Converging Tonosyntactic Supercategories: Crossing the Noun-Verb Barrier in Jamsay

Abstract:Dogon NPs divide modifiers into two opposing supercategories defined by convergent semantic and tonosyntactic properties. Dogon verbs undergo various tonal overlays controlled by tense-aspect-mood-polarity suffixes. One Dogon language, Jamsay, similarly systematized tonal patterns in verbal inflection. The tonosyntactically active elements are reference restrictors in NPs and negative suffixes in verbs; these combine to constitute a language-specific “superdupercategory,” for which a set-theoretic semantics is proposed. “Super-dupercategories” appear also in the neighboring isolate Bangime and parallels to the diachrony of supercategories in Wubuy (Australia). Binary supercategories are simultaneously systematic and language-specific, hence cultural, but index or affect nothing outside of language. They fit into no contemporary theory of language, but recall early and mid-twentieth century ideas about the enchantment of formal patterns.