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Papers by Joseph Brooks

I describe the basics of the phonology, morphology, clause-internal syntax, clause combining, and... more I describe the basics of the phonology, morphology, clause-internal syntax, clause combining, and discourse of Iteri, and also provide some preliminary ethnographic information about the Iteris.

This sketch grammar is based on three months of fieldwork in Iteri, a Left May language with approximately 500 speakers spoken near the East Sepik-Sandaun border in a northern spurt of the highlands called the West Range. Examples are from my fieldnotes from participant observation and elicitation as well as 1.5 hours of annotated narrative and conversational speech.

Intl Journal of Lang and Culture, 2019

In Chini, a language of northeastern New Guinea, speakers rely on principles of semantic extensio... more In Chini, a language of northeastern New Guinea, speakers rely on principles of semantic extension including metonymy, metaphor, and other types of association to create new terms using material from the vernacular. They do so in a special sociolinguistically marked register referred to here as 'secret language' , a linguistic practice not unheard of in New Guinea. The same principles at work in secret language can also be seen in the creation of terms for new, modern concepts in the sociolinguistically unmarked register of the language. There is additionally some degree of overlap between the two registers, since what were originally secret language terms have entered into use in the unmarked register. This suggests that secret language has been a resource for resistance to borrowing and brings into focus the larger point that any understanding of borrowability should be rooted in the local sociolinguistic context, to the locally relevant ideologies at work and the particular creative principles of language use that speakers employ.

Language documentation has been said to be “all about transcription” (Himmelmann 2018:38). Yet sc... more Language documentation has been said to be “all about transcription” (Himmelmann 2018:38). Yet scholars of diverse persuasions have recognized that transcription is itself rarely the focus of attention (Ochs 1979, Cox 2019). This paper aims to reduce the gap by arguing for transcription not merely in terms of method, but as a social process characterized by ethical challenge. Drawing on my research, I show how heavy transcription can lead to unforeseen problems in fieldwork in rural New Guinea, where the outside academic’s research goals constitutes ‘work’ in the context of a special relationship across great cultural difference, one seen in native Melanesian cultural terms as interdependent, life-long, and fueled by exchange. With that in mind, my larger goal in this talk is to present an argument for the inclusion of the anthropological method of participant observation in linguistic fieldwork.

Since the days of the Boasian trilogy over a century ago, transcription has been acknowledged as central to field linguistics. Field linguists have long recognized that without it, it is all but impossible to understand the workings of certain grammatical constructions (Himmelmann 1998; Mithun 2014, 2001), something also emphasized in my own research (Brooks 2018). Although transcription has emerged as the core research activity in documentary linguistics and constitutes the major workload (Himmelmann 2008, 2018; Jung & Himmelmann 2011), the tedious, laborious nature of transcribing connected speech means that scientific ideals of maximal annotation of documentary corpora are far from realistic. Thus far, resolution has been located in computational methods which might (or might not) streamline the documentation process (Bird 2020; Cox 2019; Brooks 2013; Palmer et al. 2010). Meanwhile, based on her linguistic anthropological fieldwork among the Bosavi, Schieffelin (1990) comes to an altogether different conclusion about transcription, arguing it is best understood as an ethnographic process. Here I rely on my research and relationships with Chini people of Andamang village (inland Madang, PNG) to show how my own methodological preoccupation with the transcription of connected speech – that is, the result of my own research goals and the output demands of my funding agency – had unintended social consequences which I was late to identify and rectify.

I begin with an overview of the theory and practice of transcription in linguistics and anthropology, drawing attention to several variables concerning transcription in fieldwork. I then discuss how the role of transcription in my own research, though it produced one of the largest collections of annotated conversational data for a New Guinea language, unfortunately by-produced a socially-methodologically fraught form of fieldwork. I address three interrelated (social-methodological) problems: (1) disproportionate exchange relations, effects on local forms of labor, and feud exacerbation; (2) the introduction of distortions for traditional Chini conceptions of language; and (3) the insufficiency of extensive transcribed speech in the linguistic analysis of particular constructions in Chini. I describe the ways in which these problems exposed a conflict between native Awakng’i (i.e., Andamang Chini) hopes and desires about my participation in local social life vis-a-vis the scientific perspective I was immersed within which sees little value in the social immersion and interpretative task of the fieldworker, instead supporting what Dobrin & Schwartz (2016) identify as the ‘objectivity paradigm’. I explain how these problems have come to find their resolution in participatory methods similar to the discussion found in the likes of Nida (1957), Everett (2001), and Sarvasy (2015). I conclude with some discussion points about the role of transcription vis-a-vis participation.

Language Documentation and Conservation, 2015

In a recent article, Bird et al. (2013) discuss a workshop held at the University of Goroka in Pa... more In a recent article, Bird et al. (2013) discuss a workshop held at the University of Goroka in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 2012. The workshop was intended to offer a new methodological framework for language documentation and capacity building that streamlines the documentation process and accelerates the global effort to document endangered languages through machine translation and automated glossing technology developed by computer scientists. As a volunteer staff member at the workshop, in this response to Bird et al. I suggest that it did not in the end provide us with a model that should be replicated in the future. I explain how its failure to uphold fundamental commitments from a documentary linguistic and humanistic perspective can help inform future workshops and large-scale documentary efforts in PNG. Instead of experimenting with technological shortcuts that aim to reduce the role of linguists in language documentation and that construct participants as sources of data, we should implement training workshops geared toward the interests and skills of local participants who are interested in documenting their languages, and focus on building meaningful partnerships with academic institutions in PNG.

Reflexive constructions in the world's languages (Research on Comparative Grammar 3), 2023

In this paper, I rely primarily on examples from discourse in Chini, a language of northeastern P... more In this paper, I rely primarily on examples from discourse in Chini, a language of northeastern Papua New Guinea, in order to describe how reflexivity and autopathic semantic relations are expressed. First, I describe the reflexive possessive construction. I suggest that the coreferential association is between the possessor and the most topicworthy participant(s), which often, but not always, corresponds to the clause-internal subject. I then describe the middle construction and argue that its primary function is to identify the main participant in a clause as a semantic patient. The potential for autopathic readings of clauses headed by middle verb forms depends on the degree of the participant's control over the activity and furthermore involves interplays between lexical semantics and contextual interpretation. Finally, I discuss certain specialized middle constructions where the reflexive or reciprocal interpretation is made absolute.

In this paper I describe the clause chaining system in Chini that includes three pairs of linkage... more In this paper I describe the clause chaining system in Chini that includes three pairs of linkage devices: continuous information: =kɨ (realis) & =tɨ (irrealis); presuppositional asymmetry: =va (realis) & =mɨ (irrealis); and temporal succession: =ndaka (realis) & =ndata (irrealis). This study is based upon 12 years of fieldwork totalling 14 months and a corpus of 15 hours of annotated connected speech, including about 12 hours of conversational Chini. I also discuss here questions of different types of evidence, namely from transcribed speech versus immersive language learning, and why these were both crucial to arrive at the present analysis. Inasmuch as the workings of the Chini system challenge certain assumptions about how Papuan-style clause chaining works, it is hoped that this contribution will expand our understanding of the principles that underlie clause linking systems and provide food for thought regarding the methods we use to study clause linkage constructions, especially when multiple competing analyses are possible.

This paper is structured as follows.

1. Pragmatic functions versus switch-reference
After giving an overview of the clause chaining constructions, I begin the discussion by addressing switch reference, which is of course the traditional view of the basis of Papuan-style clause chaining systems. I explain how switch reference as a possible analysis for the continuous information (=kɨ & =tɨ) and presuppositional asymmetry (=va & =mɨ), fails to explain the many exceptions to the expected marking (same-subject and different-subject respectively). Instead, as other scholars have shown for clause linking constructions in other languages, continuous versus discontinuous reference is only part of the etic material in Chini; that is, it is a secondary effect of continuous information on the one hand and pragmatic asymmetry on the other. I discuss how this is especially visible in conversational speech, where a much wider range of combinations of referents occurs than in many genres of narrative.

I also discuss how evidence showing that Chini (unlike any other known Lower-Sepik Ramu language) acquired its clause chaining system through contact with neighboring Sogeram peoples, adds credence to this analysis.

2. Temporal succession and a twist
Here I discuss the linkers of temporal succession =ndaka (realis) & =ndata (irrealis). I also discuss a further division of these, one that is often impossible to retrieve from digital recordings. It turns out there is a further division of both linkers: =ndaka & =ndakɨ and then =ndata & =ndatɨ. I present examples primarily from unrecorded interactions that depended upon my knowledge of Chini and my understanding of the full pragmatic context of the speech event, to learn that speakers rely on this possibility to subtly express information about the perceived likelihood of the successive event.

3. The contribution of realis and irrealis marking
Unlike in any other described Papuan language, realis and irrealis is fully part and parcel of clause chaining; as the linkage pairs themselves demonstrate, the speaker is obliged to choose one or the other for each pair of linkers. After giving a brief account of the language-specific meaning of this distinction, I discuss the types of information realis and irrealis marking contribute in Chini clause chains, the constructional dexterity found in the pragmatic concord they express, and finally, mid-chain realis-irrealis shifts, where the otherwise robust concord rules, are dispensed with.

I also discuss the role of contact and how Chini appears to have extended the realis/irrealis marking limited in Sogeram languages to different-subject medials (in some Sogeram languages, with further limitations). This extension of a realis/irrealis distinction, one already salient elsewhere in Chini grammar, resulted in a novel system where realis/irrealis is distinguished throughout as a fundamental component of all chaining constructions in the language.

4. Medial and final clauses in terms of dependency
Based on 1-3, here I discuss the ways in which Chini medial and final clauses conform to notions of dependency in terms of their semantic, pragmatic, and syntactic properties. In this section I also discuss two further construction types, namely the "stacking" construction where =kɨ (continuous information, realis) & =va (pragmatic asymmetry, realis) co-occur forming =vakɨ, and then the use of =vakɨ, =kɨ, and =mɨ medial constructions as independent clauses.

5. Conclusion
I situate the above discussion about Chini in the context of what is known about Papuan clause chaining, discussing how the pragmatic basis of the constructions, the realis/irrealis component, and other aspects of Chini dependency relations, represent significant expansions of our knowledge of what speakers of Papuan languages use clause chaining constructions to do.

In this paper I discuss the geology of the lower Sogeram river in the Middle Ramu region of Madan... more In this paper I discuss the geology of the lower Sogeram river in the Middle Ramu region of Madang, Papua New Guinea, and what it has to do with local linguistic and cultural history. This small area, settled by multiple groups of people and contested by a number of others over the years, represents unmatched "prime real estate" within its region, for two geological reasons.

One of these is that the soil of the lower Sogeram, radically unlike the much larger Ramu river which it empties into, benefits from the flow of nutrients during the wet season (November-March) from the entire easten stretch of the Sogeram. This means that residents of the Sogeram have much richer soil in which a much greater diversity of crops can be grown than is the case for the (Rao-speaking) people whose villagers are upriver (south) on the Ramu, from the confluence of the Sogeram and Ramu rivers. The second geological benefit of the local Sogeram is the presence of abundant oxbow marshes. These marshes, most of which are located in Andamang (Chini-speaking) and to some extent Limbebu (Breri-speaking) are created by the changes that occur from one wet season to the next, as the meander belt of the lower Sogeram shifts and redirects its path, on occasion dramatically so. Old chunks of the river become severed from the new meander belt, all fish and other wildlife (e.g. crocodiles) are then preserved, providing the local people with an easy source of protein.

Here I discuss how the unmatched geological wealth of Andamang territory squares with linguistic evidence and evidence from local history, which show how this well sought after chunk of land has been a small but significant nexus of contact and settlement by multiple Papuan groups over the past centuries.

This dissertation aims to contribute to our theoretical understanding and descriptive capacity co... more This dissertation aims to contribute to our theoretical understanding and descriptive capacity concerning realis-irrealis distinctions, which I define in terms of a language-specific division of states of affairs into 'real' and 'imaginary'. In it I rely upon the nine months of fieldwork on Chini I had conducted by that point in time. Examples are all from my field notes or from the annotated documentary corpus of Chini narrative and conversation, which I built mainly with the help of my Chini teacher, my apakɨ and friend Barɨng’ɨnɨ Manaa (Anton).

Taking into account the breadth of the literature on the topic including grammars of languages described as having realis-irrealis distinctions and/or realis or irrealis as lone categories, I focus the discussion on Chini spoken in inland Madang, Papua New Guinea, a language in which realis-irrealis distinctions are unusually elaborated, perhaps moreso than any other described language. This is because in Chini the distinction is marked not only in multiple parts of the verb morphology but also separately in the clause chain linkage enclitics.

I show: (1) that temporal reference is not part of the emic meaning in realis-irrealis distinctions in Chini; (2) that there is an important relation between the area of the grammar where the distinction occurs and its particular division of the semantic-pragmatic space; and (3) that realis-irrealis distinctions are not quite identical to (and thus not necessarily comparable with) phenomena covered by 'realis', 'irrealis' and other similar labels whenever these involve (lone) categories. This is because they lack the critical dualism that characterizes the distinction, as it occurs in Chini and in the grammars of many other languages.

In addition to these findings I present an overview of the history of scholarship on this topic over the last century, discuss various other components of the Chini workings and issues of cross-linguistic comparability, and describe relevant parts of Chini grammar and aspects of Chini culture.

Journal of Language Contact, 2019

This paper discusses the historical borrowing of an enclitic across unrelated Papuan languages sp... more This paper discusses the historical borrowing of an enclitic across unrelated Papuan languages spoken along the lower Sogeram River in the Middle Ramu region of present-day Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. The enclitic *=a, which attached to the right edge of a prosodic unit, was borrowed from the Ramu family into the ancestor of three modern Sogeram languages. Both morphological and prosodic substance were borrowed, as was the dual functionality of the enclitic-as a pragmatic marker in independent utterances and a linking device on dependent domains. We discuss the clitic's formal and functional properties as evidence for its contact-induced origin and subsequent historical development in western Sogeram, as well as the implications of these developments for our understanding of morphological and pragmatic borrowing. The complexities of this borrowing event highlight the potential for theories of language contact to benefit from collaborative research on previously unstud-ied contact areas.

Talks by Joseph Brooks

A number of Austronesian and Papuan (non-Austronesian) languages of northeast New Guinea are know... more A number of Austronesian and Papuan (non-Austronesian) languages of northeast New Guinea are known to mark some type of realis-irrealis distinction within the clause chaining morphology. Similar to what Ross describes in his (1987) paper concerning Austronesian and Trans-New Guinea languages of the Madang coastal region, Chini, much farther inland than the languages Ross describes, has clearly acquired these constructions through contact with neighboring Sogeram (Trans New Guinea, Daniels 2015) languages. This paper thus aims to expand our understanding of the areal and genealogical spread of clause chaining constructions in this, the most linguistically diverse region (Madang) of the world's most linguistically diverse nation (PNG).

The current literature on clause chaining in New Guinea languages holds that for languages which distinguish realis and irrealis clause chaining linkers, the choice of one or the other type on previous medial clauses, is determined by agreement with verbal categories in the final clause. In this paper I rely on documentary linguistic evidence from Chini to support a different analysis, namely that speakers produce the linkers online in a way that can preclude governance from information in an upcoming final clause. Although most chains do contain only realis or irrealis linkers, Chini speakers nonetheless do freely shift back and forth between realis and irrealis linkers within single chains.

I also suggest why different types of linguistic data might be at play in leading different linguists to different analyses of agreement phenomena in Papuan-style clause chaining constructions. Whereas the agreement analysis for realis and irrealis marking has been based on elicited and narrative data, the evidence I have used comes entirely from naturalistic Chini conversation, which lacks a 'script' and often involves much more complex interrelations between events and their expression in clause chaining constructions. Although the match between information in final clauses and realis vs irrealis linkers on previous medial clauses does often permit analysis in terms of concord, conversational data from these types of languages shows that the workings of these constructions is more complex than previously understood.

Here I discuss my interaction with the Hua community of Rosave village in the Eastern Highlands o... more Here I discuss my interaction with the Hua community of Rosave village in the Eastern Highlands of PNG. Their reaction to my attempt to help repatriate John Haiman's 1970s Hua materials flies rather fully in the face of current beliefs about ethical best practices, especially in terms of decolonizing approaches, because of the way in which the Hua, like many Melanesian communities, consider the role of outsiders as well as the role of linguistic legacy materials.

Here I argue in favor of social immersion as productive of linguistic knowledge with regard to th... more Here I argue in favor of social immersion as productive of linguistic knowledge with regard to the analysis of language-specific pragmatic differences.

Whereas much of linguistics and language documentation have come to value annotated digital corpora as the ideal empirical basis for linguistic claims, I discuss how methods which are under-theorized and even devalued in linguistics were key in my analysis of two sequential clause chain linkage constructions in Chini, a Lower Sepik-Ramu language of inland Madang, PNG.

The discussion centers around a pragmatic minimal pair of two biclausal chains from two unrecorded spontaneous Chini conversations during my 2018-2019 fieldwork, conversations in which I was myself a participant. These examples do not really represent "empirically sound" data; they are not valuable from the perspective of resolvability or objectivity as scientific ideals. Instead, the intellectual "low ground" of social immersion and language learning turned out to be invaluable in discovering the subtle but key linguistic difference between these clause chaining constructions, a difference which, though present among the ~800 tokens in the Chini corpus, cannot be readily accounted for by native speakers who are not linguists nor determined from the digital annotations (by a linguist who is not a native speaker). I explain why the documentary data have an important ancillary role in supporting analyses that draw centrally from social immersion, but can in fact be quite limited in their potential to give insight into language-specific pragmatic workings such as those found in the Chini linkage constructions.

In this paper I challenge the analysis of 1PL Tok Pisin pronouns in terms of clusivity, suggestin... more In this paper I challenge the analysis of 1PL Tok Pisin pronouns in terms of clusivity, suggesting instead an analysis based on more elusive pragmatic principles involving presence and absence of social contrast. To that end I rely on 57 examples from unrecorded interactions in Tok Pisin with Iteri-speaking villagers (West Range mountains, East Sepik-Sandaun border region) which represent exceptions to the patterns expected by the traditional clusivity analysis.

Intl Journal of Lang and Culture, 2019

Language Documentation and Conservation, 2015

Reflexive constructions in the world's languages (Research on Comparative Grammar 3), 2023

This paper is structured as follows.

Journal of Language Contact, 2019