Variation in the lexical semantics of property concept roots: Evidence from Wá⋅šiw.

Abstract

Whether the lexical semantics of property concepts (words canonically expressed as adjectives in languages with that category; Dixon 1982, Thompson 1989) show variation is a matter of recent debate. At one end of the analytical spectrum, Francez & Koontz-Garboden (2017) contend that their meanings may vary in a way revealed by superficial morphosyntactic behavior. At the other end, Menon & Pancheva (2014) argue that they are universally built on abstract mass-denoting roots, a commonality that can be obscured by (covert) morphosyntax introducing possessive meaning. On the basis of differing strategies for property concept verb formation in Wá⋅šiw (isolate/Hokan, USA), we argue in this paper that there is evidence for variation in the lexical semantics of property concept roots, with some denoting predicates of individuals and others having abstract mass-type meanings, contrary to universalist assumptions. Crucially, the behavior of property concept verb formation in Wá⋅šiw lends itself to an analysis in which possessive semantics is implicated only when it is morphologically observable. By drawing an analogy to canonical possession in the language, we argue moreover that this extra morphology in property concept verbs is best understood as a light verb that both directly categorizes property concept roots and introduces a possessive semantics. These observations provide evidence for the claim that at least some variation in this domain is underpinned by variation in lexical semantics, and more generally for the idea that variation in the lexical semantics of open-class elements drives at least some variation in morphosyntax.