Semantic variation and the grammar of property concepts
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چکیده
This paper discusses the effects of semantic variation in the meaning of property concept (PC) terms (Dixon 1982) on the grammar of predicative and comparative constructions. We demonstrate that, in a range of unrelated and less well-studied languages in which PC terms are not adjectival, such constructions systematically surface with possessive morphology/syntax. This pattern, which we refer to as “possessive strategies of predication”, is argued to reflect a semantics of “property possession”, which is necessitated by the lexical semantics of the participating PC terms. A semantic theory for possessive strategies is developed, and a compositional analysis of the relevant constructions is presented for an example language (Ulwa, an endangered Misumalpan language of Nicaragua). This theory is then used to address an outstanding issue in the study of PC constructions, namely, the nature of the derivational relationships between the components of predicative and comparative constructions: the PC term, the positive form, and the comparative form. It is argued that the range of possible overt morphosyntactic derivational relations can and should be viewed as directly reflecting semantic composition, the possible directions of which in turn depend completely on lexicalization facts. Acknowledgements removed for review.
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