ABSTRACT
In several important ways Kaluli resembles other non-Austronesian languages that have been described for Papua New Guinea. It is a verb-final language marking case relations postpositionally on nouns. In Kaluli there are two casemarking systems for nouns, neutral and ergative/absolutive. In terms of marking the semantic functions of nouns, Kaluli has a mixed word-order and inflectional system. Kaluli has two allowable word orders for agent and object, AOV and OAV, each of which is used for different pragmatic ends. Kaluli nouns are not marked for gender, nor are they morphologically marked for plurality or definiteness. In contrast to English, Kaluli has relatively few adverbs and adjectives in its lexicon. Kaluli employs an elaborate system of emphatic and evidential particles. Since it is important to understand something of the cultural basis for the ways in which Kaluli act and speak to their children, this chapter sketches selected aspects of the cultural dimensions of language acquisition.
