Lecture | Descriptive Linguistics Seminars
The two tiers of noun incorporation in Iraqw
- Håvard Weiberg-Johansen
- Date
- Friday 15 March 2024
- Time
- Series
- Descriptive Linguistics Seminars
- Location
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 1.52
Abstract
Iraqw, a South Cushitic language spoken in Tanzania, has a very idiosyncratic syntactic structure which features two distinct layers of incorporation-like constructions. The least verb-adjacent of these layers, typically called encapsulation, resembles a pragmatic type of incorporation in which one or more non-subject arguments are placed in a position more adjacent to the verb, detransitivizing it if the encapsulant is an object, and accomplishing an array of primarily pragmatic functions. Encapsulation is a very unmarked construction, and is the neutral way to talk about many situations.
The second, and more verb-adjacent type of incorporation, is referred to by the label (true) incorporation, and is exclusively a possessor-promoting operation in which a possessed noun is incorporated and the possessor instead takes over the syntactic position of the incorporant. True incorporation is as such a transitivity preserving operation, which is prototypically used with body parts but is unusually productive, accepting any possessed noun, and applying equally to transitive and intransitive verbs.
Iraqw thus presents an interesting case of two synchronically and diachronically independent incorporation-like constructions which are distinct in both form and meaning. Both constructions are typologically unusual in many ways, like in that they can incorporate modified nouns, and both can be seen as ways to interact with Iraqw’s strict adherence to transitivity.
The talk will be based on my ongoing thesis work and feedback will be welcome.