Word order in a free word order language: the case of Jiwarli

<p dir="ltr">Recent syntactic debate has focused on nonconfigurationality or ‘free word order’, with Australian Aboriginal languages like Warlpiri and Kalkatungu cited as examples. Generative and functionalist linguists, including Jelinek, Speas, Baker, Payne, and Mithun, have explored links between word order and bound pronominals. Mithun argues that in some languages, word order is pragmatically determined, with pronominal affixes serving as core arguments and free nominals as adjuncts. This paper examines Jiwarli, a Western Australian Aboriginal language, which displays nonconfigurationality and pragmatically conditioned word order but lacks bound pronominals. This challenges the proposed correlation and suggests that Jiwarli’s word order flexibility relates to transitivity, case-marking complexities, and switch-reference systems, rather than pronominal structure alone.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Cultural Sensitivity</b></p><p dir="ltr">Some material in this collection may contain words, descriptions and terms, which may be culturally sensitive and that reflect authors’ views, or those of the period in which the content was created, but may not be considered appropriate today. If you believe this material should be removed please contact the library.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr"><b>To contact the library</b></p><p dir="ltr">Contact: https://www.latrobe.edu.au/library/about/contact</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr"><b>For Indigenous Australians help and support is available</b></p><p dir="ltr"><i>‍13YARN</i> is an Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders crisis support line. Available 24/7.</p><p dir="ltr">Contact: 1300Yarn (13 92 76) or <a href="https://www.13yarn.org.au/" target="_blank">https://www.13yarn.org.au/</a></p>