Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Polysynthesis (was To Doug Ball... and Thanks Ferko...)

From:SuomenkieliMaa <suomenkieli@...>
Date:Monday, October 15, 2001, 11:22
--- Doug Ball <db001i@...> wrote:
> "Muddy morpheme boundaries" is a part of > polysynthesis, but not the only part > In thinking about it more, I think that there are > several factors involved > in classifying a language as polysynthesis: > -Lots of morphemes in a word > -Words that are whole sentences > -Complex words (the model for structure of words has > lots of slots or > positions) > -Complex interaction of morphology and phonology > -The presence of incorporation
Ok, this puts things into better perspective a little... I think. Let me read on and try to identify if my conlang falls into this or not.
> The other marker is the presence of incorporation. > Usually incorporation is where the > object "incorporates" into a verb. > An example of this in a language that > just happens to have the > same words as English: > I car-drive (meaning 'I drive cars'). > In the verb 'car-drive', the direct object ('cars') > has become > morphologically part of the verb, thus it is said to > have been > "incorporated" into the verb. > Although this is usually found just with objects > into verbs, apparently some > languages go nuts with it.
Yes, this explanation would qualify Vya:a:h as polysynthetic I"m pretty sure. So, a strange example might be something from Vya:a:h in English vocab like: "Graugy-and-to-the-point-of-exhaustion-about-to-fall-asleep in-central-Tokyo writing-about-something-on-the-computer-in-the-middle-of-the-night guy-the, very-kind on-an-internet-mailing-club-list guy-the-to, replied" where the hyphen shows these words all consist of one word in Vya:a:h. BTW, meaning: "The guy in central Tokyo, who is writing about something on the computer in the middle of the night, who is graugy and about to fall asleep [due to being] to the point of exhaustion, replied to the guy on an internet mailing club list who is very kind." (*Note: Is the word "graugy" spelled right? Perhaps it's even a slang word from my own vocab - do you understand it?)
> As you might well guess, incorporation creates > complex words,
yes..
> with lots of morphemes in them,
yes...
> and makes words that are equivalent to full
sentences yes...
> So, hopefully this helps you better see what my idea > of polysynthesis is
Many thanks for the extensive explanation. BTW, wouldn't one classify Finnish as polysynthetic as it possesses the above characteristics too -- as far as I know (with my limited Finnish) ? Matt33 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make a great connection at Yahoo! Personals. http://personals.yahoo.com