Foreword (Elizabeth Zeitoun) - Academia Sinica

Foreword Elizabeth Zeitoun Academia Sinica

1. Purpose of this anthology and note on S. Starosta’s legacy Stanley Starosta was a professor in the Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa for nearly thirty five years until his retirement in May 2002. He passed away soon after, on July 18, 2002. At the time, he had been scheduled to offer classes on Formosan languages and linguistics at the 2002 Taiwan Summer Institute, organized by the Linguistic Society of Taiwan. His wife, Mrs. Aleli Starosta, on behalf of her late husband, donated most of his books to the Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica. I was in charge of selecting books of interest for our Institute and collecting all the manuscripts (mostly field notes) he had left behind him during two trips I made to Hawai‘i in March 2003 and in January 2005. Stanley Starosta did much more than just donate part of his book and field notes collection to the Institute of Linguistics. He first visited Taiwan in 1964 to study Chinese and since the very beginning he was very much involved in the study of the Formosan languages. Blaine Erickson (http://www.ling.hawaii.edu./faculty/stanley/erickson.html) in his obituary recounts: Professor Starosta spent extended periods doing research, teaching, and field work in East, Southeast, and South Asia, and Western Europe. His primary area of research was lexicase, a highly-constrained dependency grammar he developed. He also worked on natural language processing, morphological theory, and the synchronic analysis and historical reconstruction of languages of East, Southeast, and South Asia and the Pacific. An expert in Austronesian linguistics, he wrote countless papers and gave innumerable presentations on Formosan languages; much of his work was based on his own field work in Taiwan. In addition to his work on Proto-Austronesian, he also did research on the prehistory of other languages of E/SE/S Asia and the Pacific. Additionally, he had considerable expertise in Chinese languages, German, Japanese, and Thai. He devoted much of his effort to issues in syntactic theory, such as case relations, ergativity and transitivity, and focus. His morphological theory, also highly constrained, holds that words have no internal structure, and, in essence, that the only morphological rule is analogy.

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Over the years, he established strong connections with scholars and students in Taiwan and shared durable friendships with a number of them. To give but a few examples, he was Prof. Paul Jen-kuei Li’s supervisor at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in the early 1970’s (cf. Li 1973). He was Lillian M. Huang’s academic host when she spent a year in Hawai‘i in 1993 (cf. Huang 1994). I personally first met him in December 1992 at Academia Sinica where I had been working for about four months, as I was starting my career as a researcher on the Formosan languages. He had heard about my work and read my MA thesis on Tsou (cf. Zeitoun 1992). From the very first time we met, our debates were stormy, but I benefited greatly from his advice and guidance over the years. Stanley Starosta spent over two years (1972, 1988-1989 and 1996-1997) as visiting research fellow in Taiwan. He taught classes at National Tsing Hua University (1988-1989, cf. Ho 1990) and at National Taiwan University (Fall semester – 1996). He also did field work on a number of Formosan languages: Tsou, Saaroa, Rukai, Seediq, Saisiyat, Paiwan, Amis, Yami and Bunun. Last, but not least, he participated in many conferences organized, among others, by the Institute of History and Philology at Academia Sinica, including: the International Symposium on Austronesian Cultures: Issues Relating to Taiwan, Dec. 8-12, 1992, the Conference on Austronesian Languages in Taiwan, May 20-22, 1994, the Fourth International Conferences on Chinese Languages and Linguistics, July 18-20, 1994, and by the Institute of Linguistics, including the Eighth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, Dec. 28-30, 1997, the Workshop on Nominalization in Formosan Languages, Oct. 21-22, 2000, and the International Symposium on Austronesian Studies Relating to Taiwan, Dec. 8-11, 2001. 1 Though very provocative and controversial, Starosta’s ideas have been very influential and his thoughts, beyond doubt, have inspired all those who have been working on the morphosyntax of the Formosan languages since the early 1990’s. Despite his prominent leadership in the field and his scholarly contributions to our understanding of the Formosan languages, his work has tended to be ignored in recent years and is rarely cited or credited although it has laid the foundation of Formosan linguistics, at least on the morphosyntactic level; its influence can be seen in many analyses. Students having attended his classes sometimes omit to cite him properly, and respected scholars in Taiwan have tended to forget his contributions to the field (see Wang 2004, Zeitoun 2005). Such omissions are rather surprising and all the more upsetting in that most of his papers are accessible to the public (in press and on-line). Many appeared in volumes that were published in Taiwan, most notably by the Institute of History and Philology (cf. Starosta 1988a, 1990, 1995a) and by the Institute of Linguistics (cf. Starosta 1997, 1999,

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Lexicase seems never to have been recognized in the international linguistic circle.

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2002a). He also published many influential papers in journals abroad (e.g., Language, cf. Starosta 1969 and Oceanic Linguistics, cf. Starosta 1974) as well as conference proceedings, Pacific Linguistics (cf. Starosta et al. 1982, Starosta 1985, 1986, 2002b). The purpose of this anthology is to offer a small token of my gratitude to Stanley Starosta. It intends to reintroduce Starosta’s work to bring forward his legacy to the field of Formosan linguistics so that it can receive the recognition it deserves and inspire contemporary researchers. This anthology is divided into two volumes that reflect S. Starosta’s research interests. The first contains major papers on lexicase. I have also included a paper on compounds (cf. Starosta 2003) to highlight his views on seamless morphology (cf. Ford et al. 1997). The second contains all the papers he published on issues related to the Formosan languages (including typology, focus, ergativity, subgrouping and morphosyntactic reconstruction). I have also included three papers that were not published during his lifetime (cf. Starosta et al. 1981, Starosta 2001 and 2004a)2 and one paper that is mainly concerned with Tagalog (cf. Starosta 1986), but provides a reassessment of ideas expressed in Starosta et al. (1981, 1982) and Starosta (1985).

2. Starosta’s research interests Starosta’s research was driven by one major goal: assess and reassess─whenever necessary─the theory he had put forward based on a variety of (Austronesian and non-Austronesian) languages. Thus, most of his theoretical assumptions and empirical analyses took root in lexicase (cf. among others, Starosta 1988b and 1994), the development of which was the focal point of his professional career. At the end of his life, he also collaborated with Ford et al. (1997) and worked on seamless morphology (cf. Starosta 2003). The papers he published on the Formosan languages cover a large number of issues ranging from typology, focus, ergativity, subgrouping and morphosyntactic reconstruction. In the following two sections, I review briefly his major theoretical assumptions and his contributions to Formosan languages and linguistics.

2.1 A bird’s eyeview of lexicase Starosta (1994) defined lexicase as a “type of European-style depency/valency grammar” which had evolved as a reaction against Chomsky’s generative-transformational grammar, though it was said to be “generative”,3 i.e. “formal” and “explicit”. 2 3

A translated version in French appeared as Starosta (2004b). Stanley Starosta was against transformations and for a one level of representation. Thus, in lexicase, there is no distinction between D-structure and S-structure, and f-structure from c-structure. He also got rid of empty categories and label nodes.

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The name he gave to his theory (cf. lexicase) reflected Starosta’s views of grammar: lexi- refers to the generalizations that can be made about the internal and external structure of a word and -case to the syntactic and the semantic relationships that exist between nouns and the words on which they depend. Grammatical representations are stated in terms of pairwise dependency relations between a dominant word (the regent) and a dependent word. Only five case relations are recognized: PAT (Patient), AGT (Agent), LOC (Locative in earlier publications / Locus in later publications), MNS (Means), COR (Correspondent). Cases are associated with case forms that are rendered by case markers (e.g. Nom (Nominative), Gen (Genitive), Lcv (Locative), Ins (Instrumental), etc.). Starosta’s basic and most fundamental assumptions were that: - every verb has a PAT complement and every transitive verb has an AGT complement. - PAT links to Nom in all intransitive clauses (whether the language is defined as accusative or ergative). - actr (actor) links to PAT in an intransitive clause and AGT in a transitive clause. - In accusative languages, Nom links to actr, and in ergative languages, Nom links to PAT.

2.2 Starosta’s contributions to Formosan languages and linguistics Starosta’s contributions to Formosan languages and linguistics are readily seen in two main areas, typology and historical linguistics. Regarding his typological studies, he was the first (i) to compare synchronically and systematically the Formosan languages (cf. for instance Starosta 1974, 1988a) and (ii) to assert the ergativity of the Formosan languages (cf. Gibson & Starosta 1990, Starosta 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2004a-b as well as earlier papers mentioned in the references herein). Regarding historical linguistics, his research interests were numerous, ranging from the reconstruction of PAN morphemes (cf. Starosta et al. 1981, 1982, Starosta 1993, 1995a-b), the development of two closely interrelated phenomena, focus and nominalization (cf. Starosta et al. 1981, 1982, Starosta 1985, 1986, 2002a), the interrelationships of the Formosan languages (cf. Starosta 1990, 1995a, 1996, 2002b), to the phylogeny of the Austronesian language family (cf. Starosta 1995b) His views on ergativity have been very influential in the field, but while they are now widely accepted, they are not always being credited in their own right (see §1), and not always really understood (e.g., there is a tendency to mix up cases, cf. the use of the “accusative” case to discuss ergative languages).

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3. Editing conventions While I have retyped all the papers, I have tried, to the extent possible, to leave Stanley Starosta’s publications intact. Modifications I have made include: (i) correcting typos or inconsistencies and adding missing references, (ii) numbering sections if these were not in the original papers, (iii) adding titles to tables and figures if there were none in the original papers, (iv) including the date of publication in the references if these were unknown at the time of publication as well as a note on subsequent publications of cited articles or books whenever necessary, (v) supplementing English and Chinese abstracts for nearly each paper (English abstracts precede the papers while Chinese abstracts follow them), and (vi) changing the layout of the examples in the earliest papers by replacing numbers with glosses as is customarily done nowadays and adopting his more recent abbreviations in his earlier publications (e.g., NM > Nom, AC > Acc etc.). A number of people have helped me in the preparation of this anthology. I am grateful to Aleli Starosta who received me so kindly at Ruth place. She suggested the drawing that figures on the cover page of the two volumes, and which was designed by my daughter, Alexandra Y. Lin (林意真). I am indebted to the colleagues who accepted to read and comment on the layout of this anthology, in particular, Dah-an Ho (何大安), Raleigh Ferrell, Byron Bender, Lawrence Reid, Hsiu-chuan Liao (廖秀娟) and Stacy F. Teng (鄧芳青). I am thankful to William O’Grady and Laurent Sagart who agreed to each write a preface. I am grateful to Hsiu-lian Lin (林秀蓮) and Martine Zeitoun for proofreading help. I would like to thank Stacy F. Teng and Stephen Y. Chuang (莊雲翔) for correcting the Chinese abstracts. Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to Chih-hsien Lin (林志憲) for redrawing all the figures contained in these two volumes, and Joyce C. Kuo (郭君瑜) for final typesetting and editorial assistance.

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References Ford, Alan, Rajendra Singh, and Gita Martohardjono. 1997. Pace Panini: Towards a Word-Based Theory of Morphology. American University Studies Series XIII, Linguistics, Vol. 34. New York: Peter Lang. Gibson, Jeanne D., and Stanley Starosta. 1990. Ergativity east and west. Linguistic Change and Reconstruction Methodology, ed. by Philip Baldi, 195-210. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Ho, Arlene Y. L. 1990. Yami Structure: A Descriptive Study of the Yami Language. Hsinchu: National Tsing Hua University MA thesis. Huang, Lillian M. 1994. Ergativity in Atayal. Oceanic Linguistics 33.1:129-143. Huang, Shuanfan. 2005. Split O in Formosan languages─a localist interpretation. Language and Linguistics 6.4:783-806. Li, Paul Jen-kuei. 1973. Rukai Structure. Institute of History and Philology Special Publications No. 64. Taipei: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica. Starosta, Stanley. 1969. Review of: “A descriptive study of the Tsou language, Formosa. By Tung T’ung-ho (Institute of History and Philology, Special Publications, No. 48.) Taipei: Academia Sinica, 1964, pp. vi, 641. $ 10.00”. Language 45.2:439-444. Starosta, Stanley. 1974. Causative verbs in Formosan languages. Oceanic Linguistics 13.1-2:279-369. Starosta, Stanley. 1985. Verbal inflection versus deverbal nominalization in PAN: the evidence from Tsou. Austronesian Linguistics at the 15th Pacific Science Congress, ed. by Andrew Pawley & Lois Carrington, 281-312. Pacific Linguistics C-88. Canberra: The Australian National University. Starosta, Stanley. 1986. Focus as recentralization. FOCAL I: Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, ed. by Paul Geraghty, Lois Carrington & Stephen Wurm, 73-95. Pacific Linguistics C-93. Canberra: The Australian National University. Starosta, Stanley. 1988a. A grammatical typology of Formosan languages. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology Academia Sinica 59.2:541-576. Starosta, Stanley. 1988b. The Case for Lexicase: An Outline of Lexicase Grammatical Theory. Open Linguistics Series. London: Pinter Publishers. Starosta, Stanley. 1990. Subgrouping by lexical similarity. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology Academia Sinica 61.4:836-840. Starosta, Stanley. 1993. The case-marking system of Proto-Formosan. Pan-Asiatic Linguistics: Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Language and Linguistics, Vol. 3, ed. by Luksaneeyanawin Sudaporn, 1207-1221. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Printing House.

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Starosta, Stanley. 1994. Lexicase. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Vol. 4, ed. by R. E. Asher & J. M. Y. Simpson, 2167-2174. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Starosta, Stanley. 1995a. A grammatical subgrouping of Formosan languages. Austronesian Studies Relating to Taiwan, ed. by Paul Jen-kuei Li, Cheng-hwa Tsang, Ying-kuei Huang, Dah-an Ho & Chiu-yu Tseng, 683-726. Symposium Series of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, No. 3. Taipei: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica. Starosta, Stanley. 1995b. The Chinese-Austronesian connection: a view from the Austronesian morphology side. The Ancestry of the Chinese Language, ed. by William S-Y. Wang, 373-392. Journal of Chinese Linguistics, Monograph Series No. 8. Berkeley: University of California. Starosta, Stanley. 1996. The position of Saaroa in the grammatical subgrouping of Formosan languages. Pan-Asiatic Linguistics: Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Languages and Linguistics, Vol. III, ed. by Suwilai Premsirat, 944-966. Salaya: Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University at Salaya. Starosta, Stanley. 1997. Formosan clause structure: transitivity, ergativity, and case marking. Chinese Languages and Linguistics, Vol. 4: Typological Studies of Languages in China, ed. by Chiu-yu Tseng, 125-154. Symposium Series of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, No. 2. Taipei: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica. Starosta, Stanley. 1998. Ergativity, transitivity, and clitic co-reference in four Western Austronesian languages. Case, Typology and Grammar, ed. by Anna Siewierska & Jae Jung Song, 277-307. Typological Studies in Language 38. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Starosta, Stanley. 1999. Transitivity, ergativity, and the best analysis of Atayal case marking. Selected Papers from the Eighth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, ed. by Elizabeth Zeitoun & Paul Jen-kuei Li, 371-392. Symposium Series of the Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, No 1. Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica. Starosta, Stanley. 2001. Reduplication and the subgrouping of Formosan languages. Paper read at the International Symposium on Austronesian Relating to Taiwan. Taipei: Academia Sinica. December 8-11, 2001. Starosta, Stanley. 2002a. Austronesian ‘focus’ as derivation: evidence from nominalization. Language and Linguistics 3.2:427-479. Starosta, Stanley. 2002b. The rise and fall and rise and fall of Proto Malayo-Polynesian. Collected Papers on Southeast Asian and Pacific Languages, ed. by Robert S. Bauer, 183-203. Pacific Linguistics 530. Canberra: The Australian National University.

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Starosta, Stanley. 2003. Do compounds have internal structure? A seamless analysis. Explorations in Seamless Morphology, ed. by Rajendra Singh & Stanley Starosta, 116-147. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks and London: Sage Publications. Starosta, Stanley. 2004a. Transitivity and ergativity in Austronesian languages. Manuscript. Starosta, Stanley. 2004b. Transitivité et ergativité dans les langues austronésiennes. Faits de Langues: Les langues austronésiennes, No. 23-24, ed. by Elizabeth Zeitoun, 87-106. Gap: Ophrys. Starosta, Stanley, Andrew Pawley, and Lawrence A. Reid. 1981. The evolution of focus in Austronesian. Manuscript. Honolulu: Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Starosta, Stanley, Andrew Pawley, and Lawrence A. Reid. 1982. The evolution of focus in Austronesian. Papers from the Third International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, Vol. 2: Tracking the Travellers, ed. by Amran Halim, Lois Carrington & Stephen Wurm, 145-170. Pacific Linguistics C-75. Canberra: The Australian National University. Wang, Shan-shan. 2004. An Ergative View of Thao Syntax. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Ph.D. dissertation. Zeitoun, Elizabeth. 1992. A Syntactic and Semantic Study of Tsou Focus System. Hsinchu: National Tsing Hua University MA thesis. Zeitoun, Elizabeth. 2005. Review of “Wang, Shan-shan. 2004. An ergative view of Thao syntax. Ph.D. dissertation, Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, pp. 389”. Concentric 31.1:159-165.

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