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Grammatical name marking in Chamorro

  • Thomas Stolz EMAIL logo and Nataliya Levkovych EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: November 28, 2024

Abstract

Chamorro illustrates how Special Onymic Grammar can be shaped in a given language. It is shown that the rules that determine the morphosyntactic behaviour of common nouns cannot be generalized over onyms. Anthroponyms and toponyms differ markedly from common nouns within the NP and beyond. In addition, there are also structural differences that separate anthroponyms from toponyms so that it makes sense to speak of Special Anthroponymic Grammar as opposed to Special Toponymic Grammar. These differences come to the fore in the domain of pre-nominal markers, the formal distinction of cases, case government in PPs, and the functions of zero-marking. It is shown that the latter phenomenon is prominent with toponyms in journalistic prose where zero-marking competes with the use of the phonologically realized toponymic marker. On the basis of the Chamorro facts, topics for follow-up studies are put forward.


Corresponding authors: Thomas Stolz and Nataliya Levkovych, Department of Linguistics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany, E-mail: (T. Stolz), (N. Levkovych)
Dedicated to the memory of the late Johannes Helmbrecht.

Acknowledgments

This study forms part of the research activities conducted within the project Morpho-syntactic typology of place names (TypTop) financed from March 2023 until March 2026 by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (grant number: STO 186/27-1, 516330900). Earlier versions of this paper were presented as talks on occasion of the workshop Text matters: looking (far) beyond German, 13 May, 2022 in Bremen/Germany and the 28th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences (ICOS), 19–23 August, 2024 in Helsinki/Finland. We are grateful to our audiences for their thought-provoking comments. We are equally grateful to Kevin Behrens, Julia Nintemann, and Maike Vorholt for reading and commenting upon the draft version of this article. It almost goes without saying that we authors assume the sole responsibility for any remaining shortcomings in form and content.

Abbreviations

1/2/3

1st/2nd/3rd person

abs

absolutive

advp

adverbial (phrase)

agt

agent

anth

anthroponym(ic marker)

antip

antipassive

appl

applicative

appos

apposition

ben

benefactive

caus

causative

com

comitative

cont

continuative

coord

coordination

cplm

complement

dct

direct case

def

definite

dem

demonstrative

dir

directional

dist

distal

erg

ergative

excl

exclusive

exist

existential

foc

focus

fut

future

G

Guam variety

gen

genitive

incl

inclusive

indef

indefinite

inf

infinitive

ins

instrumental

interr

interrogative

ints

intensive

lk

linker

loc

locative

n

noun

neg

negation

NP

noun phrase

npl

non-plural

nr

nominalizer

obl

oblique

oblig

obligation

pass

passive

pat

patient

pl

plural

poss

possessive

PP

prepositional phrase

prog

progressive

pred

predicative

prep

preposition

proh

prohibitive

prox

proximal

pst

past

rel

relativizer

S

Saipan variety

SAG

Special Anthroponymic Grammar

sbj

subject

sg

singular

SOG

Special Onymic Grammar

sr

subordinator

STG

Special Toponymic Grammar

topo

toponym(ic marker)

vp

verb phrase

x

general variable

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Published Online: 2024-11-28
Published in Print: 2024-11-26

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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