Re: polysynthetic languages

Dirk Elzinga wrote at 2003-09-19 10:47:55 (-0600)
 >
 [explication of phonological processes allowing the identification of
 word boundaries]
 >

Incidentally, Dirk, what would _you_ consider the defining quality of
a polysynthetic language?  Polypersonalism?  Certain types of
object-incorporation?  One I read recently - an open class of bound
morphemes?  Definitains like "sufficiently synthetic that a sentence
may be a single word" have always struck me as inadequate, at least
without further elaboration.  After all, a single verb can form a
sentence in some highly isolating languages.

I realize it may not be possible to give an absolutely final answer on
this question, but what principle guides your own use of the term,
generally speaking?

(I am prompted to ask this by a recent reading of Jacques Guy's
postings on sci.lang.  It appears that he considers French to be
agglutinative but not polysynthetic, and remarks on the extreme rarity
of polysynthetic languages outside the Americas.  It seems to me that
this depends on where you draw the line, which I've never been certain
of.  And you're the logical person to ask.)

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