Kabyle Mini Workshop
Wednesday, April 13th, 2016
Education Building, room 129
11:00–11:40
- Lydia Felice: Feminine plural noun formation
- Sarah Mihuc: Noun-initial a- and the Construct State
- Francesco Gentile: On the morphosyntax of causatives in Kabyle
- Alyssa Gold: Complements and adjuncts in Kabyle noun phrases
11:40–12:00 – Questions & Break
12:00–12:30
- Becca Hoff: The role of sonority sequencing in Kabyle syllable formation
- Martha Schwarz & Bing’er Jiang: The role of sonority in schwa epenthesis: Stem level and beyond
12:30–1:10 – Lunch (provided for class members)
1:10–2:10 – Karim Achab: Lexical roots, nouns and nominal aspect (abstract below)
2:10–2:50
- Anisa Amin: Methods of nonverbal negation in Kabyle
- Michaela Socolof: Two functions of ara in Kabyle
- Dejan Milacic: Aḏ and ara in irrealis and negation
- Melanie Custo-Blanch: Questions and clitics in Kabyle
2:50–3:10 – Questions & Break
3:10–3:50
- Alex Elias: Kabyle “double” consonants: Long or strong?
- Jeff LaMontagne: Motiver ses choix: Examining variability in schwa placement and acoustics
- Daniel Biggs: A question of word order in Kabyle: VSO vs. SVO
- Ines Patino Anaya: ḏ as a copular particle
3:50–4:00 – Questions and wrap-up
Lexical roots, nouns, and nominal aspect – Karim Achab
It has been widely accepted in Afroasiatic linguistics that verbs and nouns in Afroasiatic languages are derived from lexical roots, considered as the smallest building block in the lexicon[1]. A lexical root is traditionally defined as the basic entity that conveys the semantics of a word but which lack a category feature. For instance the Tamazight root mɣr conveys the meaning of ‘tall’, ‘big’, ‘elder’, etc. It may yield a noun (eg. amɣar ‘old man’) if associated with the category feature [n], or a verb (eg. imɣur ‘grow up’, if associated with the category feature [v]. Lexical roots consist of consonants only; they are later combined with thematic vowels to form the (word) stem. Much has been said in the literature as regards the thematic (or stem) vowels associated with verbs, which indicate inflection (tense/aspect and agreement), as well as the initial vowel of nouns, which results from incorporation into the noun of an old determiner[2]. However, analyses regarding the inner vowel of nouns are almost inexistent, except in the situations where this vowel alternates with respect to number, known as internal plurals in the literature[3]. In the example amɣar ‘old man’, the internal vowel is by no means associated with number as the plural imɣarn is derived by means of the suffix –n. In this presentation, I argue that the inner vowel is associated with perfective (bound, telic or accomplished) aspect. Nominal aspect is not as investigated as verbal aspect in the literature, but it has been the topic of a number of studies[4] which point out to some inherent aspectual properties of nouns. However, unlike the aspect investigated in such studies, which is often of the type mass/count distinction, the nominal aspect that is dealt with in the present study is of the perfective/imperfective type, which is more reminiscent of verbal lexical aspect (or aktionsart). An example of a perfective nominal aspect in English is provided by nouns derived from participles such as a grown-up or writing where the perfective and imperfective aspect is inherited from the past and present participle, respectively. However, even in English, this type of nominal aspect is not restricted to nouns derived from participles. They are for instance implicit in deverbal nominals derived by means of the suffix –ion such as construction, inspection, etc. Similarly, some basic nouns, no matter the language, refer to an entity that is inherently perfective or accomplished. For instance, if we say a ‘house’ or an ‘adult’, these words are understood in their accomplished state or aspect (perfective, bounded or telic). Exploring data from Tamazight, I argue that the primary property of the inner vowel of nouns is aspectual and that in the case of internal plural, this aspectual vowel is put into contribution to indicate number. I further demonstrate that aspect is an essential property of the internal structure of nouns, without which the nominal structure cannot be complete. Finally, I explore the ways in which aspect interacts with other nominal properties such as class and number along the nominal spine.
[1] With the exception of Bohas (2000) who suggests the concept of etymon as an alternative.
[2] See Achab (2003, 2012) and references cited therein.
[3] There are three types of plurals in Tamazight: (i) internal, obtained by changing the internal vowel, (ii) external, obtained by means of the plural suffix –n and (iii) the mixt plurals, which is a combination of (i) and (ii).
[4] See among others Rijkhoff (1991, 2002), Nordlinger and Sadler’s (2004) and I Wayan Arka (2013) and references cited therin.