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Compounds to classifiers

Between lexical and syntactic organization in nominal structures in Morrobolam

 | University of Leuven | Australian National University
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Abstract
This study examines the relation between lexical and syntactic organization in nominal structures in Morrobolam, a Lamalamic (< Paman < Pama-Nyungan) language of northeastern Australia. The analysis focuses on compounding, which allows both left- and right-modified types, and examines how this relates to modification within the noun phrase. Left-modified compounds can be shown to form an integrated system with pre-head classifiers, with compounding as the likely origin of the partly productive system of classification. By contrast, right-modified compounds are formally and semantically distinct from modifiers to the right of the head, defining a distinct slot that most likely originates in lexicalization of syntactic modification. From a typological perspective, the synchronic analysis of the relation between compounding and classification also offers a plausible pathway for how classifier systems can emerge from compounds, and may explain why there is stronger cross-linguistic divergence in the smaller and less productive parts of such systems.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Nominal structures in Morrobolam
  • 3.Lexical organization: Compounding
    • 3.1Compound formation
    • 3.2Compound semantics
    • 3.3Non-canonical compounds: Bound roots and optional compound construal
  • 4.Syntactic organization: Generics and property nominals
    • 4.1Generics
    • 4.2Property nominals
  • 5.Between lexical and syntactic organization: Two paths
    • 5.1Generics and left-modified compounds as a unitary system in a single slot
    • 5.2Property nominals and right-modified compounds as two distinct systems
    • 5.3The challenge of recent coinages for introduced concepts
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • Glosses
  • References
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