Name

Section

5.6 Special Topic: Grammaticalization of Semantic Properties

Semantic features or categories that are overtly expressed in the grammar of a language are said to be grammaticalized. One example involves plurality. The semantic feature of plurality is grammaticalized in European languages: it appears as a morphological affix on the noun (e.g., the English plural {S,z, iz)). In contrast, Asian languages (e.g., Japanese and Chinese) do not have a morphological means to mark plurality. Another example involves the semantic feature of gender. English has lost most of its gender marking, but overt expression of this feature is still part of German, Swedish, French, and Spanish.

The semantic feature of physical shape is grammaticalized in a few Navajo verb roots. A speaker who wants to talk about "giving" or "holding" something in Navajo must choose a verb that indicates the physical properties of the given or held object. A few of the three dozen or so roots for Navajo handling verbs are given below.

	Navajo form	English gloss
1.	yish'aah	"I'm	handling one round or bulky object"
2.	yishyi'	"I'm	handling one bulky object"
3.	yishjaa'	"I'm	handling granular plural objects"
4.	yishjool	"I'm	handling noncompact matter (wool, hair, etc.)"
5.	yishkg	"I'm	handling something in a vessel"
6.	yishla	"I'm	handling a slender, flexible object"
7.	yisht€€h	"I'm	handling a slender, stiff object"
8.	yishtsoos	"I'm	handling a flexible, flat object"

In its system of classifiers, Chinese also grammaticalizes physical properties of objects. Some examples of the dozens of these classifiers that appear before nouns are given below. (The diacritics on the morphemes are tone markers.)

Chinese form	English gloss
l. yibEnN	"one (classifier) N" (used with books, notebooks)

2.yi zhgng N "one (classifier) N" (used with flat, sheetlike objects)

3.yi gen N "one (classifier) N" (used with long, slender objects)

4.yi k&N "one (classifier) N" (used with plants)

5.yi kuai N "one (classifier) N" (used with pieces or lumps of an object)

6. yi tou N

"one (classifier) N" (used with things with heads, such as cattle)

6I

U

9a

.Lc

0

0"

E

-

0

CU0

0

Questions

A.There is overlap between the semantic properties that Navajo and Chinese grammaticalize. But now consider how English speakers would refer to certain objects in noun phrase constructions. Fill in an appropriate noun in the following English noun phrases:

1. five		of chewing gum (note awkwardness of *five chewing gums)
2. five		of dynamite (note awkwardness of *five dynamites)
3.	five	of coal (note awkwardness of *five coals)
4.	five	of paper (note awkwardness of *five papers)
5.	five	of cattle (note awkwardness of *five cattles)
6. five		of wood (note awkwardness of *five woods)

B.Supply two more examples of the type of English noun phrase given in question A.

C.What Navajo root would you use when you handle

1.one piece of uncooked spaghetti

2.one piece of cooked spaghetti

3.a pot of cooked spaghetti

4.a handful of cooked spaghetti

D.Compare and contrast Chinese, Navajo, and English with respect to the importance that the physical shape of objects plays in constructing expressions in each language.

This page intentionally left blank