（千葉大学ユーラシア言語文化論集６，2003）
1.
Problems
A set of interesting works have been
recently published which throw light to the old discussion about Nivkh
incorporation fifty years ago as well as to the theoretical problems on
incorporation and polysynthesis. In this paper, I wish to find some plausible
answers to the following questions:
(i)
The old discussion about Nivkh incorporation has not been yet settled conclusively.
The recent argument on incorporation will help us to bring it to a conclusion in favor
of Panfilov’s view that it is not an incorporative language.
(ii)
It is often assumed that incorporation is a typical feature of polysynthetic
languages. But we have at least a counter example, namely, the languageItelmen. This fact
causes us to suppose that the grammatical techniques of incorporation and polysynthesis work
somehow differently, although they make use of the common device for concatenation of affixized
elements around
the verb stem.
(iii)
In the theoretical discussion about incorporation in recent years, it has
been often claimed that a single lexical category is affixed to the verbal head.
But we have a set of examples of Ainu and Chukchee which show that not only affixed nouns, but also a phrase
can be incorporated.
This fact is related to the theoretical understanding of the notion in
general as well as to Panfilov’s typological supposition on that Nivkh.
(iv) The syntactic interepretation of incorporation proposes to derive
incorporative structure from a certain “underlying” structure via transformation Move-α.
It has been recently developed into a new version which is characterized by the theory of parametric conditions
to derive polysynthetic and incorporative structures from a universal configuration.
The theory contains important
observations, but it stands yet on the basis of problematic idea that
incorporative structure is derived transformationally from a universal
configuration.
(v) Incorporation can not be often differentiated from composition. But
the
affixation to a nominal head can not be regarded as incorporation because of its
less restricted concatenation of the components as well as of possible semantic
variation of compound words. But composition is an indispensable grammatical
technique which any language utilize of to make a complex word regardless of
word class distinction. Therefore, it is surely wrong to reduce composition
into
incorporation and vice versa. Crucial is to distinguish their functions.
2.
Discussion on Nivkh Incorporation
In the middle of the last century there was a series of discussion on
the topic whether Nivkh has incorporation or it has to be regarded as an
agglutinative language. The discussions were held mainly in the Leningrad
branch of the Linguistic Department of the Soviet Academy of Sciences,
especially between the linguists E.A.Krejnovich and V.Z.Panfilov, who are both
most prominent nivkhlogists until today.
2.1.
Krejnoivch for Incorporation
Krejnovich asserts that Nivkh is an
incorporative language, since incorporation is visible in the concatenations of
nominal modification and the structure of direct complements of transitive
verbs and, in both cases, it is morpho-phonologically marked by the consonant
alternation. First, obverse the
following examples (Krejnovich 1966,48,):
(1) a. ranr urgur rod’
sister-ABS well(ADV) help-AORIST/INF
(the sister helped well)
b. «t«k urgur ph-ranr _tod'
father-ABS self-sister-ABS help-AORIST/INF
(father helped well
own-sister)
According him, tod’ has allomorphs rod'/dod' and ” =” indicates
incorporation .
In the examples above, the phonological
circumstance of the transitive verb rod’/tod’
is identical in both cases, namely, directly after r. When an adverb precedes it (1a), the initial consonant of the
verb remains r-. But in the second
case (1b), when the direct complement preceds the verb directly, the initial
consonant of the verb changes into t-. He
ascribed this phonological change to the incorporation of the direct complement
into the transitive verb, because this progressive consonant change indicates a
tight combination of morphemes just like in the case marking by a suffix (2a)
in the following examples (Krejnovich 1958, 30):
(2) a. attachment of a case marker:
i) n' _«t«k _roX
my father-STEM to-DATIVE
(to my father)
ii) n' _nanX _toX
(to my eder brother)
iii) n' _oåla
_doX
(to my child)
b. nominal modification
i) n' 2«t«k _r«f
my father-STEM house
(my father’s house)
ii) n' 2nanX 2t«f
(my eder brother’
house)
iii) n' =oåla =d«f
(my child’s house)
c. direct complement + transitive verb
i) n' 2«t«k 2rod'
my father-STEM help-AORIST/INF
(to help my father)
ii) n' 2nanX =tod'
(to help my elder
brother)
iii) n' =oåla =dod'
(to help my child)
With these examples, he proposed the
following hypotheses:
[K1] The three types of concatenations in (2)
are equivalently tight because the initial consonant of the last morphemes /r-
‾ t- ‾ d-/ changes in the same circumstances /-k__, ‾ -X__, ‾ -a__/ in
the same way. That is, both nominal modification and transitive complement
structure make a tight construct just like the suffixation of a case marker.
From this fact, Kejnovich follows that the constituents in (2b) and (2c) are
incorporated into a word-like unity like (2a).
This assumption of Krejnovich was the
basis for the whole discussion in Soviet Academy at that time. The crucial
point was the question whether the consonant alternation indicates the
incorporative combination of morphemes or it has to be regarded only as a
phonological phenomenon like sandhi. Krejnovich stoods on the first view point,
and the second view point was asserted by Panfilov.
[K2] The examples in (2) include three sets of allomorphs for each morpheme.
(3) a. sufix: {-roX: -toX: -doX}
b. noun: {r«f: t«f: d«f}
c. trsansitive verb: {rod': tod': dod'}
Here, the question arises which one of
the allomorphs in each set is “original”, i.e. the lexical from. The
representative dictionary of this language, Sovel’va/Taksami
1976, chooses the forms {-roX, t«f, rod'} for the lexical representation, respectively. They are right in
that these forms appear in a neutral position where no consonant alternation
can occur, typically in the context: [-nasals__], e.g. qhan-roX (to the dog), n’ oqon t«f (the house of my financé), n’
oqon rod' (to help
my financé).
Krejnovich showed later (Krejnovich 1960)
the idea that Nivkh has fundamentaly two types of forms, free and bound forms.
The formers are used as lexical representations, while the latters appears in
the context of tight concatenation of words, i.e. in his incorporative
structures.
[K3] The consonant alternation occurs in the same way in case of suffixes, nouns and verbs; the consonant (-)r- , e.g. changes in the different phonological context in the same way as follows:
(4) a. suffix {-roX}: -r- → -r- /-k__, -r- → -t- /-X__, -r- → -d- /-a__
b. noun {ruv}:
r- → r-
/-k__, r- → t- /-X__. ?
c. transitve verb {rod'}: r- → r- /-k__, r- → t- /-X__, r-→d- /-a__
This phenomenon supports both Krejnovich
and Panfilov. But their interepretation was different: in this same fact,
Krejnovich saw incorporation, but Panfilov, on the contrary, sandhi.
2.2.
Panfilov against Incorporation Theory
Panfilov did
not agree with the incorporation theory of Krejnovich. He pointed out crucial
negative evidences as follows:
[P1] Incorporative concatenation is marked by some phonological rule, e.g. vowel harmony, and the consonant alternation can be a good candidate for the marker. However, that of Nivkh involves only plosives and fricatives of the initial consonant in contact. This is surely a remarkable phonological phenomenon, but insufficient to indicate such a important grammatical relation like incoroporation. He formulated the morphophonological rules of the alternation in (Panfilov 1954), which is more detailed than that of (Krejnovich 1958). But according to Panfilov, these rules are applied purely as sandhi rules and, therefore, are indifferent to any grammatical relation.
[P2] Panfilov’s second argument is related to the grammatical status of the modifier and complement. He thinks that they are not bound forms, but free forms. In the follwing examples, the nouns occur with comitative case marker which make up free forms:
(5) a. modifier with comitative marker
kheq-xo hyik-xo _zif-ku
fox-COM rabbit-COM
trace-PL
(trace of a fox and a
rabbit)
b. transitive complement
hoghat men
khu-gho pundi-gho _bo-t
vod’-ghu
then both arrow-COM bow-COM take-in-hand-PART ging-PL
(then both went with
arrow and bow in hand)
According to him, presupposed that a
combination of free forms cannot be incorporated, both nouns with comitative
marker -gho‾-xo make no
incorporation.
[P3] Panfilov assumes that, if a morpheme is incorporated, it has no overt syntactic relationship with a consitituent outside of the syntactic structure. That is, if pundi-gho (with bow) in (5b) above is incorporated with bo- (take into hand), it cannot make nominal conjunction with khu-go (with arrow). This is also the case with the following examples:
(6) a. modification of a conjunct nouns
n’ urla pila mu
(my pretty big ship)
b. complement of a conjunct nouns with adjective modifier
h« «ghmu-«rux malghola zavod-gho fabrika-gho _djesqut-had’ (Panfilov
1954,24)
this war-time-LOK
many factory-COM workshop-COM
destroyed-were
(in the war time, many
facrtories as well as workshops were destroyed)
c. adverbial modification
if lele mat’ki pXov -co _nr&«n«d'(Panfilov 1954,20)
he very small round fish find-FUTUR-FIN
(He interpreted nr&«n«d' in
past tense.)
All these cases show that it is unreasonable to regard only the last noun of modifiers or complements as an incorporated element, because the modifiers are the whole phrase urla pila in (6a) and the whole complement malghola zavod-gho fabrika-gho in (6b) and lel mat’ki pXov -co in (6c). The incorporation, if ever, has to involve whole of these phrases. From this observation, Panfikov asserts that the structures like (6) cannot be regarded as incorporation.
[P4] Panfikov remarks, too,
that in an incorporative structure, the syntactic relationship among the
components must be visible. During the whole discussion in Leningrad, this view
was presupposed as a matter of fact. And Panfilov regarded it as the
well-formedness condition for incoporative structures. But as far as the cited
examples are concerneed, the condition was satistfied in any way, because they
all shared the structure of nominal modification or direct complement. So is
the matter, too, if they are interpreted as agglutinavie. The syntactic
difference lies only in that agglutinative syntactic constituents are extracted
from the verbal complex. And the structure of Nivkh is just as such. Therefore,
any one can claim that Nivkh is an agglutinative language.
In connection with the discussion, there
is one more point to note: the direct complements of Nivkh transitive verbs
include terms which appear as dative or directive in other languages like
Russian:
(7) a. kuvy nux th«d’
(Panfilov 1960,55)
thread needle-ABS
pass-FIN
(pass a thread through
a needle)
b. n’i huxt taqu _xrod’ (Krejnovich
1958,27)
1SG robe hanger-ABS hang-FIN
(I hung a robe on a
hanger)
c. n’i t’aqo ph-«t«nk_khind’
(ibid.)
1SG knife own-brothe-ABS_gave-FIN
(I gave a knife to own
brother)
The nouns in absolute case in (7) are the
direct object of the verbs which are, therefore, transitive in this language.
[P5] Pnafilov added a semantic condition for a well-formed incorporation: the incorporated elements have to preserve their inherent meanings. They may not change the meaning like in counpound words, e.g.:
(8) a. vut’zif (iron-way= railway)
(Krejnovich 1958,31)
b. khEq-zif (fox-way) (ibid.)
c. pila-Na (long animal=snake) (ibid.)
Note that the initial constonant of the
second noun in (8a,b) changes according to the rules which are applied to
incorporative structures, too. But this supports the incorporation theory of
Krejnovich as well as the sandhi interpretation of Panfilov.
2.3.
Open Questions
The discussion on Nivkh incorporation in
Leningrad has brought, in fact, no definite conclusion. Instead, it has pointed
out many important questions to make clear the grammatical phenomenon of incorporation.
We choose here some of them:
[Q1] A well-formed incorporative strcture is subject to some syntactic conditions. In the discussions, the followings are mentioned:
(9) a. A syntactic relationship between the incorporated terms and the
head must
be visible. As in our case two types of structures, nominal modification and
direct complement, are in question, the condition is satisfied automatically.
But when a complex noun phrase is “incorporated”, we have no marking to
select an plausible interpretation as the following examples show:
(10) a. if [NP [A
lele mat’ki](&)[A pXov] co] _nr&«n«d'. (=(6c) )
b. if [NP [A
lele mat’ki][NP[A pXov] co]] _nr&«n«d'.
(9) b. The incorporated nouns are expected to be stems, namely, bound forms,
but no free forms. They may not attach any affix to indicate e.g. a number
or case marker. If this is realy the case, the following sentence is a clear
counter example againstincorporation:
(11) hoghat men [NP [WORD khu-gho]
[WORD pundi-gho]] _bo-t vod’-ghu. (=5b)
-gho: comitative case marker
(9) c. According to Panfilov [P3], a incorporated term may have no syntactic
relation with any term out of the incorporative complex. If this is true, the
whole NP in (10a) in the interpretation
(10a) if [NP [A lele mat’ki](&)[A pXov] co]
_nr&«n«d'
is not well-formed as incorporation． But, if the interpretation (10b) is
possible, it is the case of a phrase incorporation.
[Q2] The semantic well-formedness condition [P5] says that incorporated terms preserve their lexical meaning. On the contrary, composition makes a semanmtic units which do not preserve the original meaning and can have a figurative meaning. Does this mean that there are two kinds of lexical units of the same internal structures as follows?
(12) a. [WORD X _Y] making a semantic unit ⇒ composition
b. [WORD X _Y] preserving meanings of X and Y ⇒ incorporation
[Q3] The exact rules for consonant alternation of Nivkh has been not yet established. There are some proposals; among them, the rules of Panfilov 1954 is the most detailed. But his proposal leaves yet some problems open. We will point out some of them.
(13) a. The consonant alternation rules have to explain possible allomorphs.
They
must indicate which allomorph is the unmarked one, namely, the lexical
representation.
b. Panfilov formulated the rules as sandhi of Nivkh. But they do not explain
the case
(1): in (1a), the
initial consonant of the following verb r- changes into
t- when aｎ object noun preceds it (1b), but in (1a), it remains unchanged
after an adverb. Is the example (1) a crucial counter argument aginst
sandhi interpretation?
[Q4] The phonologically motivated allomorphs of transitive verbs in Nivkh bring out a special problem. Krejnovich 1966 showed the following paradigm:
(14) a.
i Ä d’ (lexical
form: kill/take)
b.
i Äu d’ (transitve
verb in aorist: killed/took)
c.
co-xu-d’ (fish killed, fish took)
d.
co-xu-nivkh (man who killed/took
fish)
The paradigm shows that
(i) “-Ä-“ and “-xu-“ are allomorphs with the meaning kill/take,
(ii) i-
in (14a,b) is exchanged with the direct complement “co” (fish)
in (14c,d) and
(iii) “-d’” (ending of a lexical form as well as the marker of aorist)
appears as the marke and can be exchanged into a noun, e.g.
“nivkh” (man) in case of nominal modification (14d).
The prefix i- has allomorphs j- and e-, perhaps according to the old vowel harmony. It causes the fricativazation of the initial consonant of transive verbs, like x-→Ä- , as in the examples above. Question is, whether the prefix is really pronominal or is it possible to explain it in a different way. Shiraishi 2002 tends to regard it as prethetic, i.e. it has no morphosyntactic function, but it is only phonologically driven.
[Q5] In comparison with Chukchee, Panfilov 1954 notes that Nivkh is difficult to regard as an incorporative language because of its non-polysynthetic structure. It has no morphematic frame which includes incorporative elements into circumfixes, e.g. for agreement markers. Moreover, Nivkh is dominant in suffixation and it has no marking to indicate where an incorporative verb complex begins, if any. According to him, Nivkh is definitely an agglutinative language, in all grammatical aspects, it is neither incorporative nor polysynthetic. But there are persistently the opinions that the language is something more complex. Mattisson 2001 is inclined to capture the language as a polysynthetic and incorporative language. In order to make this problem clear, we will observe in the next chapter how polysynthesis and incorporation interract with one another.
3.
Polysynthesis and Incorporation
It is an empirical fact that most of
polysynthetic languages utilize the morphological technique of incorporation. If the verb stem is surrounded by
affixes, especially by circumfixes indicating persons and numbers, e.g. in
Chukcchee, an incorporative structure is visible explicitely,. However,
polysynthesis is not necessarily coocurrent with incorporation. We have at
least a clear counter example against the obligatory coocurrence of them.
3.1.
Polysynthesis of Itelmen and Ket
In the last
years, there have been published two detailed grammatical descriptions of
polysynthetic
languages, namely, Volodin 1999 on Itelmen
and Werner 1997 on Ket grammar. We cite below the polysynthetic verb frames of
these languages for comparison:
(15) polysynthetic verb frame of Itelmen
|
-5・-4・-3・-2・-1・Root・1・2・3・4・5・6・7・8・9・10・11・12・13・14・15 |
where -5: mode indicators, t-/t’-,φ,n- for indicatives and m-,q-,q’-
for imperative, and k-/k’-/x- for infinitive
-4: indicator
for conjunctive k’-
-3: reciprocal prefix
lu-/lo-
-2: left part of
anti-causative (anti-passive) circumfix en-/an-,
ne-,na-
-1: prefix for
transitivazation-causation lin-/Èen-,«n-,«nt-,t-
Root
1: suffix for
derivation -te,-se/-sa,-la,-o
2: right part of
circumfix of causative/anti-passive -l,-N,-w
3:
diversion-suffix -sxen
4: suffix for an
Aktionsart -ala
5: suffix for an
Aktionsart -ata
6: suffix for an
Aktionsart -zo,-t,-st
7: indicator for
desiderative -aÈ/-a
8: detransitivization
(suffix) -/È/-φ
9: suffix for
participlization -/È/-È
10: conjunctive
indicator -k/-ka/-ke
11: infinitive
indicator -s
12: aspect suffix -qzu/-qzo/-qz/-φ
13: tense suffix, -s/-z./-φ,-al
for finite forms, -kiÈh/-kiÈh/-kia/n/
-kaÈa/n,-ki/-ka for infinitives
14: person suffix (a)
-miN,-w«nnen,-win,-en,-n,-sxen,-mi/N,-w«nne/
N,-e/n,-/n, -ne/n, -xkmiN etc.
15: person suffix (b)
-kien/-kean,-,-x,-sx,-en,-wen,-we/n,-sxe/n etc.
Of course, every element does not occur
always. But in most indicative finite sentences, the mode index -5 and a person
suffix 15 have to occur. In case of subject-object agreement, both person
suffixes 14 and 15 occur obligatorily. The shortest sentence has a verb form with
three elements, mode+root+person, e.g. xilqaq
k’-le-knen (it became cold).
Note that the complex verb form (15)
includes no position in which a incorporative elements can enter. Namely, it
excludes incorporation by its nature.
Now, compare this verb frame with that of
Ket. The following is the maximal model of the possible arrangement of verb
constituents formulated by Werner 1997:
(16)
|
14 |
13 |
12 |
11 |
10 |
9 |
8 |
7 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
-1 |
-2 |
-3 |
where 14: prefix indicating subject
(obligatory), e.g. di tA:l’
13: root 3
12: root 2
11: derivator, e.g.n-,N-
10: prefix for
causation q-/R-
9: prefix for indicating versions, e.g. direction, comitativity,
benefactivity ba-,bo-,...
8: prefix
indicating subject/object ba-bo,ku-ku,...
7: prefix for
definity t-,d-,...
6: prefix
indicating continuity t-
5: prefix for
tense a-,-,so/su-
4: prefix for
subject 2, for object/instrumental b-/m-/p-
3: prefix for
aspect n-/l-
2: prefix for
subject 1 d-/t-,..., for object 1 d-/t-...., version indicator a-,...
1: prefix for
imperative d-
0: root 1
-1: suffix indicating
derivation -N,-n
-2: plural suffix -n
-3: juncture -ka etc.
The positions 13 and 12 in the chain (16) are prescribed for roots/stems of some nominal or verbal category. They are combined with the root/stem of the head verb 0, so that the chain [R3 (13) + R2 (12) ... R1 (0)] makes the internal verb complex of the whole verb frame (16). The verbs in the position 0 are relatively few and they have wide, often abstract meanings. They belong to the socalled function verbs whose meaning become concreter when they are combined with R3 (13) + R2 (12). Krejnovich 1968 wrote in his Ket grammer that verbs in this position require incorporative counterparts R3 and R2 , so that Ket verb structure is inherently incorporative. This is especially the case with the verbs like -t in the example below:
(17) da-nan’-bet-q-(i)n-daN-et (Werner 1997, 156)
14 13 12 10 3
2 0
she-bread-bake-CAUSE-ASPECT-us-DO
(she let us bake bread)
Note that in this structure of the verb form, the incorporative elements occur in the definite positions in the chain. It is a well-known rule that a polysynthetic verb form requires a rigid ordering of internal categories. In most cases, it begins with a model and an agreement affix, then it followed by causative, passive, aspectual, temporal markers and ends with an agreement affix indicating subject/object inflection again. But here we see that, at least in this type of polysynthesis, the incorporated element is not directly attached to the head, but it occurs discontinuously in the definite preverbal position. We do not know yet why the incorporated element stands discontinuously and how this feature is related to the functional meaning of R in the position 0. We suppose merely that this polysynthetic verb frame prescribes the position of incorporated elements. Otherwise, incorporation will be impossible and the possible incorporative elements must be placed outside of the verb frame.
3.2.
Three Types of Polysynthesis
Volodin 1999 schematized the
polysynthetic verb form of Itelmen as in (18a), namely, as a chain of morphemes
in which a verbal root/stem R stands in the centre and is surrounded optionally
by affixes with various grammatical functions. As well known, all languages of
Chukoto-Kamchatka language group, Chukchee and Koryak as its representative
examples, have also polysynthetic verb structure, but they are all incorporative;
they include at least one incorporative element in a verb frame. Their
structure of the languages look like as (18b). We will add here the structural
scheme of Ket of Werner 1997.
(18) a. Itelmen:
(m) + R + (m)
b. Chukoto-Kam. languages: (m) + (r) + R + (m)
c. Ket:
(m) + (R3) + (R2) + ... + R1 + (m)
where ( ): optional, m: morpheme(s), R: root/stem, r: second root
(Volodin 1999), and R3,R2,R1 (Werner1997).
Volodin 1999 does not mention the internal structure of the second root r in (18b), e.g. in Chukchee. But Kurebito 1998 gives the intereting examples as follows:
(19) a. qora-N« g«tka-mla-g/e (=Kurebito 1998 (26a))
reindeer-ABS.SG
leg-break-3SG.SUBJ
b. qor-en g«tka-lg«n mle-g/e (=Kurebito 1998
(26b))
reindeer-POSS leg-ABS.SG
break-3SG.SUBJ
(The reindeer’s leg
was broken.)
c. epeqej
tur-k/eli-nni-g/i (=Kurebito 1998 (16a))
grandmother(ABS.SG) new-cap-stitch-3SG.SUBJ
(The grandmother
stitched me the new cap.)
In (19a) the noun
g«tka (leg) is incorporated and attached
directly to the verb. But if it modified by a possessor noun in (19b), the
complex noun qor-en g«tka-lg«n (reindeer’s leg) cannot
be incorporated, but both the possessor and the head noun are “stranded out of
NI”. But remarkably, the noun phrase tur-k/eli ([NP new [N cap]]) is incorporated in (19c). This implies that Volodin’s r in (18b) is
not a morpheme, but it can be a syntactic constituent, except for a possessive
complex noun phrase like in (19b).
Let us examine if the roots R3
and R2 in Ket can be different constitutents. In the example (17),
they are made of two words nan’-bet (bread bake), which constitute a verb
phrase [VP complement - transitive verb], namely, a syntactic
constituent. It has to be asked further, whether the R’s can be separate
constituents. Werner 1997 shows an example:
(20)
d- Ãl'taN- u- Ä- a- vet
14 13 12 8 5 0
1SG-out-drag-OBJ-DET-TENSE-MAKE
(I drag it out.)
Here, we have alternative interpretations: the adverb Ãl' and the verb root taN are governed by the verb vet independently, or rather that they constitute an infinitive verbphrase [VPinf adverb verb]. The first interpretation says that R3 and R2 are governed by R1 separately, and the latter that R3 and R2 make a syntactic constituent which is governed by R1. We can not determine now which interpretation is correct. We suppose that both are admissible, and let Werner’s R2 and R3 remain as they stand. Anyway, the condition is obvious in that R2 and R3 have to be governed by the head verb R1.
3.3.
Non-incorporative Polysynthesis
The next question is, where the syntactic
component governed by the verb does occur in an incorporative and a non-incorporative
polysynthetic structure. Let us compare some sentences of Itelmen and Chukchee
with the same syntactic structures. The following Chukchee examples are cited
from Kurebito 1998 and were translated in Itelmen by Ono Chikako together with
her native friends.
(21) a1. Chuk: «ll/a-ta ine-t-ir/-«-N-g/i
(=Kurebito 1998 (3a))
mother-INSTR(ERG) 1SG.OBJ-make-jacket-E-make-3SG.SBJ
(My mother made me a jacket.)
a2. Itel: qoxc k-ci/nNit'-in k«mmanke
lether-jacket 1SG.DAT
INF.III-stitch-3PERF 1DAT
(The
lether-jacket (she) stitched to me)
b1. Chuk: g«m-nan t-«-m«lg-ejp-«-g/en nuterg-«-n(=Kurebito 1998
(36a))
1-ERG
1SG.SUBJ-E-grass-fill-E-3SG.OBJ
hole-E-ABS.SG
(I filled the hole with grass.)
b2. Itel: lepxe mc’el k-tXnu/-in
basket rowanberry-INSTR
INF.III-fill-3PERF
((She) filled the basket with rowanberry.)
These examples show that the syntactic
arguments governed by the head verb are placed outside of the polysynthetic
verb frame in Itelmen (21a.b), while the corresponding arguments of Chukchee
are incorporated in the preverb position.
An incorporated noun is generally assumed
to be indefinite. This principle holds true for the examples (19), too:
inalienable possession g«tka (leg)
is incorporated (19a), but incorporation is impossible, when a possesser noun
precedes it (19b). The sentences in (21) are interesting: qoxc
(lether
jacket) in (21a2) in Itelmen can be definite, while
ir? (jacket) of Chukchee in (21a1) is indefinite.
And the incorporated m«lg (grass)
in (21b1) in Chukchee is indefinite and the nuterg
(hole) in absolute case definite.
The relationship is perhaps true for (21b2) in Itelmem sentence, in which the
definite lepxc (basket) precedes the indefinite mc’el
(rowanberry). The question is, how
the quantificational difference of nouns in Itelmen is indicated, because they
are all placed out of the polysynthetic frame. If the nouns exchange their
position in the sentence (21b2) like (21b3) below, is the opposite
interpretation really possible?
(21) b3. Itel: mc’el lepxe k-tXnu/-in
(With rowanberry (she) filled a basket)?
The quantificational difference of the
nouns in Itelmen are represented perhaps by some syntactic and even
suprasegmental devices. But we do not know yet how it is done. This belongs to
open questions which must be investigated further.
4.
Notion of Incorporation
We have seen in the preceding chapter that a polysynthetic structure does
not necessarily involve incorporation. Polysynthesis and incorporation
seem to belong to different dimensions of morphosyntactic techniques which
particular languages make use of for establishing their own grammatical
architectures. In this chapter, we will discuss some theoretical issus
on this matter in order to make clear what is incorporation. The key point
is that both incorporation and polysynthesis are the grammatical techniques
to articulate (< Lat. articulus (joint))
morphemes into various linguistic units. In this sense, they are related to another
technique of articulation, namely, composition as Sapir 1916 and 1921
mentioned.
4.1.
Two Techniques of Articulation
The technique of articulation consists of
two operations: one of them should be called “technique of synthesis” as
proposed by Sapir 1921 and the other “technique for word formation”. The first
technique is used to correlate linguistic forms with notions. It determines
what type of formal units represents a semantic unit. The second works for word
formation. It operates to determine how
free forms are composed.
4.1.1.
Affixation as Syntthetic Technique
Itelmen does not include the direct
complement of a verb into the polysynthetic verb frame, but represents it
consistenly in an analytical way. On the contrary, Chukchee includes it into a
verb frame prefixing it directly to the head verb. Comparing the polysynthetic
verb frames of Ket and Itelmen, they are common in that grammatical categories
are placed in definite positions as affixes. But lexical categories are dealt
with differently. Ket treats them as affixes, placing them in the positions R3
and R2 in the same way as other grammatical categories like
causative marker, etc. Itelmen, on the contrary, affixizes a set of grammatical
categories and arranges them around the verb stem, too, but it extraposes the
complement out of it, not as an affix but as a syntactic unit.
Note that in synthetic and polysynthetic
structures, lexical as well as grammatical categories are all affixized. This
procedure of affixization is the necessary condition for synthesis and
incorporating, namely, for the grammatical procedure to include lexical and
grammatical categories into a verb frame.
Let us make a sketch on the types of
synthetic technique:
(22) Technique of Synthesis
a. analytic: lexical and gramatical categories correspound with independent
morphemes which are concatenated
together to make up a verb(-complex).
b. synthetic: lexical and
grammatical categories are affixed to a verb
c. polysynthetic:
1. non-incorporative: no lexical categories involved in a verb frame, while
grammatical categories
are affixized to the verb
2. incorporative
2.1. simple incorporative: one affixized lexical category is involved in a verb
frame
2.2. complex incorporative: more affixized lexical categories and/or
constitutent of a verb phrase are involved in a verb frame
（subsidary note: At a symposium of Japan Linguistic Society in June
2005, about
a "non-slot" polisynthesis has been talked. The talk came
persumably from a
misunderstanding of the grammatical function of "slots" and
from the misinterpretation
of the data.)
4.1.2.
Technique of Word Formation
For the technique of word formation,
Sapir 1921 distinguished three different operations: isolating, agglutinative
and fusional ones. But the word formation techniques do not necessarily
correspond to language types. A language ulilizes them simultanously. In order
to see how they work, let us take an example from agglutinative verb complex of
Japanese.
(23) a. [A [V tabe]-[V
sase]-[V rare]-[A ta=katta]]
east- CAUSE- PASS- OPT=PAST
(wished to be made to east)
b.
A-complex
┌─┴─┐
V
Aff
┌─┴─┐ TENSE
V A -katta
┌─┴─┐ -ta=
V V
┌─┴─┐ -rare-
V V
tabe- -sase-
The lexical head of the complex is the verb-stem [V tabe-], while the morphological feature of the whole complex is determined by the affix [A ta=katta]. Therefore, the complex word as a whole is an adjective because of its adjectival inflexion. The lexical head stands in the leftmost, but the morphological index in the rightmost position. The agglutinative verb complex of Japanese is subject to the recursive formation rule (24), where V stands for three morphological categories: verbs, adjective and adjectival verbs which we call a“verbal”:
(24) a. V= [V V + V]
b. V= verbals
An agglutinative structure has some
problems to solve. For example, we do not know yet precisely how converbs
(Russian “depricastie”, Japanese -te
form etc.) have to be treated in a verbal complex.
Any way, in an agglutinative structure, the
representation of lexical and grammatical meaning is analytical in a large
extent and the units of concatenation appear in a bound forms, most of which
are affixes or affixized categories. The concatenation is chematized as
follows:
(25) [WORD (affix)...lexical head...(affix)]
This is, in some sense, similar to the
pattern of non-incorporative polysynthetic structure of Itelmen Volodin showed as(18a).
The third techinique of concatenation,
fusion, is characterized by the alternation of pholonogical segments within a
word, just as we see an internal inflection of some European languages. In “Paleoasiatic”
language, the technique is widely ulilized to indicate the change of
grammatical function of words. When a paradigm of segmental units (26b) appears
in an (poly-)synthetic structure in (26a), it motivates to change grammatical
functions like ( 26c):
(26) a. [ (m) +...X... R ...Y...+(m)]
b. X and Y make the paradigms
for grammatical units.
c. {a free form ⇔ a bound form},{N ⇔ V},{transitive ⇔ intransitve},...
A fusional word has morpho-phonological allomorphs with various grammatical functions, so that they constitutes a paradigm. If such a paradigm occur in a (poly-)synthetic structure, the language has the typological feature: (poly-)synthetic and fusional at the same time. Ket is characterized, therefore, as fusional, polysynthetic and incorporative. The types of technique of articulation Sapir 1921 envisaged are indispensable to think about the typological aspects of languages, especailly that of paleoasiatic and American languages. A question is now at stake: is a grammatical procedure of incorporation one of the techniques of concatenation? If yes, does it belong to that of synthesis or of word formation? So far, one thing is clear: incorporation affixizes syntactic elements governed by the head verb and attaches to it, making a compositional word.
4.2.
Syntactic Interpretation of Incorporation
4.2.1.
Tranformational Derivation of Incorporation
A syntactic interpretation of
incorporation was proposed in Baker 1988. In the theoretical frame work of
Government and Binding (Chomsky 1981), he defined incorporation in general as changing of grammatical functions on the
lexical level. A lexical category N0, say, a noun stem, moves to
another lexical category V0 on a higher position in the D-structure
and is prefixed to it, making a complex category [V N0 +
V0] which functions as a verb on the lexical level. The
transformation takes place as a normal Move-α. He cites an example of Onongada (an
Iroqoian language) like (see p.80, Baker 1988):
(27) a. D-structure S b. S-structure S
┌─┴─┐
┌─┴─┐
NP
VP
NP VP
│ ┌─┴─┐ → │ ┌─┴─┐
Pat V NP
Pat V NP
htu-/t │ ┌─┴─┐│
‘lose’ N N V N
│ │ │ │
hwist hwisti -htu-/t ti
‘money’ ‘moneyi -lose’
His basic idea lies on the syntactic derivation of a lexical complex V =
[X0 + V0] from the configurational hierarchy of the
D-structure by means of X0 -movement. If X0 is a noun, we
have noun incorporation. Baker mentioned incorporation of verb, preposition and
passive, namely, the cases in which X0 is a verb, etc. The verb
incorporation makes e.g. a causative verb complex. He includes all cases of the
socalled converb constructions into the notion of verb incorporation except for
passive. For he thinks about a lot of special problems to solve about this
transformation. For esample, passive can be a INFL-category and, if it is
incorporative, the incorporated category is not necessarily verbal, but it can
be a variety of lexical categories or clitics.
Bakers proposal of syntactic
interpretation of incorporation is surely a remarkable theoretical contribution
with many rich examples of various languages. But it shows at the same time
some shortages which have to be discussed about further. The followings are the
most important ones:
(28) a. sufficient generalization?
Bakers theory of incorporartion includes all sort of grammatical
category of the type [V X0
+V0] in the notion of incorporation. It arises
at least three questions:
(i) Is an incorporation applied only to verbs? In other words, is there no
incorporation which creates nomial or adejctival complex such as
[N X0 +N0] /[A
X0 +A0]?
(ii) Is the incorporated element X0 only a stem? In other words, has e.g.
a converb construction like [V
V-stem=affix +V0] to be excluded? If yes,
then all sort of participle constructions have to be excluded from this
grammatical notion.
(iii) Can all sort of compound verbs have to be taken as incorporative? In other
words, is it plausible to differenciate compound from incorporated verbs only
by means of the visibility of any syntactic
relationship?
b. head movement only? The transformed
element X0 in [V X0 +V0] is,
according to him, only a lexical head. However, as we see in Chukchee
(see (19c)), there is a clear case of incorporation of a phrase. The following
is the a famous example from Ainu:
(29) a. wakka korachi notaku een poro mukar a-e-shi-sempir-ani. (CHIRI
Mashiho
1937, p.619)
b. wakka korachi notaku een poro mukar shi sempir ta a-ani.
‘water like the blade sharp big ax self behind LOC 1/4P-hold’
c. e: wakka korachi notaku een poro mukar
（Here, the incorporative construction (29a) corresponds to the non-incorporative
sentence (29b), where “e”
refers to the nominal phrase (29c). In this example the object complement and the locative are
incorporated between person affix “a-” and verb “ani” (have).
Baker’s restriction to X0 is apparently too strict. It must
be enlarged to a phrasal construct. Of course, the visibility condition or
rather its semantic variant has to be guaranteed in such a case, too.）
(28) c. unversal D-structure?
Baker 1988 remained in the general frame work of GB, so that it must be
taken
for granted that he bases on the assumption that the derivation of incorporation
works on a unified configuration of “D-structure”. It is made up of the general
formation rules of X-bar-syntax with functional notions such as INFL, CP, VP
and a set of grammatical procedures and restrictions which were generally
available at that time. The transformation Move-α
operates on the hierarchical
configurationof grammatical functions which he supposes to be applicable
to any
language regardless of the typological differences, something very near to a
universal configuration which the S-structure of particular languages is derived
from.
4.2.2.
Polysynthesis Parameter
Eight years after Baker 1988, namely, in
1996, Baker integrated his incorporation theory into the more comprehensive
analysis of polysynthesis. He stands now on the new stage of generative theory
proposed by Chomsky 1995, i.e. Minimalist Program. Therefore, the names like “D-structure”,
ECP and other old theoretical notions dissappeared in this new book. However,
the idea of the transformational derivation of incorporation remains in
essense, but with a new disguise that it works as a typological parameter
applied on Universal Grammer to actualize particular types of languages. He
proposed a macroparameter Morphological Visibility Condition (MVC) which is
formulated as below (from p. 496):
(30) A phrase X is visible forθ-role assignment from a head Y only if it is coindexed
with a morpheme in the word containing Y via
(i) an agreement relationsship, or
(ii) a movement relationship.
This goes back to his basic idea which can be characterized by the following features:
(31) a. For the derivation of polysynthetic languages from UG, they must be filtered
out by the morpho-syntactic
condition MVC.
b. A polythynthetic word contains an element which has to satisfy the syntactic
condition (i) or (ii) of MVC.
c. The conditions are formulated with configurational syntactic structure
traditionally utilized for the representation of D-structure, which, he seems
to think, is yet valid for the interpretation of the
phenomena.
d. The incorporated element in a polysynthetic word must be coindexed with
an
argument in the “underlying” configurational pattern. The idea about the
transformational derivation remains after that a universal configuration had
“died out”.
There are a lot of problems to be
discussed further about his hypothesis. But we mention here only the followings:
(32) a. If we take it for granted that the underlying structure is formulated
something like he shows, there must be yet another intermediate macro-
parameter specifically for the representation of non-configurational languages.
For, in order to operate the syntactic procedure of movement and coindexing,
some different conditions are necessary than for the configurational
languages.
It is, therefore, plausible to assume that there is a macroparameter for configu-
rationality which is applied
before the polysynthetic.
b. Baker writes in many places that noun incorporation is obligatory in
polysynthe-
tic languages, but it is forbidden in all others (e.g. p.330). His MVC presupposes
this idea, too. If so, he has to explain the existence of the counter example like
Itelmen which rejects noun incorporation.
c. His analysis of verb incorporation is insufficient, because it does
not explain many
cases of converb constructions. Also his formulation “morphological causative
is
limited in the polysynthetic lanugages”(p.372) is not correct. Any way, this part
of grammar requires especially further investigation (see
Haspelmath 1995).
Summing up so far, the syntactic
derivation of incorporation is surely an attractive interpretation, especially
because it can clarify the hidden syntactic relationship of the incorporated
elements in its polysynthetic circumstance. But Baker’s analysis presupposes
some “underlying” structure the incorporated element is derived from. It is in
essense a universal configuration from which even a word forming morpheme is
taken out by means of Move-α.
The simple cases of incorporation is that
of an indefinite unmarked lexical category as Baker assumes. But we have more
complex cases in which a phrasal constuction is incorporated as in the examples
of Chukchee (19c) and Ainu (29a). As Sato Tomomi in the ELPR-Conference in
(2002. July 13.) mentioned, Ainu, as a rule, incorporates the long/possessive
form of a noun, namely, not only a lexical category, but also an affixed
category and a phrasal element.
A polysynthetic language Itelmen shows
that polysynthesis does not necessarily prescribe incorporation. Of course, in
a polysynthetic verb frame, we can easily recognize an incorporated element
because of its occurrence within circumfixes. Bur because of this counter
example we must suppose that incorporation is a different grammatical technique
from polysynthesis.
5.
Typologically Relevant Oppositions
In the discussion above, we have found
some keywords crucial for the further investigation of our problems about
incorporation and polysynthesis. In this chapter, we thematize them in form of
the following three sets of oppositions.
5.1.
Nouns versus Verbs
In the discussion on Nivkh incorporation,
Krejnovich showed the assumption that nominal modifiation as well as direct
complement structures are so tight a concatenation of morphemes as case
marking, so that there exist not only noun-to-verb incorporation [V
N+V0], but also noun-to-noun incorporation [N N+N0].
In the discussion of our internal
seminars, Nakagawa Hiroshi mentioned once that deverbal nouns have wider
possibility for nominal composition than the orginal verbs. Let us observe the
following nominal compounds of Japanese:
(33) a. (o-)te-ara_i (=toilet)
(POLITE-)
hand-wash_NOMINALIZION
b. te-ara_i (=hand-washing
c. te-ara_i (=manual
washing)
d. kikai-ara_i (= washing
with a machine or washing of machine-OBJECT )
“_” indicates
here compositinal concatenation of morphemes.
Not that the coresponding verbal expressions are impossible for both the ambiguous cases in which the prefixed elements te- and kikai- appear as object or insturmental of the verb araw-:
(34) a. *te-ara_u (=manual washing, or hand-washing)
b. *kikai-ara_u (= washing
with machine, or washing of machine)
It follows from this comparison that, as
far as this type of expressions is concerned, the verbal compounds are not
possible, while nominal compound of deverbal nouns has a wide possibilities of
compounding like (33) and bubun-arai (=partial
washing), kinubukin-arai (=washing
with silk cloth), etc. It follows, therefore, that the nominal compounds of the
type (33) are constucted after the nominalization araw- to ara_i was once
established. Moreover, nominal composition is neither subject to the syntactic
conditions like MVC, nor necessary to preserve the inherent meaning of the components.
Krejnovich supposed that incorporation is
found in both nominal and verbal structures in Nivkh. But note that the
expressions (14c) and (14d) share no grammatical parallelism: in (14c), the
head is -xu- (kill) to which the
object co- (fish), say, incorporated,
while the head of (14d) is the noun nivkh
(man) which follows the modifier co-xu-,
makig a nominal phrase. In this noun phrase, we see no matter of incorporation,
but only an adnominal verb phrase with a complex stem. From this, we can follow
merely that the incorporated verb stem is the adnominal modifier of the noun.
Therefore, the nominal expression (14d) has nothing to do with incorporation. We
claim that there exist no incorporative nouns, but all cases he supposed to be
incorporation are merely nominal composition.
5.2.
Polysynthesis versus Agglutination
The agglutinative concatenation of
Japanese verbs like (23) is made up with the word formation rule:
(35) Y = [WORD Y - X]
where Y is a lexical head and X an affixized category including affixes
for
inflectional category.
In case of (23), the initial Y is a verb
stem tabe- and the last X is past
tense affix of an adjective -katta, so that the whole Y is a complex adjective. The category X is an
affix, inherent or derived one. It can be a relatively independent lexical
categories which Hattori Shiro 1950 called huzoku-go, a bound word.
The rule (35) is applied recursively, so
that an agglutinavie word can make often a long chain of morphemes.
Agglutinative languages have a general tendency to prefer suffixation,
therefore, right- ward concatenations appear in the majority of this type of languages.
But prefixation is not excluded. A reverse notation of (35) is useful as
follows:
(36) Y = [WORDX - Y]
An agglutinative language makes use of both the rules (35) and (36) often simultanously. But it uses no circumfix, i.e. no obligatory combination of pre- and suffix representing a single meaning analytically. The analyticity of X is a salient and necessay condition for making an agglutinative word:
(36) a. Y = [WORD Y - X]/ [WORD
X - Y]
b. X: an analytic affix
Polysynthesis is, on the contrary, free from the condition (36b). Polysynthetic affixes is analytic, or often discontinuous. The “fusion” of Sapir 1921 means, in a normal sense, a phonological alternation within a word. But fusion and circumfix share a common grammatical featurx in that they are not analytic, but synthetic and possibly discontinuous. We can, therefore, combine the notions as follows:
(37) a. Y = [WORD Y - X]/ [WORD
X - Y]/[WORD x1...Y...x2],
b. X/x1...x2: analytic,
fusional and/or discontinuous,
where x1...x2 is a
circumfix.
Both the grammartical techniques agglutination and polysynthesis make a long complex word by means of affixation. But the difference lies in that agglutination utilizes merely analytic affixes but polysynthesis not only analytic, but also synthetic and discontinuos ones. In Chapter 3, we observed that a polysynthetic verb frame consists of a set of ordered positions for lexical and grammatical categories which are represented by affixes including cirmumfixes. Obviously, this is the salient feature for polysynthetic strucrures in general.
5.3.
Incorporation versus Composition
Incorporation and composiiton are not mutually
exclusive, rather partially inclusive. Recall the discussion of Nivkh
incorporation. Krejnovich’s supposition that noun-to-noun-incorporation is false,
and Panfilov was right in criticizing him. However, we do not know yet exactly under
what grammatical conditions nominal composition is possible. Maybe, a semantic
compatibility between the components is the least condition for susscessful
composition in a general sense, but it is yet an open question how it is grammatically
forumulated. But one thing is clear that a derivational interpretation of
nominal composition runs in a wrong way because it bring us invetiably to the
presupposition of an “underlying” configuration just like Baker’s.
Verbal categories work in a different
way. First, no doubt there are various types of compound verb. The affixed
element X0 in [V X0 + V0] varies on
lexical categories from noun to preposition. But questions arise if X0
is a pronoun or a clitic, because there must be a certain “underlying”
syntactic relationship between them and the head V0. As the
compositional frame [V X0
+ V0] is recursively applicable, the affixed element X0
can be multiplied. So, a long compound verb can be made just as nominal
composition.
But consider the case of Ainu (29): the
affixed element is no more a single lexical category, but explicitely a part of
a verb phrase with a clitic. The compositional frame is not applicable because
the affixed element is no moren a lexical category X0. Moreover,
there must work a certain semantic guranttee between the affixed element and
the head to reflect the syntactic relationship between them, something like
Baker’s MVC. But there remains yet doubt if we can draw a border-line between
incorporation and composition by way of the feature whether it is a single
lexical unit or a phrase, namely, X0 or XP. Because, first, XP
includes X0 and, second, these must be related in some semantic
relationship which reflects the syntactic one. We can not yet bring about any
well-motivated counter-argument against the lexicalist view of Sapir 1916 (p.
42):
(38) “Hence noun incorporation is but a particular case of verb composition,
using that term in this widest sense, and the objective noun incorporation
but a particular syntactic use of a larger process.”
This lexicalist view is correct in any way, because nominal as well as verbal composition do exist in any language. But we find rich examples in Ainu and Chukchee which involve affixed phrases XP. Moreover, the structure is productive, in other words, it varies according to the syntactic context in these languages. The lexicalist view has to be revised in order to take this case into account. We sum up the crucial features for incorporative structures above mentioned:
(39) a. The structure concerned reflects the syntactic relationship between
the affixed elements and the verbal head.
b. The affixed elements can
be a phrase which is governed by the verbal head.
c. The affixation to the
verbal head is productive.
Let us regard the morphosyntactic
structure satisfying these features as incorporative and distinguish it from
simple verbal composition. Namely, we suppose the binary existence of the
verbal categories, incorporation as well as composition. On the other hand,
nominal categories, we recognize merely composition. We call our view the weak
lexicalist one, in opposition to the fully lexicalist view of Sapir 1916 (38)
above. Recall again Baker’s derivational
interpretation of incorporation. It suffers at least from two shortages: first,
his MVC filters neither verbal composition nor agglutinative concatenation. It
can not distinguish incorporation from composition, too. Second, his
incorporation is confined merely to affixes of X0. This veils over
the distinction between composition and incorporation. Baker’s view stands on
the opposite position to the
lexicalist one of Sapir 1916 in many points.
Summing up so far, we have the
following scheme:
(40)
|
structure |
incorporation |
composition |
criterion |
productivity |
view |
|
[WORDX+ N] |
× |
○ |
semantic compatibility |
no synt. re- striction |
+lexicalist |
|
[WORDX+V], X=X0 |
○ |
○ |
semantic or syntactic relationship |
functionally restricted |
±lexicalist |
|
[WORDX+V], X=XP |
○ |
× |
syntactic relationship |
syntactically restricted |
−lexicalist |
Typologically observed, the use of
nominal composition is wide spread and they are productive. And the verbal
composition is also popular. But the distinction of incorporation from
composition lies in that the verbal affixes of incorporative structures must
reflect their syntactic relationship to the head.
An affixized phrase XP is not found
everywhere. As we see the contrast (29a) to (29b) in Ainu examples, the speaker
decides whether he represents the notion (29c) in the verb frame or extraposes
it outside of it. The decision is made perhaps from his aesthetic taste, and
surely, it does not come from a certain grammatical compulsion of this
language. On the contrary, he has an option to choose one of the grammatical
devices, namely, incorporation or extraposition which this language provides
with to ulilize. This grammatical feature characterizes the architecture of the
language Ainu; in other words, it has such a mathematical (=formal-aesthetic)
inguenity to represent the same matter with a different nuance.
6.
Conclusion
We have begun the discussion with a question whether the languagen Nivkh
is incorporative or agglutinative. The question arose already in the discussion
of the Soviet Academy, but ended with no theoretical conclusion. There
remained, however, a lot of open questions which cast light, especially
to the structure of the socalled Paleoasiatic languages. We have seen above,
first, that, despite the aparent criteron of consonant alternation, the
incorporative characteristics have not been proved in Nivkh. But there
is also no pursuasive conclusion that the indefinite object complement
is not incorporative as in the examples (2c) and (7). Therefore, a restricted
use of incorporation is not excluded in this language. This is in relation
to the problem of the prefixed i-, e-, j- and fricative initials of
intransitve verbs. For this matter and further, we will have to talk about the
vestiges of the old stages of the language.
The question whether Nivkh belongs to
polysynthetic languages has been often talked about, too. The incorporative
interpretation of the language seems to help this view. But we have seen in
Chapter 3 that polysynthesis and incorporation are not obligatorily coexistent;
they rather belong to different grammatical techniques languages utilize for
the concatenation of affixized elements. The polysynthetic frame of Itelmen
shows a clear counter-example against the assertion e.g. of Baker’s 1996.
The grammatical techniques composition serves
for word formation to make a string Y= [WORD X+Y]. This rule attaches X to Y making up a word Y. Crucial is that it
utilizes a grammatical technique of affixation. The element which comes into the
position X must be changed into an affix and attached to Y. If Y is a noun,
the string works to make a nominal composition. But if Y is verbal, the
difference arises: first, if X is limited to a lexical category, namely
X=X0, a compound verb is made. In this
case, it is ambiguous whether Y is a verbal composition or it is interpreeted
as incorporation. The latter case requires the condition that it reflects a
syntactic relationship between X and Y. But if X is a phrase governed by Y, the
word Y is clearly incorporative. X is often an objective complement or a phrase
directly governed by the verbal head. It is often included in a polysynthetic
verb frame. However, recall Sapir 1916 and capture the composition in the
widest sense. We must conclude that incorporation is a grammatical technique
which utilizes another technique composition so as to construct a compound verb
to reflect a certain syntactic relationship.
The polysynthetic frame consists of
verbal categories like agreement, causative, passive, aspect, tense etc., which
are all external categories of a VP. The incorporation involves grammatical
categories of a VP only, but polysynthesis the categories of IP (I=INFL) into a
word frame. Therefore, incorporation fertiles a verb with affixes, and
polysynthesis expands it into a IP-frame, both making up a large verb.
Now, let us try to answer the question of
the title “why incorporation?” If a language has a mathematical taste for the
grammatical architecture to decorate a verb with categories of VP, she makes
use of the compositional technique for incorporation. And if she wants to dress
up a verb further with categories of IP, she utilizes the synthetic technique
to construct a brilliant polysynthetic word.
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