22-27 August, 1994
Leiden, The Netherlands

7TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AUSTRONESIAN LINGUISTICS: NEWS FROM THE
FRONTLINE

The Seventh International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, 7-ICAL
for short, was a great success. The organizers (the Department of Languages
and Cultures of South-East Asia and Oceania of Leiden University and the
International Institute for Asian Studies in Leiden) wisely decided to hold
the conference in Noordwijkerhout. The seclusion in the out-of-the-way
conference centre made it impossible for the participants not to meet each
other constantly þ notwithstanding their great numbers.

By Jan E. Voskuil

Over a hundred papers were presented in three parallel sessions during four
days. The topics included spectral properties of vowels in Malay, metre in
Buginese verse, reference tracking in Tsou, the Aktionsarten of the
Indonesian verb in comparison to Russian, coherence in Acehnese discourse þ
not to mention the grammar of hitherto virtually unknown languages (Tukang
Besi, Leti, Kambera, Siraya, to mention just a few), the genesis of contact
languages, and ways to prevent language extinction. It is impossible to do
justice to the enormous variety of topics, pertaining to a wide variety of
disciplines. 

TIMUR
For some speakers, the short time (20 minutes) scheduled for presentation
was a problem but most were able to give a general impression of their
research. This was precisely what made the conference so interesting: to
step outside the limits of one's favourite specialization, and to get an
idea of developments in other areas. It is not possible to do this
objectively, but let me briefly mention a few I personally found most
impressive. Pawley presented maps of excavations, on which the
architectural structures, clearly visible, were labelled with the names by
which the builders must have referred to them more than 3000 years ago þ
fascinating. Ross used insights into the climates of the Pacific rim,
combined with comparative data on word meanings of meteorological terms,
for deducing clues on how the Austronesians conquered the Pacific. It has
long been known that a word like timur means 'east' in some languages, but
'south' in others. Such data have been used from the 19th century onwards
in constructing homeland-theories. However, I have never seen such a
detailed treatment þ in combination with such specific questions.

THE PHILIPPINE FOCUS-SYSTEM
Although a large number of papers gravitated towards historical
linguistics, there was also a fair number of papers on theoretical issues
in phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax. One of the most hotly
debated issues concerns the nature of the Philippine focus-system. Is it
fundamentally different from the Malay-type active-passive systems, or not?
Bloomfield gave an affirmative answer, while the alternative view has been
gaining some support since the publication of work by Starosta and others
in the eighties. Ultimately, the question concerns the relation between
semantic properties of verbs (or predicates) in human cognition, and their
syntactic properties. If Austronesian linguistics is going to make
contributions to general linguistics of the same order of magnitude as it
used to in the 19th century, it is likely to be in connection with such
general, but no less fascinating questions.

WALLS CRUMBLING
Bloomfield warned against 'the odium theologicum and the postulation of
"schools"' (in his 1946 article in 'Language' 22.1-3), but Austronesian
linguistics has traditionally not paid much heed to it. Perhaps it is
wishful thinking on the part of the present author, but a new wind seems to
be blowing. Instead of dismissing each other's arguments on petty
methodological grounds, adherents of widely varying beliefs could be
spotted in the midst of empirical dialogue. Also the massive wall
separating historical and theoretical linguistics þ a typical artefact of
the 20th century þ seems to be crumbling down. Imagine if biologists were
to think in such schemata! Well, actually, they did so for a long time. But
as palaeonthologist S.J. Gould writes, 'All good scientists must use and
appreciate both styles since large and adequate theories usually need to
forage for insights in both physics and history' ('Bully for Brontosaurus',
Penguin Books, 1992, p. 497). Unless I am thoroughly mistaken, a similar
insight is gradually taking hold of our field also. I am looking forward to
the next ICAL in Taiwan.