Re: THEORY: Use of Ligatures and the Trigger System in Tagalog

On Wednesday, June 23, 2004, at 04:53 , Roger Mills wrote:

> Chris Bates wrote:
>
>> I don't think ligature in this case is a general linguistics term, its
>> simply what they are called by people who work on Tagalog (and some of
>> the other Austronesian languages).
>>
> I think that's true.  Perhaps nowadays (cf. the title of the Naylor paper
> I
> mentioned) it's also called "(the) linker".  Six of one....
I prefer "linker", but "ligature" seems more commonly used. as you say,
"Six of one......

> In discussions of Persian, the -e- or -i- that crops up in compound words
> (like koh-i-nur, Dasht-e-something town in Afghanistan) might be
> considered
> a "ligature ~linker".  IIRC it forms the construct case??
Yes, I agree, the -e- or -i- (depends on dialect) is a ligature. The head
of the NP comes first. What follows the ligature is either an adjective or
an epithet noun/pronoun (corresponding to the semitic 'construct case').

> If the purpose is to tie together grammatical/syntactic bits, I think a
> distinction can be made with French liaison, which IMO is primarily
> phonological.
I agree entirely. French liaison is a different best and is phonological.
Cf.
les femmes /lefam/
les hommes /lezOm/

The /z/ in the latter is not a separate morpheme and, therefore, cannot be
a linker or ligature. /le/ ~ /lez/ are allomorphs; which is used is
determined, largely, phonologically (but see below)

Yep, in case any nitpicker wonders, I do know about oddities such as:
les zéros /lezeRo/
les héros /leero/

Both words are regarded as beginning with a consonant, the latter with
what the books call 'aspirated h' (as opposed to 'mute h'). Of course in
modern French no 'h' is actually aspirated, but they do still prevent
liaison. How one deals with this phonology I won't deal with here. The
point is that there is still no linking morpheme between article & noun
( and /le/ ~ /lez/ are still allomorphs).

Ray
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