Polyfunctional argument markers in Ket

Abstract

Polyfunctionality refers to cases in which the same formal material is systematically reused with different functions. It represents a type of complexity of exponence, wherein there is a non-one-to-one mapping between function and form. Much recent work in morphology has emphasized the role of implicative structure in resolving the communicative challenges associated with complex form-function mappings. However, previous work has focused almost entirely on complexity of exponence as a challenge for the speaker predicting novel forms (knowing how to encode information), and very little on the challenge for the listener in decoding novel forms. It also has focused almost exclusively on inflectional paradigms, and has not explored how other types of implicative structure might be important in languages with diverse morphological systems. This paper investigates the role of syntagmatic (i.e. word-internal) implicative structure in Ket (Yeniseian, Siberia), a polysynthetic language with numerous polyfunctional markers. It is shown that such markers are organized into networks of implicative relations with one another, wherein less polyfunctional markers along a scale of polyfunctionality disambiguate the function of more polyfunctional markers. This allows uncertainty with regard to their function in any particular instance to remain low. The Ket data make wider typological predictions for the relationship between complexity of exponence and implicative structure.