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Minhast/Noun Incorporation: Difference between revisions
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| translation = I became sick due to (infected) meat. | | translation = I became sick due to (infected) meat. | ||
}} | }} | ||
In the second example, another speaker's focus is on being sick. What caused her to be sick is of secondary importance, and there is an underlying assumption that both the speaker and the listener already know about the meat in question, either by previous discourse or other means. In this case, earlier in the week, the speaker and her brother had cleaned the refrigerator after an extended power outage. Unwilling to let an expensive cut of beef to go to waste, she foolishly ate it and got sick. Therefore, she chose to background the meat by incorporating the noun into the verb: | In the second example, another speaker's focus is on being sick. What caused her to be sick is of secondary importance, and there is an underlying assumption that both the speaker and the listener already know about the meat in question, either by previous discourse or other means. In this case, earlier in the week, the speaker and her brother had cleaned the refrigerator after an extended power outage. Unwilling to let an expensive cut of beef to go to waste, she foolishly ate it and got sick. Therefore, she chose to background the meat by incorporating the noun into the verb: | ||
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| translation = I got sick from the (infected) meat. | | translation = I got sick from the (infected) meat. | ||
}} | }} | ||
Body parts are often incorporated in attributive verbs. The pronominal affix represents both the subject of the clause (i.e. the syntactic pivot), as well as the possessor of the incorporated body part: | Body parts are often incorporated in attributive verbs. The pronominal affix represents both the subject of the clause (i.e. the syntactic pivot), as well as the possessor of the incorporated body part: | ||
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| translation = My face became green from the dye (lit. "I became green face-wise from the pigment") | | translation = My face became green from the dye (lit. "I became green face-wise from the pigment") | ||
}} | }} | ||
Overt NP possessors are stranded when their possessum is incorporated. In the next example, the overt possessor ''redad'' ("man") has been stranded after its possessum ''ruppamak'' ("face") was incorporated: | Overt NP possessors are stranded when their possessum is incorporated. In the next example, the overt possessor ''redad'' ("man") has been stranded after its possessum ''ruppamak'' ("face") was incorporated: | ||
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| translation = The man's face became green from the dye (lit. "The man from the pigment became face-wise green") | | translation = The man's face became green from the dye (lit. "The man from the pigment became face-wise green") | ||
}} | }} | ||
Speakers consistently reject sentences such as the following. In this infelicitous sentence, the NP has full possessor-possessum marking and occurs outside the verb complex, while the material that made the speaker's face green has been incorporated as if it were Instrumental argument. The restriction appears to be semantic. Unlike other stative verbs, attributive verbs select for incorporation the affected noun, not the Source or Cause noun: | Speakers consistently reject sentences such as the following. In this infelicitous sentence, the NP has full possessor-possessum marking and occurs outside the verb complex, while the material that made the speaker's face green has been incorporated as if it were Instrumental argument. The restriction appears to be semantic. Unlike other stative verbs, attributive verbs select for incorporation the affected noun, not the Source or Cause noun: | ||