Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T09:17:14.279Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Serial nouns in Finnish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2017

Solveiga Armoskaite  and
Päivi Koskinen
Solveiga Armoskaite*
Affiliation:
University of Rochester
Päivi Koskinen*
Affiliation:
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
*
solveiga.armoskaite@gmail.com
paivi.koskinen@kpu.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We argue for the existence of nominal serialization based on our analysis of a Finnish construction consisting of a syntactically fixed sequence in which a prosaic noun is followed by an ideophonic noun. A database compiled from a range of diverse sources provides material for the analysis. Muysken and Veenstra's (2006) criteria for the serialization of verbs are adapted and applied to our analysis of these ideophonic constructions as involving the serialization of nouns. We provide evidence that the noun–noun sequence is nested within a possessive structure that behaves as a syntactic atom, exhibits idiosyncratic phonology, and encodes speaker perspective.

Résumé

Nous soutenons l'existence d'une sérialisation nominale, en nous basant sur notre analyse d'une construction finlandaise qui consiste en une séquence syntaxiquement fixe où un nom prosaïque est suivi d'un nom idéophonique. Une base de données construite à partir d'un éventail de sources diverses fournit le matériel pour l'analyse. Nous adaptons les critères proposés pour la sérialisation des verbes par Muysken et Veenstra (2006), et les adaptons à notre analyse de ces constructions idéophoniques qui constituent, selon nous, une sérialisation nominale. Nous fournissons des preuves que la séquence des deux nominaux constituent une structure possessive qui se comporte comme un atome syntaxique, qui présente une phonologie idiosyncratique et qui encode la perspective du locuteur.

Keywords

arbitrarinessevaluativesideophonesnominal serializationarbitraireévaluativesidéophonessérialisation nominale
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 62 , Issue 2: Structuring sensory imagery: Ideophones across languages and cultures/La structuration de l'imagerie sensorielle : les idéophones dans diverses langues et cultures , June 2017 , pp. 280 - 313
Copyright
© Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

For stimulating discussion on the topic of this paper, we are grateful to the participants in the Structuring Sensory Imagery workshop, which took place at the University of Rochester on May 2, 2014. We also thank our anonymous reviewer for stimulating questions. Last but not least, we thank Julie Sedivy for editorial finesse. The first author acknowledges the financial support of the Humanities Project at the University of Rochester. All errors are our own.

References

Abney, Steven. 1987. The English noun phrase in its sentential aspect. Doctoral dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Aikhenvald, Alexandra, and Dixon, Robert. 2006. Serial verb constructions: a cross-linguistic typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Alexiadou, Artemis. 2005. Possessors and (in)definiteness. Lingua 115(6): 787–819.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amanuma, Yasushi. 1974. Giongo-Gitaigo Jiten. [Dictionary of onomatopes and attitudinals] . Tokyo: Tokyodo Publishing House.Google Scholar
Armoskaite, Solveiga, and Koskinen, Päivi. 2014. Serial verbs in Finnish. Linguistic Discovery 12(1): 1–27. <http://linguistic-discovery.dartmouth.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Journals.woa/xmlpage/1/issue>Google Scholar
Awóyalé, Yíwolá. 1988. Complex predicates and verb serialization. MIT Lexicon Project Working Papers 28. Cambridge MA: MIT Center for Cognitive Science.Google Scholar
Beck, David, and Mel’čuk, Igor. 2011. Morphological phrasemes and Totonacan verbal morphology. Linguistics 49(1): 175–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
von Becker, Reinhold. 1824. Finsk grammatik [Finnish grammar] . Turku: Bibel-sälskapets tryckeri.Google Scholar
Benedicto, Elena, Cvejanov, Sandra, and Quer, Josep. 2008. The morphosyntax of verbs of motion in serial verb constructions: A crosslinguistic study in three signed languages. In Signs of the time: Selected papers from TISLR 8, ed. Quer, Josep, 111–132. Seedorf: Signum Verlag.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Judy. 2001. The DP hypothesis: Identifying clausal properties in the nominal domain. In The handbook of contemporary syntactic theory, ed. Baltin, Mark and Collins, Chris, 536–562. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo. 1999. Adverbs and functional heads: A crosslinguistic perspective. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crystal, David. 2008. A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Déchaine, Rose-Marie. 1993. Predicates across categories. Doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar
Déchaine, Rose Marie. 2015. What “spell-out” reveals: Niger-Congo prosodification constrains the syntax-semantics interface. LingBuzz: <http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/002085>>Google Scholar
Dingemanse, Mark. 2012. Advances in the cross-linguistic study of ideophones. Language and Linguistics Compass 6(10): 654–672.Google Scholar
Di Sciullo, Anna Maria, and Williams, Edwin. 1987. On the definition of word. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Enfield, Nick. 2009. Review of Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald and R. M. W. Dixon, Serial verb constructions: A cross-linguistic typology . Language 85(2): 445–451.Google Scholar
Francis, Elaine. 2000. Two perspectives on the grammar of possession. Language Sciences 22(1): 87–107.Google Scholar
Fillip, Hana. 2001. Nominal and verbal semantic structure: analogies and interactions. Language Sciences 23(1): 453–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grönros, Eija-Riitta, ed. 2008. Kielitoimiston sanakirja 2.0 [Dictionary of the (Finnish) language office] . Helsinki: Kielikone Oy.Google Scholar
Hamunen, Markus. 2007. “Mee sai juosta lirputtaa”: koloratiivirakenne konstruktiona ja kieliopillistumana [“I got to run like a bird”: the colorative structure as a construction and grammaticalization], Master's thesis, University of Helsinki.Google Scholar
Hamunen, Markus. 2012. Koloratiivirakenne, liike ja tapa [The colorative construction, movement and manner]. In Verbit ja konstruktiot [Verbs and constructions] , ed. Herlin, Ilona and Kotilainen, Lari, 88–122. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura 201.Google Scholar
Havo, Kirsi. 1966. Verbaaliset koloratiivirakenteet Pentti Haanpään tuotannossa [Verbal colorative constructions in the body of work of Pentti Haanpää]. Master's thesis, University of Helsinki.Google Scholar
Heikkinen, Vesa, and Voutilainen, Eero. 2009. Koloratiivirakenne Hirventappopaikkaromaanissa [The colorative construction in the novel Hirventappopaikka/The place where the moose was felled]. In Kielen piirteet ja tekstilajit: Vaikuttavia valintoja tekstistä toiseen [Language features and text types: effective choices from one text to another] , ed. Heikkinen, Vesa, 135–169. Tietolipas 229. Helsinki: SKS.Google Scholar
Hinton, Leanne, Nichols, Johanna, and Ohala, John J.. 1994. Introduction: sound symbolic processes. In Sound symbolism, ed. Hinton, Leanne, Nichols, Johanna, and Ohala, John J., 1–15. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hoekstra, Teun. 1999. Parallels between nominal and verbal projections. In Specifiers: Minimalist approaches, ed. Adger, David, Pintzuk, Susan, Plunkett, Bernadette, and Tsoulas, George, 163–87. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Iisa, Pekka. 1965. Verbaalisen koloratiivikonstruktion käytöstä F. E. Sillanpään tuotannossa [On the use of the verbal colorative constructions in the body of work of F. E. Sillanpää]. Master's thesis, University of Helsinki.Google Scholar
Ikola, Osmo, Palomäki, Ulla, and Koitto, Anna-Kaisa. 1989. Suomen murteiden lauseoppia ja tekstikielioppia [The syntax and linguistics of textual genres in Finnish dialects] . Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura 511.Google Scholar
Jandraschek, Gerd. 2001. Semantic and structural properties of Turkish ideophones. Turkic Languages 5: 88–103.Google Scholar
Jarva, Vesa. 2001. Some expressive and borrowed elements in the lexicon of Finnish dialects. In Ideophones, ed. Erhard Voeltz, F. K. and Kilian-Hatz, Christa, 111–120. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Jarva, Vesa. 2003. Venäläisperäisyys ja ekspressiivisyys suomen murteiden sanastossa [The Russian origin and expressivity of the vocabulary of Finnish dialects]. Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities 5. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä.Google Scholar
Jarva, Vesa. 2008a. Colorative construction and grammaticalization. Paper presented at the conference “Cognitive and functional perspectives on dynamic tendencies in languages”, University of Tartu.Google Scholar
Jarva, Vesa. 2008b. Suomen kielen ekspressiivisten sanojen ominaispiirteitä [Features of expressive words in Finnish]. Folia Uralica Debrecensiensia 15: 13–34.Google Scholar
Jarva, Vesa, and Kytölä, Samu. 2007. Finnish colorative construction and expressivity. SKY Journal of Linguistics 20: 235–272.Google Scholar
Jespersen, Otto. 1922. Language: its nature, development and origin. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Jurafsky, Dan. 2014. The language of food. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.Google Scholar
Karlsson, Fred. 1983. Suomen kielen äänne- ja muotorakenne [The phonological and morphological structure of Finnish] . Helsinki: WSOY.Google Scholar
Karlsson, Fred. 2008. Finnish: An essential grammar. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kim, Jeongdo. 2013. Suomen kielen ekspressiivisten sanojen muodostusta ja neutraalistumista [The formation and neutralization of Finnish expressive words]. Master's thesis, University of Helsinki.Google Scholar
Kiviniemi, Eero. 1971. Suomen partisiippinimistöä: ensimmäisen partisiipin sisältävät henkilön- ja paikannimet [Participial names in Finland: personal and place names that include the first participle] . Helsinki: SKS.Google Scholar
Korhonen, Leena. 1967. Koloratiivirakenne Joel Lehtosen tuotannossa [The colorative construction in the body of work of Joel Lehtonen]. Master's thesis, University of Helsinki.Google Scholar
Lecarme, Jacqueline. 1996. Tense in the nominal system: The Somali DP. In Studies in Afroasiatic grammar, ed. Lecarme, Jacqeline, Lowenstamm, Jean, and Shlonsky, Ur, 159–178. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics.Google Scholar
Lehikoinen, Mia. 2000. A study of the English translations of the Finnish verb doublet. Master's thesis, University of Oulu.Google Scholar
Leinonen, Marja. 2010. Tytöntyllerö ja pojanjolppi Suomessa ja virossa [The pudgy little girl and whippersnapper of a boy in Finnish and Estonian]. ESUKA – JEFUL 2010 , 2: 193–217.Google Scholar
Leskinen, Heikki. 1991. Vieläkö nuoret nurisevat? Huomioita onomatopoeettisten sanojen tuntemuksesta ja tulkinnasta [Do the young still grumble? Observations on the knowledge and interpretation of onomatopoeic words]. Virittäjä 95: 355–371.Google Scholar
Luttinen, Saara. 2000. Verbaaliset koloratiivikonstruktiot eräissä pohjoissavolaisissa murteissa [Verbal colorative constructions in some northern Savonian dialects]. Master's thesis, University of Jyväskylä.Google Scholar
Mäki-Välkkilä, Virpi. 1997. La traduction de la construction colorative du finnois en francais. Master's thesis, University of Jyväskylä.Google Scholar
Massam, Diane. 1993. The licensing of Genitives. Linguistica Atlantica 15: 115–129.Google Scholar
Matushansky, Ora. 2002. A beauty of a construction. In Proceedings of WCCFL 21, ed. Mikkelsen, Line Hove, and Potts, Christopher, 264–277. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Mikone, Eve. 2001. Ideophones in the Balto-Finnic languages. In Ideophones, ed. Erhard Voeltz, F. K. and Kilian-Hatz, Christa, 223–233. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Mikone, Eve. 2002. Deskriptiiviset sanat: määritelmä, muoto ja merkitys [Descriptive words: definition, form and meaning] . Helsinki: SKS.Google Scholar
Muysken, Pieter, and Veenstra, Tonjes. 1995. Serial verb constructions. In Pidgins and creoles: An introduction, ed. Arends, Jacques, Muysken, Pieter and Smith, Norval, 289–301. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Muysken, Pieter, and Veenstra, Tonjes. 2006. Serial verb constructions. In The Blackwell companion to syntax, ed. Everaert, Martin, and van Riemsdijk, Henk, 234–271. Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newmeyer, Frederick. 2004. Some thoughts on the serial verb construction. In Actes de l'atelier du 9 décembre 2004, EHESS, Paris. La notion de “construction verbale en série” est-elle opératoire? Fédération TUL. http://crlao.ehess.fr/docannexe.php?id=1237 Google Scholar
Niemi, Jussi. 2009. Compounds in Finnish. Lingue E Linguaggio 8(2): 237–256.Google Scholar
Nieminen, Tommi, and Lantee, Anna. 2011. Yhdyssana suomen kielessä ja puheessa [The compound word in Finnish language and speech]. In XXVI Fonetiikan päivät 2010 [The XXVI Phonetics Days 2010] , ed. Werner, Stefan and Kinnunen, Tomi, 69–74. University of Eastern Finland electronic publications, Joensuu: University of Eastern Finland. <http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-61-0391-4>.Google Scholar
Panagiotidis, Phoevos. 2014. A minimalist approach to roots. In Minimalism and beyond: Radicalising interfaces, ed. Kosta, Peter, Franks, Steven, Radeva-Bork, Teodora, and Schürcks, Lilia, 287–304. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Pesetsky, David. 2013. Russian case morphology and the syntactic categories. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Pesetsky, David, and Torrego, Esther. 2004. Tense, case and the nature of syntactic categories. In The syntax of time, ed. Guéron, Jacqueline, and Jacqueline Lecarme, , 495–539. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press Google Scholar
Postma, Gertjan. 1997. On the configurational nature of possession. Lingua 101(3): 271–294.Google Scholar
Rijkhoff, Jan. 2008. Synchronic and diachronic evidence for parallels between noun phrases and sentences. In Interdependence of Diachronic and Synchronic Analyses, ed. Söhrman, Ingmar, and Josephson, Folke, 13–42. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Ruoppila, Veikko. 1934. Muutamia piirteitä puheesta [Some features of speech]. Virittäjä 38: 22–34.Google Scholar
Ruoppila, Veikko. 1935. Vokaalivaihtelu äänne-ja merkitysopillisena tekijänä [Vowel changes as a factor in the study of sounds and meaning]. Virittäjä 39: 128–136.Google Scholar
Rytkönen, Arto. 1935. Deskriptiivisistä sanoista [About descriptive words]. Virittäjä 39: 90–102.Google Scholar
Rytkönen, Arto. 1937. Koloratiivinen konstruktio [The colorative construction]. Virittäjä 41: 95–104.Google Scholar
Rytkönen, Arto. 1940. Kielentutkimuksen työmaalta III. Eräiden itämerensuomen tm-sanojen historiaa [From the work field of linguistics III. On the history of some Baltic Finnic expressive words] . Jyväskylä: K. J. Gummerus.Google Scholar
Sadeniemi, Matti. 1962. Über den Gefülsgehalt von fi. ö [On the content of the Finnish ö]. Suomalais-ugrilaisen seuran toimituksia 125: 485–491.Google Scholar
Sadeniemi, Matti, ed. 1996. Nykysuomen sanakirja [The dictionary of Modern Finnish] , vol. 2–3, 14th edition. Helsinki: WSOY.Google Scholar
de Saussure, Ferdinand. 1983. Course in general linguistics. London: Duckworth. [1916]Google Scholar
Sebba, Mark. 1987. The syntax of serial verbs. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Sivula, Jaakko. 1989. Lintu soidessa sokea: suomen murteiden kiimatermistö [A bird is blind during mating season: Finnish dialectal terminology of the rutting season] . Helsinki: SKST 504.Google Scholar
Speas, Margaret. 2004. Evidentiality, logophoricity and the syntactic representation of pragmatic features. Lingua 114(3): 225–276.Google Scholar
Szabolcsi, Anna. 1987. Functional categories in the noun phrase. In Approaches to Hungarian 2, ed. Kenesei, István, 167–190. Szeged: JATE.Google Scholar
Tunkelo, Eemil Aukusti. 1919–1920. Alkusuomen genitiivi relatiivisen nimen apugloosana [The genitive of early Finnish as part of the gloss in relative names]. Alkusuomen genitiivin funktioista [On the functions of the genitive in early Finnish] 1, 2 . Helsinki: SKS 120 part II.Google Scholar
VISK 2008 = Hakulinen, Auli, Vilkuna, Maria, Korhonen, Riitta, Koivisto, Vesa, Heinonen, Tarja Riitta, and Alho, Irja. 2008. Ison suomen kieliopin verkkoversio [The web version of the great Finnish grammar] . Helsinki: SKS.Google Scholar
Voeltz, K.F. Erhard, and Kilian-Hatz, Christa. 2001. Ideophones. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Willemse, Peter. 2007. Indefinite possessive NPs and the distinction of determining and non-determining genitives in English. Language and Linguistics 11(3): 537–568.Google Scholar
Yuka, Lendzemo Constantine. 2014. Nominal serialization in Cameroonian. International Journal of Language Studies 8(1):15–32.Google Scholar
Zwicky, Arnold. 1990. What are we talking about when we are talking about serial verbs? OSU Working Papers in Linguistics 1990: 1–13.Google Scholar