Prefixes and suffixes in the Adyghe polysynthetic wordform: types of interaction

P. 495–514.

Letuchiy A., Аркадьев П. М.

 

The topic of this article has to do with the types of interaction between prefixes and suffixes in the morphological structure and semantic interpretation of the extremely complex polysynthetic Adyghe verbal form. As we show, the relationships between the elements of the different parts of the verbal form are both non-trivial and heterogeneous, which suggests that affix interaction can be an important parameter of morphological complexity in languages.

The cases of interaction between prefixes and suffixes vary in three parameters: 1) the direction of restriction (from suffix to prefix or the other way around); 2) semantic relations between suffix and prefix; 3) range of restriction (suffix and prefix impossible without each other; possible, but with an idiomatic meaning, and so on).

Restrictions of the Adyghe type can be an important criterion for grammatical semantics and morphology, since they show which meanings and to which extent are conceptualized as close to each other by the language system.

Keywords: время, модальность, переходность, эргативность, адыгейский язык, рефлексив, реципрок, антипассив, актантная деривация, циркумфиксы, полисинтетизм, суффиксы, префиксы

In book

Languages and cultures in the Caucasus

Топадзе М., Томеллери В. С., Лукьянович А. Issue 16. , Berlin, Muenchen: Verlag Otto Sagner, 2011.