Chukchi Denominal Verb Construction: Overview and Relation to Noun Incorporation

Abstract

This paper is devoted to denominal verb constructions (DNV construction, in a sense of [Gerdts & Marlett 2008]) in Chukchi language. The goals of this paper are twofold. The first aim is purely descriptive: we will clarify the description of morphosyntax and semantics of six affixal verbs which participate in the formation of DNVs in Chukchi, and also suggest a new way of analyzing the polysemy of these and other Chukchi affixal predicates. The second aim of the paper is to compare DNVs in Chukchi to the closely related phenomenon of Noun Incorporation in the same language. We will highlight the similarities between the two constructions and examine different approaches ([Mithun 1997], [Johns 2007], [Gerdts & Marlett 2008], [Muro 2008] and [Barrie 2006]) to the relationship between these phenomena. We will show that it is natural to analyze Chukchi DNVs as a result of the grammaticalization of noun incorporation construction.