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Lexical Polycategoriality: Cross-linguistic, cross-theoretical and language acquisition approaches
Edited by Valentina Vapnarsky and Edy Veneziano
[Studies in Language Companion Series 182] 2017
► pp. 35–57

The flexibility of the noun/verb distinction in the lexicon of Mandinka

| Université Lumière (Lyon 2)

In Mandinka, a Mande language, it is easy to identify words fulfilling the function of verbal head of a clause or nominal head of a noun phrase, but the division of lexemes into a class of nominal lexemes and a class of verbal lexemes is problematic, due to their categorial flexibility. This article argues that three major classes or lexemes must be distinguished: verbal lexemes (whose nominal use is fully predictable and can conveniently be analyzed as morphologically unmarked nominalization), nominal lexemes (whose verbal use is limited to the expression of ‘provide someone with X’), and verbo-nominal lexemes (whose nominal and verbal uses are equally productive, and at the same time cannot be related to each other by any general rule).

Keywords: mandinka, noun/verb distinction, unmarked nominalization, verbo-nominal lexemes
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The basics of Mandinka morphosyntax
    • 2.1Clause structure
      • 2.1.1The prototypical transitive construction
      • 2.1.2Intransitive predication
      • 2.1.3Intransitive alignment, and the notions of subject and object
      • 2.1.4Constraints on transitivity, passive and antipassive
    • 2.2NP structure
  • 3.Nouns vs. verbs in the lexicon of Mandinka: Introductory remarks
  • 4.Verbal lexemes
  • 5.Verbo-nominal lexemes
  • 6.The semantics of verbo-nominal lexemes
    • 6.1Semantic types of verbo-nominal lexemes
    • 6.2Verbo-nominal lexemes and identificational predication
    • 6.3Categorial flexibility and polysemy
  • 7.Nominal lexemes marginally used as verbs
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.182.02cre
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