Minhast/Noun Incorporation

Types of Noun Incorporation

Type IV Noun Incorporation

• This is an example of Mithun's Classificatory NI (Class IV) being exploited by Minhast. Here, it is essentially creating the equivalent of a locative noun in other languages, e.g. English "Within the interior of the beast..." Here, nua means "side" has been incorporated into the verb complex. The implicit head is suharak (deerskin), which was mentioned in a previous line in the passage, referred to by the Locative applicative naħk-. This construction is equivalent to saying "Next to it", "By its side", etc.

Tayyamakim tayyapte suharak naħkixripuxnutartimmahabu
tayyamak min tayyap=de suharak naħk-xr-pux-nua-tar-timmah-ab-u
thunder CONN ball=ERG deerskin LOC.APPL-ITER-boom-side-3S.ANIM.ABS+3S.ANIM.ERG-IMPF-TRANS
Canonballs explode next to it the deerskin.

Truncation/Weak Suppletion

Most Minhast nouns are irregular in their IN forms, the majority of which exhibit what has been referred to among Minhast linguists as truncation, wherein the incorporated nominal appears in a shortened form from the reduction or loss of syllables. This process is more commonly referred to as weak suppletion (see also "Noun Incorporation: A New Theoretical Perspective", Alessio Muro, 2009). Cross-linguistically this process is seen in other languages such as Sora, an unrelated language from the Munda family in India. The first example shows the analytic version of the Sora sentence "Will they eat the buffalo/ Do they eat buffalo?". The second example shows the noun incorporated-version of the same sentence, where the independent word bɔŋtɛl ("buffalo") has lost its final syllable to create its incorporating form, bɔŋ:

bɔŋtɛlәnәdɔŋ jomtɛji pɔ
bɔŋtɛl-әn-әdɔŋ jom-t-ɛ-ji pɔ
buffalo-/әn/3-ACC eat-NPST-3S-PL.S Q
Will they eat the buffalo/ Do they eat buffalo?

jombɔŋtɛnji pɔ
jom-bɔŋ-t-ɛ-n-ji pɔ
eat-buffalo-NPST-3S-INTR-PL.S Q
Will they eat the buffalo/ Do they eat buffalo?

Similarly, Minhast INs exhibit weak suppletion, and it occurs extensively, particularly with nouns longer than two syllables, e.g. sussagarānī > -suggan- ("big toe").

Sussagarānītirektiki kahušnišattekaran.
sussagarānī-tirek=de=ki kah-ušn-šatt-ek-ar-an
big.toe-3SN.INAN.POSSM+1S.POSSR=ERG=LOC INV.VOL-hit-RFLX-1S.NOM-PST-TRNS
I banged myself against my big toe.

Kahušnisuggašnattekaran.
kah-ušn-suggan-šatt-ek-ar-an
INV.VOL-hit-toe-RFLX-1S.NOM-PST-TRNS
I stubbed my big toe.

Similar patterns can be found with hispawak > -hispak- ("birch"), and izzesparak > -spark- ("canoe").

The pattern of truncation is unpredictable; syllable loss may occur in initial, medial, or final positions, although noun roots with more than two syllables tend to lose either their medial or final syllables and retain the initial syllable, but exceptions abound, such as allāga > -lgagg- (conch) .

Noun Incorporation in Intransitive Verbs

Although noun incorporation in Minhast is prototypically associated with lexically transitive verbs, lexically intransitive verbs may also incorporate nouns. The processes by which NI in intransitive verbs can be divided into three major categories:

1. Nouns of non-Patient arguments (thematic relations)
2. Body Parts
3. Meteorological and other natural phenomena

Syntactic restrictions and other behaviours in intransitive NI otherwise that are extremely rare in transitive NI become more salient. Intransitive NI, where certain forms of irregularities occur, also reveal clues about the Proto-Nahenic ancestor that is more difficult to discern from transitive NI, as intransitive NI was more resistant to morphological leveling than transitive NI. This resistance can be attributed to the semantic features of the incorporated noun in the three aforementioned categories of intransitive NI.

Thematic Relations

In addition to incorporating semantic patients, which is what most people think about when talking about noun incorporation, is that Minhast, can incorporate a wider range of non-patient arguments, i.e. nouns with thematic relations differing from that of a semantic patient, can be incorporated into the Minhast verb.

Incorporated nouns interact with the semantics of its incorporating verb. Take for example the word kallutūyekaran (kallut-dūy-ek-ar-an), lit. "eat-fish-I-in.the.past-be". The incorporated noun is a semantic patient, and this is the prototypical type of noun incorporation that is seen most often in Minhast texts. In this example, incorporation of the patient noun has lowered the valency of the clause, as one would expect, and is further confirmed by the surfacing of the intransitive suffix -an.

Incorporation of Direction and Goal

Compare this with the transitive clause dūy kallutekaru (dūy kallut-ek-ar-un), lit. "Fish eat-I-in.the.past-do", a transitive clause wherein the transitive suffix -u also surfaces. Now compare this with the verb complex iknatūmanaran (ikn-tūman-ar-an), lit. "go-home-in.the.past-be". This time a noun (tūman "home"), whose incorporated noun's thematic role is that of Direction/Goal, has been incorporated. I.e. this isn't a semantically direct object incorporated into the verb; instead, a syntactically oblique argument has been incorporated into the verb complex. The non-incorporated form would be Tūman=aran iknaran (house-towards.it he went), and here we can see due to the postclitic directional case (usually called dative case) clitic =aran marks tūman "house" as an oblique argument, it's not a core, absolutive argument.

Incorporation of Location

Another example, where a noun whose thematic role is of a non-Patient role, but rather that of Location, can be incorporated by interaction with the semantics of a verb, is saššihurran (sašši-hūr-ar-an), lit. "sit-mountain-in.the.past-be". Its non-incorporated counterpart is hurki sašširan (hūr=ki sašši-ar-an), lit. "mountain=on sit-in.the.past-be". Notice that these verbs which are incorporating non-Patient nouns are usually locational, positional, or motion verbs. However, oblique noun incorporation in transitive verbs is also allowable, and the incorporated noun is usually an Instrument, e.g. Dūy kallustespirtirkaru "I ate the salmon with my hand(s)." The Patient argument dūy ("salmon"), retains its position as an independent noun phrase in the absolutive case, whilst the oblique argument sespir ("hand"), is an incorporated noun whose thematic role is that of Instrument. The valency of the sentence has not changed, as the transitive -u suffix is still retained.

Incorporation of Experiencers

Verbs that take as their core NP with the Experiencer thematic relation often incorporate oblique nominals, whose theta role of Source or Cause, to background them, thereby focusing on Experiencer. The following two examples, the first with no incorporation, and the second with incorporation of the oblique nominal tipr ("meat") are semantically equivalent. The difference between the non-incorporated and incorporated versions is one of discourse purpose.

In the first example, the speaker is explicitly adding information about the cause of his sickness, the meat (tipr), with the Ablative clitic =yār. Additionally, by explicitly mentioning the meat he is introducing new information, as it had not yet been introduced into the discourse:

1) Non-incorporated NP:

Tipiryār saxtikuldekaran
tipr=yār saxt-kuld-ek-ar-an
flesh=from INCH-sick-1S.NOM-PST-INTR
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:

2) Incorporated NP:

Saxtikulittipirkaran
saxt-kuld-tipr-ek-ar-an
INCH-sick-flesh-1S.NOM-PST-INTR
I got sick from the (infected) meat.

Incorporation of Body Parts

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:

Purrakyār saxtaharrumpakkaran.
purrak=yār saxt-tahal-ruppamak-ek-ar-an
dye=ABL INCH-be.green-face-1S.NOM-PST-INTR
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:

Redad purrakyār saxtaharrumpakkaran.
redad purrak=yār saxt-tahal-ruppamak-∅-ar-an
redad pigment=ABL INCH-be.green-face-3S.NOM-PST-INTR
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:

*Ruppamaktirekt saxtahalpurrakmaharan.
ruppamak-tirek=de saxt-tahāl-purrak-mah-ar-an
face-3NS.NOM+1S.NOM=ERG INCH-be.green-pigment-3NS.INAN.NOM-PST-INTR
(Intended): My face became green from the dye.

The correct version follows:

Purrakyār saxtaharrumpakekaran.
purrak=yār saxt-tahal-ruppamak-ek-ar-an
pigment=ABL INCH-be.green-face-1S.NOM-PST-INTR
My face became green from the dye (lit. "I became green-faced from the pigment.")

Interaction with Applicatives

Interestingly, applicatives can be added to incorporating stative verbs to promote the oblique nominal whose thematic relation is that of Cause or Source. The Ablative Applicative -raħk- is usually selected for this operation. When the applicative is applied, the oblique nominal argument purrak is promoted to Absolutive status, thereby increasing the valency; nevertheless, the verb remains intransitive:

Purrak saxtiraħkitaharrumpakekaran.
purrak saxt-raħk-tahal-ruppamak-ek-ar-an
pigment=ABL INCH-be.green-APPL.ABL-face-1S.NOM-PST-INTR
My face became green from the dye (lit. "Because of the pigment, I became green-faced.")

Incorporation of Meteorological Events and Other Natural Phenomena

Some natural phenomenon, like meteorological events, can undergo noun incorporation, as is the case with yam "sea", in this example:

Intarsaššupninnaggammantassaraššamaran.
ntar-saxt-šupn-naggammantassarat-yam-ar-an
INCIP-INCH-SIM-be.tsunami-sea-PST-INTR
The sea started to rise high until it became almost like a tsunami.

Valency and Agreement Marking Irregularities

It remains debatable as to whether stative verbs with incorporated meteorological nouns are monovalent or zero-valent. The following example lends support to a monovalent interpretation: an overt non-null pronominal agreement marker -i- indicates that an underlying third person inanimate plural absolutive argument exists and has undergone pro-drop:

Intarwakkayyuštiran.
ntar-wakkay-iyuššit-i-ar-an
INCIP-incidentally.meet-storm.cloud-3P.NEUT.ANIM.NOM-PST-INTR
Storm clouds gathered.

On the other hand, such examples of agreement marking are uncommon or extremely rare. When agreement marking does appear, they tend to occur with collective or mass nouns, such as the inherently collective iyuššit, and only with certain verbs, particularly ones indicating movement, and even then iyuššit triggers agreement marking in a small fraction among them. An example where agreement marking is lacking with the very same collective noun follows in the next example. Note that the verb -adu- ("be many"), unlike -wakkay-, is not a motion verb. The lack of an overt agreement marker with -adu- leads to a zero-valent interpretation:

Intasaxtaduyyuštaran.
nta-saxt-adu-iyuššit-ar-an
INT-INCH-be.many-storm.cloud-PST-INTR
The sky became thick with storm clouds (lit. "The storm clouds became quite many.")

Similarly, when iyuššit is incorporated into the positional verb -puħt- "to stand upright", agreement marking does not occur:

Puħtuyyuštaran.
puħt-iyuššit-ar-an
stand.upright-storm.cloud-PST-INTR
The storm clouds hung (over us) (lit. "The storm clouds stood upright")

Diachronic factors may explain the irregularities involving agreement marking for a subset of incorporated nouns interacting with a subset of verbs. The Proto-Nahenic ancestor originally had an extensive hierarchical noun class system, remnants of which remain in Minhast's relative Nahónda as evidenced by even more irregularities in the latter, and in its other relative Nankôre, whose elaborate nominal hierarchy may be a preservation of the protolanguage's original noun class system or an extensive elaboration of it. The irregular agreement marking triggered by -iyuššit- among a subset of a select class of verbs suggests that the noun once fell within a noun class of a particular animacy level. When the protolanguage split, the original noun class system were restructured in the daughter languages; further reductions and loss, particularly in both Minhast and Nahónda, left a residue in the form of the irregular agreement marking seen today.