32.2607, Diss: Nootka; Historical Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Morphology; Semantics; Syntax; Typology: Daniel W Hieber: ''Lexical polyfunctionality in discourse: A quantitative corpus-based approach''

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-32-2607. Tue Aug 10 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.2607, Diss:  Nootka; Historical Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Morphology; Semantics; Syntax; Typology: Daniel W Hieber: ''Lexical polyfunctionality in discourse: A quantitative corpus-based approach''

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Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2021 01:37:15
From: Daniel Hieber [dhieber at ucsb.edu]
Subject: Lexical polyfunctionality in discourse: A quantitative corpus-based approach

 
Institution: University of California, Santa Barbara 
Program: Department of Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2021 

Author: Daniel W Hieber

Dissertation Title: Lexical polyfunctionality in discourse: A quantitative
corpus-based approach 

Dissertation URL:  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniel-Hieber

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics
                     Linguistic Theories
                     Morphology
                     Semantics
                     Syntax
                     Typology

Subject Language(s): Nootka (noo)


Dissertation Director(s):
Marianne Mithun

Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation is a qualitative corpus-based study of lexical
polyfunctionality (also known as lexical flexibility or polycategoriality) in
English and Nuuchahnulth. Polyfunctional lexical items are those which appear
in more than one discourse function—reference, predication, or modification
(traditionally noun, verb, or adjective)—with zero coding for that function
(often referred to as conversion or zero derivation). Polyfunctional words
pose a problem for many theories of parts of speech because they cross-cut
traditional part-of-speech boundaries, resisting clear classification. In
response to this problem, many researchers have proposed new part-of-speech
schemes with a greater or fewer number of lexical categories. More recently,
however, many researchers have come to treat lexical polyfunctionality as an
object of study in its own right. However, our understanding of how
polyfunctionality operates, how it emerges diachronically, how prevalent it
is, and how much it varies across the world’s languages, is still nascent.
This study contributes new empirical data to the study of lexical
polyfunctionality. I analyze approximately 380,000 tokens of English and 8,300
tokens of Nuuchahnulth for their discourse function (reference, predication,
or modification) in order to determine the overall prevalence of lexical
polyfunctionality in each language. I present a metric for quantitatively
measuring the functional diversity of each stem in a corpus which can be
applied consistently across lexemes and languages for crosslinguistic
comparison. I then apply this technique to English and Nuuchahnulth. The data
suggest that English and Nuuchahnulth differ significantly not just in their
overall functional diversity / degree of polyfunctionality, but also in the
way that polyfunctionality is realized. Most English stems exhibit lexical
polyfunctionality to a small degree, but otherwise center around a clear
prototype. By contrast, most Nuuchahnulth stems exhibit a high degree of
lexical polyfunctionality, but primarily between reference and predication.
Nuuchahnulth stems show very few uses of modification in discourse. I also
show that the functional diversity for each lexical item is synchronically
fixed, suggesting that lexemes have a conventionalized set of discourse uses
rather than productively appearing in whatever context is appropriate. I also
investigate the relationship between lexical polyfunctionality, relative
frequency, and corpus dispersion, but find no clear correlations. In both
English and Nuuchahnulth, human animates are consistently low in functional
diversity, in line with the status of human animates as prototypical referents
in discourse crosslinguistically. The findings in this dissertation present a
strong case for reversing the traditional perspective on lexical
polyfunctionality: rather than treating lexical polyfunctionality as a
relatively exceptional problem to be solved, I argue that lexical
polyfunctionality is a central and prevalent feature of the world’s languages.
Lexical polyfunctionality exists anywhere a language has yet to develop
dedicated morphological strategies for distinct discourse functions, or where
those constructions have been diachronically leveled.




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