The University of Iowa
Department of Linguistics Colloquium Series
Fall 2014
The Lexical and Pragmatic Effects of the Balinese Morpheme –ang
Ari Natarina
Friday, December 5, 2014
2:30 pm
106 EPB
This paper addresses three questions regarding the morpheme –ang in Balinese: what are
the functions of –ang, how can –ang be represented syntactically and semantically, and what
motivates the occurrence of this morpheme. The morpheme –ang is found in different types of
constructions, including causatives and applicatives. While –ang fulfills a number of functions, it
mainly introduces a thematic argument into the predicate’s argument structure, such as an agent
when attached to intransitives, a topic of discussion when attached to verbs of communication, and
a beneficiary when attached to transitive verbs. However, this suffix also has other functions: it
shifts the argument structure in Instrumental constructions, while in other constructions, such as
Goal-PP and inherently ditransitive constructions, it does not introduce a new argument. To
account for these different functions of –ang when attached to a verb in syntax, I adopt Son &
Cole’s (2008) analysis of the Indonesian morpheme –kan as the instantiation of a Resultative
Phrase.
Additionally, the distribution of –ang in discourse parallels what Donohue (2001)
identified for Tukang Besi, in which applicative constructions are preferred when the applied
argument is discourse prominent. Inspired by Davies’ (2005, 2013) work on Madurese applicative
morphemes, I propose that the argument introduced by –ang has a specificity requirement, that is
the applied argument must be specific, which explains the motivation behind the coding of
applicative morpheme in Balinese. Wh-questions show that the newly-introduced argument in
constructions with –ang is required to be specific, because wh-in-situ is rendered ungrammatical,
and the applied argument can only be questioned through a clefting strategy, which renders it
specific. As shown below, this evidence explains why the applicative morpheme is mainly used
when the applied object is highly prominent in the discourse, as observed by Donohue in Tukang
Besi applicative constructions.
Keywords: applicative constructions, Resultative Phrase (RP), specificity
Please join us for refreshments before the talk at 2:00 pm in 571 EPB.