22.2807, Qs: Are there any languages without compound words?

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LINGUIST List: Vol-22-2807. Fri Jul 08 2011. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 22.2807, Qs: Are there any languages without compound words?

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1)
Date: 07-Jul-2011
From: Emiliano Guevara [emiguevara at gmail.com]
Subject: Are there any languages without compound words?
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:41:34
From: Emiliano Guevara [emiguevara at gmail.com]
Subject: Are there any languages without compound words?

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Dear Linguist List,

My question is a very simple one, though I still have not been able to 
find a clear answer to it.

Are there any languages without compound words or without any 
productive compounding processes?

A bit of background on the problem: research in typology and linguistic 
universals has dedicated little if any attention to compounding. It seems 
that the commonplace is to assume that compounding is really 
pervasive in the world's languages, although a great deal of variation in 
preferred structural types and relative productivity. The extent of this 
variation is enormous, as I have been able to prove in previous 
exploratory research (Guevara and Scalise 2009, URL: 
http://books.google.com/books?
id=c8E1gVrnQZkC&lpg=PR13&ots=TAYppZLQ1O&dq=SEARCHING%2
0FOR%20UNIVERSALS%20IN%20COMPOUNDING&lr&pg=PA101#v=
onepage&q&f=false).

One interesting quote by Greenberg might still subsume what we know 
today:
There are a considerable number of languages without inflections, 
perhaps none without compounding and derivation. (J. Greenberg 
1963: 92)

Thank you very much in advance,

E.G.

University of Oslo 

Linguistic Field(s): Morphology
                     Typology







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