Cagliari, Italy  15-18 September 2003

ALT V Conference

Andrej L. Malchukov

Towards a typology of transcategorial operations.
A.Malchukov@let.kun.nl
(malchukov@peterlink.ru)

 

The paper addresses the question, if there is any way to predict what features are more readily acquired/lost in transcategorial processes (such as nominalizations and verbalizations)? In my opinion, such predictions can be based on semantic hierarchies of nominal and verbal categories, as proposed in typological literature (cf. Bybee 1985; van Valin &  Foley 1984) and reflected in the layered representation of clause and NP in the Functional Grammar tradition (cf. Hengeveld 1989; Dik 1989; Rijkhoff 1992). The hierarchy of verbal categories is presented in  (1) and the hierarchy of nominal categories in (2):

(1)       [[[[[V]VAL]TAM]AGR]IF]

(2)       [[[[[N]CL]NB]POS]DET]

My basic hypothesis is that outermost layers are more readily affected by transcategorial operations (i.e. acquired/lost ) as compared with the inner layers. This has, of course, a functional motivation: outermost operators reflect the pragmatic function of a given lexical item more directly. Given these assumptions we can set up the following generalized hierarchy of nominalization processes:

(3)       [[[[[N]CL]NB]POS]DET]

<-----------------------------[[[[[V]VAL]TAM]AGR]IF]

nominalization                  <------------------------------

                                                   deverbalization

The hierarchy in (3) is intended to constraint the possible resultant sets of (nominal and verbal) categories exhibited by nominalized forms by disallowing discontinuous strings on the scale. The paper presents cross-linguistic evidence in support of this hypothesis, as well as relates it to the findings of B. Comrie and S. Thompson (1985), L. Mackenzie (1987), W. Croft (1991), M. Koptjevskaja-Tamm (1993) and most recently S. Cristofaro (2002). More generally, it  seeks to demonstrate how functional and structural factors conspire to determine the possible outputs of transcategorial operations.

References

Bybee, J. 1985. Morphology: a study of the relation between meaning and form. Amsterdam: John Benjamins

Comrie, B. & S. Thompson 1985. "Lexical nominalizations" In: Th. Shopen (ed.) Language typology and syntactic description. Vol. III. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Cristofaro, Sonia 2002. Subordination. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Croft, William 1991. Syntactic categories and grammatical relations: The cognitive organization of information. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Dik, S. 1989. The theory of functional grammar. Dordrecht:Foris.

Foley, W.A. & van Valin, R.D. 1984. Functional syntax and universal grammar. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Hengeveld, Kees 1989. "Layers and operators in functional grammar"//Journal of linguistics, 25.1.

Koptjevskaja-Tamm, M. 1993. Nominalizations. London:Routledge

Mackenzie, Lachlan 1987. "Nominalization and basic constituent ordering." In: Johan van der Auwera & Louis Goossens (eds.).Ins and outs of the predication, Dordrecht: Foris.

Rijkhoff, J. 1992. The noun phrase  a typological study of its form and function. Dissertation. University of Amsterdam.