262
TABLE 107 PC1 AND PC2 AVERAGES FOR INVERSE FUNCTIONAL
VOICE CLUSTER IN MORONENE Clause Type
Occurrences Mean PC1
Mean PC2 NOM,V-Opro,S
13 -0.818
-0.463
V-Opro,S 13
-1.432 -0.130
In terms of PCA scores, the mean PC1 scores are between -0.8 and -1.5, indicating that the undergoer is significantly more topical than the actor. The mean PC2
scores are between -0.1 and -0.5, indicating that overall topicality is rather low. Syntactically these two clause types share the features of having a nominal subject and a
verb with a suffixed pronominal object. The following are examples: 39. ka-i kaa-hira yo ica
then-3sNOM eat-3pABS ART fish NOM,V-Opro,S
„then the fish ate them‟ Icadiu 303 RRD Actor: New
Und.: 1 TP Actor: 0
Und.: 0
40. ka-i tealo anu-o tina-no
then-3sNOM pass address-3sABS mother-3sPOS hi daa mo-turi
COMPL be INTNF-sleep V-Opro,S
„then her mother appeared and spoke to her when she was sleeping‟ Icadiu 215b
RRD Actor: 1 Und.: 10
TP Actor: 4 Und.: 8
The topicality measures for this cluster of clause types are shown in Table 108.
263
TABLE 108 TOPICALITY MEASURES FOR INVERSE FUNCTIONAL
VOICE CLUSTER IN MORONENE
n=26
Anaphoric Continuity Cataphoric Importance
Referential Distance
Anaphoric Continuity
Actor Undergoer
Topic Persistence Actor
Undergoer 1
High: 10 46
62 High: 3-10
50 50
2-3 Med.: 9-9.5
15 23
4-19 Low: 1-8
12 8
Low: 0-2 50
50 19 Reactiv.
V. Low: 0.5 12
4 20 New
V. Low: 0 15
4 Standard Deviation
4.27 2.72
Standard Dev. 2.82
2.78 Mean Anaphoric Continuity
7.02 8.85
Mean Topic Pers. 3.15
3.85 Mean Anaphoric Continuity Difference
-1.83 Mean Topic Persistence Dif.
-0.70
By both topicality measures the undergoer is more topical than the actor. With respect to topic persistence, both actors and undergoers have an equal proportion of high
and low topic persistence, but the mean topic persistence difference has a small negative value, indicating the undergoer is slightly more topical. Actors retain considerable
topicality by both measures. Hence this cluster matches the category of inverse functional voice.
NOM,UVV,U Isolate The NOM,UVV,U clause type represents an isolate, located in the middle bottom
part of Figure 7. In terms of PCA scores, the mean PC1 score is -0.946, indicating that the undergoer is more topical than the actor. The mean PC2 score is -1.218, indicating
that overall topicality is quite low. The following is an example:
264 41. ka-i tibo die te-o-angka Colisi
then-3sNOM sudden this RES-RED-lift Colisi NOM,UVV,U
„then Colisi was suddenly lifted up‟ Colisi 118a RRD Actor: 1
Und.: 1 TP Actor: 7
Und.: 10 The topicality measures for this clause type are shown in Table 109.
TABLE 109 TOPICALITY MEASURES FOR NOM,UVV,U IN
MORONENE
n=12
Anaphoric Continuity Cataphoric Importance
Referential Distance
Anaphoric Continuity
Actor Undergoer
Topic Persistence Actor
Undergoer 1
High: 10 42
33 High: 3-10
42 42
2-3 Med.: 9-9.5
8 8
4-19 Low: 1-8
25 Low: 0-2
58 58
19 Reactiv. V. Low: 0.5
20 New V. Low: 0
50 33
Standard Deviation 5.18
4.54 Standard Dev.
3.69 3.81
Mean Anaphoric Continuity 4.96
5.79 Mean Topic Pers.
3.17 3.17
Mean Anaphoric Continuity Difference -0.83
Mean Topic Persistence Dif. 0.00
The topicality measures give a mixed message with regard to the relative topicality of the actor and the undergoer. Although more actors than undergoers have
medium or high anaphoric continuity 50 versus 41, there are also more actors than undergoers with very low anaphoric continuity 50 versus 33. As measured by the
mean anaphoric continuity difference, undergoers are slightly more topical than actors. As measured by cataphoric importance, actors and undergoers have exactly the same
topicality. By both measures, significant numbers of both actors and undergoers have high topicality, and significant numbers have low topicality. The high standard
deviations for every topicality measure indicate that the values have a wide spread. This clause type cannot be characterized according to any functional voice category.
265
NOM,UVV Isolate The NOM,UVV clause type represents an isolate, located in the bottom left hand
part of Figure 7. In terms of PCA scores, the mean PC1 score is -2.275, indicating that the undergoer is much more topical than the actor. The mean PC2 score is -1.627,
indicating that overall topicality is quite low. Syntactically this clause type is characterized by an undergoer voice verb and a pronominal undergoer subject. The
following is an example: 42. ka-ndo po-weweu-hakono pua wulu,
then-3pNOM AF-make-3sBEN blowpipe bamboo na-i o-oleo-hako ka-i te-wotu
NEG-3sNOM RED-day-INST then-3sNOM RES-break NOM,UVV
„then they made him a bamboo blowpipe, but it wasn‟t a day before it was broken‟ Maegani 187
RRD Actor: 1 Und.: 0
TP Actor: 1 Und.: 0
The topicality measures for this clause type are shown in Table 110.
TABLE 110 TOPICALITY MEASURES FOR NOM,UVV IN
MORONENE
n=11
Anaphoric Continuity Cataphoric Importance
Referential Distance
Anaphoric Continuity
Actor Undergoer
Topic Persistence Actor
Undergoer 1
High: 10 9
55 High: 3-10
9 55
2-3 Med.: 9-9.5
18 36
4-19 Low: 1-8
Low: 0-2 91
45 19 Reactiv.
V. Low: 0.5 20 New
V. Low: 0 73
9 Standard Deviation
4.44 2.96
Standard Dev. 1.85
3.54 Mean Anaphoric Continuity
2.59 8.91
Mean Topic Pers. 0.73
4.18 Mean Anaphoric Continuity Difference
-6.32 Mean Topic Persistence Dif.
-3.45
266 By both topicality measures the undergoer is much more topical than the actor.
Undergoers with high cataphoric importance exceed actors by a large margin: 55 - 9 = 46. The topicality of the actor is demoted, with all but 27 having very low
anaphoric continuity, and only 9 having high cataphoric importance. Hence this clause type matches the category of passive functional voice.
Theoretical Implications
In this chapter I have clustered fifteen frequently occurring basic clause types in Moronene using principal component analysis and classified them in terms of functional
voice categories. In doing this, I have tried not to impose the theoretical categories I have posited on data that does not match those categories. This is why I initially grouped them
in small clusters according to how they appeared on the plot, even though it turned out that three of those small clusters fell into the category of active functional voice.
As was the case with Hebrew, the active functional voice clusters are syntactically rather diverse. They all share the feature of having a pronominal or implicit subject, but
they vary in the verb form and the form of the object. This is explicable in that active functional voice is the unmarked category in the functional voice system. As such, it
does not need a distinctive syntactic marking as much as the other marked categories do. The results reported above are relevant to the problem of the classification of
moN
-V constructions in terms of syntactic and functional voice categories, as discussed in Chapter 7. It can be seen that
moN
-V clauses do not fall into one functional voice
category. Some are classified as antipassive functional voice, namely, monV,O and NOM,monV,O; others are classified as active functional voice, namely NOM,monV and
monV. This represents additional evidence that the
moN
- prefix does not function like a prototypical antipassive morpheme.
267 It is somewhat paradoxical that those clause types which have an explicit nominal
object, and are therefore clearly transitive, fall into the antipassive category, which one expects to have low transitivity. In contrast to this, those clause types with implicit
undergoers, and hence arguably syntactically intransitive, fall into the active functional
voice category. In these latter two clause types, NOM,monV and monV, the undergoers
are coded by zero anaphora. To explain this paradox, one needs to distinguish between the two common functions of zero anaphora, as mentioned in the discussion of implicit
undergoer clauses in Chapter 4. Zero anaphora is typically used either for discourse- active referents which have been mentioned in the immediately previous clauses or else
for unidentifiable unimportant referents. An examination of the referential distance
figures for undergoers in NOM,monV and monV clauses reveals that 55 of the
undergoers have a referential distance of one. Only 24 of the undergoers are new referents. This indicates that in a majority of cases, these two clause types are used when
both actor and undergoer have relatively high topicality, thus falling into the category of active functional voice.
At the end of Part II, I stressed that the analysis of Hebrew showed it was more insightful to analyze topicality and continuity in relation to clause types, rather than
merely in relation to contrasting verb forms. The above discussion shows that what is true of Hebrew is also true of Moronene.
Conclusion of Part III
In Part III, I have analyzed functional voice categories in Moronene narrative. Some adjustments to the methodology were necessary to accommodate particular features
of Moronene syntax. Some additional features are used to define clause types, namely, the choice of affix or clitic set used to mark the actor, the presence of an action focus
prefix, and the use of undergoer voice verb forms. Unlike Hebrew, the selection of
268 clauses for analysis includes participial clauses. I restricted the analysis to narrative
texts. I have used principal component analysis to cluster common clause types. Most
of the clusters identified are similar to those found in Hebrew, namely antipassive functional voice, active functional voice, inverse functional voice, and passive functional
voice.
PART IV MATCHING CLAUSE TYPES IN TRANSLATION
In Part IV, I compare the results of the separate analyses of Hebrew and Moronene as set out in Parts II and III. In Chapter 10, I match the clause type clusters
identified for Hebrew in Chapter 3 with those identified for Moronene in Chapter 9. For each Hebrew clause type cluster, I identify Moronene matching clause types, that is,
those which are most similar to the Hebrew cluster in their topicality patterns. Other common
Moronene clause types are referred to as “non-matching clause types.” I then make a comparison of a Biblical Hebrew text and its translation into Moronene to see to
what extent particular Hebrew clause types have been translated by Moronene matching clause types. This comparison is used to identify clauses in the existing translation that
are potentially unnatural, and hence should be evaluated for possible revision. In Chapter 11, I describe how the analysis of functional voice can be applied to
the task of improving the quality of a translation. I report the results of a revision process by Moronene translators based on their evaluation of the naturalness of non-matching
clause types and rare clause types used in the Moronene translation. I discuss various categories of clauses that needed to be revised and those that were not revised.
270
CHAPTER 10 MATCHING HEBREW AND MORONENE CLAUSE TYPES
