Re: polysynthetic languages

On Sun, Sep 21, 2003 at 07:06:51PM -0400, Estel Telcontar wrote:
>  --- vaksje wrote:
> [...]
> > As you can see, noun incorporation is the default.
> > I'm not even sure if roots with a nominal function can stand alone,
> > other than in responses.
>
> What do you do with subjects? Are you planning to do something radical
> to keep them from having lone-standing nominal roots?  In Natlangs,
> subjects are never/very rarely incorporated; mostly just objects are, I
> believe.
Yes, it's true that its uncommon, but keep in mind that the subject does
not necessarily have to be an AGENT or EXPERIENCER. Without making
any changes to the verb, simply adding a PATIENT marker to the subject
and leaving out the object will work too. The subject can even be
locational, even though this is adverbial information. This also frees
up word order to some extent.

Anyway, I wouldn't really call it noun incorporation in this case.
The verb structure simply dictates that the subject and optionally the
object are followed by the verb's clause function/role marker and optionally
one or more enclitics. Noun incorporation as in "babysit" or noun-verb
compounds are hardly used.

I hope this is not overly unrealistic.

>
> Estel
>
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--
vaksje.