Parts-of-speech systems and dependent clauses: A typological study
-
Eva van Lier
Abstract
This paper investigates the degree of parallelism between the distribution of parts-of-speech classes in a language, and the distribution of dependent clause types in that language. It is hypothesized that languages with parts-of-speech classes that are specialized for a certain syntactic function have dependent clause types that are also confined to a single function. Conversely, in languages with a class of lexical items that is not specialized for a single function, but can rather be used in two or more functions, the same functional flexibility is expected in the domain of dependent clauses. These predictions are tested on a pilot sample of 12 languages, each with a different parts-of-speech system. For languages with functionally specialized parts-of-speech classes the results are as expected: their dependent clauses are also specialized. The languages with flexible parts-of-speech systems partly support the hypothesis: as expected, they have dependent clause types that can be used in more than one function. However, the distribution of these flexible constructions is not exactly the same as the distribution of the flexible parts-of-speech classes. Furthermore, in addition to flexible dependent clause types, languages with flexible parts-of-speech systems have functionally specialized dependent clause types. The results are interpreted as indicative of the interdependency between lexical and morphosyntactic typology.
© Mouton de Gruyter – Societas Linguistica Europaea
Articles in the same Issue
- Editorial note
- Obstruent devoicing and voice assimilation in Slovene
- The value of a language
- Parts-of-speech systems and dependent clauses: A typological study
- A misconception about the Baldwin Effect: Implications for language evolution
- Esphoric the N of a(n) N-nominals: Forward bridging to an indefinite reference point
- Book Reviews
- Report on the 38th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (Valencia, 7–10 September 2005)
- 40th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea: 29 August–1 September 2007
- Index to volume 40
Articles in the same Issue
- Editorial note
- Obstruent devoicing and voice assimilation in Slovene
- The value of a language
- Parts-of-speech systems and dependent clauses: A typological study
- A misconception about the Baldwin Effect: Implications for language evolution
- Esphoric the N of a(n) N-nominals: Forward bridging to an indefinite reference point
- Book Reviews
- Report on the 38th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (Valencia, 7–10 September 2005)
- 40th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea: 29 August–1 September 2007
- Index to volume 40
