Associated Motion in the Pama-Nyungan languages of Australia

This paper describes the systems of Associated Motion that are found in the Pama-Nyungan family of Australian languages, based on a survey of about 100 language descriptions, in terms of the typology which has been developed in recent years. The very complex systems (with up to 17 subcategories) of lan- guages of Central Australia, which have been known since the 1980s, are pre- sented in terms of their semantic parameters, and illustrated most fully by means of an updated analysis of Kaytetye, the Arandic language for which AM was first reported (Koch 1984). Other languages are discussed according to the complex- ity of their system: moderately complex, binary (two AM values) and unitary. Comparison of all the systems found in 41 languages distributed widely over the continent shows an apparently independent recurrent development of AM from similar precursor constructions as well as increasing complexity of systems around a core area in the centre of the continent.