Re: Is this polysynthetic?

From:    Yann Kiraly <yann_kiraly@...>
> I started to scetch out a polysynthetic language, but I'm not sure
> if it realy is polysynthetic. Here's the only sentence I have so far:
>
> juwa tetwanata ji ki.
> juwa tetwa-na-ta ji ki.
>
> house-[placed initialy, marking it as the topic] go-[tells us the
> object is the topic]-[tells us the subject's either ki, I or kwí,
> you] [marks the verb as present imperfect active indicative] I.
[...]

> So, would you say this language is polysynthetic? If not, what is it
> then?
Well, the definition of polysynthesis is so vague and used in so
many different senses, it is difficult to really call *anything*
polysynthetic without risking contradiction.  But if we may call
polysynthetic that language which evinces (at least some) features
of all arguments on the head verb, then I would say this language
qualifies, since some features of both subject and object are
morphologically marked on the verb.

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