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<p>Dear Masha and others,</p>
<p>In addition to "cognitive complexity", one may also consider
frequency of use as constraining lexification.</p>
<p>For example, 'female wolf' is not more cognitively complex than
'female horse' (English <i>mare</i>, contrasting with <i>stallion</i>),
but gender/sex is less commonly mentioned in connection with wild
animals than with domestic animals, so English does not dislexify
'male wolf' and 'female wolf'.</p>
<p>In my 2023 <i>Frontiers</i> paper, I suggested that some
important lexification tendencies can be explained with reference
to root length possibilities: Roots are typically 1-2 syllables
long, so when a meaning is not frequent enough, it needs more
syllables and hence multiple morphs:</p>
<div class="csl-bib-body"
style="line-height: 1.35; margin-left: 2em; text-indent:-2em;">
<div class="csl-entry">Haspelmath, Martin. 2023. Coexpression and
synexpression patterns across languages: Comparative concepts
and possible explanations. <i>Frontiers in Psychology</i> 14.
(doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1236853"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1236853</a>)</div>
<span class="Z3988"
title="url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fzotero.org%3A2&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.3389%2Ffpsyg.2023.1236853&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Coexpression%20and%20synexpression%20patterns%20across%20languages%3A%20Comparative%20concepts%20and%20possible%20explanations&rft.jtitle=Frontiers%20in%20Psychology&rft.volume=14&rft.aufirst=Martin&rft.aulast=Haspelmath&rft.au=Martin%20Haspelmath&rft.date=2023&rft.issn=1664-1078"></span>
</div>
<p></p>
<p>(The paper also cites David Gil's 1992 paper.)</p>
<p>Incidentally, it seems that "lexification" is clearer than
"lexicalization", because the latter is used in multiple meanings
(see my 2024 paper, §7: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.peren-revues.fr/lexique/1737">https://www.peren-revues.fr/lexique/1737</a>).</p>
<p>Best,</p>
<p>Martin<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 01.02.25 12:40, David Gil via
Lingtyp wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAEoKyV8bXGE1cRyi4wkH7nY6QThuBUhvGbvfBK6s8Qm4j9aaDg@mail.gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Hi Masha,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Some examples from the semantic domain of quantification
can be found here:<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<p class="gmail-ReferencesT"
style="margin:0in 0in 0in 27pt;text-align:justify;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times"><span
lang="EN-US"
style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Gil,
David (1992)
"Scopal Quantifiers: Some Universals of Lexical
Effability", in M.
Kefer and J. van der Auwera eds., <i>Meaning
and Grammar, Cross-Linguistic Perspectives</i>, Mouton
de Gruyter, Berlin,
303-345.<span></span></span></p>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Best wishes,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>David<br>
</div>
<div>
<p class="gmail-ReferencesT"
style="margin:0in 0in 0in 27pt;text-align:justify;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times"><span
lang="EN-US"
style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><br>
</span></p>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Feb 1, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Maria Koptjevskaja Tamm via Lingtyp <<a
href="mailto:lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;">
Dear all,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I am involved in a handbook chapter in which I would
like to give a few examples of suggested universal
constraints on lexicalisation, e.g., those primarily
concerning meanings that should not be expressible in a
word (a stem, root or whatever), preferably not from the
domain of colour terms. To give an example, Rappaport
Hovav and Levin (2010) argue that no verb encodes both
manner and result simultaneously, which has been contested
by Beavers and Koontz-Garbodens.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Or, a definition of a term covering both ‘father’ and
‘mother’s brother’ would be cognitively very complex since
it will require disjunction (‘father’ or ‘mother’s
brother’, cf. ‘male relative of one’s patriline’ for
‘father’ and ‘father’s brother’) (Evans 2001) – I don’t
know if this constraint still holds.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Many thanks and all the best,</div>
<div>Masha</div>
<div><br>
<div>
<div
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">
Prof. Maria Koptjevskaja Tamm<br>
Dept. of linguistics, Stockholm university, 106 91,
Stockholm, Sweden<br>
Editor-in-chief of “Linguistic Typology”</div>
<div
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">
President-Elect of Societas Linguistic Europaea<br>
<a href="http://www.ling.su.se/tamm" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">www.ling.su.se/tamm</a><br>
<a href="mailto:tamm@ling.su.se" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">tamm@ling.su.se</a><br>
<br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
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</blockquote>
</div>
<div><br clear="all">
</div>
<br>
<span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<pre cols="72">David Gil
Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
Email: <a href="mailto:dapiiiiit@gmail.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">dapiiiiit@gmail.com</a>
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-082113720302</pre>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Martin Haspelmath
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistic-and-cultural-evolution/staff/martin-haspelmath/">https://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistic-and-cultural-evolution/staff/martin-haspelmath/</a></pre>
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