BIAK Nominal Morphology: Pronouns

Krystel Ballo
July 12, 2010

Functions of Pronouns
• to situate a given participant within discourse, by indicating their relative discourse
or spatial (directional, motional) status
• They share their main distributional properties with nouns, appearing as
complement of a predicate or a preposition but they are not attested in subject
position.

Free Personal Pronouns

• The distribution of the free personal pronouns is more restricted than that of nouns.
• Can appear as the complement of prepositions and verbs

1. Singulars are used for reference to single entities

2. Duals for reference to two entities
3. Paucal for small groups - reference to three entities or more, as long as a group is
considered 'relatively small'.
4. Plural is used for larger groups
5. Inclusive pronouns include the addressee
6. Exclusive pronouns refer to the speakers only

Personal Pronouns Chart

1st 2nd 3rd
Singular aya aw i
Dual ku (inclusive) mu su
nu (exclusive)
Paucal sko
Plural ko (inclusive) mko si (animate)
inko (exclusive) na (inanimate)
(van den
Heuvel,2006).

Biak and PAN:

 The dual forms all end in u, which can be traced back to proto-Austronesian (PAN)
*Du(S)a.
 The paucal and 1st and 2nd plural forms all end in ko, which can be traced back to PAN
*telu.

Independent Personal Pronouns

Singular Dual Trial Plural

1 exclusive /ai’a/ /nu/ /nʔo/
inclusive - /ʔul/ /ʔo/
2 /’au/ /mu/ /mʔo/
3 animate /i/ /su/ /sʔo/ /si/
inanimate /na/

(Steinhauer, 1985: 470)

The independent personal pronouns are used:
1. as one-word sentences;
2. as topics in constructions such as /si, e-pi'opr si/ "they are the ones
who are white" (they (anim. pi.) NOMINALIZER + white the
(anim.pl.));
3. as objects after predicates;
4. as arguments after prepositions such as /be/ "like, as", /far'o/ "for",
/ro/ "in", /ve/ "to", / W e r / "with".

Indefinite Pronouns
These pronouns cannot be contrasted with definite pronouns, the term 'indefinite' is
chosen to express that these pronouns usually refer to entities whose precise identity is
irrelevant for communicative purposes (van den Heuvel, 2006: 71)

Specific and nonspecific indefinite pronouns:

Free pronouns + -ya (marker for specificity)

set 1: + specific, - definite set 2: ± specific, -definite

Singular i-ya '(some) one' / '(the) oso '(some) one'
other'
Dual su-ya 'some two persons' /
'(the) other two'
Trial sko-ya 'some few persons' /
'(the) other few'
Plural si-ya 'some' / 'others' (n)ono 'some'
(animate)
Plural na-ya 'some' / 'other'
(inanimate)

 Indefinite nonspecific pronouns are predominantly used as independent pronouns,

possibly in apposition to a full NP.
 All of the indefinite pronouns can be used pronominally, only oso is also used
adnominally (as an article), but its use is restricted mainly to the fixed expression ras
oso 'one day'.
 The meaning difference between the two sets is subtle, and can only be described
tentatively, thus in many contexts the two pronouns can be used interchangeably.

Ex. where siya can be interchanged with (n)ono without any observable change in
meaning.

Saroya dorn siya, siya sinm monda ra

simar.
saroi=ya d-orn si-ya si-ya s-inm
monda ra si-mar
whale-3SG.SPC 3SG-swallow 3PL.AN-SPC 3PL.AN-SPC 3PL.AN-drink only
until 3PL.AN-die

'The whale ate some, others drank until they died.' [TWbt]
Interrogative Pronouns

1. mansei – used for questioning both male and female persons

2. insei – used for questioning female persons
3. rosai – used for questioning other referents, including animals

 These pronouns are all built up of two morphemes:

o the morphemes man 'male person'
o in 'female person'
o ro 'non-human entity' in combination with the question word sai or sei.
 Mansei 'male-which' and in-sei 'female-which' should be considered compounds,
because the nouns man 'male person' and in 'female person' are not attested as
independent nouns elsewhere, but only as first part of nominal compounds such as
man-is 'male-creep' > 'lamb', and in-sos 'female-sos' > 'unmarried girl'.

 Possible combinations of man 'male':

and in 'female' with sai 'which' and sei 'which' man sai 'bird which', *male which
mansei 'male-which', *bird-which ínsei 'female-which', *fish-which

 Interrogative pronouns cannot be used as overt subject of a verbal predicate, as verbal

subjects cannot be focused and interrogatives have focus by definition.

Demonstrative Pronouns

singular dual trial plural

animate inanimate
close to the /in'e/ /suin'e/ /s9oin'e/ /sin'e/ /sii'i/
speaker
("this")
relatively /ii'i/ /s'uii/ /s?'oii/ [siy'i] /siu'a/
close to
speaker and [iy'i] [s'uyi] [s">'oyi] /si/ inanim.
hearer
("that")
relatively /iu'a/ /s'uiua/ /s^'oiua/ /nan'e/ /na'i/
remote from
speaker and [iw'a] [s'uiwa] [sroiwa] /nau'a/ /na/
hearer
("yonder")

(Steinhauer, 1985: 475)

Reflexive Pronouns and Reciprocity

Reflexivity in Biak is shown by using either the bare free pronoun or an emphatic
pronoun.

Ex. the pronoun i is used reflexively and coreferential with the subject infix <y> in kyikr.

Kyikr i ri karui nanya bori.

k<y>ikr i ri karui an-ya bo-ri
<3SG>shake 3SG LOC stone GIV-3SG.SPC upside- POS.3SG
 'It shook itself on top of the stone.'

Reciprocity is more explicitly expressed, however, by the verbal suffix -yáe.

Ex.
Sfaduruyáe si. ‘ They took care of each other.'

Possessive pronominals

Possessed Singular Dual Trial Plural (AN) Plural (INAN)

>
Possessor:
1SG (a)ye=d- (a)ye=su- (a)ye=sko- (a)ye=s-ya/-i (a)ye=na
i/=d-ya ya/-i ya/-i
2SG be=d-i/=d- be-=su-ya/-i be=sko-ya/-i be=s-ya/-i be=na
ya
3SG v<y>e=d- v<y>e=su- v<y>e =sko- v<y>e =s- v<y>e =na
i/=d-ya ya/-i ya/-i ya/-i
1DU.INC ku-ve=d- ku-ve=su- ve=sko-ya/-i ve=s-ya/-i ve=na
i/=d-ya ya/-i ku- ku- ku-
1DU.EXC nu-ve=d- nu-ve=su- nu-ve=sko- nu-ve=s-ya/- nu-ve=na
i/=d-ya ya/-i ya/-i i
2DU mu-ve=d- mu-ve=su- mu-ve=sko- mu-ve=s- ve=na
i/=d-ya ya/-i ya/-i ya/-i mu-
3DU su-ve=d- su-ve=su- ve=sko-ya/-i ve=s-ya/-i ve=na
i/=d-ya ya/-i su- su- su-
3PC sko-ve=d- sko-ve=su- sko-ve=sko- sko-ve=s- sko-ve=na
i/=d-ya ya/-i ya/-i ya/-i
1PL.INC ko-ve=d- ko-ve=su- ve=sko-ya/-i ve=s-ya/-i ve=na
i/=d-ya ya/-i ko- ko- ko-
1PL.EXC (i)nko-ve=d- (i)nko- (i)nko- (i)nko-ve=s- (i)nko-ve=na
i/=d- ya ve=su- ya/-i ve=sko-ya/-i ya/-i
2PL mko-ve=d- mko-ve=su- mko-ve=sko- mko-ve=s- mko-ve=na
i/=d-ya ya/-i ya/-i ya/-i
3PL.AN se=d-i/=d-ya se=su-ya/-i se=sko-ya/-i se=s-ya/-i se=na
3PL.INAN nbe=d-i/d-ya nbe=su-ya/-i nbe=sko-ya/- nbe=s-ya/-i nbe=na
i

Pronominals consists of two parts.

 The first part is a form of the possessive marker ve, inflected for number and person of
the possessor. (indicates person, number and gender of the possessor)
 The second part is the pronominal article found at the end of most noun phrases
(indicates number and gender of the possessed)

Partitive pronouns: min

 The noun min is used in the sense of 'member of the (same) group'.
Ex.
Isrow min vyedi. 'He met his friend.'
 When the noun is directly preceded by one of the dual or trial free pronouns, and
closed off by a pronominal article, it functions as what can be called a partitive
pronoun.
Ex.
1DU.INC ku- Min =ya~ i one of the two of us
1PL.EXC (i)nko- min =ya~-I one of us

Source:

van den Heuvel, W. (2006). Biak: Description of an Austronesian Language of Papua.

Netherlands: LOT.
Retrieved June 24, 2010, from LOT Publications:
http://www.lotpublications.nl/publish/articles/001950/bookpart.pdf

Steinhauer, H. (1985). Number in Biak; Counterevidence to two alleged language

universals. Amsterdam: KITLV.
Retrieved July 15, 2010, from KITLV:
http://www.kitlvjournals.nl/index.php/btlv/article/viewFile/3021/3782