Two classes of verbs in Northern Australian languages: Implications for the typology of polycategoriality

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Abstract

This paper discusses some of the implications for the typology of parts of speech—including the notion of polycategoriality—of the existence, in some Australian languages, of two clearly distinct lexical categories which meet the common definition of “verb”. Both appear exclusively in predicative function, but only one of them can form independent predicates, while the other is restricted to dependent predication. It is argued that the commonly assumed set of universal major parts of speech, even if conceived of as prototypes, is eurocentric and should be replaced by a more fine-grained set of syntacto-pragmatic functions which are better suited to identifying categorial overlap, and allow us to give proper consideration to more specialised parts of speech.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLexical Polycategoriality
Subtitle of host publicationCross-linguistic, cross-theoretical and language acquisition approaches
EditorsValentina Vapnarsky, Edy Veneziano
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Pages243 – 271
ISBN (Electronic)9789027265951
ISBN (Print)9789027259479
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2017

Publication series

NameStudies in Language Companion Series
Volume182

Keywords

  • word classes
  • Typology
  • Complex predicate
  • Ideophones

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