Mundari: The myth of a language without word classes
Mundari: The myth of a language without word classes
复制标题
Mundari：没有词类的语言的神话
DOI：
10.1515/lity.2005.9.3.351
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发表时间：
2005
影响因子：
4.9
通讯作者：
T. Osada
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
N. Evans;T. Osada
摘要蒙达里语是印度的一种南亚语系语言（蒙达语系），经常被认为是没有词类的语言的例子，其中一个词可以根据上下文充当名词、动词、形容词等。这些主张起源于传教士约翰·霍夫曼（John Hoffmann）1903年的语法，最近被一些类型学家不加批判地重复。在这篇文章中，我们回顾了词类流动性的证据，仔细分析霍夫曼的语料库以及大量的新数据，包括一个大的词汇样本在两个层次的细节的基础上。我们认为，事实上，蒙达里确实有明确定义的词类，与不同的开放类动词和名词，除了一个封闭的形容词类，虽然有生产力的可能性，使用所有的谓词。沿着这条路，我们详细阐述了一系列标准，在任何语言可以被严肃地宣称缺乏名动词区分之前，这些标准都需要得到满足：最重要的是严格的组合性、双向的灵活性和词汇的穷尽性。
Abstract Mundari, an Austroasiatic language of India (Munda family), has often been cited as an example of a language without word classes, where a single word can function as noun, verb, adjective, etc. according to the context. These claims, originating in a 1903 grammar by the missionary John Hoffmann, have recently been repeated uncritically by a number of typologists. In this article we review the evidence for word class fluidity, on the basis of a careful analysis of Hoffmann’s corpus as well as substantial new data, including a large lexical sample at two levels of detail. We argue that in fact Mundari does have clearly definable word classes, with distinct open classes of verb and noun, in addition to a closed adjective class, though there are productive possibilities for using all as predicates. Along the way, we elaborate a series of criteria that would need to be met before any language could seriously be claimed to lack a noun-verb distinction: most importantly strict compositionality, bidirectional flexibility, and exhaustiveness through the lexicon.