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Semantic variation and the grammar of property concepts| old_uid | 11378 |
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| title | Semantic variation and the grammar of property concepts |
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| start_date | 2012/05/14 |
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| schedule | 10h-12h |
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| online | no |
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| summary | This paperdiscusses the effects of semantic variation in the meaning of property concept(PC) terms (Dixon 1982) on the grammar of predicative and comparative constructions.We demonstrate that, in a range of unrelated and less well-studied languages inwhich PC terms are not adjectival, such constructions systematically surfacewith possessive morphology/syntax. This pattern, which we refer to as "possessive strategiesof predication", is argued to reflect a semantics of "property possession",which is necessitated by the lexical semantics of the participating PC terms. Asemantic theory for possessive strategies is developed, and a compositionalanalysis of the relevant constructions is presented for an example language(Ulwa, an endangered Misumalpan language of Nicaragua). This theory is thenused to address an outstanding issue in the study of PC constructions, namely, thenature of the derivational relationships between the components of predicativeand comparative constructions: the PC term, the positive form, and thecomparative form. It is argued that the range of possible overt morphosyntacticderivational relations can and should be viewed as directly reflecting semanticcomposition, the possible directions of which in turn depend completely on lexicalizationfacts. |
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| responsibles | Soare, Ferret |
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