Lao separation verbs and the logic of linguistic event categorization
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N. J Enfield
Abstract
While there are infinite conceivable events of material separation, those actually encoded in the conventions of a given language's verb semantics number only a few. Furthermore, there appear to be crosslinguistic parallels in the native verbal analysis of this conceptual domain. What are the operative distinctions, and why these? This article analyses a key subset of the bivalent (transitive) verbs of cutting and breaking in Lao. I present a decompositional analysis of the verbs glossed ‘cut (off)’, ‘cut.into.with.placed.blade’, ‘cut.into.with.moving.blade’, and ‘snap’, pursuing the idea that the attested combinations of sub-events have a natural logic to them. Consideration of the nature of linguistic categories, as distinct from categories in general, suggests that the attested distinctions must have ethnographic and social interactional significance, raising new lines of research for cognitive semantics.
© Walter de Gruyter
Artikel in diesem Heft
- The semantic categories of cutting and breaking events: A crosslinguistic perspective
- Morpholexical Transparency and the argument structure of verbs of cutting and breaking
- How similar are semantic categories in closely related languages? A comparison of cutting and breaking in four Germanic languages
- Cutting, breaking, and tearing verbs in Hindi and Tamil
- Cut and break verbs in Yélî Dnye, the Papuan language of Rossel Island
- ‘Chop, shred, snap apart’: Verbs of cutting and breaking in Lowland Chontal
- Cut and break verbs in Sranan
- Cut and break verbs in Ewe and the causative alternation construction
- ‘Smash it again, Sam’: Verbs of cutting and breaking in Jalonke
- Describing cutting and breaking events in Kuuk Thaayorre
- ‘He cut-break the rope’: Encoding and categorizing cutting and breaking events in Mandarin
- Lao separation verbs and the logic of linguistic event categorization
- ‘Please open the fish’: Verbs of separation in Tidore, a Papuan language of Eastern Indonesia
- Cutting and breaking verbs in Otomi: An example of lexical specification
- ‘She had just cut/broken off her head’: Cutting and breaking verbs in Tzeltal
- Semantic categories of cutting and breaking: Some final thoughts
Artikel in diesem Heft
- The semantic categories of cutting and breaking events: A crosslinguistic perspective
- Morpholexical Transparency and the argument structure of verbs of cutting and breaking
- How similar are semantic categories in closely related languages? A comparison of cutting and breaking in four Germanic languages
- Cutting, breaking, and tearing verbs in Hindi and Tamil
- Cut and break verbs in Yélî Dnye, the Papuan language of Rossel Island
- ‘Chop, shred, snap apart’: Verbs of cutting and breaking in Lowland Chontal
- Cut and break verbs in Sranan
- Cut and break verbs in Ewe and the causative alternation construction
- ‘Smash it again, Sam’: Verbs of cutting and breaking in Jalonke
- Describing cutting and breaking events in Kuuk Thaayorre
- ‘He cut-break the rope’: Encoding and categorizing cutting and breaking events in Mandarin
- Lao separation verbs and the logic of linguistic event categorization
- ‘Please open the fish’: Verbs of separation in Tidore, a Papuan language of Eastern Indonesia
- Cutting and breaking verbs in Otomi: An example of lexical specification
- ‘She had just cut/broken off her head’: Cutting and breaking verbs in Tzeltal
- Semantic categories of cutting and breaking: Some final thoughts
