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Song-climbing, line-sitting, word-throwing: Non-body part noun incorporation in the Daly languages

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Author

  • Hugo Berntsson

Summary, in English

Noun incorporation refers to a linguistic process in which a noun forms a compound with a verb. Globally, the phenomenon is rare, but occurs frequently in several American, Paleo-Siberian and Australian languages. Specifically frequent in Australian languages is the incorporation of body part nouns, a process which has garnered a fair amount of published materials. In Australian languages, incorporation of nouns other than body parts is rare, and no general pattern providing a corresponding systematicity of this process has been found. This study explores this discrepancy by examining the Daly languages of Northern Australia, whose incorporation of non-body part nouns has largely been unexplored, and of which no typological overview has been published. The apparent rarity of non-body-part noun incorporation in the Daly languages is examined by use of a cross-linguistic typological overview based on existing literature, analyzing factors which inhibit or encourage incorporation of such nouns. It is argued that semantic factors, associated with environment, alienability and meronymy, have a significant effect on shaping the syntax and rules of incorporation of these languages. Cross-linguistic analyses show evidence that language contact and diachronic change within the Daly languages has likely resulted in grammaticalization and denominalization of nouns. This study argues that such new lexical items, when found in verbal compounds, should be viewed as constituting instances of noun incorporation, suggesting that non-body-part noun incorporation occurs more commonly than previously attested.

Publishing year

2024

Language

English

Document type

Student publication for Bachelor's degree

Topic

  • Languages and Literatures

Keywords

  • linguistics
  • noun incorporation
  • linguistic typology
  • comparative linguistics
  • incorporation
  • Daly languages
  • non-Pama-Nyungan languages
  • Australian languages
  • polysynthesis
  • semantics
  • syntax
  • meronymy
  • alienability
  • body part nouns

Supervisor

  • Niclas Burenhult (Ph.D.)