What Is In A Name

[jess tauber]

This was a most enjoyable read. Yahgan (a stone's throw from Antarctica) also has the same ambiguity between noun and adverb status for geographical terms, but also for temporal ones. Like Karuk, Yahgan has complex verbs with instrument/bodypart prefixation, and pathway/locational suffixation. I am wondering whether such traits (and similar ones) are one of the reasons for the ambiguity- or is it the ambiguity that comes first?

In Mark Baker's version of polysynthesis many nominals become adjunctive in status- adverbials are often (usually?) adjunctive. Somehow the class boundary has dissolved. But the direction of status movement seems to be opposite from that found in the languages above- there adverbs seem to have moved in the direction of nouns, and can now be glommed onto verbs lending specificity to the stem in a way that is absent in Bakerian polysynthetic languages- where incorporated elements seem more generic. But I'm just blowing smoke here. Thoughts?

Jess Tauber
phonosemantics at earthlink.net