| Description |
In this thesis I provide a complete analysis of synchronic CV → VC metathesis in Amarasi, an Austronesian language of western Timor. Metathesis and unmetathesis realise a paradigm of parallel forms, pairs of which occur to complement each other throughout the language.
Metathesis in Amarasi is superficially associated with a bewildering array of disparate phonological processes including: vowel deletion, consonant deletion, consonant insertion and multiple kinds of vowel assimilation, any of which can (and do) vary by lect in their realisation. By proposing that Amarasi has an obligatory CVCVC foot in which C-slots can be empty, all these phonological processes can be straightforwardly derived from a single rule of metathesis and two associated phonological rules.
Three kinds of metathesis can be identified in Amarasi. (i) Before vowel initial enclitics, roots must undergo metathesis, responding to the need to create a phonological boundary between a clitic host and enclitic. Such metathesis is syntactically driven but phonologically conditioned. (ii) Metathesis occurs within the syntax to signal attributive modification. A syntactically metathesised form cannot occur at the end of a phrase and thus requires the presence of an unmetathesised form to complete it syntactically. (iii) In the discourse an unmetathesised form marks an unresolved event or situation. Such an unmetathesised form cannot occur in isolation and requires a metathesised form to achieve resolution. Metathesis in Amarasi is the central linguistic process around which linguistic structures are organised.
Amarasi metatheses also reflect fundamental Timorese notions of societal and cosmic organisation. Alongside weaving and other performed activities, metathesis is an important linguistic marker of identity in a region obsessed with similarities and differences of identity between different groups. The complementarity of Amarasi metathesis and unmetathesis within the syntax and within discourse reflects the Timorese division of the world into a series of mutually dependent binary and complementary pairs. As well as being the key which unlocks the structure of the language, metathesis is also a reflection of the structure of Amarasi society and culture.
This thesis contains numerous embedded sound files.
These sounds files are indicated by a speaker icon.
They are MP3s embedded in the PDF with Adobe Flash via the LaTeX media9 package
and can be activated in compatible PDF readers, such as Adobe Reader,
by clicking on the speaker icon wherever it appears.
(See §1.4 of the thesis for a full discussion of the presentation of data.)
This collection contains the uncompressed WAV audio files from which each embedded MP3 in Owen Edwards's PhD Thesis was exported.
Each filed begins with the unique archiving code "OE1-thesis-",
after which occurs an indication of the chapter:
Ch1, Ch3, Ch4, Ch5, Ch6, Ch7, Ch8, ChB
(ChB = Appendix B which contains the full WAVs for the three included texts).
After the chapter number, is included the location of the file in the thesis.
This is indicated in one of three ways:
ex = example number
table = table number
page = page number
‘example number’ is a bracketed numbered example in the thesis.
When a single example number contains multiple recordings they are given in order with a letter: i.e. ex001a_, ex001_, etc.
‘table number’ is a table in the thesis.
When a table has multiple recordings they are given in order with a letter, i.e table1_1a_, table1_1b_ etc.
‘page number’ is for recordings which are not in a bracketed numbered example or in a Table.
That is, recordings in the text.
When multiple such recordings occur on a single page they are given in order with a letter, i.e. page1a_, page1b_ etc.
After the prefix the file is labelled.
When the file is extracted from a text,
the first part of the file name is the unique numeric code for that text (see §1.5 of thesis)
followed by the beginning time in the complete recording of that text and (where appicable) final time,
with all hyphens and spaces replaced by underscores.
Thus example (1) on page 2 with the unique identifying code: "130902-1, 1.43" becomes "OE1-thesis-Ch1_ex001_130902_1_01_43"
When the file is an individual word or phrase (usually recorded from a word list) the label after the prefix
is the phonemic transcription with <q> used for the glottal stop and <j> for the voiced palatal obstruent.
Clitic boundaries and word boundaries are usually separated with an underscore.
Some typical examples:
OE1-thesis-Ch3_ex002a_nua = the first ("a") audio file in example (2) in chapter three. This audio file is of the word /nua/
OE1-thesis-Ch3_ex013_130928_1_02_09 = the audio file for example (13) in chapter three. This audio file is from 2 minutes and 9 seconds into text 130928-1
OE1-thesis-Ch3_page085c_uki = the the third ("c") audio file in the thesis body on page 85. This audio file is of the word /uki/
OE1-thesis-Ch3_table3.37b_masqekiq = the second ("b") audio file in Table 3.37 in chapter three. This audio file is of the word /masʔekiʔ/
The thesis is archived in this collection and is also available via ANU's Open Research Library: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/114481.
The proper citation for Owen Edwards's thesis is:
Edwards, Owen. 2016. Metathesis and Unmetathesis: Parallelism and Complementarity in Amarasi, Timor. Ph.D. Thesis, Australian National University.
BibTeX:
@PhdThesis{ed16,
author = {Edwards, Owen},
title = {Metathesis and Unmetathesis: Parallelism and Complementarity in {A}marasi, {T}imor},
school = {The Australian National University},
year = {2016},
}
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