The Thaayorre lexicon of putting and taking
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Alice Gaby
Abstract
This paper investigates the lexical semantics and relative distributions of verbs describing putting and taking events in Kuuk Thaayorre, a Pama-Nyungan language of Cape York (Australia). Thaayorre put/take verbs can be subcategorised according to whether they may combine with an NP encoding a goal, an NP encoding a source, or both. Goal NPs are far more frequent in natural discourse: initial analysis shows 85% of goal-oriented verb tokens to be accompanied by a goal NP, while only 31% of source-oriented verb tokens were accompanied by a source. This finding adds weight to Ikegami’s (1987) assertion of the conceptual primacy of goals over sources, reflected in a cross-linguistic dissymmetry whereby goal-marking is less marked and more widely used than source-marking.
Abstract
This paper investigates the lexical semantics and relative distributions of verbs describing putting and taking events in Kuuk Thaayorre, a Pama-Nyungan language of Cape York (Australia). Thaayorre put/take verbs can be subcategorised according to whether they may combine with an NP encoding a goal, an NP encoding a source, or both. Goal NPs are far more frequent in natural discourse: initial analysis shows 85% of goal-oriented verb tokens to be accompanied by a goal NP, while only 31% of source-oriented verb tokens were accompanied by a source. This finding adds weight to Ikegami’s (1987) assertion of the conceptual primacy of goals over sources, reflected in a cross-linguistic dissymmetry whereby goal-marking is less marked and more widely used than source-marking.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors ix
- Preface xi
- Putting and taking events 1
-
Part I. Lexical semantics
- The linguistic encoding of placement and removal events in Jahai 21
- “She from bookshelf take-descend-come the box” 37
- To ‘put’ or to ‘take’? 55
- The encoding of placement and removal events in ǂĀkhoe Haiǁom 79
- The semantics of placement and removal predicates in Moroccan Arabic 99
- Placement and removal events in Basque and Spanish 123
- On the use of PUT Verbs by multilingual speakers of Romansh 145
- Probing the linguistic encoding of placement and removal events in Swedish 167
- The semantic role of agentive control in Hungarian placement events 183
- Putting and Taking in Tamil and Hindi 201
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Part II. (A)symmetries in encoding placement vs. removal events
- The Thaayorre lexicon of putting and taking 233
- The expression of ‘putting’ and ‘taking’ events in Japanese 253
- Put and Take in Yélî Dnye, the Papuan language of Rossel Island 273
- Take it up, down, and away 297
- Semantic granularity of placement and removal expressions in Polish 327
- How to put and take in Kalasha 349
- Language index 367
- Subject index 369
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors ix
- Preface xi
- Putting and taking events 1
-
Part I. Lexical semantics
- The linguistic encoding of placement and removal events in Jahai 21
- “She from bookshelf take-descend-come the box” 37
- To ‘put’ or to ‘take’? 55
- The encoding of placement and removal events in ǂĀkhoe Haiǁom 79
- The semantics of placement and removal predicates in Moroccan Arabic 99
- Placement and removal events in Basque and Spanish 123
- On the use of PUT Verbs by multilingual speakers of Romansh 145
- Probing the linguistic encoding of placement and removal events in Swedish 167
- The semantic role of agentive control in Hungarian placement events 183
- Putting and Taking in Tamil and Hindi 201
-
Part II. (A)symmetries in encoding placement vs. removal events
- The Thaayorre lexicon of putting and taking 233
- The expression of ‘putting’ and ‘taking’ events in Japanese 253
- Put and Take in Yélî Dnye, the Papuan language of Rossel Island 273
- Take it up, down, and away 297
- Semantic granularity of placement and removal expressions in Polish 327
- How to put and take in Kalasha 349
- Language index 367
- Subject index 369
