15.2910, Diss: Historical Ling: Haugen: 'Issues in...'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-15-2910. Thu Oct 14 2004. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 15.2910, Diss: Historical Ling: Haugen: 'Issues in...'

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1)
Date: 12-Oct-2004
From: Jason Haugen < jhaugen at unt.edu >
Subject: Issues in Comparative Uto-Aztecan Morphosyntax


	
-------------------------Message 1 ----------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 13:51:29
From: Jason Haugen < jhaugen at unt.edu >
Subject: Issues in Comparative Uto-Aztecan Morphosyntax

Institution: University of Arizona
Program: Anthropology and Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2004

Author: Jason D. Haugen

Dissertation Title: Issues in Comparative Uto-Aztecan Morphosyntax

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics; Morphology; Syntax

Language Family(ies):
Uto-Aztecan

Dissertation Director(s):
Heidi Harley
Jane H. Hill

Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation seeks to test recent important theoretical ideas in the
Principles and Parameters and Distributed Morphology frameworks against data
from the relatively under-studied Uto-Aztecan languages.  In this work I focus
on the morphology of reduplication, noun incorporation and related derivational
morphology, and the diachronic development of the polysynthetic morphological
type in one sub-branch of the family (Corachol-Aztecan).

With respect to prosodic morphology, I argue that the comparative Uto-Aztecan
evidence suggests that reduplicants should be viewed as morphological pieces,
and I analyze them as Vocabulary Items inserted into syntactic slots at
Morphological Structure.  I also argue that the evidence of cognate
reduplication patterns across Uto-Aztecan supports a prosodic view of
morphology, as well as the constraint-ranking approach to morphophonology.

With respect to noun incorporation and derivational morphology, I argue that the
comparative Uto-Aztecan evidence supports the view that denominal verbs are a
sub-class of noun-incorporating verbs.  I survey the noun incorporation types in
Uto-Aztecan and classify NI in these languages into four types: N-V compounding,
syntactic NI, classificatory NI, and 'object polysynthesis'.  I offer a unified
syntactic account of these types, maintaining that each is formed via
head-movement in syntax.  I provide a novel approach to hyponomous objects,
suggesting that these are in argument positions, and that they are derived via
the Late Insertion of material that is not cognate to the incorporated noun, but
which is inserted into the lower copy of a movement chain.  Non-theme 'nominal'
roots incorporated into verbs, such as instrumental prefixes, are analyzed as
adverbial elements Merged directly into the verbal position.

Finally, I argue that this theoretical analysis of NI leads naturally to a
diachronic account of the development of polysynthesis in Nahuatl. I show that
the crucial aspects of polysynthesis, subject and object pronominal marking on
the verb as well as syntactic noun incorporation, have analogues elsewhere in
Uto-Aztecan, and I offer a reconstruction of the likely stages of the
development of polysynthesis in Nahuatl, each of which have attestation
elsewhere in the family.



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