On the discourse functions of olsem in Bislama

Miriam Meyerhoff & Nancy Niedzielski

Sat. 4:00-5:40 B

In Crowley's (1990) grammar of Bislama, olsem ('like' or 'thus') is analysed both as a preposition used in comparisons and as an adverb.

(1) i gat plante fres frut olsem popo (Vanuatu Weekly, 14 January 1995)

there are plenty of fresh fruit like papaya

(2) Hem i mekem olsem

He did it thus

As a preposition it can take an NP or a clausal complement. While a survey of modern written Bislama supports this, an examination of olsem in a spoken corpus (34 speakers, 30,000 words) suggests that its range of functions is being extended. While we still find olsem in its canonical function as a preposition comparing two NPs, data from naturally occurring discourse suggests that this function is rare and that additional functions are more typical. These additional functions seem to be a reflection of the development of olsem.

We propose a diachronic path in which olsem as a means of making comparisons, as in (3), expanded in function to express more general relations of identity, as in (4), much the same as English like (to the extent that olsem is also used as a positive politeness marker, as shown in 5).

(3) mifala i digim wan bigfala hol olsem hol blong ol bus toelet ia (S-95-15)

we dug a huge hole like the hole for a bush toilet

(4) a. hem i stap singsing long wan sing ia, hem i olsem: "ti ti ti ti, vorara..." (M-95-17)

he was singing this song, it went like this: "ti ti ti ti, vorara..."

b. from foltem han olsem ia (M-95-11)

because he folds his arms like this [speaker crosses arms]

(5) be papa i no talem olsem i no talem se from wanem (M-94-4)

but father didn't say, like, he didn't say why

In the corpus, olsem is also used as a clausal anaphor, as in (6), which may be linked to or even a consequence of its function as a marker of identity.

(6) a. hem i se "o mama, bubu blong mi ded", mi se "yu no krae olsem"

she said "oh mama, my grandma's dead", I said "don't say that"

b. hem i stanap nomo, i stap draonem bol olsem ia

he just stands up, and sinks the ball (like this/you know how it is)

Variation between olsem and olsem with the specificity marker ia (illustrated in 4b and 6b) can be accounted for according to whether the comparison, identity or anaphoricity is purely linguistic, or whether non-linguistic information is also needed. Use of olsem ia to establish a match between speaker and hearer's mental representations thus leads to it acquiring a further function as an overt marker of topic shift.

Reference

Crowley, Terry 1990. From Biche-la-Mar to Bislama: the emergence of a national language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.