Word classes and the scope of lexical flexibility in Tongan

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 445-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svenja Völkel
Keyword(s):  
Word Class ◽  
Crucial Issue ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Manner Adverb

Abstract Tongan is an Oceanic language belonging to the Polynesian subgroup. Based on previous work (Churchward 1953, Tchekhoff 1981, Broschart 1997), Tongan has been classified as a 'flexible' language by various typological approaches on word classes (Hengeveld 1992, Rijkhoff 1998, Croft 2001). This means that lexical items are per se not categorised in terms of major word classes, but they can function as noun, verb, adjective and manner adverb without morphosyntactic derivation. However, not all lexemes are entirely flexible occurring within all these constructions. So the crucial issue of how flexible Tongan really is remains. This question will be addressed by a survey based on a combination of syntactic and semantic word class criteria – basically following Croft's prototype approach (2000, 2001) but also considering Hengeveld & Rijkhoff's work (Hengeveld 1992, Hengeveld, Rijkhoff & Siewierska 2004, Hengeveld 2013) Evans & Osada's work (2005). It reveals the scope of lexical flexibility for various lexemes and semantic groups.

The economy of word classes in Hiw, Vanuatu

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre François
Keyword(s):  
Word Class ◽  
Broad Array ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Lexical Items

Abstract The issue of lexical flexibility is best tackled as the articulation of two separate mappings: one that assigns lexical items to word classes; another one that associates these word classes with the syntactic functions they can access. A language may endow its lexemes with more or less multicategoriality, and its word classes with more or less multifunctionality: these are two distinct facets of lexical flexibility, which should be assessed separately. Focusing on Hiw, an Oceanic language of northern Vanuatu, I show that lexical flexibility is there mostly due to the high multifunctionality of its word classes, each of which can regularly access a broad array of syntactic functions. Conversely, Hiw ranks relatively low on the scale of multicategoriality: most of its lexemes are assigned just one word class. This is how a language can be grammatically flexible, yet lexically rigid.

Historical change of word classes

Diachronica ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Gerner
Keyword(s):  
Target Word ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Temporal Parameter ◽  
Word Class ◽  
Process Of Change ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Asian Languages ◽  
Typical Process

This paper isolates four parameters that guide the historical change of word classes: the quantificational parameter, the directional parameter, the preservative parameter and the temporal parameter. These parameters are involved in the organization of seven case studies in East Asian languages. Based on these case studies I define four diachronic tendencies that apply to East Asian languages and perhaps beyond: (1) the greater the size of the target word class, the lower the number of new acquired meanings; (2) if a word class engages on a path of change, then the greater its size, the more likely it is that the process of change in which it engages will be lexicalization; (3) in a typical process of grammaticalization relatively more meanings are generated than in a typical process of lexicalization; (4) processes of grammaticalization represent temporally short processes more often than processes of lexicalization.

scholarly journals Nominalization in TIV

2021 ◽  
pp. 16-26
Author(s):  
Stephen Shiaondo Ajim ◽  
Iorember Margaret N
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Structural Theory ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Intuitive Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Linguistic Units ◽  
Linguistic Process

Nominalization is a linguistic process of deriving nouns from other word classes or linguistic units. Nominalization is evident in many languages of the world. The Tiv language also exhibits nominalization. This paper critically analyses nominalization in Tiv. The objectives of the paper are: to determine the processes through which nominalization takes place in the Tiv language, the extent to which the processes of nominalization are productive in the Tiv language, and the classes of words and linguistic units that are nominalized in Tiv. Data were sourced from the native speakers of Tiv using the researcher – participant technique. The researchers documented the lexical items used during the interaction, determine the basic components of the lexical items and the word classes such lexical items belonged to. The intuitive knowledge of the researchers as the native speakers of the language was harnessed. The secondary data were sourced from the already existing literatures such as textbooks, journals and the internet. The theory adopted in the paper is Hokett’s (1954) structural theory whose models are the Item-and-Process (I.P) and Item-and-Arrangement (I.P). It has been found out that the processes through which nominalization takes in the Tiv language are prefixation, prefixation plus some modifications, tonality and desententialization (sentence deconstruction). These processes are discovered to be very productive in nominalization in Tiv. It has also been found out that verbs roots and adjectives are the classes of words that are nominalized (lexical nominalization) in the Tiv language together with sentences (syntactic nominalization).

The Playful Lexicon in the Romance Languages: Prosodic Templates, Onomatopoeia, Reduplication, Clipping, Blending

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Pharies
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Item ◽  
Repeated Sequences ◽  
The Other ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Social Convention ◽  
Separate Category ◽  
Semantic Effect ◽  
Full Form ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Lexical Items

A lexical item is described as “playful” or “ludic” when it shows evidence of manipulation of the relation that inheres between its form (signifier) and its meaning (signified). The playful lexicon of any given language, therefore, is the sum total of its lexical items that show signs of such manipulation. Linguists have long recognized that the only necessary link between a word’s form and its meaning is the arbitrary social convention that binds them. However, nothing prevents speakers from creating additional, unnecessary and therefore essentially “playful” links, associating forms with meanings in a symbolic, hence non-arbitrary way. This semantic effect is most evident in the case of onomatopoeia, through which the phonetic form of words that designate sounds is designed to be conventionally imitative of the sound. A second group of playful words combines repeated sequences of sounds with meanings that are themselves suggestive of repetition or related concepts such as collectivity, continuity, or actions in sequence, as well as repeated, back-and-forth, or uncontrolled movements, or even, more abstractly, intensity and hesitation. The playfulness of truncated forms such as clips and blends is based on a still more abstract connection between forms and meanings. In the case of clipping, the truncation of the full form of a word triggers a corresponding connotative truncation or diminution of the meaning, that is, a suggestion that the referent is small—either endearingly, humorously, or contemptuously so. In blending, truncation is often accompanied by overlapping, which symbolically highlights the interrelatedness or juxtaposition of the constituents’ individual meanings. Prosodic templates do not constitute a separate category per se; instead, they may play a part in the formation or alteration of words in any of the other categories discussed here.

scholarly journals Parts-of-speech systems and word order

2004 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
KEES HENGEVELD ◽  
JAN RIJKHOFF ◽  
ANNA SIEWIERSKA
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
Lexical Structure ◽  
Order Constraints ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Lexical Items

This paper argues that the word order possibilities of a language are partly determined by the parts-of-speech system of that language. In languages in which lexical items are specialized for certain functionally defined syntactic slots (e.g. the modifier slot within a noun phrase), the identifiability of these slots is ensured by the nature of the lexical items (e.g. adjectives) themselves. As a result, word order possibilities are relatively unrestricted in these languages. In languages in which lexical items are not specialized for certain syntactic slots, in that these items combine the functions of two or more of the traditional word classes, other strategies have to be invoked to enhance identifiability. In these languages word order constraints are used to make syntactic slots identifiable on the basis of their position within the clause or phrase. Hence the word order possibilities are rather restricted in these languages. Counterexamples to the latter claim all involve cases in which identifiability is ensured by morphological rather than syntactic means. This shows that there is a balanced trade-off between the syntactic, morphological, and lexical structure of a language.

A Dynamic Construal Approach to Lexical Transcategorial Shifts in Mandarin

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 576
Author(s):  
Ting Yang
Keyword(s):  
Word Class ◽  
Chinese Word ◽  
European Languages ◽  
On Line ◽  
Word Classes

A dynamic construal approach is adopted to address the word class transcategorial shifts in Mandarin. It is pointed out that the dispute on the classification of Chinese word classes and the consequent controversial proposals of nominalization, verbalization, etc. is in essence a matter of categorization. Instead of the static views, it holds that the categorization of word classes is dynamic and a cluster of factors affects the on-line categorizing process. From the dynamic construal view, Indo-European languages and Mandarin share analogous transcategorial shift processes.

Linguistic Word Classes in the Spoken Language of Normal, Hard-of-Hearing, and Deaf Children

1968 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
John B. Brannon
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Impairment ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Classification System ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Word Class ◽  
New Classification ◽  
Word Classes

The spoken language of three groups of subjects—normal, hard-of-hearing, and deaf—was analyzed by means of a new classification system devised by Jones, Goodman, and Wepman. Each spoken word was sorted into one of 14 word classes. Group means for each word class were compared. It was concluded that a significant hearing impairment reduces productivity of both tokens and types of words. A moderate impairment lowers the use of adverbs, pronouns, and auxiliaries; a profound impairment reduces nearly all classes. In proportion to total word output the deaf overused nouns and articles, underused prepositions, quantifiers, and indefinites.

scholarly journals Maria Montessori, pedagogical orthodoxy, and the question of correct practice (1921-1929)

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-58
Author(s):  
Bérengère Kolly
Keyword(s):  
Early Years ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Crucial Issue ◽  
Maria Montessori ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The Way

The issue of correct practice (i.e., according to Henri Louis Go, practice that reflects the spirit and letter of a pedagogy), concerns every pedagogue, and Maria Montessori certainly took correct practice very seriously from the outset. Indeed, her emphasis on this crucial issue explains some of the strategic choices she made, as well as the ways she promoted her method abroad, and the relationships she maintained with her contemporaries (analyzed here via the early years of the journal Pour l’Ère nouvelle). These all led to accusations of dogmatism or pedagogical orthodoxy that continue to be leveled at the Montessori network today. This article sets out to explore the controversy surrounding the issue of correct practice in the field of pedagogy, taking Montessori as its example. Focusing on the 1920s, it considers the questions raised by attempts to protect a life’s work within a heterogeneous array of philosophical and political practices and positions. It also explores the reticence that some of Montessori’s contemporaries (particularly Decroly and Ferrière) showednot toward her pedagogy per se, but toward the way she conceived of and applied this pedagogy. 

scholarly journals Središnje i periferno u gramatici hrvatskoga jezika

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-30
Author(s):  
Ivo Pranjković ◽  
Lada Badurina
Keyword(s):  
Word Class ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Basic Word ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Peripheral Areas ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Hybrid Forms

In this paper we focus on what is central and what is peripheral in the grammatical structure of the Croatian language, in particular on the grammatical categories of number, aspect and word classes. With respect to the category of number, the relationship between singular and plural is central, while the periphery consists of other ways of expressing quantity relations (number as a word class, collectiveness, substantivity). With respect to the category of aspect, the opposition imperfective – perfective is central, while the periphery consists of Aktionsart. With respect to word classes, the basic word classes are central, while the periphery consists of hybrid forms and/or hybrid word classes (e.g. participles, infinitive, gerunds, pronominal adjectives and pronominal adverbs, etc.). Finally, we will discuss the central and the peripheral in phonology and semantics (as peripheral areas in relation to grammar).

scholarly journals ANALYSIS WORD CLASSES IN SELECTED POEMS BY ALLAN ALEXANDER MILNE

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Nora Nopikasari ◽  
Ani Safitri ◽  
Agung Suhandi
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Word Class ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

The objectives of this study are to investigate the word class or known as part of speech from the chosen poems of Alan Alexander Milne. For that reason, five poems of him are analyzed: Wrong House, Furry Bear, If I Were King, The Mirror, dan Hoppity. This study applies descriptive qualitative methods. The procedure of the study covers several steps; dividing words into word class category, analyzing them statistically and reporting the result. Out of the five analyzed poems, there are three-word class categories; verb, noun, an adjective. The most dominant used word class in the poems is noun comprising of 105 in total . This is due to the fact that noun is what the students most widely learned as beginner learners. In these poems, the noun describes the meaning of the poems. Therefore; the categorizing of the part of speech is important to enrich vocabulary and ease the understanding of the poem. This analysis is to make the readers easier in understanding the word class using a poem by Alan Alexander Milne 

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