VN Phrasal Compounds in Cinyanja
Keywords:
Cinyanja, V-N Compound, Lexical Integrity Hypothesis, Locatives, Verb Phrase
Abstract
This article aims at discussing verb-noun compounds with a locative prefix in the nominal part of the compounds in Cinyanja. The singular and plural forms of the compounds have been presented to show that the complex forms are nouns. With regard to the internal structure, the compounds show that they have a phrasal structure. Since verb-noun compounds in this study resemble the structure of synthetic compounds in English, the analysis of these words followed the syntactic approach. The results show that internally, the compounds with a locative have a verb phrase internal structure, and follow the verb-argument word order. In the syntactic context, it is shown that the compounds with the phrasal internal structure function as determiner phrases because they can appear in the subject and object positions in simple sentences and relative clauses. Further, the entire compound word can be modified by adjectives, and be coordinated with simple nouns, which suggests that the compounds with a locative are indeed determiner phrases. Finally, with the application of the lexical integrity hypothesis, the results reveal that the compounds with the locative in the nominal part are genuine compounds because they adhere to the lexical integrity principle.References
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2. Ackema, P., and Neeleman, A. (2001). Competition between Syntax and Morphology. In Legendre, G., Grimshaw, J., and Vikner, S. (eds). Optimality Theoretic Syntax. MIT Press, pp. 29–60.
3. Ackema, P., and Neeleman, A.D. (2004). Beyond Morphology: Interface Conditions on Word Formation. Studies in Theoretical Linguistics.
4. Altakhaineh, A.R.M. (2016a). Compounding in Modern Standard Arabic, Jordanian Arabic and English. PhD Dissertation, Newcastle University.
5. Altakhaineh, A.R.M. (2016b). What is a Compound? The Main Criteria for Compoundhood. ExELL (Explorations in English Language and Linguistics), 4 (1), pp. 58–86.
6. Anderson, S.R. (1992). A-Morphous Morphology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
7. Booij, G. (2009). Compounding and Construction Morphology. In Lieber, R., and Štekauer, P. (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Compounding. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 201–216.
8. Bresnan, J., and Mchombo, S. (1995). The Lexical Integrity Principle: Evidence from Bantu Languages. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 13 (2), pp. 181–254.
9. Carstens, V. (2008). DP in Bantu and Romance. In Demuth, K., and De Cat, C. (eds). The Bantu-Romance Connection. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 131–166.
10. Carstens, V. (1993). On Nominal Morphology and DP Structure. In Mchombo, S.A. (ed.), Theoretical Aspects of Bantu Grammar. Stanford: CSLI, pp. 151–180.
11. Di Sciullo, A.M., and Williams, E. (1987). On the Definition of Word. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
12. Fabb, N. (1998). Compounding. In Spencer, A., and Zwicky, A.M. (eds). The Handbook of Morphology. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 66–83.
13. Fabb, N.A.J. (1984). Syntactic Affixation. PhD Dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston.
14. Fiorentino, R.D. (2006). Lexical Structure and the Nature of Linguistic Representations. PhD Dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park.
15. Harley, H. (2009). Compounding in Distributed Morphology. In Lieber, R., and Štekauer, P. (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Compounding. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 129–144.
16. Haspelmath, M., and Sims, A.D. (2010). Understanding Morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
17. Iordachioaia, G., Alexiadou, A., and Pairamidis, A. (2017). Morphosyntactic Sources for Nominal Synthetic Compounds in English and Greek. Zeitschrift für Wortbildung / Journal of Word Formation, 1 (1), pp. 47–72.
18. Kiefer, F. (2009). Uralic, Finno-Ugric: Hungarian. In Lieber, R., and Štekauer, P. (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Compounding. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 527–541.
19. Lieber, R., and Štekauer, P. (2009). Introduction: Status and Definition of Compounding. In Lieber, R., and Štekauer, P. (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Compounding. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
20. Lieber, R. (2009a). Introducing Morphology. New York: Cambridge University Press.
21. Lieber, R. (2009b). A Lexical Semantic Approach to Compounding. In Lieber, R., and Štekauer, P. (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Compounding. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 78–104.
22. Lieber, R. (1992). Deconstructing Morphology: Word Formation in Syntactic Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
23. Lapointe, S. (1980). A Theory of Grammatical Agreement. PhD Dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
24. Mchombo, S. (2004). The Syntax of Chichewa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
25. Miti, L. (2001). A Linguistic Analysis of Cinsenga: A Bantu Language Spoken in Zambia and Malawi. Cape Town: The Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS).
26. Olsen, S. (2001). Copulative Compounds: A Closer Look at the Interface between Morphology and Syntax. In Yearbook of Morphology 2000. Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp. 279–320.
27. Plag, I. (2003). Word-Formation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
28. Ralli, A. (2010). Compounding Versus Derivation. In Scalise, S., and Vogel, I. (eds). Cross-Disciplinary Issues in Compounding. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 57–76.
29. Roeper, T., and Siegel, M.E.A. (1978). A Lexical Transformation for Verbal Compounds. Linguistic Inquiry, 9, pp. 199–260.
30. Scalise, S., Fabregas, A., and Forza, F. (2009). Exocentricity in Compounding. Gengo Kenkyu, 135, pp. 49–84.
31. Selkirk, E.O. (1982). The Syntax of Words. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Published
2020-09-30
How to Cite
Njobvu, N. (2020) “VN Phrasal Compounds in Cinyanja”, Journal of Law and Social Sciences, 3(1), pp. 68-80. doi: https://doi.org/10.53974/unza.jlss.3.1.453.
Section
Social Sciences