LingTyp Morphological typology

Morphological typology: 

Morphological typology Holger Diessel University of Jena holger.diessel@uni-jena.de http://www.holger-diessel.de/

Morphological parameters: 

Morphological parameters Index of synthesis Index of fusion

Index of synthesis: 

Index of synthesis isolating synthetic Vietnamese English Russian Oneida

Isolating language: 

Isolating language (1) Vietnamese (Comrie 1981: 43) Khi tôi ðèn nha ban tôi, When I come house friend I ‘When I came to my friend’s house, chùng tôi bǎt ðâu làm bài. PL I begin do lessen ‘we began to do lessons.’

Synthetic language: 

Synthetic language (2) Kirundi (Whaley 1997:20) Y-a-bi-gur-i-ye abâna CL1-PST-CL8.them-buy-APPL-ASP CL2.children ‘He bought them for the children.’

Polysynthetic language: 

Polysynthetic language (3) Mohawk (Mithun 1984: 868) a. r-ukwe’t-í:yo he-person-nice ‘He is a nice person.’ b. wa-hi-‘sereth-óhare-‘se PST-he/me-car-wash-for ‘He car-wash for me.’ (= ‘He washed my car’) c. kvtsyu v-kuwa-nya’t-ó:’ase fish FUT-they/her-throat-slit ‘They will throat-slit a fish.’ Noun-incorporation (cf. fox-hunting, bird-watching)

Index of fusion: 

Index of fusion agglutinative fusional Swahili Russian Oneida

Agglutinative language: 

Agglutinative language (1) Turkish (Comrie 1981: 44) SG PL Nominative adam adam-lar Accusative adam-K adam-lar-K Genitive adam-Kn adam-lar-Kn Dative adam-a adam-lar-a Locative adam-da adam-lar-da Ablative adam-dan adam-lar-dan

Fusional language: 

Fusional language (2) Russian SG PL Nominative stol stol-y Accusative stol stol-y Genitive stol-a stol-ov Dative stol-u stol-am Instrumental stol-om stol-ami Prepositional stol-e stol-ax SG PL lip-a lip-y lip-u lip-y lip-y lip lip-e lip-am lip-oj lip-ami lip-e lip-ax

Hypothetical language: 

Hypothetical language (1) sleep-pa-no-ku-sa (2) sleep-pi-no-ka-so V-PST-ACT-1-SG ‘I slept’ V-PRS-ACT-3-PL ‘They are sleeping’

Polysynthetic language: 

Polysynthetic language

Language change: 

Language change August Schleicher: Language change reflects cultural change (-> teleological view of language change)

From isolating to agglutinative: 

From isolating to agglutinative (1) Melanesian Pidgin (Whaley 1997: 136) aus bloŋ mi > aus blo-mi house belong me house of-me / my

From isolating to agglutinative: 

From isolating to agglutinative (2) how ever > however by cause > because going to > gonna there fore > therefore in deed > indeed N meaning ‘body-like’ > -ly any body > anybody in front of > in.front.of

From agglutinating to fusional: 

From agglutinating to fusional (1) Paamese (Whaley 1997: 137) a. *na-i-lesi-Ø > ni-lesi- Ø I-FUT-see-it I.FUT-see-it b. *ko-i-lesi-nau > ki-lesi-nau you-FUT-see-me you.FUT-see-me

From fusional to isolating: 

From fusional to isolating

Developmental cycle: 

Developmental cycle fusional isolating agglutinative Reduction/Merger Fusion Loss No evidence for the entire cycle from one language Morphological features can differ in one language

Head marking vs. dependent marking: 

Head marking vs. dependent marking (1) English dependent-marking The man’s house (2) Hungarian (Comrie 1989) head-marking az ember ház-a the man house-his ‘The man’s house’ (4) Haruai (Comrie 1989) no marking nöbö ram man house ‘the man’s house’ (3) Turkish (Comrie 1989) double-marking Adam-Kn ev-i Man-POSS house-his ‘the man’s house’

Head marking vs. dependent marking: 

Head marking vs. dependent marking Nicholas 1986

Clause: 

Clause Chechen da:-s wo’a-na urs-Ø tü:xira father-ERG son-DAT knife-NOM struck ‘The father stabbed the son.’ (2) Japanese boku ga tomudati ni hana o tü:xira I SUBJ friend to flowers OBJ gave ‘The man gave the woman the book.’

Clause: 

Clause (3) Abkhaz a-xàc?a a-pÉ@s a-Sq?@ Ø-l@-y-te-yt? the-man the man the-book it-her-he-gave-FIN ‘The man gave the woman the book.’ (4) Tzutujil x-Ø-kee-tij tzyaq ch’ooyaa? ASP-3SG-3PL-ate clothes rats ‘Rats ate the clothes.’

Clause: 

Clause (5) Dani ap palu-nen Ø-nasikh-e Man python-OBJ 3SG.OBJ-eat.PST-3SG.SUBJ ‘The python ate the man.’ (6) English The man gave Peter the book.

Adpositional phrase: 

Adpositional phrase (1) German wegen des Wetters mit dem Wind gegen den Wind (2) Russian s brat-om with brother-INST ‚with (the) brother)

Adpositional phrase: 

Adpositional phrase (3) Abkhaz a-j@yas a-q’n@ the-river its-at ‘at the river’ (4) Tzutujil ruu-majk jar aachi 3SG-because.of the man ‘because of the man’

Adpositional phrase: 

Adpositional phrase (5) Turkish Mehmed-in el-i Mehmed-POSS hand-his ‘Mehmed’s hand’ (6) Tiwi j@r@k@pai tuwaia crocodile tail ‘crocodile’s tail’

Cross-linguistic generalizations: 

Cross-linguistic generalizations If a language has head-marking morphology anywhere, it will have it at the clause level. Head-marking morphology favors verb-initial order, while dependent-marking morphology disfavors it. If a language has head-marking at the clause level, arguments can usually be omitted.