Deictic marking in adpositions in Ap Ma and Waran

Abstract

Two neighboring languages of the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea, Ap Ma (Keram) and Waran (Ramu), exhibit an unusual structure in adpositional phrases. In both languages, all postpositions that govern nouns are obligatorily marked with deictic prefixes that indicate the position of the referent of the NP relative to the deictic center. Both languages employ deictic morphemes that index whether a referent is near, medial, or far. In addition to having many crosslinguistically common and expected applications, these morphemes also occur as obligatory elements in adpositional phrases. This article examines the details of these unusual deictic-marked adpositional constructions, placing them in a typological context. We conclude that diachronic changes in Ap Ma phonology were likely the historical impetus for these constructions, which may have subsequently spread to Waran through contact.

Keywords

• adpositions
• postpositions
• deixis
• demonstratives
• papuan
• keram-ramu