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The ‘Noun Phrase’ across Languages: An emergent unit in interaction
Edited by Tsuyoshi Ono and Sandra A. Thompson
[Typological Studies in Language 128] 2020
► pp. 211–236

Chapter 9
Multiple nominal expressions in Garrwa conversation

| University of Queensland
Noun phrases have long been a contested category in studies of Australian language grammars. In this chapter I use a corpus of conversations in the Northern Australian language Garrwa to show how the syntactic and prosodic design of referring expressions consisting of a demonstrative nominal and a common nominal is highly sensitive to the place in and relevance to the unfolding interactional sequence in which the referring expression occurs. In particular, I show that the design of referential nominal expressions in Garrwa conversations display a systematic relationship between more phrase-like constructions and smooth, progressive talk, and less phrase-like formulations and sequential and topical boundaries.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Noun phrases in Australian languages
  • 2.Garrwa
    • 2.1Grammatical features of Garrwa
    • 2.2Garrwa nominal words
  • 3.Analysis of multiple nominal expressions in Garrwa conversations: Demonstratives and common nominals
    • 3.1Data for this paper
    • 3.2Extract analysis – kulabajarra ‘hat’
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 15 July 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.128.09mus
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Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Claire Bowern
2023. The Oxford Guide to Australian Languages, DOI logo
Louagie, Dana
2023. Multiple construction types for nominal expressions in Australian languages. Studies in Language 47:3 ► pp. 683 ff. DOI logo

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