Morphological analysis of alienability contrast in Nuer

An atypical typical case

Bibliographic Data

ID20344162
AuthorsIrina Monich (Princeton University , Princeton , USA, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume40
Issue2
Pages217-263
Publication date2023-06-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Linguistic Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0167-6318 • E-ISSN: 1613-3676
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/tlr-2023-2002
OpenAlexW4379211944
LanguageEN
References cited22

This article presents evidence that alienable versus inalienable possession is distinguished in the morphology of Nuer, a West Nilotic language. Although the distinction in possession type is subtle due to Nuer morphology being mostly non-segmental and is additionally obfuscated by numerous exceptions, we show that Nuer conforms to the well-established typological observation that alienable possessive constructions involve more structural complexity than inalienable ones. We argue that alienable possession is marked on the possessum with a non-segmental suffix owing to the presence of P oss P structural layer; in contrast, inalienable possession involves a simple juxtaposition of the possessum and the possessor, which are in a head-complement configuration. These structural assumptions account for several morphological patterns where possessed nouns behave differently based on possession type. We also suggest that the exceptional patterns can be dealt with under a presumption that another non-segmental morpheme – the linker – intervenes between the possessum and the possessor when one of them is larger than a monosyllable

Alienation · Linguistics · Morpheme · Political science · Possessive · Suffix · Computer Science · History · Language and cultural evolution · Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis · Law · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation · Artificial Intelligence

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