skip to content

B05 - Prominence related structures in symmetrical voice systems and Papuan languages

Symmetrical voice systems provide a major challenge for the claim that prominence universally plays a central role at the interface between syntax and semantics, because such systems always allow for at least two equally basic transitive constructions. The project investigates whether there is nevertheless evidence for the influence of prominence relations in the organization of grammatical structures in these languages. A special focus is on the interplay between episode structure and clause structure, an area where Papuan languages promise to provide important pieces of evidence.

See list of publications

Team

Prof. Dr. Nikolaus P. Himmelmann

Prof. Dr. Nikolaus P. Himmelmann

Project Leader A03, B05, C09 und INF

Office: Allg. Sprachwissenschaft, Meister-Ekkehart-Straße 7
E-Mail: sprachwissenschaft(at)uni-koeln.de
Phone: (+49) 221 470-2323
Dr. Sonja Riesberg

Dr. Sonja Riesberg

Project Leader B05

E-Mail: sonja.riesberg(at)uni-koeln.de
Dr. Maria Bardají i Farré

Dr. Maria Bardají i Farré

Associated researscher in Project B05 "Symmetrical voice languages"

Office:
E-Mail: mbardaji(at)ub.edu
Katharina Gayler

Katharina Gayler

Doctoral student B05

Office: SFB, Luxemburger Str. 299, room 2.05
E-Mail: kgayler1(at)uni-koeln.de
Phone: (+49) 221 470-89910

Publications

To appear

  • Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. & Sonja Riesberg. To appear. Discourse patterns and emerging grammar. In Nicholas Evans & Sebastian Fedden (eds.), The Oxford Guide to the Papuan languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Kaland, Constantijn, Katharina Gayler, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann & Martine Grice. To appear. A first exploration of word- and phrase-final f0 movements in spontaneous Yali. Phonological Data and Analysis.
  • Kroeger, Paul & Sonja Riesberg. To appear. Voice and transitivity. In Alexander Adelaar & Antoinette Schapper (eds.), The Oxford Guide to the Malayo-Polynesian languages of South East Asia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2024

  • Mattissen, Johanna. 2024. Lexical actional classes in Romance languages in interaction with aspectually relevant material in the clause. In Jakob Egetenmeyer, Sarah Dessì Schmid & Martin Becker (eds.), Tense, Aspect and Discourse Structure, 154–187. Berlin: De Gruyter.

2023

  • Kaland, Constantijn & Maria Bardají. 2023. Phonetic description of filled pauses as discourse markers in Totoli. In Radek Skarnitzl & Jan Volín (eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 3242–3246. Guarant International. pdf
  • Malcher, Kurt. 2023. Clefts. A cross-linguistic investigation. Universität zu Köln. Dissertation.

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

  • Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 2017. Word classes. In Oxford Bibliographies in Linguistics
  • Reinöhl, Uta & Nikolaus P. Himmelmann. 2017. Renewal: A figure of speech or a process sui generis? Language 93(2). 381-413. pdf
  • Riesberg, Sonja. 2017. An introduction to the Yali-German dictionary with a short grammatical sketch. In Sonja Riesberg (ed.), Wörterbuch Yali (Angguruk) – Deutsch. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. pdf
  • Riesberg, Sonja. 2017. Some observations on word order in western Austronesian symmetrical voice languages. In I Nengah Sudipa et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Seminar on Austronesian and Non-Austronesian Languages and Literature in Indonesia. Denpasar: Udayana University Press. pdf

To top of page