Beyond syntacticocentric and lexicalist: event-structural force-dynamic approach to noun incorporation and promotion to direct object in Amguema Chukchi

Voprosy Jazykoznanija. 2023. No. 2. P. 114–143.

Alexey I. Vinyar

 

There are two most common approaches to analyzing noun incorporation: syntacticocentric, which derives this construction via syntactic movement, and lexicalist, which argues that this complex verbal stem is formed by compounding in the lexicon via rules operating in a verbal lexical entry. Without discussing the general theoretical possibility of such analyses, in this paper I advocate a much less widespread analysis of noun incorporation. I argue that noun incorporation rules are directly derivable from the event structure. Taking W. Croft’s approach to argument and event structure, I review previous studies and provide some new field data which point towards event-structural analysis of noun incorporation and promotion to direct object formulated in concepts of force dynamics, affectedness and subevents’ ordering. I also argue that the force-dynamic analysis I propose does not postulate idiosyncratic rules: the restrictions I formulate for noun incorporation and promotion in Amguema Chukchi are simultaneously cognitively and diachronically grounded.

Keywords: инкорпорация, когнитивная лингвистика, синтаксис, syntax, promotion, Chukchi, force dynamics, Cognitive Linguistics, чукотско-камчатские языки, Noun incorporation, Грамматика конструкций, чукотский язык, структура события, Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Event structure

Publication based on the results of: Indigenous languages and cultures of the Arctic (2023)