A Generative-extensionist Analysis Of The Proto-indo-european Kinship System With A Phonological And Semantic Reconstruction Of The Terms.

PhDCultural anthropologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/180019/2/7115350.pd

Indigeneity, ferality, and what 'belongs' in the Australian bush: Aboriginal responses to 'introduced' animals and plants in a settler-descendant society

This article investigates responses among Aboriginal people in Australia to animals and plants introduced through the process of British colonization. While there is some rejection of exotic species as emblematic of European dispossession, the article explores cases where certain fauna and flora have been embraced intellectually within Aboriginal cultural traditions. The broader discussion canvasses links in Australia between ideas of ‘nativeness’ in society and nature. If Indigenous people have incorporated non-native species, what are the implications for an Australian identity defined substantially in terms of ‘native’ landscapes? The article considers the significance of non-native nature for flexible constructions of cultural belonging among Aboriginal people in a post-colonial society. The concept of ‘emergent autochthony’ is proposed

Personal pronouns with determining functions in Australian languages

This paper analyses the adnominal use of personal pronouns in a sample of 75 Australian languages. We develop two arguments. First, we argue that in all of the adnominal uses examined, the personal pronoun has a determiner-like function, showing both the functional properties and some of the behaviour of more typical determiner categories like demonstratives or articles. We support this analysis with evidence from positioning tendencies, semantics and discourse functions, and indications of grammaticization in some languages. Secondly, we show that this phenomenon is relatively widespread in Australia, occurring in about half of the languages examined here. We identify five potential geographic clusters, one or two of which can be analyzed as areally determined groupings around a centre with incipient grammaticization. From a typological perspective, these data present new evidence for a somewhat under-studied pathway to nominal determination, in addition to better-studied pathways involving demonstratives, numerals or adjectives.status: publishe