Grammatical Relations in Romani: The Noun Phrase. With a Foreword by Frans Plank

256 Pages·2000·22.103 MB·English

by  Viktor Elsík (Ed.), Yaron Matras (Ed.)

GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS IN ROMANI
AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND
HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE
General Editor
E.F. KONRAD KOERNER
(University of Ottawa)
Series IV – CURRENT ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC THEORY
Advisory Editorial Board
Raimo Anttila (Los Angeles); Lyle Campbell (Christchurch, N.Z.)
Sheila Embleton (Toronto); John E. Joseph (Edinburgh)
Manfred Krifka (Berlin); Hans-Heinrich Lieb (Berlin)
E. Wyn Roberts (Vancouver, B.C.); Hans-Jürgen Sasse (Köln)
Volume 211
Viktor Elšík and Yaron Matras (eds.)
Grammatical Relations in Romani
The Noun Phrase
GRAMMATICAL
RELATIONS IN ROMANI
THE NOUN PHRASE
Edited by
VIKTOR ELŠÍK
YARON MATRAS
University of Manchester
With a Foreword by
FRANS PLANK
Universität Konstanz
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
8 National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Grammatical relations in Romani : the noun phrase / edited by Viktor Elšík, Yaron Matras ; with a
foreword by Frans Plank.
p. cm. -- (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series IV,
Current issues in linguistic theory, ISSN 0304-0763 ; v. 211)
Four of the eight contributions are based on papers presented at the 4th International Conference on
Romani Linguistics, held Sept. 1998, University of Manchester, Manchester, Eng.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Romany language--Noun phrase. 2. Romany language--Nominals. I. Elšík, Viktor. II. Matras,
Yaron, 1963- III. International Conference on Romani Linguistics (4th : University of Manchester :
1998) IV. Series.
PK2897.G73 2000
491.4’975--dc21 00-062140
ISBN 90 272 3718 2 (Eur.) / 1 55619 022 2 (US) (alk. paper)
© 2000 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other
means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O.Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America • P.O.Box 27519 • Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 • USA
CONTENTS
Preface vii
List of abbreviations ix
Foreword 1
Frans Plank
Romani nominal paradigms: Their structure, diversity, and development 9
Viktor Elsik
The definite article in Romani dialects 31
Norbert Boretzky
Dialect variation in Romani personal pronouns 65
Viktor Elsik
The structural and functional composition of Romani demonstratives 95
Yawn Matras
Romani genitives in cross-linguistic perspective 123
Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm
External possession in Romani 151
Mily Crevels & Peter Bakker
Proleptic and resumptive object pronouns in Romani: A Balkan noun 187
phrase perspective
Victor A. Friedman
Was Proto-Romani an ergative language? 205
Vit Bubenik
Index of Romani dialects 229
Index of names 233
Index of subjects 237

PREFACE
The present collection focuses on a specific area of grammatical structure in
Romani - the noun phrase. By choosing a grammatical theme, we aim to help
promote the typologically-oriented discussion of Romani, as well as to stimulate
further interest in Romani among those whose work is devoted primarily to
general linguistic, comparative and typological issues.
Of the papers included in this collection, four are based on presentations at
the Fourth International Conference on Romani Linguistics, held at the Univer
sity of Manchester in September 1998: Elsik (on Nominal Paradigms), Koptjev-
skaja-Tamm (on Genitives), Crevels and Bakker (on External Possession), and
Friedman (on Object Reduplication). We wish to thank the British Academy, the
Linguistic Association of Great Britain, the University of Manchester's Research
and Graduate Support Unit, and the Department of Linguistics at the University
of Manchester for their financial and logistic support of the Conference. We are
also grateful to Johan van der Auwera, Kees Hengeveld, Maria Koptjevskaja-
Tamm, John R. Payne, Frans Plank, and John Charles Smith for their con
tributions to the preparation of the Conference.
The Editors
Manchester, May 2000

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ABL ablative F0-J thematic jotated zero-feminines
ABS absolutive Fi thematic /-feminines
ACC accusative *Fa athematic ö-feminines
ACT active FUT future
ADJ adjective, adjectivising element GA genitive adnominal
AN animate GB Government and Binding
AOR aorist GEN genitive
ART definite article LA Indo-Aryan
BSA base-stem agglutination IMC identically marked construction
C consonant IMP imperative
CAUS causative IMPF imperfect(ive)
CLASS classifier INAN inanimate
CLIT clitic INDEF indefinite
COMM common gender INF infinitive
COMP complementizer INSTR instrumental
COMPAR comparative LOC locative
CONSTR marker of status constructus M masculine
COP copula M0 thematic zero-masculines
DAT dative M0-a thematic zero-masculines with
DEF definite, definiteness marker out number neutralization
DEM demonstrative M0-0 thematic zero-masculines with
DIR direct case number neutralization
DO direct object M0-A thematic abstract zero-mascu
EP external possession lines
EPC external possession construe- Mo thematic o-masculines
Mi thematic /-masculines
ERG ergative MIA Middle Indo-Aryan
EV evidential MIN minimal
EXP experiencer *Mo athematic o-masculines
F feminine *Mu athematic w-masculines
F0 thematic zero-feminines *Mi athematic /-masculines
F0-U thematic unmodified zero-femi *MV athematic masculines with a
nines stressed classification vowel