Nominal compounds in Mapudungun
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Fernando Zúñiga
Abstract
It is perhaps unsurprising that the rich agglutinative-polysynthetic verb morphology of Mapudungun has drawn most attention in linguistic studies. So far unnoticed in the literature are Mapudungun complex noun phrases, which show a puzzling distribution in terms of the internal structure they display. Some complex NPs are head-final (mapu-che ‘people of the land’). Others are head-initial, and of these a subset appears to be less lexicalized. In some cases, all three possibilities are found with the same components: mamüll-che ‘wood people’, che-mamüll ‘people made of wood’, and che mamüll ‘wood-like people’. The present paper reviews the comparatively modest literature on these phenomena, deals with them in an account based on semantic factors, and places them in a broader typological context. Keywords: Mapudungun; nominal compound; head-final; head-initial, nonhead; complex noun phrases; modification; subordination
Abstract
It is perhaps unsurprising that the rich agglutinative-polysynthetic verb morphology of Mapudungun has drawn most attention in linguistic studies. So far unnoticed in the literature are Mapudungun complex noun phrases, which show a puzzling distribution in terms of the internal structure they display. Some complex NPs are head-final (mapu-che ‘people of the land’). Others are head-initial, and of these a subset appears to be less lexicalized. In some cases, all three possibilities are found with the same components: mamüll-che ‘wood people’, che-mamüll ‘people made of wood’, and che mamüll ‘wood-like people’. The present paper reviews the comparatively modest literature on these phenomena, deals with them in an account based on semantic factors, and places them in a broader typological context. Keywords: Mapudungun; nominal compound; head-final; head-initial, nonhead; complex noun phrases; modification; subordination
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction and acknowledgments 1
- Nominal compounds in Mapudungun 11
- Towards a characterization of compounding in Maká 33
- Augmentative in Toba (Guaycuruan) 51
- Productive compounding in Baure (Arawakan) 79
- Two types of incorporation in Ese Ejja (Takanan) 113
- Reduplication in Yurakaré 143
- Reduplication strategies in Kallawaya 163
- Compounding in Kalapalo, a Southern Cariban language 181
- Nominalization in Cholón 207
- Index 225
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction and acknowledgments 1
- Nominal compounds in Mapudungun 11
- Towards a characterization of compounding in Maká 33
- Augmentative in Toba (Guaycuruan) 51
- Productive compounding in Baure (Arawakan) 79
- Two types of incorporation in Ese Ejja (Takanan) 113
- Reduplication in Yurakaré 143
- Reduplication strategies in Kallawaya 163
- Compounding in Kalapalo, a Southern Cariban language 181
- Nominalization in Cholón 207
- Index 225
