Cut and break verbs in Sranan

Bibliographic Data

ID12197550
AuthorsJames Essegbey (0000-0002-5284-4091, University of Florida, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume18
Issue2
Publication date2007-01-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCognitive Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0936-5907 • E-ISSN: 1613-3641
PublisherDe Gruyter Mouton (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/cog.2007.011
OpenAlexW2028682356
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited2

Ewe verbs covering the cutting and breaking domain divide into four morpho-syntactic classes that can be ranked according to agentivity. We demonstrate that the highly non-agentive break verbs participate in the causative-inchoative alternation while the highly agentive cut verbs do not, as expected from Guerssel et al.'s (1985) hypothesis. However, four verbs tso 'cut with precision', 'cut', 'snap-off', and dze 'split', are used transitively when an instrument is required for the severance to be effected, and intransitively when not. We reject a lexicalist analysis that would postulate polysemy for these verbs and argue for a construction approach

Alternation (linguistics · Causative · Linguistics · Meaning (existential · Modal verb · Verb · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Mathematics · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub