Headedness in Word Formation and Lexical Semantics: Evidence from Italiot and Cypriot

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Headedness in Word Formation and Lexical Semantics: Evidence from Italiot and Cypriot Headedness in Word Formation and Lexical Semantics: evidence from Italiot and Cypriot by Marios Andreou A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the UNIVERSITY OF PATRAS School of Humanities and Social Sciences Department of Philology May, 2014 University of Patras School of Humanities and Social Sciences Department of Philology Headedness in Word Formation and Lexical Semantics: evidence from Italiot and Cypriot by Marios Andreou A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisor: Prof. Angela Ralli (University of Patras) Co-supervisors: Prof. Rochelle Lieber (University of New Hampshire) Prof. Brian D. Joseph (Ohio State University) May, 2014 ii Declaration This thesis is a presentation of my original research work. Wherever contributions of others are involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly, with due reference to the literature, and acknowledgement of collaborative research and discussions. Signature iii iv Abstract The present thesis aims to sort out some of the confusions associated with head, focusing on headedness in Word Formation and Lexical Semantics. In particular, the purpose of the present thesis is to enquire into the notion head focusing on the following three issues: (a) delimitation, (b) position, and (c) presence and absence of head in morphological configurations. An overview of the way head has been used in morphology and syntax (Part I), reveals that there are widely divergent views with respect to the definition and properties of this notion. The much perplexed picture which emerges from the application of the various headship criteria to word-formation in Part II, reveals that most of the assumed head- like notions, such as the subcategorizand, might very well not be relevant to the head- nonhead asymmetry. The discussion of the results of the application of these criteria argues for a strictly categorial definition of head, in that the head for the purposes of morphology should be identified with the category determinant. As far as headedness in Lexical Semantics is concerned, I argue that the identifica- tion of head by the criterion of hyponymy should be reconsidered, for the hyponymy v vi test fails to identify the head of various arguably headed morphological configurations. In addition, I show that hyponymy is a relation which holds between the pragmatic bod- ies of two items and not between their grammatical skeletons and argue that the head for the purposes of Lexical Semantics should be identified with the ontological class determinant. The application of the notion head to the creation of semantically complex configura- tions reveals that non-argument-taking inflection, prefixation, and evaluative morphol- ogy should be accounted for by the same mechanism, namely subordination of functions without co-indexation. I also argue that morphemes should be classified according to two main criteria: (a) the semantic features which are relevant to each morpheme and (b) the internal organization of the lexical-semantic representation of a morpheme. In this respect, the distinction between prefixes and suffixes which is based on the linear order of morphemes cannot be used as a criterion in Lexical Semantics. Finally, the compar- ison between the prefix re- and the plural suffix -s reveals that these two affixes have shared properties (similar skeletal organization and quantificational features) which can only be accounted for under a lexical-semantic approach. As far as the position of head is concerned, in Part III of the present thesis I focus on system-internal and system-external factors which govern constituent order in mor- phology with special focus on Greek compounding. More specifically, although Greek compounds are generally right-headed, I present and analyze a number of left-headed compounds from various evolutionary stages of the Greek language and its dialects (with focus on the dialects spoken in Southern Italy). I comment on whether left-headedness in the dialects of Southern Italy could be attributed to the contact of Greek with Ital- ian which exhibits left-headed compounds and present data from previous evolutionary stages of the Greek language which shows that the particular behaviour of these forma- tions should not be attributed to language interference. The analysis of left-headed compounds reveals that the order of constituents in com- pounds may not be autonomous from syntax since the head-nonhead linearization inside compounds cannot change without previous change in the head-nonhead order in syntac- tic constructions. This conclusion allows one to comment on the validity of the Lexical Integrity Hypothesis and the idea that the order of elements inside compound words only obeys morphological settings. I also raise the question of whether there are other vii non-morphological linearization settings inside compounds (e.g. temporal iconicity in co-ordinate compounds). Finally, in Part IV, I offer a detailed investigation of the presence and absence of head, which cut across the endocentricity and exocentricity distinction. In particular, I present data which militates against recent proposals that exocentricity should be iden- tified with non-compositionality and that it can be split into morphological, semantic, and categorial. In addition, based on the distinction between nominal and adjectival bahuvrihis, I argue that the former should be analyzed via metonymy and that the latter can be better understood if we examine the relation between compounding and deriva- tion. I also tackle the issue of the inconsistency between the structure suggested by the morphophonological properties and the structure suggested by the meaning of exocen- tric compounds (bracketing paradoxes). Finally, I comment on the distinction between de-compounds and exocentric compounds and argue that exocentricity is compounding for the purposes of derivation. viii Περίληψη Η παρούσα διατριβή εξετάζει την έννοια κεφαλή (head) στο επίπεδο της Μορφολογίας και της Λεξικής Σημασιολογίας με έμφαση στα εξής τρία ερωτήματα: (α) ορισμός, (β) θέση, και (γ) παρουσία και απουσία κεφαλής σε μορφολογικούς σχηματισμούς. Όπως δείχνω στο Μέρος 1, στη διεθνή βιβλιογραφία υπάρχουν αποκλίνουσες απόψεις σχετικά με τον ορισμό και τις ιδιότητες της έννοιας κεφαλή. Η κεφαλή ορίζεται συνήθως με ένα πολύ γενικό τρόπο, ο οποίος καθιστά αρκετά δύσκολη την εφαρμογή της έννοιας αυτής στη μορφολογική ανάλυση. Η εφαρμογή των διάφορων κριτηρίων τα οποία έχουν προταθεί σχετικά με την κεφαλή στο Μέρος 2, δείχνει ότι αρκετοί όροι, όπως για παράδειγμα ο υποκατηγοριοποιητής (subcategorizand), δεν σχετίζονται με την ασυμμε- τρία ανάμεσα σε κεφαλή και μη-κεφαλή. Η ανάλυση των αποτελεσμάτων της εφαρ- μογής των κριτηρίων αυτών δείχνει ότι η κεφαλή σε επίπεδο μορφολογίας πρέπει να ταυτιστεί με τον κατηγοριακό καθοριστή (category determinant). Ένας βασικός στόχος της παρούσας διατριβής είναι και ο ορισμός της κεφαλής σε επίπεδο Λεξικής Σημασιολογίας και η εφαρμογή της έννοιας αυτής στο σχηματισμό σκελετών μέσω της παράθεσης και υπόταξης λειτουργιών (functions). Αναλυτικότερα, ix x δείχνω ότι η αναγνώριση της κεφαλής με βάση το κριτήριο της υπωνυμίας αντιμετωπίζει αρκετά προβλήματα καθώς η υπωνυμία συσχετίζει τα Πραγματολογικά Σώματα και όχι τους Γραμματικούς Σκελετούς δύο στοιχείων και υποστηρίζω ότι η κεφαλή όσον αφορά στη Λεξική Σημασιολογία, πρέπει να ταυτιστεί με τον οντολογικό καθοριστή (ontological class determinant). Η εφαρμογή της έννοιας κεφαλή στο σχηματισμό σημασιολογικά πολύπλοκων σχη- ματισμών δείχνει ότι η κλίση, η προθηματοποίηση, και η αξιολογική μορφολογία, οι οποίες δεν φέρουν ορίσματα, πρέπει να αναλυθούν με βάση το μηχανισμό της υπόταξης λειτουργιών χωρίς την προσθήκη ενδείκτη. Επίσης, υποστηρίζω ότι τα μορφήματα μπορούν να κατηγοριοποιηθούν με βάση δύο κύρια κριτήρια: (α) την εσωτερική οργά- νωση της λεξικής-σημασιολογικής αναπαράστασης του μορφήματος και (β) τα σημασι- ακά χαρακτηριστικά τα οποία φέρει κάθε μόρφημα. Ως εκ τούτου, η διάκριση ανάμεσα σε προθήματα και επιθήματα, η οποία στηρίζεται στην γραμμική διάταξη των μορφη- μάτων, δεν μπορεί να χρησιμοποιηθεί ως κριτήριο στη Λεξική Σημασιολογία. Επιπρό- σθετα, η σύγκριση ανάμεσα στο επίθημα δήλωσης του πληθυντικού -s της αγγλικής και του προθήματος re- δείχνει ότι τα δύο αυτά μορφήματα έχουν κοινές ιδιότητες καθώς έχουν παρόμοια οργάνωση σκελετού και φέρουν ποσοδεικτικά χαρακτηριστικά. Όσον αφορά στη θέση της κεφαλής, στο Μέρος 3 της παρούσας διατριβής μελετάω πιθανούς ενδογλωσσικούς και εξωγλωσσικούς παράγοντες οι οποίοι μπορούν να επηρε- άσουν τη διάταξη των μορφημάτων, με έμφαση στην ελληνική σύνθεση. Ειδικότερα, αν και τα ελληνικά σύνθετα είναι κυρίως δεξιόστροφα, παρουσιάζω και αναλύω αρκετούς σχηματισμούς (από προηγούμενες εξελικτικές φάσεις και κυρίως από τις διαλέκτους της Κάτω Ιταλίας) οι οποίοι φέρουν την κεφαλή στα αριστερά. Καταρχάς, εξετάζω το κατά πόσον η ύπαρξη σχηματισμών με αριστερή κεφαλή μπορεί να αποδοθεί σε εξωγλωσσικούς παράγοντες (επαφή με ιταλική γλώσσα) και παρουσιάζω δεδομένα τα οποία καταρρίπτουν την υπόθεση ότι το φαινόμενο αυτό είναι αποτέλεσμα γλωσσικής επαφής. Η ανάλυση των συνθέτων με αριστερή κεφαλή δείχνει ότι η διάταξη των μορφη- μάτων στη σύνθεση δεν είναι ανεξάρτητη από τη σύνταξη καθώς αυτή δεν μπορεί να αλλάξει εάν προηγουμένως δεν έχει αλλάξει η διάταξη κεφαλής και μη-κεφαλής στη σύνταξη. Αυτό το συμπέρασμα μας επιτρέπει να μελετήσουμε καλύτερα την Υπόθεση της Λεξικής Ακεραιότητας και την υπόθεση ότι η διάταξη
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