Nonsyntactic ordering effects in noun incorporation
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Abstract
Despite the importance of ordering phenomena in typology and the visibility of Baker's analysis (1988, 1996) of noun incorporation in generative syntax, his prediction (1996: 25–30) that in syntactic incorporation the incorporated noun will always precede the verb root has yet to be tested typologically. Here we fill this gap and survey the known cases of object noun incorporation. The predicted order proves to be strongly preferred crosslinguistically and warrants recognition as a strong statistical universal. However, it is strongest in unproductive and fossilized contexts, the opposite of what is expected if the position of the incorporated noun is determined solely by principles of syntactic movement. The universal must therefore be nonsyntactic, perhaps morphological, in nature and appears to involve a preferred position for heads and/or for noun and verb roots within words. The same principle also shapes other noun-verb combinations in addition to noun incorporation.
©Walter de Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Adjectives in Thai: Implications for a functionalist typology of word classes
- Nonsyntactic ordering effects in noun incorporation
- Complexities with restricted numeral systems
- A typological overview of Emerillon, a Tupí-Guaraní language from French Guiana
- Book Reviews
- Contents of Linguistic Typology Volume 12 (2008)
Articles in the same Issue
- Adjectives in Thai: Implications for a functionalist typology of word classes
- Nonsyntactic ordering effects in noun incorporation
- Complexities with restricted numeral systems
- A typological overview of Emerillon, a Tupí-Guaraní language from French Guiana
- Book Reviews
- Contents of Linguistic Typology Volume 12 (2008)
