LING345/640G Polynesian Language Family
Fall 2004 TR 1:30-2:45
Instructor:Yuko Otsuka
Office:Moore423
Office Hour:T&W 10:30-11:45 (or by appointment)
Contact:956-5985
Course description
This course is an introduction to the Polynesian languages. Where did they come from? What is special about them? And, what is their future? Ultimately, why do we want to study Polynesian languages? To answer these questions, first we need to look at the history of the study of Polynesian languages. Early records date back to 18th century, in which Polynesian languages were often described as “primitive’ and “less perfect.” We will consider why such a prejudiced view came to exist by studying some of the early records. A closely related issue is the problem of orthography. The rest of the course is divided into six sections: 1) classification, 2) phonology, 3) morphology, 4) descriptive grammar of selected Polynesian languages, and 5) language planning. No textbook is required. By the end of this course, the students are expected to a) be familiar with the general characteristics of Polynesian languages, b) recognize some theoretical problems in Polynesian linguistics, and c) be able to do a research in Polynesian languages.
Textbook:A collection of journal articles and book chapters.
Requirement Term paper25% (15% written paper, 10% oral presentation)
Grammar Description 15% (oral presentation and written report)
Assignments50% (1 oral presentation and 4 written assignments)
Participation10% (discussion)
Term PaperChoose a topic concerning any aspect of Polynesian languages (e.g., history, descriptive grammar, morphology, phonology, classification, language use in society, education, etc.). The oral presentation (10%) and the written paper (15%) will be graded separately. Final draft is due Tuesday, 13December 4:30pm.
Grammar descriptionGroup project.Using the checklist, study the grammar of a Polynesian language of your choice and give a presentation in class (Weeks 9-12).
Other Assignments
1. Early records (Week 3).Present the summary of one of the following articles Martin (1817), Andrews (1854), Kendall (1820), H. Hale (1846).
2.Reconstruction (Week 4). Based on a set of data consisting of 40 words in five Polynesian languages, reconstruct the Proto-Polynesian word for each word.
3. Phonology: Loan words (Week 6). Collect at least 20 loanwords in a Polynesian language of your choice. Comparing these words with the corresponding English words, formulate the phonological rules that determine the pronunciation of these loan words
4. Morphology: *faka- (Week 7). Collect at least 20 words starting with *faka in a Polynesian language of your choice. Study the data and determine the function of this morpheme.
5. Reduplication (Week 8). Collect at least 20 examples of reduplication in a Polynesian language of your choice. Study the data and describe the patterns and functions of reduplication.
6. Grammar description (Week 9-11).
Required readings:
Andrews, L. (1854) Grammar of the Hawaiian Language.Honolulu:Mission Press.
Hale, H. (1846) Ethnography and Philology, United StatesExploring Expedition During the Years 1838-1842 vol.6, pp.229-289. Philadelphia: C. Sherman.
Kendall, T (1820) A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Language of New Zealand, edited by S. Lee. London: Church Mission Society.
Martin, J. (1817) An account of then natives of the Tonga Islands in the South Pacific Ocean with the original grammar and vocabulary of their language compiled and arranged from extensive communications of Mr. William Mariner, several years resident in those Islands, Appendix Grammar and Lexicon. London: James Murray.
Neves, P. (1976) Some problems with orthography encountered by the reader of old Hawaiian texts, Oceanic Linguistics 15: 51-74.
Otsuka, Y. (2005) History of Polynesian languages. Ms. University of Hawaii.
Schütz, A. (1970) Phonological patterning of English loan words in Tongan. In Pacific Linguistic Studies in Honour of Arthur Capell, Pacific Linguistics C-13, edited by S. A. Wurm and D. C. Laycock, pp.409-28.Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, the AustralianNationalUniversity.
Schütz, A. (1994) Voices of Eden, Chapter 16. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Taumoefolau, M., D. Starks, K. Davis, and A. Bell. (2002) Linguists and Language Maintenance: Pasifika Languages in Manukau, New Zealand. Oceanic Linguistics 41: 15-27.
Wise, C. M. and W. Hervey (1952) The evolution of Hawaiian orthography, Quarterly Journal of Speech 38(3): 311-325.
Wurm, S. A. (1991) Language death and disappearance: Causes and circumstances. In Endangered Languages, edited by R. H. Robins and E. M. Uhlenbeck, pp.1-18. Oxford and New York: Berg.
Suggested readings:
Bellwood, P. (1979) Man’s Conquest of the Pacific: The Prehistory of Southeast Asia and Oceania. New York: OxfordUniversity Press. (Chapter 5)
Clark, R. (1979) Language. In J.D. Jennings (ed.) The Prehistory of Polynesia, pp.249-27. Cambridge, Mass.:HarvardUniversity Press.
Clark, R. (1976) Aspects of Proto-Polynesian syntax. Auckland: Linguistic Society of New Zealand.
Green, R.C. (1966) Linguistic subgroupoing within Polynesia: The implications for prehistoric settlement. Journal of the Polynesian Society 75: 6-38.
Hiroa, T.R. (1932) Recording of Polynesian texts and proper names. Journal of the Polynesian Society41(4): 253-61.
Kirch, P. V. and R. C. Green (2001) Hawaiki, Ancestral Polynesia: An Essay in Historical Anthropology. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.
Marck, J. (2000) Topics in Polynesian Language and Culture History. Pacific Linguistics 504. Canberra: AustralianNationalUniversity.
Nettle, D. and S. Romaine (2000) Vanishing Voices: The extinction of the World’s Langauges. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.
Pawley, A. (1966) Polynesian languages: A subgrouping based on shred innovations in morphology. Journal of the Polynesian Society 75: 39-64.
Pawley, A. (1996) On the Polynesian subgroup as a problem for Irwin’s continuous settlement hypothesis. In J. Davidson et al. (eds.), Oceanic Culture history: Essays in Honour of Roger Green, pp. 387-410. New Zealand: Journal of Archaeology Special Publication.
Class Schedule*
Topic / Reading / AssignmentWeek 1 / 8/23 / T / Introduction
8/25 / R / Defining Polynesian languages
Week 2 / 8/30 / T / Orthography I
9/1 / R / Orthography II / Wise & Hervey (1953), Neves (1976)
Week 3 / 9/6 / T / Early Records / Andrews (1854), H. Hale (1846), Martin (1817), Kendall (1820) / # 1 (oral)
9/8 / R /
Language Family
/ Otsuka (2005) chapter 3Week 4 / 9/13 / T / Proto-Polynesian
9/15 / R / Subgrouping / # 2 (written)
Week 5 / 9/20 / T / Summary / Proposal
9/22 / R / Phonological Characteristics
Week 6 / 9/27 / T / Loan words / Schütz (1970)
9/29 / R / Summary / # 3 (written)
Week 7 / 10/4 / T / Morphology
10/6 / R / Inflectional morphology / # 4 (written)
Week 8 / 10/11 / T / Summary
10/13 / R / Grammar description / # 5 (written)
Week 9 / 10/18 / T / Rapanui
10/20 / R / Language 1 / # 6 (oral)
Week 10 / 10/25 / T / Language 2
10/27 / R / Language 3
Week 11 / 11/1 / T / Language 4
11/3 / R / Language 5
Week 12 / 11/8 / T / Language planning / Wurm (1991) / 1st draft
11/10 / R / Case study: Hawaiian / Schütz (1994) chapter 16
Week 13 / 11/15 / T / Insider’s View
11/17 / R / Outside Polynesia / Taumoefolau et al. (2002)
Week 14 / 11/22 / T / Presentation
11/24 / R /
Holiday
Week 15 / 11/29 / T12/1 / R
Week 16 / 12/6 / T
12/8 / R
Week 17 / 12/13 / R / Final draft
*Subject to change.
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LING345/640G