Root Nouns Research Articles

Nasal harmony in Ikwere, a language with no phonemic nasal consonants

This paper presents a descriptive study of nasals and nasal harmony in Ik-were, an Igboid language of Nigeria. In the variety studied here, nasality is surface-contrastive in vowels but not in consonants. Nasality has the status of a morpheme-level feature which is either present or absent in each morpheme (root or affix). If present, it is predictably distributed across nonobstruent sounds by a system of nasal harmony which operates within the domain of the simple word, spreading nasality bidirectionally until blocked by an obstruent. The class of nasalizing sounds includes the nonexplosive stops b and 'b, confirming results of an earlier study showing these sounds to be nonobstruents (Clements and Osu 2002). The analysis brings to light some of the basic typological parameters that characterize nasal harmony in Ikwere, as well as an idiosyncratic restriction to the phonological root, a domain which excludes initial syllables in noun roots that are homophonous with prefixes in other words. The paper concludes with a summary and discussion of implications for the feature analysis and typology of stops.

What Toddlers Talk About

The size of the noun vocabulary children learn is influenced by what the children talk about with their caregivers when they are toddlers. For quartiles based on root noun vocabulary size, longitudinal data for 40 children (13ñ36 months old) were analysed using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) to standardize the vocabulary of topics examined and a 100-utterance sample each month to equate the children for rate of talking. Analysis showed similar trends across the quartiles in the topic categories the children talked about, major increases in use of nouns different from those on the CDI, and diversity (different nouns per noun used) increasing as vocabulary increased. Richness differed across the quartiles, and the richness in nouns of the children’s utterances was associated not with diversity but with the richness in nouns of their parents’ utterances. An important aspect of the size of the noun vocabulary children learn may be the extent to which the children are matching not only the nouns but the richness in nouns of the utterances their caregivers address to them.

Root compound nouns in Tshivenḓa

There are nominal compounds in Tshivenḓa but unlike in other languages, there are no verbal compounds. Some nominal compounds are formed by combining two nouns (Noun + Noun) while other nominal compounds are formed by the noun followed by other word categories. Compound nouns formed by Noun + Noun can be divided further into two main types: compound nouns formed by compounding two nouns: and compound nouns formed by compounding two elements where one of the morphemes is a root. The latter category can be further classified into: compound nouns formed by root and noun, compound nouns formed by noun and root and compound nouns formed by root and root. The article investigates the structure of such root compound nouns. It shows that root compound nouns have a structure that is similar to noun compounds, however, each of the three types of root noun compounds exhibits a specific tendency as regards the behaviour of the class prefixes of the original nouns and/or that of the root compound noun.

The compound as a phonological domain in Indo–European

Archaic Indo–European compounds show some marked reductions of their individual parts. Phonetic rules can be formulated for the following phenomena: (1) Accented zero–grade in the first member; (2) thematic –o– > –i– in both members, in part with loss of consonantal material, as (2.1) –ro– > –i– (via asyllabic –ry–), which explains much of the ‘Caland system’, and (2.2) ‘root nouns’ replacing agent–nouns with suffixal –t–, and gerundives in –yo– instead of –tyo– (vs. simplex –two–), depending on root structure. The alternations seen in Lat. tellūs : meditullium, NE axle : Lat. axis, the lack of –m– in pronominal feminine forms like Gen.sg. *tesyah2s, and the interchange of ro– and u–stem adjectives are explained as side–effects of the rules which are throughout phonetic, not functional.

Emotions in Oneida

Oneida has terms for emotions, as well as other mental activities, that include one of three noun roots referring to the mind: ‘mind, thought, spirit’, ‘mind, thought’, and ‘soul’. There are no constructions in Oneida that describe emotions by referring to body organs, other than the mind, or characteristic bodily “symptoms”, although some emotive interjections include the terms for ‘crack in the behind, anus’ or ‘feces, excrement’. Oneida speakers attribute their classification of diverse concepts as emotions to the idea that all feelings reside in the mind. However, the issue of whether Oneida has an exponent for a semantic primitive feel is controversial.

Emotions in Oneida

Oneida has terms for emotions, as well as other mental activities, that include one of three noun roots referring to the mind: ‘mind, thought, spirit’, ‘mind, thought’, and ‘soul’. There are no constructions in Oneida that describe emotions by referring to body organs, other than the mind, or characteristic bodily “symptoms”, although some emotive interjections include the terms for ‘crack in the behind, anus’ or ‘feces, excrement’. Oneida speakers attribute their classification of diverse concepts as emotions to the idea that all feelings reside in the mind. However, the issue of whether Oneida has an exponent for a semantic primitive feel is controversial.

Article Accretion and Article Creation in Southern Oceanic

Article Accretion and Article Creation in Southern Oceanic John Lynch Abstract Very few Southern Oceanic languages retain the Proto-Oceanic articles as articles per se. Some have lost them altogether. In many others, they seem to have developed as proclitics or prefixes that are today only marginally productive. On the other hand, some of the languages in this subgroup have created new articles or article-like prefixes. I will argue that the loss of the articles, or the marginalizing of an erstwhile productive system of prefixes, may have been a quite recent phenomenon, and may thus represent parallel developments rather than shared innovations. 1. Introduction. Proto-Oceanic seems to have had a number of articles. The following are mentioned in Lynch, Ross, and Crowley (to appear, chap. 4), apart from *dri, which is discussed in 2.2.2: (1) *e, *i personal (*e phrase-initial? *i phrase-internal?) *qa personal *dri feminine *na, *a common nonhuman (no definitive allomorphic statement) *ta common nonhuman Following Crowley (1985), I assume that other nouns-generally those with human nonpersonal or animate reference-were zero-marked in Proto-Oceanic. Very few languages in Southern Oceania (Vanuatu and New Caledonia) retain these articles as free-standing articles. Many New Caledonian languages have a number of articles, but most of them seem to be innovations and are not inherited from POC. However, many of the other languages in this area-particularly in Vanuatu-have accreted one or more of these articles onto some nouns, with greater or lesser degrees of morphological fusion with the noun. Some examples are given in table 1.1 [End Page 224] Click for larger view View full resolution Table 1. Examples of Articles Accreted to Nouns The languages of Southern (but apparently not North-Central) Vanuatu have a number of other initial accretions that occur with some regularity and seem to have some common semantic reference. These are discussed in some detail in section 3, but a few examples are given in table 2 with the Proto-Southern Vanuatu (PSV), Proto-Erromangan (PER), or Proto-Tanna (PTN) accretion and its meaning/function. (Data in the POC column include Proto-North-Central Vanuatu [PNCV] or PSV reconstructions.) In this paper, I will suggest that the POC articles were inherited by Proto- Southern Oceanic (PSOC) as articles, but that they were either cliticized to the noun root in many languages, through a three-stage process discussed in section 5, or else were totally lost. A tentative family tree for the Southern Oceanic (SOC) subgroup, following Lynch (2000a), is given in figure 1, where broken lines indicate dialect networks and solid horizontal lines indicate language splits. 2. North and Central Vanuatu. Very few languages of North and Central Vanuatu (NCV) have articles per se. In certain parts of the area, however, there is clear evidence of many nouns taking prefixes or initial accretions that are reflexes of the POC articles, but at the same time there seem to be a number of NCV languages that have no such noun-marking system, even residually: Crowley (1985:149) mentions V'ënen Taut (Big Nambas), Raga, and the languages of North and Southeast Ambrym as belonging in this category-and the languages of Epi probably do as well. 2.1 POC *na, *a. Two languages that apparently do have free-standing articles are Tamambo (Malo) and Northeast Ambae. In Northeast Ambae (Hyslop 1998:119ff.), the definite article has the form a with nominative case (though this is falling into disuse, being replaced by zero) and na with accusative, as in (2). Click for larger view View full resolution Table 2. Other Initial Accretions [End Page 225] (2) NE AMBAE: A langi mo here. ART.NOM wind REAL blow 'The wind blew.' Da=mo bulu na vale-da. 1INCL.PL=REAL build ART.ACC house-our.INCL 'We build our house.' In Tamambo, "the article na functions only as the portmanteau marker of a definite direct object. It precedes only common nouns" (Jauncey, to appear). There is no corresponding definite article used with subjects. (3) TAMAMBO: Tamalohi na lai na maji. man 3PL take ART fish 'The men...

Article Accretion and Article Creation in Southern Oceanic

Article Accretion and Article Creation in Southern Oceanic John Lynch Abstract Very few Southern Oceanic languages retain the Proto-Oceanic articles as articles per se. Some have lost them altogether. In many others, they seem to have developed as proclitics or prefixes that are today only marginally productive. On the other hand, some of the languages in this subgroup have created new articles or article-like prefixes. I will argue that the loss of the articles, or the marginalizing of an erstwhile productive system of prefixes, may have been a quite recent phenomenon, and may thus represent parallel developments rather than shared innovations. 1. Introduction. Proto-Oceanic seems to have had a number of articles. The following are mentioned in Lynch, Ross, and Crowley (to appear, chap. 4), apart from *dri, which is discussed in 2.2.2: (1) *e, *i personal (*e phrase-initial? *i phrase-internal?) *qa personal *dri feminine *na, *a common nonhuman (no definitive allomorphic statement) *ta common nonhuman Following Crowley (1985), I assume that other nouns-generally those with human nonpersonal or animate reference-were zero-marked in Proto-Oceanic. Very few languages in Southern Oceania (Vanuatu and New Caledonia) retain these articles as free-standing articles. Many New Caledonian languages have a number of articles, but most of them seem to be innovations and are not inherited from POC. However, many of the other languages in this area-particularly in Vanuatu-have accreted one or more of these articles onto some nouns, with greater or lesser degrees of morphological fusion with the noun. Some examples are given in table 1.1 [End Page 224] Click for larger view View full resolution Table 1. Examples of Articles Accreted to Nouns The languages of Southern (but apparently not North-Central) Vanuatu have a number of other initial accretions that occur with some regularity and seem to have some common semantic reference. These are discussed in some detail in section 3, but a few examples are given in table 2 with the Proto-Southern Vanuatu (PSV), Proto-Erromangan (PER), or Proto-Tanna (PTN) accretion and its meaning/function. (Data in the POC column include Proto-North-Central Vanuatu [PNCV] or PSV reconstructions.) In this paper, I will suggest that the POC articles were inherited by Proto- Southern Oceanic (PSOC) as articles, but that they were either cliticized to the noun root in many languages, through a three-stage process discussed in section 5, or else were totally lost. A tentative family tree for the Southern Oceanic (SOC) subgroup, following Lynch (2000a), is given in figure 1, where broken lines indicate dialect networks and solid horizontal lines indicate language splits. 2. North and Central Vanuatu. Very few languages of North and Central Vanuatu (NCV) have articles per se. In certain parts of the area, however, there is clear evidence of many nouns taking prefixes or initial accretions that are reflexes of the POC articles, but at the same time there seem to be a number of NCV languages that have no such noun-marking system, even residually: Crowley (1985:149) mentions V'ënen Taut (Big Nambas), Raga, and the languages of North and Southeast Ambrym as belonging in this category-and the languages of Epi probably do as well. 2.1 POC *na, *a. Two languages that apparently do have free-standing articles are Tamambo (Malo) and Northeast Ambae. In Northeast Ambae (Hyslop 1998:119ff.), the definite article has the form a with nominative case (though this is falling into disuse, being replaced by zero) and na with accusative, as in (2). Click for larger view View full resolution Table 2. Other Initial Accretions [End Page 225] (2) NE AMBAE: A langi mo here. ART.NOM wind REAL blow 'The wind blew.' Da=mo bulu na vale-da. 1INCL.PL=REAL build ART.ACC house-our.INCL 'We build our house.' In Tamambo, "the article na functions only as the portmanteau marker of a definite direct object. It precedes only common nouns" (Jauncey, to appear). There is no corresponding definite article used with subjects. (3) TAMAMBO: Tamalohi na lai na maji. man 3PL take ART fish 'The men...

Lexical extraprosodicity in Chilungu

Nouns in Chilungu, a Bantu language spoken in Zambia, exhibit more tonal distinctions synchronically than exist in many modern Bantu languages. There exists a five-way distinction in nouns with CVCV sterns and a four-way distinction in nouns with monosyllabic stems. We show that any synchronic analysis which assumes a two-way tonal distinction for each Tone Bearing Unit (e.g., H vs. L, or H vs. ¢) cannot predict the attested number of surface tonal patterns. We avoid this dilemma by proposing that the final mora of certain noun roots is extraprosodic. This assumption not only correctly predicts the attested surface patterns, but results in rules which are well-motivated both theoretically and typologically (in Bantu). We argue that lexical conditioning of extraprosodicity is a natural outgrowth of prosodic theory, parallel to the use of lexical stress and lexical accent.

Avatime noun classes and concord

Avatime is one of 14 "Central-Togo" (or "Togo Remnant") languages, spoken in Ghana, Togo, and Benin. These languages differ from their nearest Kwa group relatives in that they have active systems of noun classes and concord. Avatime has 13 noun classes, each with a distinct nominal prefix. Prefixes (as well as most other affixes) agree in [ATR] vowel harmony with the host noun root. Some classes impose invariable low tone on the prefix while prefix tone of other classes may be any of three lexically determined tones. Definiteness is marked by a set of suffixes. The ultimate segmental shapes and tones of these suffixes depend on the interaction of the respective class prefix shapes and coalescence phenomena with stem final vowels. There are correlations between noun class and nominal semantics, and nominal derivation is done in part through class choice. A number of attributive modifiers show class concord with the head noun. In the variety of Avatime studied here, such concord is only though vocalic prefixes on attributive modifiers, not by full CV prefixes as is typical of Bantu languages. Some attributives also have "tonal concord", which is not class concord per se, but refers to the tone of the head noun's prefix. Not all attributive modifiers have overt concord marking.

Analytical lexicon of Navajo

This lexicon is designed to reflect, in detail, the morphological features of the Navajo language -- an objective that includes the identification and description of about 1130 roots that, variously combined and manipulated, underlie its extensive vocabulary. The main body of the Lexicon includes the verbs, the verb-derived nouns and adverbials, the root nouns, the numerals and the root postpositions. The borrowed nouns, particles, a full listing of adverbials, and miscellaneous lexical elements are included in the appendix.

Why No Mere Mortal Has Ever Flown Out to Center Field

The English past tense system has recently been used to argue that formal grammatical categories (such as root, rule, and lexical item) may not be necessary to explain the acquisition and knowledge of language. Rumelhart and McClelland (1986) devised a connectionist model relying solely on phonological information; it is often suggested that any deficiencies of such a model can be remedied by supplying it with semantic information. These proposals are incorrect: Grammatical categories and abstract morphological structure are indispensable and cannot be replaced with semantics while preserving the patterns of psychological generalization in the system. Linguists have noted that irregular past tense mappings (e.g., fly/flew; stick/stuck) apply only when a verb's root is marked in the lexicon as having an irregular past. Because nouns are never so marked, verbs with noun roots—denominal verbs—are regular even if they are phonologically identical to irregular verbs, hence: flied out/*flew out to center field; high‐sticked/*high‐stuck the goalie. Experiment 1 shows that adult subjects are highly sensitive to this principle when rating regular and irregular past tense forms of novel versions of irregular sounding verbs: New verbs formed from nouns were judged as better with a regular past tense (e.g., line‐drived was the preferred past of “to hit a line drive”): new verbs formed from verbs were judged as better with an irregular past tense (e.g., line‐drive wsas the preferred past of “to drive along a line”). Experiment 2 replicated the results with noncollege‐educated adults, showing that the effect is not due to prescriptive language training. Experiment 3 tested an alternative to the formal grammatical account proposed by Lakoff (1987): When a verb has two meanings, one with an irregular past and one with a regular past, the irregular will belong to the meaning that is more central. Using regression techniques and ratings data, we disconfirm this prediction: In the data from Experiment 1, judgments of regular and irregular forms of a new verb are shown to be affected by whether the verb is derived from a noun or a verb, but not by whether its new sense is near the center or the periphery of the sense of the word it was derived from. Experiments 4 and 5 explain the few apparent counter‐examples by gathering independent evidence for a short‐circuiting process: When a denominal verb appears to have an irregular past tense form, it is because speakers sometimes interpret such verbs as having been derived directly from a related irregular verb root, bypassing the relevant noun. The experiments serve as a straightforward demonstration that representations of formal grammatical categories and structures are powerful determinants of linguistic behavior, and are not reducible to semantics, phonology, or prescriptive training.

Passive arguments raised

The purpose of this article is to develop and motivate a theory of passive constructions. In this chapter, the authors have outlined the general form of a passive derivation in our theory and commented on a number of matters that arise. We now turn to a more detailed discussion of various aspects of our account. The authors suggest that this argument has properties similar to arbitrary pronoun. This idea on the one hand supports the hypothesis that the argument is a kind of clitic, since clitics generally have pronominal interpretation, and on the other hand allows an account of why the passive argument appears to remain “syntactically inert,” in certain cases. Finally, the authors show the Case-theoretic properties of passive morphemes are the same as those of incorporated noun roots. This final part explores this aspect of the passive construction and its implications for our proposal.

The Vedic Word for "King"

OUR INDO-EUROPEAN REFERENCE WORKS list the standard equation Vedic rdjking, Latin rix king and Old Irish rY (gen. rig), going back to an IE reking. rdjan king, much more common in Vedic and classical Sanskrit, regarded as an Indian innovation that replaced archaic raj-.' The seemingly obvious connection with the Latin verb rego order, direct was rendered doubtful through the observation that the verb means in older Latin only send/go/arrange in a straight line that still evident in classical Latin r&,tus straight.2 J. Gonda3 and J. Santucci4 have tried to save this connection with the assumption that the root reg originally meant ausbreiten, (sich aus)strecken. Gonda explained the title *rjg as (der M ittler), der sich oder seine Arme (schUtzend, helfend, gebend, segnend) ausstreckt und seine Macht (Wtrde, Reichtum) uber Land und Volk ausbreitet.5 E. Benveniste6 connected rex with rego as celui qui trace la ligne, la voie a suivre. A. Sihler7 has pointed out problems of meaning and of form with Gonda's explanation, agreeing at the same time with Gonda's critique of earlier attempts. Gonda's 'original' meaning is not actually to seen in any of the reflexes of *reg-, and the 'reach out' meanings are visible only in Latin in verbs like porrigo, there the meaning presumably the result of the preverb.8 On the formal side, it striking that the lengthened form with /e/ found in all existing derived forms. If rjgwere a root noun with vrddhi, we would expect to see derived forms with the shorter vowel form-but there are none. The lengthened vowel supposedly was generalized in vom Nom. Akk. Sing. aus durchgefUhrter Dehnstufe.9 Sihler proposes to see in all these words for king derivatives of a root *reHig be efficacious, have mana; 10 a root noun in full grade would appear in Sanskrit as rdj(nom. sing. rat), in Latin as rig(nom. sing. rex). The weak grade of the root, *rHij, would appear in Sanskrit as urj-, which Sihler recognizes in the feminine noun u-rjstrength, nourishment. Since the paradigm of such a root noun should show ablaut comparable to that of nom. sg. anadvdn ox, gen. sg. anacluhas, Sihler posits a hypothetical pair $rat: $iirids, where the symbol $ means synchronically incorrect.'1 Sihler failed to complement his elegant analysis with an investigation of the Vedic texts. The noun ria occurs only three times in the RV-each time in the nom. sg., and at the end of a second pada of a tristuhh-a limitation that indicates archaic usage.

Luiseño, a Structural Analysis IV: Appendices

Previous articleNext article No AccessLuiseño, a Structural Analysis IV: AppendicesAndré MalécotAndré Malécot Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by International Journal of American Linguistics Volume 30, Number 3Jul., 1964 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/464781 Views: 3Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Vedic Is- ‘ To Prosper’

There is found in the Rgveda and in later mantra literature, but becoming obsolete later, a root noun is- of frequent occurrence. This is normally interpreted by Sayana as meaning ‘ food ’ (annam), and in conformity with this the modern interpreters usually render the term by ‘ nourishment’ or the like. Though this interpretation seems adequately to suit some passages, a survey of the whole material shows that this is too narrow a sphere of meaning to apply to the word in all its contexts. The central meaning is ‘ thriving, flourishing, prospering, prosperity’. This may apply to that thriving which results from adequate nourishment, to that nourishment itself, or to the force inherent in it. But it may also refer, and more frequently does, to men's thriving in economic, material, or social position, to the possession of riches necessary to maintain this status, and to the riches themselves. It also applies to the fructifying influence of rain or river-water necessary for the maintenance of life.