The polyfunctionality of ACQUIRE verbs in Balinese
Abstract:
Prominent scholarship on Balinese (Glottocode: bali1278), especially its morphosyntax, has highlighted the significance of Balinese grammatical voice for syntactic theory and for the typology of Austronesian symmetrical voice (Arka, 2003; Artawa, 1998, 2013; Riesberg, 2014, among others), including how discourse factors regulate the choice of particular voice constructions (Pastika, 1999). However, much less is known about how Balinese may contribute to broader cross-linguistic phenomena in the domain of semantic typology (Koptjevskaja-Tamm et al., 2007; Evans, 2012), with the exception of a few studies on Balinese spatial frame of reference (Wassmann & Dasen, 1998; Aryawibawa, 2010).
This talk presents a corpus-illustrated lexical-typological study (a sub-branch of semantic typology; Evans, 2012, p. 533, endnote 1) of the polyfunctionality of Balinese ACQUIRE/GET verbs. The patterns identified, especially grammaticised meanings, are compared with those proposed for the grammaticalisation of ACQUIRE verbs cross-linguistically (Heine & Kuteva, 2002) and with those attested in Mainland Southeast Asian (MSEA) languages (Enfield, 2003; Jenny, 2015), highlighting both unique developments (e.g., non-volitionality) and recurrent ones (e.g., the modal meaning of ability and the aspectual meanings of attainment and perfectivity). Similar grammaticalisation patterns between Balinese and MSEA languages provide further evidence from an overlooked phenomenon (cf. Comrie, 2007) supporting the recent proposal of Greater Southeast Asia as a linguistic area extending beyond the mainland to include insular regions stretching eastward across the Indonesian archipelago (Gil, 2015). In addition, this study expands the empirical basis for cross-linguistic research on ACQUIRE verbs.
Bio:
Gede Primahadi Wijaya Rajeg (PhD, Monash University, Australia) is Assistant Professor/Senior Lecturer at Udayana University, Bali, and a fellow of the Indonesian Young Academy of Science (Akademi Ilmuwan Muda Indonesia [ALMI]). He did postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford to develop digital lexical resources for Enggano (AH/W007290/1). He is interested in Cognitive Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics, Austronesian Linguistics, Data Science, and Digital Humanities.
Event Details
- Date:
- 12 May 2026 at 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
- Venue:
- E561, Elizabeth Burchill Room, Level 5, East Wing, Menzies Building
- Categories:
- School of Languages Literatures Cultures and Linguistics
Description
Abstract:
Prominent scholarship on Balinese (Glottocode: bali1278), especially its morphosyntax, has highlighted the significance of Balinese grammatical voice for syntactic theory and for the typology of Austronesian symmetrical voice (Arka, 2003; Artawa, 1998, 2013; Riesberg, 2014, among others), including how discourse factors regulate the choice of particular voice constructions (Pastika, 1999). However, much less is known about how Balinese may contribute to broader cross-linguistic phenomena in the domain of semantic typology (Koptjevskaja-Tamm et al., 2007; Evans, 2012), with the exception of a few studies on Balinese spatial frame of reference (Wassmann & Dasen, 1998; Aryawibawa, 2010).
This talk presents a corpus-illustrated lexical-typological study (a sub-branch of semantic typology; Evans, 2012, p. 533, endnote 1) of the polyfunctionality of Balinese ACQUIRE/GET verbs. The patterns identified, especially grammaticised meanings, are compared with those proposed for the grammaticalisation of ACQUIRE verbs cross-linguistically (Heine & Kuteva, 2002) and with those attested in Mainland Southeast Asian (MSEA) languages (Enfield, 2003; Jenny, 2015), highlighting both unique developments (e.g., non-volitionality) and recurrent ones (e.g., the modal meaning of ability and the aspectual meanings of attainment and perfectivity). Similar grammaticalisation patterns between Balinese and MSEA languages provide further evidence from an overlooked phenomenon (cf. Comrie, 2007) supporting the recent proposal of Greater Southeast Asia as a linguistic area extending beyond the mainland to include insular regions stretching eastward across the Indonesian archipelago (Gil, 2015). In addition, this study expands the empirical basis for cross-linguistic research on ACQUIRE verbs.
Bio:
Gede Primahadi Wijaya Rajeg (PhD, Monash University, Australia) is Assistant Professor/Senior Lecturer at Udayana University, Bali, and a fellow of the Indonesian Young Academy of Science (Akademi Ilmuwan Muda Indonesia [ALMI]). He did postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford to develop digital lexical resources for Enggano (AH/W007290/1). He is interested in Cognitive Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics, Austronesian Linguistics, Data Science, and Digital Humanities.