Download Lexical flexibility in Teop - a corpus

Lexical flexibility in Teop - a corpus-based distributional analysis of prototypical action, object
and property words
This paper demonstrates that the documentation of a previously unresearched language, may
provide data that challenge typological models of word class systems like the parts-of-speech
hierarchy proposed by Hengeveld, Rijkoff and Siewierska (1997). In Teop, an isolating Oceanic
language, content words occur as the head of referential, TAM marked predicative and modifying
phrases (RefP, TAMP and ModP) and as juxtaposed modifiers in compounding constructions within
these three kinds of phrase.
A distributional corpus analysis of prototypical object, action and property words, which strictly
applies Evans' and Osada's (2005) criteria, reveals that both object and action words occur as the head
of RefPs and TAMPs and that action and property words both function as the head of TAMPs and
ModPs. However, object words do not occur as the head of ModPs and property words not as the head
of RefPs. ThusTeop grammatically distinguishes between object, action and property words, i.e.
nouns, verbs and adjectives, but at the same time it shows regular patters of lexical flexibility. The
quantitative corpus analysis, however, shows a very strong preference of nouns and verbs for their
prototypical positions, whereas the distribution of adjectives is more variable.
head of RefP head of TAM.P head of ModP
object w. (nouns)
+
+
-
action w. (verbs)
+
+
+
property w. (adjectives) -
+
+
If lexical flexibility is considered a syntactic property of lexemes, Teop verbs can be said to be
more flexible than nouns and adjectives because they occur in more functions. On the other hand,
flexibility can also be regarded as a property of constructions, and in this sense the head of TAMP is
the most flexible position as it can accommodate all three word classes.
In compounding constructions nouns and verbs modify other nouns and verbs, while adjectives
only modify nouns. In order to modify verbs, adjectives must be transformed into manner adverbs by
the prefix va-. This distinction between adjectives and derived manner adverbs in compounding
constructions is independent of the syntactic function of the modified verb or noun. A verb must
always be modified by a va-marked adverb, even if it functions as the head of a RefP and
correspondingly, a noun is always modified by an adjective.
modifier of N modifier of V
noun
+
+
verb
+
+
adjective
+
-
derived manner adverb -
+
The qualitative and quantitative corpus-based distributional analysis of Teop content words
shows that lexical and constructional flexibility are gradient concepts which may be fruitful for
language specific as well as cross-linguistic typological research on word class systems and the
interaction of lexicon and grammar.
References
Evans, Nicholas & Toshki Osada. 2005a. Mundari: the myth of a language without word classes. In
Linguistic Typology 9.3, pp. 351-390.
Hengefeld, Kees & Jan Rijkoff & Anna Siewierska. 1997. Parts-of-speech systems and word order. In
Journal of Linguistics 40, 527-570