LINGUIST List 3.812

Sat 24 Oct 1992

Qs: Alienability, morphology, verb-inversion

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1. , query: 3-way alienability contrasts
2. "NAME " William Marslen-Wilson "", Non-affixational derivational morphology in English
3. , Request for references: Whole-verb inversion

Many languages have a 2-way contrast between alienable and inalienable
possession. For example, 'my arm' and 'my house' may have different
morphology connected with possession.

A student of mine is working with a language that appears to have
a 3-way contrast in alienability -- most alienable, moderately alienable,
and least alienable.

Has anyone heard of another language with similar distinctions?

Reply to me and I'll post a summary.

Thanks,
Aaron Broadwell (aa2492uokvmsa.bitnet)
Univ. of Oklahoma

I would be grateful for any information about studies of non-
affixational derivational morphology in English. By this I mean
cases such as FOOD/FEED, SALE/SELL, SONG/SING, where the
morphological relationship is (arguably) carried by the vowel
change in the stem. I am also interested in cases such
THIEF/THIEVE, GRIEF/GRIEVE, as well as more marginal cases
where some form of affix also seems to be present
(THIEVE/THEFT).
Apart from information about references, I would be interested
in any leads to lists of English words exhibiting these kinds of
relations.

William Marslen-Wilson

ubjta38cu.bbk.ac.uk

I would like to receive references in the literature to any recent work
(i.e. since c. 1980) done on whole-verb inversion in English; i.e.
examples like:

 On the table sits a lamp.
 In walked Mary.
 "I'm here", said John.
 First comes an explanation.

(I distinguish this type of inversion from auxiliary inversion, which is
associated with messages of hypotheticality or questioning.) Please
address responses directly to me. I will be glad to forward what
responses I get to other interested parties.