Cover not available
Article published In:
Lexical flexibility in Oceanic languages
Edited by Eva van Lier
[Studies in Language 41:2] 2017
► pp. 294–357

The economy of word classes in Hiw, Vanuatu

Grammatically flexible, lexically rigid

| CNRS – LACITO, Paris | A.N.U., Canberra
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.
Article outline
  • 1.On lexical flexibility
  • 2.Walk on two legs: Lexical mapping, grammatical mapping
    • 2.1From lexemes to word classes, from word classes to functions
    • 2.2Lexical vs. grammatical flexibility
    • 2.3Multicategoriality vs. multifunctionality
    • 2.4Assessing lexical flexibility in Hiw
    • 2.5This study
  • 3.The main syntactic functions of Hiw
    • 3.1The clause in Hiw
    • 3.2Head of a predicate phrase
    • 3.3Modifier in a predicate phrase
      • 3.3.1Internal syntax of the predicate phrase
      • 3.3.2Contrasting adverbs and adjuncts
    • 3.4Head of an argument phrase
    • 3.5Modifier in an argument phrase
    • 3.6Adjuncts
  • 4.Defining the word classes of Hiw
    • 4.1Grammatical flexibility in Hiw
    • 4.2Verbs
      • 4.2.1Head of a predicate phrase
      • 4.2.2Modifier in a predicate phrase
      • 4.2.3Other functions
    • 4.3Adjectives
    • 4.4Numerals
    • 4.5Adverbs
    • 4.6Adjuncts
    • 4.7Nouns
      • 4.7.1Strong nouns vs weak nouns
      • 4.7.2Syntactic analysis
      • 4.7.3Semantic definition of the two classes
      • 4.7.4Gender classifiers
      • 4.7.5Modifiers in an argument phrase
        • 4.7.5.1Weak nouns
        • 4.7.5.2Strong nouns
      • 4.7.6Head of direct predicate
      • 4.7.7Head of a tam predicate
        • 4.7.7.1Strong nouns
        • 4.7.7.2Weak nouns
      • 4.7.8Summary: nouns
  • 5.Multicategoriality in Hiw
    • 5.1Noun–Verb hybrids
      • 5.1.1Presentation of noun–verb hybrids
      • 5.1.2Hybrid lexemes vs. nominalising derivation
      • 5.1.3The limits of lexical flexibility
    • 5.2Noun–locative hybrids
  • 6.Cross-linguistic prospects
    • 6.1Analysing each language on its own grounds
    • 6.2A unified method for assessing lexical flexibility
      • 6.2.1Selecting relevant syntactic functions
      • 6.2.2Identifying word classes
      • 6.2.3Multifunctionality: From word classes to functions
      • 6.2.4Multicategoriality: from lexemes to word classes
    • 6.3Language comparison and quantification
      • 6.3.1A metric for multifunctionality
      • 6.3.2A metric for grammatical flexibility
      • 6.3.3A note on Tahitian
      • 6.3.4A metric for multicategoriality
  • 7.Conclusion: Lexically rigid, grammatically flexible
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • Hiw orthography
  • References
Published online: 5 October 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.41.2.03fra
References
Abney, Steven Paul
1987 The English noun phrase in its sentential aspect. Doctoral dissertation. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Académie Tahitienne
1999 Dictionnaire Tahitien-Français – Fa’atoro Parau Tahiti-Fārani. Papeete: Fare Vāna’a. (online: [URL])
Aikhenvald, Alexandra
1999 Serial constructions and verb compounding. Evidence from Tariana (North Arawak). Studies in Language 23 (3), 471–497. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006a Serial verb constructions in a typological perspective. In Dixon & Aikhenvald (eds.), 1–87.Google Scholar
2006b Serial verb constructions in Tariana. In Dixon & Aikhenvald (eds.), 178–201.Google Scholar
Ameka, Felix K.; Alan Dench & Nicholas Evans
(eds.) 2006 Catching Language: The Standing Challenge of Grammar Writing. (Trends in linguistics studies and monographs, 167.) Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baker, Mark
1989 Object sharing and projection in serial verb constructions. Linguistic inquiry 20.41: 513–553.Google Scholar
Bauer, Laurie
1998 When is a sequence of two nouns a compound in English? English Language and Linguistics 2.01 (1998): 65–86. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Benveniste, Émile
1974 [1967] Fondements syntaxiques de la composition nominale. Problèmes de Linguistique Générale 145–162. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Boas, Franz
1911 Introduction. In Franz Boas (ed.), Handbook of American Indian Languages, 1–83. Washington, DC: Bureau of American Ethnology.Google Scholar
Bril, Isabelle & Françoise Ozanne-Rivierre
eds. Complex predicates in Oceanic languages: Studies in the dynamics of binding and boundness Empirical approaches to language typology, 29 Berlin Mouton de Gruyter DOI logo
Charpentier, Jean-Michel & Alexandre François
2015 Atlas Linguistique de la Polynésie Française – Linguistic Atlas of French Polynesia. Berlin & Papeete: Mouton de Gruyter & Université de la Polynésie Française. (online: [URL]) DOI logo
Crowley, Terry
1982 The Paamese language of Vanuatu. Pacific Linguistics, B-87. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar
2002 Serial Verbs in Oceanic: A Descriptive Typology. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dixon, Robert M. W. & Alexandra Aikhenvald
(eds.) 2006 Serial Verb Constructions: A cross-linguistic typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dryer, Matthew S.
2006 Descriptive theories, explanatory theories, and Basic Linguistic Theory. In Ameka, Dench & Evans (eds.), 207–234.Google Scholar
Durie, Mark
1997 Grammatical structures in verb serialization. In Alex Alsina, Joan Bresnan & Peters Sells (eds.), Complex predicates, 289–354. Stanford: CSLI publications.Google Scholar
Enfield, Nicholas I.
2006 Heterosemy and the grammar-lexicon trade-off. In Ameka, Dench & Evans (eds.), 1–24.Google Scholar
Evans, Nicholas & Toshiki Osada
2005 Mundari: The myth of a language without word classes. Linguistic Typology 91, 351–390.Google Scholar
Foley, William & Olson, Mike
1985 Clausehood and verb serialization. In Johanna Nichols & Anthony Woodbury (eds.), Grammar inside and outside the clause. Some approaches to theory from the field, 17–60. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
François, Alexandre
2000 Dérivation lexicale et variations d'actance: Petits arrangements avec la syntaxe. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique, xcv :1, 15–42. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2003 La sémantique du prédicat en mwotlap (Vanuatu). Collection Linguistique de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, 84. Paris, Louvain: Peeters.Google Scholar
2004 Chains of freedom: Constraints and creativity in the macro-verb strategies of Mwotlap. In Bril & Ozanne-Rivierre (eds.), 107–143.Google Scholar
2005a A typological overview of Mwotlap, an Oceanic language of Vanuatu. Linguistic Typology 9–1, 115–146.Google Scholar
2005b Diversité des prédicats non verbaux dans quelques langues océaniennes. In Jacques François & Irmtraud Behr (eds.), Les constituants prédicatifs et la diversité des langues: Actes de la Journée de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, 179–197. Louvain: Peeters.Google Scholar
2006 Serial verb constructions in Mwotlap. In Dixon & Aikhenvald (eds.), 223–238.Google Scholar
2009 Verbal number and Suppletion in Hiw. Paper presented at 11·ical, Eleventh International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, Paris, June 2009. ([URL])
2010a Phonotactics and the prestopped velar lateral of Hiw: Resolving the ambiguity of a complex segment. Phonology 271, 393–434. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010b Pragmatic demotion and clause dependency: On two atypical subordinating strategies in Lo Toga and Hiw (Torres, Vanuatu). In Isabelle Bril (ed.), Clause hierarchy and Clause linking: the Syntax and pragmatics interface, 499–548. Amsterdam, New York: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 Social ecology and language history in the northern Vanuatu linkage: A tale of divergence and convergence. Journal of Historical Linguistics 11, 175–246. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2141, 85–110.Google Scholar
2013 Shadows of bygone lives: The histories of spiritual words in northern Vanuatu. In Robert Mailhammer (ed.). Lexical and structural etymology: Beyond word histories. Studies in Language Change, 111. Berlin: DeGruyter Mouton, 185–244. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014a Trees, Waves and Linkages: Models of Language Diversification. In Claire Bowern & Bethwyn Evans (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics. New York: Routledge, 161–189.Google Scholar
2014b The morphology of object marking in Hiw. Paper read at 7th Austronesian and Papuan Languages and Linguistics (APLL7), School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London.
2015 The ins and outs of up and down: Disentangling the nine geocentric space systems of Torres and Banks languages. In The Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity, ed. by A. François, S. Lacrampe, M. Franjieh & S. Schnell. (Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia, 5.) Canberra: Asia Pacific Linguistics Open Access. 137–195.Google Scholar
in prep. A grammar of Hiw, Vanuatu. Unpublished ms.
Haspelmath, Martin
2007 Pre-established categories don't exist: Cnsequences for language description and typology. Linguistic Typology 111, 119–132. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 Comparative concepts and descriptive categories in cross-linguistic studies. Language 86 (3): 663–687. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 How to compare major word classes across the world’s languages. In T. Graf, D. Paperno, A. Szabolcsi & J. Tellings (eds), Theories of everything: In honor of Edward Keenan. UCLA Working Papers in Linguistics, 171: 109–130.Google Scholar
2015 Framework-free grammatical theory. In Heine, Bernd & Heiko Narrog, eds. The Oxford handbook of linguistic analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 287–310.Google Scholar
Hengeveld, Kees
1992 Parts of speech. In Michael Fortescue, Peter Harder & Lars Kristoffersen (eds.), Layered structure and reference in a functional perspective (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series 23). Amsterdam: Benjamins. 29–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hengeveld, Kees & Eva van Lier
2010 An implicational map of parts of speech. Linguistic Discovery, 8 (1), 129–156. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Launey, Michel
1994 Une grammaire omniprédicative: Essai sur la morphosyntaxe du nahuatl classique. Sciences du Langage, Paris: CNRS.Google Scholar
Lazard, Gilbert & Louise Peltzer
2000 Structure de la langue tahitienne. (Langues et Cultures du Pacifique 15) Société d'études linguistiques et anthropologiques de France 391. Paris, Louvain: Peeters.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Christian
2008 Roots, stems and word classes. Studies in Language 32.31: 546–567. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lemaréchal, Alain
1989 Les parties du discours, Syntaxe et sémantique. Linguistique Nouvelle. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
1994 Désignation et dénomination : Superparties du discours et parties du discours. In Louis Basset & Marcel Pérennec (eds.), Les classes de mots: traditions et perspectives. Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon. 149–168.Google Scholar
Letuchiy, Alexander
2009 Towards a typology of labile verbs: Lability vs. derivation. In Patience Epps & Alexandre Arkhipov (eds.), New challenges in typology: Transcending the borders and refining the distinctions, 247–268. Berlin: Mouton deGruyter.Google Scholar
Lichtenberk, Frantisek
1991 Semantic change and heterosemy in grammaticalization. Language 67 (3): 475–509. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Nordlinger, Rachel & Louisa Sadler
2004 Nominal tense in crosslinguistic perspective. Language 801:776–806. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paia, Mirose & Jacques Vernaudon
2004 Complex predicates in Tahitian: A particular case of qualitative modification. In Bril & Ozanne-Rivierre (eds.), 251–262.Google Scholar
Radford, Andrew
1997 Syntax: A minimalist introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ryder, Mary Ellen
1994 Ordered chaos: The interpretation of English noun-noun compounds. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Saussure, Ferdinand de
1972 [1916] Cours de linguistique générale. Edited and presented by Tullio de Mauro, Paris: Payot.Google Scholar
Tesnière, Lucien
1959 Éléments de syntaxe structurale. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Verhaar, John W. M.
1984 The Categorial System in Contemporary Indonesian: Verbs. In K. Purwo (ed.), Towards a Description of Contemporary Indonesian: Part I, 27–64. Jakarta: NUSA, Universitas Atma Jaya.Google Scholar
Vernaudon, Jacques
2011 Grammaticalization of Tahitian mea ‘thing, matter’ into a stative aspect. In Claire Moyse-Faurie & Joachim Sabel (eds.), Topics in Oceanic Morphosyntax, 319–339. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. n.d. Notes sur les parties du discours en tahitien. Unpublished notes (Jan 2017) Tahiti: University of French Polynesia.Google Scholar
Vernaudon, Jacques & Bernard Rigo
2004 De la translation substantivante à la quantification: Vers une caractérisation sémantique de l'article te en tahitien. Bulletin de la Société Linguistique de Paris 991: 457–480. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Veselinova, Ljuba
2013 Verbal number and suppletion. In Matthew Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds.), The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Chapter 80 (online: [URL]).
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

François, Alexandre
2019. Verbal Number in Lo–Toga and Hiw: The Emergence of a Lexical Paradigm. Transactions of the Philological Society 117:3 ► pp. 338 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 11 november 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.