Ilana Mushin

Evidentiality and deixis in narrative retelling

Abstract Evidentiality, the linguistic coding of source and reliability of information, has long been characterized as a deictic phenomenon in language (Jakobson, 1957; Schlichter, 1986; Woodbury, 1986). Although it is generally accepted that evidential forms function to index information to a source and an interpreter of that source (typically the speaker), there has been little study of the ways in which speakers make use of this property in discourse. This paper presents an analysis of evidential use in Macedonian narrative retellings that clarifies the deictic function of evidentiality in discourse. A version of Deictic Center Theory (Duchan et al., 1995), a recent framework developed specifically for narrative analysis, is used to show how evidential markers are used to build the perspective structure of narrative texts and how they are manipulated by speakers to express information from different viewpoints.

Intonational Rises and Dialog Acts in the Australian English Map Task

Eight map task dialogs representative of General Australian English, were coded for speaker turn, and for dialog acts using a version of SWBDDAMSL, a dialog act annotation scheme. High, low, simple, and complex rising tunes, and any corresponding dialog act codes were then compared. Dialog acts corresponding to information requests were consistently realized as high-onset high rises((L+)H*H—H%).Howeverlow-onset high rises (e.g., L*H —H%) corresponded to a wider range of other “forward-looking” communicative functions, such as statements and action directives, and were rarely associated with information requests. Low-range rises (L*L—H%), by contrast, were mostly associated with backward-looking functions, like acknowledgments and responses, that is they were almost always used when the speaker was referring to what had occurred previously in the discourse. Two kinds of fall-rise tunes were also examined: the low-range fall-rise (H *L— H %) and the expanded range fall-rise (H * + L H —H %). The latter shared similar dialog functions with statement high rises, and were almost never associated with yes/no questions, whereas the low-range fall-rises were associated more with backward-looking functions, such as responses or acknowledgments. The Australian English statement high rise (usually realized as a L* H — H % tune) or “uptalk,” appears to be more closely related to the classic continuation rises, than to yes/no question rises of typologically-related varieties of English.

Exploring tool innovation: a comparison of Western and Bushman children

A capacity for constructing new tools, or using old tools in new ways, to solve novel problems is a core feature of what it means to be human. Yet current evidence suggests that young children are surprisingly poor at innovating tools. However, all studies of tool innovation to date have been conducted with children from comparatively privileged Western backgrounds. This raises questions as to whether or not previously documented tool innovation failure is culturally and economically specific. In the current study, thus, we explored the innovation capacities of children from Westernized urban backgrounds and from remote communities of South African Bushmen. Consistent with past research, we found tool innovation to occur at extremely low rates and that cultural background had no bearing on this. The current study is the first to empirically test tool innovation in children from non-Western backgrounds, with our data being consistent with the view that despite its key role in human evolution, a capacity for innovation in tool making remains remarkably undeveloped during early childhood.

A grammar of (Western) Garrwa

Mushin provides the first full grammatical description of Garrwa, a critically endangered language of the Southwest Gulf of Carpentaria region in Northern Australia. Garrwa is typologically interesting because of its uncertain status in the Australian language family, its pronouns and its word order syntax. This book covers Garrwa phonology, morphology and syntax, with a particular focus on the use of grammar in discourse. The grammatical description is supplemented with a word list and text collection, including transcriptions of ordinary conversation.

Motivations for second position: Evidence from North-Central Australia

Abstract It has long been observed that many languages from all over the world require that certain grammatical categories (e.g., person, number, tense, modality) occur in the “second position” of a clause. Much of the research into second position has developed formal explanations for this recurring pattern, based on interactions between morphosyntax and phonology. In this article I explore how pragmatics of information packaging interacts with these other features in the development of such morphosyntactic architecture in three North-Central Australian languages: Warlpiri, Wambaya, and Garrwa.

Japanese reportive evidentiality and the pragmatics of retelling

Abstract This paper presents an analysis of the functions of reportive evidential coding in spoken Japanese narrative retelling. Studies of Japanese evidentiality have focused on semantic and pragmatic properties of the range of grammaticalized forms which convey evidential meanings (e.g. Aoki, 1986; Ohta, 1991; Kamio, 1994). There has been less emphasis on why particular evidential forms are selected in specific discourse contexts and how that selection affects the evidential interpretation of the information. The study discussed in this paper differs from previous studies of Japanese evidentiality by taking a particular discourse context, narrative retellings of other peoples personal experiences, as the starting point of the investigation. It uses this context to explore not only the frequency of evidential coding in this context but also the range of evidential strategies that are used by retellers when they report information that they know by virtue of hearing it from someone else. The results support a fine tuning of current models of evidentiality in Japanese (esp. Kamios, 1994, 1995, 1998 theory of ‘Territory of Information’) to take into account not only the presence and absence of overt evidential coding but also the motivations of speakers to choose particular evidential strategies.

Language for Learning in Indigenous Classrooms: Foundations for Literacy and Numeracy

In this chapter we report on a project concerning the nature and use of language in classes in a Queensland Indigenous school. Language differences between Indigenous students and non-Indigenous teachers are a potential factor in the poor education outcomes of Indigenous children compared with non-Indigenous children. As part of a 3-year project based in a remote school, we have begun will be audio and video-recording Prep and Year 1 classes during lessons in which the focus is on literacy and numeracy. Relevant phases of the lessons are being transcribed in fine detail and subjected to microanalysis using Conversation Analysis. We will examine sequences in which to focus in on knowledge transmission, and focus on evidence of understanding between teachers and students, and displays of newly acquired and old knowledge. Results of the project will be used in developing teacher professional development materials.

Making knowledge visible in discourse: Implications for the study of linguistic evidentiality

Linguistic studies of evidentiality, the coding of source of knowledge, have often appeared divided into two camps: those whose focus is the semantic, morphological and typological characteristics of grammaticalized morphological evidential systems (e.g. Aikhenvald, 2004), and those whose focus is on the social functions of non-grammaticalized evidential constructions as markers of epistemic authority and responsibility (e.g. Fox, 2001; Sidnell, 2012). While interest in the discourse functions of all evidential systems has been growing as seen in the recent special issue of the journal Pragmatics and Society on ‘Evidentiality in Interaction’, there has been little direct attention on whether the deployment of evidential strategies in discourse varies according to the grammatical status of the grammatical resources available to the speaker. This article examines the nature of both grammaticalized and non-grammaticalized evidential systems in a number of languages to show that while the underlying pragmatics of evidentiality is the same regardless of grammatical system, nonetheless grammaticalized evidential systems provide important evidence of the particular features of knowledge sources that are used in routine ways in discourse sufficiently to motivate their development into grammatical systems.

Young children’s tool innovation across culture: Affordance visibility matters

Young children typically demonstrate low rates of tool innovation. However, previous studies have limited childrens performance by presenting tools with opaque affordances. In an attempt to scaffold childrens understanding of what constitutes an appropriate tool within an innovation task we compared tools in which the focal affordance was visible to those in which it was opaque. To evaluate possible cultural specificity, data collection was undertaken in a Western urban population and a remote Indigenous community. As expected affordance visibility altered innovation rates: young children were more likely to innovate on a tool that had visible affordances than one with concealed affordances. Furthermore, innovation rates were higher than those reported in previous innovation studies. Cultural background did not affect childrens rates of tool innovation. It is suggested that new methods for testing tool innovation in children must be developed in order to broaden our knowledge of young childrens tool innovation capabilities.

Expanded transition spaces: the case of Garrwa

Accounts of turn-taking in much of the CA literature have largely focused on talk which progresses with minimal gaps between turns at talk, longer gaps being found to be symptomatic of, for example, engagement in non-talk activities, or as indicators of some kind of trouble in the interaction. In this paper we present an account of turn-taking in conversations between Indigenous Australians where longer gaps are frequent and regular. We show that in sequences of such slow-paced conversation, gaps are not always treated as problematic, nor are they associated with non-talk activities that might inhibit talk. In such contexts we argue that there is less orientation to gap minimization, reflecting a lack of pressure for continuous talk. We also discuss qualitative differences in the nature of the gaps between turns in which there is a selection of next speaker, and those where no next speaker has been selected. Finally we consider whether such talk is a feature of Indigenous Australian conversation, or a more widespread practice.