Morphological Complexity and Conceptualization : The Human Body

In this squib, I want to argue that the morphological structure of words is, at least to some extent, motivated. As an example I have choosen the partonomic (and for the less part taxonomic) nomenclature of the human body. While important work by Brown et alii (1973), Anderson (1978) and Schladt (1997) exists on this topic, these analyses focus on the conceptualization of body-parts and their semantics, but not on their morphological representation. In the following, I want to check two predictions about the morphological complexity of lexical items denoting parts of the human body. The first assumption is that the most canonical body-parts are always expressed by mono-lexematic items. The second one consists in the assumption that body-parts of the lowest levels in the hierarchy are always morphologically complex. A set of six body-parts has been analysed in 27 languages. The set consists of two canonical (HEAD and EAR) and of one from the lowest level of the hierarchy (TOENAIL). For this I have adopted a sample from Schladt (1997) and a small one compiled by mysel

Poligenesi lessicale e dati "empirici"

Zweitveröffentlichun

On Inflection /

The volume is dedicated to the German linguist Wolfgang Ullrich “Gustav” Wurzel (1940-2001), who has influenced linguistic thought in his work on paradigm-based morphology. All contributors to the volume deal with Wurzel’s work and thinking, who in his theoretical writings focused on the concepts of naturalness, markedness and complexity in human language. The authors discuss diachronic and typological aspects of morphology, i.e. the nature of paradigms, the rise and fall of inflectional morphology, and the development and systems of gender marking, also in regard to the interface with phonology and syntax.The volume is dedicated to the German linguist Wolfgang Ullrich “Gustav” Wurzel (1940-2001), who has influenced linguistic thought in his work on paradigm-based morphology. All contributors to the volume deal with Wurzel’s work and thinking, who in his theoretical writings focused on the concepts of naturalness, markedness and complexity in human language. The authors discuss diachronic and typological aspects of morphology, i.e. the nature of paradigms, the rise and fall of inflectional morphology, and the development and systems of gender marking, also in regard to the interface with phonology and syntax.Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed Mar. 30, 2016