{"title":"When Sound Change Obscures Morphosyntax: Insights from Seediq","authors":"Victoria Chen","doi":"10.1353/ol.2023.a913562","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The Formosan language Seediq displays an understudied case of morphological opacity, where a single phonological innovation has resulted in the syncretism of five Proto-Austronesian functional affixes in affirmative declaratives. How and why these affixes remain functionally intact in modern Seediq has important implications for understanding the tension and interplay between semantic transparency and morphological opacity. In this squib, I demonstrate that the marginal overlap of these affixes' lexical subcategorization may have reduced obstacles to learnability and processing, enabling them to remain functionally distinct despite the absence of morphological distinctions. The case of Seediq therefore highlights the often-neglected fact that sound change-induced morphological opacity may obscure but not necessarily obliterate syntax.","PeriodicalId":51848,"journal":{"name":"OCEANIC LINGUISTICS","volume":"119 1","pages":"289 - 303"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"OCEANIC LINGUISTICS","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ol.2023.a913562","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:The Formosan language Seediq displays an understudied case of morphological opacity, where a single phonological innovation has resulted in the syncretism of five Proto-Austronesian functional affixes in affirmative declaratives. How and why these affixes remain functionally intact in modern Seediq has important implications for understanding the tension and interplay between semantic transparency and morphological opacity. In this squib, I demonstrate that the marginal overlap of these affixes' lexical subcategorization may have reduced obstacles to learnability and processing, enabling them to remain functionally distinct despite the absence of morphological distinctions. The case of Seediq therefore highlights the often-neglected fact that sound change-induced morphological opacity may obscure but not necessarily obliterate syntax.
期刊介绍:
Oceanic Linguistics is the only journal devoted exclusively to the study of the indigenous languages of the Oceanic area and parts of Southeast Asia. The thousand-odd languages within the scope of the journal are the aboriginal languages of Australia, the Papuan languages of New Guinea, and the languages of the Austronesian (or Malayo-Polynesian) family. Articles in Oceanic Linguistics cover issues of linguistic theory that pertain to languages of the area, report research on historical relations, or furnish new information about inadequately described languages.