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oai:anla.uaf.edu:CE984J2003

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Title:Restricting Noun Incorporation
Contributor (author):Johns, Alana
Creator:Johns, Alana
Date:2003-01-00
Description:Ts. Restricting Noun Incorporation. ca.32pp ABSTRACT. This paper argues that the phenomenon of noun incorporation in Inuktitut derives from the fact that the particular set of verbs involved are all light verbs in the sense of verbal elements excluding the verbal root (Harley 2001). Light verbs in Inuktitut in little v Merge with a nominal complement as Root. That these elements are light verbs predicts that they are a finite class within the language with a restricted and distinct semantic range. Parallel data are found in Salish languages which also have verbal suffixes obligatorily appearing with nominals (Sapir 1911; Gerdts and Hukari 2002). Rather than adopting a grammaticalized account of the presence of these verbs (Mithun 1997, 1999), it is argued that these light verbs are members of a universally available set. Their comparative stability as a class within any one language is explained by this fact (Butt and Lahiri 2002). Thus noun incorporation in Inuktitut, its limited range of verbs, and its obligatory nature are all explained readily under a light verb account. This analysis also provides insight into light verbs as a verb class crosslinguistically, as the delineation of the class in Inuktitut is quite robust. Citation: University of Toronto
Format:application/pdf
Subject:grammatical
Type (DCMI):Text

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Archive:  Alaska Native Language Archive
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OaiIdentifier:  oai:anla.uaf.edu:CE984J2003
DateStamp:  2014-08-27
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Citation: Johns, Alana. 2003-01-00. Alaska Native Language Archive.
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