LINGUIST List 10.1477

Thu Oct 7 1999

Sum: Linking Elements in Compounds

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  • Andrea Krott, Linking elements in compounds

    Message 1: Linking elements in compounds

     Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 13:38:58 +0200 (MET DST)
    From: Andrea Krott <Andrea.Krottmpi.nl>
    Subject: Linking elements in compounds


    Dear all,

    some time ago I asked for information about languages that use linkers in compounds. I am very thankful to everybody who responded. Below you can find a list of all the languages I was pointed to. For each language I added the name(s) of the person(s) who told me about it, a short description, and (if possible) references.

    People who responded to my query:

    Laurie Bauer <laurie.bauervuw.ac.nz> Kristine Bentzen <Kristine.Bentzenhum.uit.no> Antonietta Bisetto <bisettounive.it> Eva Breindl <breindlnovell1.ids-mannheim.de> Bozena Cetnarowska <cetnarowuranos.cto.us.edu.pl> Henno Brandsma <brandsmatwi.tudelft.nl> Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy <a.carstairs-mccarthyling.canterbury.ac.nz> Doug Cooper <dougth.net> Jan Engh <jan.enghub.uio.no> Jaco Geldenhuys <jacocs.sun.ac.za> Jila Ghomeshi <ghomeshicc.UManitoba.CA> Chris Golston <chrisgcsufresno.edu> Pius ten Hacken <tenhackenubaclu.unibas.ch> Esther Herrera <eherreracolmex.mx> Lars Johanson <johansonmail.uni-mainz.de> Satoshi Stanley Koike <skoikegc.cuny.edu> Richard Laurent <laurent28hotmail.com> Andrew McIntyre <mcintyrerz.uni-leipzig.de> Ingmarie Mellenius <Ingmarie.Melleniusnord.umu.se> Viktor I. Pekar <vpekarufanet.ru> Asya Pereltsvaig <aperelpo-box.mcgill.ca> Linda Rashidi <lrashidimnsfld.edu> Norvin W Richards <norvinMIT.EDU> Jason Roberts <jkrobertstudents.wisc.edu> Danko Sipka <sipkadanerols.com> Erica Smale <ericasmaleansonic.com.au> Aaron Smith <kaaron88hotmail.com> Joan Smith/Kocamahhul <j.smithling.canterbury.ac.nz> R'emy Viredaz <remy.viredazspan.ch> Cecil Ward <cecilsmo.uhi.ac.uk>

    List of languages: - ----------------

    1.1 Germanic

    - Afrikaans

    Laurie Bauer <laurie.bauervuw.ac.nz> Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy <a.carstairs-mccarthyling.canterbury.ac.nz> Jaco Geldenhuys <jacocs.sun.ac.za> Erica Smale <ericasmaleansonic.com.au>

    Afrikaans nominal compounds have the linkers -s- and -e-. They are very similar to the Dutch linkers.

    see: R.P. Botha (1968): The Function of the Lexicon in Transformational Generative Grammar. The Hague: Mouton.

    - West Frisian Henno Brandsma <brandsmatwi.tudelft.nl>

    West Frisian has nominal compounds with -s-, -e- and DIM (diminutive suffix) and no linker (plus other not productive linkers like -en). The -e- is phonological not identical to plural suffix -en as it is in Dutch. The choice of the linker is sometimes given by rules (-s- after suffix -ert, after nominal infinitives, after suffix -ing <+abstract>, and suffix -er <+levend>). Often there are only tendencies (see suffixes -heid, -dom etc.). The linker -en- is only possible if the plural suffix of the first constituent is -en- or if there is an empty plural ending.

    see: Jarich Hoekstra (1998): Fryske Wurdfoarming. Fryske Akademy, Ljouwert.

    - German Eva Breindl <breindlnovell1.ids-mannheim.de> Andrew McIntyre <mcintyrerz.uni-leipzig.de>

    German has noun-noun compounds with the linking morphemes -s-, -n-, -er-, and -e- which are originally genitive singular or plural morphemes. They are synchronically not neccessarily interpreted as such. Some of them are distributed according to grammatical rules.

    see: Fleischer, Wolfgang/Barz, Irmhild (1995): Wortbildung, 2. Auflage, T�bingen: Niemyer, p. 136-143 with references to special literature on the subject (Zepic 1970, Augst 1975, Wurzel 1970, Wellmann/Reindl/Fahrmaier 1974, Grube 1976).

    Demske, U., 1995. Word vs. Phrase Structure: The Rise of Genitive Compounds in German. FAS Papers in Linguistics vol 3. 1-28. (This is worth reading)

    - Swedish Laurie Bauer <laurie.bauervuw.ac.nz> Lars Johanson <johansonmail.uni-mainz.de> Ingmarie Mellenius <Ingmarie.Melleniusnord.umu.se> (who kindly sent me her thesis about "The Acquisition of Nominal Compounding in Swedish") Viktor I. Pekar <vpekarufanet.ru>

    Swedish nominal compounds appear with the linking morphemes -o-, -u-, -e-, -s-. Sometimes there is variation: 'fotbollklubb' and 'fotbollsklubb'

    see: Josefsson, Gunl�g 1997. On the principles of word formation in Swedish. Lund: Lund University Press.

    Teleman, Ulf 1970. Om Svenska Ord. Lund: Gleerups.

    Mellenius, Ingmarie (1997): The Acquisition of Nominal Compounding in Swedish. Lund: Lund University Press.

    - Norwegian Kristine Bentzen <Kristine.Bentzenhum.uit.no> Jan Engh <jan.enghub.uio.no> Lars Johanson <johansonmail.uni-mainz.de>

    Norwegian nominal compounds appear with the linkers -s- and -e-.

    see: Leira, Vigleik: 1992, Ordlaging og ordelement i norsk. Oslo : Samlaget. ISBN 82-521-3844-6

    Gundersen, Dag, Jan Engh, Ruth Vatvedt Fjeld: 1995, H�ndbok i norsk : skriveregler, grammatikk og spr�klige r�d fra a til �. Oslo : Kunnskapsforlaget. ISBN 82-573-0562-6

    Ak�, J�rn-Otto: 1989, Sammensatte ord : bruken av s-fuge i moderne bokm�l. Unpublished master's thesis, Institutt for Nordisk spr�k og litteratur, Universitetet i Oslo. [The author can be contacted: jorn.otto.akotano.no

    - Icelandic Laurie Bauer <laurie.bauervuw.ac.nz>

    In Icelandic compounds, a) the stem (or root) may be joined directly to the following element, b) it may be connected by a so-called connective vowel, that otherwise does not appear, c) or some case forms of the word may be used (never the nominative, if it is different from the stem), especially the genitive.

    see: Stefan Einarsson (1945): Icelandic. Grammar Texts Glossary. John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore and London.

    - English Pius ten Hacken <tenhackenubaclu.unibas.ch> Andrew McIntyre <mcintyrerz.uni-leipzig.de>

    Andrew McIntyre pointed me to the frozen linking morphemes in 'spokesman', 'sportsman', 'marksman', Pius ten Hacken to the Saxon genitive construction.

    see: ten Hacken, Pius (1994), Defining Morphology: A Principled Approach to Determining the Boundaries of Compounding, Derivation, and Inflection, Olms, Hildesheim.

    ten Hacken, Pius (1999), 'Motivated Tests for Compounding', Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 31:27-58.

    1.2 others - Celtic: Scottish Gaelic Cecil Ward <cecilsmo.uhi.ac.uk>

    In Celtic languages, there is a linking effect in certain nominal compounds where a defining element precedes the head noun, rather than following it as is usual (Celtic being head-first). The preposed element is typically an adjective, although in general adjectives follow the noun, bar a tiny group (compare French).

    1. The following rule seems to be completely regular "lenite the noun when an element is preposed" (postposed modifiers being the norm).

    2. The meaning seems to be "a specific kind of N" (for example, "city") as opposed to "an N that happens to be A" (a town that is big).

    3. This seems to be fully productive, although given its semantic function, that of defining new "special kinds of x", only a limited number are current, although creating neologisms using this process is a strategy that is recognisable to hearers.

    4. The presence of the initial consonant mutation "lenition" is in many cases equivalent to the presence of an abstract preceding null morpheme. Historically, the initial consonant mutations originated as sandhi effects from the presence of a lost ending on the preceding word, or that represented the residual effects of a word that had been completely elided away.

    For an overview of Celtic initial consonant mutations, see the article by King in "The Handbook of Morphology", Spencer and Zwicky, ISBN 0631185445; also MacAulay, ed., "The Celtic Languages", CUP.

    - ancient Greek and modern Greek Antonietta Bisetto <bisettounive.it> Chris Golston <chrisgcsufresno.edu> Richard Laurent <laurent28hotmail.com>

    The linker in Greek compounds is usually -o-.

    see: Rivista di Linguistica, volume 4, number 1, 1992 (edited by Sergio Scalise and published by Rosenberg and Sellier in Italy). There, you can find an article by Angela Ralli on Modern Greek compounds.

    Smith's Greek Grammar (1920: �870ff.)

    - Finno-Ugric: Finnish Laurie Bauer <laurie.bauervuw.ac.nz>

    Finnish allows case forms of the modifying noun.

    - Altaic: Turkish Joan Smith/Kocamahhul <j.smithling.canterbury.ac.nz> Pius ten Hacken <tenhackenubaclu.unibas.ch>

    Turkish has a compound marker with the same shape as the possessive marker for the third person singular, an attached '-i'. example: 'okul kitab-i' (textbook) Some of these compounds are frozen and have become a single word: 'ayak' (foot) + 'kap' (container) > 'ayakkabi' (shoe)

    see: Kornfilt, Jacklin (1997): Turkish. London et al.: Routledge.

    - North Caucasian: Kabardian R'emy Viredaz <remy.viredazspan.ch>

    Kabardian has the connectives -ah-, -m-, -n-, and -r- which appear between two segments. They are not stressed and they are always in non-syllabic juncture with a following segment. Their use is sometimes facultative and varies dialectally.

    see: Kuipers, Aert H. (1960): Phoneme and Morpheme in Kabardian, The Hague, 78-80.

    Rieks Smeets (1984): Studies in West Circassian Phonology and Morphology, Leiden.

    - Indo-Iranian: a) Sanskrit Laurie Bauer <laurie.bauervuw.ac.nz>

    Sanskrit allows case forms of the modifying noun.

    b) Persian Jila Ghomeshi <ghomeshicc.UManitoba.CA> Linda Rashidi <lrashidimnsfld.edu> Norvin W Richards <norvinMIT.EDU>

    These people informed me about the Persian Ezafe construction: The esafe is a single vowel which links nouns to their modifiers (which can be adjectives or other nouns, but not phrasal) and to possessors. It is phonologically attached to the head or the preceding element but is semantically part of the post-modifier. It does not appear in compounds and it is not a morpheme, but it is a linker.

    see: ten Hacken, Pius (1994), Defining Morphology: A Principled Approach to Determining the Boundaries of Compounding, Derivation, and Inflection, Olms, Hildesheim.

    ten Hacken, Pius (1999), 'Motivated Tests for Compounding', Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 31:27-58.

    Ghomeshi, Jila (1997): Non-projecting nouns and the Ezafe Construction in Persian. NLLT (Natural Language & Linguistic Theory), Vol. 15, pp. 729-788.

    2. Slavic:

    - Russian Richard Laurent <laurent28hotmail.com> Viktor I. Pekar <vpekarufanet.ru> Asya Pereltsvaig <aperelpo-box.mcgill.ca> Russian compounds have the linkers -o- and -e-. They are determined on the basis of the preceding consonant (-e- after a 'soft' consonant). They also appear in adjectival compounds and they are productively used. They only and always appear between roots. Compounds consisting of full words do not have linking vowels. Neither -o- nor -e- has any meaning.

    see: short grammar of Russian by Unbegaun. (As the author never bothers to transliterate, a reader would do well to know Cyrillic.)

    - Polish Bozena Cetnarowska <cetnarowuranos.cto.us.edu.pl> Viktor I. Pekar <vpekarufanet.ru>

    First, the most common linker in Polish is -o-. It links noun-noun compounds and adjective-adjective compounds. It is homophone to a neuter nom.sg. marker, but it appears after nouns which do not have an -o- ending. Second, there are also the linkers -i- or -y-. They appear in verb-noun compounds and are usually (not always) the thematic vowel of the verb in question.

    - Serbo-Croatian Danko Sipka <sipkadanerols.com>

    Serbo-Croation compound parts are connected by an -o-.

    3. Austronesian - Yapese Jason Roberts <jkrobertstudents.wisc.edu> Some of the productive pattern of compounding in Yapese are: - intransitive verb + long /e:/ or /e":/ + noun - transitive verb + long /o:/ + noun - noun with possessive suffix -n 'his, its' + long /e:/, /e":/, /i:/ or /a:/ + noun All three types have an alternative variant without linking element.

    see: Jensen (1977) Yapese Reference Grammar, p102.

    - Kosraean/Kusaien Jason Roberts <jkrobertstudents.wisc.edu>

    In Kusaien there is a linker -in- in noun-noun compounds and in noun-intransitive verb compounds. see: Lee (1975) Kusaiean Reference Grammar, p.213-214.

    - Tagalog Norvin W Richards <norvinMIT.EDU>

    In Tagalog there are two main linkers: the linker 'na'/-ng which appears between modifiers (adjectives and relative clauses) and the nouns they modify, among other places, and the linker -ng which appears in compounds. Both are phonologically based: -ng (both types) appears after a first constituent ending in /h/, /'/, or /n/, 'na' or the zero form of the compound linker appears after first constituents ending in other consonants.

    see: Schachter and Otanes' _Tagalog Reference Grammar_

    Edward Rubin (1994): Modification: a syntactic analysis and its consequences.

    Norvin Richards (1999): Complementizer cliticization in Tagalog and English.

    4. Asia - Daic: Thai Doug Cooper <dougth.net>

    Thai has linking morphemes that pop up in the middle of many compounds of Pali/Sanskrit origin. This occurs because Thai tends to discourage certain kinds of finals, eg. short vowels. As a standalone word, the loan may have its final vowel (or consonant + vowel) either removed from the orthography, or 'silenced' with a special character, or simply ignored. Then, when the word appears in a compound, the final is either added, 'unsilenced,' or read.

    There are some cases in which the final vowel/consonant+vowel is regularly suppressd even in compounds, e.g., when the supressed final vowel leads into a leading vowel.

    see: Richard Noss _Thai Reference Grammar_

    Gedney _Indic Loanwords in Spoken Thai_

    a whole lot of Thai references at http://seasrc.th.net/bib

    - Austro-Asiatic: Cambodian Laurie Bauer <laurie.bauervuw.ac.nz>

    Cambodian (Khmer) appear to have linking elements very much like the Germanic ones.

    - Japanese Satoshi Stanley Koike <skoikegc.cuny.edu>

    In Japanese there are three linking phenomena in compounds: 1) sequential voicing of the initial consonant of the second constituent, 2) an epenthetic consonant between the two constituents, and 3) a vowel change of the final consonant of the first constituent. Koike's explanation for these phenomena is a lost genitive postposition _no_ which occured between the two constituents.

    see: Koike, Satoshi Stanley (1996): Sequential voicing in Japanese and adjacency. Proceedings of ConSOLE IV, 143--50.

    Koike, Satoshi Stanley (199?): A monosemy approach to the Japanese particle _no_: functional categories as linkers and antisymmetry in natural language. PhD thesis. 5. Southamerica - Mixe-Zoque: Zoque Esther Herrera <eherreracolmex.mx>

    In Zoque there is a nominal compound formation where a vowel appears between the two nouns. The vowel is a result of a vowel spreading, which means that the vowel of the left constituent is repeated.

    see: Herrera, Z. Esther (1995), "Palabras Estratos y Representaciones: Temas de Fonologia Lexica en Zoque, El Colegio de Mexico.

    6. Niger-Kongo (Kwa): - Yoruba Laurie Bauer <laurie.bauervuw.ac.nz>

    Yoruba appears to have linking elements very much like the Germanic ones.

    **********

    See also: Bauer, Laurie 1978 (?) On teaching compound nouns. Moderna Spr�k 325-336.

    Dressler, W & Barbaresi, L. 1986: How to fix the interfixes. In: Acta Linguistica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 36: 53-67.

    Rivista di Linguistica, volume 4, number 1, 1992 (edited by Sergio Scalise and published by Rosenberg and Sellier in Italy)

    __________________________________________

    Andrea Krott M.A.

    Interfaculty Research Unit for Language and Speech & Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Wundtlaan 1 PB 310, 6500 AH Nijmegen The Netherlands

    Tel: +31 - (0)24 - 3612160 E-mail: akrottmpi.nl