Preverbs as an open word class in Northern Australian languages: synchronic and diachronic correlates

Abstract

Preverbs constituting a distinct part of speech are found in languages of different genetic affiliation throughout NorthernAustralia. In a large part of the linguistic area defined by the presence of preverbs, they are used to form complex predicateswhich at first sight bear striking similarities to the separable complex verbs of Germanic languages: the preverb is an uninflectingelement which takes primary stress if it appears in preverbal position, but its position with respect to the inflecting verbis variable. Its meaning may be of a spatial or aspectual type. Thus, the Jaminjung examples in (1) and (2) have straightforwardtranslation equivalents in English1.