Chapter 5.6 Posture and movement

Malcolm Ross

1. Introduction⇫

The reconstructions presented in this chapter cover a wide semantic range of verbs concerned with posture and movement. The semantic domain is a complex one, and the reader will find more reference to the typological literature than in other chapters in these volumes, in an effort to make sense of the domain’s structure in Proto Oceanic. Languages structure the posture and movement domain in different ways, and Oceanic languages have their own shared peculiarities in this regard, described at appropriate points in the chapter.

The most important division is into posture verbs and movement verbs. Posture verbs in turn are divided into cardinal posture verbs—those denoting ‘sit’, ‘stand’ and ‘lie’, found in most languages around the world and often used as simple verbs of location (‘be at’)—and non-cardinal posture verbs, which are more culturally specific. The subdomain of movement verbs is much more complex. There are straightforward movement verbs like ‘go’, ‘fly’ and ‘descend’ (§§6.3–6.5), which have a single argument, the theme (the person or thing that is moved), and there are caused movement verbs like ‘raise’, ‘carry’, ‘put’ and ‘send’, which have two arguments: an agent that causes movement and a theme which moves. These complexities are discussed at greater length below.

2. Posture verbs⇫

Posture verbs are verbs meaning ‘sit’, ‘stand’, ‘lie’, ‘hang’, ‘lean’, ‘squat’, ‘kneel’ and the like. These can be divided into cardinal and non-cardinal posture verbs. Cardinal posture verbs have the meanings ‘sit’, ‘stand’ and ‘lie’ and have a broader range of use in many languages than non-cardinal posture verbs, i.e. verbs denoting other postures (‘hang’ etc) and verbs denoting a more specific posture (e.g. ‘sit crosslegged’) than the cardinal posture verbs.

The cardinal posture verbs ‘sit’, ‘stand’ and ‘lie’ have two kinds of use in many of the world’s languages, including Oceanic. In the first use they are simply intransitive verbs denoting the posture of their subject (‘Mary is sitting’). They are often accompanied by a location (‘Mary is sitting on a chair’). This gives rise to their second use, as default verbs in locative constructions (Ameka & Levinson 2007, Lichtenberk 2002). A locative construction is one that answers the question ‘Where is X?’. Across languages locative constructions come in three main kinds:1

  1. a construction with no copula (‘The cup — on the table’)
  2. a construction with a copula verb corresponding to English be (‘The cup is on the table’),
  3. a construction with a posture verb (‘The cup sits on the table’. ‘The vase stands on the table’).

Oceanic languages tend to have constructions of types 1 and 3, but not type 2. The Seimat (Adm) sentence below is of type 1:2

    • Seimat (Adm): (Wozna & Wilson 2005:66)
      ‘The chicken [is] under the house.’
      Tok mom hahitak-e tehu iŋ.
      CLF chicken under-CSTR CLF house

The difference between a postural and a locative use is that in the latter, the verb is bleached of its postural meaning. Thus Manam (NNG) has a type 3 locative construction where the verb -eno ‘lie’ is used in locative and existential sentences3 with abstract subjects where there is no postural orientation at all.

    • Manam (NNG): (Lichtenberk 2002:277)
      ‘If there is work, I’ll help you.’
      Malipi di-eno, masa n-duma-iʔo.
      work S:3P-lie INDEF.IRR s:1S.IRR-help-O:2S
    • Manam (NNG): (Lichtenberk 2002:277)
      ‘I’m sick in the belly.’ (Lit. ‘The sickness is in my belly.’)
      More ilo-gu-lo i-eno.
      sickness inner.belly-P:1S-in s:3S.REAL-lie

With a human subject, on the other hand, -soaʔi ‘sit’ is used in a locative sentence, again with no postural implication:

    • Manam (NNG): (Lichtenberk 2002:275)
      ‘Two years I was/stayed/lived in the town.’
      Barasi rua ŋau taun-lo u-soaʔi.
      year two I town-in s:1S.REAL-sit

The choice of -eno ‘lie’, rather than -soaʔi, with a human subject is clearly a postural usage.

    • Manam (NNG): (Lichtenberk 2002:274)
      ‘Kadiarang is lying in his house (and is) crying.’
      Kadiaraŋ maka bale ne-na-lo i-eno be i-tan~taŋ.
      K. here men’s.house CLF-P:3S-in S:3S.REAL-lie and s:3S.REAL-REDUP~cry

As these Manam examples show, the choice of posture verb depends on two factors. The first is whether the intended construction is locative or postural. If it is locative, then the second factor comes into play, namely the conventional collocation of particular nouns or semantic categories of nouns with a given posture verb. These collocations vary from language to language and almost always involve ‘sit’, ‘stand’ or ‘lie’ (Lichtenberk 2002:273–274, 305; see also Early 2000). Non-cardinal posture verbs almost never occur in a locative construction.

The three main posture verbs are also often used as aspectual verbs in Oceanic languages, usually as the second verb of a serial verb construction, but Lichtenberk (2002:270) thinks these meanings are impossible to reconstruct (and I agree with him) as different languages reflect different developments. He also thinks that reconstructing uses of posture verbs as default locative verbs is impossible. Here I am a little more sanguine (§6.2.1).

Typically in Oceanic languages intransitive verbs encode both posture and assumption of posture (inchoative posture). The latter use is sometimes distinguished by a path element meaning ‘upward’ or ‘downward’. Path was probably encoded in POc as the second verb of a serial verb construction, as in Mussau toka sio ‘sit down’ and tiŋina sae ‘stand up’, where sio ‘go down’ and sae ‘go up’ are verbs of vertical direction (vol.2:260-267). Such usages were certainly conventionalised in POc and were perhaps also grammaticised, like Manam go-soaʔi-ria [2SG. IRR-sit-go. down] ‘sit down’ (Lichtenberk 2002:269-270) or Carolinian sɔ̄-tiw [settle-go. down] ‘alight, land (of flying things)’.

Some Oceanic languages have transitives with a location object, e.g. Bugotu mono ‘abide, stay, dwell, be at’ vs monoŋ-i- ‘abide in’; To’aba’ita ʔono ‘sit’ vs ʔonof-i- ‘sit on’ (Lichtenberk 2002:269), Wayan toko ‘squat; sit on one’s heels or haunches’ vs tokoði- ‘squat or sit on’. Our sources are often silent on this matter, but there are sometimes enough reflexes to support the reconstruction of transitives.

In addition to cardinal posture verbs, verbs meaning ‘squat’, ‘kneel’ and ‘hang’ can be reconstructed, but they are not nearly as widely reflected as cardinal verbs. Many languages also cut the main domains into smaller, more specific ones. For example, as well as soaʔi ‘sit’ Manam has basaʔi ‘sit cross-legged’ (Newman 2002:3). However, the data do not permit reconstruction of such semantically narrow posture verbs.

2.1. Sit, be located⇫

Two POc forms meaning ‘sit, stay, dwell’ are reconstructable: *mono(ŋ)/*monoŋ-i and POc *nopo(q). A third form, *mia[n], is reconstructed subject to certain caveats mentioned below. Significantly, a purely postural meaning (‘sit’) is reconstructable for none of these verbs. In all three instances, reflexes tend to mean ‘sit’, ‘stay’ or ‘dwell’ or a combination of these, whereas reflexes of reconstructions meaning ‘stand’ (§6.2.2) and ‘lie’ (§6.2.3) tend to have glosses with only a postural sense. There is a reason for this. In traditional Oceanic societies there were no chairs or custom-made seats. People sat or squatted on the ground, so any ‘sit’ verb would not have had the postural sense of English sit but would have meant ‘be located’ and have been a candidate for service as the default POc locative verb.4

Reflexes of the widely reflected POc *toka ‘come to rest, settle (of vessel, on reef)’ also fall into the ‘sit, stay, dwell’ domain, but its POc meaning seems to have been narrower and indeed inchoative, a matter discussed below.

POc *mono(ŋ) ‘sit, stay, dwell’
POc *monoŋ-i ‘sit on’
MM Tabar mon ‘dwell’
MM Lihir mon ‘dwell’
MM Sursurunga mon-mon ‘remain, stay behind at home’
MM Patpatar mona ‘stay at home; lounge around; keep watch’
MM Tolai mono ‘remain and take care of the home, boat etc.’
SES Gela mono ‘stop a while, stay’
SES Bugotu mono ‘abide, stay, dwell, be (at)’
SES Bugotu monoŋ-i [VT] ‘abide in’
SES Talise mono ‘lie down’
SES Tolo mono ‘lie down’
SES Arosi mono ‘live, dwell, reside’
SES Arosi monoŋ-aʔi [VT] ‘reside at’
SES Bauro mono ‘stay in another village’
NCV Lewo mono ‘lie down, be horizontal; remain (at)’
NCal Nengone meneŋ ‘reside, be in a place’

POc *nopo(q) ‘sit, stay, dwell’ is reconstructed with possible final *-q on the basis of Polynesian reflexes, as Polynesian languages preserve root-final consonants in transitive verbs more faithfully than SE Solomonic languages like Lau below. Wayan Fijian shows two apparent reflexes of *nopo(q). Wayan novo is the regular reflex, whereas nō is irregular, as is Bauan no. The items listed under ‘cf. also’ may be cognate, but they display irregularities.

POc *nopo(q) ‘sit, stay, dwell’ (Milke 1968) ; ‘sit’ (Blust 1993)
PT Motu noho ‘dwell, remain’ (persons, not things)
MM Patpatar noh ‘dwell, lie’
SES Lau nofo ‘dwell, stop, stay’
SES Lau nofo-s-i [VT] ‘dwell, stop, stay (somewhere)’
SES Arosi nohu ‘sit quiet’
NCV Mota (va)nov ‘cause to dwell’
NCal Xârâcùù nöö ‘stay’ (Moyse-Faurie 2015)
Mic Carolinian no ‘be (at), stay, remain, live’
Fij Bauan nō ‘lie (of things)’
Fij Wayan nō ‘live, be (at), stay, dwell’
Fij Wayan novo ‘keep still, be motionless, stay without moving, keep quiet, be subdued, acquiescent, peaceful’
Fij Rotuman noho ‘dwell’
PPn *nofo ‘sit, dwell’
PPn *nofoq-i [VT] ‘sit on, dwell in’ (POLLEX)
Pn Tongan nofo ‘sit, stay, dwell’
Pn Tongan nōfoʔ-ia ‘be constantly occupied’
Pn Tongan nōfoʔ-i [VT] ‘sit on, dwell in, occupy’
Pn Niuean nofo ‘sit, dwell’
Pn Samoan nofo ‘sit, dwell, stay’
Pn Samoan nōfo-ia ‘be occupied’
Pn Samoan nōfo-aʔi [VT] ‘sit on/at, occupy’
Pn West Uvea nō ‘sit, be (at)’ (Moyse-Faurie 2015)
Pn East Futunan nofo ‘sit, be (at) (of animates)’ (Moyse-Faurie 2015)
Pn East Futunan nofoʔ-i ‘be inhabited by’
Pn East Futunan nofoʔ-aki ‘stay together’
Pn Tikopia nofo ‘sit, stay, dwell, live’
Pn Tokelauan nofo ‘sit, reside, stay’
Pn Pukapukan nō ‘sit, stay, dwell’
Pn West Futunan nofo ‘sit’
Pn Rapanui noho ‘sit’
Pn Marquesan noho ‘sit, dwell, stay’
Pn Tuamotuan noho ‘sit, dwell’
Pn Tahitian noho ‘sit, dwell’
Pn Māori noho ‘stay, live’
Pn Māori noh-ia ‘be sat on, be inhabited’
cf. also:
NNG Malai (u)nep ‘dwell’
NNG Lukep nepa ‘sit down’
MM Kia nohe ‘sit’
SES Bugotu nohe ‘sit’

If Drehet (Adm) -miŋ ‘sit’ and/or Ponapean (Mic) mi ‘exist, be (at)’ reflect *mia[n], as they appear to, then POc *mia[n] ‘sit, stay, live’ can also be reconstructed. If not, then the form is of PWOc antiquity. Final -ŋ of Drehet -miŋ appears to reflect an added morpheme, as Admiralties languages lose POc final consonants. Evidence as to whether *mia[n] has a final *-n is ambiguous, and Bali reflects it both without (mia ‘dwell’) and with *-n (miaŋa, a regular reflex).

POc *mia[n] ‘sit, stay, live’
Adm Drehet -mi(ŋ) ‘sit’
NNG Mangseng mimi(ŋa) ‘alive’
NNG Numbami -mi ‘dwell, live, stay, remain, be (at)’
NNG Bam (i)mi ‘dwell’
NNG Wogeo mi-mia ‘dwell’
NNG Sissano (Arop) -mɛn ‘stay, remain, wait, be (at)’
PT Iduna -mia [V] ‘stay, live’; [N] ‘staying, existence, living’
PT Dobu mia(toa) ‘sit’
PT Saliba -mia ‘stay’
PT Ubir -mian ‘dwell’
PT Tawala -mi-mie(ya) [V] ‘live permanently’; [N] ‘permanent residence’
PT Dawawa -mia ‘live, stay’
PT Dawawa -(tau)mia ‘stay for a while’
PT Misima mi- ‘still; staying’
PT Misima mina ‘stay’
PT Motu -mia ‘remain’ (things, not persons)
PT Gabadi -mia(do) ‘sit’
MM Vitu mia ‘sit, dwell’
MM Bali mia ‘dwell’
MM Bali miaŋa ‘sit’
MM Tigak min(aŋ) ‘dwell’
MM West Kara mi(ta) ‘dwell’
Mic Ponapean mi ‘exist, be (at)’

The primary sense of POc *toka was apparently one of settling in a position following movement, giving rise to glosses like ‘settle down’, ‘hit the bottom (of particles in suspension in a liquid and of canoes’ and ‘land (after flying)’. In many languages its reflex denotes the result of settling, ranging from ‘stuck on the reef’ (Roro [PT]) and ‘be aground’ (Tongan [Pn]) to the more general ‘sit’, ‘stay’ or ‘dwell’. In Poeng, Gela, Sa’a and PCP reflexes occur, sometimes with a qualifier, with the meaning ‘sit on one’s haunches, squat’, and this seems to have been a subsidiary meaning, overlapping with the domain of POc *tike (§6.2.4.1).

A number of reflexes point to a possible alternant *toko, and a few to a short alternant *tok. Thus Nehan toko reflects *tok with a regular echo vowel; the expected reflex of POc *toka is †toa.

PMP *tekas ‘come to rest in a place’ (ACD)
POc *toka ‘come to rest, settle (on bottom of vessel, on reef)’
Adm Mussau toka ‘sit, live, dwell’
Adm Tenis toka(sio) ‘sit’
Adm Seimat to [VI] ‘sit, stay, remain, live, dwell’
Adm Lou tok ‘sit, stay, settle down’
Adm Baluan tok ‘sit’
Adm Baluan to[k] ‘stay, exist, be at’
Adm Loniu tɔ[w] ‘be at, live’
NNG Mengen toa(kuru) ‘squat’
PT Dobu (mia)toa ‘sit’
PT Molima toa ‘sit’
PT Roro -toʔo ‘be stuck fast on reef’
MM Lamasong lok ‘dwell’
MM Madak lo ‘dwell’
MM Bilur tok ‘(post) be erect’
MM Halia (ha)toka [VT] ‘erect (e.g. a post)’
MM Babatana (toka)toka ‘ladder’
MM Nehan toka, toko ‘stay put, perch (as a bird)’
MM Teop toka ‘perch, stand on’
SES Gela toɣa ‘dwell’
SES Gela kabu toɣa-toɣa ‘squat on one’s heels; be on sentry duty’ (kabu ‘attentive’)
SES Sa’a oʔa [VI] ‘settle, of birds; squat on haunches’
SES Arosi oʔa ‘stay, dwell, abide; to settle, of birds’
SES Bauro oɣa ‘sit’
TM Asuboa to ‘sit’
PNCV *toka, *toko ‘sit, stay, be in a place’ (Clark 2009)
NCV Mota toɣa ‘abide, dwell, endure, live, behave, be’
NCV Mwotlap toɣ ‘live’
NCV Raga toɣo ‘stay, sit, dwell, be’
NCV Tamambo toɣo ‘remain’
NCV Lewo tō ‘sit, stay, be at’
NCV Namakir tok ‘stand, stay, live, be in a place’
NCV Nakanamanga toko ‘stay, live; be in, be at’
PSV *a-toɣ ‘sit, stay, live at, be at’ (Lynch 2001c)
SV Sye e-te ‘sit, stay’
SV North Tanna a-təŋ ‘live, dwell’
SV Lenakel a-rək ‘live, dwell’
SV Kwamera a-ra ‘live, stay at, be at’
SV Anejom̃ a-teɣ ‘sit’
SV Anejom̃ -teɣ ‘exist, be, stay (of inanimates)’
NCal Ajië tō ‘be at’ (Moyse-Faurie 2015)
PMic *Toka ‘settle, alight’ (Bender et al 2003)
Mic Marshallese cekʷ ‘settle (of liquids), alight, land’
Mic Mokilese cok ‘swoop’
Mic Ponapean sok ‘land (of s.t. that flies), touch bottom with one’s feet in water’
Mic Woleaian soxo ‘remain on the bottom (as dregs)’
Mic Chuukese so, sō(tiw) ‘precipitate out (as starch derived from washing grated arrowroot or manioc), come to rest, land (of flying things)’
Mic Puluwatese hō ‘land (as a plane)’
Mic Carolinian sɔ̄(tiw) ‘alight, land (of flying things)’
Mic Satawalese sɔ, sɔ̄(tiw) ‘land, alight’
PCP *toka ‘sit, squat, live, stay, settle, coagulate’ (Hockett 1976)
Fij Rotuman foʔa ‘land, come ashore’
Fij Bauan toka ‘squat; be placed, situated (of people and small objects), be at’
Fij Boumā toʔa ‘be at’
Fij Wayan toko ‘squat; sit on one’s heels or haunches; crouch with back of thighs and buttocks resting on the heels’
Fij Wayan tokoði- ‘squat or sit on s.t.’
PPn *toka ‘sit, settle, coagulate, run aground’
Pn Tongan toka ‘(boat) run aground, rest on the bottom; (water, particles in suspension, people) come to rest, settle down’
Pn Samoan toʔa ‘(liquid) be still, settle; (boat) run aground; (people) stop, settle’
Pn Tikopia toka ‘stop, cease (blood flow etc), quieten down (sea)’
Pn Māori to-toka ‘solidify, set, congeal’

2.2. Stand⇫

Two POc verbs for ‘stand’ are reconstructable: *tuqur ‘stand’ and *madriRi ‘be standing upright’. Both have PMP antecedents. Apparently no language in the data reflects both terms, with a reflex of *tuqur sometimes occurring in one language and a reflex of *madriRi in a quite closely related language. The competition between them seems to have been won in EOc languages by *tuqur, as there are no EOc reflexes of *madriRi.

PNCV appears to have had two reflexes of POc *tuqur, namely *tuqu and *tuquru (Clark (2009) reconstructs *tuqu-ru). PNCV *tuʔu is the expected reflex. PNCV *tuquru reflects the POc form plus an echo vowel, a minority pattern that occurs from time to time in PNCV.

The Choiseul forms shown under ‘cf. also’ have expected consonant reflexes but the ‘wrong’ vowels. It is tempting to attribute them to an ‘Old Oceanic’ substrate (Ross 2010:263).

A set of forms reflecting apparent POc *tutu follows below, and may or may not ultimately reflect POc *tuqur.

PMP *tuqud ‘stand’ (ACD)
POc *tuqur ‘stand’
Adm Seimat tua [VI] ‘stand’ (expected reflex is tu)
Adm Seimat tu [VI] ‘sit, stay, remain, live, dwell’
Adm Baluan tu (renders preceding stative verb ongoing)
NNG Ali tou ‘stand’
NNG Mindiri tekur ‘stand’
NNG Takia -tur [VI] ‘stand up, be in erect position’
NNG Patep laɣ ‘stand up’
PT Iamalele tovoi ‘stand’
PT Dobu tōlo ‘stand’
PT Bunama toholo ‘stand’
PT Tawala towolo ‘stand, wake; (become) leader’
MM Lavongai tuŋ ‘stand’
MM Tigak tuk ‘stand’
MM Nalik tur ‘stand’
MM Tabar turi ‘stand’
MM Notsi til ‘stand’
MM Patpatar tur ‘stand’
MM Sursurunga tur ‘stand’
MM Siar tur ‘stand’
MM Ramoaaina tur ‘stand’
MM Tolai tur [VI] ‘be, exist, stand, stop’
MM Nehan turu ‘stand’
MM Selau tur ‘stand’
MM Tinputz sun ‘wake up, get up, stand up’
MM Teop sun ‘stand’
MM Taiof tu-tun ‘stand’
MM Banoni ciɣom ‘stand’
MM Piva cuɣonu ‘stand’
MM Nduke turu ‘stand’
MM Roviana turu ‘stand’
SES Gela tuɣuru ‘stand’
SES Bugotu tū ‘stand’
SES Lengo tu ‘stand’
SES Kwara’ae ū ‘stand’
TM Engdewo tu ‘stand’
TM Tanibili sū ‘stand’
PNCV *tuqu, *tuquru ‘stand’ (Clark 2009)
NCV Mota tur ‘stand, be sufficient, prevail’
NCV Tamambo turu ‘stand, be at’
NCV Lonwolwol (rd)u ‘remain, rest, stop, stay, endure, last; be, continue (of process or action); exist; keep on’
NCV Raga tu ‘stand’
NCV Raga tu(a-mare) ‘stand (up), arise’
NCV Kiai turu ‘stand’
NCV Sakao tür ‘stand (in line)’
NCV Uripiv -tur ‘stand’
NCV Port Sandwich tül ‘stand’
NCV Labo tox ‘dwell’
NCV Lewo sū ‘be at, remain, stay’
NCV Lewo su([m,mʷ]alu) ‘stand, get up’
NCV Namakir tu(marak) ‘stand’ (marak ‘rise’)
NCV Nguna dū ‘stand, be standing’
NCV Nguna tu(leana) ‘get up, stand up, rise’ (leana ‘straight’)
NCV Neve’ei tur ‘stand’
NCV Rerep tu ‘stand’
NCV North Ambrym to-tor ‘stand’
SV Sye e-tur ‘stand’
SV Whitesands a-tul ‘stand’
NCal Jawe cūt ‘stand’
NCal Caaàc cōr ‘stand’
NCal Caaàc cu- ‘stand’ (in compounds; Cauchard 2014:97)
NCal Iaai teṭ, tooṭ ‘stand’
PMic *tuu ‘to stand; stopped, halted’ (Bender et al 2003)
Mic Kosraean tu ‘stand up; stop’
Mic Marshallese ciw(tak) ‘stand up’
Mic Mokilese u ‘stand’
Mic Mokilese ū(ta) ‘stand up’
Mic Ponapean ū ‘stand’
Mic Ponapean ū(ti) [VI] ‘stop (of moving objects)’
Mic Pulo Annian θɨ̄ ‘stand; stop’
Mic Woleaian sɨ̄ ‘stand, take an upright position’
Mic Carolinian ɨ̄(tæ) ‘stand up’
Mic Carolinian ɨ̄(lɔ) ‘stop’
Mic Puluwatese wɨ̄(tæ) ‘stand up, rise’
Mic Chuukese wɨ ‘stand erect, be upright; be stopped, halted (of s.t. in motion)’
PCP *tuqu ‘stand, be somewhere’
PCP *tuqur-a [VT] ‘stand on/near s.t.’
PCP *tuqur-aki- ‘stand up with’
Fij Rotuman fū ‘stand, be situated’
Fij Bauan tū [VI] ‘stand, be in a place’
Fij Bauan tūr-a [VT] ‘stand on/near s.t.’
Fij Bauan tur-ak-a ‘stand up with’
Pn Tongan tuʔu [VI] ‘stand; stop; be situated, exist’
Pn Tongan tuʔul-aki [PLURAL SUBJECT] ‘stand in position, form up’
Pn Rennellese tuʔu ‘stand, be upright’
Pn Tikopia tū ‘stand, remain’
Pn Tikopia tūr-ia ‘be stood by’
Pn Tikopia tūr-aki [PLURAL SUBJECT] ‘stand (together)’
Pn Samoan tū ‘stand, stand up, stand erect; be stationary’
Pn Samoan tūl-aʔi ‘stand up, get up on one’s feet’
Pn Samoan tul-ia ‘be stood on, occupied, guarded’
Pn East Futunan tuʔu ‘stand, be at’ (Moyse-Faurie 2015)
Pn East Futunan tuʔul-aki ‘walk together, walk carrying a crying child’
Pn Tahitian tū ‘stand, be upright’
Pn Māori tū ‘stand, be upright’
Pn Māori tūr-ia ‘be arranged, entered upon’
cf. also:
MM Vaghua deɣere ‘stand’
MM Varisi deɣere ‘stand’
MM Ririo der ‘stand’
MM Babatana dere ‘stand’
MM Sisiqa dere ‘stand’

The set below appears to reflect something like POc *tutu. It is not clear whether this is an idiosyncratic alternant of *tuqur or not. What is obvious is that the first *-u- has a variety of reflexes, suggesting that its POc stress fell on the second syllable, leading to reduction or loss of the first *-u-.

POc *tutu ‘stand’
Adm Lou a-tatu-t ‘stand firm’
Adm Nyindrou a-tutu-n-iy [VT] ‘put (it) up, stand (it) up’ (a- CAUSATIVE)
Adm Nyindrou tutu-n-i [VT] ‘put up, set up, stand up, erect’
NNG Manam tu(i-rake) ‘stand up’ (rake ‘go upward’)
NNG Sissano -to ‘standing’
PT Kilivila -totu [VI] ‘stand’
PT Kilivila -tito-k-i [VT] ‘stand on’
MM Patpatar tut ‘rise, stand up’
MM Roviana tutu ‘stand’
MM Kia tetu ‘stand’
MM Kokota tetu ‘stand’
MM Blablanga tʰetu ‘stand’

The set below is restricted to WOc languages but is clearly inherited from PAn. However, a PMP form with *ma-, i.e. *ma-diRi, has not been reconstructed, and would in any case have resulted in POc †*ma-riri. Instead the presence of *-dr- in POc *madriRi suggests earlier †*ma-n-diRi. CMP languages with a nasal prefix occur (the ACD lists Fordata n-diri and Kei en-dir), but not enough is known about pre-Oceanic diachronic morphology to allow a firm pre-Oceanic reconstruction.5

PAn *diRi ‘stand’ (Blust 1999)
POc *madriRi ‘be standing upright’
NNG Bariai -mad-madid ‘stand’
NNG Kilenge -mari ‘stand’
NNG Tami moji ‘stand’
NNG Sio -madi ‘stand’
NNG Mangap meⁿder ‘stand up, be in vertical position; rest from, stop, take a break from activity’
PT Dawawa -(wai)midiri ‘stand s.t. up’
PT Misima mílil ‘stand’
MM Bali madiri ‘stand’
MM Vitu madi ‘stand’
MM Nakanai magiri ‘stand’
cf. also:
MM Meramera magili ‘stand’ (apparently a Nakanai loan)

The NNG and PT forms listed below may also reflect POc *madriRi. They allow the reconstruction of putative PNGOc *midi ‘stand’. If the latter reflects POc *madriRi, then two idiosyncratic changes must be inferred: (a) *ma- became *mi- by assimilation to the *-i- of *-driRi; (b) loss of the final syllable *-Ri. Change (a) is also reflected in Dawawa -(wai)midiri ‘stand s.t. up’ and Misima mílil above, and change (b) in Kilenge -mari, Tami moji, Sio -madi and Vitu madi. It is thus not unexpected that the two changes have sometimes occurred simultaneously, and the terms listed below may well reflect independent parallel innovations rather than a single PNGOc innovation.

PNGOc *midi ‘stand’
NNG Amara mid ‘stand’
NNG Apalik mid ‘stand’
PT Iduna -midi ‘stand’
PT Gapapaiwa -mīri ‘stand; get up’
PT Dawawa -midi ‘stand’
PT Nimoa -midi ‘stand’
cf. also:
NNG Numbami -ⁿdi ‘stand, bask (in/at)’
NNG Misim (va)diŋ ‘stand’ (the presence of the causative prefix va- is anomalous)

2.3. Lie⇫

One POc term, *qenop, is reconstructed for ‘lie, rest horizontally’. A good many reflexes also mean ‘sleep’, but this is a natural development from ‘lie’. Distinct terms for ‘sleep’ are reconstructed in §4.6.1.

Blust (ACD) reconstructs the PAn term *qinep, of which the expected POc reflex is †*qinop. He also reconstructs the doublet PEMP *qenəp,6 reflected as POc *qenop. He apparently infers that both forms were inherited into POc because a few terms in -i- occur in NNG languages, listed below under ‘cf. also’. One might alternatively infer, however, that these reflect a NNG height assimilation. Also listed under ‘cf. also’ is the form inep, reflected in three South New Ireland languages. The presence of -e- for †-o- in the second syllable is unexplained.

The distribution of reflexes of *qenop shows some curious restrictions. Regular reflexes occur nowhere in MM, in apparently only a few northern NCV languages, and not at all in Micronesian or Central Pacific languages. In each of these areas other terms, some of them words for ‘sleep’, have replaced *qenop, but it is not clear why this replacement is so widespread. The only fairly widespread replacement is PCP *koto/PPn *ta-koto below. PPn ta- appears to reflect POc *ta-, which marks the event denoted by the verb as spontaneous. However, it is difficult to conceive of lying down as spontaneous.

PAn *qinep ‘lie down to sleep’ (ACD)
PEMP *qenəp ‘lie down to sleep’ (ACD)
POc *qenop ‘lie, rest horizontally’ (ACD)
Adm Seimat eŋ [VI] ‘stay in one place, lie down, sleep’
Adm Lou en ‘lie down’
Adm Nauna en ‘lie down’
NNG Manam eno(ria) ‘lie down’
NNG Wogeo -eno ‘sleep’
NNG Gedaged en ‘lie, rest, sleep’
NNG Matukar en ‘sleep’
NNG Bariai eno ‘lie, sleep; be located’
NNG Tuam -ɣēn ‘sleep’
NNG Gitua ɣeno ‘sleep’
NNG Lukep kien ‘sleep’
NNG Mangap -keene ‘sleep, lying down, be in horizontal position’
NNG Sio keno ‘lie (of inanimates)’
NNG Numbami -e ‘lie (of inanimates)’
NNG Mengen keno ‘lie down’
NNG Avau kene ‘sleep’
NNG Kela -en(si) ‘lie’
PT Ubir en(rir) ‘lie down’
PT Molima ʔeno ‘sleep, lie down, remain’
PT Tawala eno ‘sleep’
PT Saliba keno ‘lie’
PT Dobu ʔeno ‘sleep’
PT Dobu ʔeno-ʔeno ‘lie down’
PT Motu eno [VI] ‘lie down’
PEOc *qenop ‘lie, rest horizontally’
PEOc *qenop-i- [VT] ‘lie on, rest on s.t.’
SES Gela eno ‘lie down’
SES Gela enov-aɣi ‘lay s.t. down’
SES Talise eno ‘lie down’
SES Birao eno ‘lie down’
SES Lengo eno ‘lie down’
SES Longgu eno ‘lie down’
SES Lau eno ‘lie down’
SES Kwaio eno ‘lie, sleep’
SES ’Are’are eno ‘lie down’
SES Sa’a eno-eno [VI] ‘lie down’
SES Sa’a enoh-i [VT] ‘lie in/on’
SES Arosi eno ‘lie down, rest’
SES Arosi enoh-i [VT] ‘rest on’
NCV Hiw en ‘lie down’
NCV Mwotlap en(hiy) ‘lie down’
NCV Tamambo eno ‘lie down, stay, be at’
NCV Tamambo enov-i ‘lay s.t. down’
NCV Ambae eno [VI] ‘lie’
NCV Raga eno ‘lie down, be’
NCV Maewo eno ‘lie down’
NCal Caaàc kẽ- ‘lie’ (in compounds; Cauchard 2014:97)
cf. also:
NNG Roinji kinu ‘sleep’
NNG Tami gin ‘sleep’
MM Ramoaaina inep [VI] ‘lie down, sleep’
MM Kandas inep ‘sleep’
MM Tolai inep ‘lie down, sleep’

PCP *koto ‘lie down’
Fij Bauan koto ‘lie in a place’
PPn *takoto ‘lie down’ (POLLEX)
Pn Tongan tokoto ‘lie down (of persons and animals)’
Pn Niuean takoto ‘lie down’
Pn Samoan taʔoto ‘lie’
Pn East Futunan takoto ‘lie down’
Pn Kapingamarangi takoto ‘lie down’
Pn Takuu takoto ‘lie down, recline’
Pn Tikopia takoto ‘stretch out, lie prone’
Pn Nukuoro dagodo ‘lie down, be in place’
Pn Luangiua kaʔoko ‘remain (things), leave, lie down (?)’
Pn Tongarevan takoto ‘lie down’
Pn Pileni takoto ‘lie down; abide, dwell’
Pn Pukapukan takoto ‘remain, be left over, be established’
Pn Rarotongan takoto ‘lie or rest in a reclining position’
Pn Rennellese takoto ‘lie down’
Pn Tahitian taʔoto ‘sleep, lie, lie down’
Pn Tuamotuan takoto ‘recline, lie down, be in a reclining position’
Pn Māori takoto ‘lie down’

2.4. Non-cardinal posture verbs⇫

2.4.1. Squat, sit on haunches⇫

Sitting on one’s haunches is still a posture frequently assumed in traditional villages in Northwest Melanesia, so the reconstruction of POc *tike ‘squat, sit on haunches’ is no surprise. More of a surprise is that its reflexes are few, perhaps because its meaning is not collected by linguists who use a standard word list, but their distribution points clearly to its presence in POc.

POc *tike ‘squat, sit on haunches’
Adm Lou tik-tik ‘squat, hunker down, sitting on one’s toes’
NNG Kove (po)tike ‘squat, sit on heels’
PT Kilivila siki ‘sit down’
PT Kilivila sigigi(na) ‘squat on haunches’ (-g- for †-k-)
MM Bola (pa)sike ‘crouch’
PPn *tike ‘squat’
PPn *tike-tike ‘keep squatting’ (POLLEX)
Pn Tongan sike ‘squat, sit on heels’
Pn Tongan sike-sike ‘keep squatting’
Pn Niuean tike-tike ‘squat on the heels’
Pn Samoan tiʔe-tiʔe ‘ride, sit astride; sit (on a chair); to be seated on s.t. above the ground’
Pn East Futunan tike-tike ‘squat on heels’
Pn Rennellese tike-tike ‘crouch or squat, as on the heels’

2.4.2. Kneel⇫

No POc term for ‘kneel’ has been reconstructed, but a small cognate set points to PWOc *tudruŋ ‘kneel’. This is evidently related to POc *turu- ‘knee, joint’ (§3.6.5.2). As dr is the prenasalised equivalent of *r, it is possible that *tudruŋ reflects infixation of PMP *⟨um⟩, which formed intransitive verbs, i.e. *tudruŋ reflects earlier *t⟨um⟩uruŋ (§1.3.5.5). Final *-ŋ is unaccounted for.

PWOc *tudruŋ ‘kneel’ (< (? ) POc *t⟨um⟩uruŋ)
NNG Sio tudu ‘kneel down’
MM East Kara turuŋ ‘kneel’
MM Patpatar tu-tuduŋ ‘kneel down with head to ground; bowed down’
MM Ramoaaina tu-tuduŋ ‘kneel’

Nakanai in the west and Fijian and Polynesian in the east have compounds with two components, the first a verb meaning ‘stand (a pole or spear) up straight’ or a noun meaning ‘supporting pole, stake’ and the second the term for ‘knee’. They form a collocation which perhaps occurred in POc and which one might translate into English as ‘to knee-stand’. The data below do not allow a POc reconstruction, but the Polynesian terms point to a possible PPn *toko-turi (*toko (V) ‘support, prop up’, (N) ‘supporting pole, stake’; *turi ‘knee’).

MM Nakanai toto-tulu ‘kneel’ (toto ‘stand s.t. up’; tulu ‘knee’)
Fij Bauan teki-duru ‘kneel’ (teki ‘stick upright in ground’; duru ‘knee’)
Fij Wayan tiki-turu ‘kneel’ (tiki ‘stand s.t. right side up’; turu ‘knee’)
Pn Niuean faka-toko-tui ‘kneel’ (toko ‘supporting pole’; tui ‘knee’)
Pn Samoan toʔo-tuli ‘kneel’ (tuli ‘knee’)
Pn East Futunan toko-tuli, tuʔu-tuli ‘kneel’ (tuʔu ‘stand’, tuli ‘knee’)
Pn Tongan tū-ulu-tui ‘kneel’ (tui ‘knee’)

2.4.3. Hang⇫

Of the postures, ‘hang’ has proven the most difficult to reconstruct forms for, but the reason for this is clear. Oceanic languages have a variety of intransitive verbs of hanging (some of which seem to be used transitively without derivation), but they differ from each other semantically, and the same was presumably true of POc. Often dictionaries, let alone wordlists, do not provide distinctive glosses for ‘hang’ words. The following three lists are illustrative.

Nehan (MM) (Glennon & Glennon 2006)
abeke ‘hang above’
horohoro ‘hang down’
uakusu ‘snag on something, hang against something’ (< POc *paqus ‘bind, lash; construct by tying together’)
lolo ‘tie up, hang up’
lilioro ‘hang; drape especially around neck or shoulders’
Gela (SES) (Fox 1955)
soɣa-mate ‘hang’
tari ‘hang’
havi ‘hang in a cluster’
kiloro ‘hang down’
ki-kiloro ‘hang out of hole’
saūdola ‘hang down’
leleɣi ‘hang down (as fruit)’
loɣoti ‘hang by rope’
loiloi ‘hang down (of pigs’ genitals)’
loro ‘hang down to the ground (of loin cloth)’
loro-loro ‘hang very low when carried’
salala ‘hang on a line (as clothes)’
saupiri ‘hang down in front; hang down suspended from neck’
soro ‘hang up’
sasarau ‘hang on a peg; hang (as a bat)’

Wayan Fijian (SES) (Pawley & Sayaba 2003)
lili ‘hang, be suspended’
riri ‘hang, be suspended by a cord or by draping over a support’
robe ‘droop, hang down’
teteru ‘hang down, droop (of laden branches, fringe of a mat, hair)’
tiro ‘hang down, droop (a dress, line, banana leaves)’

The most widely reflected, and perhaps the most neutral, term for ‘hang’ is POc *tau(r).

POc *tau(r) ‘hang, be suspended’
NNG Labu -towi [VI] ‘be hanging’
PT Motu -tau-a(dae) ‘hang up, of s.t. with string’ (-dae ‘go down’)
PT Dawawa dawe ‘hang’ (d- for †t-)
PT Sinaugoro tou-kau ‘hang up’
MM Bola tau ‘hang up’
SES Longgu dau [VI] ‘hang down; drop anchor’ (d- for †t-)
SES Longgu dau-dau(lele) ‘be hanging’
SES Longgu daur-aʔini-a [VT] ‘hang s.t. up’
SES Kwaio tao ‘hang down (of leaves and branches); hanging down in front (of a person’s hair)’
Fij Wayan tau [VI] ‘be located, situated, positioned, placed; be in, at or on a place’
Pn Tongan tau [VT] ‘hang’
Pn Niuean tau ‘hang, suspend’
Pn East Uvean tau-tau ‘hang, suspend’
Pn Rennellese tau ‘hang (as clothes), wear (as necklace)’
Pn Pukapukan tau-tau ‘hang, suspend’
Pn Samoan tau ‘hang (clothes on line, basket on hook etc.)’
Pn Samoan tāu-taul-ia ‘be hung up, be opposed’
Pn Tikopia tau ‘hang, as necklace on neck’
Pn Tahitian tau-tau ‘hang down’
Pn Hawaiian kau ‘hang, perch, rest’
Pn Māori tau-tau ‘hang suspended’

There is evidence to allow a more specific gloss for POc *tuku below, ‘(person) hang by the arms, dangle’, but data on which POc *sorop ‘hang’ and POc *kuRu (VI) ‘hang’ are based do not allow a more specific gloss. In the *kuRu set the To’aba’ita gloss indicates the kind of hanging the verb denotes, but a single gloss is an insufficient basis for a POc gloss.

POc *tuku ‘(person) hang by the arms, dangle’
NNG Lukep -tuk-a ‘hang (as when climbing a tree trunk)’
NNG Mutu -tūk ‘hang (of a broken branch)’
NNG Patep yuɣ ‘(be) hanging’
Fij Wayan tuku ‘hang, dangle (while holding on to a support with one’s arms)’
Fij Wayan tukuci- ‘hang onto s.t. by the arms’
cf. also:
NNG Bariai tututu ‘hang’

POc *sorop ‘hang’
Adm Lou so ‘hang’
Adm Lou sor-ek ‘hang s.t. up’
NNG Mapos Buang sō ‘swing, hang’
MM Nehan horo-horo ‘hang down’ (h- and s- both reflect POc *s-)
MM Nehan sosoro ‘hang s.t. up’
SES Gela soro ‘hang s.t. up’
SES Gela sorov-aɣi ‘hang (s.t. ) on s.t.’
cf. also:
NNG Lukep -saur-ai ‘hang s.t. up; get snagged’ (-au- for †-o-)
POc *kuRu [VI] ‘hang’
MM Banoni va-ɣū ‘hanging (of fruit etc)’
MM Banoni va-ɣu-ɣuru ‘hang up’ (va- CAUSATIVE)
SES To’aba’ita kulu [VI] ‘hang down, be suspended (of things too short to dangle)’
SES To’aba’ita kulu-fani- [VT] ‘hang, suspend’
SES Lau (dau) kulu-kulu [VI] ‘hang’
SES Lau ku-kulu- [VT] ‘hang up’
SES Lau fā-kulu [VT] ‘hang up’ (fā- CAUSATIVE)
SES Lau fā-ku-kulu ‘cause to hang down’
SES ’Are’are kuru-a ‘hang up, suspend’

The cognate set below formally resembles the set above, but this is probably a matter of chance.

POc *(u)kuku(t) ‘hang, suspend’
NNG Kaulong kuk ‘hang, suspend’
PT Misima kuki ‘hang, swing’
MM Patpatar kukūt ‘hang oneself’
SES Lau ukūku ‘hang down (as vines)’
SES ’Are’are kuku [VI] ‘hang down’
SES ’Are’are kuku-a [VT] ‘hang up, suspend’
SES Sa’a ʔuʔu ‘hang down, depend’
SES Ulawa kuku [VI] ‘hang down, depend’
SES Ulawa haʔa-kuku [VT] ‘hang up, to suspend’

2.4.4. Lean, slant⇫

POc *pʷaralat ‘be leaning, slanting’ is a posture verb, but the glosses suggest that its typical use was with inanimate rather than human subjects. The medial consonant correspondences are irregular, and the most natural inference is that Seimat reflects *-r- and *-l- regularly (as do the Polynesian reflexes), whilst the remaining languages reflect assimilations. The Malaita-Makira form hatara is probably cognate, but its history is less clear.

POc *pʷaralat ‘be leaning, slanting’
Adm Seimat palaho [VI] ‘lean, slant’ (-o for †-a)
MM Tolai balala-n ‘crooked, aslant, as a tree; to sag’ (for †varala)
MM Teop vananata ‘lie on a slant or angle’
SES Gela varava ‘lean on physically’ (for †varala)
SES Gela varavaɣ-i ‘rely, lean on’
SES Tolo varara ‘leaning’ (for †varala)
SES Tolo vararah-i ‘lean on, lean against’
SES Longgu varara ‘lean against, top part touching but bottom part separate (e.g. of two trees in an X shape)’ (for †varala)
PPn *falala ‘lean, stoop, slant’ (POLLEX)
Pn Tongan falala ‘lean on or against; rely, trust, confide’
Pn Samoan falala ‘lean (as a coconut tree leaning over the water)’
Pn Rennellese hagaga ‘slanting, leaning, bent; lean against’
Pn Kapingamarangi halala ‘slant; oblique (angle)’
Pn Māori farara ‘lean, stoop, decline (as the setting sun)’
cf. also:
SES ’Are’are hatara ‘leaning (on s.t.)’ (for †harara)
SES Sa’a hatara ‘lean, rest upon’ (for †harala)
SES Arosi hatara ‘rest upon, lean, press’ (for †harara)

3. Manner of movement verbs⇫

There is a copious literature on movement verbs and movement constructions in the world’s languages, much of it stemming from the work of Leonard Talmy (1972, 1974, 1985, 1991, 2000). Talmy observed that languages tend to have either movement constructions in which the main verb encodes the manner of motion, as in English as in He ran greinto the cave, or movement constructions in which it encodes the path of motion, as in Spanish Entró corriendo a la cueva [entered.3SG running to the cave]. Path is encoded in the English example by the preposition into, and manner in the Spanish example by the participle corriendo ‘running’.7

These English and Spanish movement constructions each have just one finite verb. Talmy’s classification also allows for serial verb constructions like those which occur in Oceanic languages, discussed in Ross (2004a) and briefly in vol.2(257–258), and illustrated in this Hoava (MM) example:8

    • Hoava (MM): (Davis 2003:155)
      ‘The possum came running out.’
      Hagala vura mae sa manue.
      run go.out come ART:S possum
      MANNER PATH DEIXIS … …

In this construction, the elements of manner, path and deixis are each encoded by a finite verb, respectively of locomotion, geographic direction (vol.2:259–267) and deictic direction (vol.2:269–282). This ordering also occurs in other language families, e.g. in Thai (Thepkanjana 1986:136). Omission of any one of the three elements is quite common, as here in Hoava.

    • Hoava (MM): (Davis 2003:155)
      ‘The child climbed up the coconut tree.’
      Keba saɣeli-a sa koburu sa ŋohara.
      climb go.up.TR-O:3S ART:S child ART:S coconut
      MANNER PATH … … … …

Elaboration of this manner–path–deixis schema, often by the presence of more than one path verb, is quite common across Oceanic languages, as in this Tuam (NNG) sentence:9

    • Tuam (NNG): (Bugenhagen 2007)
      ‘Our canoe/boat went coastwards and floated to that place there.’
      Waax tsiei i-looɣ i-pot i-zi nuɣ tawe.
      canoe our.EXC s:3S-enter s:3S-float s:3S-descend place that.over.there
      … … PATH MANNER PATH … …

Talmy’s original classification of movement constructions and verbs did not include a deictic element, but Talmy (2008) treats deixis as a subpart of path. Path and deixis are typically encoded separately in Oceanic languages, but in some of them verbs of deixis have been grammaticised as a separate morpheme class (Ross 2004a).

The remainder of this section is concerned with verbs of locomotion, i.e. verbs that occur in the manner slot of a movement construction. Verbs of geographic and deictic direction, filling the path and deixis slots, are reconstructed in vol.2(259–272).

Verbs of locomotion can be conveniently divided according to the medium on/in which movement takes place: on land (§6.3.1), in the air (§3.2) or in water (§3.3).

3.1. Locomotion on land⇫

Verbs of land-based locomotion include meanings like ‘go’, ‘walk’, ‘run’, ‘crawl’, ‘creep’, ‘limp’, ‘hop’ and ‘roll’.

3.1.1. Go, move⇫

The broadest of these meanings is ‘go’, which in some Oceanic languages also denotes sea- based locomotion. Traditional travel on land was always on foot, and so the ‘go’ verb often also means ‘go on foot, walk’. The verbs of deictic direction away from the speaker or towards a location other than the speaker, described in vol.2(273-282), all seem to have been polysemous insofar as they also served as verbs of locomotion with the basic meaning ‘go’. These verbs were:

  • POc *lako/*la ‘go (away, to)’
  • POc *pano/*pa ‘go (away)’
  • POc *ua ‘go towards addressee’
  • POc *[y]aku ‘go, go away’

These are presented and their locomotion uses discussed below. The verbs *lako (vol.2:258, 269-270, 277-279) and *pano (vol.2:279–280), also had short forms, la and pa, and in a number of languages the short form displaced the long form altogether. A few languages—Gitua (NNG), Manam (NNG), Mota (NCV), Woleaian (Mic), Puluwatese (Mic)—have verbal reflexes of a long and a short form side by side.

Where a form reflecting *lako or *laka (§6.3.1.3 below) has lost its final vowel, it can be difficult to know which verb it reflects. Tuam -laɣ and Kaiep -lak are assumed to be cognate with Gitua -laɣo and Manam/Wogeo -lako respectively, and Sursurunga lək-lək is taken to reflect *lako because the root lək(ə) occurs in the compound ləkə(m) ‘come’, reflecting *lako + *mai, a combination occurring in other MM languages.

PMP *lakaw ‘move, go, walk’ (ACD)
POc *lako ‘go (away, to)’
Adm Mussau lao ‘go far’ (la in compounds)
NNG Mengen lao ‘go’
NNG Kove la-lao ‘walk’
NNG Tuam -laɣ ‘walk’
NNG Gitua -laɣo ‘go, walk’
NNG Manam -lako ‘go, move away’
NNG Wogeo -lako ‘go’
NNG Kaiep -lak ‘go’
PT Kilivila -la ‘go’ (Senft 2000)
PT Molima -nao ‘go’
PT Dawawa -naɣo ‘go’
PT Saliba -lao ‘go, go across’
PT Magori -yao ‘go’
PT Sinaugoro -iaɣo ‘go’
PT Roro -ao ‘go, walk’
MM Bola laɣo ‘walk’
MM Sursurunga lək-lək ‘walk’
MM Sursurunga ləkə(m) ‘come’ (< POc *lako + *mai ‘come’)
MM Solos nao(meh) ‘come’ (< POc *lako + *mai ‘come’)
MM Hahon nao ‘go’
MM Tinputz no(h) ‘go; walk’
MM Tinputz no(mah) ‘come’ (< POc *lako + *mai ‘come’)
MM Teop nao ‘go’
MM Teop no(mo) ‘come’ (< POc *lako + *mai ‘come’)
MM Papapana nau ‘go’
MM Torau lao ‘go’
MM Torau lao(ma) ‘come’ (< POc *lako + *mai ‘come’)
MM Mono-Alu lao(ma) ‘come’ (< POc *lako + *mai ‘come’)
MM Nduke laɣo ‘go’
MM Kia lao ‘go’
MM Kokota lao ‘go’
SES Sa’a laʔo ‘approach; go/steer toward (a place)’
SES Bauro raɣo ‘go’
SES Fagani raɣo ‘go’
NCV Mota laɣo ‘step, stretch the legs’
NCV Raga laɣo ‘walk, travel’
NCV Nokuku lako ‘step, walk, go’
Mic Kiribati nako ‘go’
Mic Chuukese ɾɔ ‘go, walk’
Mic Woleaian nako ‘go’
Mic Puluwatese lɔ ‘go, walk’
Mic Pulo Annian ɾaxo ‘go, walk’
Fij Rotuman laʔo ‘go’
Fij Bauan lako ‘go’

The long vowel in ’Are’are and Oroha rā below probably reflects a preference for bimoraic roots.10 However, Andrew Pawley (pers. comm.) suggests that perhaps all forms reflecting _ *la_ are bimoraic, but that length is not represented in their orthographies. If this is so, then the POc form should also be reconstructed as bimoraic, i.e. *lā.

The forms listed below under ‘cf. also’ appear to reflect a POc form *lae, but it is not clear how this might have differed from *la. It is possible that these forms represent independent developments (perhaps associated with bimoraicity preference), the more so as the sequence *-ae is not otherwise found in reconstructed POc.

In the short-form set below Loniu (Adm) -lɛ, Titan (Adm) -le, both ‘go to’, and Lonwolwol (NCV) -le ‘leave (a place)’, reflect coalescence either of *la + transitive suffix *-i or possibly of *la + locative preposition*i.

PMP *lakaw ‘move, go, walk’ (ACD)
POc *la ‘go (away, to)’
Adm Loniu -la ‘go’
Adm Loniu -lɛ ‘go to’
Adm Kele -la ‘go to’
Adm Titan -la ‘go’
Adm Titan -le ‘go to’
Adm Lou -la ‘go to, walk’
NNG Numbami la ‘go, get a move on’
NNG Mapos Buang ya ‘go’
NNG Gitua -la ‘go, walk’
NNG Mangap -la ‘go’
NNG Sio lɔ ‘go’
NNG Gedaged la ‘go (away, on foot, by boat, etc. ); walk, depart, get underway, set out; continue, keep on (with an action), maintain a course’
NNG Takia la ‘move away from speaker; go round the island’
NNG Manam -la ‘go, move away’
PT Kilivila -la- ‘go (to some place away from here)’
PT Iduna -na ‘go’
PT Misima na ‘go’
PT Motu la ‘go away’
MM Notsi la ‘go’
MM Nehan la ‘go’
MM Selau la ‘go’
MM Vangunu la ‘go’
MM Hoava la ‘go away from speaker and addressee’
SES Marau Sound ra ‘go’
SES ’Are’are rā ‘go’
SES Oroha rā ‘go’
TM Tanema la ‘go, walk’
NCV Sa -la ‘walk’
NCV Lonwolwol la ‘take a step, go’
NCV Lonwolwol le ‘go, come, pass from, leave’
NCV Sakao la(m) ‘come’ (< POc *la + *mai ‘come’)
Mic Woleaian la ‘go, walk’
Mic Puluwatese la ‘go, walk’
cf. also:
NNG Mangap lae ‘move in horizontal direction’
PT Gapapaiwa -nae ‘go’
PT Tawala nae ‘go’
SES Longgu lae ‘go’
NCV Lonwolwol lae ‘walk, go’

There was evidently a difference in usage between POc *lako ‘go (to)’ and POc *pano ‘go (away)’. As noted in vol.2(279), many verbal reflexes of *lako have a valency which implies or requires a destination (expressed, for example, as a prepositional phrase), whilst those of *pano are intransitive.

A few reflexes of POc *pano indicate that it was also a geographic directional verb meaning ‘move in a transverse direction’, contrasting with ‘go up, go inland’ and ‘go down, go seawards’. This is discussed in vol.2(279).

PMP *panaw ‘go away, depart, leave on a journey’ (ACD)
POc *pano ‘go (away)’; ‘move in a transverse direction’
NNG Kaulong van ‘move’
MM Vitu vano ‘go (away)’
MM Tiang pən ‘go’
MM Bola vano ‘go’
MM Bilur van ‘go’
SES Bugotu vano ‘go, come’; [DIR] ‘thither’; ‘beyond, more’ (used in comparisons)
SES Gela vano ‘walk’; ‘away, further off; to go’
SES Ghari vano ‘walk’
SES Gela vano ‘walk’; ‘away, further off; to go’
SES Bauro hano ‘go’
SES Arosi hano ‘make a journey, set out; go’
NCV Mota van[o] ‘go, come’
NCV Ambae vano ‘move in transverse direction’
NCV Raga vano ‘go’
NCV Nokuku vano ‘go’
NCV Kiai vano ‘go, move away’
NCV Sakao yan ‘go’
NCV Merei van[a] ‘move in transverse direction’
NCV Tamambo vano ‘go away from speaker’
NCV Uripiv -van ‘go’
NCV Port Sandwich van ‘to go, to walk’
NCV Lonwolwol van ‘go, pass (and so also of time); continue (to do s.t.)’; [DIR] ‘away’
NCV Lewo vano ‘go’
NCV Nguna vano ‘go’
PSV *van ‘go’
PSV *a(v,p)an ‘go, walk’
SV Sye a-van ‘walk’
SV Whitesands vən ‘go’
SV Lenakel vən ‘go’
SV Lenakel a-vən ‘go, walk’
SV Southwest Tanna vən ‘go’
SV Southwest Tanna a-vən ‘go, walk’
SV Kwamera vən ‘go’
SV Kwamera a-vən, u-vən, e-vən ‘go, walk’
SV Anejom̃ han ‘go’
SV Anejom̃ a-pan ‘go, walk’
NCal Nyelâyu van ‘go’
NCal Nemi hen ‘go’
NCal Tîrî (ã)va ‘there, the other side of stream’
Pn Niuean fano ‘go’
Pn Samoan fano ‘(of time) be gone, past; perish’
Pn Nanumea fano ‘go’
Pn Rennellese hano ‘go; depending on, according to; on and on; little by little; one by one’
Pn Māori fano ‘go, proceed; lead, of a road; verge towards; be on the point of; act, behave’

PMP *panaw ‘go away, depart, leave on a journey’ (ACD)
POc *pa ‘go away; move in a transverse direction’
NNG Lukep pa ‘go, walk’
NNG Mutu -wa ‘go’
NNG Mangap -pa ‘walk’
NNG Roinji pa(la) ‘walk’ (< *pa + *la ‘go’)
NNG Adzera fa ‘go’
PT Kilivila -va- ‘go to’ (Senft 2000)
PT Sinaugoro va(riɣo) ‘go down’
PT Motu ha [V AUX] ‘go and …’
SES Gela va [V AUX] ‘be going to …’
NCV Mota va ‘go, come’; [V AUX] ‘go on …-ing’
NCV Araki ð̫a ‘go; go in a direction other than north or south’
NCV Nokuku va ‘go’
NCV Merei va ‘move in transverse direction’
NCV Big Nambas ð̫a ‘go’
NCV Lonwolwol va ‘go’
NCV Southeast Ambrym ha ‘go, leave, depart’
NCV Paamese vā ‘go’
NCV Nguna vā ‘go’ (short form of vano, Clark 1996)
SV Sye ve ‘go, arrive’
SV Ura va ‘go’
SV North Tanna va ‘come’
SV Whitesands va ‘come’
SV Lenakel va ‘come’
SV Anejom̃ ha-m ‘come’ (< *pa + *mai ‘come’)

A small number of forms from Schouten (NNG) and Reefs/Santa Cruz (TM) languages and one from Sobei (SJ) are listed below. It would be easy to attribute them to POc *pa above, but in all instances except Medebur initial w- reflects *w- or *u-. They evidently reflect the POc deictic directional verb *ua ‘go towards addressee’ (vol.2:273–274). There is no other evidence to suggest that POc *ua functioned as a locomotion verb, and its extended use as a verb of locomotion may have developed separately on the north coast of New Guinea and in the Reefs/Santa Cruz languages.

NNG Medebur -wa ‘go’
NNG Ali -wa ‘go’
NNG Sissano -wa ‘walk’
NNG Sera -wa ‘walk’
SJ Sobei -wo ‘go’
TM Äiwoo wæ ‘go’

The medial consonant of POc *[y]aku ‘go, go away’ is reconstructed on the basis of Yabem low tone, which reflects the loss of a Proto Huon Gulf voiced obstruent, probably either *v or *ɣ, lenis reflexes of POc *p or *k. Of these, both are lost intervocalically in Takia, but only *k is lost in the Admiralties languages.

POc *[y]aku ‘go, go away’
Adm Nyindrou au ‘leave, go away’
Adm Loniu yaw [DIR] ‘away’
Adm Kele aw ‘go away’
Adm Titan aw ‘leave, go, disappear’
NNG Yabem -yà ‘go (to her/him/them)’ (?< *yaɣ)
NNG Bilibil au ‘walk’
NNG Takia -ao ‘go, go away, depart, flow’
NNG Megiar -au ‘go’
SJ Sobei awo ‘walk’
MM Vaghua zao ‘go’
MM Maringe zao-zaʔo ‘walk’
MM Sisiqa zo-zo ‘walk’
TM Tanema au ‘walk’

Only a few reflexes of POc *oRo ‘come, go’ have been found outside Polynesia. The glosses of its reflexes indicate that it was not a deictic directional verb, but it is otherwise difficult to further specify its meaning.

POc *oRo ‘come, go’
NNG Manam oro ‘go landwards’
SES To’aba’ita olo ‘arrive’
SES Lau olo ‘come, go’
SES Arosi oro ‘come, go for a purpose’
Fij Rotuman ō ‘come, go’ (probable Pn loan)
Pn Tongan ō ‘go’ (non-singular form of both hau ‘come’ and alu ‘go’)
Pn Niuean ō ‘come, go’ (non-singular form of both hau ‘come’ and fano ‘go’)
Pn Samoan ō ‘go, get’ (plural of alu); ‘go side by side, go together with’
Pn Anutan ō ‘come, go’
Pn East Uvean ō ‘come, go’ (plural)
Pn Takuu ō ‘come, go’ (plural)
Pn Tikopia ō ‘proceed’ (plural)
Pn Sikaiana ō ‘come’ (plural)
Pn Tokelauan ō ‘go’ (plural)

Just as it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between reflexes of *lako (above) and *laka (§6.3.1.3), so it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between reflexes of *pano (above) and *pana (below). Languages as far apart phylogenetically as Vitu and Māori have reflexes of both forms, indicating that both occurred in POc, but there are few languages reflecting both and it is difficult to be sure what the POc meaning contrast was.

Blust (ACD) notes that, ‘In many languages reflexes of this form [*pana] are indistinguishable from reflexes of the far more common PAn *paNaw, POc *pano ‘go away, depart, leave on a journey’. Label han is assumed to reflect POc *pana rather than *pano since its closest relatives which have preserved the final vowel point to *-a.’ The same assumption is made here regarding other New Ireland reflexes, except for those with reduplicated versions that mean ‘walk’. These are attributed to *pano (see POc (?) *pa(no)-pano ‘walk’ in §6.3.1.3), but this decision may be mistaken.

POc *pana ‘go, move, walk’ (ACD)
PT Sudest vana ‘go’
PT Sinaugoro fana- ‘step’ (in compounds: fana-beretoɣa ‘step to the side’, fana-kau ‘step on’, fana-tari ‘step down’)
MM Vitu vana ‘walk, travel’
MM East Kara pan ‘go’
MM Patpatar han ‘go, walk’
MM Tolai vana ‘go, move; come’
MM Sursurunga han ‘go’
MM Konomala fan ‘go’
MM Label han ‘go, go away; come’
Pn Kapingamarangi hana ‘go’
Pn Rarotongan ana ‘move (of a person)’
Pn Rarotongan ana mai ‘come/move here (toward speaker)’
Pn Rarotongan aná-atu ‘go/move away (from speaker)’
Pn Māori fana ‘travel, come, go’

3.1.2. Move from one location to another⇫

POc *(ali)ali ‘move from one location to another’ was inherited from PMP. In Vanuatu excluding the Banks and Torres Islands in the north, it has undergone a semantic shift to mean ‘walk’.

PMP *aliq ‘move, change place’ (ACD)
POc *(ali)ali ‘move from one location to another’
NNG Kaulong al ‘move, change location of, transplant’
NNG Bing al ‘go’
SES Gela ale-ale ‘move’
NCV Mota al ‘move’
NCV Mota ali-al ‘move from place to place’
NCV Kiai ali-ali ‘walk’
NCV Sakao yal-yal ‘walk’
NCV Merei ali-ali ‘walk’
NCV Wusi ali-ali ‘walk’
NCV Maskelynes -iar ‘walk’
NCV Paamese ali ‘walk, go to work in the garden’
NCV Lamen -yali ‘walk’
SV Lenakel -ali(uok) ‘walk’
SV Whitesands -ali(wak) ‘walk’

3.1.3. Walk, step, stride⇫

It is difficult to distinguish between the meanings of *lako/*la and *pano/*pa ‘go on foot’ (§6.3.1.1) and of the terms in the present section, but the terms below each perhaps denote the specific action of walking as opposed to generic going on foot.

Two POc terms meaning ‘go, walk’, *raka(t) and *laka, are formally similar to POc *lako ‘go (away, to), walk’ above. Where the nucleus of the second syllable reflects *-o or *-a, the distinction between *lako and *raka(t)/*laka is straightforward. The attribution to *lako of reflexes that have lost the final vowel is briefly explained in §6.3.1.1. Where a verb reflects the short form *la, it is taken to reflect *lako.

It is more difficult, however, to distinguish between reflexes of POc *raka(t) ‘go, walk’ and of POc *laka ‘go, walk’ in languages that have merged POc *r and *l, but terms that have the sense of stepping over something are attributed to *laka. This motivates the attribution of PPn *laka ‘step, march; pass, cross over’ and its many reflexes to *laka rather than to *raka(t), although phonologically they could reflect either. It seems likely that reflexes of the two terms were conflated in some languages. The PMP ancestors of POc *raka(t) and *laka are respectively *rakat and *la(ŋ)kaq, but transitive Wayan (Fij) lakat-i reflects *l- (not *r-) but *-t (not *-q), pointing to a hybrid *lakat.

Lihir merges *r and *l as l, but on semantic grounds Lihir laka(n), listed under ‘cf. also’, probably reflects *raka(t) rather than *laka. Other items listed under *raka(t) have an unambiguous initial consonant.

PAn *rakat ‘walk’ (ACD)
PMP *rakat ‘walk’ (ACD)
POc *raka(t) ‘go, walk’
PT Dobu laga ‘go towards bush, southwards’ (-g- for †-ʔ-)
PT Motu raka ‘step, go, walk’
PT Sinaugoro raka ‘go, walk’
SES Baelelea rā ‘go up’
cf. also:
MM Lihir laka(n) ‘go’

Motu has dozens of compounds denoting manners of walking, e.g. raka-edea ‘walk alone’, raka-hanai ‘walk past’, raka-hekapu ‘walk side by side’, raka-muri ‘walk backwards’, raka-roho ‘stride along’, raka-kahira ‘draw near’, and raka-kava ‘walk aimlessly’. Its Sinaugoro cognate behaves similarly: raka-rosi ‘go outside’, raka-vesiri ‘go away’, raka-ɣeɣeraɣi-ɣeɣeraɣi ‘go from place to place’.

PMP *la(ŋ)kaq ‘step, stride; omit or skip over’ (ACD)
POc *laka ‘go, walk; step over’11
MM Patpatar laka ‘go inside, enter’
MM Sursurunga ləkə-i ‘step over, disregard’
NCV West Ambae laka ‘walk’
Fij Rotuman laʔa ‘go’
Fij Wayan laka ‘go, move along, proceed’
Fij Wayan lakat-i ‘go to or over (a place)’
Fij Wayan laka-laka [VI] ‘go, keep going’; [N] ‘route, method, procedure; conduct, behaviour; style, characteristics; contributions to a feast or presentation, what one brings’
PPn *laka ‘step, marcss, cross over’
Pn Tongan laka ‘go, walk (usually a short distance only); step, march; move forward, proceed, progress, develop, advance; pass, cross over; surpass, exceed, omit, skip over’
Pn Niuean laka ‘step; cross over’
Pn Niuean fe-laka ‘step over s.o./s.t. (formerly considered an insult or desecration)’
Pn Niuean laka-aŋa ‘a step, a pace’
Pn Niuean lakaf-ia ‘stepped over, exceeded’
Pn Samoan laʔa ‘step, march’
Pn Samoan laʔa-laʔa ‘go step by step’
Pn Samoan la-laʔa ‘step over; put someone above (in estimation or respect)’
Pn Samoan laʔas-ia ‘step over, go beyond’
Pn Tuvalu laka ‘step’
Pn Tuvalu laka-laka ‘take several steps’
Pn Tuvalu la-laka ‘press down with foot (as when firming soil)’
Pn Anutan raka ‘step over something’
Pn Anutan raka-raka ‘walk with large brisk steps; walk quickly’
Pn East Futunan faka-laka ‘pass over’
Pn East Futunan lakaf-ia ‘be passed over’
Pn Nukuoro laga-laga ‘put down one foot after the other (as in walking or marching in place)’
Pn Māori faka-raka ‘walk, step out’

A reduplicated reflex of POc *pano ‘go (away)’, (?) ‘move in a transverse direction’ (§6.3.1.1) means ‘walk’ in a number of languages with a discontinuous distribution including some MM languages of New Ireland, some SES languages, and a number of northern Vanuatu languages. The reduplicated form is tentatively attributed to POc.

POc *pa(no)-pano ‘walk’
MM Tiang pan-pan ‘walk’
MM Bilur van-an ‘walk’
SES Tolo va-vano ‘walk’
SES Ghari va-vano ‘walk’
SES Talise va-vano ‘walk’
SES Fagani ha-hano ‘walk’
SES Bauro ha-hano ‘walk’
NCV Mwotlap van-van ‘walk’
NCV Dorig van-van ‘walk’
NCV Araki ð̫aano-vano ‘walk’
NCV Aore ð̫an-ð̫ano ‘walk’
NCV Tambotalo ðan-ðano ‘walk’
NCV Tamambo vʷano-vʷano ‘walk’
NCV Tutuba vano-vano ‘walk’
NCV Mafea ð̫an-ð̫anō ‘walk’
NCV Narango fan-fan ‘walk’

At first sight POc *pajale ‘walk about, take a walk’ looks suspiciously like the root *jalan ‘path’, preceded by the causative prefix *pa-. However, this would give rise to Lavongai †asalen (salen ‘path’) and Tigak †asalan (salan ‘path’) instead of pasal in both languages.

POc *pajale ‘walk about, take a walk’
NNG Takia -padal ‘go astray, disappear’
NNG Manam alale ‘walk’ (for †adale)
NNG Kairiru -vyal ‘walk’
NNG Kis asali ‘walk’
MM Lavongai pasal ‘walk’
MM Tigak pasal ‘walk’
MM Teop pahana ‘cross (s.t.), go over (to s.t.)’
MM Tinputz pahan ‘go across’
PMic *faSale ‘walk, move around’
Mic Marshallese yetal ‘walk’
Mic Carolinian (Tanapag) fatal ‘walk, journey, take a walk’
Mic Mortlockese fətal ‘walk about’
Mic Satawalese fetæl, fetæn ‘walk’
Mic Woleaian fetaɾe ‘move by its own power, go’
Mic Pulo Annian θataɾe ‘walk around’

3.1.4. Move quickly, hurry, run⇫

Terms in this area of meaning are difficult to reconstruct, as lexical replacement seems to have been frequent. For this probable reason reflexes of the reconstructed etyma have spotty distributions.

POc *(i,a)ropu ‘run’ bears a superficial resemblance to POc *Ropok ‘fly’ (§6.3.2.1), and indeed some terms meaning ‘run’ reflect the latter (e.g. Longgu [SES] lovo-lovo ‘run quickly’, a reduplicated form of lovo ‘fly’). The terms listed below, however, reflect POc *r-, as reflexes of *r and *R are distinct in Admiralties languages. Furthermore, terms for ‘fly’ reflecting *Ropok—Mussau loo, Titan yo, Misima you—are different from those reflecting *(i,a)ropu ‘run’.

POc *(i,a)ropu ‘run’
Adm Mussau ilou ‘run’
Adm Titan ilow ‘run’
Adm Nyindrou arou ‘(people) rush in a disorganised manner’
PT Misima lou ‘run away’
PT Tawala lowo ‘run, run away’

The cognate set supporting POc *joŋas ‘move quickly’ entails two small phonological difficulties. First, the non-Micronesian reflexes reflect POc *j-, but Bender et al. (2003) reconstruct PMic *caŋa. PMic *c- regularly reflects POc *d or *dr. However, Kiribati r- reflects POc *d, *dr or *j-, and the most economic assumption is that Ponapean t- and Chuukese c̣- reflect an irregular intra-Micronesian sound change. Second, evidence as to the first vowel is conflicting. Admiralties and NNG languages reflect -o-, MM and Micronesian languages -a-. I have assumed here that the protovowel was *-o- and that -a- is the result of assimilation.

POc *joŋas ‘move quickly’
Adm Lou sɔŋ ‘run, run away’
Adm Baluan soŋ ‘run’
Adm Titan coŋ ‘run away and hide’
NNG Aria suoŋ ‘run, quickly’
NNG Apalik soŋ ‘run, (wind) blow’
MM West Kara saŋas ‘quickly; walk’
MM East Kara saŋas ‘walk’
MM Nalik saŋas ‘walk’
MM Sursurunga saŋar ‘hurry, (be) quick; quickly’ (-r for †-s)
PMic *Saŋa ‘move quickly’ (Bender et al. 2003: *caŋa)
Mic Kiribati raŋa ‘move fast’
Mic Ponapean taŋ ‘run, flee, swim (as fish)’; ‘run to (s.t.)’
Mic Chuukese c̣aŋ ‘fly, be flying (as a bird)’

3.1.5. Crawl, creep⇫

Two POc terms for ‘crawl, creep’ can be reconstructed. The term with the most widely distributed reflexes is POc *kaRaka ‘crawl on all fours’. Less widely distributed, with only one non-WOc reflex is POc *(d,dr)aRaC ‘crawl (along the ground)’ below.

POc *kaRaka ‘crawl on all fours’
Adm Mussau kalaa ‘crawl’
NNG Takia karak ‘creep, crawl’
NNG Mangap kara-ra ‘crawl’
MM Bola karaka ‘crawl’
NCV Nokuku kerak ‘climb’
NCV Tamambo haraha ‘(child) crawl’
NCV Araki hadaho ‘crawl, walk on all fours’
NCV Rerep karah ‘creep on the knees’
NCV Port Sandwich kalax ‘crawl’
NCV Paamese keaa ‘crawl’
NCV Nakanamanga karaka ‘walk bent over, hands supporting body (indicates child will soon walk properly)’
SV Anejom̃ a-ɣraɣ ‘creep, crawl’

POc *(d,dr)aRaC ‘crawl (along the ground)’
NNG Mutu ⁿdarab ‘crawl’
NNG Mengen ralaŋ ‘crawl; walk on hands and feet/knees’
NNG Mengen ralasi ‘crawl; go underneath’
PT Gumawana dale ‘crawl on the ground; bow (to s.o.)’
PT Iamalele dale ‘crawl, walk, move across ground’
PT Tawala dala ‘crawl, swim’
PT Saliba dala ‘crawl’
PT Wedau dara ‘crawl’
PT Dawawa dara ‘crawl’
PT Sinaugoro dara ‘crawl’
MM Nakanai gala ‘crawl’
SES ’Are’are da-dala ‘creep, crawl, glide as a snake’

PCP *dolo ‘crawl (along the ground)’ bears a vague formal similarity to POc *(d,dr)aRaC above, but in fact only their initial consonants correspond and they are not related.

PCP *dolo ‘crawl (along the ground)’
Fij Wayan dolo ‘crawl, wriggle or slide along on one’s belly, like a snake’
Pn Tongan to-tolo ‘crawl’
Pn Niuean to-tolo ‘crawl’
Pn Rennellese togo ‘crawl’
Pn Samoan tolo ‘crawl, swarm (of creatures found in large numbers)’
Pn Samoan to-tolo ‘crawl, creep’
Pn Tikopia toro ‘crawl, creep’
Pn Tahitian toro ‘run or creep as vines or roots of plants’
Pn Māori to-toro ‘creep, crawl’
Pn Hawaiian ko-kolo ‘creep, crawl’

3.1.6. Limp, hop⇫

The senses of reflexes of POc *tige vary between ‘hop on one leg’, ‘limp’ and ‘walk on tiptoe’. Iduna sike and Longgu tike occur where respectively †ɣige and †ige would be the regular reflexes and are evidently loans. PPn *teki reflects vowel metathesis.

POc *tige ‘hop on one leg, limp’
PT Iduna (-lufa)sike-sike ‘hop on one leg’ (s- for †ɣ-; -k- for †-g-)
PT Gapapaiwa sike ‘limp’
PT Sudest sike ‘hop’ (-k- for †-g-)
MM Sursurunga sik-si(kok) ‘limp, walk on tiptoe’ (-k- for †-g-)
MM Teop sige ‘lame’
MM Teop sige-sige ‘limp, hop’
SES Longgu ti-tike ‘hop’ (t- for †∅; -k- for †-g-)
NCV Avava si-sige(t) ‘hop’ (John Lynch, pers. comm.)
NCV Labo səge-səge ‘hop’ (John Lynch, pers. comm.)
NCV South Efate tig-tig ‘hop’
PPn *teki ‘hop’ (POLLEX)
Pn Emae saere fakatuu-teki ‘walk or stand on tiptoe’ (saere ‘go’)
Pn Marquesan teki ‘limp, lame, hop’
Pn Tongarevan teki ‘hop’
Pn Tongarevan (pere)teki ‘hopscotch’
Pn Pukapukan teki ‘hop on one foot’
Pn Tahitian teʔi ‘hop, limp’
Pn Tuamotuan teki ‘hop on one leg’
Pn Māori (hii)teki ‘hop on one foot’

3.1.7. Roll⇫

This subsection concerns ‘roll’ as an intransitive locomotion verb expressing the manner in which its subject moves, e.g. ‘The stone rolled down the hill.’ At first sight, the items in the three sets below seem to form a single cognate set, but closer examination shows that they reflect three different POc etyma. The first, *buliŋ (VI) ‘roll’, was intransitive (or just possibly ambitransitive, i.e. used both transitively and intransitively). The other two, *(p,pʷ)uluk-i- (VT) ‘roll’ and *(p,pʷ)uri- (VT) ‘roll’, were transitive, and intransitive forms meaning ‘roll’ in its locomotion sense were formed with the spontaneity prefix *ta- (§1.3.5.4). Drehet ta-pulu-i and Samoan ta-fuli (VI) reflect POc *ta-, while Bariai ma-pul reflects POc *ma-. These prefixes are described by Evans (2003:268–271, 279–284), who notes that both were only semi-productive in POc, both were valency-decreasing, removing the agent, while *ta- also emphasised the spontaneity of the event (2003:300).

PMP *puliŋ [VI] ‘turn round, rotate’
POc *buliŋ [VI] ‘roll’
NNG Takia -bu-buli [VT] ‘roll’
PT Dobu buni [VI] ‘roll (as a canoe at sea)’
MM Tolai buli [VT] ‘turn, roll, turn s.t. upside down’
MM Ramoaaina buli [VI, VT] ‘roll’ (dialect variant bulu)
SES Gela pili [VI] ‘roll over and over’
SES To’aba’ita (a)buli [VI] ‘roll’
SES Lau (ā)buli [VI] ‘roll; headlong’
SES Arosi buri ‘wallow, roll on the ground (as a dog)’
SES Arosi buriŋ-aʔi ‘roll on (s.t.)’

POc *(p,pʷ)uluk-i- [VT] ‘roll’
Adm Drehet ta-pulu-i [VI] ‘roll, capsize’
MM Patpatar puluk-ane [VT] ‘overturn; roll’ (-ane APPLICATIVE)
PNCV *[v,b]uluk-i ‘fold, bend’ (Clark 2009)
NCV Mota wuluɣ ‘close over’
NCV Uripiv -ʙulk-i ‘bend, fold’
NCV Port Sandwich ᵐburuᵑg-i ‘bend knees; fold (material); roll’
POc *(p,pʷ)uri- [VT] ‘roll’
Adm Mussau puli [VT] ‘roll’
NNG Bariai ma-pul [VI] ‘roll spontaneously’
PT Gumawana si-pula [VI] ‘roll (by accident)’
PT Dobu puli [VI, VT] ‘roll (of a stone)’
PT Molima puli- [VT] ‘push or roll along (as a log)’
PT Tawala wili ‘roll’
Fij Wayan vuli ‘(of a baby lying down) turn over, move position’
PPn *fuli ‘turn round or over’
Pn Tongan fuli ‘turn (round or over)’
Pn Samoan fuli [VT] ‘turn over, roll over (as a tree trunk)’
Pn Samoan ta-fuli [VI] ‘roll’
Pn Anutan puri ‘turn’
Pn Tahitian huri ‘turn over, roll (as a cask)’
Pn Tuamotuan huri ‘turn (round or over)’

3.1.8. Climb⇫

‘Climb’ has two main senses in English: ‘go up’ and ‘propel oneself up or down (a tree, a cliff etc)’. The first of these senses is a verb of direction, and its POc equivalent is *sake, reconstructed in vol.2(263-264). The sense intended here is the second, although the glosses below suggest that its meaning was readily extended to include the first sense. The POc verb is *panaik, and one of the activities it denoted was one that is still readily seen in Melanesian villages, nicely defined in Ivens’ (1918) dictionary definition: ‘climb trees … with a rope round the feet, ascending by alternate jumps of hands and feet’.

Blust (ACD) reconstructs *panek, as supported by his data. POc *panaik is reconstructed here to take account of Lukep painak, which appears to reflect metathesis of the two syllable nuclei.

PMP *panahik ‘climb’ (ACD)
POc *panaik ‘climb (tree etc.)’ (ACD: *panek)
NNG Lukep -painak ‘climb up a steep hill’
PT Molima vane ‘climb’
PT Bunama hane ‘climb, go up’
PT Sudest vana ‘climb up’
PT Misima pani ‘climb (tree)’
SES Gela vane ‘grow abnormally’
SES Longgu vane ‘climb, rise’
SES Longgu vaneʔ-i- ‘climb s.t.’
SES Lau fane ‘rise up in sky, of sun, moon, or cloud’
SES Kwaio fane ‘climb, go up’
SES ’Are’are hane ‘climb, ascend, rise (of sun and moon); rise, ferment’
SES Sa’a hane [VI] ‘climb trees … with a rope round the feet, ascending by alternate jumps of hands and feet’
SES Arosi hane, haneʔ-i [VI, VT] ‘climb (not a hill) a rope, tree, cliff, using hands’

3.2. Locomotion in the air⇫

There are far fewer terms for locomotion in the air than for on land or in/on water simply because human beings in traditional societies do not engage in aerial locomotion. The two main meanings associated with movement through the air are ‘fly’ and ‘fall’.

3.2.1. Fly⇫

The most widespread cognate set for ‘fly’ reflects POc *Ropok. It is not found, however, in Micronesian or in this meaning in Central Pacific languages. Reflexes exist in Polynesian but with changed meaning (PPn *ofo ‘be startled, wake up’; §4.6.4) In Micronesian languages *Ropok is replaced by various terms. In Eastern Fijian we find Bauan vuka, Boumaa vuʔa, in Western Fijian Wayan ðavu, whilst the PPn term was *lele (see below). The Fijian terms listed under ‘cf. also’ look at first sight like reflexes of *Ropok, but are not, as the expected reflex is †ovo.

It is interesting that some reflexes of POc *Ropok and PPn *rere taken from sources that provide more detailed definitions are glossed not only as ‘fly’ but also as ‘jump’, implying perhaps that the core meaning of the POc and PPn terms was something like ‘move through the air without touching the ground’.

PMP *Rebek ‘to fly’ (ACD)
POc *Ropok ‘to fly’
Adm Mussau lō ‘fly’
Adm Loniu wɔh ‘fly, jump’
NNG Mengen lo ‘fly, go’
NNG Yabem -lob ‘fly’
NNG Takia -rou ‘fly’
NNG Manam ro ‘fly’
NNG Kairiru -ruo ‘fly’
PT Gapapaiwa rovo ‘fly’
PT Muyuw yow ‘fly’
PT Motu roho ‘fly, leap, skip’
MM Bali rovoko ‘fly’
MM Nakanai lovo ‘fly’
MM Lavongai ŋoi ‘fly’
MM Tiang io-io ‘fly’
MM Tabar rovo ‘fly’
MM Lihir lah ‘fly’
MM Sursurunga roh ‘fly’
MM Ramoaaina rowo ‘fly (as birds)’
MM Siar rofoi ‘fly’
SES Bugotu ðovo ‘fly’
SES Longgu lovo ‘fly’
SES Lau lofo ‘jump, fly’
SES Sa’a loho ‘fly, swoop’
TM Äiwoo luo ‘fly’
PNCV *rovo ‘run, flow, jump, fly’
NCV Mota rowo ‘spring, leap, move quickly up forward, rise, grow; fly (of birds and flying fish)’
NCV Raga rovo ‘run, sail, flow, fall’
NCV Kiai rovo ‘move, get out of the way, flee’
NCV Uripiv -row ‘fly, jump’
NCV Lonwolwol roo ‘run (also of liquids ); go well, prosper’
NCV Paamese loho ‘run’
NCV Namakir dow ‘go, go by, pass’
NCV Nguna dowo ‘fall’
SV Lenakel ivək ‘fly’
cf. also:
Fij Wayan rō ‘fly up, rise up through the air; land, alight, come down’ (for †ovo)
Fij Wayan rōv-i ‘land, settle, alight on s.t.’
Fij Boumā rō ‘alight (of housefly or bird)’ (for †ovo)
Fij Boumā rōv-a ‘alight on s.t.’

PPn *lele ‘fly, run, leap’ (POLLEX)
Pn Niuean lele ‘fly’
Pn Tongan lele ‘run’
Pn Rennellese gege ‘jump, fly, leap, swing’
Pn East Futunan lele ‘fly, run quickly’
Pn East Uvean lele ‘fly, run’
Pn Pukapukan lele ‘run, swim quickly, of fish’
Pn Samoan lele ‘fly’
Pn Tikopia rere ‘run, fly, rush’
Pn Māori rere ‘fly, jump, run’
Pn Tahitian rere ‘fly, leap’
Pn Hawaiian lele ‘fly, jump, run’

3.2.2. Fall (from a height)⇫

The English term ‘fall’ is polysemous, and only the locomotion sense ‘fall from a height’ is considered here. As Zlatev & Yangklang (2004) point out in relation to serial verb constructions in Thai, ‘fall’ is not strictly a verb of locomotion, but rather a path verb, i.e. a verb of geographic direction. What is more, unlike most locomotion verbs it is not agentive. These facts perhaps provide a clue as to why no Oceanic-wide cognate set for ‘fall’ is found: a number of languages instead use their geographic direction verb ‘go down’ for ‘fall’, thus treating ‘go down’ as unmarked for agentivity.

The most widely reflected form in the data is POc *(p,pʷ)u(k,kʷ)a ‘fall’. Under ‘cf. also’ are listed a number of WOc items that reflect the appropriate consonants but lack the ‘right’ vowels. This is a conundrum that awaits explanation.

POc *(p,pʷ)u(k,kʷ)a ‘fall’
MM Vitu poke ‘fall’
MM Tigak puka ‘fall’
MM East Kara poɣo ‘fall’
MM West Kara poko ‘fall’
MM Tiang pukə ‘fall’ (from tree +)
MM Lihir puok ‘fall’
MM Konomala puka ‘fall’
MM Patpatar puko ‘fall’
MM Kandas puku ‘fall’
MM Ramoaaina puka(pari) ‘fall’
MM Uruava uka ‘fall’
MM Torau uka(u) ‘fall’
MM Hoava uke ‘fall’
MM Kokota uka ‘fall’
MM Maringe uka ‘fall’
SES West Guadalcanal puka ‘fall’
SES Talise puka ‘fall’
SES Birao puka ‘fall’
cf. also:
NNG Numbami -peka ‘fall, fall down’
PT Iduna (-)beʔu ‘fall down’
PT Gapapaiwa peku ‘fall’
PT Tawala peu ‘fall’
PT Dawawa beku ‘fall’
MM Halia puku ‘fall’

In support of the PMP monosyllabic root *-buq ‘fall’, Blust (ACD) cites Yamdena (CMP) fu-fu ‘fall from a height’ and Arosi ahu below. With the NNG items these imply the possibility of POc *(a)pu.

POc *(a)pu ‘fall’
NNG Mangseng pu ‘fall’
NNG Mengen pu ‘fall from standing position or from height’
SES Arosi ahu ‘fall, come down’

3.3. Locomotion in and on water⇫

In a study of verbs used in various languages for locomotion in and on water Lander, Maisak & Rahilina (2012) divide this semantic domain into three semantic subdomains: (a) swimming (self-propelled motion of an animate being); (b) floating (uncontrolled and non-agentive motion); and (c) sailing (motion of vessels and of the people aboard). Some languages (e.g. English) have verbs for each of these domains and little more. Others elaborate the subdomains. For example, Indonesian elaborates (c) with many verbs formed from nouns denoting vessels or areas of water. Others, on the other hand, conflate the three subdomains, like Russian, where plyt’/plavat’ is a verb denoting locomotion in and on water in general.

Given that the speakers of POc were skilful sailors, in many cases long-distance sailors, one might expect POc to have been like Indonesian. Indeed, perhaps it was, but the available data do not allow reconstruction of an elaborate set of terms for (c). Only POc *palau(r) ‘go to sea, make a sea voyage’ is reconstructable (§6.3.3.1). This may be because relevant terms in modern languages have been lost with the demise of the ocean-going canoe, or simply because researchers have not been conscious of the need to collect such terms. POc terms can be reconstructed for the three subdomains proposed by Lander et al., but not for much more. There was also a verb for ‘wade’ (§6.3.3.2), a concept not included in their analysis. There are two reconstructions for ‘swim’ (§6.3.3.3) and one for ‘go under water’ (§6.3.3.4). The ‘swim’ terms presumably differed in meaning in some now irretrievable way. Modern languages often distinguish between swimming on the surface and swimming under the surface. There were also terms for ‘float’ (§6.3.3.5). Thus if one is to believe the testimony of the reconstructions presented in this section, POc was like English in its lexicalisation of locomotion in and on water, but this may well be an artefact of data collection and/or modernisation.

3.3.1. Travel by sea⇫

No term for a locomotion verb ‘sail’ is reconstructable. POc *palau(r) meant ‘go to sea, make a sea voyage’, and is derived from PMP *lahud/POc *laur ‘sea, seawards’ (vol.2:91–92).

PMP *pa-lahud ‘go down to the sea or coast’
POc *palau(r) ‘go to sea, make a sea voyage’ (vol.1:206–207)
SES Tolo vola-volau ‘run, race’
NCV Raga walau ‘guide, steer, direct’
NCV Mota wala-walau ‘paddle all together’
NCV Nguna wo-wolau ‘steer canoe’
Mic Kiribati porau, po-porau ‘travel by sea’ (prob. borrowed from a Pn source)
Fij Bauan volau [V] ‘make a sea voyage’; [N] ‘boat house’
Pn Tongan folau ‘voyage, travel by sea’
Pn Tongan folau(ʔaŋa) ‘boat in which one voyages’ (-ʔaŋa < NOM)
Pn Tongan folau(ʔia) ‘be constantly visited by ships’
Pn Rennellese hogau (1) ‘ocean voyage’; (2) ‘canoe making an ocean voyage’
Pn Samoan folau ‘travel by sea, make a voyage; depart, sail’
Pn Samoan fōlau(ŋa) ‘voyage’ (-ŋa < NOM)
Pn Samoan folau(vaʔa) ‘sailor’
Pn Tikopia forau ‘voyage overseas, travel abroad’
Pn Māori farau (1) ‘travel, particularly by water’; (2) ‘company of travellers’
cf. also:
PT Misima alalau ‘(go on a) voyage (by boat)’

3.3.2. Wade⇫

POc had a term for wading, i.e. for walking through water deep enough to impede free movement, namely *tuRu(p). Blust (ACD) is uncertain whether the medial consonant is *R, but this is confirmed by the Baluan reflex. He suggests on the basis of SES transitive reflexes that the POc form may have ended in *-p. The latter is parenthesised here as we so far have evidence of it only in SES languages.

POc *tuRu(p) ‘wade’ (ACD; Geraghty 1990: 76: PEOc)
Adm Baluan tui ‘wade through water’
PT Motu turu ‘wade’
MM Vitu turu ‘walk in shallow water’
MM Nakanai tulu ‘wade’
MM Bola tulu ‘walk’
SES Gela tulu ‘wade; float’
SES Gela tuluv-i- ‘wade to (s.t.)’
SES Lau ulu ‘wade’
SES Lau uluf-i- ‘wade to (s.t.)’
SES To’aba’ita ulu ‘cross a stream, river’
SES ’Are’are uru ‘wade’
SES Kwaio ulu ‘wade’
SES Sa’a ulu ‘wade’
SES Arosi uru ‘wade’
SES Arosi uruh-aʔi ‘wade with, wade and carry’
Mic Ponapean sūr ‘sink or wade in mud’

3.3.3. Swim⇫

Four POc terms possibly meaning ‘swim’ are reconstructable, namely *kaRu and *qasa, both ‘swim’, *loso ‘bathe, swim’ and *kʷaya ‘immerse self, swim’. It is reasonable to infer that their meanings differed, but, because there is a tendency for reflexes to shift meaning, the protoglosses are inevitably tentative. A major distinction that was evidently made is that between swimming as a physical activity entailing movement of arms and legs, and immersing oneself in water, typically with the intention of washing one’s body. The first two verbs, *kaRu and *qasa appear to have denoted the physical activity of swimming by moving arms and legs, whereas *loso and *kʷaya apparently denoted immersion. Hence *kaRu and *qasa were locomotion verbs, and their cognate sets are listed below. POc *loso and *kʷaya, on the other hand, denoted a physical activity other than locomotion and appear in chapter 7.

POc *kaRu ‘swim’ (Pawley 1976: Blust 1993: *kakaRu)
Adm Seimat ki-kau [VI] ‘wash’
Adm Titan kaw ‘swim’
Adm Nauna kokaw ‘swim’
NNG Sio kɔlo ‘wade in water’
SES To’aba’ita ʔar(aŋa) ‘swim (of people and animals, but not fish)’
SES Kwara’ae ʔaru ‘swim’
NCV Mota ɣaru ‘wade/swim advancing by movement of arms and legs’
NCV Kiai karo ‘swim’
NCV Mwotlap ɣɛy ‘swim’
NCV Vurës ɣɛr ‘swim, wade’
NCV Maewo ɣa-ɣaru ‘swim’
NCV Raga ɣa-ɣaru ‘swim, float by moving arms and legs; take a bath’
NCV Sakao ɣɛr ‘swim’
NCV Nguna karu ‘swim side-stroke’
Fij Wayan gau ‘swim’ (g- for †k-)
Fij Wayan gau-vi- [VT] ‘swim across, swim to’
PPn *kau, *ka-kau ‘swim’ (POLLEX)
Pn Tongan ka-kau ‘swim (of man and ducks, but not fish)’
Pn Niuean ka-kau ‘swim’
Pn Samoan ʔa-ʔau ‘swim’
Pn Samoan ʔāus-ia ‘be swimming with, be full of’
Pn Samoan ʔaus-aʔi ‘swim with (s.o. or s.t.)’
Pn Tuvalu ka-kau ‘swim’
Pn Pukapukan ka-kau ‘swim’
Pn Tikopia ka-kau ‘swim (of man, but not fish)’
Pn Rennellese ka-kau ‘swim’
Pn East Futunan ka-kau ‘swim’
Pn Kapingamarangi kau ‘swim’
Pn Rapanui kau ‘swim’
Pn Hawaiian ʔau ‘swim’
Pn Mangarevan kau ‘swim’
Pn Tahitian ʔau ‘swim’
Pn Rapanui kau ‘swim’
Pn Rarotongan kau ‘swim’
Pn Māori kau(hoe) ‘swim’

POc *qasa ‘swim’
Adm Mussau asa ‘swim on the surface’
NNG Sissano -yiəs ‘swim’
SJ Sobei -yas ‘swim’
MM East Kara ŋəs ‘swim under water’
MM Patpatar ias ‘swim’
MM Kandas was ‘swim’
MM Laghu aha ‘swim’

Also reconstructable is PEOc *olo ‘swim’. A possible WOc cognate is Teop (MM) oro ‘drift, float, be carried by the current’.

PEOc *olo ‘swim’
SES Gela olo ‘swim’
SES Bugotu oðo ‘swim’
SES West Guadalcanal olo ‘swim’
SES ’Are’are ōro ‘swim’
SES Sa’a olo ‘swim’
TM Vano wowo ‘swim’
NCV Vunapu olo ‘swim’
NCV Paamese olo ‘swim’

3.3.4. Dive, go under water⇫

Although most Oceanic languages have verbs that denote various kinds of diving as a human physical activity, the data do not allow POc reconstructions to be made for these meanings. The directional aspect of diving is often indicated by one of the geographic verbs for ‘go down’, POc *sipo and *sobu, reconstructed in vol.2:261-262. Nonetheless, one of the meanings of POc *ruku was ‘go under water’.

POc *ruku ‘go under water, duck under (s.t.), bow the head’
NNG Bam -ruk ‘swim’
NNG Roinji luɣu ‘dive’
MM Nakanai lu-lū ‘duck under’
MM Solos ruku ‘dive’
SES Bugotu rugu ‘duck the head’
SES Lau rū ‘enter’
SES Sa’a ruʔu ‘draw back, retire’
SV Sye o-ruɣ ‘swim’
SV Anejom̃ e-reɣ ‘swim, bathe, be in water’

PMic *ruku ‘tip, go under water’ (Bender et al. 2003)
Mic Carolinian rux ‘go under water, of outrigger’
Mic Chuukese ruk ‘tip, be unsteady, tip with the outrigger going under water’
Mic Woleaian ruxu(tiw) ‘bend forward from waist, bow’ (tiw ‘go down’)
Mic Mokilese ruk ‘to bow, bend’
Fij Wayan ruku ‘bow down, stand or walk bent over or in a stooping posture’
Pn Rarotongan ruku ‘dive under water’
Pn Hawaiian luʔu ‘dive, plunge into water, immerse, dip (as shrimp net)’
Pn Māori ruku ‘dive feet first, sink, dive, submerge’

3.3.5. Float, drift⇫

Two POc terms meaning ‘float, drift’ can be reconstructed, but it is debatable whether either of them was a locomotion verb. POc *ma-qañur ‘floating, adrift’ is a promising candidate, as its Seimat and Arosi reflexes have glosses that imply movement. POc *saliR ‘flow, of water’ denoted movement of water, but the glosses of some of its reflexes also denote the movement of an object floating on flowing water. Whether the latter sense is reconstructable to POc is unclear. NCV reflexes do mean ‘float’, but the unexpected final vowel of PNCV *sale calls into question its descent from POc *saliR. PWOc *pʷati ‘float, drift, be carried on water’ does seem to have denoted movement, but no EOc reflexes have been found.

PAn *qañud ‘drift on a current, carried away by flowing water’ (ACD)
POc *maqañur ‘floating, adrift’ (ACD; vol.2:92–93)
Adm Seimat man ‘drift, float on a current’
SES Lau manu-manu ‘float’
SES ’Are’are manu-manu ‘float’
SES Sa’a manu ‘float’
SES Arosi manu ‘float in water or air’
SV Anejom̃ a-man-a-man ‘float (VI)’
PMic *maanu ‘adrift, drift’ (Bender et al. 1983)
Mic Chuukese māɾ ‘be becalmed; drift’
Mic Mortlockese mān ‘float’
Mic Puluwatese mān ‘drift’
Mic Carolinian māl ‘drift’
Mic Satawalese mān ‘drift, float’
Mic Woleaian mālʉ ‘drift, be adrift’
Mic Pulo Annian māɾɨ ‘float, drift’
Fij Rotuman mɔnu ‘float’
PPn *maqanu ‘be afloat’ (POLLEX)
Pn Tongan maʔanu ‘be afloat, not to be resting on or touching the bottom’
Pn Samoan mānu ‘come to the surface, emerge (as a turtle)’
Pn East Futunan maʔanu ‘bathe, wash oneself’
Pn East Uvean maʔanu ‘afloat, float’
Pn Nukuoro mānu ‘float in place’
Pn Kapingamarangi mānu ‘buoyant; float’
Pn Rennellese maʔanu ‘float, drift, soar; leap, as in a dance’
Pn Tongarevan mānu ‘afloat, float’
Pn Tikopia mānuu ‘floating on water’
Pn Māori mānu ‘float; be launched; overflow; be flooded’

PMP *saliR ‘flow, of water’ (ACD)
POc *saliR ‘flow, of water’ (vol.2:94)
NNG Takia -sarir ‘submerge, drown, sink, bury’
PT Gumawana salili ‘drown, sink’
MM Nakanai sali ‘flow’
MM Tigak salik ‘flow’
MM Tolai alir ‘swim, float, drift; float through the air, as a bird with motionless wings; adrift, drifting; run’
MM Ramoaaina alir ‘flow; float, drift’
MM Bilur alir ‘swim’
SES Gela hali-hali ‘flow swiftly’
PNCV *sale ‘float, flow’ (*-e for †*-i)
NCV Mota sale ‘float, drift, soar with open wings; flow, run with water’
NCV Nokuku sale ‘float’
NCV Kiai sale ‘float, fly, sail’
NCV Tamambo sale ‘float, travel’
NCV Sakao hal ‘float’
NCV Uripiv -sal ‘float’
NCV Lonwolwol hal ‘gush out (of liquids); float, spread, flow; drift (of water or objects floating on water)’
NCV Nguna sale ‘float, drift’
Fij Bauan sali ‘flow’
Fij Wayan sali ‘flow’
PWOc *pʷati ‘float, drift, be carried on water’
NNG Bariai pat ‘float, drift, float away’
NNG Mangap pot-pot [VI] ‘float’
NNG Sio pɔti ‘float in one place’
NNG Mangseng (mon)pot ‘float downstream’
NNG Mengen potue ‘carry on water, float’
NNG Takia -fot ‘float, drift’
NNG Bing fat-at ‘float’
NNG Manam poati ‘float’
MM Vitu pati ‘float’
MM Bulu pasi ‘float’
MM Bola pasi ‘drift’
MM Nakanai pati ‘float’
MM Nehan pat-pat-aŋa ‘float’

4. Direction verbs⇫

A section with this title also occurs in vol.2(256-282). It presents reconstructions of the semantically most basic verbs of geographic direction, i.e. *sipo, *sobu and *[s,j]u[(a,u)] ‘go downward’, *sake ‘go upward’, *surup ‘enter, penetrate’, and of deictic direction, i.e. *ma[i] ‘come (towards speaker)’, *ua/*watu ‘towards addressee, *la[ko], *pa[no] and *[y]aku ‘away from speaker’. The purpose of the present section is to offer reconstructions of verbs that are semantically more complex but have a directional semantic component.

4.1. Return⇫

Verbs of returning arguably encode both an element of geographic direction, in that there is a reversal of path direction, and an element of deixis, as movement is towards a goal identical with an earlier starting point of movement.

Three verbs of returning reflect a single PMP root *uliq. Final *-iq is often raised to Oceanic -e. POc evidently had reflexes of both the plain root *uliq (POc *uli(q), *ule) and of *um-uliq (POc *mule), where PMP *um- is the marker of actor voice, present by default as the PMP verb was intransitive.

PMP *uliq ‘return home; return something; restore, repair; repeat; motion to and from’ (ACD)
POc *uli(q), *ule ‘come back’
MM Bulu ule(mai) ‘come back’
MM East Kara ula ‘come back’
MM Nalik uli ‘come back’
MM Konomala ule(i) ‘come back’
MM Uruava ure [VI] ‘turn round’
Fij Wayan uli [VI] ‘(of a visitor’s speech) be replied to’
Fij Wayan uli- [VT] ‘reply to (of a visitor’s speech)’
Pn Rarotongan uri ‘turn round or turn about; to translate, as one language into another’
cf. also:
NNG Mengen ule ‘put behind one with a sense of completion’

In serial verb constructions reflexes of POc *mule are often treated as verbs of geographic direction, as in this Takia (NNG) example:

    • Takia (NNG)
      ‘You’ve come back.’
      u-mul ∅-palu =wa
      2SG-return 2SG-come =PRF
      PATH DEIXIS …

PMP *um-uliq ‘return home’ (ACD)
POc *mule ‘return, restore’ (ACD)
Adm Titan muli-e ‘return’
NNG Gitua mule ‘return, back, again’
NNG Lukep -mulu ‘come back, turn around, go back’
NNG Mangap -mīli [VI] ‘return, turn oneself around, go until, go as far as, stop at’
NNG Kilenge -mule ‘come back’
NNG Tami mul ‘backside; come back’
NNG Mengen mule ‘come back’
NNG Kaiwa (lu)mol ‘come back’ (lu- < POc *liu ‘turn aside, change direction’)
NNG Bilibil -mul ‘come back’
NNG Takia -mul ‘come back’
NNG Manam -mule ‘come back’
NNG Manam mule-aki ‘return (s.t.)’
NNG Bam -mul ‘come back’
MM Vitu (va)mule ‘come back’
MM Bola (ɣa)mule ‘come back’
MM Notsi mulə ‘come back’
MM Tabar mure(ŋai) ‘come back’
MM Lihir miel ‘come back’
MM Madak ml(oŋ) ‘return’
MM Tolai mule [VI] ‘come back, return, of persons or things; again, afresh, more, yet’
MM Simbo mule ‘return; go back, come back; again, once again’
NCV Mota mule ‘come, go; refresh, restore in sickness’
NCV Nokuku mule ‘go back, go home’
NCV Kiai mule ‘go home, return’
NCV Kiai mule-i- ‘give back’
NCV Ambae mule ‘go home’
NCV Raga mule ‘reach a certain point’
NCV Tamambo mule ‘return home’
NCV North Ambrym mol ‘return, back’
SV Anejom̃ (a-θu)mʷoc ‘return’

Blust (1983–84b:11–13) draws attention to an idiosyncratic innovation shared by CMP and Oceanic languages. This is the raising of PMP *u- to *o- giving a PCEMP variant *oliq ‘return’, reflected in Oceanic only in SES languages.

PMP *uliq ‘return home; return something; restore, repair; repeat; motion to and from’ (ACD)
PCEMP *oliq ‘return’ (ACD)
POc *oli(q) ‘go back, come back’
SES Bugotu oli ‘change’
SES Bugotu olih-i [VT] ‘exchange’
SES Bugotu va-oli [VT] ‘exchange; in turn’ (va- CAUSATIVE)
SES Gela oli ‘come back, return; back, again’
SES Gela oli-oli ‘go and return’
SES Gela oliv-i ‘return to’
SES Longgu oli [VI] ‘to return; go back’
SES Kwaio oli ‘return, come back to; commit incest’
SES Kwaio faʔa-oli- ‘cause to return, send back; return something to a person’ (faʔa- CAUSATIVE)
SES Sa’a oli-oli ‘return, relieve, replace’
SES Sa’a olis-i ‘change, alter’
SES Arosi ori ‘return; stroll about’
SES ’Are’are ori ‘return; come back, go back (home)’

There are relatively few EOc reflexes of the terms reconstructed above, partly perhaps because their function had been taken over by reflexes of PEOc *poki ‘return’.

PEOc *poki ‘return’
SES Gela voɣi ‘go back, turn over’
SES Sa’a hoʔi ‘return’
SES Arosi (a)hoʔi ‘return, go back; change, turn into, become’
NCV Mota woɣ ‘change, in character or colour’
Mic Kiribati oki ‘return’
Mic Carolinian woxo-wox ‘turn food when cooking’
Mic Woleaian wegi-ti ‘turn, change, transfer, convert (it)’
Fij Bauan vuki, vuki-ca ‘turn, change’
Fij Bauan (ta)vuki ‘turned over, capsized’
Fij Bauan voki ‘shift, of the wind’
Fij Wayan vuki ‘be turned around/over; turn oneself round; change direction’
Fij Rotuman hoʔi ‘go back, return’
Pn Niuean foki ‘turn, return’
Pn Niuean fo-foki [VT] ‘turn inside out, turn over’
Pn Tongan foki [VI] ‘return’
Pn East Uvean foki ‘return’
Pn Rennellese hoki ‘go or come back, return’
Pn Samoan foʔi ‘return’
Pn Tikopia foki ‘return, retreat’
Pn Hawaiian hoʔi ‘return’

4.2. Turn round⇫

POc apparently had two homophonous verbs with the root *liu, one glossed ‘turn aside, change direction’ (this section) and the other *liu ‘go beyond, pass, surpass’ (§6.4.3). It is possible that both reflect PAn *liuS, which Blust (ACD) glosses ‘circumambulate, circumvent’. However, its Formosan reflexes suggest that PAn *liuS formed both intransitive and transitive verbs meaning ‘turn around’,12 the sense inherited by POc. Whether PAn *liuS was also ancestral to PMP *liu ‘surpass, exceed’ is not clear.

In addition to POc *liu ‘turn aside, change direction’, a reduplicated *li-liu ‘turn around, go back’ is also reconstructable (the different glosses of POc *liu and *li-liu are tentative at best). Many reflexes of these two forms are similar in meaning to reflexes of the items in §6.4.1, but the overall pattern of their glosses suggests that *liu and *li-liu profiled the semantic element of turning around rather than simply of going back.

The forms listed under ‘cf. also’ below appear to reflect a POc *[ri]riu ‘turn’, i.e. a form in which *l had been replaced by *r. This is not a regular sound change.

POc *liu ‘turn aside, change direction’
POc *li-liu ‘turn around, go back’ (ACD)
Adm Baluan li-liu ‘go back’
NNG Mengen (ga)liu ‘return (said to person nearby)’
NNG Mengen (kaga)liu ‘return (said to someone going far away)’
NNG Mengen (taoga)liu ‘return (by turning around and going back), chase (s.t.)’
NNG Numbami -leleu ‘return’
NNG Kaiwa lu(mol) ‘come back’ (mol < *mule ‘return’)
NNG Manam (-soa)li-li [VI] ‘turn round’
MM Minigir (ta)li-li ‘come back’
MM Tolai li-li(kun) [VI] ‘come back, turn back, return’
MM Tolai (ma)li-liu [VI] ‘having gone before, as shown by flattened grass’
MM Bilur (va)li-li(kun) ‘come back’
MM Roviana li-liu ‘turn around’
SES Bugotu (pi)liu ‘turn’
SES Gela liu ‘turn aside, go in another direction or by another way’
SES Gela li-liu ‘become, change into’
SES Lengo (pi)li-liu ‘turn’
SES Malango lel-eo ‘turn’
SES Longgu liu- [VT] ‘turn (s.t.) over, e.g. in the fire’
SES Sa’a (a)līu ‘turn; change one’s mind’
SES Sa’a li-li [VI] ‘change, move about’; [VT] ‘change position of, push to one side’
SES Kahua ri-ri ‘turn’
PNCV *li(u)-liu [VI] ‘return; be backwards, be upside down’ (Clark 2009: *liu)
NCV Raga vʷa-liu ‘answer’
NCV Uripiv -luwi ‘return’
NCV Uripiv -li-li ‘turn (end to end), change positions’
NCV Port Sandwich li-l ‘backwards’
NCV Port Sandwich li-li ‘upside down’
NCV Port Sandwich li-li-in-i ‘back to front’
NCV Lonwolwol lu-lu (ne) ‘backwards, back to front, wrong way round, upside down’
NCV Tolomako li-liu ‘return’
NCV Neve’ei ma-li-li ‘return’
NCV Naha’ai ma-li-liu ‘return’
NCV Lewo li-liu ‘go upside down’
NCV Nguna li-liu ‘return’
NCV Nguna laki-pi-liu ‘sister exchange marriage’ (laki ‘marry’)
Fij Rotuman liu ‘jibe (of a boat)’
PPn *liu ‘turn round’ (POLLEX)
Pn Tongan li-liu [VT] ‘turn round, turn or change into s.t. else’
Pn Niuean liu ‘to turn, change’
Pn Samoan liu ‘alter, change; turn into’
Pn Samoan li-liu [VT] ‘turn’
Pn Samoan liu-liu ‘turn over and over’
Pn East Futunan li-liu ‘turn back, return’
Pn East Uvean li-liu ‘return, come back’
Pn Rennellese giu ‘return, go back’
Pn Kapingamarangi riu ‘turn, reverse’
Pn Emae riu-a [VT] ‘turn over’
Pn Rarotongan riu ‘turn round’
Pn Tuamotuan riu ‘turn round’
Pn Tahitian riu-riu ‘be moving around’
Pn Hawaiian liu-a ‘spinning, whirling, dizzy; shocked; fascinated’
cf. also:
MM Sursurunga -ri-riu [VI] ‘turn round’
MM Roviana ta-liri ‘turn’ (consonant dissimilation?)
SES Bugotu riu ‘move position, change place of’
SES Bugotu riu-riu ‘wander about’
SES Gela riu ‘turn round’
SES Lengo ri-riu ‘turn’
SES Longgu ri-riu ‘turn’

PPn *ma-liu reflects the same root with the addition of the detransitivising prefix *ma- (see also the entries for Neve’ei and Naha’ai above).

PAn *ma-liuS ‘turn round’13
POc *ma-liu ‘change direction, turn’
PPn *ma-liu ‘change direction, turn’ (POLLEX)
Pn Niuean maliu ‘turn towards the speaker; change one’s mind, attitude, etc.’
Pn Tuvalu maliu ‘turned’
Pn East Futunan maliu ‘return’
Pn East Uvean maliu ‘return, change direction’
Pn Kapingamarangi maliu ‘swerve’
Pn Rarotongan mariu ‘change direction, return, go, come’
Pn Tuamotuan mariu ‘turn to one side’
Pn Hawaiian maliu ‘turn toward’

Three further POc terms meaning ‘turn round’ or ‘turn back’ are reconstructable. The first, *likot, is reconstructed on the basis of evidence from western Malayo-Polynesian languages noted in the ACD and a single regular Oceanic reflex, Bali (MM) liɣota. The Vangunu reflex likoso is irregular, as the expected form is †liɣoto.

PMP *liget ‘turn, rotate’ (ACD: PWMP)
POc *likot [VI] ‘turn round’
MM Bali liɣota [VI] ‘turn round’
cf. also:
MM Vangunu likoso ‘turn’

The other two reconstructions are formally similar, and it is hard to believe that they are not historically connected in some way, as both display the pattern *LABIAL-ulos. They are:

  • POc *[ta]bulo(s) (VI) ‘turn round, turn back’, *bulos-i- (VT) ‘turn round, turn back’
  • POc *pulo(s) (VI) ‘turn round’, *pulos-i- (VT) ‘turn (s.t.) round’

However, there is no straightforward way to unify them.

The first, *[ta]bulo(s), *bulos-i-, is internally consistent. Most of the intransitive forms reflect the semi-productive POc prefix *ta-, which decreased valency by removing the agent, and emphasised the spontaneity of the event (§1.3.5.4; Evans 2003:300). However, in this instance, the prefix simply functions to reduce valency.

POc *[ta]bulo(s) [VI] ‘turn round, turn back’
POc *bulos-i- [VT] ‘turn round, turn back’
NNG Medebur ta-wul [VI] ‘turn round’
NNG Wogeo ta-bul [VI] ‘turn round’
NNG Kis -tu-bu-bl-i [VI] ‘turn round’
NNG Kairiru -ta-bul [VI] ‘turn round’
MM Blablanga bulo ‘turn’
SES Bugotu ta-bulo ‘suddenly’
SES Bugotu ta-bulos-i ‘be sudden’
SES Gela ta-bulo ‘dash off suddenly’
SES To’aba’ita a-bula [VI] ‘turn, veer to the side’
SES Langalanga bulus-i ‘turn’
SES Lau a-bulo ‘turn round, turn back, turn aside’
SES Kwara’ae a-bʷel ‘turn’
SES Kwaio a-bulo ‘turn’
SES Kwaio bulos-i- [VT] ‘turn’
SES Sa’a pulo [VI] ‘reach, turn back, return’
SES Sa’a ʔa-pulo ‘reversed, returned, turned back on a journey’
SES Arosi buro [VI] ‘turn around, revolve’
SES Arosi a-buro ‘turn back, return, fail to reach home’
NCV South Efate plos ‘wring clothes’
SV Ura o-pre-i ‘turn’
Mic Kosraean tæ-pʌl [VI] ‘turn’

POc *pulo(s) (VI) ‘turn round’, *pulos-i- (VT) ‘turn (s.t.) round’ entails some formal challenges:

  • The presence of fortis p- in Bulu, Harua, Roviana, W Guadalcanal, Talise and Birao, where a lenis reflex is expected, is probably explained by the fact that the sequence *pu- sometimes gives rise to [*pʷu], where [*pʷ] resists lenition.
  • The sequence [*pʷu] sometimes becomes [*pʷi] in Oceanic languages, i.e. the rounding feature is fully transferred from [*u] to preceding [*pʷ], accounting for -i-, instead of †-u-, in W Guadalcanal, Talise, Birao and all NCV reflexes except Kiai.
  • The second vowel, *-o-, is fronted to -e- (or -i- in Tabar and Neve’ei) in both intransitive and transitive forms. This is especially common in NCV reflexes, leading Clark (2009) to reconstruct two PNCV forms, *viles-i and *vilos-i. There is no obvious explanation for this alternation, but it is very unlikely that †*pules-i- occurred in POc, as *e is usually stem-final, reflecting PMP *-ay.

These considerations point to the reconstruction of POc *pulo(s) (VI) ‘turn round’, *pulos-i- (VT) ‘turn (s.t.) round’, and also suggest that early Vanuatu Oceanic must also have retained the form *vulos-i.

POc *pulo(s) [VI] ‘turn round’
POc *pulos-i- [VT] ‘turn (s.t.) round’
Adm Seimat hūlo [VI] ‘turn about, as a man’
NNG Gitua pule-le [VI] ‘turn round’
NNG Kove -pale-le [VI] ‘turn round’
NNG Bariai -pale-le [VI] ‘turn round’
NNG Kilenge -pulie [VI] ‘turn round’
NNG Amara -pul [VI] ‘turn round’
NNG Maleu -pule [VI] ‘turn round’
MM Bulu pulo [VI] ‘turn round’
MM Harua pule [VI] ‘turn round’
MM Nakanai vulo [VI] ‘turn round’
MM Tabar vurisi ‘turn’
MM Babatana vule ‘return, come/go back’
MM Roviana pule ‘again, once more; to return’
SES West Guadalcanal pilo ‘turn’
SES Talise pilo ‘turn’
SES Birao pilo ‘turn’
SES Arosi a-huro [VI] ‘turn round, twist, slip around’ (a- SPONTANEOUS)
SES Bauro a-horo ‘turn’ (a- SPONTANEOUS)

PNCV *viles-i, *vilos-i ‘turn’ (Clark 2009)
NCV Mota vile-ris ‘change, be changed’ (ris ‘change’)
NCV Mwotlap vɪy ‘reverse direction’
NCV Kiai ri-vules-i- [VT] ‘turn’
NCV Naman vələs ‘turn around; change’
NCV Port Sandwich vløs-i ‘to roll on one’s thigh’
NCV Neve’ei vilih ‘turn around; put on back to front; stir; change’
NCV Southeast Ambrym -hilesi ‘turn’
NCV Paamese hiles [VI] ‘turn around, turn over; turn corner (in vehicle); change, become different’
NCV Paamese hilesi [VT] ‘turn around, turn over; sprain muscle’
NCV Namakir viloh ‘turn, turn back, come back’

The POc stems *bulos and *pulos which are central to the reconstructions above must have a common origin, but they are not related by any known morphological pattern.

4.3. Go beyond, pass by, surpass⇫

The formal identity of POc *liu ‘go beyond, pass, surpass’ and POc *liu ‘turn aside, change direction’ is discussed in the introduction to 6.4.2 above.

Grammaticisation of a verb meaning ‘surpass’—often a figurative extension of a verb meaning ‘go beyond, pass’—as a comparative marker is common in Oceanic languages, such that My house is bigger than yours is expressed by a clause containing a serial verb construction with the sense ‘My house big surpasses yours.’ Such a use is noted in the ’Are’are and Arosi dictionary entries from which items below are drawn.

PMP *liu ‘surpass, exceed’ (ACD)
POc *liu [VT] ‘go beyond, pass, surpass’
MM Tolai liu [VT] ‘pass’
SES Bugotu liu [VT] ‘go beyond, pass’
SES Lau liu ‘go, pass by, move about’
SES ’Are’are riu- [VT] ‘surpass, win, excel, go beyond, pass over, of time’
SES Sa’a liu ‘pass by’
SES Arosi riu ‘go on, go past; beyond’
PNCV *liu ‘go beyond, exceed’ (Clark 2009)
NCV Raga liu ‘surpass, more than’
NCV Nokuku liu ‘above, greater (used in comparative constructions)’
NCV Kiai lui- ‘lead, go first, be ahead; go beyond’
NCV Tamambo liu ‘win; be better’
NCV Sakao lö(d) ‘exceed, surpass, go beyond’
NCV Paamese lii (muli) ‘pass, go past; miss; more than’
NCV Lewo liu ‘pass, go past; miss; more than’
NCV Namakir liw ‘too much, too many, very’
NCV Nguna lius- ‘past, beyond; to surpass, pass’
Fij Bauan liu ‘precede, surpass, excel, go before, be the first to do a thing’

4.4. Arrive, appear⇫

Four POc verbs are reconstructed in this section: *potu ‘appear, come into view’, *pʷosa ‘appear’, *pura ‘arrive, appear’, *pʷaka ‘come into view’. They share similar clusters of meanings: ‘arrive’, ‘come into view’, ‘rise (especially of the moon)’ and ‘appear’. They are included here because reflexes of the most widely reflected of the four, *potu, serve as direction verbs in serial verb constructions in at least the languages of southern New Ireland, as in this Ramoaaina (MM) example.

Clark (2009) notes that in north and central Vanuatu languages reflexes of *potu are used of the emergence of the new moon: e.g. Mota o vula we wot ma ‘a new moon appears’, and occur as an attribute in the phrase ‘new moon’: e.g. Nokuku wul wotu ‘new moon’, Tamambo vitu-votu ‘new moon’, Rerep nebur mi uet ‘new moon’.

PMP *betu ‘appear, come into view’ (ACD)
POc *potu ‘appear, come into view’ (ACD)
Adm Mussau otu [VI] ‘show up’
NNG Amara pod, uod [VI] ‘appear, arrive’
NNG Bariai ot ‘arrive; emerge’
NNG Kove put ‘appear, enter a garden, come out’
NNG Mangseng =pot ‘out, off’ (‘=’ marks an enclitic boundary)
PT Sinaugoro votu ‘arrive’
MM Madak vot ‘come, arrive’
MM Sursurunga hut ‘come, arrive’
MM Ramoaaina pat ‘come, arrive’
MM Tinputz vōs ‘arrive at, reach home’
PNCV *votu ‘emerge, appear’ (Clark 2009)
NCV Mota wot ‘rise up, stand up, appear, shoot up (as land coming into sight when at sea)’
NCV Raga votu ‘arrive, come, reach’
NCV Merei vu-vut ‘appear’
NCV Nokuku wot(ʔer) ‘appear, happen’
NCV Uripiv -wut ‘come out (guts from a wound; new moon)’
NCV West Ambrym fur ‘appear, come clear, come out’
NCV Paamese hotu ‘(of reef) come out and disappear under waves, come out at low tide; (of something floating) bob up and down in waves’
NCV Lewo woru ‘appear, arrive, reach’
NCV South Efate put(sak) ‘emerge, as from water’
Fij Rotuman hofu ‘rise, of moon; emerge, esp. from interior at coast’
Fij Bauan votu ‘appear, become visible (as a ghost)’
Fij Wayan votu ‘appear, come into view, become visible’
Pn Tongan fotu ‘emerge, come into view; appear (as fish in season), become manifest, stand out, or to be or become prominent’
Pn Rennellese hotu ‘come forth, appear’
Pn Samoan fotu ‘appear (as a boat coming around a point); (of trees) blossom out, come into blossom’
Pn Samoan fōtu-aʔi ‘emerge, heave in sight (as a boat)’
Pn Tokelauan fotu ‘appear, emerge’
Pn Māori hotu ‘dawn’

The other three verbs are less widely reflected and their usage is less well understood than that of *potu.

POc *pʷosa ‘appear’
NNG Lukep -pa-pos-i ‘cause to appear, reveal’
NNG Mengen pota ‘appear’
PT Dobu (a)pʷesa ‘appear, arrive, arrive there, depart, happen’
PT Bunama (ha)pʷesa ‘appear’
MM Patpatar posa ‘appear, stick out’
MM Patpatar po-posa, pa-posa [N] ‘appearing of sun, moon, stars’
SES ’Are’are huta ‘be born, appear, rise up’
SES Sa’a uwota ‘appear on the horizon’
POc *pura ‘arrive, appear’
NNG Manam pura ‘come, arrive’
NNG Bam -pur ‘come back’
NNG Kairiru -fur ‘appear, arrive on the scene’
MM Roviana vura ‘appear’
MM Roviana va-vura-ia ‘cause to appear, reveal’
NCV Lonwolwol fur ‘appear, come clear, (moon) come out’
NCV Lewo ula ‘arrive at; attain’
Fij Bauan vura ‘arrive, emerge, appear’
Fij Wayan vura ‘appear, come into view’

The presentation of POc *pʷaka ‘come into view’ below retains Bender et al.’s (2003) presentation of Micronesian data supporting PMic *pʷax(a,e) but separates off under ‘cf. also’ the transitive reflexes they list meaning ‘show’ or ‘announce’. This is done to highlight a difficulty in Bender et al.’s analysis. They reconstruct PMic medial *-x- (< POc *g) on the basis of the seemingly regular sound correspondence Kosraean -k, Ponapean, Mokilese and Pingelapese -r and Chuukese, Puluwatese, Carolinian and Woleaian zero (Bender et al. 2003:4). This is achieved by segmenting the transitives as Chuukese pʷǣ-ri etc. But if, as is usual, the consonant preceding the transitive suffix -i belongs to the PMic root (Chuukese pʷǣr-i etc.), then Chuukese, Puluwatese, Carolinian and Woleaian have -r in this position, and all items except Kosraean reflect PMic *pʷar(a,e), not PMic *pʷax(a,e). If this reinterpretation is correct, then it is possible that all Micronesian items other than Kosraean reflect POc *pura above, rather than POc *pʷaka.

POc *pʷaka ‘come into view’
NNG Sissano pak ‘come up, appear, come into being, stay close’
NNG Mangap pok ‘burst forth into the open, appear, come into view, break’
SES Arosi pʷā ‘rise’
SES Sa’a pʷaʔa ‘rise (of heavenly bodies)’
PMic *pʷax(a,e) ‘come into view, reveal’ (Bender et al. 2003)
Mic Kosraean fæk ‘say, tell, announce’
Mic Ponapean pʷar ‘appear’
Mic Mokilese pʷar ‘emerge, come to view’
Mic Pingelapese pʷar ‘appear, rise (of sun)’
Mic Chuukese pʷæ, pʷǣ- ‘come into view’
Mic Puluwatese pʷá, pʷǣ- ‘appear’
Mic Carolinian bʷæ ‘be(come) visible, appear’
Mic Carolinian pʷpʷæ ‘appear suddenly’
Mic Woleaian ɸʷā, pʷā ‘emerge into view, come from behind’
cf. also:
Mic Chuukese pʷǣr-i ‘show’
Mic Puluwatese pʷǣr-i- ‘show’

5. Accompanied movement verbs⇫

5.1. Accompany⇫

POc *ud(r)u ‘accompany, go with (s.o.)’
NNG Sio wuru ‘accompany, go with (s.o.)’
MM Ramoaaina we-ur ‘accompany, go together’ (we- RECIP)
SES Bugotu udu ‘walk in file’
SES Gela udu ‘accompany’

5.2. Gather, congregate⇫

A POc verb of the form *so(k,g)o(n) is reconstructable with a meaning that has to do with gathering or assembly, but both its form and its semantics are problematic. The Mussau, Mota and Paamese reflexes point to medial *-k-, the Lonwolwol and Wayan reflexes to *-g- (and Nguna to *-ŋ-). The glosses make it difficult to determine which form is intransitive, which transitive. On formal grounds, *so(k,g)o(n) was presumably intransitive, *so(k,g)on-i transitive, but the Nguna and Wayan Fijian use of *so(k,g)on-i as intransitive render this a little uncertain.

POc *so(k,g)o(n) [VI] ‘gather, congregate’
POc *so(k,g)on-i ‘gather, bring together’
Adm Mussau ai-soko-soko-iaa [VT] ‘gather together’ (ai- RECIP)
PNCV *soko ‘add, join’ (Clark 2009)
NCV Mota soɣo ‘give, bring, contribute, distribute; descriptive prefix to numerals, of things together in a bunch, such as coconuts; to measure money, a measure of money’
NCV Mota soɣon ‘bring together, pack, stow’
NCV Lonwolwol sogo ‘come together, to be close together’
NCV Paamese se-soon-i [VT] ‘join’
NCV Nguna soŋon-i-a [VI] ‘gather, congregate’
Fij Wayan sogo, sogon-i [VI] ‘gather, assemble, come together in a crowd, congregate’
Fij Wayan sogon-i-ti- [VT] ‘draw or attract a crowd, cause people to come together’
Pn Tongan hoko ‘join or unite (two things)’
Pn Tongan hoko-hoko ‘join or unite (many things)’
Pn Samoan soʔo ‘join, splice’
Pn Samoan soʔo-soʔo ‘join (many things)’

Just four reflexes of POc ‘gather, congregate’ have been found.14

POc *lupun ‘gather, congregate’
NNG Bariai lup ‘meet, gather, collect together, join, put together’
NNG Kaulong lup ‘join, gather’
MM Patpatar luhu ‘gather about’
SV Lenakel ləpun ‘join (VI, VT)’

5.3. Precede and follow⇫

Two POc locative nouns *muri- ‘rear, back part’ and *muqa- ‘front’, along with PWOc *muga, a variant form of *muqa, are reconstructed in vol.2(247–249, 251-252). It is noted there that *muqa/*muga and *muri both also occurred as verbs, respectively meaning ‘be in front’ and ‘be behind, be after’. Only verbal reflexes are listed below.

POc *muqa ‘be in front, precede’ (vol.2:247–248)
Adm Mussau mua ‘go first’
NNG Manam mua ‘go first, precede’
NNG Labu -mo ‘lead; go first’
NCV Mota mʷoa-i ‘first, foremost, principal; to be first’
NCV Lewo (va)mo ‘front’ (va ‘go’)
PMic *mʷ(o,u)a ‘ahead, going before’ (Bender et al. 2003)
Mic Chuukese -mʷmʷe-ɾi ‘lead him, go before him’
Mic Puluwatese mʷmʷe- ‘lead’
Mic Woleaian mʷmʷa- ‘go ahead of it’
Fij Wayan mua [VI] ‘head for a place, set course for a place’
PPn *muqa ‘be first, precede’
PPn *muqa-ki ‘before, first’
Pn Tongan muʔa [VI] ‘precede, be/go in front’
Pn Tongan muʔa-ki ‘be the first or leading person’
Pn Samoan mua ‘be first, arrive first’
Pn Rennellese muʔaʔa-ki ‘to lead, direct’
Pn Samoan mua-ʔi ‘be first’
Pn Tikopia mua-ki ‘give/send/perform etc. first’

PWOc *muga ‘be in front, precede’ (vol.2:249)
NNG Gitua muᵑga ‘precede, go ahead, future’
NNG Lukep -pa-mugu ‘cause to go first’ (pa- CAUSATIVE)
NNG Mangap -mūᵑgu ‘go ahead, go first, precede, go before’
NNG Sio muga ‘precede; before’
NNG Gedaged mug ‘precede’
NNG Takia mug [VI] ‘go ahead, go first’
NNG Mengen muge ‘go ahead of, lead’
NNG Yabem muŋ ‘precede’
NNG Numbami -muᵑga ‘precede, go first’
NNG Mapos Buang muɢ-in ‘go first, go ahead’
NNG Hote -mɔŋ ‘pass, go first’
NNG Adzera moŋʔ(an) ‘precede’
PT Muyuw mug ‘go ahead, go first, precede’
PT Suau -muga-i ‘precede’
MM Nakanai muga ‘go ahead, forward, onward’
MM Bola muga ‘go first; lead, go first’
MM Madak mgo ‘go first’
MM Ramoaaina muga ‘go first’
MM Ramoaaina muga-in ‘lead’
MM Siar muga-i ‘lead the way’
PMP *ma-udehi ‘be last; be after or behind; be late, be later; future’ (ACD)
POc *muri ‘be behind, be after, follow’ (vol.2:251-252)
PT Gapapaiwa muri ‘follow’
PT Dobu muli- ‘follow’
PT Bunama muli- ‘follow’
MM Nakanai (ku)muli- ‘chase after (+s.t.)’
MM Ramoaaina muru ‘follow; behind, back; last’
MM Teop muri-na ‘follow (s.o., s.t.)’
MM Banoni mū-muri ‘last, follow last’
SES Arosi muri- ‘follow; behind, back; outside of s.t.; afterwards; left hand when facing an object’
Fij Bauan muri ‘following, after’
Pn Samoan mui ‘be/go behind, be late/last’
Pn Samoan mui-aki ‘be the last person(s), bring up the rear’
Pn Samoan muli ‘come last, be last; young, new’
Pn Rennellese mugi ‘follow, be or go behind or after; rear end, esp. lower or western end’
Pn Hawaiian muli ‘behind, afterwards; last, following behind; younger, youngest; (canoe) stern’

6. Caused movement verbs⇫

Caused movement refers to an event where an agent, usually a person, causes a theme (the person or thing that is moved) to move. The semantic frame of caused movement is rather complex. It involves

  • an agent (who/which moves the theme)
  • a theme (what is moved)
  • a source (the location the theme is moved from)
  • a goal (the location the theme is moved to)
  • the movement event itself

Thus in an English sentence like

She moved the pot from the table to the ground
AGENT EVENT THEME SOURCE GOAL

all five frame elements are profiled.15 Caused movement constructions differ as to whether these elements are all profiled. In this construction the source and the goal are each optional. In construction with, say, put (instead of moved), the goal is obligatory and for many English-speakers the source is obligatorily absent.

Crucially, however, the verb itself may also profile certain frame elements. Predictably some caused movement verbs profile elements associated with posture and movement verbs, discussed in earlier sections. These include:

  1. the resulting posture of the theme (cf §6.2): transitive sit/seat/set, stand, lay, hang
  2. locomotion (cf §6.3), i.e. the manner of movement of the theme: drop (‘let fall, cause to fall’), send (‘cause to go’), throw (‘cause to fly’), transitive roll
  3. the direction of vertical movement (§6.4): lift, raise (‘cause to go up’), lower, drop (‘cause to go down’)
  4. the path of movement (§6.4)): insert (‘cause to go into’), extract (‘cause to come out of’), immerse (‘cause to go into water’), box (‘cause to be in boxes’)
  5. Other frame elements profiled by caused movement verbs relate to human causal agency:
  6. whether or not the agent accompanies the theme in its movement:16
  7. not specified, with take, push and pull
    1. yes, with carrying verbs like carry, bring, drag
    2. if no, then whether or not some part or tool of the agent touches the theme until it reaches its goal
      1. yes, with putting verbs like put, insert, immerse
      2. no, with sending verbs like send, drop, throw
      3. the kind of force that the agent applies in order to move the theme: push, pull, drag, throw
  8. change of possession: give, present, distribute, receive, exchange, steal

The elements listed above are not mutually exclusive. Some of the English verbs given as examples occur more than once because their meaning potentially profiles more than one element. Because of this, verbs can be somewhat arbitrarily categorised in various ways. The organisation below is an attempt to categorise verbs by meaning in a way that is appropriate to Oceanic languages. A primary three-way division is based on item 9 which distinguishes among the following: a few verbs like take, push and pull where the agent may or may not accompany the theme in its movement (9a); carrying verbs, quite numerous in Oceanic languages (9b); and verbs of putting and sending (9c). Explanations of lower-order categories are distributed through the sections below, which are arranged as follows:

  • §6.6.1. Simple caused movement:
    • §6.6.1.1. Taking (9a)
    • §6.6.1.2. Verbs that profile vertical direction: raising and lowering (3)
    • §6.6.1.3. Force-profiling verbs: pushing and pulling (9a, iii)
  • §6.6.2. Accompanied caused movement (9a):
    • §6.6.2.1–12. Carrying verbs that profile the physical relationship between agent and theme
    • §6.6.2.13. Dragging
  • §6.6.3. Unaccompanied caused movement:
    • §6.6.3.1. Putting (9c-i)
      • §6.6.3.1.1. Simple putting
      • §6.6.3.1.2. Putting verbs that profile the resulting posture of the theme (1)
      • §6.6.3.1.3. Putting verbs that profile the path of movement (4)
      • §6.6.3.1.4. ‘Putting’ in reverse: taking
    • §6.6.3.2. Sending (9c-ii)

The verbs reconstructed in the sections below consist of a root or, in the case of transitives formed from a root ending in -a or a consonant, of root + *-i. POc evidently had two morphological means of forming a caused movement verb from a locomotion (§6.3) or direction verb (§6.4). One was to prefix it with the causative derivational prefix *pa-, a process reflected in this Kwaio (SES) example:

Kwaio oli ‘return, come back to’ > faʔa-oli- ‘cause to return, send back’

The other was to add the applicative suffix *-akin[i]. Semantically this had two functions, as Evans (2003:203) notes. In the first it produced a verb like those formed with *pa-, in which the agent causes the theme to perform the action denoted by the root, as in

Manam gege (VI) ‘roll’ > gege-ak (VT) ‘roll’
alale (VI) ‘walk’ > alale-ak (VT) ‘help s.o. walk’
NE Ambae saga ‘go on top’ > sagat-agi[ni] ‘put s.t. on top’
Bauan ðuru ‘enter’ > ðurum-aki ‘insert s.t.’
dromu ‘sink’ > dromuð-aki ’push s.t. under (water),

In the typology above, these are simple or unaccompanied caused movement verbs.

In the second function *-akin[i] formed a verb in which the agent performs the action denoted by the root, and the theme is a concomitant:

NE Ambae toa ‘run’ > toa-gi[ni] ‘run off with s.t.’
hivo ‘go down’ > hivo-gi[ni] ‘go down with s.t., take s.t. down’
vano ‘go’ > vano-gi[ni] ‘go with s.t., take s.t.’
Bauan ðiði ‘run’ > ðiðiv-aki ‘run off with s.t.’
galo ‘swim’ > galov-aki ‘swim with s.t.’

Such verbs are verbs of accompanied caused movement, resembling verbs of carrying. However, in a carrying verb it is the physical relationship between the agent and the theme that is profiled. In an *-akin[i] verb it is the manner or direction of the agent’s movement that is profiled.

Verbs formed with *pa- and *-akin[i] are not considered further here, because we cannot be sure which derived verbs occurred in POc. But we can be sure that the morphosemantic processes reflected in these examples occurred in POc. The functions of *pa- have been widely discussed in the literature, and Evans (2003:195, 203) shows that the two functions of *-akin[i] mentioned here are reflected so widely that they must be reconstructed for POc.

6.1. Simple caused movement⇫

The word ‘simple’ is used here of verbs that are unspecified for a certain frame element. Verbs of taking (§6.6.1.1) and the force-profiling verbs of pushing and pulling (§6.1.2) are unspecified for item 9 in the list above. That is, they sometimes denote accompanied caused movement, sometimes unaccompanied. In the case of verbs of pushing and pulling, this is rather obvious: one can push a cart along a street (accompanied caused movement) or push a pot over (unaccompanied caused movement). In the case of ‘take’, the lack of specification is less obvious, and is explained in the following section.

6.1.1. Taking⇫

Simple verbs of caused movement are often glossed as ‘get’, ‘take’ or ‘bring’. They are used in constructions that also profile the source, e.g. ‘he took the knife from the table’, and in constructions that only profile the caused movement, e.g. ‘he took/brought my knife’.

English take occurs in dozens of idiomatic phrases (take heart, take hold, take a sip, take a break, take over, etc), but its core meaning involves accompanied movement by an agent of something (the theme) from one location to another. Either the source location or the goal location may be profiled, as for instance, in ‘take it off the ground’ and ‘take it to its mother’. In this respect Oceanic languages are similar to English. The Vitu (MM) verb pele- is used with a source in this example. The source is ‘her betelnut basket’.

    • Vitu (MM)
      ‘The spirit woman took a stamper from her betelnut basket.’ (129)
      Na tavine hanitu e pele-a na tureturea na ka-na kolopi mamaha.
      ART woman spirit RLS:3 take-3SG ART stamper PREP PCL-3SG basket chew.betelnut

However, English take also profiles direction away from the deictic centre, contrasting with bring, which profiles direction towards it. Oceanic languages, however, encode this deictic contrast with a deictic direction verb—or a deictic morpheme derived from a verb (vol.2:273-282)—in the last slot of a serial verb construction, as in these Vitu (MM) examples.

    • Vitu (MM): (Berg & Bachet 2006:181)
      ‘Bring the spear here!’
      Pele-a haine mai!
      take-3SG iron.spear come
      MANNER … DEIXIS

This leaves pele- profiling only the means of movement, namely that the agent moves the theme, i.e. simple caused movement. The verb pele- is the same in all three examples. This is a typical Oceanic configuration, such that one caused movement verb corresponds to both English take and bring. A practical result of this is that these Oceanic verbs are often glossed as one or more of ‘take’, ‘get’ and ‘bring’, but the verbs have the same functions whichever of these glosses is used. Thus the verbs reconstructed here overlap two semantic domains. The first is ‘reverse putting’, e.g. ‘taking off the table’ as opposed to ‘putting on the table’ (§6.6.3.1.4), a subdomain of unaccompanied caused movement. The other is carrying (§6.2), a subdomain of accompanied caused movement.

A second semantic complication, discussed by D’Jernes (2013) with regard to Lukep (Pono) -kaua/-kap ‘get, give’ (where the first form takes a singular object, the second a plural) is that a verb meaning ‘take, get’ in some languages also means ‘give’. In others, the ‘give’ verb is derived historically from a ‘take, get’ verb. This is less strange than it appears. If the basic meaning of these verbs is simply that the agent moves the theme, then the addition of a recipient is enough to narrow the movement to ‘giving’.17

The verbs reconstructed below also raise formal challenges. Broadly, these are due to the fact that words of high token frequency may fail to undergo changes that would otherwise affect them. For example, the Lukep (Pono) pair mentioned above, -kaua and -kap, are exceptional in encoding their object respectively as singular and plural. Lukep (Pono) has generally lost POc object indexing enclitics, but retains -a 3SG on a small number of now ‘irregular’ verbs (D’Jernes (2002).

However, at least one such irregularity originated long before the emergence of POc. Blust (ACD) reconstructs PAn/PMP *alap, PMP *alaq both ‘fetch, get, take’, and PAn *ala ‘take, get, fetch, obtain’. Their similarities of form and meaning indicate that they have a shared origin that cannot be reconstructed. PMP *alap and *alaq were both inherited into POc, but with a complication. The predicted POc transitive forms are *alap-i- and *alaq-i-. The former is reflected in Gela and Tongan (immediately below). But more widely reflected are forms in which initial *a- has vanished, i.e. *lap-i- and *la(q)-i-. The *a-less forms evidently already occurred in POc, and for clarity’s sake are reconstructed separately below

PAn/PMP *alap ‘fetch, get, take’ (ACD)
POc *alap, *alap-i- ‘get, take’
SES Gela alav-i ‘get, take’
Pn Tongan alaf-i ‘catch it’
PAn/PMP *alap ‘fetch, get, take’ (ACD)
POc *lapi ‘take, get, give’
Adm Baluan lɪp ‘get’
SES Gela lavi ‘bring, take, get’
PNCV *lavi ‘carry, take’
NCV Mota lav ‘take, receive’
NCV Nokuku lap-i ‘give’
NCV Valpei lavi- ‘take’
NCV Tangoa lavi ‘take, receive’
NCV Ambae lawe ‘to’ (dative)
NCV Big Nambas -laði ‘take’
NCV Port Sandwich liv ‘carry’
NCV Aulua levi- ‘take, give, receive’
NCV Maskelynes lavi ‘take’
NCV Maskelynes lav-xin-i ‘give’
NCV Naman lev ‘give; take, get, fetch’
NCV Apma lev ‘take’
NCV Paamese lahi ‘carry; pick up (especially of many small things)’
NCV Lewo lavi- ‘take’
NCV Nguna lavi ‘bring, take’
PMP *alaq ‘fetch, get, take’ (ACD)
POc *ala(q) ‘take, get’
NCV Loh ɔlə ‘bring, take’
NCV Hiw ɔyə ‘bring, take’
PMic *ala ‘take, get’ (Bender et al. 2003)
Mic Kiribati ana- ‘take, subtract, take away, remove, take off’
Mic Ponapean alɛ ‘take, get (s.t.)’
Mic Mokilese ɔlɔ ‘get, take, gather (s.t.)’
Mic Mokilese ɔlɔ-ɔl ‘get, take, gather’

PMP *alaq ‘fetch, get, take’ (ACD)
POc *la(q)-i- ‘take, get, bring’
Adm Titan la-i ‘take, get’
PNCV *la-i ‘take, give’ (Clark 2009)
NCV Mota le, la ‘give, take’ (disambiguated by directional particles)
NCV Raga lai ‘give, take, bring, get’
NCV Nokuku lɔ ‘put, take, receive, have’
NCV Nokuku lei-a ‘take’
NCV Nokuku la-ma ‘bring’
NCV Tamambo lai ‘take, get, bring’
NCV Uripiv -la-i ‘take’
NCV Uripiv -la ‘give’
NCV Lewo la ‘bring, give’
NCV Namakir la ‘hold’
SV Anejom̃ le ‘get, take, receive (SG OBJ)’ (John Lynch, pers. comm.)

Three further verbs which, like those above, denote simple caused movement, are reconstructed below. The first, POc *pa, is phonologically unusual in that its root is a monosyllabic CV form. Most POc roots are polysyllabic. The New Caledonian forms in this set are from Ozanne-Rivierre (2004b).

POc *pa, *pa-i- ‘get, take, bring’
NNG Amara pei ‘get’
NNG Kaulong va ‘get, take, bring’
PT Tawala wa-i- ‘carry, get, select, take’
PT Iduna -va-i- ‘get, take, fetch’
SES Kwaio fee- ‘take, convey, take in marriage’
NCal Nyelâyu pʰa ‘take’
NCal Nêlêmwa fʰe ‘take, carry’
NCal Nemi fe ‘take’ (< *pa-pa)
NCal Paicî pá ‘take, bring’ (< *pa-pa)
NCal Cèmuhî pé ‘take’ (< *pa-pa)
POc *ŋal(e,i) ‘get, take, carry, bring’
NNG Gedaged -ŋale ‘get, lay hold of, acquire, come to hand, obtain, procure, come by’
NNG Takia -ŋale, -ŋili- ‘get, obtain’
SES To’aba’ita ŋali- ‘take, carry’
SES Lau ŋali- ‘take, carry, bring, get’
SES Kwaio ŋali ‘hold, carry’

The exact form of the reconstruction below is not entirely clear. Evidence for the phoneme following initial *ka- is conflicting. Seimat and Kilivila kau, Lukep (Pono) -kau-a, Patep ko, Sinaugoro -ɣau, Wayan Fijian kau and Samoan ʔau-mai support the reconstruction of POc *kʷau. Other evidence points to a labial, but which labial is unclear. Tuam ɣam, Mangap kam, and Nehan kaba support *kʷabV, while a number of items indicate *kʷap. There are two possible explanations here. One is that the cognate set reflects more than one POc morphological variant, just as Lukep (Pono) preserves two variants (D’Jernes 2013). The other is that this is not one cognate set but two, reflecting similar but separate POc forms. The forms listed under ‘cf. also’ complicate the picture, but appear to reflect a separate form *ka[-i-].

POc *kʷau, *kʷa(p,b)-i- ‘get, take’
Adm Seimat kau ‘bring, carry, take’
Adm Seimat kau-ma ‘bring, carry hither’ (ma ‘come’)
NNG Tuam -ɣam ‘take, bring, get, give’
NNG Lukep -kap ‘get, give’ (with plural object)
NNG Lukep -kau-a ‘get, give’ (with singular object)
NNG Mangap -kam ‘take, bring, get, give, put, do, cause’
NNG Mangseng ke(ne) ‘get’
NNG Patep ko ‘get, take’
PT Kilivila -kau- ‘take (away), carry’
PT Dawawa -kaua ‘do’
PT Sinaugoro -ɣʷa ‘carry (in general)’
MM Sursurunga kip-i ‘get, carry’
MM Patpatar kap ‘get, take’
MM Tolai kap ‘carry’
MM Label kep ‘carry’
MM Siar kep ‘get’
MM Nehan kaba ‘carry, lift’
SV Anejom̃ a-kau ‘carry (wood etc) in the middle (twisting and turning to avoid obstacles)’
Fij Wayan kau [VI, inanimate subject] ‘be carried, taken’; [VT, inanimate object] ‘carry, take s.t.’
Pn Samoan ʔau-mai ‘bring’
Pn Samoan ʔav-atu ‘take’ (< *kau-atu)
cf. also:
Adm Mussau ga ‘get’
NNG Kove kea ‘take’
NNG Sio kai ‘hold, get; carry’
NNG Kaulong kai ‘be stuck; grasp, hold’
PT Dawawa -kʷaya ‘grab s.t. from s.o.’
MM Madak ka-ka ‘get’
SES Owa ɣa-i- ‘remove s.t.’

Almost certainly related to the above is POc *(k,kʷ)awe ‘carry, carry away’, but the relationship does not reflect a known derivational process.

POc *(k,kʷ)awe ‘carry, carry away’
NNG Sio kawe- ‘snatch, grab s.t. and flee with it’
PPn *kawe [VT] ‘carry, bear’
Pn Tongan kāve- ‘be carried off one’s feet, especially by love’
Pn Samoan ʔave ‘give (s.t.) to, hand (s.t.) to; carry, take s.t.; send s.o./s.t.’
Pn Tuvalu ka-kave ‘carry’
Pn East Uvean kave-kave ‘carry’
Pn Sikaiana k-kave ‘carry to’
Pn Tikopia kave ‘carry, bear off’
Pn Tokelauan kave ‘take, carry, give’
Pn Tuamotuan kave ‘carry’
Pn Pukapukan kave ‘take, remove, carry, give’
Pn Rennellese ka-kabe ‘escort, accompany, take, as in a canoe; be escorted, taken’
Pn Marquesan kave ‘carry’
Pn Māori kawe [VT] ‘carry, convey, bring, go to fetch’

6.1.2. Raising and lowering⇫

A verb for a certain kind of raising, POc *laŋa(t), *laŋat-i- ‘raise, pull up, lever up’, is reconstructable.

POc *laŋa(t), *laŋat-i- ‘raise, pull up, lever up’
Adm Lou laŋ ‘lift up’
PT Molima laɣas-i- ‘raise’
MM Nakanai laga ‘pull up on snare in which animal is caught; pull a rope; fish with a net, lift fish out in net’
SES Arosi raŋa-i- ‘raise, lift up’
PNCV *laŋa ‘lift (flat object from surface)’ (Clark 2009)
NCV Mota laŋa ‘lift up, turn up, so as to show underside’
NCV Raga laŋa-i ‘raise as on hinge; raise thatch layer, mend roof’
Fij Rotuman laŋa ‘raise one side of’
PPn *laŋa ‘raise up’ (POLLEX)
Pn Niuean laŋa-aki ‘raise up’
Pn Tongan laŋa ‘raise up’
Pn East Futunan laga ‘lever up, dig up yams etc’
Pn Pukapukan laŋa ‘pull up, raise, pull in a line in fishing’
Pn Samoan laŋa ‘raise up, as a heavy weight or a conquered party; rise from a sitting position’
Pn Tuvalu laŋa-laŋa ‘pull up’
Pn Tikopia raŋa ‘raise, rise, swell; arrange’
Pn Kapingamarangi laŋa ‘lift or move with a lever’
Pn Māori raŋa ‘raise up, cast up, pull up by roots’

No verb of lowering can be reconstructed, but a number of languages form a verb ‘lower’ by attaching a reflex of the POc causative prefix *pa- to a verb meaning ‘be deep’ or ‘go down’. Examples include Bariai (NNG) pa-sil from sil ‘deep’, Sursurunga (MM) a-sih-əi from sih ‘go down’, To’aba’ita (SES) faʔa-sifo-a from sifo ‘go, move down, descend, more or less vertically’.

6.1.3. Force-profiling verbs: pushing and pulling⇫

Verbs of pushing and pulling profile the force that the agent exerts on the theme in order to move it. Whether the agent accompanies the theme along the path of movement is not part of the verb’s lexical meaning, but is conveyed by the construction in which the verb is used, e.g. They pulled the canoe up the beach (accompanied caused movement) vs He pulled the bag open (unaccompanied caused movement).

6.1.3.1. Pushing

Oceanic languages tend to have a number of path-profiling verbs of pushing, e.g. ‘push open’, ‘push in’, ‘push through’, ‘push aside’, ‘push away’, ‘push under’, ‘push against’. None of these can be reconstructed from available data, but these ‘push’ terms from Lou (Adm), Lewo (NCV) and Sinaugoro (PT) give an indication of one reason for this.

Lou (Adm)
suek ‘push’
suer ‘push ground’
susuer ‘push ground with foot’
suput ‘push away, make go’
susuŋ ‘push clothes up’
Lewo (NCV)
suponia ‘push’
suponipu ‘push and turn s.t.’
supʷoni ‘push, shove’
susuni ‘move, push’
suwani ‘push into hole to block it’

Both the lists above, geographically separated as they are, consist of words with initial su-. The fact that so many ‘push’ verbs in each language begin with the same syllable cannot be coincidence, and probably tells us that these forms reflect earlier nuclear serial verb constructions, a productive construction in which two verbs formed a compound (Lou suek ‘push’ is an exception: -ek reflects the POc applicative suffix *-aki(n)). This hypothesis is supported by the fact that in Sinaugoro, such forms still are transparent compounds where the second element has its own lexical meaning (forms preceded by a hyphen in the third column always occur as the final part of a compound).

Sinaugoro (PT)
dori ‘push’
dori-faka ‘open by pushing’ faka ‘between’
dori-ɣau ‘close by pushing’ -ɣau ‘cover’
dori-maraɣe ‘push up’ raɣe ‘go up’
dori-riɣo ‘push down’ riɣo ‘go down’
dori-rosi ‘push out’ -rosi ‘out’
dori-tari ‘push down on the ground’ -tari ‘down’
dori-toɣa ‘push inside’ -toɣa ‘inside’

Sinaugoro dori ‘push’ is not cognate with Lou or Lewo su- but the latter are probably cognate with each other and probably reflect POc *qusur ‘push, shove’ with loss of the first syllable. Other Oceanic ‘push’ forms with initial su(r)- are listed under ‘cf. also’.

PMP *qunzur ‘thrust out, extend forward’ (ACD)
POc *qusur ‘push, shove’ (ACD)
SES Talise usu- ‘push’
SES Tolo usua- ‘push’
SES To’aba’ita ūsu(tani-) ‘push’
SES Lau usu ‘push’
SES Lau usu-i- ‘push, impale’
SES Kwaio usu ‘push’
SES ’Are’are usu ‘push, shove’
SES Sa’a usu ‘push, shove, launch a boat’
SES Sa’a usu-i- ‘push, shove, launch a boat’
Fij Bauan usu ‘thread through, as a rope through a hole’
Fij Wayan usu ‘press against s.o., importune s.o.’
Pn Samoan usu-i- ‘thrust’
Pn Tuvalu uhu ‘push’
Pn Nanumea uhu ‘push’
Pn Rennellese usu ‘push, as a canoe into water’
cf. also:
NNG Lukep -surpak-i ‘push’
NNG Bariai su-sur-an ‘push’ (-an APPLICATIVE)
PT Dawawa suriɣa ‘push over violently’
MM Nakanai susu ‘push into, pierce’
MM Kokota huzu-i- ‘push’ (h- < POc *s-)

A second POc term for ‘push’, *juju(n), *juni- ‘push’, is reconstructed below. There are some unanswered marginal queries about this reconstruction. It is reflected to my knowledge in only one non-WOc language, Lau, but Lau does not usually contain WOc loans, and is a reliable witness. Ughele and Marovo juno- suggest a transitive form †*juno-, but all other reflexes point to instantiation of the paradigm identified by Blust (1977a) (vol.1:25), i.e. the forms as reconstructed.

POc *juju(n), *juni- ‘push’
NNG Sio zuzu- ‘push forward; shove from behind with force’
NNG Takia -duduni- ‘push, push through, push inside with something, urge on’
NNG Patep du ‘move, push’
PT Gapapaiwa dudu ‘push’
PT Tawala dudu ‘push’
PT Sinaugoro dudu(gʷanu) ‘put the spear on an object and push’ (gʷanu ‘stab’)
MM Kubokota juju- ‘push’
MM Lungga juju ‘push’
MM Simbo juju ‘push’
MM Nduke zuzu- ‘push’
MM Ughele juno- ‘push’
MM Marovo juno- ‘push’
SES Lau dudu [VI] ‘push, move’
SES Lau du [VT] ‘push, move’
6.1.3.2. Pulling

There are a good many path-profiling ‘pull’ verbs in Oceanic languages. One, POc *pupu(t), *puti- ‘pick (fruit +), pluck (feathers +), pull out (weeds +)’, is widely reflected (vol.1:277–278). An apparently simple verb of pulling, POc *Rape ‘pull, drag’, has quite widely distributed reflexes. POc *dradra ‘pull’ has just three known reflexes, all NNG, but non-Oceanic cognates support the POc reconstruction.

POc *Rape ‘pull, drag’
NNG Takia -rae ‘inhale, pull (e.g. on a rope), attract, extend (e.g. talk), drag, stretch out (by pulling)’
NNG Sio lae ‘pull behind, drag’
MM Nakanai lave ‘pull’
MM Madak rep ‘pick, pull’
MM Patpatar rahi ‘pull, drag’
MM Tinputz ræh ‘pull’
SES Lau lafi [VI] ‘pull, draw, draw a tooth, pull a string’
SES Lau lafi- [VT] ‘drag, pull up’
SES Kwaio la-lafi- ‘pull (tight), pull on, snatch’
PNCV *rave ‘pull’ (Clark 2009)
NCV Mota rave ‘pull; draw out fish, catch fish with a line’
NCV Mota rave-g ‘drag s.o./s.t.’
NCV Raga rava ‘pull, draw, write’
NCV Nokuku rav-rav ‘catch fish’
NCV Kiai reve-a ‘pull, drag’
NCV Tamambo reve ‘pull’
NCV Uripiv -rev ‘pull’
NCV Lonwolwol re ‘hold, take, pull, etc.’
NCV Lonwolwol rvi ‘to pull along, tow, haul’
NCV Paamese lehe-lehe [VI] ‘pull’
NCV Paamese lehe [VT] ‘pull’
PSV *a-yevi
SV Sye yevi ‘pull’
SV Ura yevi ‘pull’
SV North Tanna i ‘pull’
SV Lenakel vi ‘pull’
SV Lenakel evi ‘pull out’
SV Lenakel evi-evi ‘pull in jerks’
SV Anejom̃ a-yihi-i ‘pull’

PCEMP *dada ‘pull, haul, drag’ (ACD: PCMP)
POc *dradra ‘pull’
NNG Bariai dada ‘pull’
NNG Hote -dadi ‘pull (on ground or from hole)’
NNG Mapos Buang dad ‘pull’

6.2. Accompanied caused movement⇫

Verbs of accompanied caused movement are verbs of carrying and dragging. Many Oceanic languages have no default verb of carrying, but employ a number of carrying verbs, depending on how something/someone is carried and to a lesser degree on what is carried.18 Meanings that crop up with considerable frequency include

  • carry on the head
  • carry hanging from the head
  • carry a child in a sling on the back
  • carry on the shoulder
  • carry hanging from shoulder
  • carry piggyback
  • carry with a shoulder pole
  • carry on a long shoulder pole between two people
  • carry under the arm (and on the hip)
  • carry in both arms
  • carry on a canoe

Of these, the first three modes listed are usually restricted to women, whilst carrying something on or hanging from the shoulder is typically a male mode. Hill (2015) remarks, ‘In the villages of Longgu district there is only one way to transport goods or children on land and that is for people to carry them. There are no animals used to carry loads, no bicycles, wheelbarrows or cars.’ This was true of all pre-contact Oceanic speaking communities and was true of communities speaking POc. Hill goes on to point out that while Longgu does not have a generic verb ‘carry’, it does have a verb zabe ‘not carry anything’, ‘behavior that is considered either unusual or unacceptable’ in a community where every able-bodied person must contribute to the daily labour of the village.

6.2.1. Carrying in general⇫

POc, however, appears to have used *puat as a generic verb of carrying and transporting, although when the agent was male it apparently also could have the specific meaning ‘carry on the shoulder’. In its generic sense it probably overlapped with POc *kʷau, *kʷap(i) ‘get, take’ (§6.6.1.1), but the glosses in the cognate set below suggest that generic *puat profiled carrying or transporting a load, whereas *kʷau, *kʷap(i) denoted carrying in a more general sense.

PMP *buhat ‘lift, stand up, arise, emerge, begin, depart, carry; cargo; take something; take a wife’ (ACD)
POc *puat ‘carry, transport from place to place; carry on shoulder’
NNG Kaiwa vuat ‘carry’
PT Motu hua- ‘carry on the shoulder’
SES Longgu hua- ‘carry something in a bag slung from the head’
SES Lau fūa ‘carry, as a haversack’
SES Kwaio fua ‘carry a load (of vegetables, coconuts, water); bring food’
SES Kwaio fua-geni ‘marry, take a woman in marriage’ (geni ‘woman’)
SES ’Are’are hua ‘bring, carry’
PMic *wua, *wuawua, *wua-ti, *wua-ta ‘carry, convey, transport’
Mic Kiribati uot-a ‘carry (s.t.), carry in arms, rock, lull to sleep’
Mic Kiribati uou-a ‘engage in carrying a child’
Mic Chuukese wuwa ‘convey, ship, carry from one place to another’
Mic Chuukese wue-yi, wue-e- ‘carry, convey, transport (s.t.)’
Mic Mortlockese ua ‘carry’
Mic Mortlockese uæ-æ- [VT] ‘carry’
Mic Puluwatese wua- ‘carry, transport (s.t.)’
Mic Puluwatese wuɔ̄wo ‘carry’
Mic Woleaian uate ‘load, belongings’
Mic Ponapean wwa ‘carry’
Mic Kosraean wiwɛ ‘do carrying’
Mic Kosraean wʌ-n ‘carry, transport (s.t.)’
Fij Bauan vua ‘bear two burdens on the shoulder (one at each end of a pole’
Fij Wayan vua ‘be carried on a pole’
Fij Wayan vuat-i ‘carry (s.t.) on a pole resting on the shoulder’
Pn Tongan fua ‘lift, carry on shoulder with a stick’
Pn Tongan fue-si-a ‘carry, bear (a burden)’
Pn Niuean fua ‘carry on the shoulder; weigh’
cf. also:
SES Sa’a fuʔe ‘carry suspended from the head’
SES Arosi hua, huas-i ‘carry suspended from the head’

6.2.2. Carrying on the head⇫

The central meaning of POc *suqun was with reasonable certainty ‘carry on the head’, attested by non-Oceanic cognates from Taiwan to CMP (ACD). In Takia and Megiar the meaning has been extended to carrying in general. In NCV, as Clark (2009) recognises, the extension is to wearing on the head, then to wearing in general. That these terms are cognate is confirmed by the presence of the glottal stop in Namakir hiʔin, Namakir being the only NCV language regularly to reflect POc/PNCV *q.

PAn *suquL ‘carry on the head’ (ACD)
POc *suqun, *suqun-i- ‘carry on the head’
NNG Megiar -suni ‘carry’
NNG Takia -sini-, -suni- ‘carry or bear’
MM Siar sun, su-sun ‘carry on the head’
MM Sursurunga sun-sunun [VI] ‘carry on the head’
PNCV *suqun, *suqun-i- ‘carry on the head, wear on the head’ (Clark 2009: *suquni)
NCV Ambae huna ‘umbrella’
NCV Tolomako su-suni ‘wear on head’
NCV Tolomako sunu-n ‘hat, umbrella’
NCV Raga huni ‘carry or wear on head’
NCV Nokuku suni-m ‘hat’
NCV Nokuku sun ‘umbrella’
NCV Uripiv -sun-sun ‘carry or wear on head’
NCV Port Sandwich cün-i ‘carry on head, dress oneself, put on a hat, put flowers in the hair’
NCV Lonwolwol sun-e ‘put on, wear in belt at back (used of scented leaves worn by chiefs)’
NCV Paamese sinu ‘dressed; dress up; get dressed’
NCV Namakir hiʔin ‘wear’
NCV Nguna sūn-i ‘carry on head; put on, wear (on upper body)’
cf. also:
Fij Wayan sū ‘(inanimate, e.g. fruit) be carried in one’s skirts or shirt’
Fij Wayan sūn-i ‘cover or wrap s.t.; carry s.t. in one’s skirts’

PWOc *kud(r)u is also reconstructable as a term for carrying on the head. How this differed in meaning from POc *suqun is not clear, but the Mangap and Nakanai glosses below note that women carry burdens in this way, and it may be that *kud(r)u denoted a female carrying style.

PWOc *kud(r)u ‘carry on the head’
NNG Takia -kud-i ‘wear on one’s head, carry on head’
NNG Bing kud ‘hold, carry on head, carry child on shoulder’
NNG Sio kudu ‘carry on head’
NNG Mangap -kūⁿdu ‘carry s.t. on head (women carry like this)’
NNG Bariai ud ‘carry on head’
NNG Lukep -kudu ‘carry on head’
NNG Mangseng ur ‘carry on head’
NNG Mengen kuru ‘carry on head’
NNG Mengen kur-e ‘carry s.t. on head’
NNG Mapos Buang kud ‘carry; carry on head or shoulders’
NNG Mangga kud ‘carry on head’
NNG Vehes kud ‘carry on head’
PT Iduna -kedu ‘carry on head’ (for †-kudu)
PT Sinaugoro ɣuru ‘carry on head’
MM Nakanai hugu ‘carry on head, of women’s loads or men’s masks’ (h- for †k-; h- < *q-)
cf. also:
NNG Kaulong un ‘carry on head’ (for †kuh)
NNG Numbami -kuku ‘carry on head, astride shoulders’ (for †kudu)

6.2.3. Carrying hanging from the head⇫

When a woman from New Guinea carries a loaded netbag (bilum in New Guinea Tok Pisin), she lets it hang down behind her resting on her back and she pulls its woven handle over her head to rest across her forehead so that the bag is suspended from it. Occasionally other loads are carried in this way too. Interestingly, no POc term for this mode of carrying can be reconstructed, and this matches the fact that no term for a netbag can be reconstructed either (vol.1:79), apparently because the bilum was a New Guinea highland artefact that spread to the lowlands after the dispersal of Oceanic languages from NW Melanesia. This carrying mode has spread into the Solomon Islands, but is attested only at odd locations in the north of Vanuatu.

Some Admiralties and WOc terms for this carrying mode, along with one NCV term, look as if they are reflexes or borrowings of reflexes of PWOc *kud(r)u ‘carry on the head’ (§6.6.2.2). Note that Tawala and Gapapaiwa gedu share the replacement of -u- by -e- also found in Iduna kedu above.

Adm Loniu kun ‘carry suspended from the head’
Adm Lou kun ‘carry on the back; basket worn on the back’
Adm Baluan kun ‘small basket made of tree bark fibre worn on the shoulder’
NNG Lukep -gud ‘carry on the head or by the second rope on the head’
NNG Mengen kul-e ‘carry hanging from the head’ (borrowed? -l- does not reflect *-d(r)-)
PT Tawala gedu ‘carry supported by cord around forehead’
PT Gapapaiwa gedu ‘carry suspended from the head’
NCV Hiw kʷɔt ‘carry on back (one burden) using headstrap’

The most likely borrowing above is Poeng kule as Poeng -l- reflects POc *-r-, -R- or -l- but not *-d(r)-. Significantly Madden (n.d.) annotates this entry with a comment that Poeng speakers do not normally make or use bilums.

6.2.4. Carrying piggyback⇫

The main POc term for carrying someone piggyback (or pick-a-back, the older English form) is *pʷa(p,pʷ)a, which is of PAn antiquity. Its exact POc form is uncertain, as the phonological evidence is conflicting. At the same time, the similarities in both form and meaning make it probable that these items form a cognate set. PMP *baba could regularly have become either POc *baba or *papa. Clark (2009) correctly observes that NCV items reflect either PNCV/ POc *baba or PNCV *bava (POc *bapa). One might reconstruct alternant POc forms, but there is a solution which unites the apparently conflicting lines of evidence. Lynch (2002e) shows that PMP labials surface sporadically as POc labiovelars, and that the reflex of POc *pʷ in WOc languages is often a fortis p. The evidence below suggests that the initial POc consonant was indeed *pʷ, an inference supported by the rounded vowels of Poeng pope and Arosi boha. It is less clear whether the medial consonant was *-pʷ- or *-p-, as some reflexes are fortis, others lenis.

There are also forms reflecting POc *papa, but I argue in §6.6.2.5 that these form a separate cognate set.

PAn/PMP *baba ‘carry a person pick-a-back; ride pick-a-back’
POc *pʷa(p,pʷ)a ‘carry pick-a-back’ (ACD)
Adm Mussau bao ‘carry pick-a-back’
Adm Lou pap ‘carry s.o. on the back’
NNG Mengen pop-e ‘carry on the back’
NNG Vehes (pir)pev ‘carry piggyback’
NNG Mapos Buang piv ‘carry piggyback’
NNG Mangga pēv ‘carry piggyback’
NNG Patep piv ‘carry piggyback’
NNG Piu pep ‘carry piggyback’
PT Kilivila -papi- ‘carry piggyback’
MM Roviana papa ‘carry a child on one’s back’
SES Bugotu papa ‘ride on back’
SES Gela papa ‘carry piggyback’
SES Longgu papā ‘carry s.o. on the back’
SES Arosi baha, boha ‘carry pick-a-back or in cloth on back’
PNCV *bava, *baba ‘carry child; bear child’ (Clark 2009)
NCV Hiw pep ‘carry on back (child+)’
NCV Mota pepe ‘carry a child on the back or astride on the hip’
NCV Raga bava ‘carry (child or load) on back; carry on hip; bear (child)’
NCV Ambae baba ‘give birth’
NCV Nokuku papa ‘be born’
NCV Nokuku pap-i (jura) ‘bear (child)’
NCV Kiai pava ‘give birth’
NCV Uripiv -pepe ‘carry child on back’
NCV Port Sandwich ᵐbav-e ‘bear a child on the back; carry on one’s back’
NCV Lonwolwol baba ‘used of a baby, ride (on its mother’s back), or of the mother, to carry by slinging on her back’
NCV Lewo papa ‘carry (children’s talk)’

6.2.5. Carrying a child in a sling on the back⇫

During the research for this chapter the set below was included in the set in §6.6.2.4 above. Two facts led to its separation and to the reconstruction of POc *papa. First, Lonwolwol has two forms, baba and fefa (N Ambrym fafa), admittedly not very different in meaning. Second, Polynesian forms reflect PPn *fafa rather than *papa.

It may well be that there is a historical connection between POc *pʷa(p,pʷ)a ‘carry pick-a- back’ and POc *papa, tentatively ‘carry a child slung on the back’. It is also possible that reflexes of one have been contaminated by reflexes of the other.

POc *papa ‘carry a child slung on the back’
Adm Wuvulu fafa ‘carry s.o. on one’s shoulders (legs straddling neck)’
SES To’aba’ita fafā ‘carry piggyback’
SES Lau fafa ‘carry on shoulders, pick-a-back; carry a bag round the neck’
SES ’Are’are haha ‘carry one the back’
SES Sa’a haha ‘carry s.o. on one’s back’
NCV Lonwolwol fefa ‘carry baby or child slung on the back’
NCV Paamese hehe ‘carry child on back in cloth’
Fij Bauan vava ‘carry a child on the back’
Pn Tongan fafa ‘carry on the back; be carried, have a ride on someone’s back’
Pn Niuean fafa ‘carry on back’
Pn Samoan fafa ‘carry (child or other load) on one’s back’
Pn Anutan papa ‘carry s.o. on one’s back, piggyback’
Pn Hawaiian waha ‘carry on the back, as a child’
Pn Māori waha ‘carry on the back’

6.2.6. Carrying on the shoulder⇫

See also the generic carrying verb POc *puat (§6.6.2.1), which also seems to have had a specific use ‘carry on shoulder’.

The terms listed below reflect POc *[qa]paRa- ‘shoulder’, reconstructed in §3.5.3. It is possible that the term has been repurposed as a verb at various times and places, but two facts speak against this. First, all the forms listed reflect *qapaRa rather than simply *paRa. As noted in the reconstruction of *[qa]paRa-, there are a number of body-part and other nouns that are reflected with and without *qa-. If the repurposing had taken place on various occasions, we would expect some reflexes without *qa-, but none are found. Second, the repurposing must be quite old, as the Malalamai, Gapapaiwa and Longgu forms are no longer used for ‘shoulder’, and the Gumawana, and Misima forms are no longer identical to the noun ‘shoulder’.

PAn *[qa]baRa ‘shoulder’ (ACD)
POc *[qa]paRa- ‘shoulder; carry s.t. on the shoulder’
NNG Malalamai avala ‘carry, esp. on the shoulder’
PT Gapapaiwa kavara ‘carry’
PT Gumawana kavala [VI] ‘carry on shoulder’ (vala-vala- ‘shoulder’)
PT Gumawana kavale [VT] ‘carry s.t. on shoulder’
PT Tawala awala ‘carry on shoulder’ (awala- ‘shoulder’)
PT Misima havala ‘carry hanging from the shoulder’ (probable loan)
PT Misima kaval ‘carry, carry on shoulders, load carried’ (vevela- ‘shoulder’)
SES Longgu kaveria ‘carry s.t. by hanging it on shoulder’ (-r- for †-l-)
SES Arosi ʔabara ‘carry on the arms clasped on chest; shoulder’ (-b- for †-h-)
PMic *afara ‘shoulder’ (Bender et al. 2003)
Mic Puluwatese yayefar ‘load carried on the shoulder; shoulder’
Mic Pulo Annian yaθaθala ‘carry on the shoulder’

6.2.7. Carrying hanging from shoulder⇫

POc *sape below is not widely attested, but non-Oceanic cognates support its reconstruction.

PMP *sampay ‘drape over the shoulder or from a line, as a cloth’ (ACD)
POc *sape ‘carry by a strap over the shoulder’
Fij Wayan ðove ‘be carried slung from the shoulder or slung from a hook, peg, or line’ (-o- for †-a-)
Pn Tongan hafe ‘carry by means of a strap or rope, etc. across the shoulder’
Pn East Futunan safe ‘be slung over the shoulder’

6.2.8. Carrying with a shoulder pole⇫

A carrying mode that is quite common among men in Oceanic societies is to attach a load to one end of a short pole and to balance the pole on the shoulder with the load hanging behind and the hand holding the pole’s front end. The POc term for this was *sola(t), *solat-i-, widely reflected in Oceanic languages.

POc *sola(t), *solat-i- [VT] ‘carry with a shoulder pole’
NNG Sio sola ‘carry object with stick slung over one’s shoulder’
NNG Lukep -solo, -sol-a ‘carry on the shoulder with a stick’
NNG Bing sōl ‘carry on a pole’
MM Tabar sorak ‘carry’
MM Madak solok ‘carry on shoulders’
MM Sursurunga sol-solat ‘carry s.o. on one shoulder with legs straddling one shoulder’
SES Bugotu hoða ‘carry on pole’
SES Gela hola, holat-i [VI, VT] ‘take, carry, bring, fetch’
SES Lengo ðola ‘carry’
SES Lau tole ‘carry’
SES Arosi tora ‘carry’
SES Bauro tora ‘carry’
PNCV *solo, *zolo ‘carry over shoulder on a stick’ (Clark 2009)
NCV Raga (ɣa)holo ‘carry on the shoulder; stick used for this’ (ɣai ‘stick’)
NCV Nokuku sol ‘carry’
NCV Uripiv -solo ‘carry with a pole on the shoulder; feel burdened; be pregnant’
NCV Port Sandwich co-co-ini ‘carry balanced on the shoulder; carry on the end of a stick’
NCV Lonwolwol hol ‘carry a load in a basket on a stick over shoulder; be pregnant’
NCV Southwest Bay (aj)hol ‘carry on the end of a stick’
NCV South Efate sol, slati ‘carry, bring’
PSV *a-curia ‘carry on pole or shoulder’ (Lynch 2001c)
SV Anejom̃ a-helui-i ‘carry on shoulder’
SV Ura e-surye ‘carry on shoulder’
SV Lenakel a-sulie ‘carry on stick over shoulder’
SV Kwamera a-soria ‘carry by hanging on an elongated object (pole or finger)’
NCal Nyelâyu cʰõlĩ̄n ‘carry on shoulder’
Fij Bauan colat-a ‘carry on shoulder’
Fij Wayan ðolat-i- ‘carry a burden of work for s.o.’

6.2.9. Carrying on a long shoulder pole between two people⇫

Once a pig has been captured for slaughter, the favourite way to carry it in Melanesian communities is to tie its legs to a pole, such that the pole can be placed across the shoulders of two men, standing one behind the other, one at each end of the pole, the pig hanging between them. Terms for this mode of carrying occur in numerous Oceanic languages, but no extensive cognate sets are found. The three items below are nonetheless attested.

POc *sirip-i ‘carry on a long shoulder pole between two people’
Adm Loniu siʔihi ‘carry suspended from shoulder or from pole’
Adm Lou sirip ‘carry a load on a pole, of one or two men’
SV Sye surie ‘tie pig by legs to a pole so it can be carried by two people’

POc *tibʷola ‘carry on a long shoulder pole between two people; long shoulder pole (?)’
MM Banoni ci-cibora ‘tie up (a pig)’
MM Babatana sigolo ‘poles or handles for carrying two poles between two people’
NCV South Efate sipʷol ‘carry balanced on the shoulder’
PNGOc *pak(u,o) ‘carry on a long shoulder pole between two people’
NNG Mengen pau-e ‘carry, lift (by two people)’
NNG Mapos Buang vaqu ‘tie, fasten; carry on a pole between two people’
PT Gapapaiwa -pawo ‘carry on a pole over the shoulder or between two people’

6.2.10. Carrying under the arm (and on the hip)⇫

The stem of POc *qa(p,pʷ)i(s), *qa(p,pʷ)is-i- ‘carry (a child) on the hip or under the arm’ appears to reflect PAn *qapiC/PMP *qapit ‘tongs, anything used to hold things together by pinching’ (ACD). However, aside from the extension in meaning, this derivation is not straightforward. An irregular reflex, POc *kapit ‘tongs’; *kapi(t), *kapit-i- ‘grasp (with tongs)’ is reconstructed in vol.1(148) (with hindsight this should more accurately be *ka(p,pʷ)it ‘tongs’; *ka(p,pʷ)i(t), *ka(p,pʷ)it-i-). Its irregularity lies in the presence of *k-_ for expected †*q-. The terms in the set below, however, do reflect *q-.

POc *qa(p,pʷ)i(s), *qa(p,pʷ)is-i- is nonetheless irregular in a different respect. Instead of stem-final *-t it reflects *-s. The one exception is the Teop term under ‘cf. also’ below, which reflects *ka(p,pʷ)it-i- ‘grasp (with tongs)’. The apparent replacement of *-t by *-s in the POc form may reflect palatalisation or borrowing at a very early stage, perhaps pre-POc. Alternatively, the resemblance between *ka(p,pʷ)it and *qa(p,pʷ)i(s) may be a matter of chance.

POc *qa(p,pʷ)i(s), *qa(p,pʷ)is-i- ‘carry (a child) on the hip or under the arm’
NNG Lukep -wis ‘carry under the armpit’
PT Tawala aweh-i ‘carry (under arm)’
PT Kilivila -pʷesi- ‘carry under one’s arm’
SES Gela avi ‘carry (a child) under the arm’
SES Gela aveh-i ‘carry under the arm’
PMic *afi, *afis-i- ‘carry on the hip or under the arm’ (Bender et al. 2003: *afi, *afi-Si)
Mic Marshallese ab(cāce) ‘carry tucked under arm’ (jaja ‘carry on the hip’)
Mic Ponapean apit ‘carry (s.t.) on one’s side or under one’s arm’
Mic Mokilese apit ‘carry (s.t.) under arm’
Mic Mortlockese afiy-af ‘carry under the arm’
Mic Mortlockese afit-i ‘carry (a child) on the hip’
Mic Puluwatese yafit-i- ‘to carry (a child) on one’s side’
Mic Carolinian afit-i ‘carry (a child or object) on one’s side’
Mic Satawalese æfiy-æf ‘carry on the hip (as a baby)’
Mic Satawalese æfit-i ‘carry (a child) in the arms on the side’
Mic Woleaian yafiy-efi ‘carry under one arm’
Mic Woleaian yafit-i- ‘carry s.t. under the arm’
Mic Pulo Annian yaθit-i ‘carry s.t. under the arm’
PPn *qafi, *qafis-i ‘hold or carry under the arm’
Pn Tongan ʔefi-ʔefi ‘hold or carry under the arm’
Pn East Futunan ʔefi ‘carry under the arm (as a letter, another’s hand)’
Pn East Uvean ʔefi-ʔefi ‘carry under the arms’
Pn Samoan ʔafis-i ‘carry under the arm or on the hip’
Pn Tokelauan afih-i ‘carry or hold s.t. under arm; carry (child) on hip’
cf. also:
MM Teop kapis-i ‘carry s.t. under your arm’

Despite its formal similarity to the set above, the cognate set below evidently reflects PMP *qabin ‘hold or carry under the arm’, POc *qapi(n), *qapin-i- ‘hold or carry under the arm’. However, contamination from POc *qapiŋa ‘armpit’, itself a nominalisation formed from POc *qapi(n) (§3.5.4), has evidently occurred in Yalu, Mota, Raga and Rennellese and in the Dangal and Buang forms under ‘cf. also’, which have ŋ for †n. All the forms under ‘cf. also’ reflect *k- rather than †*q-, apparently reflecting contamination from POc *kapi(t), *kapit-i- ‘grasp (with tongs)’ (vol.1:148).

PMP *qabin ‘hold or carry under the arm’ (ACD)
POc *qapi(n), *qapin-i- ‘hold or carry under the arm’
NNG Yalu -apıŋ ‘carry’
NNG Mapos Buang kpiŋ ‘carry, hold; carry astraddle the hip; hold under the arm, against the side’
MM East Kara (ɣə)kəpin-e ‘carry under the arm’
MM Halia api-api(c) ‘armpit; carry under the arm’
SES Bugotu avin-i ‘carry in the arms’
PNCV *qavin-i- ‘carry under arm’ (Clark 2009: *qavi-ŋa)
NCV Mota avŋa-g ‘carry in the arm, on or under’ (viŋa-i ‘armpit’)
NCV Raga viŋa-i ‘carry in arms, embrace’ (malaviŋa- ‘armpit’)
NCV Paamese ahin-i ‘carry under arm’ (hiŋo- ‘armpit’)
NCV Nguna avin-i- ‘hold under arm’
PPn *qafin-i ‘hold or carry under the arm’
Pn Ifira-Mele avin-i-a ‘stand close to, hold by side’
Pn Rennellese ʔaviŋ-i ‘carry under the arm or on the hip (as a child)’
cf. also:
NNG Dangal kafiŋ ‘carry’
NNG Mapos Buang kpiŋ ‘carry, hold; carry astraddle the hip; hold under the arm, against the side’
NNG Mangga kāpin ‘carry on hip’
NCV Port Sandwich xavin-i ‘carry under arm’

6.2.11. Carrying in both arms⇫

The common factor among the glosses of items reflecting POc *tabe is one of holding something with both arms.

POc *tabe ‘carry in both arms’ (ACD: ‘hold tightly or firmly’)
PT Tawala tape(uni) ‘grab, catch hold of’
MM Tolai tabe ‘hold s.t. so that s.o. else will not take it’
MM Babatana töbe ‘hold, carry in the arms’
SES Gela tabe ‘take, hold’
SES Arosi abe ‘carry against chest, as firewood’
NCV Nguna tape- ‘take, carry; to bear (a child)’
PMic *tap(a,e), *tap(a,e)-ki ‘lift up, carry, bear in one’s hands’
Mic Kosraean taptap ‘support, uphold, bear’
Mic Kosraean tæpʌ-k ‘support, uphold, or bear (s.t.)’
Mic Kiribati tapetape ‘engage in carrying, carry repeatedly’
Mic Kiribati tape-ka ‘lift or take (s.t.) up in the hands’
Mic Kiribati tape-ki- ‘lift s.t. up’
Mic Marshallese cepak ‘support, hold up’
Mic Chuukese sap ‘be holding up with open palm (of the hand)’
Mic Chuukese sapa, sassapa ‘hold (s.t.) up in the open palm’
Mic Mortlockese sapa ‘carry (s.t.) with both hands, support (s.t. or s.o.)’
Mic Ponapean sapɛ ‘carry (s.t.) in one’s arms’
Mic Mokilese capa-k ‘lift (s.t.) up from the rear end’
Fij Bauan tabe ‘hold or carry with the hands under’
Fij Wayan tabe ‘hold or carry a burden in the extended arms, esp. resting on both palms extended horizontally in front’

6.2.12. Carrying on a canoe⇫

Blust (ACD) reconstructs three formally similar PMP terms for ‘load a canoe’: *Rujan, *lujan, and *ujan. He offers no explanation for the existence of three similar forms, and nor can I. Two POc forms are reconstructed, *Rujan, *Rujan-i- and *ucan, *ucan-i-, both ‘load (s.t.) onto a canoe, transport by canoe’. The two reconstructions differ in two consonant correspondences. The key lies in the medial correspondence. SE Solomonic, Fijian and Polynesian terms unambiguously reflect POc *-j- and are assigned to a single cognate set, whose initial consonant correspondence—PSES *l-, PCP *∅- —regularly reflects POc *R-.

The second set reflects POc *ucan, *ucan-i-. Several irregularities in the medial consonant reflex are noted below, but none is assignable to *-j-.

Finally, the Micronesian set assembled by Bender et al. (2003) may reflect either POc *Rujan or *ucan. POc *R is lost in many Micronesian etyma, while *c and *j are merged except in Kosraean, which does not have a known reflex of either *Rujan or *ucan.

PMP *Rujan ‘load a canoe; cargo’ (ACD)
POc *Rujan, *Rujan-i- ‘load (s.t.) onto a canoe, transport by canoe’ (Geraghty 1983: PEOc *Ruja)
MM Teop ruhana ‘transport s.t., ship s.t.’
PSES *luda ‘load (s.t.) onto a canoe, transport by canoe’
SES Gela luda ‘load a canoe or ship with cargo; embark passengers; cargo’
SES Longgu ludā ‘load s.t. on a truck, boat or canoe’
SES Lau luda ‘carry in a canoe, carry as cargo; load a canoe or ship’
SES Lau luda-i ‘carry cargo’
SES Kwaio luda ‘load in a canoe’
SES Sa’a luda ‘carry cargo, load a canoe’
SES Sa’a lude ‘carry cargo, load a canoe, be heavily laden’
SES Sa’a ludeŋ-i ‘carry as cargo; recruit men’
SES Ulawa luda ‘carry cargo, load a canoe, be heavily laden’
SES ’Are’are ruta ‘charge, load, carry a load’
SES Arosi ruta ‘load a canoe, carry to canoe and stow’
PCP *uja ‘be loaded onto a canoe, be transported by canoe’
PCP *ujan-i- ‘load (s.t.) onto a canoe, transport by canoe’
Fij Bauan usa ‘be carried by boat’
Fij Bauan usan-a ‘carry (s.t.) by boat’
Fij Wayan usa ‘be shipped, carried (as cargo), by boat or other vehicle’
Fij Wayan usan-i- ‘carry s.t. as cargo or passengers’
Pn Tongan uta ‘carry or convey by boat or vehicle; goods so carried’
Pn Niuean uta ‘load (as a canoe or truck); a load’
Pn Kapingamarangi uda ‘transport (cargo)’
Pn Rennellese uta ‘put aboard a canoe or ship; bear nuts, as a coco- nut palm’
Pn Rarotongan uta ‘convey from one place to another; load up, as a canoe’
Pn Māori uta ‘put persons or goods on board a canoe’
PMP *ujan ‘load a canoe; cargo’
POc *ucan, *ucan-i- ‘load (s.t.) onto a canoe, transport by canoe’
Adm Seimat uxan-i ‘load s.t. into a boat’
Adm Nauna us ‘load s.t. into a boat’
Adm Titan usun-i ‘carry from one place to another, usually by canoe’ (-s- for †-l-)
NNG Mutu ɣūza ‘carry, transport’
NNG Mangap -ūzu ‘transport, convey by canoe, vehicle’
PT Gapapaiwa uan ‘load s.t. into a container or boat’
PT Misima usan ‘put inside; pick up people or things (in car); (be) overloaded’ (-s- for †-h-)
PT Sinaugoro ɣura(udi) ‘load a canoe’
PT Motu uda-uda ‘load pots into a trading canoe’
MM Meramera uda ‘carry’ (-d- for †-s-)
MM Nehan ute ‘load up a container with contents’ (-t- for †-h-)

PMic *u[s,S]a, *u[s,S]an-i ‘load (s.t.) onto a canoe, transport by canoe’
Mic Puluwatese wɨtæn ‘(cargo) be loaded’
Mic Carolinian -wut ‘be loaded, have s.t. inside’
Mic Satawalese -yɨt ‘load s.t.’
Mic Satawalese -yɨta ‘load it’
Mic Ponapean itan ‘carry (s.t.) in a vehicle’
Mic Mokilese itan ‘transport (s.t.)’

6.2.13. Dragging⇫

Dragging is a form of accompanied caused movement, in that the agent follows the same path as the theme (the thing dragged). In this respect it differs from pulling, where, as with putting, some part of the agent remains in contact with the theme but the agent doesn’t follow the theme’s path (§6.6.3). Only one dragging verb is reconstructable, and only to PROc.

PROc *(q)ara ‘haul, drag’
Fij Wayan ara ‘be hauled, dragged, pulled’
Fij Wayan ara-ki- ‘drag, haul, pull s.t. along; trail s.t. behind one’
Fij Bauan yara ‘be hauled, be dragged’
Fij Bauan yara-ka ‘haul, drag’
PMic *are, *arek-i ‘haul, pull, tow’
Mic Kiribati ā-i ‘tow’
Mic Kiribati aeae- ‘tow, drag (s.t.)’
Mic Kiribati aek- ‘take (a passenger) ashore in a canoe; take (food) from the fire’
Mic Kosraean ælʌk ‘lift, pull, scoop (s.t.)’
Mic Marshallese yar ‘haul a canoe or vessel up on shore’
Mic Marshallese yarek ‘haul (a boat) up on shore’

6.3. Unaccompanied caused movement⇫

Verbs of unaccompanied caused movement form two categories, based on whether or not some part or tool of the agent remains in contact with the theme until the theme reaches its goal. If it does, then we have a putting verb like put, insert or immerse (§6.6.3.1). If it doesn’t, the verb is a verb of sending, like send, drop, throw or pour (§6.6.3.2).

6.3.1. Putting⇫

‘Putting’ is used here in a specialised sense. The English verb put is ubiquitous. It occurs in dozens of idiomatic phrases like put out the light, put on clothes, put to death, put down (‘humiliate’), put out (‘annoy’), put off (‘postpone’). Its core meaning, however, has to do with moving something to a named location, as in put on the table, put into the bag and so on.

Some verbs of putting profile the resulting posture of the theme, e.g. He sat the child on the chair (result: the child was sitting on the chair). Others profile the path to the resulting location, e.g. He inserted the key into the keyhole (result: the key was in the keyhole).

Verbs of putting in the world’s languages vary as to whether they have a simple verb of putting like English put, whether they have verbs that specify the target posture of the theme (i.e. the thing that is put), like German setzen ‘sit, seat’, stellen ‘stand’ and legen ‘lay’, or whether they have a number of putting verbs that, like insert, specify the path of putting, e.g. ‘put into’, ‘put through’, ‘put on top of’, ‘put down’, ‘put up (e.g. onto a shelf)’, ‘put out (e.g. to dry)’, ‘put on a pile’ and ‘put in a line’ (Narasimhan et al. 2012).

These three possibilities are not mutually exclusive. Oceanic languages tend to be of the third type, and the list of path-of-putting categories in the previous sentence is based on Oceanic tendencies. At the same time, most Oceanic languages have a simple ‘put’ verb (§6.6.3.1.1), and many have verbs for ‘stand (s.t.) (on s.t)’ and ‘lay (s.t.) (on s.t)’ (§6.3.1.2). Few, however, have a verb for ‘sit (s.t.) (on s.t)’, presumably because, as noted in §2.1, sitting is typically not encoded by a dedicated verb.

Oceanic dictionaries sometimes appear to be incomplete when it comes to putting verbs. One which does contain a comprehensive collection is Pawley & Sayaba’s (2003) dictionary of Wayan Fijian, which includes the putting verbs tabulated below (two leftmost columns) together with the bases from which they are derived (third and fourth columns). All have the theme as their object except drosomi-/drosoti- ‘put s.t. inside’, which takes the location as its object.

Some interesting patterns emerge from the tabulation. There are far more path-profiling than posture-profiling verbs. All the verbs listed except the last are derived from a base listed in the dictionary, and a majority are derived from undergoer-subject verbs (U-verbs; vol.1:23). Four are derived from a noun denoting the path’s destination. Each of the derived verbs is simply a transitive form of its base, with the exception of vaka-dureni ‘stand s.t. up, make s.t. stand’, formed with the causative prefix vaka-. The latter is a posture-profiling putting verb, and supports the view that Wayan Fijian is indeed, in the preliminary typology of Narasimhan et al. (2012), a language that elaborates path-profiling rather than posture-profiling verbs of putting.

None of these observations is inconsistent with the data available for other Oceanic languages (other than perhaps Polynesian). Certainly, path verbs play a major role everywhere. Whether they are commonly derived from U-verbs it is impossible to say, as comprehensive dictionaries are not available for other languages that may share this derivation. Another extensive set of verbs of putting is from Mangap-Mbula, which, like all Oceanic languages on or near the New Guinea mainland, does not have U-verbs. and lacks transitive derivational morphology other than the causative prefix pV-, which occurs on three posture verbs (the language is exceptional in having a ‘sit’ verb here) and two path verbs. Mangap-Mbula putting verbs are shown in Table 17.

Table 16 Verbs of putting in Wayan Fijian
Simple tauni- put or place s.t., lay s.t. down, deposit s.t. tau be located, situated, positioned, placed; be in, at or on a place
Simple nāki- put or place s.t. naki be situated, put, placed
Posture-profiling tavani- put s.t. up lengthwise tava (of a long object) be placed lengthwise in an elevated position, as on a shelf or stack.
Posture-profiling ruva-, ru-vani- lay s.t. in place, fix or place s.t. in or on a place (object the thing fixed). ruva (of a flat object) be laid, put in place, fixed in position
Posture-profiling vaka-dureni stand s.t. up, make s.t. stand dure stand, stand up
Path-profiling ðilini- put or rest a thing on s.t. ðili be on top, rest on s.t.
Path-profiling ðuruni-, ðuruti- bag s.t., secure s.t. in a bag or basket. ðuru be bagged, put into a bag or basket with top fastened
Path-profiling koroni- gather s.t. in a heap, accumulate or pile up s.t. koro be gathered in a heap or mound; be heaped, piled, mounded
Path-profiling livati- take s.t. off, put down a burden, leave a position liva be taken off, removed
Path-profiling duŋui-, duŋuni- heap, pile, stack things duŋu be stacked in a heap; be heaped, piled, stacked
Path-profiling tavo-, tavoni- put s.t. in a container, bag s.t., etc. tavo be put in a container; thus, bagged, put in a sack, boxed, crated, put in a basket, etc.
Path-profiling uðuni- put s.t. in a container uðu go into a house or other living place, disappear in-side.
Path-profiling drosomi-, drosoti- put s.t. inside, insert into, enclose in, sheathe in, penetrate droso go inside, enter
Path-profiling bolani- put s.t. in a case, record s.t., commit s.t. to memory bola (N) basket woven from coconut leaves, large enough to carry several long yams or a small pig
Path-profiling taŋani- bag or pocket s.t., put s.t. in a bag or pocket taŋa (N) any deep woven or netting receptacle with open top: bag, sack, pocket
Path-profiling tāvata be put on a platform, bed, etc; be shelved, tabled tāvata (N) any constructed surface acting as a platform; thus shelf, table
Path-profiling atuni- line (things) up atu (N) group of things standing in a row or line
Path-profiling abani- line (things) up, place (things) in a line or row —

Table 17 Verbs of putting in Mangap-Mbula
Simple -kam do, give, take, get, put, cause —
Simple -ur put, place —
Posture-profiling -pa-ᵐbutul put into a sitting position; - -ᵐbutul sit
Posture-profiling -pe-gēne put to bed/ put into lying position; -kēne sleep, lie down, be in horizontal position
Posture-profiling -pa-meⁿder put into a standing position; -meⁿder stand
Posture-profiling -suᵑgun put into a standing position -su go down
-ᵑgun plant s.t. upright in the ground
Path-profiling -dāba put into, fill with —
Path-profiling -zēbe put into —
Path-profiling -kuru put through a hole, thread —
Path-profiling -ⁿdou collect/ put together/ heap/ gather/ accumulate —
Path-profiling -pi-zil put, slip in through a small hole/ hide inside -zil go through a hole
Path-profiling -pa-māla put out to be seen/ show/ advertise māla look at, watch, observe
Path-profiling -salakāla put on top of -salakāla be on top of
Path-profiling –san put out to dry —
Path-profiling -pa-rāza put out to dry rāza dry out

Simple verbs of putting often occur in serial verb constructions. In terms of the division into manner (locomotion), path (geographic direction) and deictic direction verbs put forward in §6.3 on the basis of occurrence in these constructions, simple verbs of putting occupy the manner slot, i.e. they are verbs of (caused) locomotion. This follows from their encoding the act of putting and from their lack of directional meaning, as well as from their place in serial verb constructions.

    • Mangap (NNG): (Bugenhagen 1995:166)
      ‘They put it on the ground.’
      Zin ti-ur i-su tōno
      they 3PL-put 3SG-go.down ground
      … MANNER PATH …
    • Kusaghe (MM): (Davis 2003:166)
      ‘Put it in the basket.’
      Lohe lae-ni-a pa beha
      put go-TR-3SG PREP basket
      MANNER DEIXIS … …

    • Ambae (NCV): (Hyslop 2001:302)
      ‘We put the pudding down.’
      …da-mo tau na loko mo hivo
      1INC-RLS put ACC pudding RLS go.down
      … MANNER … … … PATH

Posture-profiling verbs of putting occur so rarely in sentence examples that one cannot classify them in this way. Path-profiling verbs of putting, as their label suggests, are verbs of geographic direction.

6.3.1.1. Simple putting

The most widely reflected simple ‘put’ verb is POc *taRu(q) ‘put down, lay down’. The Mapos Buang and Meramera forms are shown under ‘cf. also’ as the expected forms are Mapos Buang †taɣu, Meramera †talu.

POc *taRu(q) ‘put down, lay down’ (Geraghty 1990: PEOc)
Adm Mussau tau ‘give’
Adm Wuvulu ʔau ‘put’
Adm Titan to, taw-i ‘give, send, bring, put; make pregnant’
Adm Lou tu ‘give’
NNG Mengen talu- ‘hide’
PT Motu taru- ‘cover, as with a sheet; wrap oneself in’
PT Motu taru(adiho) ‘put down, of a loaded netbag’
MM Vitu taruɣ-i- ‘put, place’
MM Nakanai talu ‘put down on the ground, as a bundle carried on the head’
SES Bugotu talu ‘put, place, appoint’
SES Gela talu ‘put, place, set’
SES Tolo talu- ‘put, place’
SES To’aba’ita alu- ‘put, put down, place’
SES Lau alu ‘place, put, lay down’
SES Kwaio alu, alu-a ‘put, keep’
SES Sa’a ʔalu ‘put, place’
NCV Mota tau ‘set in place so as to catch or intercept’
NCV Tamambo tau ‘put’
NCV Ambae tau ‘put’
Fij Bauan tau ‘(of burden) be put down’
Fij Bauan tau-ði ‘put down (of burden), lay one thing on another’
Fij Wayan tau ‘be located, situated, positioned, placed; be in, at or on a place’
Fij Wayan tau-ni- ‘put or place s.t., lay s.t. down, deposit s.t.’
cf. also:
NNG Mapos Buang taɢu ‘put; hit against, knock over, fall on, smash’
MM Meramera tau ‘put’

Other apparently simple ‘put’ verbs have only two or three known reflexes. However, whether POc had more than one or two simple ‘put’ verbs is questionable, and it is possible that both *taRu and the two verbs below each had a more specific meaning.

POc *aso ‘put’
NNG Sio o ‘put, place’
NNG Mangseng as[o] ‘put’
SES Lau ato ‘put, place’
PEOc *naki- ‘put’
SES Longgu naʔi- ‘put, leave’
Fij Wayan naki ‘be put, be placed’
Fij Wayan nāki- ‘put or place s.t.’

Two other apparently simple ‘put’ etyma have reflexes that are not widespread enough to support POc reconstruction.

PNGOc *ku(rR)a ‘put’
NNG Mutu ɣur ‘put, appoint, give, take’
NNG Mangap -ur ‘put, place’
PT Sinaugoro ɣura ‘put into’
PSOc *liŋi ‘put, leave’ (Clark 2009)
NCV Nokuku lin ‘put, leave’
NCV Kiai lini- ‘deliver, bring, leave’
NCV Uripiv -liŋ-i ‘put, put on; select out; allow, let; leave’
NCV Big Nambas ln ‘leave’
NCV Port Sandwich riŋ-i ‘put’
NCV Lonwolwol liŋ-i ‘put, place; let, allow; let go, let down; leave, miss; leave out; to forget; bear (a child), beget; leave alone’
NCV Paamese liŋi ‘put; leave behind’
NCV Lewo liŋ-ani ‘let go, put, leave, place’
NCV Araki liŋ-i- ‘carry, take (s.o.) on a vehicle’
NCV Naman ləŋ ‘put’
PSV *a-liŋi-i ‘put, leave’
SV Anejom̃ i-cñi-i ‘put, leave (plural subject)’
6.3.1.2. Posture-profiling verbs of putting

Assuming that lexical sources are reliable, Oceanic languages have far more underived path- than posture-profiling verbs of putting. Where posture-profiling ‘put’ verbs occur, they tend to be transparently derived from posture verbs, as the Wayan and Mangap examples above show. Other instances include those in Table 18.

Table 18 Posture-profiling verbs of putting in Oceanic languages
Adm: Titan taRul-ani stand s.t. up, erect; set up, establish taRul stand, stand up
NNG: Bariai pa-gun build; put.upright —
Takia -guni plant (in ground) vertically guni stand up (e.g. posts in the ground)
Mangseng pa-ŋou put; make lie ŋou lie down
NNG: Poeng pa-keno-e lay s.o./s.t. down keno (of inanimates) lie horizontally
pa-maisi-a stand up (something) meisi stand
Hote -ɛk put in a horizontal position -ɛk sleep
PT: Misima pa-kenu lay s.t. on its side kenu lie down, sleep
Gumawana va-tao stand s.t./s.o. up taoya stand (up)
Dawawa wai-midir-i stand s.t. up midi stand
Tawala lu-towolo stand s.t. up towolo stand, wake
MM: Nakanai hi-mavuta lay (s.o. down to sleep) mavuta lie down, sleep
Madak vaxa-mdi lay s.t. down mdi recline, lay down
Patpatar ha-tu-tur cause to stand; raise up tur stand
SES: Gela enov-agi, lay s.t. down eno lie down
koliv-agi lay s.t. down koli lie down

No underived POc posture-profiling verbs of putting can be reconstructed, but it is likely that there were verbs consisting of cardinal posture stems (§2.1–2.3) prefixed by causative *pa-. The data in §6.2.4.3 also suggest that transitive ‘hang’ was formed from an intransitive ‘hang’ verb.

6.3.1.3. Path-profiling verbs of putting

Despite the high numbers of verbs of putting in Oceanic languages that specify a path (§6.6.3.1), only one POc path-profiling verb of putting can be reconstructed, namely *soŋo ‘put into, insert’.

At first blush, the absence of POc reconstructions seems to contradict the statement that Oceanic languages have numerous path-profiling ‘put’ verbs. However, it is probably the very plethora of such verbs in Oceanic languages that leads ironically to the absence of cognate sets. The large number of ‘put’ verbs and their propensity to be derived apparently means that the lexical replacement rate is high in this semantic domain, so that cognates often vanish.

POc *soŋo ‘put into, insert’
Adm Lou soŋ(pek) ‘put into (e.g. a bag)’
NNG Patep zoŋ ‘put into, force into; aim at’
MM Madak saŋa ‘put, place’ (for †soŋo)
MM Patpatar saŋ ‘put into’ (for †soŋo)
MM Konomala saŋa-i ‘give’ (for †soŋo)
MM Nehan oŋo ‘put into’ (for †hoŋo)
MM Teop vā-hogo ‘put s.t. (into s.t.)’ (hogo ‘be crowded, overfilled, packed with things or people’)
MM Maringe hono ‘load, put inside a bag, basket or case’
SES Lau toŋ-i ‘pack, put in a box, etc’
NCV Ambae hoŋo-ni ‘put inside’

6.3.1.4. Putting in reverse: removing

‘Removing’ in the title of this section refers to acts of unaccompanied caused movement that are opposite in direction to ‘putting’ (e.g. He took the knife from the table). In §6.6.1.1 it is argued that POc probably had no simple verb of removing that denoted the reversal of putting. Instead it had a simple verb of caused movement that covered both the reversal of putting and accompanied caused motion, i.e. ‘bring’ and ‘take’.

Across the world’s languages verbs of putting often profile both the path along which the object is moved and/or its resulting posture, but verbs of removing tend to profile only the source from which it is moved, not its former posture. Languages in which a verb of removing also encodes the object’s posture are rare (Narasimhan et al. 2012:10), but one of them occurs in the heart of Melanesia. In the Papuan language Yélî Dnye, located on the periphery of WOc, there are verbs meaning both ‘put into’ and ‘take out of’, ‘put onto’ and ‘take off of’, ‘stand/lay/hang at a location’ and ‘unstand/unlay/unhang from a location’ (Levinson & Brown 2012). Oceanic languages, however, do not resemble Yélî Dnye in this respect. This is no surprise, as even their verbs of putting tend not to profile posture (§6.6.3.1.2). Instead, we typically find a simple verb of removing (‘take out of/from/ away’) along with numerous specialised removal verbs, depending on what is being removed and from where. Many of these verbs concern common domestic processes: removing bark from wood, removing the husk from a coconut, removing fruit from a branch, removing flesh from a coconut or a mollusc, removing the stones from an earth oven, or removing the serrated edge from pandanus leaves. No attempt is made to reconstruct verbs for these meanings here, because they lie outside the semantic domain with which this chapter is concerned and are reconstructed elsewhere (vol.1:165–168, 277–279). However, Blust (ACD) has reconstructed a simple verb of removal, POc *unus, *unus-i- ‘withdraw, pull out, extract’ (I take ‘pull’ in the glosses below simply to be a consequence of caused movement towards the agent).

PAn *SuLus ‘withdraw, pull out, extract’ (ACD)
PMP *hunus ‘withdraw, pull out, extract’ (ACD)
POc *unus, *unus-i- ‘withdraw, pull out, extract’ (ACD)
MM Roviana unusu ‘pull out, as a tooth, a nail, a post’
SES Arosi unu ‘take out of’
SES Arosi unus-i ‘take body out of shirt, i.e. take off shirt; fall out of’
Mic Chuukese wɨnɨ ‘drawn out, extracted’
Mic Woleaian ʉrʉru ‘pull, draw, pull something from a group’
Pn Tongan unu ‘pull out, draw out’
Pn Tongan uhuh-i ‘pull out, draw out, e.g. a sword from its sheath, or a tooth’
Pn Rennellese unu ‘take off, remove, pull out, peel’
Pn Anutan unu-i ‘pull out’
Pn Nukuoro unus-i ‘pull out (e.g. a sword from its scabbard)’
Pn Hawaiian unuh-i ‘take out, withdraw (as money from a bank, or a drawer from a desk); unsheath; take off (as a ring)’
Pn Māori unu ‘pull off, put off, doff; draw out, pull out, withdraw’

6.3.2. Sending, dropping, throwing and pouring⇫

‘Send’ verbs denote caused movement where the agent neither accompanies the theme in its movement nor, unlike ‘put’ verbs, remains in contact with the theme until it reaches its goal. In this semantic domain one might expect to be able to reconstruct a simple ‘send’ verb and one or two more verbs whose meaning satisfies these criteria, namely ‘drop’ (‘let fall, cause to fall’) and ‘throw’.

Curiously, neither a simple ‘send’ verb nor one meaning ‘drop’ is reconstructable on the basis of available data. There is no immediately obvious reason for this, as Oceanic languages often have verbs with each of these meanings, but they do not form widespread cognate sets. Many ‘send’ verbs appear to reflect the POc causative prefix *pa[ka]- but the roots to which it is attached do not occur independently in the data. Two that do are Teop (MM) va-nao ‘send’ (nao ‘go’) and Wayan Fijian vā-kauti- ‘send s.t., have s.t. carried or taken’ (kau ‘be carried, taken’). Takia uses a periphrastic causative -gane -ao ‘send’ (-gane ‘do’, -ao ‘go’). A number of ‘drop’ verbs similarly reflect the causative prefix: Poeng (NNG) pa-pu-e ‘drop, cause to fall’ (pu-pu ‘fall’), Iduna (PT) -ki-ve-beʔu- ‘drop from hand, make something fall’ (beʔu ‘fall’, ki- ‘do with hand’, ve- CAUSATIVE), Misima (PT) pa-bun ‘drop’ (bun ‘fall’), Wayan Fijian vaka-lutu-ni- ‘drop (s.t.)’ (lutu [VI] ‘drop, fall’). It thus seems possible that POc used causatives for ‘send’ and ‘go’, and that the plethora of ‘send’ forms in Oceanic languages reflects a re-purposing of other verbs.

The situation with ‘throw’ and ‘pour’, however, is quite different, perhaps because ‘throw’ also profiles the kind of force applied to the theme and ‘pour’ the action applied to the vessel containing the liquid.

6.3.2.1. Throwing

It seems fairly clear that throwing stones was a primary sense of POc *piri(ŋ).

PCEMP *biriŋ ‘stone, throw a stone at’ (ACD)
POc *piri(ŋ) ‘stone, throw a stone at’ (ACD)
NNG Mangap -piri ‘throw, cast away, toss, throw oneself into’
MM Tolai bir [V] ‘stone; throw or fling a stone; chase away with stones’
SES Gela piri ‘throw with a twist, with finger and thumb’
SES Bugotu piri [V] ‘stone with stones’
NCV Mota vi-vir [V] ‘throw, giving a twist, twirling motion, as to a stone’
NCV Vurës vi-virr ‘throw’
NCV Nume vi-vir ‘throw’
Fij Bauan viri [VI] ‘throw at , pelt’
Fij Bauan viri-ka [VT] ‘pelt s.t.’
Fij Bauan viri-tak-a [VT] ‘throw s.t.’
Fij Wayan viri [VI] ‘throw or hurl overarm’
Fij Wayan viri-ki- [VT] ‘pelt s.t., hit s.t. with a thing thrown’

6.3.2.2. Pouring

Several verbs of pouring can be reconstructed. The most widely reflected is POc *liŋi(s), *liŋis-i- ‘pour out, spill (liquid)’. POc *puRi ‘pour water on’ took the goal as its object. PWOc *jiwaR, *jiwaR-i- ‘pour out (liquid)’ is reflected only in WOc languages, and seems to have replaced *liŋi(s)/liŋis-i-. It is not clear whether its object was the (liquid) theme or the goal of pouring. As noted below, it may have an earlier shared history with PCP *suqi ‘pour water on/into’, which took the goal as its object.

PMP *iliŋ ‘pour’ (ACD)
PCEMP *liŋi ‘pour’ (ACD)
POc *liŋi(s), *liŋis-i- ‘pour out, spill (liquid)’
NNG Tuam -liŋ ‘pour’
NNG Mangap -liŋ ‘pour out, shed’
NNG Sio liŋi ‘pour out, spill; throw away or discard’
NNG Mengen liŋ-a ‘pour out’
PT Sudest liᵑgi ‘pour’
PT Misima ligí-n ‘pour out (onto the ground), spill’
SES Sa’a liŋi [VI] ‘pour’
SES Sa’a liŋis-i- [VT] ‘pour’
SES Arosi riŋi [VI] ‘pour, incline a vessel’
SES Arosi riŋis-i- [VT] ‘pour, incline a vessel’
SES Owa riŋi- ‘pour s.t.’
PNCV *liŋi ‘pour’
NCV Mota liŋ ‘pour gently’
NCV Raga liŋ ‘pour out’
NCV Sakao lüg ‘pour’
NCV Nguna liŋi [VI] ‘spill over’
NCV Nguna liŋis-i [VT] ‘spill’
NCV South Efate liŋ [VI, VT] ‘pour out’
Fij Wayan liŋi [VI] ‘be poured, pour’
Fij Wayan liŋi- [VT] ‘pour (liquid)’
Pn Tongan li-liŋi [VT] ‘pour s.t. out’
Pn Tongan liŋi-ʔi [VT] ‘pour s.t. out’
Pn Samoan liŋi, li-liŋi [VT] ‘pour s.t.’
Pn Samoan ma-liŋi [VI] ‘(rain, tears) pour, run’
POc *puRi ‘pour water on’ (Geraghty 1990: PEOc *vuRi ‘pour water on, rinse’)
NNG Kairiru -pul ‘pour’
NNG Mangap -puri ‘rinse, clean something small’
PT Motu huri ‘wash, scrub’
SES Gela vuli ‘pour water’
SES Gela vu-vuli ‘pour, sprinkle’
PNCV *vui ‘pour water on’ (Clark 2009)
NCV Mota vu-vui ‘pour water upon, cool with water’
NCV Nguna vue ‘pour water on, water, sprinkle’
PSV *a-vwi(i) ‘to water, pour water on’
SV Sye avwi ‘to water, pour water on’
SV Lenakel vi ‘to water, pour water on’
SV Anejom̃ ahwi-i ‘to water, pour water on’

The relationship, if any, between the two reconstructions below, PNGOc *jiwaR, *jiwaR-i- ‘pour out (liquid)’ and PCP *suqi ‘pour water on/into’, is somewhat puzzling. Each is based on a regionally restricted cognate set, and the formal similarities between them suggest that they may share an earlier history. Indeed, the Fjian (Bauan and Wayan) terms under PCP *suqi could also reflect *jiwaR-i-, if one assumes that the sequence *-iwa- is readily reduced to *-ua- (as in Takia and Sio), then *-u- (as in Kela and Numbami). This would give PCP *juRi, hence, e.g. Wayan sui. Concomitantly, *suqi would then be demoted to PPn status. Either way, though, PPn *-q- cannot be reconciled with PWOc *-R- without resorting to ad hoc speculation.

PWOc *jiwaR, *jiwaR-i- ‘pour out (liquid)’
NNG Takia -suari [VT] ‘pour out, empty’
NNG Sio zuala ‘rinse out with water; slosh back and forth’
NNG Kela zui ‘pour out’
NNG Numbami -zu-zula ‘pour, flow’
PT Gumawana siwo-i ‘pour’
PT Dobu siwa ‘pour (water)’
PT Dobu siwala(ga) ‘pour more water in’
PT Dobu siwal(olo) ‘pour water on’
PT Iamalele iwa(ga) ‘pour (water)’
PT Iduna -ɣiwa- ‘pour, fill’
PT Are sewa-i- ‘pour’
PT Tawala hiwo(ga) ‘pour out, tip out, unload’
PT Misima hol ‘pour’
MM Babatana jili-ni ‘pour out, spill’
PCP *suqi ‘pour water on/into’
Fij Bauan sū ‘pour water on, irrigate, quench (fire)’
Fij Bauan sūy-a [VT] ‘pour water on, irrigate’
Fij Bauan sui-bokoð-a [VT] ‘quench (fire +)’ (boko ‘extinguished, erased’)
Fij Wayan sui ‘be watered, have water poured or sprayed on’
Fij Wayan sui- ‘water s.t., quench a fire’
PPn *suqi ‘dilute, mix with liquid’ (POLLEX)
Pn Tongan huʔi ‘thin down, dilute’
Pn Samoan sui ‘add water to, dilute’
Pn East Futunan suʔi ‘dilute’
Pn Tuvalu hui ‘mix with water’
Pn East Futunan sui ‘dilute dry or thick substances with water’
Pn Nukuoro s-sui ‘wet’
Pn Rennellese suʔi ‘mix’
Pn Tokelauan hui ‘water down, thin down (soup +)’

Notes⇫