An Investigation into the Incorporation in Persian based on Distributed Morphology
Journal Title: Journal of Researches in Linguistics - Year 2020, Vol 12, Issue 2
Abstract
Abstract This study investigates the nature and structure of Persian incorporation within the framework of Distributed Morphology (DM) as a fully synthetic approach that considers morphology as syntax. In this approach, the Root selects for an argument, and then the Root must be merged with that argument or adjunct before it merges with its category-determining feature bundle. So Roots allow being incorporated into them. They are not yet included in any category. In order to become nominal or verbal, they have to incorporate further into a category-creating head. Some linguists (Arkan, 2006; Karimi, 1997; Shaghaghi, 2007; Spencer, 1991, 1995) considered the incorporation process as a morphological phenomenon because within the framework of Baker's synthetic theory, data from their understudied languages violates Baker's syntactic principles, but DM can describe incorporated constructions inconsistent with syntactic conditions of Baker’s synthetic theory. It seems that DM, unlike previous approaches, can solve some challenges, such as combining the syntactic function of incorporated construction of concrete structures (Gerdts, 1988), changing the syntactic function of the element derived from incorporation (Baker, 1988), and some restrictions on modifier stranding for merging with verbs (Baker, 1988, 1996). The analysis made in this article shows that syntactic approaches need to be reconsidered to explain incorporation. Keywords: Incorporation, Distributed Morphology, Compounding, Argument, Adjunct, Persian Introduction Incorporation is a process that has received much attention in the last century, and from the beginning, there has been disagreement between its nature as a structural or syntactic phenomenon. Gerdts (1988, p. 84) defines incorporation as a combination of one word (typically a verb or preposition) with another element (usually a noun, pronoun, or adverb) that combines the syntactic function of both elements. The notion given in this definition that states a compound presents a "combined syntactic function" of the components of incorporation seems vague because the compound usually has a head and a descriptive element. The head determines the category of the whole compound. Therefore, the combination of two roots cannot mean the combination of two categories because there can only be one resulting category for the combination. Mithun (1984) takes the position that while incorporation is a process that walks the line of morphology and syntax, it is a morphological process only. This is the opposition to Baker and those prescribing to the Principles and Parameters framework, who claim that the morphology patterns after the syntax and that morphology does not operate independently of syntax (Baker, 1988, p. 68; Marantz, 1985, pp. 222-23). Baker (1996, pp. 291-295) claims that the noun incorporation that involves the primary object of the verb differs significantly from all other instances of incorporation such that it is a special syntactic process and the other cases of incorporation (adjective, adverb, etc.) are a kind of compounding. In the analyses conducted in the Persian language, no theoretical agreement has been reached on this process's nature. Since DM has a purely syntactic view of morphology and incorporation and considers morphology as the syntax, it seems that this theory, unlike previous non-lexicalist approaches, provides a uniform analysis of noun incorporation and be able to explain types of incorporation (adjectives, adverbs, etc.) in the form of a syntactic approach. According to DM, the structure of incorporation in the Persian language can be divided into different types based on the roots, the target of incorporation, and the elements generated as their first-sister element. Some roots (especially those that can become verbs) have argument structure, and the first-sister element, if appropriate, can be interpreted as satisfying that argument structure, generating argumentative synthetic incorporation. Other such roots, especially those with event structure, can be modified in the same way as their corresponding verb can. In such cases, an incorporated first-sister modifier results in a modification of synthetic incorporation. Materials and Methods In this research, as descriptive-analytical research, the references related to the article's subject have been first studied in a library method to collect the required information and data in Persian. Also, other information needed to analyze this data, such as the information needed to introduce the types of incorporation and literature review, in the same way, were collected by referring to resources available in libraries, such as Persian and English books and articles. The present study is a kind of theoretical study and conducted in the framework of DM theory. In other words, the analysis of linguistic data is based on a theoretical framework of DM. Discussion and Conclusion Contrary to Baker's syntactic theory, DM theory provides a consistent analysis of incorporation based on which other incorporations can be explained, including adjunct incorporation. Also, the problem with the analysis of incorporation in lexical approaches is that incorporation is considered equivalent to one word and the morphology output in these approaches. In addition, a new entry per incorporation is added to the Lexicon of the language, which is a kind of memory load. On the other hand, incorporation is also a productive process based on which numerous entries can be considered, but there is no need to consider a separate entry for each incorporation by providing a syntactic analysis. Different types of incorporated structures can be described by the syntactic rule. Despite Baker's syntactic theory that claims the grammatical function of lexical categories changes with their head-to-head movement and merging with the verb, the DM approach claims that in the syntactic analysis of incorporated constructions, the grammatical function does not change because its category-determining feature bundle merges with the ROOTs after merging bare ROOTs with each other. This can be realized phonologically in the form of abstract morphemes without phonetic content in the phonetic form. In the study of incorporation in different languages, many linguists, according to Baker’s syntactic principle of "Head Movement Restriction", have not accepted the syntactic analysis of the incorporation because, in the studied languages, incorporated constructions consist of elements such as Instrument, Location, and Goal that merge with the verb and violate Baker's syntactic incorporation conditions. Some argue that incorporation is a morphological construction because they believe that the syntactic approach is incapable of explaining the various types of incorporation. While the DM view can explain the adjunct merging with the verb in Persian because, according to the event structure of some verbs, the adjuncts can be in the position of the first sister and under the domination of the verb. Therefore, it seems that the DM approach can solve some challenges, such as the compounding syntactic function of incorporated constructions, changing the grammatical function of these structures, and not allowing adjuncts to merge with the verb despite the existence of this type of incorporation in many languages.
Authors and Affiliations
Gelareh Nazari PhD Candidate in General Linguistics, Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran. nazariglr72@yahoo. com Jalal Rahimian * Professor of Linguistics, Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran jrahimian@rose. shirazu. ac. ir Mehrzad Mansouri Associate Professor of General Linguistics, Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran. mmansouri@shirazu. ac. ir
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- EP ID EP705249
- DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.22108/jrl.2020.117723.1368
- Views 75
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