Academic literature on the topic 'Madang Province (Papua New Guinea) – Languages'

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 unstudied contact areas.

- Anne Booth, W.L. Korthals Altes, Changing economy in Indonesia, Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institute (General trade statistics, 1822-1949; volume 12a). - Wim van den Doel, Robert Cribb, Historical dictionary of Indonesia. Metuchen, N.J., & London: The Scarecrow Press, 1992. - C.D. Grijns, Kingsley Bolton, Sociolinguistics today; International perspectives. London and New York: Routledge, 1992, 383 pp., Helen Kwok (eds.) - David Henley, Ole Bruun, Asian perceptions of nature: Papers presented at a Workshop, NIAS, Copenhagen, Denmark, October 1991. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian studies (Nordic Proceedings in Asian studies No. 3), 1992, 261 pp., Arne Kalland (eds.) - Ward Keeler, Jonathon Falla, True love and Bartholomew: Rebels on the Burmese border. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. - Elsbeth Locher-Scholten, Mary F. Somers Heidhues, Bangka tin and mentok pepper; Chinese settlement on an Indonesian island. Singapore: Institute of South-east Asian studies, 1992, 296 pp. - Marie Alexandrine Martin, Christin Kocher Schmid, Of people and plants. A botanical ethnography of Nokopo village, Madang and Morobe provinces, Papua New Guinea. Ethnologisches Seminar der Universität und Museum für Völkerkunde, Basel, 1991, 336 pp. - J. Noorduyn, Bernhard Dahm, Regions and regional developments in the Malay-Indonesian world: 6 European Colloquium on Indonesian and Malay studies (ECIMS) June 1987 Passau. Wiesbaden: Harassowitz, 1992, x + 221 pp., maps. - J. Noorduyn, J.N. Sneddon, Studies in Sulawesi Linguistics, Part II, NUSA, Linguistic studies of Indonesian and other languages in Indonesia, volume 33. Jakarta: Baden Penyelenggara Seri Nusa, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya. 1991, x + 115 pp., maps. - Anton Ploeg, Richard Michael Bourke, Taim hangre: Variation in subsistence food supply in the Papua New Guinea highlands, Unpublished PhD thesis, submitted in the department of human geography, The Australian National University, RSPacS, Canberra, 1988, xxiii + 370 pp., maps, tables, figures, appendices. - Anton Ploeg, Maureen A. MacKenzie, Androgenous objects: String bags and gender in central New Guinea. Chur, Switzerland, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1991, xv + 256 pp., maps, figures, bibliography, index. - Nico G. Schulte Nordholt, Jeremy Kemp, Peasants and cities; Cities and peasants; Rethinking Southeast Asian models, Overveen, ACASEA, 1990, 126 pp. - Rudiger Schumacher, Clara Brakel-Papenhuijzen, The Bedhaya court dances of central Java, Leiden/New York/Köln: Brill, 1992, xvi + 349 pp. - Corry M.I. van der Sluys, Carol Laderman, Taming the wind of desire; Psychology, medicine, and aesthetics in Malay Shamanistic performance. University of California Press, 1991, 382 pp. - J.H.F. Sollewijn Gelpke, Geoffrey Irwin, The prehistoric exploration and colonisation of the Pacific. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1992, viii + 240 pp. - R.G. Tol, Burhan Magenda, East Kalimantan; The decline of a commercial aristocracy. Ithaca, Cornell University (Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, Monograph Series (publication no. 70)), 1991, viii + 113 pp., maps.

A new muricid species assigned to the genus Favartia is described from Madang Province in Papua New Guinea and is compared with similar-looking species from the Indo-West Pacific. The Muricidae species, excluding Coralliophilinae, collected during several Belgian explorations in Papua New Guinea is listed in the appendix.

The Papua New Guinea (PNG) species of the water beetle genus Hydraena Kugelann, 1794, are revised, based on the study of 7,411 databased specimens. The two previously named species are redescribed, and 130 new species are described. The species are placed in 32 species groups. High resolution digital images of all primary types are presented (online version in color), scanning electron micrographs of representative species are given, and geographic distributions are mapped. Male genitalia, representative female terminal abdominal segments and representative spermathecae are illustrated. Papua New Guinea Hydraena species are typically found in sandy/gravelly stream margins, often in association with streamside litter; some species are primarily pond or swamp dwelling, and a few species are usually found in the hygropetric splash zone on stream boulders or on rocks at the margins of waterfalls. The geographic distributions of PNG Hydraena are compared with the Areas of Freshwater Endemism recently proposed by Polhemus and Allen (2007), and found to substantially support those areas. Only one species, H. impercepta Zwick, 1977 is known to be found in both Australia and Papua New Guinea. The probable Australian origins of the PNG hydraenid genera Gymnochthebius and Limnebius are discussed. The origins of just a few species of PNG Hydraena appear to clearly be Australia, and of comparatively recent origin, whereas the origins of the remainder remain problematic because of lack of knowledge of the Hydraena fauna in Papua Province, Indonesia, and islands large and small to the west of New Guinea. No endemic genera of Hydraenidae are currently known for New Guinea, whereas 98% of the known species are endemic. New species of Hydraena are: H. acumena (Eastern Highlands Province: Koma River, tributary of Fio River), H. adelbertensis (Madang Province: Adelbert Mts., below Keki), H. akameku (Madang Province: Akameku–Brahmin, Bismarck Range), H. altapapua (Southern Highlands Province: Sopulkul, 30–35 km NE Mendi), H. ambra (Eastern Highlands Province: Wanitabi Valley, nr. Okapa), H. ambripes (Madang Province: Finisterre Mts., Naho River Valley, Budemu), H. ambroides (Eastern Highlands Province: Wanitabi Valley, nr. Okapa), H. apertista (Madang Province: Finisterre Mts., Lower Naho Valley, Hinggia), H. apexa (Eastern Highlands Province: Okapa), H. aquila (Madang Province: Simbai area), H. aulaarta (Western Highlands Province: Kundum), H. austrobesa (Central Province: nr. Port Moresby, Sogeri Plateau, Musgrave River), H. bacchusi (Eastern Highlands Province: Wanitabi Valley, nr. Okapa), H. balkei (Eastern Highlands Province: Akameku–Brahmin, Bismarck Range), H. bicarinova (Eastern Highlands Province: Wanitabi Valley, nr. Okapa), H. bifunda (Morobe Province: c. 7 mi. Lae–Bulolo road), H. biundulata (Morobe Province: Lae–Bulolo road), H. brahman (Madang Province: Ramu Valley, 4.5 km N Brahman), H. bubulla (Madang Province: Akameku–Brahmin, Bismarck Range), H. buloba (Morobe Province: Herzog Mts., Wagau), H. buquintana (Western Highlands Province: Mt. Hagen town area), H. carinocisiva (Eastern Highlands Province: Aiyura), H. carmellita (Morobe Province: Herzog Mts., Wagau), H. cavifrons (Madang Province: Ramu Valley, 4.5 km N Brahman), H. cheesmanae (Central Province: Kokoda), H. clarinis (Madang Province: Sepik Ramu Basin, Kojé Creek), H. colorata (Morobe Province: 5 miles W of Lae, Buins Creek), H. confluenta (Eastern Highlands Province: Umg. [=environs of] Kainantu, Onerunka), H. copulata (Gulf Province: Marawaka, Mala), H. cunicula (Madang Province: Akameku–Brahmin, Bismarck Range), H. decepta (Eastern Highlands Province: Okapa), H. diadema (Eastern Highlands Province: Purosa Valley, nr. Okapa), H. dudgeoni (Madang Province: Sepik Ramu Basin, Kojé Creek), H. einsteini (Central Province: Port Moresby–Brown River road), H. essentia (Eastern Highlands Province: Sepik River Basin, stream beside milestone labelled G-99), H. exhalista (Gulf Province: Marawaka, Mala), H. fasciata (Morobe Province: Herzog Mts., Wagau), H. fascinata (Madang Province: Finisterre Mts., Naho River Valley, nr. Moro), H. fasciolata (Madang Province: Madang, Ohu Village), H. fasciopaca (Madang Province: Keki, Adelbert Mts.), H. fenestella (Morobe Province: Lae-Bulolo road), H. foliobba (Morobe Province: Herzog Mts., Wagau), H. formosopala (East Sepik Province: Prince Alexander Mts., Wewak), H. funda (Central Province: Moitaka, 7 miles N of Port Moresby), H. fundacta (Madang Province: Adelbert Mts., Sewan–Keki), H. fundapta (Central Province: Port Moresby–Brown River road), H. fundarca (Eastern Highlands Province: Okapa), H. fundextra (Morobe Province: Markham Valley, Gusap), H. galea (Eastern Highlands Province: Akameku–Brahmin, Bismarck Range, 700 m), H. herzogestella (Morobe Province: Herzog Mts., Bundun), H. hornabrooki (East Sepik Province: Sepik, main river), H. huonica (Madang Province: Kewensa, Finisterre Range, Yupna, Huon Peninsula), H. ibalimi (Sandaun Province: Mianmin), H. idema (Eastern Highlands Province: Umg. [=environs of] Onerunka, Ramu River), H. impala (Central Province: nr. Port Moresby, Sogeri Plateau, Musgrave River), H. incisiva (Morobe Province: Herzog Mts., Wagau), H. incista (Western Highlands Province: Simbai, Kairong River), H. infoveola (Gulf Province: Marawaka, Mala), H. inhalista (Madang Province: Finisterre Mts., Naho River Valley, Damanti), H. inplacopaca (Eastern Highlands Province: Waisa, nr. Okapa), H. insandalia (Eastern Highlands Province: Headwaters of Fio River, 0.5 km downstream of river crossing on Herowana/Oke Lookout path, ca. 4.5 km N of Herowana airstrip), H. intensa (Morobe Province: Lae–Bulolo road), H. johncoltranei (National Capital District, Varirata NP), H. jubilata (Madang Province: Finisterre Mts., Naho River Valley, Budemu), H. koje (Madang Province: Sepik Ramu Basin, Kojé Creek), H. koma (Eastern Highlands Province: Koma River, tributary of Fio River, 100 m downstream of rattan bridge crossing, ca. 3.8 km S by E of Herowana airstrip), H. labropaca (Central Province: nr. Port Moresby, Sogeri Plateau, Musgrave River), H. lassulipes (Morobe Province: Herzog Mts., Wagau), H. limbobesa (Gulf Province: Marawaka, near Ande), H. maculopala (Madang Province: Madang, Ohu Village), H. manulea (Morobe Province: Lae, Buins Creek), H. manuloides (Central Province: Port Moresby–Brown River road), H. marawaka (Gulf Province: Marawaka, Mala), H. mercuriala (Sandaun Province: May River), H. mianminica (Sandaun Province:May River), H. nanocolorata (Madang Province: Sepik Ramu Basin, Kojé Creek), H. nanopala (Madang Province: Sepik Ramu Basin, Kojé Creek), H. nitidimenta (Eastern Highlands Province: Koma River, tributary of Fio River, at rattan bridge crossing, ca. 2.6 km N by W of Herowana airstrip), H. okapa (Eastern Highlands Province: Wanitabi Valley, nr. Okapa), H. ollopa (Western Highlands Province: Kundum), H. otiarca (Morobe Province: Herzog Mts., Wagau, Snake River), H. owenobesa (Morobe Province: ca. 10 km S Garaina Saureri), H. pacificica (Morobe Province: Huon Pen., Kwapsanek), H. pala (Morobe Province: Lae–Bulolo road, Gurakor Creek), H. palamita (Central Province: nr. Port Moresby, Sogeri Plateau, Musgrave River), H. paxillipes (Morobe Province: Lae–Bulolo road, Patep Creek), H. pectenata (Madang Province: Finisterre Mts., Naho River Valley, Damanti), H. pegopyga (Madang Province: Ramu Valley, 3 km N Brahman), H. penultimata (Sandaun Province: May River), H. perpunctata (Madang Province: Sepik Ramu Basin, Kojé Creek), H. pertransversa (Eastern Highlands Province: Clear stream, summit of Kassem Pass at forest level), H. phainops (Morobe Province: Lae–Bulolo road, Patep Creek), H. photogenica (Eastern Highlands Province: Goroka, Mt. Gahavisuka), H. picula (Eastern Highlands Province: Goroka, Daulo Pass), H. pilulambra (Eastern Highlands Province: Clear stream, summit of Kassem Pass at forest level), H. pluralticola (Morobe Province: c. 7 miles Lae–Bulolo road), H. processa (Morobe Province: Herzog Mts., Wagau), H. quadriplumipes (Madang Province: Aiome area), H. quintana (Morobe Province: Markham Valley, Lae–Kainantu road, Erap R), H. ramuensis (Madang Province: Ramu Valley, 6 km N Brahman), H. ramuquintana (Madang Province: Ramu Valley, 6 km N Brahman), H. receptiva (Morobe Province: Lae–Bulolo road), H. remulipes (Morobe Province: Herzog Mts., Wagau), H. reticulobesa (Madang Province: Finisterre Mts., Naho River Valley, Moro), H. sagatai (Sandaun Province: Abau River), H. saluta (Madang Province: Finisterre Mts., Naho River Valley, Damanti), H. sepikramuensis (Madang Province: Ramu Valley, Sare River, 4 km N Brahman), H. sexarcuata (Eastern Highlands Province: Akameku–Brahmin, Bismarck Range), H. sexsuprema (Madang Province: Finisterre Mts., Naho River Valley, Damanti), H. spinobesa (Madang Province: Finisterre Mts., Naho River Valley, Budemu), H. striolata (Oro Province: Northern District, Tanbugal Afore village), H. supersexa (Eastern Highlands Province: Okapa), H. supina (Eastern Highlands Province: Wanitabi Valley, nr. Okapa), H. tarsotricha (Morobe Province: Herzog Mts., Wagau, Snake River), H. tetana (Eastern Highlands Province: Okapa), H. thola (Central Province: Port Moresby– Brown River road), H. tholasoris (Morobe Province: Markham Valley, Gusap, c. 90 miles NW of Lae), H. thumbelina (Madang Province: Finisterre Mts., Naho River Valley, Damanti), H. thumbelipes (Sandaun Province: Mianmin), H. tibiopaca (Morobe Province: ridge between Aseki–Menyamya), H. torosopala (Madang Province: Keki, Adelbert Mts.), H. torricellica (Morobe Province: Torricelli Mts., village below Sibilanga Stn.), H. transvallis (Madang Province: Finisterre Mts., Naho River Valley, Damanti), H. trichotarsa (Morobe Province: Lae–Bulolo road), H. tricosipes (Morobe Province: Herzog Mts., Wagau), H. tritropis (Madang Province: Sepik Ramu Basin, Kojé Creek), H. tritutela (Morobe Province: ca. 10 km S Garaina Saureri), H. ulna (Morobe Province: Herzog Mts., Wagau), H. variopaca (Eastern Highlands Province: Wanitabi Valley, nr. Okapa), H. velvetina (Eastern Highlands Province: Purosa Valley, nr. Okapa).

Behavioural difficulty is probably the least understood area of special education as it is very problematic to identify a specific cause. Behavioural difficulties are those behaviours that students sometimes exhibit that are inappropriate and unacceptable in the classrooms or schools, as they disrupt the smooth process of teaching and learning. This study investigated primary school teachers' perspectives of the causal factors of students' behavioural problems and what can be done to minimise this problem. The study was carried out in the Madang Province involving two primary schools. From the two schools, twelve teachers (six from each school) participated in the study. The same participants were involved in both the questionnaire and the semi structured interview. The data gathered for the questionnaire and interview were analysed and transcribed respectively. The findings discovered that the family and school factors contributed substantially towards students' inappropriate behaviours. Family factors include parental problems, abuse in the families, and the constant struggle to provide the basic necessities due to the high living cost. School factors, on the other hand, include negative teacher attitudes, teacher lack of knowledge and skills to adapt the curriculum to include social skills, lack of teacher support and encouragement, and peer influences. The findings also discovered that teachers were more bothered about externalising behaviours such as disruption and aggression than internalising behavioural problems like withdrawal and depression displayed by students. Further, teachers' limited pre-service and in-service training and lack of experience in teaching students with behavioural problems contributed significantly for teachers not attending to students who behave inappropriately. Based on the findings identified in the study, several recommendations were made on how to intervene to alleviate this problem. Of particular importance is teacher training at both the pre-service and in-service level. Also government support is needed in terms of funding for training, involving specialists and other resources to respond to student behavioural problems effectively and efficiently. The findings may have particular relevance to future studies in this area and provide teachers with effective and workable intervention strategies for students' behavioural problems in the classrooms.

Knowledge can be perceived to be constructed personally without external physical or social influence (Von Glasserfield, 1995). To think this way does not do justice to the potential of human knowledge, which could also be shared through communication in situations such as schooling and thus become a group possession (Mercer, 1995). In schools, communication is the vital link between teaching and learning. If learning is achieved only as a result of personal cognition, it would deny the important roles of teaching, a communication process that aims at guiding learning (Vygotsky, 1986). Teachers use language as the primary medium for achieving this task. As Mercer (1995) indicates, teachers’ language-use in the teaching process guides knowledge-construction that often results in effective learning. However, most classrooms in the world are multilingual (Clarkson, 2006), and how communication occurs within these classrooms becomes even more complex. According to bilingual theory, balanced bilinguals or multilinguals (able to speak all languages fluently) have the advantage of enhanced cognitive processes, compared to other students (Cummins, 1985). The students that were part of this study were in grade 3, the first grade of the bottom-up primary schooling in the Wahgi area of Jiwaka province, Papua New Guinea. They were in an additive stage of their language development: learning English as an additional language to other fluently spoken languages: Wahgi and Pidgin. The government of Papua New Guinea, which had been using an English-only policy for teaching, recognized this challenge tolearning. In 1992, the policy changed, and the new language policy recommended a ‘bridging process’ at the lower primary sector. This meant that a fluently spoken local language should be used as a resource to help these unbalanced-language multilingual students learn effectively. In this study the learning they engaged with was mathematics. This study aimed to assess this policy by specifically studying the educational role of the local languages when alternated purposefully as a resource through code-switching during the teaching process. The study observed eight teachers in ‘bottom-up’ primary schools within South-Wahgi speaking areas of Jiwaka province, Papua New Guinea. These teachers all used the local languages and English in their teaching. The study found the purpose of code-switching and alternating the local language was mainly to enhance the teaching process, increasing the potential for effectively guiding unbalanced multilingual students in mathematics lessons. The teachers believed and showed through their teaching processes that, in order to guide unbalanced multilingual grade 3 students in learning mathematical English and mathematical content successfully, they needed the use of their local languages and cultural knowledge. However, the data shows that the crucial endpoint in the teachers’ minds always remained the learning of mathematics in English. This result confirmed that the new language policy for the lower primary education in Papua New Guinea, which recommended the use of the local language as a teaching and learning resource, was enhancing the teaching process. This study did not target learning through such a teaching process, but it appeared there was a greater potential for the unbalanced students to be guided effectively if teachers purposefully code-switched and used the local language as a resource when introducing mathematical knowledge expressed in English.

The Sam communities of Madang Province in Papua New Guinea define, conceptualise, and demonstrate a way of relating they refer to as wanbel ("one insides, reconciled" TP) which is essential to wellbeing. Living among three villages spread along the Kabeneo River, which runs from the Finisterre Range northward to the Astrolabe Bay in Madang Province, the Sam people spend a great deal of time talking about being wanbel and participating in ceremonies to restore or maintain a state of wanbel. They believe that a lack of wanbel causes barren gardens, sickness, sorcery, and death; conversely, being wanbel brings about bountiful gardens, healthy families, and access to “development.” In the vernacular, this state of good and harmonious relations is articulated in four ways: pari beli (“good insides”), pari kujex (“one insides”), udud kujex (“one thought”), and pari xosolox (“calm insides”). The notion of wanbel is a state as well as a process that occurs within both individuals and groups that provides a way to resolve divisive issues and be well, in terms of obtaining a holistic vision of a “good life” referred to as gutpela sindaun (“wellbeing” TP). However, Sam speakers believe that a person’s thoughts and emotions are opaque to others, and thus, they cannot know whether others are wanbel. Hence, to resolve conflict and demonstrate amity, individuals must choose to reveal their inner self through speech and behaviour in village meetings and ceremonies. In these contexts, wanbel provides a way for the community to talk about and critique relationships, and, importantly, resolve disputes and mediate conflict. In recent times, even as Sam people affirm the importance of wanbel in their daily lives, some acknowledge that episodes of disharmony seem to be increasing due to recent modernising influences, independence, and the “time of money.” These varied influences provide differing visions of what wanbel should yield, and are felt to be obstacles to maintaining a state of wanbel. Through wanbel discussions, the Sam interrogate these influences, navigate and negotiate conflicting desires, and how to become wanbel in the present. This thesis focusses on how Sam villagers conceptualise and talk about wanbel and practice it in their daily lives to strengthen and benefit themselves, the clan, and the wider Sam collective. These discussions about wanbel are dynamic and turbulent negotiations with overtones of efficacy, in which individuals and groups provide feedback on the status of their relationships and how to improve them in ways that will lead to health, good fortune, and prosperity. Moreover, wanbel is a reflexive way to critique, create, and sustain mutually dependent relationships. This thesis contributes to Melanesian themes of conflict, reconciliation, personhood and agency through an ethnographic exploration of how personhood and relationships are managed, mediated, and navigated in contemporary Papua New Guinea.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences : Anthropology & Development Studies, 2018

The aim of the present work is to provide a comprehensive and rigorous synchronic description of grammatical structures and their meanings in Mangap-Mbula, an Austronesian language spoken in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. Occasional reference is also made to diachronic matters when these touch upon or help to explain synchronic patterns. In the introductory chapter, the linguistic, geographic, and cultural setting of Mangap-Mbula is described, significant dialect variations are outlined, previously published material on the language is noted, the nature and sources of the data upon which the present analysis is based are described, and a brief overview of Mangap-Mbula grammar is given. The second chapter presents a description of the sound system of the language. The description includes: 1) units distinguished, 2) allophonic and morphophonemic alternations, and 3) segmental composition of morphemes. The third chapter is a description of the morphology of the language. It characterizes both the structure of words and the various word classes which are distinguished in the language. Because of their complexity, adverbs receive especially detailed treatment. The fourth chapter is a presentation of phrase structure up to the level of simple sentences and complement clauses. The theoretical model used is a modified version of the X-bar theory of phrase structure as outlined in Gazdar, Klein, Pullum, and Sag (1985) and Pollard and Sag (1987), in which formal statements are supplemented by prose descriptions. The major modification consists in the replacement of the verb phrase constituent by a predicate phrase in order to more naturally account for non-verbal predicates. The fifth chapter describes mechanisms for combining simpler sentences into more complex ones. It, therefore, treats relative clauses, complement clauses, and various types of sentential connectives. The connectives system of Mangap-Mbula is relatively intricate, but attempts have been made to delineate precisely the meaning differences between various forms. The sixth and final chapter is a study of various means of referring. In it are treatments of Thematic devices, a statistical study of the frequencies and continuity characteristics of various encodings of clausal arguments, and a description of the principal devices for encoding emphasis. There are four Appendices. The first one presents evidence for surface phonemic contrasts, while the second one consists of a reconstruction of the historical developments of consonant and vowel phonemes from Proto-Oceanic. The third Appendix is entitled "On How To Say Things" and consists of a semantically organized set of examples. The fourth Appendix contains three glossed texts. Throughout the grammar, strong emphasis is placed upon precis ely characterizing the meanings of various forms and structures.

This thesis provides an introduction to Komnzo, a Papuan language of Southern New Guinea. Komnzo is spoken by around 200 people in the village of Rouku and a couple of adjacent hamlets. Komnzo belongs to the Tonda subgroup of the Yam language family, which is also known as the Morehead Upper-Maro group. This grammar provides the first comprehensive description of a Yam language. It is based on 16 months of fieldwork. The primary source of data is a text corpus which the author recorded and transcribed between 2010 and 2015. The corpus adds up to ten hours of text including narratives, procedurals and naturally occuring social interaction. The sequence of chapters follows the well-established order: phonology (2), word classes (3), nominal morphology (4), verb morphology (5) and TAM marking (6), noun phrase syntax (7), clausal syntax (8), interclausal syntax (9) and information structure (10). These chapters are supplemented by an anthropological, historical and sociolinguistic introduction (1), and they are rounded off by a chapter on lexicology (11). The appendix includes a 70-page dictionary with 1850 entries and three sample texts. The entire text corpus is accessible online. Komnzo provides many fields of future research, but the most interesting aspect of its structure lies in the verb morphology, to which the two largest chapters of the grammar are dedicated. Komnzo verbs may index up to two arguments showing agreement in person, number and gender. Verbs encode 18 TAM categories, valency, directionality and deictic status. Morphological complexity lies not only in the amount of categories verbs may express, but also in the way how these are encoded. Komnzo verbs exhibit what may be called `distributed exponence', that is single morphemes are underspecified for a particular grammatical category. Therefore, morphological material from different slots has to be integrated first, and only after this integration, one can arrive at a particular grammatical category. The descriptive approach in this grammar is theory-informed rather than theory-driven. Comparison to other Yam languages and diachronic developments are taken into account whenever it seems helpful.

This thesis describes several aspects of the grammar of Wutung, a language spoken on the far north-west coast of Papua New Guinea, straddling the border with Indonesia. The thesis is divided into eight chapters falling broadly into two parts. The first part focuses primarily on phonology and phonetics, while the second details aspects of the verbal morphology, the structure of the clause and of the noun phrase. Chapter 1, the introduction, provides a general background to the people, their village and their language and includes a brief discussion of the sociolinguistic context. Chapter 2 provides a brief typological overview and summary of the thesis. Chapter 3 deals with the segmental phonology, laying out the segmental inventory and the basic phonemic and phonotactic organisation of the language, including a description of the nasal vowels and syllable structure. Chapter 4 discusses the segmental phonetics, dealing in particular with voice onset timing on obstruents and the acoustic realisation of the seven oral vowels. Chapter 5 focuses on the phonology and phonetics of tone. Tone is assigned to words, but manifests on syllables, its realisation depending on the number of syllables in the word and the location of an accent point. The phonetic analysis involves examination of the acoustics of the four tone melodies of Wutung. Chapter 6 provides an overview of the structure of the simple clause, summarises the behaviour of the various word classes and describes how the major elements of the clause are combined. This chapter functions to provide a context for the following two chapters. Chapter 7 deals with the noun phrase and its constituents, primarily the noun, pronouns, and various modifiers. It presents a description of the structure of the noun phrase, definitions of the classes of word that act as NP constituents, and a summary of their morphology. Chapter 8 describes the morphology of the verbal word. It focuses in particular on describing the complex person/number/gender agreement marking found on the verb. This agreement marking is complex, manifesting via fusion of agreement prefixes with the verb root and involves substantial suppletion, especially on transitive verbs. There are four appendices: the first presents a more detailed typological overview, based on the features from the World Atlas of Language Structures; appendix 2 is the phonetic analysis wordlist; the third appendix lists the Wutung words used in the thesis, with tone marking; the fourth contains two short Wutung texts.

This study attempts to combine the Government and Binding (GB) theory and Conceptual Semantics to provide an account for problems in the basic grammatical structures of Alamblak and some topics of Japanese. The thesis assumes Jackendovian Conceptual Semantics but aims to propose an alternative theory which establishes the relationship between syntax and semantics with maximum principles and minimum stipulations. The main concepts of the theory are argument identification and visibility. First, I introduce binary conceptual structure, whereby the hierarchical relationship among conceptual arguments is structurally defined and the distinction between inner arguments and outer arguments is represented. Second I make a distinction between identifier and identifiee by introducing the functional classification of syntactic categories. Identifiers are conceptually Functions, whereas identifiees are Basic Categories. PPs and APs are classified as Functions, i.e. identifiers. I also propose a theory of argument identification, which unifies the Conceptual Structures of an identifier and an identifiee under government and predication. It is proposed that the unification of two identifiers is carried out by argument sharing. This enables us to eliminate the specification of identifiers from the syntactic selectional information registered in the lexical specifications of verbs, e.g. locational verbs and motion verbs, for example, do not syntactically specify that they select a PP. In chapter one, it is suggested that what was formerly considered to represent syntactic selectional information (Predicte Argument Structure or Argument Structure) is radically reduced and that a (P)AS only represents the ability of a verb to identify an identifiee under government. In chapter three, the concept of syntacticisation patterns is introduced. Syntacticisation patterns derive the argumentidentifying abilities of verbs from their lexical conceptual specifications (LCS), where syntacticisation patterns are subject to parametric variations. The introduction of syntacticisation patterns completely eliminates the syntactic selectional specification in unmarked cases. The amount of the information specified in the lexical entries of verbs is minimised. Chapters one and three offer a concrete solution to the question of how syntactic structures are determined on the basis of semantic specifications of lexical items. Chapter four discusses one of the basic problems of Alamblak, agreement and possessor raising. Second or “object” agreement markers are described as incorporated pronouns. The complete complementarity of second agreement markers and overt objects is accounted for by the theory of unification. It also discusses the fact that the argument relations indicated by second agreement markers do not a have grammatical function, i.e. that they are conceptually interpreted without having a grammatical function. This fact is described only in Conceptual Semantic approaches to grammar. Possessor raising is characterised as a construction involving the modification of selectional information. The theory of argument identification gives a coherent account of the construction. Chapters five and six discuss “visibility”. The distinction of identifier and identifiee leads to a fundamental understanding of the concept of “visibility”. The basic concept of visibility proposed is that an identifiees must be visible for conceptual unification, whereas identifiers are not. Person-Number-Gender markers in Alamblak are visibility markers which are manifested only on identifiees but not on identifiers. Since they do not indicate the grammatical relations of NPs, the function of visibility marking is not to identify grammatical relations. The theory of unification proposed here provides a coherent account of the problems of visibility.

Although it diverges markedly from the vision of the Melanesian Way elaborated in the 1975 constitution, large-scale resource extraction has in recent decades been championed as the key mechanism for development in Papua New Guinea. In this context, forms of “middle-way” land reform are advocated as means of rendering customary land tenure commensurable with the requirements of modern, capitalist practices of production and economic activity. Principal amongst these are Incorporated Land Groups (ILGs) and lease-lease-back arrangements. Ethnographic exploration of communities affected by the tuna industry in Madang Province shows how these land reforms transform structures and cartographies of power, privileging the agents of the state and global capital at the same time that they transform relations of power within communities. At the same time, however, forms of codification and the assertion of landowner identities allow communities to make claims against outside agents involved in resource extractive activity on their lands.

In Papua New Guinea, a country rich in mineral and other natural resources, “development” has become largely inseparable from the extension of capitalist relations of production and exchange across land. This is a cultural process as well as an economic one, and it both materially undermines and ideologically devalues customary forms of subsistence production, as well as forms of informal sector economic activity. Ethnographic exploration of communities around the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone and the RD Tuna Cannery in Madang Province also reveal the functioning of “development” as a cultural, ideational and symbolically laden phenomenon. Specifically, the consumption of tinpis (Tok Pisin: tinned fish), functions ambivalently as a signifier both of status and of dispossession. If dominant development practices devalue customary land and customary forms of production, however, it also creates new opportunities for asserting new visions of development and of the good life.

This study attempts to clarify the tense systems in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea; particularly, the past tense and habitual past forms in the sample three languages in the area: Amele, Waskia, and Kobon. This study thus investigates past tense and habitual features, and discusses how the people in the area interpret past events. The study then discusses how these people map their temporal frames in their grammars (“anthropology of time”, Gell 1996). To aid analysis, I collected data through observing descriptive grammars and fieldwork, finding that Amele exhibits three types of past tense and habitual tense forms, as in (1). Kobon has two distinct simple and remote past tenses, as in (2). Kobon has habitual aspect with the help of the verb “to be.” Waskia, in contrast, has a distinction between realis and irrealis meanings, and the realis forms can indicate past and habitual meanings (two habitual forms: one is include in realis, another is with the help of the verb “stay”), as shown in (3). (1) Amele: Today’s past: Ija hu-ga. “I came (today).” Yesterday’s past: Ija hu-gan. “I came (yesterday).” Remote past: Ija ho-om. “I came (before yesterday).” Habitual past (by adding the habitual form “l”): Ija ho-lig. “I used to come.” (2) Kobon (Davies 1989): Simple past: Yad au-ɨn. “I have come.” Remote past: Nöŋ-be. “You saw” Habitual aspect (by using the verb “mid” to be): Yad nel nipe pu-mid-in. “I used to break his firewood.” (3) Waskia (Ross and Paol 1978): Realis: Ane ikelako yu naem. “I drank some water yesterday.” (simple past) Realis: Ane girako yu no-kisam “In the past I used to drink water” (habitual past) Habitual (by using the verb “bager“ (stay)): Ane girako yu nala bager-em. “In the past I used to drink water.“ Finally, this study claims that Amele and Kobon have remoteness distinctions; near and remote past distinctions, but there is no such a distinction in Waskia. The observed habitual usages are different to each other. Nevertheless, the three languages have a grammatical viewpoint of habitual past mapping.