Affix Positions and Zones in the Athapaskan Verb Complex: Ahtna and Navajo

Kari, James

doi:10.1086/466129

Cited by 40 publications

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“…8 The category of first person inclusive does not make any number distinctions in the classifier stem and so falls outside of this system. As exhibited in the template above, Murrinh-Patha verbs share many of the properties traditionally associated with templatic systems in the literature, and as typified by Athapaskan languages (Young and Morgan 1987;Kari 1989;Rice 2000, pp. 1-2 among many others). This suggests that accounts which treat Athapaskan and other such languages as non-templatic might, in principle, be appropriate for MurrinhPatha also.…”

Section: Basic Verbal Structurementioning

confidence: 94%

Verbal morphology in Murrinh-Patha: evidence for templates

Nordlinger

2010

Morphology

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If questions concerning affix ordering are among the central ones in morphological theory, then languages with templatic morphology appear to provide the least interesting answer, since in these languages affix order must be simply stipulated in the form of arbitrary position classes. For this reason, much recent research into templatic morphology has attempted to show that affix order in such languages is in fact governed by underlying semantic or syntactic principles. The most fully articulated position in this respect is that of Rice (Morpheme order and semantic scope, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000), who provides a comprehensive analysis of morpheme order across the Athapaskan languages and argues that it is largely determined by universal principles of semantic (and syntactic) scope. If these principles of word formation are truly universal, we should expect to find evidence for them in all similarly 'templatic' systems, including the head-marking languages of Australia. In this context, I discuss the order of verbal affixes in Murrinh-Patha and show that these data cannot be adequately accounted for by syntactic or semantic accounts of affix ordering, but rather provide strong support for the existence of templatic organization in morphological systems.Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 general discussion). To these questions, however, languages with templatic morphology appear to provide the least interesting answer, since in these languages affix order must simply be stipulated in the form of arbitrary position classes. For this reason, much recent research into templatic morphology has attempted to show that affix order in such languages is not in fact templatic, but can be seen to be governed by underlying semantic or syntactic principles (e.g. Baker 1985;Bybee 1985;Rice 2000;McDonough 2000). It remains an issue of some debate whether or not such approaches can be extended to all languages with templatic morphological structures (see, among others,

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Section: Basic Verbal Structurementioning

confidence: 94%

Verbal morphology in Murrinh-Patha: evidence for templates

Nordlinger

2010

Morphology

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“…As the title indicates, the author's primary purpose is to expound a hypothesis, developed over many years, regarding the nature of word formation in the Athapaskan verb. Rice indeed presents a compelling argument that morpheme order within the verb complex can be predicted based on semantic principles of scope, obviating the need for a template, which is assumed in most previous approaches (for example, Kari 1989). But the book's title and its attendant hypothesis may obscure the enormous typological value of the work.…”

Section: Reviewed By Gary Holton Alaska Native Language Centermentioning

confidence: 99%

Book Reviews

2002

Linguistic Typology

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“…These languages are all part of the Na Dene family, which also includes Navajo and Apache (Mithun, 1999). The complexity of verbs, nouns, directionals and word order provide many contrasts with English and contribute to the difficulty English speakers often have in learning the language (Jones & Jette, 2000;Kari, 1989;Thompson, 1987).…”

Section: Context Of the Study Alaskan Athabascan Language Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Latent Speaker: Attaining Adult Fluency in an Endangered Language

Basham

Fathman

2008

Int. Jnl of Bilingual Edu. & Bilingualism

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This paper focuses on how latent knowledge of an ancestral or heritage language affects subsequent acquisition by adults. The ‘latent speaker ’ is defined as an individual raised in an environment where the ancestral language was spoken but who did not become a speaker of that language. The study examines how attitudes, latent knowledge and learning settings affect the subsequent acquisition process of latent speakers of Alaskan Athabascan languages. The first phase of the study focuses on two successful adult learners and their progress towards developing fluency. The second phase includes an analysis of the backgrounds, attitudes and language proficiency of 15 beginning adult heritage language learners. The results suggest that latent speakers have a number of characteristics distinguishing them from other language learners which may both aid and inhibit language learning. Their receptive skills surpass productive skills, they remember common expressions and emotion-laden vocabulary and their productive phonology is advanced. However, these learners tend to have a low estimate of their language abilities and report being hesitant to speak. These results provide information on factors affecting heritage language acquisition and have implications for adult language programmes. doi: 10.2167/beb428.

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Affix Positions and Zones in the Athapaskan Verb Complex: Ahtna and Navajo

Cited by 40 publications

References 0 publications

Verbal morphology in Murrinh-Patha: evidence for templates

Verbal morphology in Murrinh-Patha: evidence for templates

Book Reviews

The Latent Speaker: Attaining Adult Fluency in an Endangered Language

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