the occurrence of relative clauses which do not conform to this generalization. Example (3) is from Verhaar (1988), who calls the bound pronoun -nya in (3) a 'pronominal copy', but is unable to state the precise syntactic conditions on its occurrence.

(3) Anak [yang sudah seringkali Ali memukul-nya] itu

'The boy that Ali has already beaten him often'

In this paper I will show that the construction in (3) should not be set aside as a marginal phenomenon. Rather, it illustrates a systematic strategy to overcome the restrictions imposed by the AH.

I will claim that the 'pronominal copy' should be analyzed as a resumptive pronoun (RP) and will show how the RP-strategy comes into play precisely where the AH marks the cutting-off point as to the relativizability of an NP. If an NP is not directly relativizable in terms of the AH, it may nevertheless be relativized, provided its position is marked by a RP, -nya in most cases. Seen from this perspective the type of RC in (2) constitutes simply the most well-known instantiation of this RP-strategy. The construction in (2) is therefore not a serious problem for the AH (Yeoh (1979)), but rather a confirmation of it, because a possessor is a grammatical function below the cutting-off point in the AH.

The interaction of AH and RP-strategy makes the prediction that (1b) (and similar cases involving relativization of an oblique object) can be saved by using a RP in the DO-position. This is in fact the case, as (4) shows:

(4) Saya nampak musuh itu [yang raja itu membunuh-nya] 'I saw the enemy who the king killed'

The RP-strategy is not confined to relativization. I can also be observed in so-called possessor topic-comment clauses and object topic-comment clauses (Sneddon (1996)):

(5) a. Sopir itu [namanya/*nama Pak Ali]

'(Concerning) that driver, his name is Mr. Ali'

b. Surat itu [saya belum menerimanya/*menerima lagi]

'I havenít received that letter yet' /'That letter, I havenít received it yet' However, the RP-strategy is subject to restrictions of its own: It is not possible in the group of yang-constructions comprising wh-questions, yes-no questions and identifying clauses (clefts), at least in contexts not involving further embedding. This is exemplified by the wh-question in (6):

(6) Apa [yang Fatimah membaca / *membacanya]?

'What is Fatimah reading?'

This asymmetry between RCs and the other yang-constructions is surprising and I will discuss the implications it has for a syntactic analysis of these constructions.

In the final part of my paper I will examine the syntactic and semantic features of Malay RPs. I will show that the RP-strategy is not confined to the bound pronoun -nya, but that, given the right syntactic context, the free pronouns dia and mereka can also function as RPs.

In more complex configurations the RP-strategy can be used with all the mentioned constructions to salvage various standard types of island violations created by wh-islands, factive islands, the Coordinate Structure Constraint and the That-Trace Effect. (7c) illustrates how a subject RP constitutes one possibility of salvaging the that-trace violation created by 'long' relativization in (7a):

(7) a. *Pemuda itu [yang saya tahu [bahawa sedang membaca buku]] b. Pemuda itu [yang saya tahu [ sedang membaca buku]] c. Pemuda itu [yang saya tahu [bahawa dia sedang membaca buku]] 'The young man who I know that he is reading a book' (8a,b) illustrates an interesting contrast between bridge and factive verbs. 'Long' wh-question formation out of a clause embedded under a bridge verb is grammatical without a RP, but question formation out of a clause embedded under a factive verb is not. (8c) shows how an RP can salvage this violation of a factive island.

(8) a. Siapakah [yang Ali mempercayai [bahwa Zul telah melihat]]?

'Who does Ali believe that Zul has seen?

b. *Siapakah [yang Ali menyesali [bahwa Zul telah melihat ]]?

'Who does Ali regret that Zul has seen?'

c. Siapakah [yang Ali menyesali [bahwa Zul telah melihatnya]]?

'Who does Ali regret that Zul has seen him?'

This range of facts leads to the final topic, the precise syntactic status of Malay RPs. Sells (1984) draws the distinction between distance resumptives (as in English) and true syntactic resumptives (as in Hebrew and other semtic languages). I will show that Malay RPs should not be treated as a pure distance phenomenon, but rather as genuine members of the latter category. On the basis of their distribution in island context I will discuss whether they can be analyzed as in-situ null operators (Demirdache (1991)). Finally, I will draw further semantic evidence for my analysis from the fact that they can be bound by quantified antecedents, i.e. receive a bound variable interpretation.

References:

Demirdache, Hamida Khadiga (1991): Resumptive Chains in Restrictive Relatives, Appositives and Dislocation Structures. Ph.D.Diss., MIT.

Keenan, Edward L. & Bernard Comrie (1977): ìNoun Phrase Accessibility and Universal Grammarî. Linguistic Inquiry 8:1. 63-99.

Sells, Peter (1984): Syntax and Semantics of Resumptive Pronouns. Ph.D.Diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Sneddon, James Neil (1996): Indonesian: A comprehensive grammar. London: Routledge.

Verhaar, John W.M. (1988): ìPhrase Syntax in Contemporary Indonesian: Noun Phrases.î Bambang Kaswanti Purwo (ed.) Towards a Description of Contemporary Indonesian, Part 3. [=NUSA 30]. Jakarta: Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya. 1-45.

Yeoh, Chian Kee (1979): Interaction of Rules in Bahasa Malaysia. Ph.D.Diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
What is a phoneme? Two problems in in Malay/Indonesian Phonology
 
Uri Tadmor
Department of Hawaiian & Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures
University of Hawai'i at Manoa

In most grammars and phonological descriptions of Malay/Indonesian, the so-called "schwa", in dialects and varieties where it occurs, is considered to be phonemic. The glottal stop, however, is not always counted in the inventory of phonemes. This paper will examine these two segments from two perspectives. First, some of the oldest extant Malay manuscripts will be examined for clues as to the phonemic status of the glottal stop and the "schwa" in Classical Malay. Second, data from some contemporary dialects will be compared, in order to determine their status in modern Malay/Indonesian. Finally, the older data will be compared to the newer data, in order to trace developments which have affected these two segments.

The Semantics of Ambonese Malay Confirmative Particles
 
Johnny Tjia
Summer Institute of Linguistics, Maluku
 
This paper proposes semantic explications in natural language for confirmative particles in Ambonese Malay. It will try to apply the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach combined with functional one. Although only four particles will be examined in the present paper, I hope to demonstrate the efficacy of these approaches as rigorous ways of analyzing illocutionary particles in general.
 
It normally happens in conversational exchange that a speaker, for some reason, expects a confirmation or approval from the addressee. Various linguistic devices may be used for this purpose: prosodic features, clitics, particles, etc. Ambonese Malay has four particles that can be employed. This paper discusses their use, function and meanings in various speech acts.