Calendrier

• Alice Gaby (Monash University, Australia)

dans le cadre DILIS : Atelier Morphosyntaxe

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  This talk will consider filler and placeholder terms in several Australian Aboriginal languages, with a particular focus on Kuuk Thaayorre. In Kuuk Thaayorre, the most commonly used placeholders are (etymologically) the two pronominal demonstrative forms. The proximal form inhul ‘this one’ is used to avoid disruption, where explicit reference is not necessary for the conversation to progress, whereas the distal form yuunhul ‘that one’ is used to signal disruption, where the desired lexeme is temporarily ‘inaccessible’ to the speaker and reference must be established for the conversation to progress. We will also consider a range of other forms (including ignoratives/epistememes and adnominal demonstratives) that may function as placeholders in Kuuk Thaayorre discourse. Finally, the Kuuk Thaayorre placeholders will be contrasted with the dedicated placeholder terms of Yanyuwa and Wubuy, reporting the preliminary findings of research with John Bradley and Simon Musgrave.