Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Beginning the Journey
- PART I FIRST STEPS
- PART II THE LEXICAL ITEMS
- 4 First Stop: Introducing the Lexical Items
- 5 A Brief Side Trip: The Position of the Verb Stem
- 6 Ordering of the Lexical Items
- 7 Voice/Valence
- 8 Summary: Lexical Items
- PART III THE FUNCTIONAL ITEMS
- PART IV A VIEW OF THE LEXICON
- PART V THE END OF THE JOURNEY
- PART VI APPENDIXES
- Notes
- References
- Name Index
- Languages Index
- Subject Index
4 - First Stop: Introducing the Lexical Items
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Beginning the Journey
- PART I FIRST STEPS
- PART II THE LEXICAL ITEMS
- 4 First Stop: Introducing the Lexical Items
- 5 A Brief Side Trip: The Position of the Verb Stem
- 6 Ordering of the Lexical Items
- 7 Voice/Valence
- 8 Summary: Lexical Items
- PART III THE FUNCTIONAL ITEMS
- PART IV A VIEW OF THE LEXICON
- PART V THE END OF THE JOURNEY
- PART VI APPENDIXES
- Notes
- References
- Name Index
- Languages Index
- Subject Index
Summary
The chapters in this part of the book examine the lexical items that form part of the verb in an Athapaskan language (chapter 6). In addition, this part includes discussion of the position of the verb stem with respect to other lexical items (chapter 5) and the status of the voice/valence markers (chapter 7). It is in this domain of the verb, I argue, that we see the greatest discrepancy between surface ordering and what I claim the underlying ordering to be; semantic factors are a primary determinant in the ordering, but syntactic factors enter in as well. I argue in chapter 7 that the voice/valence elements, like the verb stems, are predicative in nature. I further argue in chapters 5 and 7 that the predicative elements of the verb originate outside of their surface positions and move to them. Finally, I argue in chapter 6 that the ordering of the preverbs, quantificational elements, and incorporates is not unexpected, but is a direct consequence of scopal ordering, with elements of greater scope appearing to the right of those within their scope. In the rest of this chapter, I introduce the reader to the lexical elements of the verb.
Definitions
Recall from chapter 2 that the surface ordering of elements within the verb word of an Athapaskan language is often expressed as a template. The Slave template is repeated in (1); see appendix 1 for templates in a number of languages.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Morpheme Order and Semantic ScopeWord Formation in the Athapaskan Verb, pp. 33 - 73Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000